Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Successful Conference!

The conference we hosted last week was totally different from what we had been told, but was great! We had been told it was a board meeting of some different NGOs. But it was a team of top managers from Cadbury\s eastern region, come to Ghana to check out and recommend ways to improve the Adjeikrom Cocoa Tours site. They were a wonderful group, interviewed villagers, the chief, elders, shop owners, the tourist committee, etc. They stayed one night at our guesthouse, and some put up tents in the area around. The one and only night that week that it didn\t rain. Then we all went to Koforidua where they did a presentation of the conclusions they had reached, and broke them out into short term, medium, long term goals, etc. Of course the first thing they think we should work on is electricity to the site, which was great because that\s what I have already been working on.\

The next thing they think we could do is make the visitor center a destination of its own, which we had been working on. I had borrowed lots of crafts, baskets, jewelry, tie-dye, etc, from other PCV sites and made a wonderful display. We have a kente weaver at our site, so they got to see him weave and then buy some of his product. I also sold beer and wine to the team at the end of the day, and they think we could make that a regular thing as well. Stop, use the new flush toilets, have a cold drink, finger the display, and be on your way. But maybe come back next time for the actual tour, which takes you on a trail through the cocoa forest, and shows you every step of the production, from the seed to the final chocolate bar. Anyhow, it was great, and the best part was that everyone from our village who went to the presentation got so jazzed!. They are more invested in the project than before, and I think that will continue. There has been increased activity and interest just since I came, but this whole team made quite a splash! And their report adds weight to our work, and should be helpful when I start working on a grant, or grants, to fund the electricity. I want to do the whole village, and my supervisor is holding out for only the guest house and center, but I will keep fighting for the bigger project. Actually, I think it makes it easier to get funding, since it brings power to more than 40 homes that are without it, but she is going for the quick buck. I get her point, but I\m still working on it. We\ll see.

I don\t remember if I posted earlier about the flush toilets, but that turned into kind of a mixed bag. The minister of tourism has set flush toilets at all visitor centers as a goal for the country, and our NGO sent a contractor to make it happen. The plumbing and porcelain was already installed, but that was all. So they made a septic tank and installed a huge polytank to hold water that uses a gravity flow down to the toilets. I had absolutely nothing to do with it, but the contractor came two weeks after I did so I get all the credit. And I\m happy to get it wherever I can. I have major complaints, but I\m picky. Soon I hope to show you a picture of how the polytank got filled up. A series of women, carrying huge buckets of water on their heads, came up a 15 foot ladder to dump the water into the top of the tank. I know there\s a better way, but I didn\t get to be in charge. And there were two men holding the ladder steady, so it wasn\t all up to the women. And the pump at the nearest bore hole is broken, so they had to carry much further than usual, but...

But it\s still Ghana, and it\s still beautiful, and I don\t itch any more and life is good. See you all next week.

More on the Ubiquitous Black Plastic Bag

They are everywhere, all the time. There is some cultural thing about not carrying anything exposed in your hand. I was scolded by my house mom when I carried an apple out the door with me to class, but I didn\t even then get the full understanding. A PCV whose been here a year used by scarf to cover an apple she was carrying. A young girl returned a book I had loaned her in a black plastic bag. The idea that there is a spot in the ocean bigger than all of Ghana and composed of used plastic doesn\t compute at all. So I heard, from a good source but have not confirmed, that the UK has banned all plastic shopping bags. Totally. No more. We care about the environment. But wait,we do have this machinery we can\t use any more. I know, let\s sell it at a good price to a manufacturer in Ghana! And they did! Why am I not surprised? Remember all those outlawed pesticides? And even those had some redeeming social value for a country where people are hungry, but plastic bags? Gimme a break!

The vagaries of language

We all know that language evolves both cross culturally and generationally. When an American says he\s pissed he means that he\s really annoyed. A Brit who is pissed is too drunk to drive. Although I did once hear an Aussie say that he was pissed at his friend who got too pissed the night before. And the word thong conjures an image of a rubber sandal for me, and something quite different for my 19-year old niece. Actually, post Monica it\s a new image for all of us, but I digress. People in Ghana use thin black plastic bags for everything. The market lady puts two carrots in one, a green pepper in another, and then both of them in a third bag. And you absolutely cannot just put something in the bag you are already carrying, or in your pack. The locals call these plastic shopping bags rubbers. Who knows why? And as a woman of a certain age, that has a totally different meaning for me. And no, not on the foot...those are galoshes. So I\m in Accra, at the Global Mamma\s retail shop which is full of beautiful things hand made by Ghanaian women who are paid a fair wage or a fair trade price for their work. Imagine my confusion when the cute young volunteer says, Come, let me show you the wonderful handbags the women are making out of used rubbers!. Well, I looked, and they are wonderful, but you get the picture.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Birthday Thanks

I really thought that sometime last week somebody would look at a calendar and say, Hey, Deedub has a birthday coming up. But I went to the big city with a friend, whose 62nd birthday was the same week, and we checked into a 3-star hotel. Then went to PC office to check on mail, and had to take a cab to get everything back to the hotel! Cards, letters, all kinds of food treats. And some of it was actually mailed in August..I have the best friends and family in the world.

And the hotel. What can I say. I had been in Ghana four months and two days, but that was the first temperature controlled shower in all that time. When we first arrived we were taken to a school dormitory, two to a room, with an adjoining bucket-flush toilet and a shower. But the water didn\t work, and there is never hot water in a shower anywhere here...or at least not where we have been staying. So I took several a day, actually got all the shampoo out of my hair, pooped in a flush toilet, and swam three times in a real pool, which was absolutely grand. And drank a G^T w/real ice. What a great two days. I kept crying when I opened mail, so I finally took it all back to my site, and opened a few each day.

Sidebar story: Before we first got to the dormitory we had a formal ceremony at PC HQ, with libations, speeches, coconut water, etc. By that time we had been up for more than 37 hours, and it just kept droning on. We were given first aid kits, containing condoms, and a lecture about how you can\t be too careful. And our medical officer made a point of telling me that the last PCV she treated for HIV was 72 years old. So get that smug look off your face and keep this kit with you at all times. We finally got to the dorms and had food, and crashed. Our rooms surrounded a rectangular compound with a big cement porch all around. So in the night I wake up to the sounds of a huge party going on outside my door. At least seven of the kids were playing poker, using the condoms as chips. I have no idea how it all worked out, because I went back to sleep, but I still love the image.

ALERT JERRY SPRINGER: I finally have the news on the boys who were turned into snakes. A fetish priest has confessed that he staged the whole thing, hoping to enhance his reputation. He stole the snakes from the zoo, paid the kids some pettypetty money, and I think had some help with the photos. Anyhow, the kids are in the hands of the juvenile authorities, the voo-doo man has been arrested, and the snakes have been returned to the zoo. Whew! what a relief.

On the science front, I have learned that if you leave two to three inches of steaming water in a bucket on the porch, at least a thousand mosquitos will immediately commit suicide by diving in. You won\t notice this until you have added the cold water and carried it up to the bath house, and are starting to pour the water over your body. Still, I think the mosquito vector people should be interested in this bit of info.

Good news on the job front. We are hosting a conference for 24 people at my guesthouse on October 21 and 22. Coming right up. They are bringing in their own cook and food, but apparently no generators. I think it\s candle time, because although there are kerosene lanterns at the site there is no kerosene to be found anywhere around! I am gathering up "product" from my fellow PCVs, hoping to have baskets, jewelry, shea butter soap, etc., on display in the visitor center as an idea of what we can use to make money for the center.

This is my first crack at on-line since my birthday, but still have to go because I am meeting someone with beads for me. You should not worry that on-line time costs me money...it's about 60 pesua an hour. The ghana cedi, composed of 100 pesuas, is currently trading at about1.46, so it\s no big deal. It's getting here that is hard. Although at the obruni hotel there was a functioning business center, but they wanted 60 pesua per MINUTE.

We are paid six cedis a day, and I am really struggling to live on it. *But I do have some other resources, so it\s more the challenge than the reality. Anyhow, when I was making $27 US an hour I would never consider paying that much for a bottle of wine. Here I have found a very nice Argentinian sauvignon blanc for 3.75 cedis, which is more than half a days pay, but it doesn\t even make me blink! It's all relative. More later.

Miss youall more than I can say. And Hotmail still doesn\t work here, so I can\t reply to anyone with that e-mail. I can download Facebook at this site, and plan to spent a lot of time next week doing that. XXooXX Cheers, dw