Photo Gallery

JFs Tanya, Bill and Adam at the EWB house during pre-departure training in Toronto. (All going to Ghana).

Elmira, Tanya and Tania at the EWB house during pre-dep training. Yes, there are two Tanias and our birthdays are a day apart too!

Presbyterian Lay Training Centre, where we stayed for our in-country training in Ghana.

JF Etienne and I at the centre for training.

Sweating profusely.

Washing clothes in buckets!! No more washing machines!!

JF and homegirl Daniela washing clothes with me.

JF David washing his socks, he is also a first timer.

JFs Bill, Bailey, Marc Andre, me, Daniela and Elmira waiting for the bus from Accra to Tamale...it was 5 hours late, lol.

At work, Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Tamale District office)

Inside the building. Note how the offices surround the atrium.

The atrium

My office door!

My coach Erin (who is also a long-term volunteer) and I in the office

Our watchman

The front of the building.

Eat Ghana Rice Campaign that EWB implemented to promote locally grown rice

Random sheep and goats wander the streets all the time. They belong to people though and they will sell them for profit.

Brian (long-term volunteer) and I about to go to a farmer group meeting.

Brian in a yams field.

Elmira, me and Mustapha (Agricultural Extension Agent with MoFA)

Mustapha teaching us about yam farming.

Havin a good day at the office in my new African dress

I'm with Mustapha at a farmer group meeting. He is leading an AAB (Agric As a Business) session.

Note how the women sit on one side and the men on the other...

My host mom, Amriya, and I in my hut! She tied on my head wrap.

Amriya and her son Yousif in my hut. He's in his birthday suit!

cute EH!!

Left to right: Abdullah and his older brother Mumuni in front of the guest house Mumuni built (Mumuni is also Amriya's husband)

Me and the kids who live around me in front of my hut!

This is Nina! She's one of the older girls and one of my favs! She actually chose to pose like this, haha!

This is sassy Nyma! Also one of my favs! She wanted to copy Nina, haha!

Private Fusini!

Hassan! (Nina's brother, I'm pretty sure)

Nyma's mom and I!

Azara and I. Azara is also Mumuni's daughter. She is so helpful and will get mad at me if I don't let her help me!

Azara and Fati helping me fetch water so I can wash my clothes. I have to pay for this water, 10 pesewes which is less than 10 cents.

One of the grandma's in my village that I see everyday where we all cook in the evening. If the children have a cough, she will shove crushed ginger up their butt!!

This is Fati washing her clothes. The grandma in the previous picture is her mother, I think. Fati is pretty sassy and I love it!

These are all shea nut trees. You can eat the outside becuase it is a fruit and then the seed is used to make shea butter.

Mumuni on his moto. He took me to the farm to show me where he is going to grow groundnuts (aka. peanuts).

Mumuni, his machette and I.

At Mustapha's house for lunch! This is his newborn baby, they were triplets! That makes six kids!! He also has twins!

Visiting a farmer group with AEA Nouri-Dean. Nouri-Dean studied in Cuba for 8 years so we speak Spanish together! (He's the one closest to my backpack)

The first wife (of five actually) of the Chief of my village. She processes shea butter and sells it to the Body Shop. Those are shea nuts and she just finished washing them. Whenever I greet her, I must bow.

Visiting a farmer with AEA Dohbia (far right). He went to check on the goats of this farmer. Behind us is where they are kept.

Goats and one is licking a nutrient ball.

Rice that was washed and is about to be dried so it can be processed.

Dohbia and the woman that was washing the rice.

In the office and I just figured out how to switch back on the colour in my camera, hahaha!

Left to right: Fati and her son Fuseini and Fati's mother.

Ayesha and me! Ghanaians don't normally smile for pictures so I always have to remind them, see below!

Ayesha and her son Hassan. Ayesha is currently pregnant with her second child and is due in two months! I might be here for the birth!!

This is our kitchen!

The man in the second chair is AEA Zabrila. He just finished facilitating an AAB Meeting with one of his farmer groups.

This is our (EWB volunteers) favourite restaurant Luxury. They serve Ghanaian AND white people food, haha!

Shea nuts that will be processed into shea butter

This is where the women heat them up to extract the oil

This is the shea oil which is also used for domestic cooking

A grinding mill for the shea nuts (the blue machine)

This is Mumuni's mother and she is part of women's group that processes and sells shea butter. She took me to her woman's group to see how everything works. She is stirring the shea butter to loosen it up. Very hard work!

I ended up stirring the rest of those bowls, lol.

After its all loosened up the women scoop it out and put into bowls.

Bowls like these.

Women from the group having a good time while working!

Women from my compound drying rice in the sun.

Coming back from church.

MoFA vet staff (left, white pants) administering vaccinations to chickens and guinea fowls. AEA Tahiru (right, green shirt) helping to gather the birds to recieve the vaccinations.

Tahiru with a rooster.

At work with some of my cooworkers.

AEA Imoro taking field measurements for his rice farmers.

I'm holding Imoro's cool gadget thing that measures how many acres the field is as we walk the perimiter of it.

Sun in my eyes ahh!

With Mustapha's college mates.

Left to right: Mustapha, Mike and me

Coworker Vic and I in our Friday best! We planned this!

We were called twins for the entire day.

Erin and I. (Friday is when the Muslims all go to mosque so that's why everyone always dresses nice on Fridays.)

This is another place where we fetch water. I wanted to wash my clothes this day.

Fetching water Ghanaian style! Here I go!Ok...this is actually really hard. But not for the woman behind me, lol!

Can't talk at this point.

Almost there!!

Home! Success!

Fuseni made this himself! Its a tractor! The wheels he made from the bottom of sandals and the body is scrap metal.

All mens choir singing for Father's Day at church.

Our conference room at work filled with bags of rice and maize seed for the farmers to come and take.

Farmers waiting to collect their bags.

AEA Rapheal speaking to his women's group.

The women noticed I was taking pictures and wanted to get themselves all fixed up so that I could take their picture, lol espcially the lady in white.

Rapheal and I.

Rapheal and I visited the chief of that community (where we went) and look what was inside his palace!! Some other volunteers from another NGO had given it to him!

Look what else I found in his palace! LOL ("palace" just means bigger hut with a platform and chair where the chief sits)

Some coworkers and I. The guys forgot to smile.

Take a closer look at the woman walking...this still amazes me everytime!! (that bowl is carrying a bunch of stuff by the way)

Azara pounding traditional medicine because she isn't feeling well. The same wooden stick and stump (telega and chole in Dagbani) is also used to pound yams to make fufu, a popular Ghanaian dish that I eat almost everynight.

Helping Azara pound the medicine. Afterwards, I think they boil it and she will breathe in the steam from the medicine and then bathe in it.

Just entering Mole National Park...doesn't this remind you of Jurassic Park? It did for us, haha!

Love this view of the park...

Another wicked view. This is where the elephants go to bathe. It's also infested with crocodiles!

What a cuters!!

YEA, IT WAS THAT CLOSE! They just roam free like that!

It took some mango peels out of the trash, If you don't watch your food of juice boxes, the baboons will steal it, true story!

Thought this was funny, lol.

Elephant skull!!!

I am a skilled antelope tracker...

Communities within the park. Baboons on the rooftops looking for a window open to snatch something.

Female baboon in heat, that's why her butt is super red and swollen!

Kinda nervous about this one, haha!

This is our guide.

Elephants!!! Can you believe how close we are?! Will never have this chance again...

Did you know that elephants poop around 18 times a day!!??

We eventually had to go because he was getting mad. He was breaking branches loudly and stomping on trees, lol.

 

Team MoFA! (Ministry of Food and Agriculture) We are at our team meeting and this is our team cloth - very agric!

 

Animals

 

Dinosaurs