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.