So the beginning of my trip to the Volta has gotten off to a real rocky start. Waited four hours for the tro tro to Swedro to fill up… which counting the four additional hours of travelling time, meant that I had spent eight hours trying to get to this forsaken town. Ended up getting to the city-village at around 9pm just after the end of the Germany-Turkey game.

Seeing Tanja was good. Seeing the conditions she lived under was surprising to say the least.

She lived in a hamlet about 10mins away where the water doesn’t run, bugs ruled the house and toilets were literally holes in the ground. While I can see why she wouldnt be too happy here, her ability to stick it through was awesome to say the least. I am not sure if I could have done the same thing. But in anycase these were not her primary complaints.

Long story short, Romesh, never forget how one husband controlled and used his wife even when she was the primary breadwinner.

Thats all that needs to be said about that.

For those that come by the blog, it may seem as if either nothing too much is happening with me, or that I am really bad at updating the blog. Let me assure you, the latter is far more the case not to mention that the internet has been lately been fairly little spotty.

And its not going to get better anytime soon. I am leaving to Cape Coast tonight for sun, sand, rainforests and slavery castles. Should be fun times. Will post when I come back.

So I finally met my long lost friend Natasha B. Hasnt changed one bit from what I remember. Fun loving, intelligent and still incredibly cool. She was here with her International Development Masters class from the University of Manchester, who also were good people… However I may not be too impartial… Out of 21 students on the tour, 17 were girls…

Talk about gendered education .

On a serious note though, how is the effectiveness of development studies impacted when the majority of the intellegentsia is female, while the societies they study and work to change is deemed patriarchal? In all my travels here, the stereotypical development worker is young, white, female and all I have heard from some of these workers is how male-dominated development societies are. And dont get me wrong, to a certain extent, I do agree. But the more important question it seems to me is how do you change the power dynamic to make it more equal between men and women… I am not sure I have heard any coherent response especially from the locals.

Again this is not an argument to have male dominated development work. It is oft-stated fact, strong economies are built on more equitable societies… But I am curious whether to have such a major skew in volunteers may be more of a hindrance than a benefit in development work.

One more thing. Today is the day I move in with my host family… Not only is it cheaper, it will also be an opportunity to live a little more like Ghanaians live… though admittedly, I am getting a fair amount of Western living as my host family is part of the upper class.

Today was the day I would be parting with my German friends. First Malte was heading back to his orphanage in Accra in the morning and to see his beloved Germany in Euro (note to all: my backing is for Zizou-less France) while the girls were going to go back to teaching in Swedru. But not before we see how Ghana’s national cloth is made. Called Kente, the cloth is a series of intricate patterns created through an incredibly complex scheme of weaving. Process is incredibly complex, but the work they produce is a little on the awesome side. Best of all I got to be a part of it!!

Spinning the thread

Me and Tanja trying to do straighten the thread

The Kings Weaver

Me trying to fit into the machine

Romesh, the Kente Maker

Ladies and Gent, all decked out.

Had to be a different post because the other post was getting fairly lengthy.

In the evening today, my new German friends took me along to a talent show arranged by the American Peace Corps. While there, I realized to my shock that I have a real strong distaste towards liberal American attitudes and behaviour… Can’t really place why, especially since these Americans had similar values but to a certain degree they represented colonialism… Like adopting the clothes of the Ghanaians but then look down on everything the Ghanaians liked e.g. God, music, song, dance…

I am getting ahead of myself.

The talent show to me was amazingly interesting. The American Peace Corp organized a talent show for the regional schools, with each American bringing two kids. A lot of the kids were incredibly religious, singing and dancing to praise God. I think some kids thought this was the try outs for Ghanaian Idol and so tried their best to sing praise and worship. Some werent top-notch (understated) while others weren’t half bad. Highlights:

A monologue about abstinence and how sex before marriage is foolish

Several newscasts about what had occurred over the weekend (some of these were VERY good)

A tru-et (duet with three people) that gave glory to God

A play put on by the Corps about the typical day in Ghanaian schools

For the most part however I felt the Peace Corps were a little nonchalant – perhaps even severely bored, about the endeavour. Especially the ones grimacing about these overly expressive acts of faith. It may also be that out of 30 Peace Corps there was only one visible minority as well as the overly hippiness of it all. For instance there was this one guy who was definitely in his own little world, with hands clapsed and a manic smile as if he was devising a clever prank to play on the kids…

This is not to say that there werent good Peace Corps people… I loved the fact that some members got up and started jiving with the kids during some of the songs, the gentle mentorship of the Peace Corps, and accepting the kids from where they are…

But overall, the Peace Corps acted white… Its so hard to describe and I am not sure if I have any idea what that means. But for all the clothes and attempts to fit in, the actions of some of the Peace Corps bled Americanism. As the kid given the task to thank the Peace Corp said:

We may be black but our hearts are white

Politics of Skin 101.

p.s. to all those likely reading the blog: This is not to say I hate white people… Fact of the matter is that most of you are likely white and do not act in any way like the American Peace Corp. But you have to be here to see how different you will be treated just because you are a foreigner, and even more if you are a white foreigner.

Woke up bright and early today to take a walk to Kejitya Market and the Cultural Centre… Yes I know, Ive already been there but these German people seemed to be a pretty solid bunch. Not to mention that one of them resembled a certain German girl back in Canada. I was kinda regretting not going to the pool party that KuKuu invited me to last night… I think it would have been a blast…

In any case, the Germans were pretty awesome and knew far more about Ghana than I did… Unlike me, they had not yet had a bad experience with Ghanaian food and so were far more comfortable with buying food from street vendors. Considering that the price for fried rice with chicken is like 1 dollar – I was paying at least five in restaurants – i quickly warmed up to the idea… haha.

The only thing exciting at the Cultural centre was seeing these girls haggle their way down… and I mean no disrespect. I honestly wish I had their bargaining skills. Tanja almost got into a shouting match with a guy as she felt I got a better deal from him than she did, while Suzy wandered around from place to place learning about the art/music/pottery around her… Me and Malte were quite content with the couple of paintings we found.

Exiting from Kejitya, we walked into a wedding celebration. As is now customary, the obroni were welcomed by the locals with open arms, wide smiles and raised eyebrows as we tried to fit in as best as possible. which is quite difficult when you are staring at a beautiful bride, a darkly handsome groom and some amazing wedding traditions. The Ghanaians also started smirked as I started bobbing to the beat unconsciously and then laughed too hard when I realized that they were smiling at me…

We then split up with me and Malte heading to Kejitya Market. Absolute hustle/bustle with no space to move = very uncomfortable Romesh. However the prices of everything was amazing. For instance $1.50 dollar buys two second hand novels. Other than that, nothing too fascinating.

The radio show was AWESOME today! The radio host, Kukuu, of ‘Legal Digests’ is amazing… very jovial (he started talking about his adventures in the pool) but then starts to discuss legal issues in a very focused way. Today, Ernest was over half an hour late, leaving me to discuss the intricacies of adoption in Ghana… luckily Kukuu guided the conversation to talk about what adoption is like in Canada and the difficulties kids face in the process… Which turned out to be very similar to the experiences of children in Ghana.

On a side note, I finally found out a way to record radio on my Zen Vision (which is so much better than the Ipod) and I am now in the process of finding a way to get the mp3 on to my computer…

The day progressed to me intervewing prospective interns for CHRALR. Amma, you’ll laugh at this: the first thing one of the interns said to me was ‘Sir, can you please slow down when you talk? It is difficult to understand you.’ My mouth dropped. Needless to say, she was hired.

Night time, I planned to go out with Kukuu to the poolside for a few drinks but ended up not feeling it… Though we definitely are going out for a couple of drinks later in the week… However started to talk to some German obroni, who may be my travel partners in any future adventures in Ghana… More details later.

The radio show was AWESOME today! The radio host, Kukuu, of ‘Legal Digests’ is amazing… very jovial (he started talking about his adventures in the pool) but then starts to discuss legal issues in a very focused way. Today, Ernest was over half an hour late, leaving me to discuss the intricacies of adoption in Ghana… luckily Kukuu guided the conversation to talk about what adoption is like in Canada and the difficulties kids face in the process… Which turned out to be very similar to the experiences of children in Ghana.

On a side note, I finally found out a way to record radio on my Zen Vision (which is so much better than the Ipod) and I am now in the process of finding a way to get the mp3 on to my computer…

The day progressed to me intervewing prospective interns for CHRALR. Amma, you’ll laugh at this: the first thing one of the interns said to me was ‘Sir, can you please slow down when you talk? It is difficult to understand you.’ My mouth dropped. Needless to say, she was hired.

Night time, I planned to go out with Kukuu to the poolside for a few drinks but ended up not feeling it… Though we definitely are going out for a couple of drinks later in the week… However started to talk to some German obroni, who may be my travel partners in any future adventures in Ghana… More details later.