In my first days in Ghana I was exposed to the staples of the diet. Fufu, Banku, and TZ. They are all starches shaped into balls and dipped into a soup or sauce. They all take a lot of hard work to prepare -- all so that the food will slip down your throat without the hassle of chewing. Imagine the surprise of my co-worker Jamilla when she discovered that in 8 months I had never actually prepared fufu. We had to do something about that stat! Here is a photo essay of how to make fufu. Enjoy! ... read more

Work Like You Don’t Need the Money: Volunteering in Ghana Ghana is full of volunteers. Some come from other countries, mostly large packs of girls fresh out of high school looking for a meaningful travel experience before starting University. They fill the orphanages in the mornings and fill the internet cafes and swimming pool in the afternoon. These volunteers are completely unpaid, some even pay thousands of dollars to come here for a few weeks or months. Others, like me, are filling volunteer positions through development agencies in our countries. We flood NGO offices in the daytime and drinking spots at night. The living allowancess we take home, while pitiful by western standards, is sometimes double or triple what our co-workers earn We all have experience or education in the field we are working in and ... read more

This is a series of stories I wrote for the JHR website (www.jhr.ca). They are exploring the relationship between sex and power. They are about sexual harrassment in the workplace and sugar daddies. -Nichole When No doesn’t mean No. By Nichole Huck Growing up, I was taught that ‘no’ means ‘no’. In junior high the boys would snap our bras or make comments about the girls lucky enough to have developed breasts first. Our teachers repeatedly told us this was inappropriate, we were taught about sexual harassment and told as young women that we didn’t have to put up with it. My friends and I became strong, confident women. We knew our rights and believed we had institutions to back us up. We had faith that if we made a formal complaint in school or at ... read more

Are Old Folks Homes the Witch Camps of Canada? By Nichole Huck “Would you send your mother to a witch camp?” That’s the question I righteously asked a caller on a human rights call in show who said ‘the whites are just trying to destroy African culture by bringing in ideas about human rights.’ A reporter from Radio Justice and I recently returned from visiting three witch camps in Ghana’s Northern Region. We shared what we learned on our weekly human rights show, Freedom Thursday. We told the listeners about the deplorable living conditions in two of the camps. We spoke about how elderly women are forced to walk for miles to get water, how they have difficulty finding food or medical treatment when they are sick and how they are lacking necessities such as doors ... read more

Note from Nichole: Water has been on my mind a lot lately, It’s the dry season and it hasn’t rained for five months. The earth and trees are scorched and I’m told that it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. I don't want to leave you with a terrible impression. In my short time here I have seen countless projects instigated by development agencies. Some of the money is wasted or misused - but infrastructure for water projects seems like one of the things that makes an immediate and tangible difference. It's amazing to see how people's lives are changed when they have access to clean water. Unfortunately for every one borehole (well) that is drilled -- it seems like hundreds more are needed. Last week I visited a few rural communities and ... read more