The prince and the pauper

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I want to apologise for the delay in getting these last remaining blog entries up. I had written them but they were lost in cyberspace due to some sort of website malfunction. Now that it is holiday season, I have some time to dedicate to rewriting all that was lost. The majority of the coming entries were written in Africa but may have some current reflection.

The prince and the pauper

I am sitting and feeling the irony of the title of this blog. As you know, I live with members of the royal family of the chieftaincy of Saboba. I have been thinking about the story a lot and also the meaning of the story. Who is the prince and who is the pauper in this story? I am living in another part of the world and obviously not from here. Realistically, I stand out like a sore them. My little tirade does have some reasoning behind it! Imagine if I could change place with a Ghanaian completely and live as them. I have a better idea of what their world would look like but I am curious to see what they think of how we live in Canada.

You may be asking why am I thinking such questions? Well I am now approaching two months in Ghana and Saboba feels like home. However, there is still a strong presence in my mind that I am an outsider. Every day I appreciate the cultural differences that divide us and am more struck by the reality that any development project needs to focus on the cultural differences. I am often annoyed by frequent cell phone calls with the purpose of saying hello. This is an important part of daily life here though. We are constantly interrupted at work but the social networking here is quick and results can happen fast.

I find myself reflecting about poverty and development. I see people with not enough food to eat, entrepreneurs, poor drinking water, dedicated development workers, poor sanitation, hard working individuals and family with so much love and support. Here is the dilemma that is African poverty and development. We see so much negativity yet this is one of the happiest places I have ever been.

I had the opportunity to visit three communities that be been selected for a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) sponsored project. The Community-driven Integrated Food Security project or CIFS is so fascinating and may potentially be one of the most successful Canadian projects in Ghana. I was fortunate enough to join Peter Hoffman, the monitoring and evaluating consultant from Canada to visit some of the project communities within my district.

The project fosters communication between the district assembly and the local community. The NGO, Integrated Development Centre (http://idcghana.org/node/11), works to develop the idea within the community and the District Assembly. The women and men are separated and each are asked for food security ideas. All the groups come together and a proposal is sent to the CIFS team for approval. What is so neat about this project is the diversity of ideas for food security. Here is a list of four community projects:
1) Small ruminants - e.g. sheep. The community raise them collectively and sell for profit
2) Soy bean - the beans are eaten and sold
3) Bullock Traction - Bulls are used as ploughs
4) Grain bank. Grain is bough and stored and can be sold at higher profits during the dry season.

The overall goal of the group is to encourage diversification of economies and increase funds for food security to reduce the hunger rate.

In our district, the project has been successful but in others it has proven less than successful. I think the monitoring and evaluation stage will help other districts to create long lasting programs.

This project makes me so happy to be Canadian. Seeing tax dollars spent wisely and for such a good cause. I think that the success could be magnified with other projects. If the community knows how to use a bank account, money could be stored and planning could occur such as encouragement of entrepreneurs. Really the possibilities are endless and I would be happy to discuss this further.

I feel that I have neglected the work component in my blogs. I am now in full swing conducting workshops. As a group, we at the district coordination and planning unit sat down to discuss what role I should play. With my skills and background it was decided to offer computer training, team building and effective communication workshops. In addition, I will assist with the DA where needed. This way I can maximize my learning opportunities.

Today’s Quirky Fact: Naming Ceremonies

This is more of a Konkomba (the cultural group of Saboba) trait rather than specific to all of Ghana. When a child comes they are considered a stranger until they have been welcomed by the drinking of water. Here all visitors are offered water when they arrive. The ceremony occurs approximately 2 weeks after birth when the child is presented with a name and water. The names generally reflect what is occurring in the family at the time. For example, N’Tiado - my uncle’s house or n’tebroom - the day my father died. After the child has some water pressed to their lips, one of the elders will offer peto (a drink made from Guinea corn) to the ancestors by pooring it to the ground. After this stage food and drink are given out and friends and family give advice on raising children to the parents.

OVER AND OUT FROM GHANA!

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