Trip to visit Auntie at her farm near Parika

Well finally I am back to updating my blog, there has been lots of work, travel, events and great food since my last update. We just got access to Internet so I hope you will enjoy some of my reflections and pictures as much as I have enjoyed living in Guyana. 

A few weeks ago we traveled with Ravi & Melissa, volunteers from Victoria, BC to visit Ravi's Auntie. ( I still don't know her name). Ravi was born in Guyana but as many other thousands of Guyanese people his family moved to Canada for more opportunities. Auntie is a divorced women of two adult children, she runs her own farm on 10 acres, travels to Georgetown every day (on a mini bus 1 hour each way) with fruit from her farm to work at the Staboerk Market, then returns home to look after her house and family. That is her typical day but right now Auntie also has recurrence of breast cancer, she recently had a mastectomy and is undergoing radiation in the mornings before she starts working at the market. It was an humbling but fun experience to spend time with such a hard working, courageous and strong woman. 

We traveled to Parika in a mini bus and then followed a side road for quite awhile to a community along the river called St Lawrence, that is where her home and farm is located. When we arrived we were treated to freshly made chow mein and fresh pineapple juice. I thought that was lunch but she was just getting started! 

Her house is also on stilts and underneath the living quarters was an small kitchen and sitting area with hammocks, chairs, lots of kids, dogs and a parrot. Pictures below. I followed her into the kitchen and watched as she made curry chicken in this magnificent cast iron pot in the shape of a bowl on a gas burner. Next we learnt how to make Green Mango Achar, warning VERY HOT and very popular with the locals.

Following lunch the kids in the neighbourhood took us for a walk to the creek, by the time we found our way through the fields and forest in the hot afternoon sun, our feet were chewed up by the most annoying ants in the world and I was beyond hot & sticky. Without thinking I slipped off my sandals and jumped into the creek after the kids, clothes and all! As soon as my feet landed on the bottom of the murky creek I sunk up to my ankles in mud. Ugh !  Thank goodness there were were no pictures from that mini adventure, my clothes were soaked and I was covered in mud from head to toe after trying to scramble out of the creek and climb up the bank.

To end an amazing visit we followed Auntie through the fields, across another river and through the rain forest to get to her farm. Again, in sandals and shorts the ants and mosquitoes feasted on their own human buffet. 

 Lesson for next adventure: BRING SHOES IN KIT BAG

mini bus to Parika 

Auntie's House 

Auntie

Hammock under sitting area 

 

Mixing the curry 

Veggie's for the Chow Mein 

Green Mangoes

Freshly made red hot pepper sauce

Green Mango Achar 

Living Room

Trekking to the farm 

Hot Pepper Plants

Auntie trimming new lime trees

Freshly cut sugar cane snack

Katahar 

Next update:  Diwali in Guyana 

Send people, not aid money.

Send people, not aid money.

My House on Stilts

After staying a few weeks in the Rima Guest House in Georgetown Cheryl and I have now moved into our home on stilts.

We are located about 6 km East of Georgetown and not too far from the Atlantic Ocean. The coastline is protected by a sea wall which was built by the Dutch many years ago to protect Georgetown from flooding.

Sea wall on a nice day

We also have a beautiful yard with Guava, Star Fruit and Mango trees.

I am quite confident that we are secure in our home, there is a steel gate with a padlock at the front and rear entrance and every door and window have steel bars. It takes me four keys and at least 5 minutes to either leave or enter the house!
Cheryl from Nova Scotia is my roommate and she is volunteering at Caricom as a Gender Adviser for one year. We get along famously, share similar interests and she is a great cook!

Cheryl
 

Getting to work in the morning is a learning experience. I take mini bus 44 into town but even at 7:30 in the morning they are full; after a few days I am starting to catch on to the local tricks. Get on the bus going the wrong way and within a few minutes it starts to fill up and then they turn around and go back into town. As in Ghana I seem to be the only " white" person travelling with local transport unless of course I am travelling with the other volunteers.

 


A little bit about the Sea Wall

The Sea Wall is a 280 mile seawall that runs along much of Guyana's coastline, and all of the coastline in the capital city of Georgetown. It protects settlements in the coastal areas of Guyana, most of which are below sea level at high tide.



Length 280 miles

Sea wall on a bad day

 

Not unusual to see animals on the sea wall

 

Liming at the Seawall - or "hanging out"

The most famous stretch of seawall in Guyana is the Georgetown seawall. On Sunday evenings it is a a very popular place for relaxation, family time, social liming, exercise activities, music and food.

 



Send people, not aid money.

Send people, not aid money.

Off the Beaten Track

Today I board the plane for Canada, thankfully I have finished my work for ABANTU so I have short amount of time for another blog. For now I will hold off any final thoughts regarding my trip to Ghana and working with ABANTU and give you another update in a few days.

I want to share with you some of my journey this weekend to Sabin Hills, a small village in the Central Region of Ghana. I was invited by Evan ( young man the worked at the guest house) to travel with him to meet his family and visit the village. In hindsight I now realize how significant that visit was for Evan and his family, and unfortunately I had to manage some expectations but more about that later.

I understood the trip would take perhaps three to four hours and the distance on google maps is about 283 kilometres. We took a Tro Tro from guest home to Keneshie Market at 4:30 am , the first bus was full and we finally got settled on the second bus at 7:30am. We arrived at Dunkwa On-Ofin at 3:30pm, but the last vehicle to the village had already left. After some serious negotiating we settled on a fare by taxi to the village, 45 km and 2 hours on a very bumpy dirt road we arrived at the village.

Evan's grandfather ( by namesake) travelled with us and led us through the town on arrival, believe me I completely underestimated the attention I would draw as we walked.

R-L
Evan, family friend, Grandfather & Chief, Auntie, Grandfather ( namesake)










After arriving and meeting the family we settled into a meal of bean stew, boiled yams and boiled plantains. I had to eat two meals; one served by Evan's Mother and one served my Evan's Auntie. Unlike Canada the men eat seperately from the children and women, as a guest I was expected to eat with the men. The meal was prepared with produce from his mother's farm on an open fire.




Cooking Kitchen










The evening was spent sitting on a log bench under a tree and under the stars, playing with the children meeting new people as they stopped by the meet the Obruyni. I made history that night, as I am the first white person to ever stay overnight in the village, previous visitors  come in for the day and take accommodations in the city. Off to bed early, as in Ghana everyone gets up either before or at sunrise ( 4:30am).

The next morning was spent drinking Milo, eating bread, bathing with a bucket in the bath house and cleaning up around the property. Grandfather arranged for a taxi and I spent the next few hours meeting the King, the Chief, other family members and church elders. There was a funeral that day in the village and there were many visitors, everyone dressed in either black or red. As a guest I found out I had to attend the funeral, meet and shake hands with the family and their elders, unfortunately I was not expecting to attend a funeral and had to go in my shorts and sandals .

The next stop on our tour was the gold mines. The Central and Ashanti Regions of Ghana are well known for their gold mining, unfortunately only foreigners and perhaps high level government officials really benefit from the gold mining. The government owned mine closed 15 years ago and now the Chinese run illegal gold mines. They pay the local land owner some money to extract the gold from their land, employ local men & women to work in the mine for a pittance. I was able to walk throughout the open pit mine, it was very very hot, terrible fumes, no safety equipment and generally intolerable working conditions. Once they have extracted the gold they are supposed to fill in the pits and return the land to a point where it could be farmed again. Surprise, no way the foreigners just leave this big hills and holes of dirt with no reclaimation efforts and too far away from the capital for the government to monitor the activities.

The ground is excavated and the dirt is shovelled into bags and carried by the women or put into the machines directly

Jan " Gold Miner" putting the gravel mixed with sand into a grinder, after which they run it through water several times.

A girl can work up quite an appetite after mining for a gold, so back to the village for lunch; fou fou and light soup ( ground nut paste, pepper, chicken & tomatoes).

With a full tummy we decided I better travel back to Dunkwa on Saturday evening since there were no vehicles travelling back on Sunday. Again after much negotiating we found a reasonable drive with a taxi driver and the lottery guy. In Dunkwa we staying with Grandpa and his family, a wonderful family and great hospitality. They sent me back to Accra with fresh oranges, papayas, coconuts, bananas and nuts despite me explaining it was too much to carry on the Tro Tro.

Sunday morning I left for Accra by Tro Tro at 9:00 and arrived home by 6:00 that evening, feeling tired, dirty and blessed that I had been treated to such wonderful hospitality and kindness.

See you all soon in Canada!



Asamankese cont'd---- Radio Stars and Children

So it is friday morning in Accra, I have finished drafting both the Strategic Plan and the Monitoring Plan. Yeah !! Next step; circulate, make changes and next week write the final reports.

I want to finish my story from the other day, before the power goes off and I lose access to internet. (three days already this week).

After spending a couple hours at the market we were wandering through town when we heard voices calling "Obruni" (white person) from above. We looked up and the young man that was sitting behind us on the Tro Tro from Accra was trying to get our attention. Our curious nature led us to respond to his invitation. We quickly learned that he had a recording studio and he wanted to tape us on his radio station. Right away Meliss and Jo-Ann were in the booth to play around with recording their voices.

Jo-Ann in the recording studio, later on Melissa, myself and Dewise all gathered in the booth to record the following message:

I am Jo-Ann, Melissa and Jan and we are from Canada. We wish Ghana a peaceful election in 2012, happy voting Ghana ...... cheering,clapping sounds..........





I can't leave Ghana without expressing my absolute delight and joy I have experienced with the various children that I have met. Everywhere we go the children call out "Obruni", they come running, laughing and full of curiosity. They absolutely love having their pictures taken and get so excited to see their image on the camera screen.

Saturday afternoon we decided it was time to have a football match with the children at a school very close to the guest house. I| know what you are thinking, does Jan play football?  No, you are right I don't, but I was the photographer and cheerleader. Melissa and Jo-Ann initially started playing against about 10-13 boys, when eventually someone came along, stopped the game and recruited a few more players for the girl's team. We gathered a large crowd and it wasn't long before the girls were scoring goals, much to the surprise of the boys!

Sunday morning we went to Church with Auntie Jo, owner of the guest house. I don't have the creative writing skills to adequately describe the beautiful fabric and dresses that the women wore to church that day, and it wasn't appropriate to take pictures. Church was three hours long and included dancing, singing, group bible study and an hour long sermon; all of course in Twi. Then all of a sudden we hear that word " Obruni" again, the minister is calling us to the front of the church to introduce ourselves, again we were reluctant celebreties.

While leaving the church everyone wanted to chat with us, have their pictures taken and then I received another marriage proposal.  hahahahah!

After lunch we walked to Melissa school, and then up the side of a mountain to visit a few families that live on the hillside.

Our trek up the hillside to visit the children

He is very curious and moment by moment he walks closer. :))

 

Pure Joy !

Look at the scowl - by the way this is how they eat oranges, peel with knife, slice of top and suck the juice out, then throw away!

Melissa brought colouring books, story books and stickers everyone was colouring and having fun.

She walked with me down the hill and to the roadside.

I am so grateful that humans have the ability to store memories and that I have a camera because I never want to forget that afternoon on the hill.

Cheers to a great weekend!