In the Sun

Ok where on earth do I begin?

We do not have steady internet out here so that is why my first post isn’t until now. Honestly I wish I could have written from the first day because I feel like so much has happened already that I want to write about but now there will just be no time slash long blog entries are boring to read!

So I found out that really we are going to be here for 12 weeks. I could have sworn it was 13, but call me a liar. We start with English classes for the women on Tuesday (Oct. 5).

We arrived in Accra, the capital of Ghana, on Saturday night. Dr. Ashun (the coordinating professor for the project) took us to a guest house to stay the night. We slept from 11 to 11. It took a while to get used to the time change, but we skipped church. I know, heathens. But church starts at 7:30, which means not enough sleep after being awake for more than 24 consecutive hours. Yes, I don’t feel like doing the exact math. But I did not manage to sleep on the plane. Worst. Ok so more to the point, when we woke up we could here singing from the church down the street. It was pretty cool. Mostly because the church is not very close and it was so loud.

We finally reach our new home Sunday afternoon. Asamankese is a town about 70 km outside of Accra. It took us about 2 hours to get there from our guest house which was outside of town so we didn’t have to deal with much traffic which was really nice.

Since we have been here, there have been many events that are worth mentioning, and I will list them so as to make this simpler to read:

-          Being presented at the front of the church the first day we got here to meet all the ladies and having a long speech said about us and what we will be doing. (We sat at the front of the sanctuary in a row of 4 chairs… felt a false sense of importance.)

-          Going to the crazy busy market on Monday and constantly hearing “Obruni, Obruni!” (which means white person), and not fully understanding how to navigate around the numerous vendors with stalls and the other ladies that had their goods balanced on their heads. It looks as though they are one with the large tower on their head, how smoothly they move and yet nothing budges.

-           Going to the local Presbyterian primary school which is home to about 500 students between the ages of 5 and 15. They wear blue uniforms and have an assembly each morning where they sing songs. It was a bit of an oxy moron because it was beautiful to see the children and hear them singing hymns with the brilliant sun shining and feeling the breeze, but the school buildings are battered and the teachers carry around sticks to discipline the kids and there is not much organization of the classes or lessons.

-          Being interviewed and counted for the Ghanaian census. No word of a lie. We sat with two people that were official counters as they asked us questions like “How long have you lived in Ghana?” 2 days. “How old are you?” 21. “Are you married?” No. Followed by fits of laughter… But seriously, it took half an hour. At like 9 o’clock at night. It was quite the experience to say the least.

-          Traveling back to Accra via tro-tro. This is essentially a van filled with 23 people in it. At first I thought I might die when we got on it. Its pretty hot in there, no one really likes to open the windows for some reason, and you are shoved in between two other people, making you closer to them than you are with some of your facebook friends. But as we got moving it was ok. As long as we were moving, that is. The breeze comes in and its nice to look out the window at the amazing landscape (tropical with lots of hills). But when you are stopped in traffic, in the heat of the day, for hours, it gets a bit tiring. So it took us 3 hours to get into Accra. 70 km away, remember? Much different than Canada.

-          Doing my own laundry by hand! I actually didn’t mind it. I did it in the morning. So I was pretty hot, but nowhere near as hot as I would have been if it was in the middle of the day. I think I am still not very good at it. I will need to get some help the next time I do it. I was pretty proud of myself after though, and I am just glad to have clean clothes. I do have many more to wear, but I have quickly chosen the ones that are the coolest and most comfortable and appropriate.

Ok I know I have so much more to talk about, like the things that I have learned already about business here, and the schools, and tips on taking tro-tros. But for length’s sake, I will save all of those stories for other blog entries.

A few other things I have come to realize: living in Africa isn’t as romantic as it seems, roosters don’t only crow in the morning, and I sweat far more than the average African man. Mmmm.

PS. Awesome thing: sitting in front of a fan when you are super sweaty so that you feel cold.

Pre-Departure

So I've never written a blog before. Which means this could turn out to be a complete disaster... or it could be a beautiful thing! It just seems to be the most convenient way to keep everyone updated on my life. 


I am leaving in 3 days to go to Asamankese, Ghana. I am going to be there for 13 weeks. This will be the longest consecutive period of time I have been away from Canada. Needless to say, it will be a huge adventure. While I am super excited for all the unknowns that lie ahead of me, I am also pretty apprehensive  about them. I'm quite the control freak, and so much about this trip is out of my control. 


The program I am going with is an internship through Redeemer University College (my school). I am going with one other student, Heather. We will be working on separate but overlapping projects. Heather is going to be teaching women how to read English. Last year about 40 women were committed to the classes, and apparently this year about one hundred have signed up already. So that is pretty promising. The project that I am working on sort of goes alongside Heather's. Almost all of the women that come to these classes are traders or farmers. This is where my project comes in. Many of them expressed need for capital for travel to larger surrounding cities to purchase goods for their current small outfits. Also, they are unable to get loans because they do not have capital to invest. As a result, they do not experience any sort of growth in their businesses. My job is essentially to do a needs assessment of those women so that in the future we can put an economic development program into place to bring necessary resources to the people. 


Needs assessment sounds pretty simple, but from my understanding it can be quite time consuming. It involves a lot of work on the ground level interviewing people and doing research, finding out as much as I can about the potential for economic growth. It will also involve a lot of networking with nearby NGO's to see what sort of projects are already in place and how we will be able to work with that. I also need to compile all of the info that I collect into a comprehensive plan or report so that something can actually come of my work. I am so excited about the potential that this program has, but since its the first time I have done anything like this, naturally I am nervous. 


So this is a pretty long first post, but it is an explanation of a lot of things.  Most of you are probably wondering about the title of this blog... it may seem to not fit at all. The physical journal that I will be writing in for my whole trip is actually a re-bound old book cover. This company takes used books, uses the hard cover, and puts new paper in it so its like new and sells them as notebooks/journals. The one I bought has the cover of the book Trixie Belden and the Mystery of the Blinking Eye. She's kind of like Nancy Drew. Anyways, I thought it fitting that my online journal would have the same name as my written journal. Mostly I just couldn't think of a good title on my own. 


Ok, next time I write I will be sweating my brains out in Africa. Here I go!