Joy Like a River in My Soul

Lindsey and I are still alive. We've had the most incredible week in the Volta Region in a town called Battor, but are finding it difficult to get a hold of the Internet. I don't have much time, but I thought I would take the opportunity to do a quick update since this Internet is very speedy and inexpensive.

Volta Region is in the far east of the country, with many rivers running through it, and much of it borders lake Volta. The dirt here is not red, as in other parts of Ghana, which is strange to see! Volta is the land of the Ewe people so in this region there is a whole new language, and most people do not speak Twi, so it was back to the basics for us. Volta seems less densely populated and developed than most of the other southern regions we have visited. As I said, there are many rivers here, but not always as many bridges, and sometimes to get from town to town you must take a canoe across a river (although we never had to). Much of the road from Accra to Ho, the capital of Volta is bumpy and so it takes a very long time to travel there for most people even though it is not so far. It is beautiful here (although when is it not...), with long, low plains with grass and a few trees. One person we met told us that around Battor there is much good land, but no one has the money to develop it, so there are not many jobs in the area. This is also the land of the NDC, because the former leader, Rawlins, is from here, so it is the NDC strong hold in the country (as opposed to Kumasi, which is the NPP stronghold).

The town we were in was right on the Volta River so it was very beautiful. We got to see the river and watch the fisherman fishing for Tilapia. They use this intense, metal, sling-shotish harpoon, and they put on goggles and dive in the water to spear the fish from their wooden canoes.

In this town, we have had many amazing experiences (dancing with the African choir), and met many incredible people (Reverend Amada the entrepreneur, Eli, the centre employee and her brother Michael). There is so much to update that I'll have to leave it until another time!

Our very last centre to visit is in the Western region: the town we are going to is almost on the border to Cote D'Ivoire, on the far west side of the country. If you were paying attention, you would notice that we have to travel from one side of the country to the other! We have to take two days to do the trek so we left Battor this morning and are staying the night in Takoradi, the capital of Western Region. Then tomorrow, we will travel the four hours journey to Beyere.

It's very hard to believe that we are almost done our placement here. In some ways it seems like we've just arrived in Ghana, but I also feel like we've been here a long time since we have met so many amazing people and seen so many incredible things. I have loved the trip so far, but it is quite nice to know exactly where we will be staying for the next four weeks (after Beyere we'll be in Accra until we leave). So no more moving around! It is a little draining moving every few days and never really becoming very comfortable with a place, family or even language. I am also looking forward to returning to Accra because it is during that time that we (as in Lindsey, the two EWB kids and I) will be writing our report to KITE with our final recommendations about the project. We've seen and learned a lot and (I'll be so modest to say) have a lot of good ideas and input, so I'm looking forward to writing the report, although it will be a bit of a time crunch. And believe it or not, I'm even a little bit looking forward to coming home and sharing my trip with the family and friends. Although I probably won't fit into my clothes so that's something to look forward to...

It is 9:40pm and way past our bed time, so I'll end here. More updates next week for certain.

Amy

'PURE Water!'

To start things off: my apologies for yet again another lengthy hiatus since my last blog post. The girls have truly kept you well up to date, and, to tell you the truth, I much prefer the more direct communication outlet of email. (I also don’t feel so bad about rambling that way).

I think some of the most interesting observations and reflections I’ve had so far in Ghana is that of public infrastructure.  While I suppose you can attribute a good portion of this to my academic nerdiness, it is truly awing to compare the systems of water, waste, sanitation, and roads between Canada and Ghana. I definitely do no have, and will not even attempt to provide you with incite as to understand the complex arenas of public policy, financing structures, municipal planning, and technological development governing these differences; but if you’re interested, there is a lot of informative literature available.

The Ghanaian water distribution system provides different solutions for citizen needs, and most notably, varies widely across the spectrum from urban to rural. Within the urban regions, water is most often distributed by trucks to large barrels of water called polytanks located outside of each household or business complex. Think of it kind of like a septic tank in rural Canada, except rather than picking up waste, the trucks are bringing you water. The tanks are elevated as much as possible to take advantage of energy in transporting the water through a pipe system into the house. You are truly aware of every drop you consume since it can (and does) run out at any time. Many specialists also exist, and must be paid for, to fix, repair, and distribute the polytanks since they are weakened over time by the wind and sun.

Drinking water is a different story. Since the water treatment system for the polytanks is very minimal in comparison to the extensive systems we are used to in Canada, drinking water must be purchased in bottle or sachet form, usually sold by women and children on the streets as ‘pure water’. (Ice cold pure water is one of the most refreshing treats after a day at the office). Both of these produce a large amount of plastic waste that cannot be recycled due to the enormous expense of a thorough municipal recycling system. Consequently, there is a large degree of littering and you often note the open sewers clogged with plastic waste remnants.

Rural water demands rely heavily on borehole pumps for drinking, bathing, and cooking. During our time in Koka and Minta Bomeng, you would almost always see someone (often a child) vigorously pumping for water into a bowl of which they would carry to (sometime distant) destinations on their head. Communities that do not have boreholes will access streams or rain water diversion from their roofs. This can often be challenging due to contamination from other wastes in the area. (Human, animal, and agriculture biproduct—to name a few).

So what’s to be made of all this? First, I think the ingenuity developed for water infrastructure solutions in an environment of limited resources, population growth, and restricted access to funds is pretty incredible. What we (as engineers) have been trained do design (and think) is the best solution in Canada may not be the best solution in a country such as Ghana (for example: centralized water treatment systems). I think, however, that importance must be placed on the opportunity for improvement. Economic growth presents the allure of more financial inertia for public spending. While this is true, without appropriate policy prioritization, planning, and advocacy for those who are most disadvantaged, the growth can, and does serve to augment the disparities already present.

I will not even begin to grasp these complexities during my time in Ghana. I have, though, learned a tremendous amount from the brilliant people at KITE, our friends in Accra, and the welcoming residents of the various communities we worked in. I am excited to continue my journey in learning about infrastructure challenges in a developing context, and will feel privileged to incorporate them into my future pursuits.

Hope everyone is well at home—updates are always great, and I miss you all tons.

Josh

I'm coming, I'm coming...

I must echo Lindsay is that so much has happened in the past two weeks that unfortunately I can't share everything! I am tired from a long day of brainstorm (see below) and in a slight panic since I can't get into any courses that I want, but as a Ghanaian would say, I will write small and it will be fine.

Our midsummer retreat was pretty amazing and I've added a few pictures from there below, although it's funny because a lot of the pictures that I wanted to add were the exact same ones that Lindsay did, so I guess great mind think alike. Lindsay talked about what we did, and I would like to add that we played a lot of Euchre and Wizard, had a huge book swap (I'm almost through Guns, Germs and Steel), and had many interesting discussions about Ghana, our projects, development, QPID, infinity, love, relationships, motivation, school, food, camping, traveling...the list goes on.

After our midsummer retreat, Lindsey and I moved to our next community, Adanwomase, which is a Kente weaving town. Kente is traditional cloth that Ghanaians hand weave (as seen in the picture). Everyone in the town weaved Kente or owned a Kente shop. It was good because there were a lot of jobs in the town, unlike many other places that we visit. But it was not so good because a lot of young boys would decide to weave Kente instead of go to school, and some of the kids that we saw weaving were probably around 11 years old.

Seeing the business centre there was really great because it was the first centre that we've seen that is pretty successful. There is a great employee there, May, who makes invitation cards and funeral announcements, photocopies and typing there. There is definately high demand here, and today the owner bought a photocopier to add to the centre so we were happy to see it growing.

Then, since Sunday, Lindsey and I moved to Accra to meet up with Andrea and Shyam, the two Engineers Without Borders interns that are working on the project with us. We spent all of yesterday and today brainstorming and discussing our role on the project and how we could best contribute. It was intense but really productive and so I'm feeling energized about our next few weeks.

Our next step is to move to Eastern and Volta Regions to visit four more centres and then we'll be almost done our stay! I can't believe how time flies.




A boy weaving Kente. These looms were all over Adanwomase. Around every corner there were one or three, often with tunes blasting and the wooden looms clacking.








On our midsummer retreat, the day we decided to "dress up and go out" ie shower and stay out past 8:30pm.

















Lindsey, driving around northern Ghana.










The girls at Mole in our new cloths.









I realize that this post is very short and so I will leave you with a funny story in repayment. People in Ghana find it extremely difficult to pronounced the name: Lindsey. One conversation went like this...

Man: Beautiful sistas, what is your name?
AB: Amy
Man: Amy?
AB: Yes, Amy.
Man: And you, my sister, what is your name?
LF: Lindsey.
Man: Nancy?
LF: No, Lind-sey.
Man: Winton?
LF: Lindsey.
Man: Liza?
LF: No. LIND..........SEY!
Man: Oh oh oh I see I see.........Lintcream!
LF: .....Yes.

Ode To Tro-Tro

Traveling around Ghana, staying in towns for weeks at a time is great because Lindsey and I get to see a lot of the extremely diverse country. It can be draining sometimes to move so often, and sometimes we wish that we could stay in one place for a while, even to simply make some closer friends. But one of the best parts about switching from town to town is the traveling itself. I’d have to say that in Ghana, my happy place is riding in a tro-tro.

A tro-tro is a van or a small bus that transports people between and within cities and towns in Ghana. The tro-tro network in Ghana is THE best public transit system I have ever seen. Most people don’t have cars here, and people always need to travel, so you can literally get a tro-tro to almost anywhere in the whole country.

Tros can hold anywhere from 7 to 25 people at once. Some of the longer distance tros have tarps on the top to secure luggage, or they have a boot (a trunk). Generally, the boot is not big enough for all of the bags and boxes, so the trunk is tied shut with slightly sketchy rope. I continue to be amazed by what tros can hold: one trip, a 3.5 hour drive from Kumasi to Techiman, around 12 goats were put in the boot. Lindsey and I would occasionally here children screaming and look around the car confused, only to realize that it was the sounds of the goats in back. We’ve seen suitcases, sacs and sacs of rice or hay, bags of FanYogo (the favourite ice cream here), and couches stacked on the tops of tros. Once we even saw 5 people sitting on the top of a tro, I guess waiting for room inside the car.

Just sitting in a tro-tro is a fun experience. In each tro there is a driver and mate. The mate collects the fares, opens the door to let passengers in, and hangs out of the window of the car yelling his destination to passers-by on the road. If you need to get somewhere, you wait on the side of the road until you hear you destination being called, wave your hand, and the tro will stop.

Watching the people inside can be a lot of fun. If another car cuts you off, or if the driver is driving precariously, you will hear the cries of protest from all of the passengers. Everyone in the car is always looking our for one another, and if we ask one person where we should get off in order to reach a certain place, everyone in the car will take it as their personal duty to make us get off at the right stop. Sometimes the tro will be playing some sweet tunes, usually Ghanaian or Nigerian high life or hip life, which I’ll try to describe as a mix of rap, hip-hip, reggae and gospel. It that is the case, people in the car will be bopping their hands or singing along to the best artists (Mzbel, Batman Samini, Ofori Amposah, and my personal favourite Two-Face). One time, the driver was listening to the Black Starlight, Ghana’s under 20 football team play a match, and whenever Ghana scored the passengers would get pretty excited.

When the tro comes to a stop at a traffic light or a toll-booth, it will be stormed with street vendors selling every type of food you can imagine. The street vendors are often young girls and always balancing huge boxes, trays and bowls on their heads filled with Ball Floats (deep-fried dough), plantain chips, water in little plastic bags, ice cream and so much more that I can’t even begin to list. I’m telling you, if you stayed in the tro long enough you could buy all of your groceries off of someone’s head.

The funniest tro trip, I think, has been our trip from a very small village called Boabeng which is at the end of dirt road, to the main town, Nkranza. First of all, it was pouring rain outside, like the type of rain where the second you step out, it’s as if you’ve just emerged from a swimming pool. We ran into the tro, trying to escape the rain, but as soon as we got inside, we realized that there may not have been a point in running so fast. It was an old car and the inside was basically hollowed out, except for the seats. Water was dripping, and in some places pouring in and splashing up from the side door onto the passengers. When we first got in, there were only a few passengers so the four of us were huddled in the (relatively) dry area of the car. But as the car filled, inevitably, people would have to sit in the more wet seats and were trying to stop the drips and splashing by shoving random rags and sacs into holes, although there were not too successful. Now windows in tro-tros are generally 2-paned manually sliding windows that slide horizontally across the window, unlike more cars whose windows’ panes slide vertically. Well in this tro, one of the two panes was missing from one of the windows, and so the lady and mate sitting beside that particular window were arguing over the best placement of the small placement of glass in order to provide the best coverage for both of them from the torrential rain shower that was pouring in on them both. It was a pretty great trip.

But definitely the best part about being in the tro is looking out the window at Ghana passing you by. My favourite drive so far has been the 5 hour trip from Kumasi, a big city in the center of Ghana, to Tamale in the northern, more rural part of the country. Leaving Kumasi, as far as you can see, there are hills and hills covered in houses. Then, you pass over a hill and suddenly you are in the country. The scene is mostly savannah-esque fields with some trees, and the fields are a colour of green that I’ve never seen before, with bright orange-red paths snaking through them. On the paths you could see ladies going or returning from farm with huge bins on their heads full of cassava, plantain or firewood and a machete in their hand. We passed through tons of small towns which would usually consist of cement homes or mud houses with either thatch or tin roofs, some small street stalls, five or six churches, a few orange and brown school buildings, and as we got closer to the north, a mosque or two.

It was very neat to watch the changes as we got closer to the north, because it is very different from the rest of Ghana. It is much more Muslim and so as I mentioned, there are a lot more mosques. But even the style of hut changed from individual square buildings to small rounds buildings set up in a circle with a fence to form a compound. There is much more cattle farming in the north and so we saw a lot of small cattle herds as well. We also passed over the White Volta River, and saw fisherman in hollowed-out canoes on the water.

In general, tro-tros are pretty neat. But they are definitely not the safest things in the world. Road safety in general is a huge problem here and many times we have seen huge transport trucks carrying logs or hay rolled over on the side of the road.

There is definitely an issue. But so far the biggest ‘problem’ we’ve had so far is when my bags fell out of the back of a tro. And so we will continue to enjoy the convenience, fun and adventure of traveling around Ghana in tro-tros and look forward to many other great rides!

Amy

Have you taken your breakfast?

So it seems like it has been eons since I last posted on this blog (namely beause it has), but it has left me with so much to say I have no idea where to begin.

I will start with the last center Amy and I visited in a place called Adanwomase. The town is known for its many looms, weavers, and production of kente cloth. Kente cloth is a traditional Ghanaian fabric that is hand woven into many beautiful designs and colours. It is also very time consuming to make (traditionally only woven by young boys), taking close to a week to complete a strip of fabric about 3 inches x 6 ft long if it is one of the more involved designs. It is the cloth worn by the Ashanti king, and also by both men and women on special celebrations and festivals. The town is the first 'touristy' town that we have had an eCARE center in but it was very cool to get to learn more about an interesting cultural activity (our entrepreneur Ofori is also a kente wholesaler- and we also randomly saw him on the street in Kumasi today, small world!).

From Adanwomase, we travelled back to Kumasi to meet up with Shyam and Andrea, the other two Canadian interns working on the eCARE project with Amy and I. We had a pretty productive 2 days planning out our final report and brainstorming some other contributions we would like to make to the project as a team. In the process, we seem to have created a lot of work for ourselves, so we have restructured our plans a little bit and will be back in Accra a week earlier than scheduled to hash everything out at the office.

Being involved in the eCARE project has provided me with a pretty broad perspective on Ghana. We have had to be quite nomadic all summer, I think the longest we have stayed in one place is just over a week, but often we are unpacking and repacking every couple of days. Amy and I pulled out our rather inaccurate but adequate map of Ghana the other night and we really have gotten to see so many parts of the country. By the end of the summer we will have stayed in 7 of the 10 regions, seen all 3 major cities, and hit up some pretty cool sights along the way.

Traveling so much has allowed us to see both the consistencies (some of the lighter ones being tro tro etiquette, street snacks like cassava balls and 'ball floats', and kitchenware- I think everyone in the country has the same green stew pot) and disparities between different areas of the country. Its a very minimal understanding I don't think I could have ever cracked staying in the same place all summer.

Along with the positives of our backpacker life, it can also be bittersweet. We arrive in a community and spend time with the entrepreneur of the eCARE center we are visiting as well as a lot of other people in the town. Just as they get used to our presence (and for me can finally half pronounce my english name), its time to leave for our next destination. We have met so many wonderful and interesting people, I just wish we had time to stay longer and get to know some of them better.

Alas, the journey continues and we will leave Kumasi bright and early tomorrow morning to travel to our next center in Agormanya (eastern region). Apparently the town is known for its glass bead making so it could be pretty interesting. I won't promise, but I hope it won't be quite as long for my next post. Hope everyone is doing well, I always love the emails from home!

Love

Lindsey

...and a few pictures!

Midsummer Retreat and Project: Pumbaa, the four of us at the guesthouse in Larabanga, the endless expanse of the market at Kumasi, the refining process of palm oil extraction, the unbelievable view of two watering holes and the savannah at Mole, one of many majestic elephants, Curious George munching on some leaves. 

Windsheild wipers, elephants, starry skies, and reports

So much has happened since my last post that I could write five separate posts and not run out of things to talk about. I wish I could do that, but I don’t have that much energy and you probably don’t have the time to read them.

If I could, I would do one on our last week in Accra before we left – special mention would go to Joys and Eddie, our friends at the YMCA who took us out for a wonderful kenkey dinner.

Another would be all about our second trip to the Eastern region with our project officers from KITE. We did a second round of studies in a second rural village to look at what they would need to be able to make productive use of electricity, when they obtain access (if all goes well) within the next four years. This time, Josh and I were asked to conduct surveys on our own (with major help from our Twi translators). This was challenging, but also an incredible experience. Our translators, Philip and Aikins, were a lot of fun and helped us to learn so much. They were not much older than us, and were both cocoa farmers – I got to try some raw cocoa beans! My favourite part of the project has been learning about the farming small-scale industries in place in the communities, namely palm oil and gari processing. Especially from an engineering perspective, these activities are so intriguing. As I’ve said before, being in the more rural areas is like night and day from Accra, which offers a refreshing but also difficult change. Mention should be given to the wonderful KITE staff who put up with us in the tiny truck cab for several hours every day.

Next, I would talk in great detail of our wonderful midsummer retreat. We met Lindsey & Amy in the city of Kumasi, where we spent four days. It was great to be able to see the other two again and get fully updated on all their experiences. The best part of Kumasi was visiting the biggest open-air market in West Africa. There were aisles upon aisles of gorgeous material, then raw fish and pig’s feet and snails, then Ghanaian beads, then mountains of groundnut paste, then shoes, then vegetables, then hair products…we got ourselves lost there for an entire day and still didn’t see most of it.

We next moved north to Mole National Park. Let me say here that if there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that the four of us will return as the most effective and patient travelers on the face of the earth. It seems every trip is characterized by hopping to different bus stations more than twice to find a bus, confusing bartering antics, broken-down buses which will be fixed “soon”, things falling out of tro-tros, lost wallets or electronic devices, tro-tros missing windshield wipers in thunderstorms, spilling water all over myself, and sharing single beds. This trip was no exception.

That said, it was phenomenal. I was glued to the window the entire time, watching the scenery change from the south to the north of the country. Jungle becomes savannah, palm trees become rice fields, square cement homes become round mud homes, churches become mosques.

Elements of tourism in Ghana can often be frustrating, but on the whole Mole was good to us – I saw dozens of elephants, baboons, warthogs, buffalo, antelope, and a few crocodiles. The elephants and baboons were often within 10 or 20 feet! One morning, Amy and I had to change spots three times as the elephants were eying our omelettes a little too closely.

I would most like to talk about the last night of our retreat - we moved to Larabanga, a nearby village to Mole. The guest house there is run by an incredible set of twins – the Salia brothers – who have had a huge hand in developing their remote village. As an example, they are an integral part of running the school which relies on volunteers for teachers. We were privileged to be served a delicious meal of tuo zafi (the northern, less sticky version of banku) and groundnut soup around a glowing fire in the main hut with Hussein, one of the brothers. Hussein stayed and talked with us for hours – we talked about everything from education to solar lighting to Ghanaians leaving for Western countries to ignorance, knowledge, and happiness to trade policies and democracy. He was so knowledgeable and insightful; it is a discussion I will not forget for a long time to come. Later, we went outside to a clear sky full of more stars than I have ever, ever seen. I guess that’s what you get when you don’t have electricity.

Lastly, Josh and I are back in Accra. Over the last week and weekend we have at last finished our contribution to the lengthy feasibility study report for the project in which we are involved – it was quite the process, but with the help of the staff at KITE in the end we are quite proud of our work. We hope to soon hear what our next endeavours will be.

Well, that’s our month in a page and a half. Love and hugs and all the best to everyone at home/wherever their summer adventures have taken them. We really love knowing that people are following the blog from time to time - leave us a comment when you!

L.wig