Where the elephants and the antelope play

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Hello again!

So this afternoon I was watching the Ghana vs. South Africa World Cup qualifying game, like the rest of the nation, but then all of a sudden I thought, “hey, if everyone’s watching soccer, the internet café must be pretty empty” so I headed off to town and I was right! Only a couple others in here right now, so I can write away with out interruptions! Hehe and from the sounds outside – I think Ghana may have just scorred!

After a month of work at the regional office I’ve started going out to the districts. This week and next I am in Savelugu/ Nanton district which is just North of Tamale. Its about a ½ hr drive (when you don’t get lost! More abt that later) and I’ve been getting a ride with the district director everyday, who lives in Tamale and commutes. There’s a whole lot going on in this district, which is good to see. A couple of small scale irrigation projects (from what I can tell so far seem fairly sustainable - no big dams!), the Ghanaian veterinary college and central veterinary laboratory (so pretty much it’s the Guelph of Ghana), one of the original communities to have a shea butter processing contract with the Body Shop (for all you EWB people, the controversial case study from this years national conference), a Mango Growers Organization, and the national livestock breeding centre (which is the largest farm in the whole country). So far I’ve been acquainting myself with the workings within the district, and their various projects and programs and next week I should be heading out to do some more field work. One of the things that Navid and I have noticed both at the regional office and in the districts is a need for some formal reporting structures. Right now, there’s a ton of data (everything from number and type of farmers to cost of inputs and crops) that needs to be communicated between the districts and higher levels of the organization, so I’m going to be working with the district MIS officer to maybe find some easier ways to compile this info. Its going to require some brushing up on my Microsoft Access skills! Although this isn’t working directly with the community or farmers, building capacity within the organization is another way of making a positive impact while I am here.

Outside of work, our trip to Mole National Park has been the most exciting I’d say. Navid, Sara and I left Tamale on the 2pm bus last fri afternoon (which actually left at 3:30, but that’s expected). We arrived at the park around 7pm after being packed like sardines for most of the trip (not the whole way tho, there were only about 3 others who were on the bus with us when we finally reached the park), and along some pretty bumpy roads, so it was nice to get out. We can’t really complain tho, at least it was a nice bus and we had seats. Krista and Jason had left at 5:00am that morning and were seated squished at the front of a small van/buss on the stairs and seated on a vegetable oil drum behind the driver and first row of passengers! Anyway, got off the bus and met Krista, Jason, Robbie and Nomusa, all other EWB volunteers who had arrived earlier that day, and a real live warthog standing right outside the hotel. Not a bad welcoming committee! The hotel inside the park has individual rooms as well as a male and female dormitory which we stayed in (3 bunk beds in each). It was up early the next morning for our walk in the park – you have to go with a ranger if you’re going more than 50 yrds from the hotel. We went for about two hours, saw a ton of wildlife. Elephants, antelope, waterbuck, and more elephants! Elephants on land, elephants in water, it was pretty impressive. And we were able to get fairly close as well. We were going to go out on another guided walk in the afternoon but it poured rain, so we didn’t get to do that. It also kept the baboons and monkeys away, which was too bad bc I would have liked to see them, apparently there were tons around on Friday afternoon before we arrived. They come right up to the hotel rooms and play around the pool. We spent the day relaxing chatting, and playing cards, we even got a quick dip in the pool in before it rained, which was fantastic! First time I’ve swam since I got here. After the rain stopped we headed into Larabanga which is the closest village – abt 6km from the park. Luckily we were able to get a ride in the back of a pick-up, so we didn’t have to walk with all our stuff. For being so close to Mole, Larabanga was quite a bit less developed than I expected. There were two guesthouses each with about 3 or 4 rooms – one had 2 rooms for us which was good enough – we weren’t going to sleep long bc our bus left at 4 am. We got a chance to explore with a bunch of the local kids as our tour guides. The showed us the temple and then the mystic rock which is this big rock which keeps mysteriously coming back to the same place even when they move it, so they had to build the road around it! We stopped at their school as well where they gave us some geography lessons and we had a game of Canadian vs Ghanaian soccer (we lost 3-1 which wasn’t too bad for 6 of us playing against about 8-10 16 yr old boys!). I think this part was actually one of my favourite parts of the whole weekend. We had dinner and played some cards at the one restaurant in town where we had quite the audience until we told them we wouldn’t let them bet money on our game of hearts! Other than that, the bus home on Sunday morning was only about an hr late, but it was just as crowded and much bouncier due to the rain, but overall it was a pretty great weekend.

Ok, well this is getting pretty long, so I think I’m going to wrap it up now. Looking forward to getting out to the field this week – so I’ll write again and let you know how it goes!

Alyssa

Update June 22/05

so i've added a another pic from getting my hair braided on sunday. it was quite the all day affair. i was there for almost 8hrs, even tho it actually probably only took about 4hrs. it was quite the little gossip session - kinda reminded me of an african version of steel magnolias if anyones seen that movie. the end result was a headful of braids a night of bad sleep due to a sore head!

also, i've been informed that i forgot to get back to the store abt getting to work on my first day in savelugu. hehe, its not all that exciting but anyway, i left around 7:20 am, had to take a taxi into town ie tamale (vehicle 1) to get a taxi to savelugu (vehicle 2). got to savelugu and asked for how to get to the ministry of food and agriculture office.... the driver tells me we passed it on the way, but gets me another taxi to take me back (vehicle 3) - that was really nice of him, bc he wouldn't let me pay. get out of the taxi and start walking down the road... not seeing any office.. ask at a workshop, they tell me that the office has moved to Pong-Tamale, a town about 3 mi north of Savelugu. Tells me to go ask at the house by the road bc the guy there works at the Ministry. So I talk to that guy and he says its hard to get a taxi into Savelugu from there so offers to drive me to Savelugu (vehicle 4). Get to savelugu and wait for a taxi to Pong-Tamale. The taxi system in the Northern region is really quite good, its kinda like a bus almost, there's set routes and set fairs for each and you share with as many people as they can cram in....normally about 5-7 in your average small car..but i've been in with as many as 9 when there are kids. It means that taxi's are incredibly inexpensive (my entire journey described here cost just over $1 cdn), and also but on the downside they don't drop you exactly where you want to go, just the closest location along the way. Not that many people go between Savelugu and Pong-Tamale so we waited about 20 min to fill up with people. Got to the taxi station in Pong-tamale and asked how to get to the ministry. was told it was about a 20 min walk and no taxi's went that way... but there just happened to be a ministry truck pulling in to the station so luckily I got a ride (finally) right to the door! (vehicle 5). All in all 5 vehicles and 2hrs later i had arrived 😊

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Photos

Me and the elephants
they're kinda far away, but this is the only one i have with me in it.
haha check out the crazy farmers tan too!

All done!
Charity (who braided my hair) and me after a full day in the salon!

Comments

[Lucy]

Long distance follower
Hi Alyssa, I fell across your blog one day when i was looking for info on Ghana. Im hooked and following your entries with great admiration. Im origionalyfrom the UK (London) but emigrated to Kuwait in April this year. Im loving your adventures. Please write soon. Lucy x