Blogs from Northern, Ghana, Africa - page 9

23 days now until i leave. I can’t believe it… I still haven’t gotten my exact placement (ie. details as to what NGO i’m partnered with, etc.), and while that sort of stuff is definetly stressing me out, i’m trying to focus on other ‘more positive’ things, like my own personal ethics, and approach to development. I think it’s important to identify both how I define development, and also how that will impact my goals while in Ghana. At the under-graduate university level, international development courses usually are guided by an “anti-colonialist, social justice, or transformative ethic” and I have personally internalized this to come up with various aspects that shape my own world view. Historically international development has been a series of programs and financial aid targeted at Majority World countries intended to ‘bring ... read more

If you take a trotro to Kumasi in the morning, a woman will come by and preach and pray before you leave. This is the second trip this has happened on. The riders give her a little 'dash' (tip) for it and it is all in twi, so I didn't understand much except the "halleluia" parts. Then a blind man came and sang us a song while we waited. I could tell if he still had any eyes or not. He was blinking wetly over little pink crescents at the bottom lids and sang beautifully while accompanying himself on a small block clacker and collected a little 'dash' from the passangers as well. The trotro ride from Cape Coast to Kumasi took about three hours. At the little villiage stops on the way up you ... read more

We finally made it to Tamale after an insane million hour bus ride to Kumasi which involved the bus breaking down numerous times and various other bending-the-safety-rules instances, and then another long trotro ride the next day to Tamale, where I carried my backpack on my lap and was kind of losing circulation in my legs. Tamale is very dry. Everyone told us that our lips would crack and our noses would get very dry and it's true. Have you ever tried putting Blistex in your nose? It's tingly. Right now we're staying at Dr. David Abdulai's Shekinah Clinic. It's a free clinc for the poor. Dr. Abdulai is a very exciting man. He gave us granola bars!!! Delicious... We have our own little apartment/house thing that we're staying in, and we're cooking for ourselves...eek! Tamale ... read more

School I never thought that a topic like education could be such a huge issue in development. I guess I had the assumption before I came that if there were more school facilities and teachers that anyone could learn and a country would be well on its way. I made some very simplistic assumptions, which I am learning the hard answers to now. At home in Canada, if I think back to my grade school days, I remember getting up and being walked to school by my mom or older school kids, I remember going to school and feeling like I wanted to know everything, I remember parent teacher meetings and report cards. I remember playing sports, recess and kissing boys behind the playground. I remember going home at night and doing homework, I remember being ... read more

Just a quick entry, we are so busy trying to fit in all the things we want to do before we leave. We came to the terrible realisation that we only have 8 days left and none of us are ready to leave. Life is difficult in many ways but for us as a family it has been really special. Anyway.... the dry season is really with us and the difference is amazing. We have not had any rain to speak of for about three weeks. That may not sound long but the effects are already very visible. The lush and green countryside has already turned brown with the only green being in the treetops. It is amazing how quickly everything has become dry. Though the worst is very definitely yet to come, everyone keeps saying ... read more