It is hard to believe that I have been here more than 3 weeks and I can say with certainty that people in Ghana do their best to make sure you are Akwaaba - welcome! When I am walking back and forth to work the neighbours say good morning and you are welcome, any new people you meet always welcome you to Ghana and they always invite you to share in whatever food they may be enjoying at the time.
I even got a marriage proposal the other evening as I was walking home from work; actually invitations and proposals happen fairly frequently so I graciously decline and keep on my way!
I neglected to include my excursion to Kakum National Forest last weekend while we were in Cape Coast. Kakum has the only Canopy Walk in West Africa and my traveling mates wanted to try out this out on Sunday morning. For those of you know me well, you will understand right away that Jan was not going to walk 50 metres or more off the ground, on a rope bridge through the forest. I don't care how many monkeys or birds I was going to see, so I chose the guided nature trail.
Our guide was such a fascinating and knowledgeable man. He guided us through a regenerated forest and old forest for about one hour. As we walked he would stop and talk to us about the history of the forest and the trees. He explained how the forest was here before anything else so the ancestors got everything they needed from the forest, shelter, food, medicine; even some parts of the trees were used to make textiles.
Work at ABANTU
Things are starting to come together regarding my mandate, the Director returned from the Northern Regions and we have set a date for the Strategic Planning Workshop.In the meantime I am gathering information and getting prepared. We missed two Friday afternoons due to power outages and one day due to flooding. If you remember the rock path through the water in my first blog, you can imagine what happens with a serious rainfall.
There was a huge down pour last week last week which caused major flooding in parts of Accra, 43,000 people were displaced and 9 people died. It is not as serious as the problems in Bangkok right now but serious enough for the people impacted. The problem is more complicated than just too much rain, as in most countries hundreds of people are migrating to urban areas because the rural lifestyle is not life sustaining anymore. They arrive in the cities with no money, build shelters in crowded areas which are often in areas where the water typically flows during the storms. There is often so much waste and garbage in the gutters because there is inadequate waste disposal systems, so then when the rains are heavy the water overflows in the gutters. This of course leads to problems with contaminated water and crops that ultimately provide food and income for the market vendors. It is a very challenging problem for the government to prevent people from settling in these areas and it is even more difficult to develop the services and infrastructure at the same pace as the population grows and migrates.
ABANTU hosts a coalition, Gender Action on Climate Change for Equality and Sustainability, they are building capacity to influence climate change policies from a gender perspective. For the last month they traveled to three Northern Regions of Ghana to create awareness and generate ideas regarding the impacts of climate change on women and gender and disaster recovery. Women are most impacted by disasters as a result of climate change; they do the farming, carry water, take care of children and shelter but they are not involved in decision making and finding solutions.
Today I attended a meeting of the coalition members, despite a lack of funding they are working hard at increasing awareness of climate change,providing educational opportunities in schools and in the local communities on subjects such as alternatives to wood fire burning and recycling waste instead of burning waste. There is so much to learn and so little time!
Day Trip to Bojo Beach
On Saturday of last weekend we decided to find our way to Bojo Beach, highly recommended by Adusei one of the ABANTU team. Being a Saturday we thought we would get an early start so we arranged for the taxi to pick us up at 9:00am. I am not a quick learner, this city wakes up at 5:00am and is really busy on Saturday the most popular market day. It took us 2 hours to travel about 30km, but it was worth it.
Diana -CCI volunteer(left)
Attaah-friend staying at my guest house
You cross a fresh water lagoon by boat to reach the beach.This was Attaah's first time on a boat,she giggled all the way across.
View from the boat to the beach, the shelter also provides cold drinks and food. We shared Malt Guiness (soft drink) pizza, jollof rice and grilled red snapper for lunch.
Local fishermen were close by throwing nets into the water, catching very small fish. They did not speak English and the fish looked too small for eating, perhaps bait?
Did you know that there is as superstition about fishing on Tuesdays? They believe if you go in the water to fish or swim you will drown or have an accident. Yesterday was Tuesday and there was not a boat to be seen on the water for miles.
Home Pride
I have now spent more than two weeks at this guest house. Most of the guests come and go so I don't get an opportunity to meet everyone. However, Attaah and her Mother Beatrice have been staying at the guest house for awhile. They are Ghanaian and Attaah is home for her break from University in China, she is studying Medicine. Beatrice is staying at the guest house with her daughter, she is in the process of moving to Accra. What a small world, Beatrice is a tax inspector and has worked with the Ghana Internal Revenue Authority for thirty years,we had lots to share. They are two beautiful people and everyday I look forward to our conversations in the evenings.
I also want to introduce you to Evan, hopefully by my next update I will have a photo. Evan replaced Micheal last week as the manager at the guest house, he is very conscientious, professional and always working hard. He came to Accra from a small village in the Central Region of Ghana. His mother is on her own raising 5 children, she is a farmer and deaf mute. I believe Evan, although young, is a storyteller. His grandfather was a chief in the village before he passed away and in the evenings he would pass on stories from the ancestors to Evan.
In the evening Evan shares life lessons with me through these ancient stories. He starts with asking me a
question; If you could only rescue one of either; a human being, a lion or a rat from a pit which one would you rescue? I said,"I would rescue the human so he could help me rescue the others.
The Story:
An old man in the village is walking through the bush when he comes upon a very large pit in the ground. Deep in the bottom of the pit a human being, a lion and a rat are trapped.The old man is afraid of the almighty lion so he decides to rescue the rat and the human being. Being the kind person that he is the old man takes the rat and the person back to his home and he takes care of them.
The rat decides he should help the old man so he burrows a tunnel to the rich King's castle.Every week he comes back with food or money for the old man.Eventually the other person finds out that the rat is stealing from the King, so he tells the King about the old man and the rat. The King banishes the old man from his home and the kingdom.
The lesson: You can't always trust mankind!
Keep healthy and happy,I will write again soon.
Jan
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