My name is Jimmy and I am one of the 2012 Junior Fellows from the University of Waterloo Engineers Without Borders Chapter. For the last couple months, I have been working on a project called Sustainable Land and Water Management under the Agricultural Extensions team in Northern Ghana. Below are recent thoughts and observations from my life overseas.
The past week was taken up by the Mid-placement and Team Ghana Retreats. The goals of which are to check-in on JFs, help them reflect on the first half of their placement, and rest and recover.
The Junior Fellowship is a difficult thing, so everyone was grateful to come together for 6 days of good food, good friends, and easy conversation. It was a well-earned break, and an essential time to reflect and re-evaluate our strategies, goals, and attitudes in our placements.
I’ll begin with the fun stuff: story-telling!
All the JFs in Ghana were to meet up in Tamale last Tuesday, and set out for Mole early the next morning. After a day of travel, I got out stiff legged and sweaty into the city of Tamale. I sat at a great place called Guidipass, with a 3-story open-air bar to get a little work done, and try to connect with any other JFs already in Tamale. There I witnessed a waitress trying to herd pigeons into a glass enclosure. For what purpose I can only guess, however she seemed to have a lot of fun, despite losing the only ones she had managed to catch. Later I went to our guesthouse and met up with Naomi, who was fresh in from Nakpayili. Having nothing better to do, I tagged along while she ran some errands in Tamale. We chased down a livestock inputs dealer for an interview, found some carrots(!), and ran into a few other JFs in town. It was great to run around a bit and share stories before joining the whole group. To be honest, I was nervous to meet up with everyone. Tongo rarely sees white people, and I had begun to get strangely nervous around them. It was kind of hilarious.
We met up with another JF, Sarah who lives in Tamale, and went to go check out her place. She has two rooms in a small house among a maze of mansions and government residences. We had a rare treat of nutella with crackers and fruit while speaking of our experiences and having a frank discussion about gender in Ghana. It was very refreshing, however I was dismayed to hear that Sarah seemed to only have negative experiences when discussing women’s rights with Ghanaian men. I mentioned that we must be careful evaluating from a Western rights-based perspective to avoid cultural colonialism. It’s really tricky and frustrating to balance this with the oppression of Ghanaian women.
That evening the whole group gathered at the guest house (called “Presby”). We talked late into the night, catching up and discussing our cultural successes.
The next morning we got up early to take a chartered tro to Mole. We departed on a four-hour, bumpy ride on the rough dirt road into Mole National Park. The ride quickly turned into a continuous forum for discussions surrounding intentionality, integration, and strategy. There were serious conversations as well.
The Mole Motel sits on a small ridge over-looking the park. A vast tract of rain forest stretches below, broken by sections of tall grass dotted with water holes. Within five minutes of arriving, we saw elephants. There were some ten or so elephants bathing in the closest water holes. Even though we must have been at least 500m away, they were massive. They are truly immense and magnificent animals.
We had the first of many excellent meals soon after. The Mole Motel sells a lot of Western food. I was really looking forward to this. However the food, while very close, is not quite like Canadian food. There is a certain amount of Ghana, even in the burgers and spaghetti. Still, it was not TZ, so I was happy.
The rest of the day was centered on reflection and knowledge sharing. We spent a good amount of time presenting on our placements and checking in with each other on energy and motivation levels. The next evening, my favorite session took place. It was called the “Ghanalympics” and featured seven events: Fufu eating contest, Fashion Show, Picture Contest, Rap Battle, Story Contest, Accent Contest, and Azonto Dancing Challenge. The teams were organized around their sectors: Governance and Rural Infrastructure (GaRI), Agricultural Extension (AgEx), and Agricultural Value Chains (AVC). The competition was fierce, but fun.
The next day, we had free time to rest and recover before the tro ride back to Tamale. On Saturday we spent most of the day in team-specific sessions. We divided up into our sector groups (AgEx, GaRI, AVC) and discussed team strategy. The sessions helped us put our work in context, and asked us how our work and progress are promoting the team and it’s knowledge of the extension sector. I also spent a sizable portion of the day combing Tamale for supplies for the up-and-coming Canada Day BBQ. Several of us hit Tamale around noon and bought several pounds of Beef, Guinea Fowl, veggies and nine liters of Fan Ice (the local ice cream).
On Canada Day we had Team Ghana Sessions, where all teams came together and discussed personal development strategies in our placements. We then wrapped up the retreat and headed out to the grill. The BBQ was haphazard but amazing. We roasted fowl, beef kabobs, sausages. I cut tonnes of veggies and at the end there was an ice cream bar complete with bananas, roasted pineapple, nuts and brownies. Almost immediately after, we waddled off to a nearby field to play ultimate frisbee. No one threw up, but the first few minutes were rocky. It was a fantastic Canada Day, and a great way to connect to home and energize. I’m happy we were all together for Canada Day, to celebrate.
The next day we slowly said goodbyes as people drifted out of Presby at various times. I was sad to be leaving people, and at the time somehow demotivated to be going back to my often-frustrating job. However I had a coaching visit with Don before I left. We talked a lot about how I was feeling, the pace of the work, and its prospects for the future. After going over the details and laying out clearly how I felt about the work, we both decided our assumptions and strategy were not productive.
Moving forward, we brainstormed ways in which I could conduct my research independently of the MoFA office. Our resulting plan was to investigate the inner workings of the project, how knowledge and resources are handled, and what is failing, such that the project is so far behind in such an early stage. The conversation was really heartening, it gave me some hope for the coming weeks, and some concrete goals and plans to work towards. I got on the tro to Tongo (even more cramped this time) feeling much better about returning, and a lot more confident in my work.
All in all, the last week has given me a lot of time to reflect on my work and make plans to push it forward in the coming weeks. While I already miss all of the JFs and the retreat atmosphere, I’m excited at the prospect of finally getting some things done. I’m anxious to prove myself and provide high-quality analysis on this project.
Peace, love and happy trails!
Want to read more? Check out my blog for many more thoughts and updates at:
thelongertrail.wordpress.com
More information on the Junior Fellowship program and Engineers Without Borders can be found at:
www.ewb.ca
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