What it’s Like to Be a White Person in Tamale

My host-father, Mumuni and I at his groundnut farm. (Groundnuts are the same thing as peanuts).

Never have I stood out anywhere in my entire life as much as I do in Ghana and Tamale. No matter where I have been, I always somehow fit in and felt comfortable.  When I travelled to Latin America, other volunteers would comment that I always looked like one of the locals that we were trying to help!  In Canada, Toronto and Windsor specifically, I fit in being Latina and white because both places are incredibly diverse.  Coming to Ghana was a feeling entirely different from how I’ve ever felt before.  Not only was it strange feeling like you stick out like a sore thumb but it’s been frustrating and disheartening hearing all the generalizations and assumptions Ghanaians have of white people and of Canada.

Let me start off by describing the easy stuff.  Walking in town, now, is almost like walking in downtown Toronto because there are so many people shopping, selling, hanging out with friends etc. and that’s where you’ll see more white people too – especially at the internet cafes.  So, I
don’t get to many stares and I even sometimes forget that I’m a white person in a black country. Unlike my first five or six trips to town, I now feel totally comfortable walking around the market, bargaining with store owners and greeting people along the way.  It was much easier adapting to the town environment than it was to my village.  My first three or four weeks was especially frustrating because everywhere I would walk, children would shout, “Salaminga, hello! Salaminga, hello!” and they wouldn’t even stop until I was out of sight.  “Salaminga” literally means white person so you can imagine how offended I felt having children yell “white person” to me everytime I stepped out of my hut and not seeing older kids or their parents yell at them for being rude.  What was worse was when babies saw me and they would literally start crying and run to their mothers out of fear of seeing a person with white skin.  I felt like a monster.  I’ll never forget this one incident where my host-father(Mumuni) and I stopped off at a store to have a pop and the woman store owner saw another lady walking with her baby daughter.  The store owner walked up to the mother, snatched the baby from her, walked over to me and held baby in my face.  As soon as the baby came closer to me, she began to ball her eyes out and scream as if she was in pain.  The store owner held this screaming baby in my face for what seemed like an entire minute and informed me that the baby was crying because she was afraid of my skin colour.  Wow, really? Thanks for sharing.  I was so angered at what I thought was ignorant and hurt by the fact that this baby thought I was a creature from another planet.  I actually held back tears.  The next morning, as my host father and I ate breakfast together in my hut, I took the opportunity to try and explain how I felt and that shouting white person to someone is actually very offensive in Canada.  I told him nicely that if he were to come to Canada no one would shout black person to him as he walked down the street.  He was surprised by this but I know he didn’t understand why I was so hung up on the salaminga thing.  After talking to my coach/mentor, Erin, about the incident she told me that the store owner was not trying to be offensive at all but that that was how mothers and other Ghanaians may educate their children that there is such a thing as people with white skin.  This was difficult for me to understand but as it happened more, I paid closer attention at how mothers would point at me and say to their children, “Yema, salaminga” (look, a white person) in a gentler tone as if, yeah to show them there are different types of people.  Still, there are times where
mothers point at me and their children will run and they will just laugh (this sometimes hurts) but I now know they’re not trying to offend me.  Yeah, stuff like this is tough to understand and it’s taken me a while too.  Walking through my village now isn’t nearly as bad anymore because everyone is used to seeing me and they know me now, even the children.  I have also come up with a much better strategy than getting angered and offended: when children shout “Salaminga, hello!” I shout back, “Dagbanbi, hello!” which means Dagbani child, hello! Haha! When I say this both the mothers and children start laughing and even the kids will start saying it themselves! HA, touché!

Before we all arrived in Ghana, our pre-departure learning educated us on something called “white privilege:” basically it consists of certain privileges we enjoy above other Ghanaians for the sole fact that we are white.  For example, some long-term staff have told us their experiences with being offered a seat at the front of a tro tro (like a Greyhound Bus) when all other seats were filled leaving that Ghanaian who offered the seat without one; or being offered to bud to the front of the line at a clinic.  Along with white privilege, we learned about a hierarchy that exists in Ghana where white males are at the top followed by white females, black males and then black females.  This hierarchy claims that white males are valued more than white females in Ghana, white females more than black males leaving black females at the bottom of the pyramid.  While I haven’t observed any difference in the way white males are treated compared to white females I have definitely seen that black males are treated and valued more than black females.  Since the topic of my post is about being white, I won’t go into too much detail about the treatment of Ghanaian women, but I will say that, in general, the work they do and their worth as a person is seriously undervalued by Ghanaian men.

When I first arrived in my village, I felt white privilege almost immediately.  In the morning, Mumuni would come into my hut and his wife,

My host-mom, Amriya and I in my hut. She just taught me how to tie my head wrap!

Amriya, would serve us breakfast and leave us to eat.  In the evening, I would try and help prepare dinner but the women and all the children would give me a stool and tell me to sit.  Amriya would serve me dinner on a stool while she and the other women sat on the ground.  After dinner, Amriya would fill a bucket of water for me and carry it to the bathing area for me to bathe.  The women never asked me to do any chores or contribute in any way and when I tried, they would tell me to sit and rest.  Obviously, I refused to accept this white privilege and I’ve always done my best to try and brake down any of the barriers by copying what the women do; hence, if they sat on the ground to eat, I would too and if they swept the floor, I would too.  However, there are some things that have taken a while for me to take more responsibility for, like it has only been in the last three weeks that Amriya has allowed me to fill my bucket and carry my own water.  Over time, the women have come to understand the way I am and so they now ask me to help with certain chores and I’ll still voluntarily do things on my own like going into the house to get the mugs, sugar, tea and spoon for our morning tea.  I do think that my entrance into my village composed of some white privileges but at the same time, I wonder how much of it was just simply because I was a new guest and they were just serving me like we would serve our guests in Canada.  When people come to our house, we wait on them, make them feel at home and we would never allow them to wash their own dinner plates.  When I thought about this, it became hard to distinguish what’s white privilege and what’s trying to be a good host…either way I’m sure it was a combination of them both.

In terms of assumptions and generalizations, let me just list them off for you all those that I have encountered or have been told to by Ghanaians of both genders and all ages:

-         White people are rich

-         White people know everything

-         White people can solve Ghana’s problems

-         White skin in nicer than black skin and whites’ hair is nicer than blacks’ hair (only women have expressed this one to me)

-         Canada is the most peaceful country in the world

-         Canada is somehow better than Ghana

-         In Canada, there are no wars and people never fight each other

On top of this, I have also been asked on many occasions to:

-         Take people’s children back to Canada

-         Take adults back to Canada

-         Give people my clothes, shoes or earrings (even though I was wearing them)

-         Buy people a laptop

-         Pay more for a taxi just because they thought I could

-         Marry them (a Ghanaian man)

-         To get them a job (at my work)

In terms of being rich, most things that I have been asked confirm that most Ghanaians think that whites are rich.  This is really frustrating for me because in Canada, I am by no means “rich” and I try and explain to Ghanaians that the only reason I was able to come to Ghana was
through extensive fundraising.  I add that if it weren’t for a government loan, I would not be able to afford to go to university and that I come from a single-parent home where it is my mom that has supported me for my entire life.  (But even if I was rich, it doesn’t mean it’s okay to take advantage of people.)They’re pretty surprised by this and I feel good about letting them know that just because your white, it doesn’t mean we all have money (if your thinking “yes, it does at this point, let me finish).  Taxi drivers really irritate me on this front.  In Tamale, we have what are called “shared taxis” and “droppings.”  Shared taxis mean that you get into a taxi and the driver picks up other people along astraight route and you just inform them when you want out. The average cost of shared taxis is 50 pesewa or in Canadian dollars, less than 50 cents and it gets you pretty far.  Droppings mean that you are hiring the driver to take you to a specific place that is not along the normal route and no one else will get into the taxi – its like you’ve hired a private taxi and it’s much more expensive.  Yesterday, I got into a taxi from town and was going back to my workplace, a cost of 50 pesewa.  When I told the driver where I was going he told me to give him 5 Cedi, the equivalent of maybe 3 Canadian dollars! I told him this wasn’t a dropping and that I would never pay 5 Cedi for something that costs 50 pesewa.  He insisted that he should drop me and I laughed and told him to just pick-up other people along the way.  While incidents like these really anger me, I know it’s also hard to blame Ghanaians for assuming that all whites are rich because compared to the majority of them, we are and they know that by even coming to Ghana, we must have had money.  American television also doesn’t help in the matter because they see what life is like there and all the material possessions and opportunities we have.  In the same way, while it baffles me that complete strangers will ask me to get them a job, I probably do have a better chance of linking them with job opportunities than another fellow Ghanaian.

What has been really surprising have been the assumptions that Ghanaians have about Canada, though most have very little knowledge of Canada.  In fact, many are not even sure where it is on a map – some have thought it’s in Europe or a part of the United States. Yet, when I tell Ghanaians that I’m from Canada most say something like, “Ohh Canada! Yes that’s a nice place, I like it a lot!” I follow this response by saying oh, really what do you know about it or what do you like about it?  They either don’t really know what to say or they’ll say that it’s so peaceful and that out all the countries in the world Canada is the most peaceful with no wars and no fighting like how Ghanaians fight amongst themselves.  This has really been puzzling for me…if they don’t know anything about Canada, why do they claim to like it so much? Is it because white people come from there so they assume it’s such a great place?  Do they just want to flatter me or be polite? Are they hoping that I will offer them job or a free
plane ticket?  I really don’t know but I think I’ll ask the next Ghanaian who responds this way…

The issue of skin colour has also been really disturbing for me.  On several occasions, the women in my compound have commented that I have such nice skin and that they wish they had my skin colour.  I immediately follow such comments with a gasp and say I am trying to get tanned so I can be darker! They are shocked and ask why would I ever want to be darker?! I explain to them that a lot of white people like to get tans and that we don’t like looking so white.  It’s interesting because as I have become more tanned throughout my stay in Ghana, the women are the only people that seem to take notice and comment on it.  Just last week, one woman in my compound said that the sun is changing my skin colour and I have little brown things on my face (freckles from the sun).  I couldn’t tell if she meant this in a positive of negative way or maybe she just wanted to point it out – again, I’m not sure.  Whenever this happens, I wonder where they ever get the idea that having lighter or whiter skin is nicer?  Do they admire the white women on T.V.? Do they associate white skin with money or prestige or some other stereotype? Is this a remnant of colonialism when “white was right?”   Or do they simply like our skin because it’s different and being different is beautiful in its own way? As you can see, there are so many questions that I have and but have no answer and with only one week left, they will most likely stay unanswered.  Students of history, international relations, political science and of the other humanities might point to colonialism as the main reason for such thinking and I do too but I wonder how much influence these other factors also may have.  The language barrier can account for many of my questions being left unanswered but it’s also a matter of how to ask such serious or awkward questions like, “Why do you think our skin is nice than yours?”  While I’ve worked up the nerve to ask women in my compound whether or not their husbands beat them, there is
something about this particular question that has been difficult to ask but writing this has actually motivated me to take a risk and ask.

While only the women have expressed this issue of identity and skin colour, plenty of male and female Ghanaians of different ages have asked me to bring them to Canada or to take their children with me when I go back.  Whenever I ask why, some say they want to just visit my country and others say they want to find a job there.  It’s true that it is very difficult to find a job in Ghana right now; for example, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA, with whom I am working) is currently in a hiring freeze.  This is actually a serious issue because they only way for more employees to be hired for MoFA is if others quit, retire or die.  This means that there are and will continue to be a large number of agric students that have graduated and will graduate but will not be able to get a job with MoFA, which is where they should be ending up.  While I understand this train of thought, I also try and explain to Ghanaians that there are certain parts of Canada where it is also difficult to find a job and that even if they have completed university in Ghana, chances are they will be forced to go back to school once they get to Canada or they will end up with another low-paying job – like driving a taxi.  In the same breath, I have seen over the past few months that living in Ghana is seriously not easy:
wages are low and prices of commodities continue to rise; the unemployment rate is very high; post-secondary schooling is difficult to afford for many; corruption and ineffectiveness prevents quality services from reaching many Ghanaians and there are a lot more deaths in Ghana on a whole due to a poor health care system.   Such obstacles that prevent people from improving their standard of living are compound where you are a farmer because your livelihood is largely dependent on external factors such as the weather and prices of inputs.  When I consider such things, I realize that I probably would want to immigrate to another country too in hopes of a better life.  While I sympathize with these Ghanaians, I also consider the fact that Ghana can’t improve if people are leaving it and leaving behind its problems for the next generation to deal with.  Ghana needs all the educated and innovate people it has, along with strong leaders that are passionate about creating positive changes.

Though I didn’t discuss other assumptions and generalizations, I would be happy to expand on them if anyone is curious about my experiences.  I want to write more but I feel like I’ve written enough for you to ponder about for the rest of the week! One thing I would like to add and that is also very important for readers to know is that Ghanaians are some of the kindest people you will ever meet and will go out of their way for others, especially foreigners so that they feel welcome and at home in Ghana.  This is definitely something that we Canadians can take a cue from!

The (Painful) Last Stretch

As of today, in exactly twenty days I will be arriving back in Canada.  So how am I feeling?  Well, I am partially extremely excited to come home to my family, friends and my boyfriend but on the other hand I’m saddened by the thought of saying goodbye to my host-family.  These mixed feelings were really brought home to me by one of my fellow JF’s, Bill.  Bill (who actually goes to same University as me) wrote to our team last week saying that he kinda doesn’t want to leave Ghana because of the relationships he built here and especially within his village – he feels like a part of the community.  As I read these words I quickly realized that I felt the exact same way.  When you live in a community for a while, the people come to know you, they greet you, talk to you, help you and look out for you.  This is the way those that live in my village have treated me – like one of their own.  I don’t even know half of these peoples’ names but they all seem to know me! Even the young children shout “anoolah
Madam Tani!” (Good evening Madam Tani, how are you?) whenever I come home from work and even as I leave for work in the morning they all say good morning to me.  It truly is a comforting feeling to know people, that you hardly know or not even at all, take the time to simply acknowledge you.  I love leaving for work in the morning and having Mustapha (the man who sells me my egg and bread in the mornings) say “nawuni labsona!” (may God bring you home safely!)  And I love coming home late from work and having my fellow compound ladies tell me that I have kept long (that I’m late) because it means they care about me and wondered where I was.

The same day I read what Bill wrote, that same night I actually woke up in the middle of the night crying.  I had a dream that my host-father, Mumuni, surprised me  because he had to come to Canada and I was having dinner with him in a restaurant along with my family and George Roter (the CEO of EWB). Haha! Right after that dream I had another dream where both of my host-parents and their son came to my wedding! In the dream, I gave a speech but before I did I introduced them to everyone in the room.  As funny as these dreams are, I would actually love to bring them to Canada some day, especially to my wedding.  Maybe it was just a dream, but as I thought about it…yeah, if I have the money, I would.  What’s 4 or 5 extra grand on top of something that already costs like $20,000 anyways!!  Seriously though, these people have taken me – a complete stranger - into their home (for over 3 months), they buy me breakfast each and every morning, my host-father eats with me every morning, my host-mom cooks for me and heats up my bath water every single night and they ask for nothing in return other than helping my host mom.  Yeah, that’s what their “rent” is – to simply help my host-mom make food.  I don’t have to pay any monthy rent money and even when I once offered Mumuni money to help pay the electricity bill, he refused and told me that I should just “feel free.” Then he told me not to do that again (as in offer to pay haha!).  Of course I contribute though. Every few days I bring home yams, or cans of tomatoes, bananas or soap or something else I see they need, use a lot or like and they are always so grateful.

It’s all these things that really have added up over the past few months that have allowed me to get past the things I might not understand or agree with – in terms of their cultural traditions – and sincerely come to love and appreciate these people.  I might not understand what my host-mother (Amriya) and the other women talk about 90% of the time, but somehow it doesn’t matter all that much because we still have built this great relationship.  It must be something about 3 women sitting around a bowl of TZ (a local dish I normally eat for dinner made of maize), all digging in with our hands and them trying to teach me Dagbani words and me telling them about Canada (through a younger girls that speaks English) that has allowed us to connect on a level where language matters less.  Its so hard to describe such interactions in writing but I actually look forward to coming home at night and watching the women talk and laugh like me and my girlfriends do back home.  More than anything I wish I could understand what they were saying so I could also join in on the jokes and laughter but even just watching them enjoy themselves makes me feel good and makes me smile.  I often try and make-up what I think they are saying and it makes me feel like a part of the conversation and is simply amusing for me because I pretend they are complaining about their husbands or something, lol.  Last night for instance, Amriya must have been cracking some hilarious jokes because all the other women were laughing and talking loudly and slapping her hand as if in agreement.  I had never seen them laugh so much and the way Amriya spoke reminded my of myself when I talk to my friends and make them laugh.  It’s moments like these that I will truly cherish and will miss when I’m back home in Canada.

As much as I am dying to see my boyfriend at the airport and – I’ll even admit some of the more superficial things I miss – to eat chicken wings, cereal and not have to worry about mice or other bugs in my room, going to the movie theatre and not having to spend 3 hours on Saturday hand-washing my clothes, I will miss Ghana.  I will miss hot bucket showers on cool nights, fetching water, riding on the back of motorcycles, going to the field with AEAs, visiting the farmers, speaking in a Ghanaian accent, ultimate frisbee on Sunday afternoons (with other volunteers in Ghana), coaching sessions with Erin, wearing Ghanaian clothes all the time and most importantly, I’ll deeply miss my host-family and my village.

Before I finish this post, I just want to let it be known that when I first came to Ghana, I didn’t like it.  It’s actually only been in the recent few weeks that I’ve been able to get past many things and really come to appreciate and cherish what I do like about it and now I realize how much I will miss them.  I have less than two weeks left with my host-family and I am absolutely dreading saying goodbye.  Everyday I think about how I might go about it to avoid crying and everyday I never come up with anything.

What Makes EWB’s Relationship with AEAs so Unique?

So before I begin, let me briefly explain what the heck AEAs are. Here at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (where I am working), Agriculture Extension Agents (AEAs) are the staff that travel by motorbike to visit their farmers. We have 22 AEAs in this office and they each work in a different zone or as we call them, operational areas. The ratio of farmers to AEAs is incredibly high around 2000:1 and in other places in Ghana, its worse. AEAs serve farmers by visting them individually or in groups, also called FBOs (farmer-based organizations) and provide advice and consult on  technical farming practices like how to row plant, apply weedicide or how to compost. They also travel to their farmers fields to supervise ploughing and planting.  AEAs also meet with their FBOs to provide trainings and just to generally see how they are doing. They may also assist their FBOs in accessing loans and receiving outside help from other NGO’s or government projects. Their ultimate objective is to help their farmers succeed.

I find this system really interesting because I have never heard of the Canadian government providing such a service to Canadian farmers. Perhaps the need is not there since only 2% of Canadians are actually farmers. Here in the Northern Region of Ghana, between 75-80% of Ghanaians make their living off agriculture! HUGE DIFFERENCE. This blog post is more work related but I hope interesting nonetheless!

AEA Raphael and I in the field visiting his women's group (FBO).

One of the most important aspects about overseas EWB volunteers/workers in Ghana is the unique relationship that they share with MoFA ‘s Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs).  EWB has been working closely with MoFA since 2004 and over the years, EWB staff have spent a considerable amount of time working with AEAs – MoFA’s direct contact line with farmers.  Not only do EWB staff spend a significant amount of time working in District Offices where AEAs spend some of their time but EWB staff often accompany AEAs to the field where they are able to interact with AEAs on-the-job.  On top of that, it is not uncommon for EWB staff to spend time with AEAs outside of work allowing them to get to know each other on a more personal level.  EWB staff have been known to get together with AEAs after work for drinks; they are invited to functions with AEA’s such as parties or weddings; they are invited to their houses for lunch and they may even sleep over at AEAs’ houses if they are traveling and/or need a place to stay.  Such occasions have provided the space for meaningful conversations and for trust building to take place.  Therefore, professional and personal interactions such as these have led to strong bonds and relationships between AEAs and EWB staff.

By working closely with AEAs in the field and having a presence in the office, AEAs have come to recognize EWB as an organization that is serious about helping improve the capacity of MoFA staff and improving the lives of farmers. EWB’s Agriculture As a Business (AAB) Program is one prime example of how AEAs have come to respect the work that EWB carries out and the change that we are trying to make.  Many interviews
and conversations are testimony to the value and importance that AEAs see in the AAB Program and speaks to the amount of support that AEAs have for EWB and our work.  AEAs have cited AAB as a tool that has allowed them to improve their facilitation and speaking skills; strengthened their relationship and credibility with farmers and that it has even been something that they have learned from themselves.  While AEAs see the value and support the program and its intended behaviour change, they are also honest with EWB staff and let us know of the improvements that we can make.  When I interviewed AEAs on the AAB Program and asked of improvements that they think we could make, suggestions included providing refresher courses to AEAs, incorporating topics such as contracts and entrepreneurship into the program and providing micro credit to farmers with low interest and a percentage going back to the AEAs.  Several AEAs even admitted that although AAB is a great program, EWB unfortunately lacks the financial resources to support its prioritization against other projects that require implementation from other NGO’s and have big money behind them.  Such honest feedback is key to understanding the strong relationship between AEAs and EWB staff for several reasons.  First of all, this implies that AEAs feel that they can be honest with EWB staff because they see us an organization that is open to feedback and as individuals that value what they have to say.   Secondly, this means that AEAs appreciate our work to the extent that they want to help us to improve because they see it to the benefit of farmers and of themselves.

AEA Imoro and I at the office.

Working with AEAs and interacting with them on a daily basis provides the perfect environment for close relationships to flourish and EWB’s time spent alongside MoFA has definitely allowed this to happen.  For 6 years, EWB staff have been present in District Offices participating in staff meetings, training AEA’s on AAB, helping AEAs improve their computer skills, assisting in report writing and most importantly, riding on the backs of motos with AEAs.  In fact, EWB staff are famous for pushing AEAs to bring them to the field with them so that we can learn more about agriculture, the challenges that farmers and AEAs face and to gain a better understanding of other field realities.  EWB staff even accompany AEAs to the farm where we may help measure fields, plant seeds and even weed with farmers.  It’s our drive to wanting to understand and experience what AEAs and farmers live out on a daily basis that has given us the credibility and legitimacy that has led to such solid relationships between AEAs and EWB staff.  What also adds to our credibility and legitimacy is EWB’s distinct approach to integrating into
Ghanaian culture.  Whenever EWB sends Junior Fellows overseas for the summer, the students live with Ghanaian families where they are fullyimmersed in Ghanaian culture.  Likewise, EWB long-term staff or African Program Staff (APS) also may live within a compound with a Ghanaian family and both JF’s and APS are required to do one-week village stays where they are sent to a rural village to live with a Ghanaian family for a week to experience another type of Ghanaian lifestyle.  It is no wonder then that being able to speak small Dagbani, Twi, Fra Fra or Gonja or knowing how to greet a chief when were out in the field or being able to prepare fufu gives EWB that extra edge when building trusting relationships with AEAs.

At the office with Hajia (she's in charge of women extension services) and AEAs Alhassan (aka Soldierman) and Iddi.

 

 

 

My 40 Most Interesting Observations About Ghana

1. It’s socially acceptable to pick your nose in public and clean your ears with your key or pen cap
2. Its also perfectly fine to burp, slurp, spit and shoot your snot out the side of your nose in public
3. Its okay to answer your cell phone during a meeting and even walk out
4. Woman put eyeliner on their babies and draw in their eyebrows to make them look pretty
5. It’s also not uncommon to find young men wearing eyeliner and it’s not considered gay
6. Males also hold hands in public and its not considered gay
7. Flagging down a taxi, waving, eating or giving money with your left hand is offensive because that is your wiping-your-ass hand; if you give money with your left hand for some reason, people will say “sorry for left”
8. Many people use regular paper for wiping their butt
9. Instead of using a toothbrush brush to brush their teeth, many people in the village chew on sticks and use it like a toothbrush to clean their teeth
10. Because garbage pick-up is non-existent in many places, people burn their garbage
11. Women carry their children on their backs wrapped in cloth and do just about everything with their child on their back, including riding motorcycles
12. Most meals are eaten with your hands
13. When you greet someone that is older than you, you must do a half bow
14. Not greeting people when you enter a room or other space or walking by them is considered very rude
15. People from different tribes often tease each other and call each other “playmates”; they joke around and say things like because you are my slave, you must carry it for me
16. When people are eating and you come around they say “your invited” meaning that your welcome to come and have some food too but they don’t actually mean it, its just to be polite and so your supposed to just say no thanks
17. Its also rude to not “invite” people to food that you are eating
18. Mosques are loud and at each praying time the speakers go off to call people to pray, even at 4 AM
19. Goats and sheep roam the streets
20. Cockroaches can be humungous
21. In the village most people live in mudhuts, including myself
22. People in the village sometimes eat insects and shoot and eat rabbit and this oversized rat called a grass cutter
23. Its socially acceptable to breastfeed in public without covering up
24. No one cares at all if women don’t shave their legs, underarms or even have some facial hair
25. For woman, being bigger is more attractive, especially from the waist down
26. Eating while working is ok
27. For woman, wearing anything that goes above the knees is slutty; showing your lower back is also slutty
28. Many people, especially woman, carry things on their head including buckets of water, large bowls, entire watermelons and stacks of cloth or clothing
29. Aside from walking, the main means of transport are taxis, bicycles and motos
30. Men and woman often sleep in separate rooms in the village
31. Thunder in Ghana actually sounds like the earth is dividing in two
32. When its rains, it actually feels like a hurricane is coming
33. Coke and Fanta come in bottles
34. In Ghana there are no American food chains (YAY!!)
35. Instead of commonly seeing squirrels and birds, in Ghana you’ll see lizards and bats
36. Many Ghanaians (in Tamale) think that white people can help them find jobs; many also think that white people can solve all their problems…they pretty much put us on a pedastool a lot of the time
37. Almost all Ghanaians (in Tamale) want to come to Canada (although they may know nothing about it)
38. Ghanaians are also some of the most friendliest, welcoming and kindest people you will ever meet
39. Some Ghanaians that have been to the West say our society is too individualistic
40. Ghana is extremely hot

***Many of these things are what I have experiences in Tamale. Ghana is a very diverse country where North greatly differs from the South and some norms may vary.

Boobies and Babies!

How many of you read the first word and clicked right away? Haha! Well, its not that glamorous! Actually, that’s a perfect way to put it…boobies
in Ghana are that glamorous.  I’m not saying that Ghanaian woman don’t have nice boobs rather I’m saying that they are not sexualized like in the West; in other words, they are not a big deal. In the West, boobs are hidden under clothes only to be seen by husbands, boyfriends and lovers and they are shown off by women for attention and they are hug sex appeal.  In Ghana, it’s not quite the same – at least where I am in Tamale, Northern region. When I first came to Ghana I was quite surprised when I saw woman whipping out their boobs anytime, place or in front of any face to feed their babies.  In my village compound, woman will be carrying on conversations or even cooking while they are sitting on wooden
stools and the babies lying in their slap sipping away.  A compound means that there are allllways plenty of people around: women, children and men!! A man who is not a woman’s husband can come by whenever and see woman breastfeeding babies. I couldn’t believe it – he could he even be talking to her! Oh did I mention that the woman don’t cover up. Yeah, I know in Canada breastfeeding is like this awkward, private thing to do but over here, hey its natural! And I totally get this and I like the idea that woman don’t have to feel ashamed to breastfeed their kids, after all its only human nature! When babies cry, one of the first things woman will do is reach down their shirt and pull out their boob and stick it in the
kids mouth to see if he’s hungry.  What’s even more interesting is that if a child’s mother is not around, another mother will breastfeed that
baby! I even saw a grandmother try to breastfeed a baby! Haha! It’s like everything is communal in the compound and everyone helps each other – great concept huh? Woman share cooking pots, water, food, stools, lots of things and even children! If a woman is busy cooking and her kid is crying or being a brat, she will call on an older girl, who may or may not be her own kid, to watch the other kid. It’s also common to see woman walking around the compound in their bra or even topless, in front of everyone – even the grandmothers do! These woman are absolutely shameless but I definitely find aspect of the culture of very intriguing. At the time, because boobies are just seen as feeding instruments they are not “treasured” the same way as in Canada – if that makes sense.  So, while I admire the fact that woman can breastfeed any ol’ time and place, boobs are no big deal to the men because they are used to seeing them allll the time so they loose that intimate aspect. In Tamale, body parts that have that sex/intimate connotation are thighs and the lower back.

Woman will also beat children who aren’t their own. Beat means hitting but it also involves getting “cained” with a stick on the head, the
back or back of the legs. It’s pretty painful for a one year old. Can you imagine another person hitting your kid? I think this is unheard of in Canada…but this is common here! It’s a form of sharing in on the discipline of each other’s children – communal discipline.  What’s
even more interesting is that I see older girls beating the younger children.  It’s kind of a power hierarchy that I see in my village where the older men can beat the younger men, the men beat the wives, the wives beat the children and the older children beat the younger children…Unfortuntely, I can’t provide any other insight into why this might be, I’m still very much learning and these are my observations.

I wanted to take some pictures of woman breastfeeding freely in the way that I described but my camera has been malfunctioning but if I get
it to work, I’ll take some and post em!

LOVE in Ghana

Anyone that knows me well is quite aware that I am a pretty cheesy person when it comes to love.  A lot of my friends laugh at my boyfriend, Gilberto and I because we sometimes are “extra” or do things a little more over the top than other couples might.  We have been dating for 2 years and 4 months now and for the first year of our relationship, we celebrated our anniversary monthly!  We usually went out to eat every 27^th day of every month or got each other small gifts or went out downtown.  We probably would have continued this into our second year too except that neither of us could afford it anymore, haha!  We are both pretty affectionate people and so its normal for us to hold hands in public, hug each other and even kiss (but of course we keep it PG13).  We also show our love for each other by helping and supporting each other in a number of other ways such as helping each other with school work; with financial issues; Gilberto comes to almost all my EWB events and I help him and his family clean the church; and by doing other thoughtful things like cooking each other food.  Even while I am overseas, we maintain our affection for one another by calling or skyping each other every day, sending sweet text messages and nice emails/e-cards.  Cute right? Although Gilberto and I might go an extra mile to show how much we care about each other, I think generally this is how couples in Canada express their love for one another too.

When I first arrived in Ghana, I was shocked at what I interpreted was as a lack of love or affection between married couples.  In Tamale, you will never see couples holding hands or hugging.  In fact, all these things are taboo in public because of the very conservative nature of the society and the prominence of the Islamic faith.  I came to accept that in public, as in on the streets or in the town and market people don’t do these things.  So then I began to observe the families in my compound and tried to learn how they showed their love for one another.  Again, I was disappointed and even heartbroken when I couldn’t find any signs of affection between husband and wife: no physical touch, no teasing or horseplay, no going out for dinner or anything else and in fact, I noticed that couples barely spend anytime together at all!  During the day, the men go out to work or go to farm while the women spend all day at home doing chores like cooking, washing clothes, fetching water, going to the market to sell or engaging in other business ventures like drying rice to see or going to the mill to process their shea nuts into shea butter.  In the evening, the women prepare dinner and serve their husbands and come back and eat with the other women.  After this, some women might go and spend some little time with their husbands but then many husbands and wives sleep in separate rooms.  I couldn’t believe it.  Women and children will sleep in one room and then next door the husband will have his own room – as if they were neighbours.  This was and is still hard for me to
understand but when I asked my host father why they don’t sleep in the same room as their wives he told me it was because it would be easier for the men to come out and greet a guest if one should come.  His brother also told me that the women take care of the kids so they should sleep with the mother, especially if they are babies and breastfeeding.  He did say that sometimes the older children will sleep in his room.  On top of this, I noticed that the men’s rooms are lot more furnished and nicer than the women’s rooms.  The men all have TV’s and some even have DVD players/VCRs, ceiling fans, vinyl floors and couches.  Only some women have beds in their rooms and most sleep on mats on the floor – no fan and no TV.

A man from my work told me there is another cultural aspect behind what I saw as an absence of love.  Holding hands in public, he said, is taboo
because it means the woman likes sex too much.  I also asked him about the sleeping in separate rooms deal and he told me that if the woman just wants to literally sleep alongside her husband, she must go late at night into his room and make sure no one is watching or else others will think she just wants sex.  I was really surprised at these answers and I still didn’t fully understand.  I wanted to ask around more to make sure that
I am getting the full story so I asked a younger wife (Adamu who is 23 yrs. old) in my compound (who spoke English!) what the reason was behind it.  Adamu gave me a much different answer than everyone else.  She explained that it was a way to prevent men and woman from having sex so they wouldn’t become pregnant with a bunch of kids and unable to feed and care for them.  I found this super interesting because I understood this as their way of family planning.  If condoms are not used (for lack of information about them, taboo reasons or lack of money perhaps) and the people are not very educated in terms of sex ed, the women in particular, this would make sense – to simply decrease the opportunity for sex to happen i.e. abstinence.  But when she first explained this to me, I didn’t quite get it because from what I am seen, having a lot of children means you are being blessed by God and even when I tell the women that I only want three children, they gasp and tell me
that I should have six!  This is an example of something that maybe will take a little longer to understand or something I may never fully understand but from what I understand now, sleeping in separate rooms doesn’t necessarily imply an absence of love but rather it could be a no-cost way of preventing having too many children at the wrong time.

I also saw love lacking between man and wife in terms of gratitude.  In Canada, if someone cooks food for you the naturally polite thing to do is to say thank them and so I expected this would be the same case in Ghana – well like other things, it’s not.  I remember my first week in my
village, my host father invited me into the house to watch TV with him and the other men.  When my host mom brought him his dinner there was just silence and he didn’t even turn his head from the TV to acknowledge she brought him his food. My host mom even brings him another
bowl with water to wash his hands and a bottle of soap.  I’ve seen this almost another dozen times since then and everytime I wait to hear if maybe I’ll hear a man say just say thank you and flash the woman a smile.  I always feel hurt and bad for my host mom and other woman but this is their culture and its just something they don’t do.  I asked another man in my work why the men don’t say thank you and he said its because she does this everyday so there is no point in saying thank you each and everytime.  He also mentioned that this is a typical Dagomba custom, i.e. that’s just how things are in the culture – that the woman serve the man so after carrying this tradition out for so long, it just becomes normal.  I was kind of upset by this but I talked to another JF on the phone and she helped put things into perspective for me.  She told me that instead of getting appreciation from their husbands like woman do in Canada, maybe they get that sense of gratification elsewhere, maybe from the other women or their children.  I hadn’t thought about that and it’s true that the women spend the majority of their time with the other women they live with and their children.  I realized, for the second time, that I needed to stop looking at everything from a Canadian lens and challenge myself to try using a Ghanaian lens.

My Ghanaian lens was pretty much shattered when I learned that husbands beat their wives…a lot.  While beatings in Canada usually refer to black eyes, bloody lips, bruises and maybe broken bones, beatings in Ghana involve more hitting and some smacks to the head (I’ve never seen a Ghanaian women with a black eye or bloody lip).  Still, I was shocked to learn that this is a regular,  more accepted occurrence – even in my household!  In the context of love and my Western upbringing, I don’t understand how a person can hit someone they love.  This is when Erin, my coach, explained to me that marriages in Ghana don’t necessarily encompass love the way they do in Canada.  A wife may not even love her
husband but may marry him out of security reasons, especially since many women have not gone to school and have no other way to support themselves other than by marrying a man.  A father may also offer his daughter to a man in which case love is also not an important factor
either.  In this sense, “love” does not have the same connotation as we know it to have: a man and a woman falling in love and getting married.  The thing is, this does happen in Ghana and yet beatings still happen.  From what I have learned so far, it happens partly because of how men see women (topic for another blog post) and partly because the women either feel that its ok because its just the way things are or feel they have no other choice but to take it. Perhaps more importantly, we have to understand that leaving a husband is not like in Canada because again,
if she has no education her options are very limited. I don’t know much about Ghanaian law but that might also play an important factor because if beatings are considered a private/household issue, then woman are not protected the same way as Canadian woman are.  There might
also be some cultural taboo around a woman leaving her husband.  I’m sure there are other factors at play that maybe I’ll discover or maybe I won’t.  We should also keep in mind that there are plenty of women in the West that also marry men out of security rather than love and it may also have to do with their level of education.  However, this is still a big issue for me and something that I struggle to deal with.

Before I was able to fix my Ghanaian lens, all of this led me to believe that either couples don’t really display their love for each other or that it only happens behind closed doors.  It took another co-worker to help me to begin to better understand how love is demonstrated between man and wife in Tamale.  He told me that a man may go to the market and see something that he thinks will look nice on his wife and buy it for her.  He may also pick up some groceries if he chooses too.  Adamu also shed some more light on this topic.  She told me that men may also bring their wife to the market and let her pick out things she wants, just like how men take their wives/girlfriends shopping at the mall in Canada.  Adamu also told me that sometimes her and her husband will eat together – something that I understand doesn’t happen a lot.  Finally, I asked my host father how men in Ghana expressed love to their wives (again, love could have meant something different to him especially since his wife was
offered to him) and aside from repeating what Adamu said, he told me that if his wife has traveled to another place he will call her to make sure everything is ok.

Asking different people within my community and at work has definitely provided me with more insight than I could have observed with my own two eyes.  For the first time since my arrival in Ghana, I am able to say that I am learning to use that Ghanaian lens a little more often than my Western/Canadian lens.  In all honestly, it has been very difficult to do this…I grew up in Canada all my life and so to be placed in Ghana where
everything is soo different really tests your ability to not judge another culture, let alone accept the differences that you may find offensive, unusual or counter-intuitive.  Even though there are things that will I’ll be okay with or understand, I am grateful to have been given this opportunity to be challenged, to grow, to learn and to become a more open and thoughtful person.

This was a long one!! Any comments or thoughts or experiences you would like to share from being in another country where you struggled to understand something about the culture?

 

 

Ghanaian Best Practices

Ghanaian and Dagomba culture is definitely a lot more different than similar to Canadian culture.  Just as some background, Dagomba is the tribe and the majority of people that live in Tamale are Dagombas and their language is Dagbani.  Actually I think now is also a perfect time to mention the tribal markings on the face that lets you know which tribe people belong too.  So when I first came to Tamale, I noticed that many people had scars on their faces of either one line on one cheek or one on each side and the scars could go either vertically, horizontally or even diagonally.  I was so curious as to know what they meant but I thought it might be rude to ask someone what the scars on their faces meant…doesn’t sound like a very polite question!  Finally, after being with my host family for several weeks I felt that it would be okay to ask my host father, Mumuni, what the scars meant.  He told me they signified the tribe that the person belong too and he gave several examples of different tribal markings.  The Gonja people, for example, have usually three longer but very thin scars that travel down the entire side of the face closer to the ear.  I was fascinated and now I try to identify people’s tribes! Haha!

Dagomba man with tribal markings.

Dagomba woman with tribal marking.

So back to Dagomba culture.  While there are many things that have been extremely hard for me to understand and accept about the culture, there are two practices that I think Dagombas do better than Canadians.  The first one is greeting and being friendly to one another.  While Canadians are known for being friendly people, next to Dagombas were definitely lagging.  Everyday I walk 20 minutes to and from my workplace and I say hello to more people in a day in Tamale than I do in an entire week in Canada! In the morning, I must greet around 50+ plus people: the ladies preparing food and selling things on the roadside, farmers on their bikes, children walking or biking to school and more!  It’s actually rude if you don’t greet some people but I know that I greet more people than I maybe half to but if people look at you, you say hi, its as simple as that!  Though this is a simple formula, I know in Canada it doesn’t always work out that way.  Instead of being greeted, we sometimes give each other strange looks (as if to say “why is this person staring at me?”), pretend to stare in another direction or even ignore each other completely.  Let me tell you that saying hi to people and being greeted back is such a warm feeling and it puts me in a great mood almost instantly! This is how some of the Dagbani greetings go (in the morning):

“Dasiba!” (Good morning, how are you?)

“Naa!” (Fine!)

“Timasum?” (How is the coolness?)

“Naa!” (Fine!)

“Agbira?” (How did you sleep?)

“Gombiene.” (Fine.)

“Na tuma beola?” (How is work?)

“Alaffi!” (Fine!)

“Idena beola?” (How is the husband?)

“Alaffi!” (Fine!)

“Nauni labsona.” (May God bring you back safely.)

“Ami.” (Amen.)

Pretty sweet huh?  Of course I don’t stop and go through all the greetings with every single person, but mostly the women on the roadside, especially since they have come to know me.  But even some of the older farmers on their bikes will shout a few of these back to me and I’ll respond as they ride away.  It really feels good and is really motivating for me to start of off and end of my days with interactions like these especially when everyone SMILES!

Very common way of greeting and bowing to those older than you.

   The second thing that Dagombas rock out on is the amount of respect that they give to people older than you.  Whenever you greet someone that is older than you, you must do a half bow where you bend your knees and lower your body a little.  When I first came to Tamale, it was hard adjusting to this custom since this is nonexistent in Canada.  I felt awkward and somehow like it took a hit on my ego, like as if I was submitting to them.  I also felt it was wrong because the only person I bow for is God.  So it took me a little time to get used to it and now I understand that it is just a sign of respect for those that have experienced much more than I have, for those that have raised families and worked hard all their lives and even for those that help you.  I am not saying that all Canadians should start bowing to their grandparents or anything but I do think that we should take time out to really acknowledge their lives and everything they went through and show them the respect that they deserve.  I do think that we should visit our grandparents more often though, especially our youth! (another Dagomba best practice). 

CHALLENGE OF THE DAY:
Greet people that you wouldn’t normally, like those just walking by you on the street, on the bus or subway and see how they react! Tell me how their reaction made you feel. I would love to hear your responses in the comments box!

Funny/Embarrasing Moments

Last week I had a few funny things happen to me (though some weren’t funny at the time) and so I would like to share!

So my first funny moment happened as I was walking to work.  Everyday I walk to work because its only around 15-20 minutes from my house, er hut.  Each day I pass what seem to be government soldiers who stop taxis to make sure that their paperwork is up-to-date.  I have befriended one of these soldiers and her name is Beatrice.  I usually stop and chat with her for a few minutes.  On this day she was also with another male soldier and so they both started talking with me.  The male soldier was thrilled to see a white woman because it turns out that he had dated a woman from
Finland in the past.  He told me that although he had done a lot for her, she just randomly stopped talking him and so he wanted to find another white woman to date.  After I made it clear that I was “married,” he asked me if I had any Canadian friends that I could hook him up with.  I told him that all my friends were married.  Then I asked him why he wanted a white woman so bad and then he told me that it was because he wanted his kids to be white!  I thought this was hilarious but I’m pretty sure he just meant that he wanted his kids to be lighter than him, which is still funny for him to say.

One day last week I decided to give a skirt I had another shot.  You see in Tamale Ghanaians, especially the woman, dress very conservatively because it is predominantly Muslim.   Although this particular skirt was very nice and professional looking, it came down to my knees but when I walk it goes up just a tad.  I really like this skirt and I thought that I might be able to get away with it.  WRONG! As I walked home that day I got stared at so hard I was cursing myself for not changing back into my field clothes before leaving the office.  When a girl on the back of moto turned her head around to give me a somewhat dirty look I knew I wouldn’t be able to walk into my village with this skirt on.  I was so embarrassed and uncomfortable that I quickly walked over to the nearest store and asked if they had a bathroom so that I could change because I was going to go on a moto and needed to put my pants back on. *WINK* They didn’t have one so instead they half closed their shop so I could change behind the door.  I felt much better afterwards and I went home I tucked that skirt at the bottom of my suitcase.

Ok this one was so not funny at the time.  So cockroaches in Ghana are actually enormous and I hate cockroaches in Canada so seeing Ghanaian mutant cockroaches in my room is horrifying.  In fact, my mosquito next is more used to keep out cockroaches and spiders that it is to keep out mosquitos, haha! Luckily, I actually don’t get that many, maybe one every third or fourth night… BUT STILL!  Ok so this past weekend I was in the store and I spotted RAID!! As soon as I spotted it, I swear there was a light glowing from all around the bottle and I walked over to it in slow motion in disbelief and amazement. It felt like winning the lottery okay, let’s just say that.  I bought it and I couldn’t wait to go home and douse my room with its sweet cockroach killing properties.  I went home and read over the directions but it didn’t say much other that I should stand 30 cm away from the area or bug you want to spray and that you shouldn’t injest it etc etc.  So I thought I was good and I went ahead and sprayed the entire perimeter of my ceiling with RAID.  I did so because I noticed that they come in where the cement and mud walls meet my thatch roof. However, immediately after spraying I felt how incredibly strong the spray smelt – like pure poison, because it is! I hadn’t thought that the smell would be so potent and so I panicked a little.  I left my door open and sat outside…for hours.  At the time I was supposed to help the woman cook but I was afraid that someone would go into my room and steal something so I just sat outside my room and guarded it and waited for the smell to go away.  After checking some 15 times, I didn’t notice any difference and only then it occurred to me that maybe if I put my fan on that it would push the smell outside.  I did this and waited another hour or so.  I was freaking out because I didn’t want to sleep in my poisonous room but I didn’t want to inconvenience anyone either.  It was already getting dark and so I had one last idea.  I grabbed the personal cleansing wipes that my mom had given me and thought that maybe I could wipe the RAID off.  When I ran out of those I used facial wipes.  I got a taller Ghanaian friend to help me and you know what? The wipes actually worked and I was able to sleep in my room that night! (But I woke up once during the middle of the night because I could smell a little RAID still and I panicked because I thought that I would go brain dead or become paralyzed or just die).

Challenges

Today marks exactly two weeks since I moved in with my host family and this is my second week of work. However, I feel like I have been in Ghana a lot longer than this. In fact, I feel like I have been here for around a month but maybe that’s just because we had one week of in-country training before we all went off to our host families in different districts. Or maybe it’s because living in Northern Ghana has already proven itself to be a huge challenge.  I have been challenged on every front from poor sanitation conditions to gender dynamics and even in the workplace. I am pushed outside my comfort zone on almost a daily basis and I have had some really rough moments.  I thought that my previous trips to Latin America would have certainly prepared me for many challenges that I would have faced in Ghana…I was dead wrong.

Being in Ghana made me realize that my trips to Latin America hardly even compare to what it’s like here.  Somehow I totally overlooked how easy it was to be in LA since I speak the language, love the food, know the culture, practice the same religion (for the most part), have been many there times and have never been there for more than a month and a bit.  In Tamale, everything is super foreign to me and that makes it ultra-challenging especially since I have a long way to go in my placement.

First of all, I seriously underestimated how homesick I would be and so I am so thankful that I have access to the internet and even a cell phone so I can call and skype with loved ones and friends back home (con mi novio particularmente).  Secondly, language has been another big barrier for me.  Dagbani is a tough language and aside from the greetings, I am unable to have in-depth conversations with the women I live with and with whom I spend most of my time with.  I also have a ton of questions I am dying to ask but they all speak next to no English since they did not attend school.  Fortunately, many of the men speak English in my village so I am able to have deeper conversations with them.  I am also lucky that the kids I live around all speak some English, especially the older girls (from my pictures) so they are a magnificent help, especially when I am around the women.  Although I know only the basic greetings, goodbyes, a few other phrases and words and just repeat them everyday, the people are so happy to even hear me even speaking Dagbani and that serves as a great motivation to invest more time into further my learning.

Thirdly, sanitation and cultural norms have really been a challenge for me.  You see, my entire community only has two latrines, none of which are close to me.  This means that in order to do “my business,” I must go outside and find a well hidden bush or tree.  During the night, I can just walk across the street where there is a field of small bushes and I’ll go but during the day, it’s a lot harder. During the day, if I want to go number two, I have to walk a lot further out and find a conspicuous place and go.  If I want to pee, I go in the bathing area.  This has been a really big challenge for me, not only because it’s uncomfortable, but because it’s terrible for the environment and for people’s health in general.  It’s also really bad since EWB has a program in Malawi called CLTS (Community Lead Total Sanitation) which aims to help Malawians understand health hazards that come from defecating out in the open and trying to facilitate a behaviour change. Health hazards include feces leaching into water systems and flies that land on it can then spread germs through direct contact or by settling on food.  So, for number two I try and wait till I get to work in the morning so I can use a toilet and sink but it doesn’t always happen and I can’t always make the long trek out to the brush in time so I have had to resort to other measures.  The last few times, I had to go in a plastic bag in my room and then throw it out.  We also don’t have a proper waste disposal system so all the garbage in my village gets thrown everywhere…and kids don’t usually where shoes when they are home so yeaa…it’s not good.  My neighbour is the Assembly Man for my village (which is called Vitting) and I have heard that he is responsible for organizing the garbage pick-up and possibly for getting more latrines built around the community.  I plan on talking to him so I can get better insight into what exactly is going in the community and why such things are lacking.  I am sure there is important information that I am not aware of.  I was also thinking
that maybe there is an opportunity for me to have some sort of impact here within my community so I will keep you posted.

In terms of cultural norms, there isn’t an emphasis placed on washing your hands here like there is in Canada so I feel like that poses other challenges for me too.  Many times, people don’t use soap to wash their hands after going to the bathroom in my village so food preparation worries me.  What’s more, is that if there is no toilet paper (which many don’t use) and if there is no other type of paper, people will use their left hand to wipe themselves.  This is precisely why eating with your left hand is offensive.  Waving a cab, shaking someone else’s hand and giving money with your left is also offensive for this same reason.  Perhaps a lack of information plays a large role in this circumstance so a program like CLTS could really have some value here in the Northern Region.  For a more in-depth look at what CLTS is, please check out:  http://my.ewb.ca/site_media/static/attachments/group_topics_grouptopic/83112/CLTS%20Role.pdf

As for the other challenges, I think I’ll leave them for my next post since this is a lot to take in at one time. But here is a CHALLENGE QUESTION: what are some basic things that we learn in school and that we use on a daily basis/frequently? HINT: washing our hands in one. NOW THINK how you might live or act differently without having learned these things.

Challenges

Today marks exactly two weeks since I moved in with my host family and this is my second week of work. However, I feel like I have been in Ghana a lot longer than this. In fact, I feel like I have been here for around a month but maybe that’s just because we had one week of in-country training before we all went off to our host families in different districts. Or maybe it’s because living in Northern Ghana has already proven itself to be a huge challenge. I have been challenged on every front from poor sanitation conditions to gender dynamics and even in the workplace. I am pushed outside my comfort zone on almost a daily basis and I have had some really rough moments. I thought that my previous trips to Latin America would have certainly prepared me for many challenges that I would have faced in Ghana…I was dead wrong.

Being in Ghana made me realize that my trips to Latin America hardly even compare to what it’s like here. Somehow I totally overlooked how easy it was to be in LA since I speak the language, love the food, know the culture, practice the same religion (for the most part), have been many there times and have never been there for more than a month and a bit. In Tamale, everything is super foreign to me and that makes it ultra-challenging especially since I have a long way to go in my placement.

First of all, I seriously underestimated how homesick I would be and so I am so thankful that I have access to the internet and even a cell phone so I can call and skype with loved ones and friends back home (con mi novio particularmente). Secondly, language has been another big barrier for me. Dagbani is a tough language and aside from the greetings, I am unable to have in-depth conversations with the women I live with and with whom I spend most of my time with. I also have a ton of questions I am dying to ask but they all speak next to no English since they did not attend school. Fortunately, many of the men speak English in my village so I am able to have deeper conversations with them. I am also lucky that the kids I live around all speak some English, especially the older girls (from my pictures) so they are a magnificent help, especially when I am around the women. Although I know only the basic greetings, goodbyes, a few other phrases and words and just repeat them everyday, the people are so happy to even hear me even speaking Dagbani and that serves as a great motivation to invest more time into further my learning.

Thirdly, sanitation and cultural norms have really been a challenge for me. You see, my entire community only has two latrines, none of which are close to me. This means that in order to do “my business,” I must go outside and find a well hidden bush or tree. During the night, I can just walk across the street where there is a field of small bushes and I’ll go but during the day, it’s a lot harder. During the day, if I want to go number two, I have to walk a lot further out and find a conspicuous place and go. If I want to pee, I go in the bathing area. This has been a really big challenge for me, not only because it’s uncomfortable, but because it’s terrible for the environment and for people’s health in general. It’s also really bad since EWB has a program in Malawi called CLTS (Community Lead Total Sanitation) which aims to help Malawians understand health hazards that come from defecating out in the open and trying to facilitate a behaviour change. Health hazards include feces leaching into water systems and flies that land on it can then spread germs through direct contact or by settling on food. So, for number two I try and wait till I get to work in the morning so I can use a toilet and sink but it doesn’t always happen and I can’t always make the long trek out to the brush in time so I have had to resort to other measures. The last few times, I had to go in a plastic bag in my room and then throw it out. We also don’t have a proper waste disposal system so all the garbage in my village gets thrown everywhere…and kids don’t usually where shoes when they are home so yeaa…it’s not good. My neighbour is the Assembly Man for my village (which is called Vitting) and I have heard that he is responsible for organizing the garbage pick-up and possibly for getting more latrines built around the community. I plan on talking to him so I can get better insight into what exactly is going in the community and why such things are lacking. I am sure there is important information that I am not aware of. I was also thinking that maybe there is an opportunity for me to have some sort of impact here within my community so I will keep you posted.

In terms of cultural norms, there isn’t an emphasis placed on washing your hands here like there is in Canada so I feel like that poses other challenges for me too. Many times, people don’t use soap to wash their hands after going to the bathroom in my village so food preparation worries me. What’s more, is that if there is no toilet paper (which many don’t use) and if there is no other type of paper, people will use their left hand to wipe themselves. This is precisely why eating with your left hand is offensive. Waving a cab, shaking someone else’s hand and giving money with your left is also offensive for this same reason. Perhaps a lack of information plays a large role in this circumstance so a program like CLTS could really have some value here in the Northern Region. For a more in-depth understanding of what CLTS is, check this out: http://my.ewb.ca/site_media/static/attachments/group_topics_grouptopic/83112/CLTS%20Role.pdf

As for the other challenges, I think I’ll leave them for my next post since this is a lot to take in at one time. But here is a CHALLENGE QUESTION: what are some basic yet very important things that we learn in school and use on a daily basis? HINT: washing your hands is one. Now picture how you might live or act differently without that basic knowledge…post answers/comments here or on my facebook!