Shyam’s Ghanaian Summer…and More

Saturday May 24

Accra, Ghana

I woke up at 5:30 this Saturday morning. At Mary’s, a long term volunteer whose shared apartment I’ve been staying at for the last two weeks, it’s cool, the windows are well netted for mosquitoes, and it’s comfortable. I was well rested. So I lazed around – I read a little bit more of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, I called my mother, I took a nap, and I read some more before grabbing breakfast.

And then I looked out the window.

And I had a simple realization. What I had been doing this morning was a privilege.

Many Ghanaians do not have Saturdays off. In fact they have to fetch more water than usual – it’s laundry day. And cooking, cleaning, child care, and any income generating activities (wood work, taxi driving, selling a product at the market etc.) still happen on Saturdays and even Sundays.

But on the flip side, most of these activities also take place in Canada. So what’s the difference? What’s “time poverty”? And why might my relaxing morning, and even the fact that I am in Ghana for my summer, be a privilege? Thoughts?

Friday, May 23

Accra, Ghana

Having spent two weeks in the office in Accra, I’m itching to get out to the field! So far, we (the team of interns at KITE pictured below) have had a chance to learn more about KITE and the e-CARE program. And the findings are…

We visited two Rural Business Centres, came up with an extensive survey to begin Monitoring and Evaluation activities, interacted with Ghana Telecom’s team on the eCARE project, and did some research on the ITC scene in Ghana.

Now, I’m off to the field to find out what this development project actually looks like on the ground. My job as I see it is summarized as follows:

Finally, here’s where I’m working:

Let’s start with pre-departure, departure, arrival and a bit –> a week in Canada, a half day on planes, a half day on a bus, and a weekend in Tamale, Ghana.

Canada:

For 6 days (April 30 to May 7) we discussed culture shock, nutrition, safety, approaches to development, and frameworks and models for analyzing rural livelihoods, and addressed the group’s hopes and fears. We challenged ourselves to think hard and think critically, and the National Office team put us to the test. But the real test was yet to come. The best part of the experience –> the people I’d gotten to know – other JFs and National Office staff.

Arrival:

After an uneventful (thankfully) set of flights, we arrived in Kotoko International Airport (Accra) , and the “real test” was starting to hit me in the face. 37 degrees Celsius with pretty high humidity, drinking water only from sachets (that will make for an interesting future post), the different languages, the exciting new culture, and the delicious food (that, however, needs to be selected with some care) were all hitting me in the face. I was excited to be diving in….

More travel:

From Accra, we grabbed a bus to Tamale (12 hrs to the north). On the way…

“Oh look – mangoes - they’re everywhere!” (the digestive juices were flowing)

At the first stop, “How much for those mangoes?”

“5 000”

I was excited to get started bargaining but needed to understand what “5000” meant first. “100 000 is 1 Ghana cedi”, another lady that noticed my state of confusion told me – ahhhh. Turns out the market lady was talking in old currency. On a side note, 1 Ghana cedi is about 1 Canadian dollar. I was ready to perform my first transaction.

“I’ll take two” and I pulled out a 10 cedi bill.

The women smiled, “no change for that.”

As a street vendor, she didn’t have that much change kicking around. Right - she may be one of the people we talk about as living on less than 2 dollars (about 2 cedi) a day.

I got my mangoes having learnt a thing or two, and we were quickly on the bus again moving at the fastest pace manageable for the roads we were on. Ghana, by the way, has a great set of roads.

Tamale:

When we got to Tamale, we spent two days with some long term volunteers and eased ourselves into Ghanaian culture.

What: Development Work with Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB)

Where: Based in Accra, Ghana and travelling for extended periods of time to rural Ghana

When: May 8, 2008 to August 22, 2008

Having been involved with EWB for three years, and thought about and worked towards international development in Canada, I felt like I needed to see the realities first hand. See them and communicate them back to everyone in Canada and in India – my family, friends, the chapter, and anyone else that is interested. Thus, I applied to the Junior Fellowship Program and having been given the opportunity to volunteer in Ghana, and having spent 4 months preparing, I am now here to do just that. I seek to understand how Dorothy lives. In EWB lingo, Dorothy is every person I meet that lacks opportunity to get herself out of poverty: she is also whom I am ultimately accountable to.

My project partner:

KITE (The Kumasi Institute of Technology, Energy and Environment) is a leading NGO in Ghana in their field and EWB has many years of partnership with them through the Multi-functional Platform (MFP) project. (http://kiteonline.net/)

My project as I know it so far:

eCARE (e-Commerce and aims to reduce poverty, accelerating the extension of clean energy and modern telecommunication services to rural and peri-urban users. eCARE does this by providing loans to rural entrepreneurs for the purchase and operation of Rural Business Centres (RBCs) equipped with computers, printers, telephones and solar photovoltaic systems. eCARE is public-private partnership between Ghana Telecom, the UN foundation, UNEP and KITE. (www.ecareghana.org.gh and http://ecareghana.blogspot.com)

My role:

The eCARE project is about to scale up from 69 centres to 200 centres by the end of 2009. In short, my role is to help KITE create a survey, and gather and analyze data on how existing centres are performing. Once that is complete, I am to work on strategies for ensuring that the new centres are better positioned for success.