Monday 30 May 2011

Sweatin' bullets on my way to relax

Hello readers!

I've been here in Chereponi almost a week. Things have been moving pretty slowly since my last blog post. Last Thursday the district director left for Tamale, then for some reason unbeknownst to myself the rest of the staff decided it was a good time to visit Tamale for them too. So on Friday I scheduled a trip to the villages with an extension staff whom I've made friends with, who's name is Aruna or Arune (not sure how to spell it). This trip was really interesting and informative. I learned that the language barrier is much larger of a barrier than I had originally assumed for two reasons. The first is the extension staff rarely fully understand me or the idea I'm trying to purvey when we speak english together, then this problem is further exacerbated when he translates my broken ideas into the local language. For this reason I often receive responses to my question that make little or no sense. So I have committed my weekend time to learning the local language Anoofou small-small (gradually in Canadian english). Apart from this I began to notice that response to an AEAs instruction seems to hinge strongly upon the bond with the farmer or the trust the farmer has on the staff member. But to be entirely sure of this I need to do more research!

The weekend was spent try to immerse myself in the culture, Saturday morning I worked a small amount in the proccessing of the dowa-dowa plant, but qiuickly tired myslef out and then slept for a good portion of the day. On Sunday I attended church at a Catholic church very near to my host family's house. It was a small congregation, and because the pastor is away on a workshop the sermon was given by a local boy about my age by the name of Emanuel. All the same it w.as very interesting and I found the passion that the villagers around me share for their religion is very moving, then Sunday night I was treated to the opportunity of seeing my host family's farm. There was a large and well maintained Yam farm, and a smaller portion of land set aside for Maize. But the portion used for maize was un-plowed this season because Ghandi cannot afford to plow it this year. Hopefully I can post pictures of this soon (an explanation for why I haven't yet follows).

Today (Monday) I rode as quickly as I could in 98 degree weather to find the office completely empty, and when I called the staff whose numbers I had I found out most of them were in Tamale. Apparently there is a party in Tamale I wasn't invited to. So I used the time to charge my phone and computer then came back to the village. When I got here I hung around the school for a while writing this blog post when I was approached by some University of Development Studies students. They told me as a part of their education they are to spend 2 months here and in other parts of the Chereponi district collecting data on the environment and anthropology of the people here. With the hopes that the data can be used for national and international development projects to be used in this district, and in other districts they are staying in. This may be an ideal plan, but if it works it's most definitely and admirable goal to have.

This post may seem a tad irradic, because as I post it my family is asking me to bathe, and group of very excited children are eagerly wtching me type LOL :)

Thanks for reading if you did!!

Wednesday 25 May 2011

Chillin in Chereponi

Hello everyone who has continued to read this!

First of all if you were waiting for the next entry I am flattered,but also I'm sorry I made you wait so long. The suspense must have been killing you! I've been having some internet problems, so Brian Venne broke into my modem and now I can use MTN, thank you Brian and thank you MTN!

So I've been in Ghana for a little over a week now, and it is beautiful here. I also want to mention that the saying "so hot you could cook an egg on the road" is just reality here! The people are very friendly and always willing to help, despite the fact that only 1/5 understand the whole of what I'm saying to them. The Junior Fellow group spent a week in Tamale for "in country training" with the African Program Staff, where we learned some Ghan-english (Ghana's take on english, which is pretty hard to grasp at first) and alot more about our placement and our role on the Ministry of Agriculture team. As one of the four members of the Tech Adoption team, my role is to research the tech adoption field in Chereponi and then to work on a prototype of a Tech Adoption extension tool of my choosing. The tool would be a simple to use and understand teaching/facilitating technique or device that could be used by extension agents to inspire larger scale technology adoption in their district. As a part of the MoFA team my addition is the increased efficiency and production on farms through the use of technology on farms, with a tool the extension agents can use on their own and farmers can easily understand and embrace.

Now that was pretty lengthy and wordy, so if you have any questions about my place on the team, please fell free to ask me!!!!! In fact I'm more or less desperate for questions!

I arrived in Chereponi yesterday, with the aid of the District Director of Agriculture! So far he has show me the office, which is a two room set-up minus a roof (a powerful storm took it away). Right now the office work is done on the Veranda, and so we sat there for about an hour upon my arrival, we chatted about Canadian and Ghanain agriculture, and I also got some info on tech adoption specifically concerning row planting! Then today is a holiday, African Union Day or so I'm told, so I took a long walk through the market to see what I could see and I saw quite a bit! A busy market center with everything I could need including bicycles (funny story below)! Finally I was supposed to receive a call from my Director about looking through the community for a family to stay with, but he didn't call me @ 9 am when he said he would lol, so I will be calling him every hour or so because I cannot stay in this expensive guesthouse any longer!!!

Finally a funny story: So I see two bicycle vendors and I approach the first. I smash my head on the low handing lean-to he has set up @ the front of his shop, then I ask "how much for a bicycle?". The vendor tells me "90 Ghana Ceti" (like 75$ canadian). I say "ok I will keep looking! Thank you!". I walk over to the other bicycle vendor not 25 meters away, with the exact same bicycles for sale, and I ask "how much?", and he proceeds to tell me "100 Ghana Ceti". What a crazy market where a short walk saves you 10 Ceti (like 6.50$).

Thanks for reading everyone and stay tuned for more blogging fun times! Also feel free to ask questions, I would love some Qs!




PS: I will post pictures tonight when I have more time to load them!!!!















 

Monday 16 May 2011

Great friends think and unite

This past week the 25 Junior Fellows attended pre-departure training sessions each day, for about 10 hours a day on average. The schedule may sound a little intense, and that’d be accurate, but in no way was it difficult to stay engaged! Here’s a quick breakdown of why I think that is!

Upon entering the house there was an oddly welcoming atmosphere. Each JF who came in had to re-introduce themselves, or at least say hello to some people they hadn’t had too much of an opportunity to meet at the national conference. In other settings there may have been some tension there, but introductions were smooth as butter, and conversations were bold and refreshing (like a cup of good coffee). This created a comfortable atmosphere to discuss our lives in some detail, our passion for EWB, and debate development issues until we lost our voices. Almost immediately we had become friends!

Secondly the sessions were designed to keep us engaged. Although I will be the first to admit that not all sessions fit with everyone, that is to say pre-departure learning is definitely not one size fits all. But I think this dynamic made those who enjoyed the sessions to engage actively, and allowed people on the fence to broaden their horizons somewhat. Near the end of this post I will list my favourite and least favourite sessions with a brief description of both. :)

Lastly the excitement! We’re all on our ways to Ghana, and nothing could bring a group more shred excitement than something like that!!!

Most favourite session: There was a session involving the roleplaying of various stakeholders in a situation in Pwalugu Ghana, involving and NGO and funding from Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). We each played the role of a stakeholder to gain a better understanding of the interplay of stakeholders’ interests, then we were asked to objectively prototype a solution for the problems in Pwalugu. I loved this session because it was extremely practical and highly relevant to our work placements.

Least favourite session: There was a session where we were told to draw out how a Ghanain might see us according to some stereotypes we think they might hold for westerners. This exercise was too much of an overgeneralization, and even offended some of the JFs. I think group discussion may have worked better, and maybe a better understanding of the fact that each Ghanain differs in his or her views of us. We want to try and immerse, not avoid our (perceived) stereotypes and pretend we’re not Canadian!

Ok one last bit before I go!

I write you now from Virginia where we are laid over for the night, because our flight from Newark to here was delayed causing us to miss our connecting flight. Luckily the amazing Jennifer Nowoselski handled the logistics of connecting us with a new flight on May 16th and free accommodations at Sheradon hotel for the night. Thanks Jen you’re the best homie!!!!!!

Much love to all my readers, and stay tuned for more blogging fun times!!!

Sunday 8 May 2011

My first post :)

Here we are, and here I go!

For those who don't know me too well here's a short bio:

My name is Bill Fuerth. I am from Essex, Ontario. I was born and raised in Essex, and attended Essex District High-school. I am now a 4th year civil engineering student at the University of Windsor, and a proud member of the University of Windsor Chapter of EWB. 


Just to kick things off with a comprehensive bang I'm going to a lay a couple acronyms on everyone out there which I'll be using in this post. I'll try and do this each time I use more acronyms, because it'll make this a two way learning experience :)

AAB = Agriculture As a Business
MoFA = Ministry of Food and Agriculture
EWB = Engineers Without Borders
JF = Junior Fellow
APS = African Program Staff

Ok that'll be enough for now!

So roughly 8 months ago I finally stepped up to the plate and joined EWB, having more time in my fourth year to seek out hobbies and interests that, in the past, I had no time to attend to. Immediately I noticed a few things about the organization:

Firstly I expected an extremely intimidating group of engineering students who would be discussing highly analytical (and hard to understand for a new-comer) development issues at a mile a minute. On the contrary I found a group of students from various backgrounds of study and interests. A welcoming and warm bunch, capable of discussing the tough issues for sure, but willing to help the new guy catch up.

Secondly I noticed that everyone had a role to play in the chapter, and none more valuable than the others. This made me confident in my ability to help as a member, knowing that by performing my task as African chapter representative, and with each member performing similar tasks, we could together achieve the goal of spreading awareness about extremely important development issues overseas.

Thirdly I noticed a sense of mutual respect, and an air of humility. Which made working together seem like a group of friends doing there best to help those people in need in places like Ghana. A both productive and relaxing environment.

After taking some time to research African programs I was sure! I would try and become a part of them, by applying to be one of this year's JF participants. And now just 6 months after I was selected to be a JF, I am making my first blog post about going to Ghana. I can't express how honored I am to take part in the program, or how thrilled I am to work in the agriculture sector in Ghana. I had experience working on farms here in Southern Ontario and so I was extremely interested in initiatives in Ghanain agriculture. These initiatives are centered around the AAB program, which strives (through many initiatives) to increase the profitability of Ghanain agriculture, and move from subsistence to fare wages. I will be working on an initiative called Technology Adoption, this initiative is looking at technology currently in place on rural small-scale farms, and at the adoption of new technologies or the potential thereof. I will be working with MoFA in order to research past attempts at introducing technology in the agricultural sector of Ghana, and possible obstacles that impeded the rate of full-scale adoption throughout the sector. My work will be based out of a district called East Mamprusi, which is rather hard to find even on google maps. But this is just the work I was hoping for, an opportunity to really experience rural Ghanain agriculture first-hand. And I can't wait to fill everyone in on the results of my work as I dig them up during my journeys!!!

I'm looking forward to telling you all my story, and hopefully you can all let me know what you think as I lay it all out. I hope you'll be looking forward to it, because I know I will :)