Finding my Niche in the Upper East

I really believe that it’s possible for anyone to find their niche anywhere in the world, for open eyes, ears, and hearts are a steadfast guide. I’ve been in Ghana a month, all the while trying new things, being open, trying to find my own niche, and the happiness I’ve felt over the past few days has convinced me that my search is finally ending.

As I said in my last post, I moved in with a family in Wiaga last weekend, and have spent the week settling in with them. The daughters are all so friendly and fun to be around, they love teaching me to speak Buli or stir tz, and we laugh together as I fail miserably. The wives (2) and auntie don’t speak English, but we greet each other and communicate through gestures and smiles. They’re always happy to see me when I get back from work, and chuckle as I trudge back from the borehole with water slopping out of the bucket on my head – it took a couple days, but they’ve now accepted that I want to fetch my own bath water.

After my evening bath, I climb the stairs to the roof of one of the huts, to maybe read my book or just look out across the expanse of farmland and houses - sitting in the cool evening air on a mud roof warmed from the sun is wonderful. At some point, food will appear, and we sit together to eat our tz or rice (they even had gari and beans one night! Delish!). I’m getting better at finishing what they give me; last night they had prepared okru stew, which unfortunately I find very unpleasant and forced myself to finish. I’ve nicknamed okru “Nokru” for my repertoire.

Sleep time comes early here, which is fabulous. Around 8:30 I’ll drag my foam pad out onto the mud floor and hang my net from a pole that stretches across the open space. I absolutely love sleeping outside, in the fresh air, bright stars and cool breeze, and find that when I get up again at 5:30 I feel much more rested than I ever did at the bungalow, despite its ceiling fan and thicker mattress. Last night I was just lying down again after my midnight pee break when I felt a few drops of rain – in unison with the rest of the family, I grabbed my foam pad and net, and ran inside to be serenaded for the next hour by the artillery of rain on a tin roof. I went back to sleep thinking two things: one, I’m very glad I got up to pee before the rain started, and two, I think I made the right call on moving.

AAB is rolling! (finally)

We had phase one training yesterday at the office, which went very well in my opinion. Ben and Sumaila were awesome and really stepped up to help facilitate the workshop. I felt that was really important, because the message is a lot more powerful coming from them, a fellow AEA and supervisor, than it is from me – I need to make sure this isn’t just another “project” forced on MoFA, it needs to be something that they own.

The MoFA staff were all very keen on AAB, and in addition to the 7 active AEAs (5 are sick/injured), some staff from the veterinary and fisheries side also attended. And the only freebies involved were small packs of crackers, so I figure they were legitimately interested.

The problem now is the farmers themselves – they aren’t showing up to their own meetings. Yesterday afternoon there was supposed to be a farmer group meeting at 2 in Sandema, but by 4:30 only 4 members had shown up so they decided to cancel it. Another group has cancelled its meeting for today, but they at least have been proactive and informed me yesterday; the fact that they’re telling me and not their AEA shows a bit of the AEA disconnect with farmer groups that is quite a problem here. There are so many farmer groups, and the district is far understaffed to be able to meet all of them – it seems to be initiative from the farmers that gets the AEA to their meeting. The problem with this is that groups that are weak, and need the most help, are unlikely to get it. I’m trying to enforce upon the AEAs that AAB is for groups both strong and weak, they just need to step up to help these groups – by using AAB and adding some structure to the meetings, AEAs can be more efficient and will therefore be able to reach more groups.

So things really do seem to be moving now, albeit at a slow meander; I’ve got a good number of farmer group meetings lined up this weekend and next week, and all AEAs (and some vets?) are prepared to start. It’s nice to feel like my work is actually going somewhere.

Comments from last post:

Thanks for the comments! I thought I’d just put a bit of a reply here...

David, I totally agree that it seems condescending. That’s why I find it so difficult, and so awkward. And it’s definitely not like everyone has such little opportunity, but reality is that in some of these villages, people have very little knowledge of the world outside their district – fortunately it’s the minority now, mostly elderly people who didn’t go to school. So for a 65 year old woman who has spent her days sowing, harvesting, and collecting firewood, to have a white person greet her in her own language is pretty significant.

Even people with higher education are greatly affected by having visitors from another country; another JF, Bevan, was here in 2008, and he stayed in a compound with my friend Pastor Lincoln, who always talks about Bevan and all the good times they had together. Pastor Lincoln will probably never visit Canada, but through his friendship with Bevan he was able to see a bit of Canada and the world in which we live, in a way he’d never see it on TV or in books.

I find it hard to explain, and I don’t want to seem condescending, I just want to make these four months the best I can for me and for the people I meet.

Jess, I find that I do get questions about Canada, and most seem to be focused on agriculture or food. Most of the questions seem to come from the same people though – in my village stay, for instance, there was this one woman, around 25, who would ask me question after question “at your place, do you have...”. She seemed to be most interested in comparing Canada and Ghana. People are also really interested in seeing pictures, and hearing about the culture behind the pictures; I was going through pictures on my computer with a National Service Volunteer at work (like a recent grad), and there were some of our house renos – he was really interested in the in-floor heating installation.

I hope to be able to post pictures soon!

Anne