Happiness Part 3 – An Eggs-ample

Don’t mind me. I don’t know why I decided to tackle the happiness question with an example about eggs, but here it is… :p

So I have a bit of free time before I go to Navrongo to meet Maggie and go out into the field. I thought it might be a good time to revisit my ideas of happiness and what all of this means. I remember how I was feeling when I wrote my thoughts on happiness, and I think things have settled down in my mind for me to be able to clearly articulate a few things. I remember when I first arrived, and our bus from Accra to Tamale broke down beside a little community with a bunch of kids playing on the side of the road. I remember seeing those kids in their tattered clothes and thinking, wow, look at everything they don’t have – and yet they are still so happy, but how? And therein lies the fallacy of my thoughts – what we should be focusing on is everything they DO have. The thing is though, when you manage to accept how things are, accept what is missing, you realize that what IS there is all that matters.

So since I think in analogies a lot, let me use one here. As an eggs-ample, imagine you are only allowed to cook all of your meals with eggs, and you’ve been given 15 delicious eggs to work with. You have 15 so that you have the freedom to use as many or as little as you want. You’ve always had 15; you don’t always use them all, but they’re always there, just in case. You’ve also been given all the ingredients you could want to add – onions, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, spices, cheese, condiments…you name it! You could have a 4 egg western omelet for breakfast, an eggs benedict eggs-travaganza for lunch, and a delicious scrambled egg with bacon and potatoes for dinner – maybe even make a custard for dessert. so many eggs-cellent choices!

Now imagine one day, you wake up, go to the kitchen to get crackin’, and only 3 eggs are sitting on the counter – no extra ingredients and 12 eggs are missing. You start to look for the other eggs. Your first thought is: “OH NO, What am I going to do!!? I don’t have 15 eggs or any ingredients!! How am I going to cook my meals! Oh the eggs-cruciating agony!” Then, “Forget about a 4 egg breakfast omelet – I only have 3 eggs for everything!” Then, “What about my eggs benedict for lunch!?” And, “What about my egg custard dessert!!? I need 12 more eggs!? How am I going to cook everything I’m used to, with only 3 eggs!? Where are the 12 eggs I had!?”

You start to eggs-perience a feeling of loss. Frittatas with sautéed onions, eggs benedict with hollandaise sauce, egg sandwiches with tomatoes – all down the drain. 1 lousy egg for breakfast, 1 lousy egg for lunch, and 1 lousy egg for dinner  – no custard tonight.

The next day, you again receive only 3 eggs. GREAT. You resign yourself to cooking one, plain egg for each meal. It’s hard because you’re so used to the freedom and choice of 15 eggs, and now you only have 3.

Monday- 3 eggs, Tuesday – 3 eggs, Wednesday – 3 eggs, and on it goes. You realize you will only have 3 eggs and no other ingredients each day for the next 4 months. WHAT THE EGG!?

You spend the first week grumpy, unhappy, uncomfortable. Why can’t you just have the 15 eggs and all the ingredients. Just a scrambled egg with cheddar cheese PLEASE! But it doesn’t matter, because the next day again, you receive 3 eggs.

After a week or two, you realize that wait a minute, maybe 3 eggs isn’t as bad as you first thought. You could still make scrambled eggs, sunny-side up eggs, over easy eggs, poached eggs, fried eggs, etc. You start to realize that 12 eggs and all those ingredients weren’t that important, because somehow you’re still happy with just 3 eggs. Why focus on what you don’t have – focus on what you DO have! Maybe that means you never really needed 12 eggs in the first place?  Maybe you never needed all of those ingredients? I mean, you don’t have them, AND you’re surviving – maybe even thriving. How important were they really?

Seeing for yourself that you can enjoy life with only 3 eggs releases you from the bonds of needing 15 eggs and ingredients – from all of the constraints you felt you had on your happiness. Your happiness is not dependent on the number of eggs you have. Your happiness is dependent on those things that sustain you when you have nothing. What gets you through? What gives you strength in the face of adversity? This exercise is all about how to get closer to happiness – you need to see how little you actually need to be happy. And therein lies your true happiness, because the happiness you feel is more than what you’d feel with 15 eggs and all the ingredients in the world.

And I’m not saying that it’s not right to find happiness in 15 eggs – it’s only that people focus too much on not having 15 eggs and how to get those 15.

 

Find out what you need to enjoy your 3 eggs.

Not Fair

You know what? It’s really quite simple. It’s not fair. Why do people here have to struggle as much as they do, work as hard as they do, just to live, everyday? It’s not fair. Why do we have grocery stores stocked full of food from all around the world? Running water that we can drink? Toilets and washing machines? They don’t have that here and it’s just not fair.

Why is my neighbor Sofia a year older than me and still trying to save money to go to University? How much of her life will go by before she gets the chance? Why is a plane ticket to some exotic location for a vacation a pipe-dream? Why do children have to sell things in the market because they can’t afford to go to school?

 

In the same way that we did not choose to be born in first world countries, people here did not choose to be born in developing countries. They did not choose farming as their only means for food, they did not choose to attend churches with half-broken pews. They did not choose to have a diet of carbohydrates and oil. Yes, they are still happy, but the contrast between us is just so stark – it’s just not fair. They were born here and therefore this is their life. And trying to get out to go to a developed country for a better life? Difficult, unless you have money – and that’s the problem.

 

I don’t know what to say to all of you that don’t really care too much about charity and giving to those who have less than you. The whole world cannot be sustained if it lived like us, so enjoy it, cause you won the lottery and got to live in Canada.

 

And yes, so they laugh at me for not knowing how to wash my clothes by hand, kill and prepare a chicken, and rightly so, don’t you think?

 

But really if I laughed at them for not knowing what an Ice Cap was, or who Britney Spears is, or that green is the new black… not quite in the same ball park. Not that we should feel badly for living in our part of the world. But what has all this westernization brought us? Time. You don’t have to spend an hour hand-washing your clothes, or 2 hours every day starting a fire, cutting up your food, and preparing dinner. So what are you doing with this new found time? I mean, you’ve been freed of doing important things like keeping yourself alive, keeping yourself clean and healthy – but what have you substituted those actions with? Is it something as meaningful as that? Or is it the exact opposite?

Pictures from my cooking class

Hi everyone!

Just a quick one to give you the link to my cooking lesson photos! Enjoy! 🙂

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2596594&id=28118448&l=3d466f895b

Billy Gates

I’ll say, it’s quite weird to be affected by something that you only hear of when people talk about “poverty-stricken” populations…

It’s 9pm on a Wednesday night. Sitting under my mosquito net, ready for bed, I decide to watch a TEDTalk video clip (if you don’t know, check out www.ted.com) that I have, courtesy of another volunteer. I’m in the mood for Bill Gates (gee, never thought I’d have reason to say that!) so I open the clip. His talk is 20 minutes about two problems that the Gates Foundation is facing. He starts by expressing his optimism about these problems being solved, and sites the optimistic statistic that the rate of death for children under five, worldwide, is declining. He goes on to say that the top killers are diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria. He then goes on to state his first problem: How do we stop a deadly disease that’s spread by mosquitoes?

This was a very interesting talk, but I’m already dumbstruck at this point. Too much Bill Gates for me I guess. Ha, ya right, I can never get enough Bill Gates! (uh-oh, never thought I’d have a reason to say that one either! Oh Bill – call me.)

What struck me, was that since being here, I have already experienced two of those deadly diseases mentioned in this speech. Which two diseases? Malaria and diarrhea. Two diseases causing millions to die across the world. FYI: Anti-malaria meds do NOT prevent malaria, they only lessen the symptoms. You take other meds ($5 at any pharmacy in town) once you realize you have malaria. Symptoms clear up in a week. All I felt was a bit weak, and dizzy sometimes.

So here’s Bill Gates speaking in a Californian conference room in Feb 09 to an audience of westerners about mosquito nets and malaria and I’m lying here, under my mosquito net, in Ghana, with the threat of catching malaria on any night, having just come back from the latrine after another bout of diarrhea – yep in real time ladies and gents – at least I get to star gaze out on the throne.

My first thought is: “I could be in that audience, but I’m on the other side of the coin, surviving these things that used to be so removed from my life in Toronto.” It really hits home about where I am. And that any one of you could have been born as one of the little children without the means to survive diarrhea and poof – your life is finished – or should I say poop?

Yesterday, I sat in my room and thought to myself “OK, what can I eat that I know won’t end in a visit to the latrine?” I couldn’t think of anything other than bread and water. Then I thought of all the local foods that I will have to eat and that none of it is made in a way that I can guarantee my health. The only veggies they have here are tomatoes, onions, and some leaf things. The only fruits are bananas on a good day – and today wasn’t a good day. I sat there panicking, thinking that I would lose all of my nutrients, find nothing to eat, and become ridiculously weak and sick. I thought about who I could call, where I could go, and all of the help seemed so far away. The nearest Canadian friend was 30 mins away, by taxi (if I found one) and so was the hospital, everything was closed due to the holiday, and it was sweltering hot making everything unbearable. Do you know what it feels like to not have the option of getting help? Even just the slight possibility of not being able to get help? It’s a helpless, terrifying feeling.

Lucky for me, I get to say that it was only my overreacting mind that caused me to think like that. I’m OK and am getting better every day. But this is what it must be like for those that get malaria, diarrhea, etc., with no option of help. It would just be implicit from the start, that getting any of these diseases meant the end.

I had the choice to save myself with money. I spent the $1 on the meds to stop my diarrhea.  Spending $1 on medication to save the life of your child is not a give-in here, but a choice, and some can’t choose the $1 option – and they know it.

How blessed we are.

Having a Bad Day? I was…

This was a bad day I had…I had to write it out…but luckily these don’t happen very often – note: I’m a bit sour in this post, and sometimes it’s hard to stay positive, and not let your mind go negative….bear with me…:)

I wake up at 5am and take a stroll to the latrine. The moon is still bright and it seems like a street light is shining down on me. I return and get back to sleep because I figure I can squeeze out another hour. I also realize I have a sore throat. Great. Getting a cold when it’s boiling outside. I’m woken up at 6:30am, with a phone call from Matthew, a MOFA staff member that is currently in school, calling to check in on me and how I am doing. I’m used to getting early morning calls. It’s now just before 7am, and I look outside to see if the sun is out yet – of course it is – it’s a bright sunny day again in Paga. Luckily it rained last night so it’s a cooler morning. Since I haven’t done any exercises for a while, I decide that even though it is late and the sun will be beating down on me, I should go for a run.

I get into my workout clothes and go out for a run. It actually wasn’t too bad this time – still dripping with sweat afterwards, but there was a nice wind outside. I also forgot to wear my brace but it turned out fine. As I ran, I passed many school children, and heard the familiar “Filleh, Filleh, GOOD MOOORNING!” I’m loving it. Some people I pass just watch me with a smile on your face, and this is when my sour mood started. As I pass some, they laugh at my greeting them, and I tell them off under my breath. Sometimes you just don’t have the patience to be constantly looked at and noticed. I continue running and continue to greet everyone I meet. I don’t like being called after and knowing that I am being talked about and being laughed at. I’m not a child, and I’m not stupid. I don’t think they realize that their actions make me feel that way. Sometimes it feels like I’m in their world, and they’re allowed to do and say whatever they want to me. Outsider looking in.

I make it back home and take my bike out to go to the well and fetch water. I don’t want to deal with running out of water today, nor be limited by what I can cook/ wash/ etc. I pass my neighbor who always seems to me like she has some disdain for me, and thinks I’m incapable of doing most things. Stop looking down at me. I pass more people on my bike and they also seem to be laughing at me, like I’m trying to break into their world and they stand at the gate with their mocking grins.

I get to the well and luckily there is no one else there that I have to deal with. I throw the bucket into the well and draw it up by the rope attached to it. 4 buckets of water fill the container I’m carrying. I position my bike so that I don’t have to lift the container for too long. I lift it from the well wall to the back of my bike, and knock over my bike. At this point I’m pissed that I kept my runners on because they are now wet, and I’m cursing at my bike for falling down. I finally position the container onto the back of my bike and start to walk my bike back along the path to my place – about 300m. Every plant scrapes and pricks my legs as I try to hold the bike steady and move forward, while holding fast to the container on the back of the bike. As I pass a woman who greets me good morning, “Dimwaru”, I look up to tell her a greeting back and lose balance of my bike. It falls but luckily I’ve managed to keep the container upright.  She helps me on my way and I finally make it back to my place. I dump the water into my big container, and get ready to bath. I notice that the spring of my screen door has come off. I end up making two trips to the bath because I can’t carry my two shampoo bottles, soaps, and the water bucket at the same time. Then I drop the soap into the bucket of water thereby ruining any chance for a good rinse. I’m pissed.

In the shower, I drop my soap onto the floor – which is also the urinal. Then I drop my sponge as well. Luckily, I don’t drop anything else and make it back to my place. I light the propane burner to heat myself some water for a morning tea. I realize that I haven’t washed the pot and old pasta residue floats in the water. At this point, I don’t care anymore. I finish my tea, and then get a call telling me to meet a new farmer group at 1:30pm, but I can’t make it and unfortunately miss out on meeting with a new group. Then I get a call saying that my morning farmer group meeting is cancelled – I could’ve had the new farmer group meeting in the morning had I known it would be cancelled. I’m quite pissed now.

So that was my morning. I then get to the office and notice that it’s locked. I go to the roadside, buy some delicious bread, pick up some credits, and return home in a huff. I call Claire to air out my frustrations and take a break. It will be a good day. I’m going to look on the bright side.

Another day, more surprises

I need to document these things before I lose them. So many things happen to me in a day that surprise me,and I really want to make sure that I capture them, or else they will be lost forever in the inevitable forgetfulness that experience brings.

I wake up from the inevitable grumbling of my bowels, my natural alarm clock here – usually goes off around 5:45am/6am. Don’t take that one literally :p.

When I get back to my room, I grab some cash and go to the corner to buy some bread, 60 cents for a loaf. I make my way back, light up my single burner propane cooker, and make some tea. I make sure to be careful with the sugar – I already have a little army of ants that like to hang around the front of my door. They’re harmless, but like sugary things so I have to be careful. Never thought I’d be rooming with ants and spiders…willingly!

I make my way to the office to drop in and see if the Director is in. I greet him, and he welcomes me back, as I’ve been away for the last week. He gives me an update on the past week’s events which included a full day meeting just the day before, involving all of the extension agents. It was a program run by 2 NGOs, whose purpose was to check on the progression of Ghana towards the Millennium Development Goals, related to water irrigation systems. It involved documenting all of the existing man-made dams and water pumps currently in use in Paga. Have you ever talked to someone about the Millennium Development Goals in a way that wasn’t  theoretical, or in passing? Weird to hear about the goals like some common place topic of conversation and not something far removed from my reality.

After that discussion, the Director asked me if I could help him put together a report on what new farming issues need to be researched since I am the “computer wizard.” All joking aside, the district hardly has any resources – ie. no paper, no computer, no fan, no stationary, no supplies. So the fact that I have a laptop is a huge benefit and time-saver – a luxury really. Usually things are hand written. I remember one staff meeting we had, where the Director wanted to bring the staff’s attention to a new program being offered to them from the Ministry. They had one brochure about it. It had to be read out to the staff at the meeting. How many times have we been given ridiculous amounts of flyers/pamphlets about programs available at work that don’t even get a second look? Imagine they had to be read out to you because they couldn’t make enough copies for everyone? Another volunteer in the district beside mine spent a week trying to get color copies done, because all of the copiers were broken in the town. Some help with basic necessities are required here. When even doing simple things has such frustrating obstacles, any help is essential. I’m looking to see what support I can get from a Canadian company, for the whole EWB Agriculture team, to sponsor supplies for us to do our work more efficiently. If you know of any contacts, please let me know!

I returned to my place and continued to do some work on my laptop. I sweep up my front  porch, since the dirt piles up if you don’t sweep every day. I chat with my neighbor Sofia, and find out that she is on vacation for the next month which I’m pretty excited about because she is really wonderful to talk to and joke around with. We decide that I will have my first cooking lesson at 4pm, but first, we head to the market to pick up some supplies. I’m grateful to catch a ride on her moto as it’s another boiling hot day.

I pick up peanuts, 5 tomatoes, 4 onions, and 5 hot peppers. Sofia half-jokingly says she won’t eat my jollof rice if it doesn’t have “peh-peh” in it. We return home and after doing some work, we set up outside to do some cooking. Some interesting anecdotes about cooking here: they don’t use can openers – they use knives; they don’t use cutting boards – they cut things in their hands; they use a lot of oil and a lot of salt. The whole process happened outside. Check out the pictures for more details (ill try to post soon.)

As we sit in the shade in the courtyard, the Ghana vs. South Africa U-20 FIFA World Cup game plays in the neighboring compound. Ghana just scored and there’s loud cheering coming from the room. Sofia watches as I awkwardly use the mortar and pestle to grind the pepe, cut the tomatoes in my hands, complain when I can’t hold the hot pot handle because of the heat (I’ve seen many people handle hot coals with their bare hands), and slowly force holes into the canned fish with the knife. I’m sure I must look quite pathetic! What she must think! I haven’t tried to explain how different cooking is in Canada as compared to here. Either way I’m sure I look pretty helpless! Rightly so though, since I hardly cook at home…

As the other tenants make their way in and out of the compound, they are tickled pink with the fact that I am learning how to cook. It’s fun to surprise people here. After adding more oil and salt, we wash the rice being careful to pick out rocks, and add it to the mix of pepe, tomatoes, onions, oil, Maggi spice, and some bitter grey stuff that’s supposed to make the dish taste better (apparently it comes from some kind of rock – it tastes really bad and I don’t know what it is in english.) Sofia comments that the local rice I bought is not good, because the taste and water absorption rate are not as good as Sultana or Gino rice. It’s not so easy to get people to buy locally no matter how much sense it makes in any context – even in the context of development – the consumer still has to like what s/he’s buying!

As we cook, I notice a man has put down a mat, and has been lying on it on the gravel just in front of our compound. I ask Sofia who he is and she says he is somehow related to the old woman who lives here. I notice that he has some large what look like bruises, on the side of his face and his arm. It turns out that he was hurt after jumping out of the window of a moving taxi, because the driver would not stop to let him defecate. Maybe I’ve misunderstood the story, but this place is weird sometimes. He will be spending the night sleeping outside in our courtyard. My neighbors bring their mats out and do the same – it’s so much cooler outside in the night. I complain about my hot room, but I’m lucky to have a roof that’s sealed so that it’s not just tin between the sun and me. I don’t want to know how much worse it is than this – it’s bad enough!

When the jollof rice finishes everyone in my compound has a taste. The concensus? It needs more pepe but otherwise, it’s “palatable.” Success! Everyone is just tickled pink by my cooking. I’m on my way to becoming a Ghanaian chef! Next up – rice balls and groundnut (peanut) stew!

I finish the day realizing I should wash some clothes, but the tap has been off for almost a week now, and I’m running out of the water I keep especially for this reason, in a large container on my front porch. I have to choose between showers or laundry. The lightbulb in the shower has also burnt out so its bucket showers by flashlight these days. I hope we get water tomorrow.

And so ends another day. Today be grateful for your can opener! :p

Happy Early Thanksgiving!

Today is October 4th, 2009, which also happens to be my birthday 🙂

I am lucky enough to be in Tamale with the rest of the volunteers at a retreat. Last night we had an early thanksgiving dinner and boy was it a treat! We actually had turkey, and salad, and mashed potatoes and apple/pumpkin pie! And in case you don’t know, it is very difficult to get those foods here so we were very lucky to have it – and we all sufficiently stuffed ourselves.

I have to say that I’ve never been more thankful for the life I have in Canada than I am right now, at this very moment. Having thanksgiving here is quite a different experience. Let me tell you about last night.

So I get back to our motel after spending a day in meetings discussing topics with other volunteers about our work here in Canada. I get back to my room at 5pm-ish and decide that for my birthday, I’d like to have clean clothes, so I go about filling a bucket to wash some clothes. As I scrub away, and finish up, I go to fill the bucket again with fresh water to rinse my clothes, but no more water comes out. I go to the front desk and tell them the water has stopped. She tells me to go to the tap in the courtyard where they fill the water hose. So I make my way there, and am starting to get irritated, because despite it being almost 6pm and hot and humid I’m sweating and have to wear a long sleeved shirt and pants to protect from the mosquitoes. I go back to the reception desk and am directed to another tap that finally has water. I manage to rinse my clothes and fill the bucket with more water in case we need some throughout the night.

I get back to my motel room, which I share with Carissa, another volunteer. I’m rushing to get things done, and am pissed off about having to run around just to get water and because I’m now sweating so much and I just want to leave for the special thanksgiving dinner planned for us. I get back to the room, and find out that Carissa won’t come to the dinner because she is sick with malaria. It really puts things into perspective – here I am getting angry about having to run around for water so that I can wash my clothes and get to a dinner, when my friend can’t even come because she is too sick. On top of being away from family and now friends, she can’t enjoy a special dinner with all of the other volunteers, and she is not feeling well.

I get to the dinner and we decide to do a round table at the end where everyone shares one thing that they are thankful for. I have to say that I have never been more thankful, or grateful for everything ever before in my life. Just from the night’s experiences, I’m so grateful for running water that’s there anytime you need it. If I hadn’t been here in Ghana, I would never have been able to say that. I’ve always known that I should be thankful for my nice apartment, water, food etc, but I never really felt it because I’ve never been without it. I’m grateful for everything I have in Canada, and I mean everything, because now I know intimately what it’s like to not have any of it. I’m thankful for all the different kinds of food I can buy at the grocery store, I’m grateful for the job I have and the salary I have that allows me to do the things I want to do, when I want to do them. I’m thankful for heating and air conditioning, and tap water you can drink. I’m thankful for berries and salads and fruits of all kinds. I’m so happy that I can now appreciate what I have whereas before this experience, I always knew we lived a privileged life, but could never really appreciate it. I’m grateful for being able to truly be able to appreciate what I have.

I’d like to share a list that Carissa and I put together when we had some extra time waiting for a meeting to begin. We made two lists that I’ll include here. It’s only after finishing and comparing the lists did we realize some striking differences that really speak volumes about this experience we are having – and a major difference between living here, and living at home. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

List 1: Things we don’t have here that we need to appreciate when we get back (to Canada.)

1. Washing machines
2. Delivery
3. Friends with cars
4. Cars
5. Tap water you can drink
6. A tap – that works
7. Walking around at night
8. Feeling cool and clean simultaneously
9. No flies

10.  Air conditioning

11.  Having a toilet in your building

12.  Grocery stores with food variety

13.  Fruit variety – kiwi, strawberry, raspberries, cherries, plums, peaches, broccoli, candied walnuts

14.  Vacuum cleaner

15.  Dust buster

16.  Garbage day

17.  Recycling

18.  Computers

19.  Wireless networks

20.  Wireless access

21.  Broadband internet

22.  Carpet

23.  Non-musty furniture

24.  Coffee shops

25.  Pastries of any kind that are not fried in oil

26.  Seatbelts

27.  Cocking – sealed windows and doors

28.  Not having to hold bowel movements

29.  Organic food

30.  Not having to buy phone credit

31.  Interac

32.  Taking naps in clean places

33.  Lying on a couch

34.  Being clean in general

35.  Smelling like perfume

36.  Not worrying constantly about bowel movements, food, and cleanliness

37.  Uncrowded taxi rides, not having to wait for others to fill it

38.  My kitchen, my oven, my big fridge, and my stove,my cutting board, my Japanese cleaver

39.  Being able to buy anything at any time

List 2: Things we love about Ghana (things that sustain us)

1. Egg and bread in the mornings
2. Sweet tea
3. Even sweeter Milo
4. Pyramids- oranges, tomatoes,milo cans
5. Greetings (“You are welcome!”, “You’re invited”) to EVERYONE
6. Smiles when greeting someone
7. The gusto with which they return greetings
8. Hand gestures – acknowledging each person
9. Audacity/ excitement of children (they are allowed to explore their curiosity.)

10.  Making food

11.  Having absolutely no idea what is going on but somehow knowing everything will work out

12.  Colors of the clothes (cloths/ combinations of clothes, cloths, kids clothes, food in buckets on heads, dyed feet and hands, sunsets)

13.  Being one with being human – doing because it’s a necessity of life. i.e.breastfeeding openly, being barefoot, secondhand clothing just for the sake of having something to wear, blowing your nose, spitting, no mirrors, all sexes holding hands

14.  Not being hung up on details or schedules and still getting everything done

15.  Giving each person their due respect

16.  Never forgetting respect (not once has someone forgotten to get us a seat to sit in.)

17.  Escorting a person when they leave your house, walking them out and making sure they are appreciated for coming.

Notice the difference? What do you all think?

Beere Yellum

Yesterday I went to another farmer group meeting. This is a group that has already farmed a plot of land as a group – last year they harvested a field of soya beans together. Patrick, a teacher who is volunteering his time to train farmers in various skills, started them on the Agriculture as a Business curriculum at our meeting.

The first card is about Group Strength. As the members of the group are illiterate, pictures and stories work really well to communicate ideas. Patrick passes around a picture of a farmer group and begins to translate the story of the farmer group to the farmers assembled – imagine sitting under a tree, with men and women, some holding kids in their laps. Some are old, some are young. All of them are slim and well-built. Most of the women are wearing cloth wrapped around their waists and a t-shirt. The men are wearing pants and t-shirts. Clothes here are mostly secondhand. You see some funny things – people wearing class reunion-shirts, university of ohio t-shirts, tim hortons kids soccer jerseys – I even saw a man on a bike wearing a Montreal Canadiens jersey. Some of the people are chewing sticks to clean their teeth –a good and cheaper substitute for a toothbrush. One man is stitching a traditional man’s underwear (check out pictures)! Apparently hardly anyone makes them anymore so it’s quite expensive.

The story that Patrick relays to them is of a group of farmers who came together to get a loan, and were unsuccessful, then decided to go into processing Shea Butter together. They take turns picking shea nuts for each other, and help each other sell the butter at the market. The group we met with grew soya beans last year, and shared the harvest. One member was able to keep the produce they shared, to sell during the dry season for a higher price. She bought guinea fowl eggs with the extra money she made, incubated them, and now has guinea fowls. It’s one of the reasons why she thinks forming a group is a good idea.

The idea behind this initial meeting is to bring to light the strengths of the group and allow them to recognize that yes, they are a strong group of people that can accomplish great things and be successful. The module gives a proverb as well which is a very effective way of imparting knowledge in the culture here – story telling is huge! The time is taken to sit and tell a story in that most simple and pure way – to allow the story teller to pull in her audience, and paint a picture with words. The proverb tells of a bat that refuses to help other animals because they are different from him – he has wings, they don’t; he has teeth, they don’t. In the end, all of the animals refused to help him when he needed it.

This proverb made the farmers laugh quite a bit. They all enjoyed the story and it’s so fun to watch them all laugh over it. Other farmers brought out other reasons why being in a strong group is good. Some anecdotes (all through the extension agent as an interpreter):

“It brings together whites and blacks. We don’t know where Canada is, but our forefathers were afraid of whites, and here we are sitting together today and sharing knowledge.”

“Our group means unity, and we show love for one another. When someone in the community has a problem, we can come together to help them and share the burden.”

They mention a group whose name is “beere yellum” which means “future sweetness.” In the same way, this group says that when you start anything, it is bitter, but it will become sweet over time, as you work hard at it. I have found that the groups here do not have time for laziness, and they work very hard. To quote a proverb the extension agent used:

“If you sit peacefully and you’re a strong person, no one will know. As a group, it’s the same thing. You have to work to show others that you are strong or else who will know you really are?”

The sense of community is very strong, almost tangible, and their faith in God (whether Muslim or Christian) is unfailing – all meetings, in the field, or in the office, start and end with a prayer. To quote a farmer group:

“We give all of our problems to God. We give all of our successes to God, and we thank Him for everything He has given to us.”

I’ll end with an addition that one of the farmers in the group contributed at the end of our meeting.

“The bat hangs from a tree upside-down, so it pisses back onto itself, and even at God!”

Meaning?

Bats are unintelligent creatures! (sometimes proverbs just end as funny stories! J)

Something extra about farmer groups:

At last count, I’ve received 6 live chickens and at least 5 dozen bags of eggs in total from farmer groups, after our first meetings. It’s done to show their appreciation to me as their guest, for being there. It’s quite flattering to receive a live chicken! So what do we do with them? We just hang them on the moto and ride on home with them hanging upside-down off of the handle bars by their binded feet! It’s pretty funny. They don’t really fuss much. And then I have a bunch of eggs to bring home. I share them and the chickens because what am I going to do with them!?

The first time, one of the girls in my compound helped me carry the chicken in and I told her I didn’t know what to do with it. She was surprised that I didn’t know how to kill, pluck and prepare the chicken. I was just supposed to boil some water, and get ‘er done. Needless to say,  I’ve given 4 chickens to the extension agent, 1 to the old lady that lives in my compound, and 1 to the family that keeps chickens in my compound – though in hindsight it was another annoying cockadoodling rooster! But it makes the thought of killing one with my bare hands more and more attractive every day – I don’t know how many times I’ve cursed them at 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 o’clock in the morning, wanting to chase them and kill them! Ah well, for now, I’m happy that I’ve actually held a chicken by the legs (they’re warm) – the beasts are quite ugly up close, and damn are they annoying. I think one pooped on my porch. We’ll see who gets the last laugh though – can’t wait to eat some back in Canada.

I posted some pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2591079&id=28118448&l=807b140ad9 which include some of the farmer group I mentioned above.

Enjoy!

Beere yellum

Yesterday I went to another farmer group meeting. This is a group that has already farmed a plot of land as a group – last year they harvested a field of soya beans together. Patrick, a teacher who is volunteering his time to train farmers in various skills, started them on the Agriculture as a Business curriculum at our meeting.

The first card is about Group Strength. As the members of the group are illiterate, pictures and stories work really well to communicate ideas. Patrick passes around a picture of a farmer group and begins to translate the story of the farmer group to the farmers assembled – imagine sitting under a tree, with men and women, some holding kids in their laps. Some are old, some are young. All of them are slim and well-built. Most of the women are wearing cloth wrapped around their waists and a t-shirt. The men are wearing pants and t-shirts. Clothes here are mostly secondhand. You see some funny things – people wearing class reunion-shirts, university of ohio t-shirts, tim hortons kids soccer jerseys – I even saw a man on a bike wearing a Montreal Canadiens jersey. Some of the people are chewing sticks to clean their teeth –a good and cheaper substitute for a toothbrush. One man is stitching a traditional man’s underwear (check out pictures)! Apparently hardly anyone makes them anymore so it’s quite expensive.

The story that Patrick relays to them is of a group of farmers who came together to get a loan, and were unsuccessful, then decided to go into processing Shea Butter together. They take turns picking shea nuts for each other, and help each other sell the butter at the market. The group we met with grew soya beans last year, and shared the harvest. One member was able to keep the produce they shared, to sell during the dry season for a higher price. She bought guinea fowl eggs with the extra money she made, incubated them, and now has guinea fowls. It’s one of the reasons why she thinks forming a group is a good idea.

The idea behind this initial meeting is to bring to light the strengths of the group and allow them to recognize that yes, they are a strong group of people that can accomplish great things and be successful. The module gives a proverb as well which is a very effective way of imparting knowledge in the culture here – story telling is huge! The time is taken to sit and tell a story in that most simple and pure way – to allow the story teller to pull in her audience, and paint a picture with words. The proverb tells of a bat that refuses to help other animals because they are different from him – he has wings, they don’t; he has teeth, they don’t. In the end, all of the animals refused to help him when he needed it.

This proverb made the farmers laugh quite a bit. They all enjoyed the story and it’s so fun to watch them all laugh over it. Other farmers brought out other reasons why being in a strong group is good. Some anecdotes (all through the extension agent as an interpreter):

“It brings together whites and blacks. We don’t know where Canada is, but our forefathers were afraid of whites, and here we are sitting together today and sharing knowledge.”

“Our group means unity, and we show love for one another. When someone in the community has a problem, we can come together to help them and share the burden.”

They mention a group whose name is “beere yellum” which means “future sweetness.” In the same way, this group says that when you start anything, it is bitter, but it will become sweet over time, as you work hard at it. I have found that the groups here do not have time for laziness, and they work very hard. To quote a proverb the extension agent used:

“If you sit peacefully and you’re a strong person, no one will know. As a group, it’s the same thing. You have to work to show others that you are strong or else who will know you really are?”

The sense of community is very strong, almost tangible, and their faith in God (whether Muslim or Christian) is unfailing – all meetings, in the field, or in the office, start and end with a prayer. To quote a farmer group:

“We give all of our problems to God. We give all of our successes to God, and we thank Him for everything He has given to us.”

I’ll end with an addition that one of the farmers in the group contributed at the end of our meeting.

“The bat hangs from a tree upside-down, so it pisses back onto itself, and even at God!”

Meaning?

Bats are unintelligent creatures! (sometimes proverbs just end as funny stories! J)

Something extra about farmer groups:

At last count, I’ve received 6 live chickens and at least 5 dozen bags of eggs in total from farmer groups, after our first meetings. It’s done to show their appreciation to me as their guest, for being there. It’s quite flattering to receive a live chicken! So what do we do with them? We just hang them on the moto and ride on home with them hanging upside-down off of the handle bars by their binded feet! It’s pretty funny. They don’t really fuss much. And then I have a bunch of eggs to bring home. I share them and the chickens because what am I going to do with them!?

The first time, one of the girls in my compound helped me carry the chicken in and I told her I didn’t know what to do with it. She was surprised that I didn’t know how to kill, pluck and prepare the chicken. I was just supposed to boil some water, and get ‘er done. Needless to say,  I’ve given 4 chickens to the extension agent, 1 to the old lady that lives in my compound, and 1 to the family that keeps chickens in my compound – though in hindsight it was another annoying cockadoodling rooster! But it makes the thought of killing one with my bare hands more and more attractive every day – I don’t know how many times I’ve cursed them at 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 o’clock in the morning, wanting to chase them and kill them! Ah well, for now, I’m happy that I’ve actually held a chicken by the legs (they’re warm) – the beasts are quite ugly up close, and damn are they annoying. I think one pooped on my porch. We’ll see who gets the last laugh though – can’t wait to eat some back in Canada. J

More insights into daily life, and pictures!

I wrote this post a day before the 1-month mark. I can’t believe it’s already been more than a month of living in West Africa. Wow. But then, I also have 3 months left. Wow. Many of you have been asking what my job actually is here in Ghana. Here is a break down of a day in my work life here.

I have also posted pictures of work: some random farmer group meetings, workshops in the office; also some random pics about food, crocs, and taxi rides.

Check it out at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2584040&id=28118448&l=5ee57735e9

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2584042&id=28118448&l=ef2f3f78fc

My Day…

6am – Wake-up. I no longer use my earplugs to drown out the crickets, annoying rooster, and the 2 calls to prayer going from the 2 mosques. Guess I’m getting used to things. I go out and am greeted by my neighbors who have been up since 4am since that’s when they eat (it’s Ramadan right now so most people in Paga are fasting. They will eat again when the sun goes down.) The sun comes up early here, making it easier to wake-up earlier J (for those non-morning people, I’m sure it still doesn’t make any sense to you!) Anyway, my friend Claire had spent the night and so we wake up and do an exercise routine our group has decided to do for the duration of our trip – important to be healthy!

7:30am – After showering, I borrow a knife from my neighbor Sofia, to cut up some pineapple that Claire brought me from the city of Bolga. Pineapples are generally grown in Kumasi (at least 4 hours south of me). Apples are imported from South Africa. We mow down on delicious pineapple, then we make our way to the taxi station down the road, stopping first for a loaf of bread at the corner, for 50 cents. We are running a workshop to sign up Ministry of Food and Agriculture field staff to join the Agriculture as a Business program that EWB has created. The purpose of the program is to teach business skills to farmer groups, record keeping, business planning and marketing. Most farmers don’t consider themselves as having a business- they see it as farming to feed themselves. This program works to show them that they can turn a profit and actually make a business out of their land.

8am – We jump into the taxi. It’s not as packed as usual – just 3 people in the back instead of the usual 4. Usually 4 people are in the back, with 3 people in the front. Why not? A car is made for moving people, so might as well make the most of it, no? That seems to be a running theme here – use everything you’ve got. I’ve seen numerous buses loaded to the max, with as much stuff on the roof of the bus as inside the bus. I should take pictures. Use everything you got here, no need to waste. Use the water you have- just a bucket is all you need for a shower – and sometimes it’s too much! If you’ve never had the opportunity to take a shower with just a bucket, do it today – grab a bucket/ say the size of a medium garbage pail and just try it. Eat all of the meat you get, even some of the bone – skin, fat, cartilage- all of it. I’m learning to eat all of the fish…bones, skin, it’s all fish after all. We are so picky! I think it’s because we have the choice to be. As we’re riding the taxi, the passenger door opens up on my side and I quickly pull it shut – luckily there were only 3 of us in the back! One of the men in the front looks back and smiles at Claire and I, and we burst out laughing.

8:20am – we make it to the MoFA office in Navrongo. We arrive at the meeting room with plenty of time to spare before our workshop starts at 9am.

9am – some people are downstairs, but no one has made their way up yet. Claire and I wait. This is called “African Time” – nothing starts on time and no one is on time. This definitely won’t help my tardiness! But everyone also walks slow here too. There is no hurry. It’s quite nice compared to the speed-walking with my head down, that I do anytime I walk in Toronto. Here you walk slowly and greet everyone you see.

10am – I go downstairs to see if I can round up a few people. Maybe three people have arrived so far. I find out that the meat patties I ordered for the day have not been brought, so Claire hitches a ride on a field workers motorcycle to pick up the patties from town.

11am – We decide to start the workshop as most people have now arrived. We begin with a quick jeopardy icebreaker to infuse some energy into the room. Ghanaians are quite lively and it’s a lot of fun to play – people here are very animated. At home, we dread public speaking – more feared than death – but here, I’d have to say that almost everyone is a good public speaker – intonation, tone, use of pauses, body language – it’s really great!

12am – The workshop moves forward. EWB is very big on participatory learning, so we split the room into a few groups and look at classifying farmer group skills into novice, intermediate, and advanced based on the following 8 categories:

1. Group Meetings (does the group hold meetings? Why do they meet?)
2. Group Finances (does the group keep financial records? Do they how much they spend on farming?)
3. Group Project (does the group work together? Do they have a project?)
4. Record Keeping (does the group keep minutes? Attendance? Pay dues?)
5. Business Planning (does the group have a goal for their future? Does the group plan their finances?)
6. Marketing (Does the group have access to the market? Do they transport their goods to the market separately or in bulk to save money?)
7. Business Evaluation (does the group know the profit they made last year? This year?)
8. Loan Preparedness (is the group established enough to get a loan?)

1pm – after a brief break for lunch, I close the workshop, emphasizing that the Agriculture as a Business Program will assist the field staff (or Agriculture Extension Agents (AEAs)) to have farmers in their operational area form groups, , to a level where they are strong, work together to create profit for themselves, and record their progress. Another reason to develop strong farmer groups is that a new project called the Northern Region Growth Project funded by the Ministry will be selecting strong groups to produce specific crops which they will provide the market for. A strong group attracts funds because they know that they are serious. A quote from the Director as he explains that some of the produce will be exported: “…Europeans don’t want to spend money on poison. Here we’ll eat anything but Europeans like to eat well and enjoy their money.” Claire and I laughed, but I don’t think anyone else did!

2pm – I hitch a ride with one of the AEAs to go to the market in Navrongo. I say bye to Claire as she climbs into a Tro to go back to Bolga. I decide to walk around and try to find some fruit. I end up buying a peanut cake – like a thinner, harder version of a funnel cake, though I’m looking for fruit. The market gets too overwhelming (I walked in circles) so I go back to the taxi station and I ask a taxi driver that I’ve come to recognize, and he asks another girl, who’s carrying some vegetables on a tray on her head, and she leads me into the market to find fruit. She leads me through the market stalls, a maze of paths, passed people selling things like tomatoes, shea nut oil, onions, peppers, fish, ginger, groundnuts (peanuts), soap, cloth, etc. I end up where they sell fruit and find that my only choices are lemons, oranges and bananas. Oranges here are smaller and green/yellow in color. Usually they are sold peeled and you cut the top off and just suck out the juice.They are not as sweet so people just drink the juice. Bananas are smaller here, all of them are mini. I buy bananas for 1 cedi (totally get ripped off), then I buy a broom for 30 cents, when I know the woman beside me paid 20 cents.

3:30pm – I decide I want to go home. It’s really hot at this point, probably 30C and I am sweating and so is everyone else. There really is no point in saying “It’s hot”. It’s like standing in a rainstorm and saying “it’s raining”. People here don’t complain about much. They just go about life. Many people do say that “It’s not easy” and “This is Africa, things are different”.

4pm – I buy some corn (called maize here- it’s not sweet) that’s been grilled and bite the tough kernals off of the cob. People here too deal much better with heat. They handle pots and hot coals with their bare hands – no joke. The girl selling the corn hands me a hot cob for 20 cents, and I struggle to hold on to it. I make my way to the taxi stand and buy some Fan Ice (DELICIOUS vanilla ice cream in a plastic satchet that you bite the corner off of and suck out. Usually it’s half melted but that just makes it easier to eat!” It tastes good after the tough corn.

4:30pm – It’s an uneventful ride home. It smells like diesel, and the driver keeps stopping to fill some tank up with water. Not sure what tank, but I get home so it’s all good. I say hello to my neighbor. They’ve made me some rice balls (big balls of rice) and stew (groundnut and fish) and I save it for later. I’m hot and am getting a headache.

6pm – I decide to take a shower, change into pants and a long sleeve (gotta protect from those mosquitos…so hard to do when it’s humid and 25C outside) and visit the same neighbors at the side of the road where they are frying bean cakes. Run into another neighbor and we chat a bit before I head back home. It looks like it will rain and lightning flashes in the sky, and the electricity goes out a few times. The rain threatens but doesn’t come. Tomorrow I have farmer group meetings in the field at 7am, 8, 10, 12 and 2pm. Hopefully it doesn’t rain or else I won’t get to go out!

8:30pm – hittin the sack. It’s still quite hot and humid, and I just want to sleep. I think my neighbors are grilling maize outside and it smells really good, but I’ve already said goodnight and am too lazy to go out! I’m on my laptop and fruit flies fly onto my laptop screen here and there, which I squish. Crickets usually get into my room. Those of you that know me, know that I don’t deal well with bugs. But, now, I don’t freak out, I just grab my bug killing tools (a couple of pieces of paper folded in half, and an empty plastic chocodelight spread container) and try to kill them! It’s quite the showdown and I don’t particularly enjoy it. They’re really fast. I have a few spiders here too, they have their webs in the top corners of my room. They do kill the insects, so I’ve decided to let them live. Now I just think- well, who cares, it’s an insect. So what. It’s there and I’m here. It won’t kill me and I can’t control it all so just gotta let it go…luckily in my mosquito net, I’m protected! Phew! Good night!!

Being Human, and Happiness Part 2

Maybe we just need to be human. I’ve thought that humanity here is just so raw. I see human beings in the raw here. I mean that in good and “bad” ways. Humanity shines through. I see little kids dirty, with only a t-shirt on, no shoes, running around, giggling, and playing with each other. I see a mother sitting on a tree trunk, barefooted, with a dirty shirt on and a cloth wrap, lovingly holding her child and consoling him as he cries. I see a mother putting her child down for a nap, on grayish tattered rags on the floor of a taxi station, under a soft drink vendor’s table, while the flies swirl all around the child. But the child sleeps peacefully and beautifully.So much of this I feel I just need to sit and describe in detail, because as the mind gets used to it’s surroundings, it starts to leave out details. And it’s those details that are important. It’s those details that will make things real for you. Or else you’ll just apply your realities to what I am saying – which are so far from what I am experiencing, and I can’t let that happen. So here is a little list I’ve put together titled:

Things I have “gotten used to” so far, but have/ haven’t yet digested:

1. Kids in barefeet, outside
2. Kids in dirty clothes
3. Kids in no clothes, outside
4. Spitting out my toothpaste onto the ground in front of my step
5. Taking a shower when it smells like piss
6. Shitting in a hole with the sound of flies buzzing around, and having them crawl on your ass
7. Goats on the side of the street, along paths that I walk and in fields that I train in
8. Trucks full of luggage
9. Getting into dilapidated taxis with ripped up interior skeletons, upholstery, with the trunk open and everything strapped in with bungee cords
10. Seeing buses packed to double it’s original height
11. People sitting on top of trucks driving at high speeds
12. Lots of people sitting in the backs of trucks driving at high speeds
13. Vehicles barreling down the street at least 80km/h honking at people, cyclists, and animals to move out of the way
14. Eating mush
15. Eating oil
16. Eating fish bones, skin, and cartilage
17. My own lack of cleanliness – not caring about how cleanly my food was created
18. Picking out a housefly from my food, and still eating it
19. Eating spicy food – every meal
20. Having dirty nails all the time
21. Eating food with my right hand, not really cleaning it off properly, and doing other things anyways
22. Having a sweaty oily face ALL THE TIME
23. Sweating a lot but not really worrying about it
24. Letting spiders live in the corners of my room, and not killing them when I see them
25. Killing crickets in my room, and not screaming when I see them, and being ok with the fact that they will come into my room.
26. The sound of the crickets, roosters and the mosque early in the mornings
27. Watching food being made with such rudimentary tools, and being ok with it
28. Eating food with flies on it
29. Seeing babies and people with flies on them
30. Having flies on me
31. Watching people chew sticks to clean their teeth
32. Having people shit in front of me
33. Having people pick their nose in front of me
34. Being white in a sea of black
35. Cows stopping traffic
36. Goats stopping traffic
37. Crocs stopping me!
38. Ducklings on my way to the shower or latrine
39. The sound of baby goats
40. The smell of open sewage
41. Having fluorescent lighting on horrible green walls
42. Having dirty walls
43. Being dirty most of the time.
44. Licking my fingers after eating, when I know they are probably quite dirty
45. Killing fruit flies on my computer screen with my own hands, and not bothering to wipe it off.
46. Killing crickets on my walls and not bothering to wipe them off – ok, I’m not ok with that!
47. Drinking all of my water out of a plastic bag and it tasting like plastic
48. The water here is slimy somehow
49. Sleeping with a mosquito net
50. Peeing and having it splatter on my feet – and just getting some water to rinse it off instead of washing it off.
51. Seeing women carrying things on their heads everywhere
52. Seeing children working
53. Seeing people sleeping on benches and tables, in restaurants, service stations, wherever they want
54. Seeing people wearing all sorts of clothes in good and bad conditions
55. Veggies without labels!
56. Using dirty bathrooms without worrying about it
57. Not changing the water that I rinse my clothes with
58. Power outages when it rains
59. Rain for hours causing me to miss work
60. Not having a bathroom
61. Not having a toilet
62. Not having a sink
63. Taking a shower with less than a bucket of water
64. Even when having a shower, not keeping the water on the whole time – and thinking it a luxury if I do
65. Hissing at chickens

I’ve realized that I’ve come a long way. A really long way, and it’s something I need to recognize. I’ve just gotten to a point where, you can only be so surprised so many times before things start to become normal – its just that you can’t muster up the energy to be shocked everytime, because that’s just the way it is here, so you just accept it and go on. Is it true then that everything becomes absorbable? But really, what isn’t absorbable? Are those the things that matter the most? Just as I was trying to figure it out at home, here the same thing will happen, and what’s truly important should surface, right?? And that’s where I come back to finding my true definition of what happiness is. Do you know what yours really is?