23. HTKR

so, we took time off from our normal lives to work as volunteers in africa…. did we learn anything? Hard To Know Really. we’re just a few short hours away from departure and it’s hard to find something profound to say or even a coherent message amongst all the newly created memories. in early september we were forced to watch the sunday night movie on television. although I have been told it is a good book, we watched the worst movie ever made - eat pray love. Julia Roberts portrays this weird american character who has hardly travelled and is on some form of journey… very cringe worthy. however nauseating, it was enough to make me think about our trip and how to characterize all that we’ve learned in three simple words. so here we go… Consult. Spend. Judge.

Consult

our first foray into development work has been an incredible experience. I am certainly no expert in this field, but I did learn that there is no single ‘best’ approach to development. in many ways this reinforces the lessons learned from our past work experiences. for all the good intentions and positive attitudes, at some point work has to be done and that is when there is an impact and something to assess. you have to actually do something to generate a result. working with computers in nyc or flipcharts in autsuare, the challenges of how to make more, spend less and change others’ behavior seem to be quite universal. so I guess the lesson is somewhat action oriented and relates to both development and personal work. if our grandparents started businesses with very little, and these ladies in africa have done the same, isn’t that what we should be encouraging more of to alleviate poverty and earn a living– go make something or sell something or do something differently. and yet somehow two reasonably well educated aussies are on the sideline offering services about ‘how’ to do this without having done it for themselves. so I guess in order to achieve something you have to actually go and do it… or in ghanaian terms, you have to ‘go and come’.

Spend

surprisingly spending money on this trip was not as hard to justify as spending time. the benefits have been worthwhile and it’s something I’d love to be able to do regularly. this is one of the things that will go on the list of post travel euphoric ‘I said but didn’t do’… but it is definitely worth a big trip every few years to try and do a volunteer project and some travel. the trip has provided us with an incredible opportunity to consider how we spend our time, how we want to spend our time, and what we would like to get out of it. maybe it’s a late quarter life crisis, or maybe a well overdue review! as they say in ghana ‘make sure you respect your time’.

Judge

Im really good at it. from school to uni to youth movements to work… whatever country or language I am an excellent critic. of course this does not mean I take criticism from others particularly well, but that’s not an important lesson to learn right now. I did however find it harder to judge people in ghana. not the expats (I was great at judging them and quickly) but rather the local ghanaians. mostly because they seem like really happy people enjoying their life. even those who appear to be quite poor still seem really really happy. so the lesson… greet, smile, be happy and give people the time they deserve (then judge them later!).

Things I will miss (or not miss)

•  incorrect use of ‘you are invited’ to offer someone food or ‘you’re welcome ‘ to greet someone
• tomorrow, next time, please-im coming or Im on my way now coming means never
• have you got it? did you get it? I will send it. have you picked it? I will like it.
• being stopped regularly with someone saying ‘I need to oorinate’
• sssssssssss ssssssss to get someone’s attention
• constant tooting and honking in traffic
• smell of deet 
• every person greeting you with a good morning or good afternoon or ‘obruni what’s your name’
• ‘twins’
• walking on the street without fear of stepping into a nuclear waste gutter

22. C-Rice-is Averted

our time in ghana is quickly coming to an end. we had our final week in the field and have begun compiling our final report. fortunately for us (and ghana) we are leaving with the food security position in a much stronger situation than when we arrived. the demand for rice is on the increase, and whilst imports remain a high proportion of the supply, local production is up. i am not saying we are the main reason why the world bank has listed ghana as a country with great economic potential, but i am not denying it either. the numbers speak for themselves. 

our report covered our approach, assessment framework, keys gaps identified and a number of recommendations. whilst we have completed our portion of the work, there is a lot more to be done. it is sad to leave, but i know when we return in several years our rice ladies will have grown into larger and even more successful businesses. again, we'd be wrong to take credit for it but also wrong not to acknowledge our impact on the rice industry in ghana as a whole. 

final photos with auntie becky and evelyn

paddy pre-production

a scenic part of the highway. this is where a police officer once stopped us to ask if we'd like to buy a tv from him for 6 0 GHC

oygen with aligator 

worker catches lizard known as 'alligator' in ghana?

entrance to auntie aggie's

drying rice

oygen drives us to the field

village lady looking unimpressed

nicolas writing on bag 3 of 10,000 - notice she was still smiling at this point

21. You Do Me & I'll Do You

busua marked our final weekend trip to the far west coast. another early morning and bumpy bus ride, but this time we were entertained by ghana's latest and greatest tv series 'you do me and i'll do you.' not quite sure how they arrived at this title, but it made us laugh.

we took a taxi to the shared bus to another taxi, and then finally made it in one piece to our beach side location. the seven hour trip was worth it. the photos below don't quite do it justice. we stayed in a small b&b on the beach owned by a french couple who provided us with delicious meals followed by chocoloate crepes and ice cream.

the beach contained all the standard ghanaian spectacles... fishing boats, goats, sheep, and people carrying random stuff. busua also has ghana's only surf school, so we attempted to surf the very small and gentle waves during the day before relaxing with our monkey friend at night.

we made it.

sunset is nice

our monkey friend

baaa

carrying stuff

20. Amazing

19. I'll Take That Country Togo Please

another early morning to 'beat the traffic' for a weekend away. in a series of events that felt more like an article from the '36 hrs series' in the nytimes than a weekend away, we went, slept and returned fairly quickly.

4.30am Taxi On Shaishie Road

at 4.30am we showered, walked to the main road by our house and caught a private taxi to the shared taxi stand. from here we joined two others for the 3 hr drive to the border with togo.

10.00am Watch Out At The Border

within 10 mins of arrival at the border, we were gate-raped by the ghanaian border police and then by the togolese border police as well as a series of foreign exchange dudes. it was wonderful to see how passports (or lack thereof) have become a reason for citizens to bribe police.

11.00am Their All Smiling On The Inside

we arrived at our hotel. checked-in and decided to take a walk around town and the markets. a smile in ghana is typically met with a smile. an awkward joke or attempt to reference something local is typically met with a positive response and a lot of handshakes and hugs. i tried to use all my charm, everything i'd learned these last few months, but the togolese would have none of it. the people are simply less friendly and not interested.. they refused to smile or even laugh.

12.30am Fight For Independence

we walked around town trying to get a feel for the place.obviously no-one was interested in us at all (must be the french influence) so we made our own way through the markets and attempted to find the independence 

monument. nicolas made friends really quickly (see left)... i seriously only left her for 30 seconds to take a photo of the monument on the right, and look what happened. maybe they are friendly and it's just me?

1.30pm Wild Goose Chase on Art

then we took a much longer drive and walk around town than we'd planned. there is a museum which is a display of a swiss private collection of african art on the outskirts of town. it seems to be the only real tourist attraction in the capital lome, but unfortunately no-one knows where it is. after several failed attempts with taxi drivers and others giving directions, we opted for the more schvitz-enhancing option of walking along the beach and through the market. 

2.30pm Nothing Like Relaxing by the Sewer

we walked along the beach which is quite a picturesque coast line of blue ocean and powdery looking sand. unfortunately the combination of the smell of an open sewer emptying onto the beach (see right)  and the area falling apart (see left) takes it off the swimming/honeymoon destination list.

4.30pm Eat, Read, Relax and Take In Sunset

given the french influence in togo, they are known for good food -at least more so than the ghanaians. and we were not disappointed. the team in our little hotel cooked up a pretty good lincher (a meal we have come to know as the combination of lunch and dinner. it is usually the result of limited access to food due to travel, work in the field or lack of options). we ate, read, watched the sunset with my new nigerian friend who was meeting his american fiance for the first time that night after several years of a facebook relationship. shortly after sunset we went to have a quick rest, which turned into a good night sleep.

6.00am Hike (Or Drive) A Mountain

we woke up at 6am for a ride north west to mt agou on the border of togo and ghana. our plan was to drive out there, hike 2 hrs each way and then jump back in the car for a lift to the border. we arrived at the base of the mountain, paid an entry fee and then began ascending the mountain. the driver and guard at the gate told us the hike was at the top of the mountain where the car would wait for us. about half way up we realized there was no hike and we were in fact driving our planned hike. we got out and walked the rest of the way...

we asked this man to take a photo of us at the top. he failed 4 times and it became apparent that we would need  to take photos with him if we were going to capture the moment. here is my moment with him with nicola snapping. 

12.30pm Check Your Tyres

thud thud thud.. we punctured a tyre and our driver stopped to change it ( i tried to help by providing comic relief). fortunately he had a spare.

1.30pm Meet Interesting Man For Ride Home

the togolese border police had dollar signs in their eyes as we opened our passports to them. "yellow fever certificate" they yelled. nicolas told them she left hers in accra "no problem you pay" they said. then we crossed over and waited for a shared taxi back to accra. the congregation of drivers asked for an obscene amount for the ride home. we negotiated, and offered a reasonable compromise which they would not accept. so we said "we'll wait to fill a car". they laughed telling us no tourists would come and we would pay after waiting. then came the wonderful chance to prove to the drivers that they should 'make hay while the sun is shining'. a man walked through the border and we asked if he wanted to share a car. he said no thank you i have my own and kept going. a minute later he came back and asked if we wanted to join him in his car back to accra. goldschmidt 1, drivers 0.

after about 10 mins of awkwardness in the car, we realized that this man worked for the same organization as us and the conversation opened up. funny coincidence, but also a good one. we then heard 3 hrs of stories of his 15 yrs of development experience. all very interesting and nice way to end the trip.

4.30pm Do The Washing

despite the cynical review above, we actually had a great time in togo...as we were doing our washing at home we laughed about how quickly we entered and exited the country. although i do think it was enough time to see what is a smaller, less developed and french version of ghana.

hanging around in lome... togo's answer to the corner where braschs meets hokka hokka and donut king. 

a whole new perspective on the term 'bag lady'

18. If I Were A Rice Man / Part 4

we're approaching the final stages of our project, and it's nice to feel the work come together. we joined a program wide planning session in tamale up north two weeks ago, and then presented the first draft of our final report to key stakeholders in accra this past week.

the planning session was a unique experience. not only as a chance to observe over 90 people come together as part of the larger program, but to witness the behavioral differences in ghana from other places i have worked. many of the team and regional leads presented their review of the past 12 months and plans / targets for the coming 12 months. typically, i have seen these sort of sessions pass through as a slide fest with a couple of questions here and there, but mostly people try to move through their presentations pretty quickly. not in ghana. presentations are a chance to perform, and a chance for audiences to judge. it feels like ghana's next top presenter where we are on the judging table. presenters stroll back and forth across the stage enjoying their 15 mins (or sometimes 45 mins) of fame. most presenters read word for word off fairly text heavy pages, and ensure they use their allotted time. oddly, this does not deter the crowd. as soon as a presentation ended, someone would stand up and begin the q&a.

sometimes it was death by a thousand cuts

facilitator: do we have any questions
crowd: a summary (often 3-4 mins) to paraphrase the entire presentation followed by "your bullet points were very small on the presentation and i found it difficult to follow what you were saying"
facilitator: ok thank you, that sounds like a comment do we have any questions
crowd: yes, i would like to know why your objectives and activities seem to be mixed up, do you know what you want to achieve
presenter: repeat all of the slides again
facilitator: ok ok, do we have anything specific or a point of clarification
crowd: have you communicated with your team while creating this plan
presenter: which part
facilitator: ok, let's take this off-line... who is the next presenter

whereas other times people went straight for the jugular

crowd: your goals seem very generic, i do not agree with this plan at all
facilitator: ok, let's take this off-line... who is the next presenter

despite all of the above, after 2 days we made it through the plans and everyone was on-board with the next 12 months of activity. this was the perfect time to start circulating early drafts of our assessment, work completed and recommendations. despite a few nervous moments completing our work prior to the session, the work was well received and we are on the right track to complete our project by the end of the month. it is nice to know some of the frameworks and assessment criteria we have designed will be re-used in future work and will have contributed to the overall goal of the program (someone has to pat us on the back!).

nice photo, naughty panda

17. Mole, Malaria, Mavado and Menschs from Brooklyn (in that order)

after spending most of our time in accra which is the south/central region, and then travelling to the east and west for weekend trips, it was time to make the trip up north. the trip coincided with a work event / planning session which is the subject of another blog, but provided an opportunity for us to extend our stay and to check out mole national park.

we flew to tamale on a citylink flight. this involved waking up ridiculously early to 'beat the traffic' to the airport, despite the fact that the airport is about 15 mins from where we live. nevertheless we got up early, left early and of course arrived early only to be told the flight was delayed about 2 hrs. not too bad considering the domestic airport is a tiny room with a bunch of people running around screaming out the flight destination and time. the plane was a 33 seater propeller plane and notwithstanding the delays at the airport, the best customer i have ever experienced...50 minute flight, cheese sandwhich, apple juice and water distributed within minutes of being seated. what more can you ask for?

we landed, checked-in, went to our conference, and then off to mole national park. the park is about 4 hrs drive from tamale in the north west of the country. Although beautiful, and we had an incredible time, it is a sad example of the missed tourism opportunities in ghana. i don't want to get too preachy, but on a daily basis it would be relatively easy to extract heaps of money from tourists, volunteers and others, but for some reason the country is not set-up that way and instead of maintaining things at a price, they are left to rot?! anyway we went with a dutch couple here who are also volunteers and rented a driver & 4x4 for a few days to drive to the park. along the way we bounced up and down on the bumpy potholed filled roads for most of the time, and also managed to kill a goat. this time we stopped to see if we could pay the owner for the loss, but everyone seemed so excited by the opportunity to slaughter the goat and eat it for dinner that a nominal amount was handed over before we quickly moved on. we stopped at the oldest mosque (pronounced moks by the locals) in west africa which was built in 1421.

once inside the national park, we were overcome by a sense of relaxation and calm. we drove to our motel where a wharthog, bok and baboon were waiting for us outside the reception area and escorted us to our room. at reception our dinner order was taken immediately as it apparently takes a long time to prepare
food there. we swam overlooking a waterhole where elephants and other animals come to drink, and went on a walking safari where we came much closer to an elephant than i ever expected. we chased him around and he was easily identified by his one tusk (pronounced tuks). then we went on a canoe down the river just
outside the park. all very beautiful scenery and tours delivered by smiling happy ghanaians. at night we sat outside at the restaurant with a couple of drinks and dinner. unfortunately i was not very sensible about covering up from mosquitoes and on the final night my feet were eaten and literally covered in bites.

we flew back to accra on the morning of our one year anniversary on a flight with a lot of turbulence. this time i enjoyed the experience a little less. it was after this point that i started to feel a little unwell. i was sweating quite a bit (although most of the time here i have been covered in a layer of sweat) sneezing and generally feeling bad. i had also had a pretty bad stomach bug the few days before. we went to accra's top french restaurant to celebrate, only to discover it has a fairly lebanese based menu and that we would be the only people dining there that evening. we ate dinner quickly, both feeling a little sick, and made our way home where we crashed (metaphorically mum, not in a plane or car).... our most romantic anniversary yet!

the next morning i still felt unwell. we delayed our departure to the village in favor of getting a malaria test here in accra. 45 mins later i was told i had the parasite, handed a course of antibiotics and told i would be fine. i asked (pronounced aksed) if i would die, and they told me it was like the common cold and not to worry. they were right, except for the fact that along the way i felt many aches and  pains, sweated a lot and struggled with the most basic bowel control. fortunately i am now fine and 5 days from diagnosis to full recovery is not a bad record - malaria 0, goldschmidt 1.

as i was recovering from malaria on the couch in our palace, i witnessed the arrival of jamaican music star 'mavado' in ghana. he is the biggest dancehall (still not sure what that is) act in the world, and is quite popular here. he has also cleverly named himself after a swiss watchmaker - my rap name is swatch. he was due to play october 1st at the football stadium, but on september 30th he was told not to come, they would play the local derby instead. i am not kidding, that is exactly what the press release said. so he delayed his flights, reissued concert tickets and created pres releases. a week later he showed up outside our home with his entourage of 150 people, 20 motorbikes, 15 4x4's and 1 white guy (not sure why he was there). for two days the quiet royal richester was a hive of activity.

at the same time i finally got a response from my friends at chabad about services for the high holidays. two bocherim were sent from nyc to run prayers at the offices of an israeli company. it was a somewhat surreal event, considering we were in the middle of accra ghana with 30 others celebrating yom kippur. regardless it worked, and felt like a normal shul service which i really appreciated. i am very thankful for the effort made by those guys.

sorry for the megillah, but now you are caught up on our last few weeks. if you have made it down to here then in ghanaian terms "you have done very very well."

waiting for our flight

can that actually fly?

goat (before photo)

it's really crazy how grey my hair is

sometimes when nicola is tired i carry her

one tucks ephelant

the view from our room

two tucks ephelant eating very close to us

possibly the least attractive animal on earth