October 6. Goodbye to good friends

Today was my last day of work with WiLDAF Ghana. As much as I am hugely excited to come home and see family and friends, it was sad to say goodbye to all the friends I'd made in Accra.

In the morning I walked around behind my office and convinced a man pounding fufu to let me have a go for a while. It made for a good photo, I think, but apparently my technique needs work.

Around lunch time, my colleagues at work threw a small party for me, and presented me with several gifts, including a shirt, a beuatiful piece of cloth, and bracelets. Their generosity was touching, and their kind words made it all the more sad to think that I will likely never see most of them again. I will make sure to keep in touch as best I can, and to spread the word in Canada about the good work they and CCI are doing.

October 4 - 5. Last days

This week was my last at WiLDAF. It's hard to believe my five month adventure is rapidly coming to an end. In some ways it feels like I've been in Ghana for ever, but mainly it feels like the time has flown by. This week I helped edit a couple articles for publication and put the finishing touches on a Toolkit WiLDAF is creating to explain the UN's Universal Periodic Review process and the way in which NGOs can get involved in it.

Sign

Sign

Everywhere a sign

Blockin' out the scenery

Breakin' my mind

Do this

Don't do that

Can't you read the sign?

October 2. Wedding bells and gender equality in action

On Saturday I attended the wedding of my work colleague Frank. It began with a rowdy church service with plenty of singing and dancing in the aisles, and continued at an outdoor reception which also involved a fair bit of dancing. There were easily two hundred and fifty people in attendance, but I was told it was on the small side for a Ghanaian wedding.

It was very nice of Frank to have invited me, and my colleagues also surprised me with a traditional African shirt which I wore for the occasion. The wedding also marked the first time I’d seen a groom have a ‘best lady,’ as another member of WiLDAF, Abigail, was asked to act in that role.

September 30. A fond farewell to a weekly tradition

This Thursday was my last Quiz Night. I went out with a bang, despite the fact that we finished second place by an agonizing half point, as I won the pint chugging contest that determines which team wins the beer round (the prize being a round of beers for all team members) whenever there’s a tie for first. In this case there was a five-way tie, and our designated chugger and current world record holder Andrew the Kiwi was out of town, forcing me to reveal a hitherto hidden talent.

Most interesting question of the week? What is the only US state without a ‘major’ airport? A: Washington crossing the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

September 28 - 29. Sensitization seminars

This week, my last full week of work at WiLDAF, we put on two more seminars to increase awareness of the Property Rights of Spouses Bill and get public input into how the Bill could be altered. On Tuesday we held a session for members of the media, and on Thursday for members of selected women’s groups.

September 25 - 26. Ada Foah

On Saturday a group of six of us went to Ada Foah, my favourite spot in Ghana with the exception of Mole National Park. We stayed overnight at a beautiful spot on a spit of sand separating the Volta river from the sea. Initially we tried to drive along the beach all the way there, but became stuck in the sand. So we had to climb out and dig ourselves free while a small group of Ghanaian men and teenage boys watched, to our irritation, without lifting a finger. When we asked them if they’d mind lending a hand they asked how much we’d be paying them. After a while, a sizeable crowd developed and a few older women and young kids gladly jumped in and helped us dig and push. I thought seeing their grandmothers pushing a car out of the sand might shame the guys into taking over, but I thought wrong.

All in all the experience reminded me a lot of digging cars out of snow in the winter, except that this effort took place on a beautiful beach in over 30 degree heat.

Afterwards we parked the cars and took a boat over to our accommodation, which is the way less adventurous and wiser people generally get there. It was great to be out on the water taking in the beautiful scenery. This was something I’d done before actually, during my first week in Ghana with Kathy and Keith.

The place we stayed was great, with clean fresh water for swimming on the estuary side and violent surf on the other. We even saw a mother turtle burrowing in the sand during the night.

September 23. No substitute for victory

There was no stopping us this week, as we once again won at Quiz Night. Most interesting question of the night: which is the second most populous continent? A: the one I’m writing from.

September 22. Meeting Annie

On Wednesday WiLDAF got a visit from Annie Zawadi, CCI Program Officer for Ghana and Togo. After chatting briefly with Annie at work I got to know her a bit better over dinner with Gabrielle and Ji-Young in the evening.

September 21. Fore!

Today was a national holiday in honour of the birth of Kwame Nkrumah, so I had the day off work. My friend Andrew, a volunteer from New Zealand, and I played nine holes of golf at a local course. The greens – which were actually called browns, since there’s nothing green about them – were a bit tricky, given that the amount of loose sand varied from hole to hole and often even between the ball and the cup. It was good fun, even if the course was not quite up to PGA standards.

September 17 - 19. Another weekend in Accra

On Friday evening I attended a concert featuring drumming and dancing at the Alliance Francaise. Saturday afternoon Duncan and I meet with Ji-Young, another CCI intern working in Accra, and an American named Brian that sometimes plays soccer with Duncan and I. We had a drink at a nice bar on the beach in the Jamestown area of the city, and then stopped in at the British High Commission Club for their curry night. The following day Duncan, Brian, and I went to another Ghana Premier League soccer game, and then stopped by at Labadi beach to watch the sun go down. Labadi is absolutely packed with Ghanaians on the weekend, and there’s a ton of activity, with acrobats, jugglers, guys selling rides on horses, and lots of crafts and trinkets for sale.

September 13 - 17. A busy week

This week was a bit of a busy one, as I scrambled to send off an application for a doctoral scholarship that, as I found out on Monday, was due in by Friday. I also drafted an article about WiLDAF’s training activities designed to increase women’s participation in next months local government elections, which will be published in CCI’s newsletter, “Sankofa.” I did, however, make time for Quiz Night Thursday evening, where we came in a solid second, just a point or so behind the winners.

September 3 - 5. Go Dwarfs!

After things wrapped up in Axim on Friday afternoon, it was time to meet Duncan and a big group of friends at a beach resort 25 minutes west of Cape Coast. From Axim I caught a ride back west with my WiLDAF colleagues as far as Takoradi, where I then caught a tro-tro towards Cape Coast and finally a taxi to the resort.

The resort was quite nice, and we did a little swimming and played cricket on the beach. On Saturday we all headed in to Cape Coast for the Oguaa Fetu Afahye festival. The streets were teeming with people, and we watched as seven local chiefs were paraded around town while held aloft in decorated wooden beds. This being Ghana, where one uses one’s head to carry just about anything smaller than an SUV, each of the beds was held up by four men standing under the corners. This job was perhaps only slightly better than that of the poor guys that had to walk the parade route carrying huge drums on their head while another dude just behind them ceaselessly banged on the drum in an apparent effort to increase profits for those in the hearing aid manufacturing business.

On our way back to Accra on Sunday afternoon we again stopped in Cape Coast, this time to watch a Ghanaian Premier League soccer game between the Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs (best team name ever) and the Accra Mighty Jets. The atmosphere was quite good, with the quality of the soccer probably just below that of the Vancouver Whitecaps.

August 29 - September 3. A Field Trip

On Sunday I awoke at 5am to catch a taxi to the STC bus station, where I hopped aboard a bus to Takoradi, in the Western Region of Ghana. Once in Takoradi I was picked up by John, a lawyer who works in WiLDAF’s Takoradi office, and taken to meet the rest of the Accra WiLDAF team. When I reunited with them I was told that there were actually two groups heading to train women in two different communities, one being a small inland village called Tarkwa, and the other a beachside town known as Axim. I was given the choice to spend the week in either place, and opted for Axim and the beach.

The week-long session seemed to go very well. My role was to record the goings-on of the sessions in order to compile a report afterwards. My task in this regard was complicated slightly by the fact that about 75% of the conversations during the week occurred in the local language, but I was able to get a decent handle on things through the other 25%, plus some helpful translations from the rest of the WiLDAF crew, John, Mercy, and Richard.

Monday through Thursday were taken up with group work and brainstorming on issues such as leadership and communication skills, how to advocate effectively, and identifying sex and gender roles in Ghana. On Thursday afternoon, WiLDAF assigned the participants (about 25 in total) to five groups encompassing a number of local electoral districts and gave each person a dozen posters advocating for an increased role for women in politics. The idea is that these groups will coordinate their own training sessions and awareness-raising activities within these electoral districts, which will hopefully increasing the number of women running for and elected to public office.

On Friday the participants put on a public event at a local outdoor meeting ground to share what they had learned during the week. They were able to attract about 60 people who listened to their short speeches and watched a role play designed to stress the importance of having women in decision-making positions, as well as how to best advocate for that goal.

Overall it was a cool week. It was interesting to get out of Accra and spend a week in a smaller town in a different Region of the country, and it was very encouraging to see how many people are concerned to ensure adequate numbers of women are making important public decisions.

August 26. A Comprehensive Victory

Thursday night being Quiz Night, it was time for redemption. Having finished a distant fifth last week, we brought a large team this time round, adding another Canadian, an American, a Czech, and a South African. The international flavour paid off, as we not only won the Quiz, but also took the beer and tequila rounds – the hallowed trifecta.

August 23 - 27. A Quiet Week at Work

This week was a bit of a quiet one at WiLDAF, as most of the staff was in Cape Coast training women on political participation as part of WiLDAF’s We Know Politics program. I’ll join them for week two near Takoradi on Sunday.

August 19. An Off Week at Quiz Night

Thursday being weekly Quiz Night, it was off to Champs again. The team was largely unchanged from last week, so our confidence was understandably high. However, the competition was shockingly stiff and we tumbled down to a staggering fifth place finish. We figure we’re left with no choice but to increase practices to three nights per week. And if we can’t improve significantly by next week it may even be time to fire our coach.

August 17. Pin Pals

On Tuesday night a group of us went out for Lebanese food and then played a couple games at what I can only imagine is Ghana’s only bowling alley. I complained loudly and often about the lane, which seemed to take every ball I threw to the left just as it got towards the pins, and bowled a fairly miserable 83. During the second game, however, I aimed to the right on every shot and managed the high score of the night with a 133.

My grumbling aside, it was quite a nice bowling alley, and certainly unexpectedly nice for Accra. It’s too bad it’s a good way out of town or else it would be doing a roaring business.

August 15. Ping Pong

On Sunday Duncan and I spent the afternoon at Ashley and Matt’s, where they were hosting some friends and having a table tennis tournament in their yard. It was good fun, although I went 0-2 in the competition.

August 12. Trivial Pursuits

Tonight Duncan and I thought we’d once again bring our encyclopaedic knowledge of trivial things to Champs for Quiz Night. This week the group included Gabrielle and Andrew, as well as Greg, a half English, half French journalist, his Uruguyan housemate, and our friend Ashley from California. Our international ensemble blew away the competition and walked away with a well-deserved first place finish. We look forward to defending our title next week.

August 9 - 13. The Work Ahead

This week at WiLDAF it was decided that I’ll create a number of further Question and Answer documents for uploading to WiLDAF’s website. For now I’m working on the general structure of the legal system, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Property Rights of Spouses Bill, the Universal Periodic Review, and the rather excruciatingly named Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

August 7. Weekend Getaway

Saturday morning found Duncan and I picking up Gabrielle and Andrew, a New Zealander volunteering in Accra, and heading out west along the coast to Bojo beach. Once there we crossed an estuary about 80m wide and were deposited on a long sandbar made of almost white sand. The water was surprisingly cold at first (much colder than I’ve experienced anywhere else in Ghana) and there was a bit of an undertow, but overall it was nice for swimming.

We had a nice lunch at a restaurant on the beach, played some cricket on the sand, went for another swim, and then headed off a little further along the coast to Kokrobite Beach, where we stayed overnight at a popular guesthouse called Big Milly’s.

August 4. We have Lift-off

Today was the official launch of We Know Politics II. The festivities were set to kick off at 9am, so naturally three of us – myself and Richard, who were in charge of playing the slideshow I created yesterday, and Samuel, the WiLDAF driver – headed off to the Ministry of Local Government at about 10:10. Our mission was to inquire as to whether the Minister would be attending later that morning. That’s right, three of us went to do this job, while any one of us could have accomplished it in a fraction of the time with one phone call. In any event, we managed to arrive back at the launch just as things were kicking off – over 90 minutes behind schedule.

The launch itself went quite well, and the slideshow and Bernice’s speech were well-received. There were probably over 300 people in attendance, including the Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs, a female Chief, and a bunch or representatives from Western aid organizations that are contributing to the project financially. There was even a live band. Overall it was a very celebratory atmosphere.

August 3. Countdown to Launch

At work today things were a little hectic because of the impending launch of “We Know Politics II”, a three year campaign to increase the number of Ghanaian women in decision-making positions. I was asked to create a movie/slide show to provide a look back at the successes of the first phase of the project, “We Know Politics I”, and write a speech for Bernice Sam, the head of WiLDAF Ghana, to deliver at the event.

I was able to get both tasks done to my satisfaction, despite the fact that I’d never used Windows Movie Maker before, and despite the version installed on my computer being a French one (not much good to this Anglophone, nor to any of my Ghanaian colleagues). I look forward to attending the launch of the project tomorrow, as I’m told it will be attended by hundreds of people, including representatives of donor organizations and members of the press.

After work Duncan and I decided to combine a trip to the grocery store with dinner and a movie. The theatre is at the Accra Mall, which is a really nice, modern mall on the north edge of town. We figured we’d eat at a pizza place there that does 2-for-1 pizzas on Tuesday night, only to find that the wait time after ordering was over two hours! Not willing to wait this long, we went elsewhere, then did a rushed shop before the movie started.

The film we saw was Inception, with Leonardo DiCaprio, and it was quite good. There was a brief, unscheduled intermission as the power went out for a few minutes, and there were two rather loud and vulgar verbal arguments that broke out during the course of the movie, but it was a beautiful, comfortable theatre just like any back home. I definitely plan on going back to see another movie or two before leaving Accra in October.

July 31. The hills are alive...

This Saturday night Duncan and I met up with Gabrielle, a fellow CCI intern working in Accra with Abantu for Development, and went to see The Sound of Music at the beautiful National Theatre. That’s right, The Sound of Music done by an all-Ghanaian cast. There were certainly a few slightly surreal moments, for instance watching Ghanaians yodelling and portraying Nazis, but all in all it was a great experience. Maria held the show together, and could actually act and sing, something that couldn’t really be said of most of the other cast members.

One of the biggest problems was the sound quality. Only some of the players had microphones, and the distribution of the mics seemed almost random. Further, there was a fair bit of distortion and feedback, which, combined with the Ghanaian accent, made it quite hard for me to understand the lines. The audience too was an integral part of the experience, since, while they seemed to enjoy the performance whole-heartedly, they felt no compunction about hooting and jeering if someone really missed a note, or cat-calling the Baroness when she came on stage in a particularly tight dress.

July 28. Back on the Pitch

After work today I made a successful return to football. The leg was a bit sore but overall fairly well healed.

July 27. Au revoir

On Tuesday I visited Genee’s school, and watched as she gave a lesson to the kids. It was miles better than the ridiculous rote memorization that their normal teacher relies on. I witnessed some of it and could hardly stop myself from laughing as she rapid fire style ‘taught’ them: “u-p, ‘up’, u-s, ‘us’, a-t, ‘at’, i-n, ‘een’, i-t, eet” etc. She was going so fast that none of the kids would have any chance to understand what she was spelling, and even I couldn’t follow all of it. But the kids were suitably talented as parrots so all was well. After Genee taught for a while we went outside and blew bubbles for them, which made them all go clinically insane.

After work we went to the airport as Genee’s flight was to leave at 1am the following morning. There was some hope that she could stay for a couple extra days as the flight was overbooked, but unfortunately there were some no-shows so she had to leave as scheduled. Thank goodness for Skype.

July 26. Back to the Salt Mine

Today it was back to week after my work off. The office was quite quiet as most of my colleagues were in Cape Coast for a week-long training session.

July 23. Return to Accra

Today Genee and I stopped by the local craft market in Kumasi and bought a number of items including several masks. Then we hopped aboard another STC bus back to Accra. The journey was uneventful, except for the simultaneously annoying and hilarious Ghanaian soap operas we were subjected to on the bus’s tv system for the entire duration of the trip.

July 22. Back to Kumasi

Today again started at the ungodly hour of 3am, as we hitched a ride with a German family back from Mole, through Tamale, all the way to Kumasi. The reason we went back to Tamale, which isn’t actually on the road from Mole to Kumasi, was because the family was stopping in a village near there to pick up a family friend who had stayed there overnight.

The family friend turned out to be the chief’s daughter, so the village insisted we all stay around for a traditional dance. Before we were treated to the dance we were led into a small house where we sat on wooden benches amidst a bunch of laundry hanging out to dry and were served tea. Just as we had poured the tea, though, we were led back outside as the dancing had started. It was fairly entertaining, and certainly not something one sees everyday in Canada, but we were left with a sour taste in our mouths as afterwards the Germans were basically made to donate money to the village as a fee for watching the performance.

After all this had been negotiated, it was time to head back down to Kumasi. However, while we were watching the traditional dance the bus had been taken to a local garage for a quick once over. It returned soon after the dance finished, but then it was decided that it needed to be washed, so we had to wait around another 30 minutes for that to happen. Genee and I were not too put out, as we were only heading as far as Kumasi, but the German group was headed all the way back to the coast – about a 20 hour travel day – so they weren’t all that pleased with what turned out to be a four hour layover in Tamale.

July 21. "Baboons to the left of me, baboons to the right of me..."

Our second day at Mole we got up early (although not in comparison to the day before) and did a walking safari at 6:30. It was a small group of four – me, Genee, and a Flemish couple we befriended the day before. The walk was about three hours in total, and we saw basically everything we did the previous day, although this time we came upon the elephants at a large watering hole. We stayed there just watching them splash around for about a half hour. As we were leaving we caught sight of a crocodile, but he wasn’t up for trying to chomp on an elephant and was giving them a wide birth.

In the afternoon we lounged around the motel’s pool and watched as the baboons launched periodic raids on the dining area, at one point even entering the kitchen. One particularly bold baboon ran over to a table and stole a bottle of salad dressing, then screwed off the lid and sat on a concrete block and licked out the dressing. When he’d apparently got all he could by this method he poured some out and licked it up off the concrete. All in all I’d say the guests were probably only slightly more amused than frightened by the baboon attacks.

July 20. Holy Mole

We rise dark and early at 3am, as we’ve been told we must get to the bus station well before 4am to secure tickets on the bus from Tamale to Mole. The drive there is slowed by the dozens of sleeping goats and sheep sprawled out on the road. They disperse and let us past after some honking, put seem put out to be doing so.

At the bus station nothing happens for almost half an hour – just a few dozen people sitting sleepily in chairs at the open air station. When an official with the bus company arrives we find out the bus to Mole only runs once a day, at 1:30pm. But we’re told there’s a bus to Wa in the upper west region of the country that goes within 5km of Mole. We decide this is the best option, only to be told that the bus is already full.

At this point we make a friend named Kumara who suggests we take an 8am bus to the Damongo junction, about half way between Tamale and Mole, and try our luck finding a tro tro the rest of the way. Figuring that this is better than waiting around until 1:30, we find a bus company employee who walks us over to the line up for tickets to Damongo. After standing in the pitch dark for 20 minutes we’re told that it’s actually the line for tickets on the Kumasi-bound bus. We are not amused.

Next we thought we’d give the Wa bus another try, and fortunately it turns out that they are now into the standing room only ticket allocation. So we buy tickets and squeeze on, the second and third to last people let on. Three hours of sitting on our backpacks with peoples knees in our backs later we arrive at Larabanga, and take a motorbike the last 5km to the Park.

Since we left so early, we have plenty of time on our first day to do an afternoon safari. We lucked out and met a group of Dutch girls volunteering in Kumasi that came with their own vehicle and driver. So we piled into their truck and went on a guided vehicle safari. We saw plenty of antelope, warthogs, monkeys, baboons, and – the highlight by a wide margin – elephants. In fact, we were able to get out of the car and walk to within about 20 metres of the elephants, who munched away unperturbed.

July 19. Kumasi to Tamale

On Monday, Genee and I took a quite comfortable, air-conditioned bus from Kumasi to Tamale, a journey of about 7 hours (although the bus left about an hour late). Unfortunately, we didn’t get to do much in Tamale besides have dinner, as we were told that we would need to be at the bus station by 4am in order to buy a ticket to Mole National Park, our next destination.

July 16 - 18. The Journey North Begins

Today at work I finished composing FAQs on legal issues of importance to women in Ghana. The areas covered were domestic violence, marriage, children’s rights, wills, and intestate succession. Hopefully the FAQs will find their way onto the website soon so that visitors to WiLDAF’s website can put the information to use.

With Duncan as companion and chauffeur, Genee and I set off towards Mole National Park in the northwest of the country. We plan to be about 9 days until returning to Accra, meaning that I’ve had to take almost all my vacation time in one block.

Our first night was spent at an Arboretum a little over half way along the road from Accra to Lake Bosumtwi, a swimmable lake just south of Kumasi created by a meteor impact. In the morning we took a short hike through the forest/jungle and then headed off to the lake, where we stayed in a very nice guesthouse with a private beach. All three of us swam without concern for the dreaded bilharzia parasite, which is something I don’t think we could do anywhere else in the country. It was a beautiful spot, surrounded by lush hillside, with fisherman seemingly paddling their one-person boats with dinner plates. (Apparently there’s a taboo on the normal long-tailed, motorized fishing boats because the lake is considered sacred.)

The next day Duncan dropped us off in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city, and historical centre of the Ashanti empire. There Genee and I walked through Western Africa’s largest market, purchasing one belt but passing on the live chickens and one cedi (about 75 Canadian cents) used jeans.

July 15. A Stellar Perfomance at Quiz Night

Today was Genee’s last official day at the Lotus Children’s Centre, although she plans to be back for a visit before leaving Ghana at the end of the month. After work we met up with Duncan and a couple American friends of ours and headed to Champs Bar for Quiz Night. We finished in second place, good enough for a prize of 30 Cedis. On the health front, my leg seems to be getting better slowly.

July 12. A New Diagnosis

Having finally gotten the x-ray of my leg back, the doctor determined that the bone is fine. Instead, it seems like a bunch of blood has seeped out and caused an infection. I’ve been given antibiotics and hopefully that will clear it up soon.

July 11. The Finale

This evening Duncan and I watched the World Cup Final at the British High Commission Club. It was far from a classic, but I found it quite exciting during extra time and the last 15 minutes of regulation. And while I was rooting slightly for the Netherlands I was pretty glad that penalties were avoided.

On the topic, I have another brilliant rule change for FIFA: make extra time sudden-death, and force each team to remove one player every 10 minutes after the original 90 until a goal is scored.