I've Ghanaway

2007-02-03T07:40:00.000-05:00

Jaipur Pictures

Another view of Jaipur from the Amber Fort.

Jaibargh Fort that is close to Amber Fort. This fort had the coolest rainwater harvesting structures to store water in the fort. It also had an underground tunnel to the Amber Palace for people to get inside when attakers would come- then the entire community would live inside the fort. This is also the site of the world's largest cannon, only test fired because it destroyed people's homes just from the sound.
Amber Fort wall with Jaipur in the background.

Hindu temple in Jaipur

View of Jaipur from the Amber Fort (11km outside of the city) This was another famous Mughal empire fort.
Monkeys have become accustomed to the tourists. Our bus-full was throwing them food in the streets where they were almost run over by the cars.
Amber Palace. This is being refinished and it looks amazing the parts they have been able to repaint and restore.
View of Amber mountains surrounding Amber Palace from the palace gate.
Amber Palace gate.

Inside the Amber Palace.

2007-02-03T07:25:00.000-05:00

Taj and Fatehpur Sikhri pictures.

Carved marble pieces on the Taj.
Melinda in front of the Taj.
Fatehpur Sikhri...entrance to the palace of Akbar. They abandoned this palace after 4 years because of a drought and lack of water.
Entrance to the mosque and holy man temple at Fatehpur Sikhri.
Tribute to the holy man that blessed Akbar with a son from his Hindu wife. This is the "wishing well."
The Taj as you walk through the inside gate.

Big picture.

The Taj is all about symmetry on the left is an identical structure that is a mosque and this was likely a guesthouse for visitors to the Taj.
Semiprecious stone inlay on the structure itself.
Margaret and myself in the gardens.

2007-02-01T01:52:00.000-05:00

Leaving Delhi....

This internet cafe was not the best in Delhi, but I will be leaving the airport tomorrow, Friday, in Amsterdam to have brunch at our client's home in Delft. I'll throw up some pictures before I get home in Friday evening.

The novelty of Delhi has worn off a bit. We've been finishing up the project proposal in the mornings at a coffee shop and then shopping in the afternoon. Someone please get me out of India before I spend anymore money!

I have a few more stories not posted in this blog, including a small collision outside Agra and rubbing noses with the Indian upper class. Sorry this blog hasn't been better written, but those of you who travel abroad know- sometimes you just can't predict what kind of access you'll have.

The project has been really great! I got some great contacts at UNDP to keep an eye out for and a few people in India who seem to think I would be a good candidate to work there, which is always good news!

Check in Friday for pics.

Signing off from India. . .
Melinda

2007-01-29T06:25:00.000-05:00

Weekend Trips

Margaret and I changed our plans a bit and arranged for a day trip to Agra from Jaipur this past Saturday. We had our own vehicle to take us to the Taj Mahal and then to Fatehpu Sikhri on the way back from the Taj as well as guides at both locations. The Taj was as amazing and spectacular as I had imagined. That white marble dome, when you first see it through a dark archway, takes your breath away.

With over 10,000 visitors each day, this is quite the tourist attraction for both Indians and foreigners. For foreigners it's a hefty Rs 750 to see it ($18). Indians can view it for Rs 20. The advantage to paying Rs 750 is that we get a bottle of water and very cool little surgical booties to wear over your shoes when walking around on the white marble. Personally, I'm happy to pay that much if it will help preserve and restore this treasure for future generations.

The King built the palace as a tribute to his second wife after she died giving birth to his 14th child. He meant to build an identical black Taj Mahal across the river, but his son imprisoned him before he could realize that goal. You can see the foundation from the back of the Taj.

Agra has banned all new industrial ventures around the city- since 1994- because the acid rain is deteriorating the pristine white marble. Despite these efforts, winds still blow, and you can see a haze of smog over the city.

We followed this amazing visit up with a visit to Fatehpur Sikhri, which is a palace built by Akbar, one of the Mughal emperors. He tried to unite religions by taking on 1 Hindu wife, 1 Christian wife, and one Muslim wife. His Hindu wife is the only one who bore any children. He attributed this to a blessing given by a local holy man, who is now buried in a separate structure next to the palace. Now, people bring offerings- money, flowers, and cloth- and visit his grave to make a wish. It was a very touching experience walking through the chamber and seeing people place their cloth and flowers.

Sunday we took a day trip around Jaipur and were able to see more palaces and forts. Unfortunately...I'm out of time and the pictures aren't uploading, so check back tomorrow for pictures of the Taj and Jaipur.

2007-01-24T23:42:00.000-05:00

Updated Pictures

Jaisalmer in the morning hours...now imagine those cows roaming with motorcycles, auto rickshaws, cars, pedestrians, bicycles, etc. It's madness I assure you.
View of Jaisalmer Fort at dawn from the rooftop of our safari outfitter.
Crazy Jodhpur shopping district. (I fear for my life everytime I walk out onto the road. If I thought crossing the Bolgatanga road was tough, I was sincerely mistaken.)
Jaisalmer Fort at dawn. (sorry that's not very clear.)

Our camels waiting to take us through the desert

City abandoned 400 years ago by the population because of a dispute with the majistrate.
More ruins from the old city...you can see people have started to take the sandstone for their own homes.
Ken, Top and myself in front of a centuries old cemetary outside Jaisalmer.
The city part of Jaisalmer very early in the morning before the hustle of the day begins.
Overlooking the Golden City of Jaisalmer.

Melinda on her camel with our guide "in training." At just 11 years old he is starting to learn the tourist industry and no longer attends school. The money he makes is too much to pass up the opportunity for his family.
Yeah for Sand Dunes...Top, Melinda, and Margaret.
A better view of the Great Thar Desert.

We're working from Jaipur, but haven't had much time for sightseeing, so I don't have any pictures from here. I know it's hard to believe that we're actually trying to get some work done. I have managed to squeeze in a few shopping adventures though!

2007-01-23T22:53:00.000-05:00

Camel Safari

We departed Jodhpur on Friday evening for Jaisalmer- the Golden City- to take our camel safari in the Great Thar Desert. Arriving in Jaisalmer at 5:15 in the morning we were able to call ahead and negotiate a tour with a hotel, so they picked us up at the train station. We proceeded at 6 in the morning to haggle over the price of the tour that we thought we had already negotiated. I thought we got a fairly good price when he said that we couldn't tell any of the other guests what we were paying- this was contigent on the price.

Our budget safari departed at 9am where we took a 2 hour tour of the sites between Jaisalmer and the drop off point which included a 700 year old Hindu temple and an city that was simply abandoned 400 years ago by thousands of people. Pretty cool stuff.

We got dropped off and each rode our own camel, soon realizing that when they say that camels are not as comfortable to ride as horses that's exactly what they mean. I don't think I could ever do a 5 or 10 day safari across western Rajasthan- ouch! Our guides were low key, cooked our meals and occaisonally sang traditional songs while we were riding.

We got to see the Royal Sand Dunes- a highlight- my first real experience in the dunes and the desert. Most of the Thar Desert is simply scrub brush with these sections of sand dunes popping out of no where. Very cool.

We had upgraded to real tents for the night instead of sleeping out under the stars as well as a bottle of cheap whiskey with our fireside dinner. Thank God for real tents because the desert is cold. (Something Melinda very much underestimated but remedied by spending a little money on textiles!)

The following day we took a leisurely tour back to the pick up point and were able to return to the hotel to shower and visit the fort before departing on the night train back to Jodhpur. The fort in Jaisalmer is very cool because it's actually a little neighborhood with homes, shops, restaurants, and crazy motorcycles. This was unlike the fort in Jodhpur which was preserved as a museum and tourist site by the Maharaja.

We've now arrived in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, for some final meetings before taking off for our "travel portion" of the trip. Yet another great shopping destination, it's well known for its jewels and jewelry. Margaret and I have very similar taste and both willing to spend quality time shopping with each other. This is probably a bad thing, but we're having fun!

No pictures with this connection, but I'll try as soon as I find a better one!

2007-01-18T22:38:00.000-05:00

More Pictures

View of the fort from the palace lawn.
View of the lake behind our hotel- Bal Samand Lake.
Melinda, Margaret, and Martijn on the field visit with the Maharaja and Advisory Committee this past Monday.
Our royal tent that we stayed in the first three nights because the hotel was very full. It was quite nice though once our space heater was replaced on the second night.
A completely saline well that people use for drinking (TdS 2200- should be around 100). The ocean ranges from 15,000-20,000. This was during our village visit on Tuesday.

2007-01-18T22:13:00.002-05:00

Pictures:

Melinda in her train birth before spending the night in the moving train bathroom.

Birthday Tea for the Maharaja's birthday on the palace lawn.
The Maharaja's palace (mostly a very posh hotel now). Fun fact: Brangelina stopped in Jodhpur and stayed here one night, promptly getting in trouble with customs for not obtaining the proper documents for their flight and stay.
Margaret and I after being greeted by the local villages in one of the most water scarce villages. This is the village where 75% of the peope migrate during summer because of the droughts.
Red Fort in Old Delhi.

2007-01-18T22:13:00.001-05:00

Where to begin. . .

Well, our internet access is not as good as promised and it probably doesn’t help that we’ve been pulling 12-14 hour days since we got here.

Highlights:
· Red Fort in Delhi
· Having coffee in an upscale Taj hotel
· Indian driving
· Overnight train to Jodhpur (caught the flu and was not in the best shape- this will be another great story about awkward ill moments)
· BBC filming with the Maharaja
· Site visit to Agolai for potential WP site
· Maharaja’s birthday celebration at the palace
· Traditional music concert with Maharaja after birthday celebration- the Queen found a precious 5 year old girl who sings traditional songs and she was breathtaking
· Stakeholders meeting with people from nearby communities talking about their projects and challenges
· Lunch with the Maharani (Queen) at the stakeholders meeting
· Advisory board meeting at the palace showing JBF’s progress this past year
· Evening at the fort with a performance of Shakespeare’s 12th Night by a British acting troupe
· Dinner on the wall of the fort with the Maharaja
· Visit to the Thar Desert showing the extent of the water crisis in Rajasthan

Our visit yesterday to a community spread across the sand dunes of the Thar desert was striking. 75% of the population migrates during the summer season because there simply is no water. They fill underground storage tanks with rainwater, but few can afford to pay for them to be refilled by the government supply once the rainwater runs out. The government is supplying saline water nonetheless, so it’s not as if they are paying for high quality. There were three wells that were not too deep, 50-75 feet. All three wells had completely saline water- not potable by any stretch of the imagination.

This site was the main trustee with whom we have been working, Prithvi, ideal site for a waterpyramid- if it can work here it can work anywhere. While the conditions in Rajasthan seem to be perfect- an abundance of saline groundwater that can’t be used for most purposes- we have run across a technical barrier. The sandstorms during the summer season may proved to be quite a challenge. This is something Martijn has yet to come across in the Gambia and he will have to mitigate this problem accordingly.

The villages are highly motivated and have been working to increase the capacity of some of their existing rainwater harvesting structures. These mostly consist of large ponds with strong retaining walls and then building proper channels to divert the water into the pond and increase the catchment area. The water is then trucked to both household and community storage tanks before the summer season begins to reduce loss of water through evaporation. Most community water committees try to manage the supply for both animals and humans considering that livestock (cows and water buffalos) are the main source of livelihood.

It’s humbling the way these people live- in a truly barren region. People are supported mostly by livestock; however, when it comes to water people are first and livestock second. This means that livestock are left to die in the 4 out of every 5 years the area experiences drought.

We have some semblance of a plan for the remainder of our time here in Rajasthan. We’ll finish out our Jodhpur research this week and take the weekend to go on a camel safari in Jaisalmer. This is a true desert city and one stop on the famous Silk Road that runs through Asia to Europe.

Monday we’ll leave for a week in the capital of Rajasthan, Jaipur, where we’ll finish our research and write a short project proposal for Martijn in addition to the business plan. That means next Saturday we’re off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

2007-01-08T10:15:00.000-05:00

Arrival in Amsterdam

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am not the best packer in terms of quantity. An attribute that I definitely get from my mother. Upon arrival at the airport on Saturday evening I discovered that the weight limit had been severely decreased by Northwest- and guess who's bag was 60 lbs., 10 lbs. over weight? Fortunately, the attendent let me take some books and such out of my bag to get it down to 53.5 and then let the bag go from there. It's things such as this that make me a little nervous at the beginning of a trip, but oh well.

We arrived Sunday morning without a hitch, although I did not sleep as much as I usually do, a meager 30 minutes. Martijn met us at the airport and took us on a tour of small villages to the north of Amsterdam. We visited the cities ending in "dam" and were able to finally understand the Dutch system of keeping it's citizens above water. The system of dams and canals is pretty amazing a true feat of engineering. Despite the rainy, 40 degree weather, we were off to a good start.

After getting some caffeine in our system, we proceeded onto a site where you could visit different kinds of windmills. We went inside one windmill that was used to grind various materials into powders for dying cloth. Most of the original windmills were used to pump water out of the canals and keep the water levels manageable.

Here I am on the second level where all that wind is turned into useful energy- pretty cool, huh? That may just be the engineer in me.

A much better view from the outside of the windmill.

Edam- known for its cheese was a fun excursion. Here's a cheese display we saw at the windmills.

We returned to the airport to meet our fourth team member, Top, before driving to Delft where Martijn, the entrepreneur, lives. We were able to see the big storm dam to be used in the case of a 50 or 100 year flood. These Dutch engineers will now be using their expertise to repair the New Orleans levies.

Delft is lovely with the cobblestone streets, canals, and 16th/17th century buildings. We had some productive meetings today with the IRC water/sanitation division that specializes in microfinance. This evening we'll be visiting Rotterdam for dinner.

Here are some of the days highlights.

View from Martijn's doorstep.

Second view from Martijn's doorstep of the canals and churches.

WP Team: Top, Ken, Margaret, Melinda (from left to right)

Yes, we really are doing work. . .tomorrow we're off to meet with the bankers. This is a real opportunity for Martijn to get the first 20 WPs paid for to scale up in India. We will then visit some museums - Van Gogh, Anne Frank's house- and then end our visit to the Netherlands by seeing Schubert's Octet in F major performed in Rotterdam.

2006-12-29T11:59:00.000-05:00

MIT Global Entrepreneurship Lab
Team #15: WaterPyramid
Destination: Rajasthan, India

I've been working with a team of 3 students this fall on a product called the WaterPyramid. Created by a Dutch entrepreneur, Martijn Nitzsche, this is a large-scale technology that acts as both a rainwater harvesting and solar distillation facility. The product is designed to produce drinking water for small communities of 500-1,000 people. The WaterPyramid will produce distilled water in the absence of rainwater to harvest by using the heat caused by solar radiation. This water can be remineralized for drinking water. The specific advantage of the product is it's ability to take brackish and saline water and create safe drinking water (this is why Rajasthan is such a good fit for the WP.) [http://www.waterpyramid.nl/]

To fund this technology, the WP team has organized community members to sell value-added products (juice, ice cream, cold water, tea, etc.) to increase revenue and pay for both maintenance and operation costs as well as any small loans that were used for the initial investment. Distilled water is also a potential output that can be sold at a high cost and increase revenues.

Our job, while in Rajasthan, is to investigate current market prices and develop the best business plan for scaling-up in Rajasthan. We're working with a local NGO, Jal Bhagirathi Foundation, in Jodhpur to locate the most appropriate villages where the first WPs will be built. [http://www.jalbhagirathi.org/]

So that's the short version of the story for those who haven't heard me yap on and on about the project. I'm pretty excited...especially since we stop over in Amsterdam to meet our client first and then proceed to India on January 10th.

Jodhpur, India
Jodhpur is known as the blue city.

Itinerary
We have a busy schedule ahead of us:
Wednesday, January 10th- arrive in Delhi in the evening
Thursday, January 11th- travel to Jodhpur via night train from Delhi
Friday, January 12th- field visit with Maharaja Gaj Singhji of Jodhpur (NGO trustee) and a BBC correspondent who is doing a story on the Maharaja
Saturday, January 13th- Birthday Tea Party for Maharaja Gaj Singhji @ Umaid Bhawan Palace followed by music concert
Sunday, January 14th- Annual Stakeholders meeting with local community leaders, government officials, and advisory board followed by dinner with the advisory committee at the Mehrangarh Fort.

Umaid Bhawan Palace is pictured in the front of Mehrangarh Fort.
We'll be visiting villages, conducting our market survey and bank shopping for the two weeks after that- a trip to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, is also a possibility at some point.

Accommodations
We will be staying at Bal Samand Palace, which is pictured below. So this is not my typical type of travel- it's good to be traveling with business students. Not only is there a pool, but both hot and cold water...very exciting! [http://www.nivalink.com/balsamand/index.html]

I'm looking forward to a good trip. It's a great project, networking opportunity, and chance to travel. My last week we'll be traveling around Rajasthan, hopefully getting the chance to go camel riding in the desert, visit the floating palace at Udaipur and I will certainly not be missing this. . .

I depart Saturday, January 6th for Amsterdam, traveling to Delhi on January 10th. So tune in periodically. . .I'll have my laptop and pretty good internet access so I'll try and update every few days.

2006-09-05T15:06:00.000-05:00

Summer's Gone. . .

My blog ended somewhat unexpectedly and I honestly doubt anyone (besides Jeni) is actually reading this anymore; however, I didn't want to leave my faithful readers hanging. I left Ghana on August 10th after a crazy weekend of visiting the sacred crocodiles and doing some major shopping.

I had a great opportunity to spend two days in Accra with a friend from school, Maame, and her family. We did a whirlwind trip around the city to see the sites before I took off for the states.

I loved Ghana and hopefully will be able to return sometime in the future to see some of the places I wasn't able to see. Overall, it was a good summer and my time there absolutely confirms that I am not meant to be a researcher, but I think we all knew that.

I will keep the blog address for my future adventures. Up next. . .a January trip to somewhere in the developing world with my MIT Global Entrepreneurship course.

Here are some final pictures for your enjoyment.

Wahab and I posing with the sacred crocodile.

Me laughing as the crocodile eats the chicken.

Women's pottery association near the Burkina Faso border. I got one water jug back, but a set of two dishes sadly did not make the trip home.

View of Accra from the university hill.

Howard, Liz and myself after we toured the manufacturing facility where the ceramic filters are made.

The press that is used to make the ceramic filters.

The filters before they are fired in the kiln.

When Peter Tamakloe is not making ceramic filters (which quite frankly is not very often) he fills orders for Pier 1. Maybe these lovely pots will be in the stores by Christmas- maybe spring?

Yes, I dragged that fantastic basket all the way back to the states. I packed the green backpack inside of it and then checked the basket and the black suitcase. Brilliant, I have a new laundry hamper.

The End.

2006-08-04T04:43:00.000-05:00

Two Earlier blog entries. . .
I wrote these two entries before I returned back to the states, so I thought I would post them before I do one final Ghana post.

Donations

Beggars are in every country in the world. In the states, most people are taught not to give to beggars because the money will probably go for alcohol, drugs, etc. I know I have been taught to give to “worthy” causes where you know where your money is going. (I will get back to this point.) This is the result of my Catholic upbringing that stresses the importance of giving tithes.

In my mind I know that giving to beggars doesn’t really do any good. Then why is it that I feel so guilty when I choose not to give money to a beggar?

In Tamale, there are several beggars I recognize around town. They walk along the median to catch cars as they wait at the stoplight- those are usually the two blind people, each with their own young girl guiding them along the median. There is the man who is missing an arm that always catches me while waiting for my taxi to fill up to return to the guesthouse. A woman who is unable to walk sits in her old, hand-powered tricycle at the entrance to the bus station. And of course there is a small boy no more than 3 years old that has chosen outside the Crest restaurant as his begging place of choice.

Contrary to my instincts, if I have coins I will give to the beggars. I know it is a dependency and it doesn’t help them to escape the cycle of poverty, but the guilt is simply too much for me. I am rich by any standard and these people need food to survive.

Which brings me back to my original point, what is a “worthy” cause? Can it be defined as a tax deductible donation? I know that in the NGO world they try to lower their overhead and find other sources to pay for the overhead in order to lure donors and show that __% of our programming goes directly to the communities or target population. As Americans we don’t want our donations going for office supplies, electricity, basically anything that is vital to the running of the organization. We need to know that our money is going directly to the beneficiaries. Aren’t you giving directly to the beneficiary by giving money to beggars?

And, does the money ever really go the beneficiaries? Sometimes I am very conflicted about the profession I have chosen. I love doing international development work, but as an insider I have the right to be cynical about the world of foreign aid and how money from the developed world is distributed to the developing world.

Do I have any better ideas? Probably not. But I do know that the system is flawed. A lot of the money gets caught up in the process and does not reach its intended target. But then again, my salary one day will be considered part of the “process” after I graduate. So how can we improve the system so that those of us from the developed world are able to do what we love and not feel guilty about the system in which we are forced to conduct our work?

I suppose the appropriate answer is to minimize foreign staff and hire locals to build local capacity. These efforts are made by most NGOs these days. However, when the best job you can have in the country is working for an international NGO, I think there is a problem. Poor economic opportunities in these countries lead to this situation, but it also creates a new dependency on the NGO world to provide good jobs and maintain their development or relief efforts in the community.

My point is that I still remain skeptical about the way we distribute foreign aid and I can only hope to improve the system when I am gainfully employed by one of these organizations.

World Vision Tangent

My experience with World Vision has been mixed. The people are wonderful and dedicated. They do great work digging boreholes and building latrines. But is their beneficiary selection process the most open? No. Is it fair? Not always.

Then there is my serious criticism that as a Christian NGO they will not hire anyone that is not Christian. This is not so difficult because they moved the entire office from Kumasi to Tamale five years ago. This also means that most of the people working for World Vision are not actually from Tamale and have not learned the local dialect after living here for five years. (This is why they keep trying to teach me Twi and not Dagboni.) But if you are Muslim (which at least 80% of the people in the northern region are) then you cannot hope for a job as a mechanic, driver, cook, security personnel, field staff or any other position with World Vision.

As a Christian NGO, there is a half hour of devotion Monday through Thursday from 8-8:30 and on Friday from 8-9. Wednesday mornings there is no breakfast served because it is a morning of fasting. When the accounts manager received a new Toyota Corolla wagon we held a small blessing ceremony.

I have found myself defending the presence of faith-based organizations in the NGO world this past year during school. It has often been the topic of conversation among members of my cohort and sometimes in classes. At least I do not feel that there is a lot of direct evangelization associated with World Vision in Tamale, but rather an effort to share their faith through their actions and work in the community.

However, I am more doubtful about the way that they run their organizations on the ground. It honestly offends me that they discriminate by religion. I would think that by bringing the local people into the organization you would be creating a better example, but apparently this is not the case.

So I am left wondering if the world of faith-based organizations is really the best for the developing world. Sorry, I don’t think I can provide any personal resolution at this point.

2006-08-04T02:43:00.000-05:00

Pictures from Mole & World Vision (it took me long enough!)

Main watering hole below the motel ridge.

Kerry and I outside our room overlooking the park.

Traipsing through the bog on our safari walk with our guide Pekay.

Baboon in front of our table before Kerry scares him off.

Banana stealing monkeys enjoying their spoils.

Elephants bathing in the watering hole.

Friendly village elephant posing for all the white people.

Warthog checking out the garbage.

Melinda's lab presentation at World Vision on Thursday.

2006-07-31T09:57:00.000-05:00

Mole National Park (warning: long entry)

Kerry and I left for Mole in the pouring rain on Friday, forshadowing that this would definitely be an adventure. After running from my guesthouse to the truck that picked me up, I was completely drenched.

I had bought the tickets that morning and the bus driver said the bus left at 1:30pm- which usually means it will leave at least a half hour later. Well, we wasted some time in Tamale waiting for the fried rice man to finish frying the rice, so while we wanted to be at the station at 1pm, we were running a little behind. Instead, Kerry ran to the ATM and I ran to the bus and arrived around 1:20pm. To my surprise, the entire bus was full and practically getting ready to pull out. I had to hold the bus for the next 10 minutes while I called Kerry frantically asking what was taking so long- the bus was leaving. I kept repeating in my Ghanaian accent, “She is coming, she is coming!” (Keep in mind that the bus then hung around for about another 30 minutes before we left, just as we had suspected.)

In our hurry to make the bus, we both forewent going to the bathroom and were too afraid to ask them to let us go b/c we thought we were leaving. Big mistake. In our late arrival, our seats were given to someone else, so of course we’re in the last row of a bus that should hold around 35 people, but probably had 50. Good times.

After one hour of driving, you turn off the paved road onto a dirt road that is probably the worst flat road I have ever traveled. Do you know when a large construction machine makes little ruts in the road going horizontally? Yeah, those lovely bumps, crazy potholes, and fresh rain make for a very fun ride. I laughed and asked Kerry if this counted as a massage since every cell of muscle or fat on my body was vibrating. And for those of you who are also well endowed, you will completely understand the pain. This, combined with the fact that I was looking at the lovely scenery thinking- oh that would be a good bush to go the bathroom behind- maybe I should ask them to stop.

We also entertained ourselves by making fun of the crazy foreigners and planning our escape routes from the bus should it tip over to one side. We decided that Kerry was screwed since she was next to the window on the right side of the bus.

I did finally get to pee, thank God for small mercies, 4 hours later. I have the bladder of a champion. It was my first experience in a public urinal- basically a concrete slab with walls and a small trough for you to aim at. Hopefully your aim is good and you don’t have performance anxiety in front of the other women.

I could tell you very long stories about the bus ride that should be 3.5 hours and turned into 6, but I should get to the point where we actually got to Mole. I will say that the Mole bus has lots of sumese (white people in Dagboni). And I noticed right away that most of them had either not lived in developing countries for very long or were completely inept travelers. One girl had short, shorts on, and another was wearing a gold chain around her neck. Come on. . .I don’t care if it’s real, you’re just asking for it. A Belgian girl was asked by a young girl selling cheese to give her money- begging basically. She told her that if she gave her money then she would have to giver everyone money. She promptly pulled 5,000 cedis (way too much money to even give to a beggar) and gave it to the girl. You have just taught this girl that it is more profitable to beg than to legitimately sell something. If you want to give her money, just buy the cheese with the 5,000 even if you don’t eat it. Absolutely absurd.

Anyway, we arrived at the Mole Motel a little before 8pm and settled in for the night. The next morning I woke up early and sat on our veranda overlooking the foggy valley. The motel is set up on a ridge that overlooks the forest. It is more forest than savannah, so they have created a watering hole below the lodge and cleared some of the vegetation so that people can see the animals. A monkey came around to visit me in the morning, but he didn’t smell food so he left quickly. I was also greeted by a family of warthogs when I left the room.

We joined our walking safari around 7am and were able to immediately see a few deer-like species and a very large elephant that comes to eat around a group of houses nearby.

I was glad they forced those of with sandals to rent rubber boots, because we hiked down the ridge and through some bogs with lots of standing water. We saw monkeys, water bucks, and many different bird species on our hike through the clearing.

We ended at the watering hole with the hope that the elephants would be bathing. Unfortunately, Pekay (our guide) said it was late and they must not be coming that day. It’s hard during the rainy season because there are so many places for them to bathe and stay cool, whereas during the dry season you are sure to see them because most of the other water sources are dry. We started to hike up the hill towards the motel when we spotted three elephants approaching the watering hole. We decided to contract our guide for another hour and climbed back down to observe them getting in the water and swimming across to the other side. Very cool.

After an exhausting three hour hike on relatively empty stomachs we were tired and went to have breakfast. Originally we had grandiose ideas of renting bicycles and riding down to Larabanga (about 45 minute ride- but uphill both ways on a bicycle with no gears) to see a very old traditional mosque. They are rare in the country and a great tourist attraction. We decided that our time was maybe better spent in the pool for the rest of the afternoon, which is exactly what we did.

I had asked our guide earlier about the baboons, would we see them on our hike as well. He asked if I was staying the night and I said, “Yes.” “You will see them,” he responded.

The baboons didn’t disappoint. They are little robbers and way too accustomed to white people who are too timid to scare them away. The adult male is especially vicious if he smells any food or sees anything resembling a shiny food wrapper. At one point he tried to grab a girl’s bag out of her hands.

I got this great shot of him as he passed our table next to the pool, just before Kerry went to hit him to scare him off. She has extensive experience with monkeys who like to attack you and steal your stuff. This is handy when your companion is too busy trying to get a photo and not paying attention to the stuff.

There was also a fun incident where someone left a few bananas on one of the dining room tables. A few monkeys swung in helped themselves before they could get out of the pool.

Overall, it was great fun and I’m so glad that I went. I don’t think I could leave Africa without saying that I had seen at least some wild animals and Mole was worth it. It was “expensive” by my own daily expenditures here, but $50 for transport, lodging, food, and entertainment is certainly not expensive by our standards. Most safaris cost a lot more than that nowadays, so this was a real treat.

So if you come to Ghana, you should go to Mole, it’s a bargain adventure.

(So once again my pics are not loading, so I'll try again later.)

2006-07-27T03:02:00.000-05:00

Village Visits

I took my last water sample on Tuesday and finished my last water quality test with the solar water bag yesterday. I am so happy to be done with this portion of my project. I always knew that I wanted to do implementation work, but this just confirms that I’m not cut out for research. It’s not necessarily because I’m not meticulous enough, but rather because it’s kind of boring.

I started visiting the villages to set up the focus groups for the next week. I will be getting a feel for water practices and knowledge about water-related diseases and then explaining the technology and getting people’s opinions about the design of the bag.

In some of the more traditional villages it is customary to visit the village, find the secretary to the chief who will then send you to visit the chief. Frequently you need to offer kola nuts or a small amount of money ($1) when visiting the chief to ask permission to conduct your survey, focus group, etc. within the village.

I will digress a little here for some context. A few weeks ago I briefly referred to a time when I went to visit a bunch of dams with a Ghanaian working for the Guinea Worm Eradication Project. He showed me three dams and the last one we visited was the closest to Tamale and required that we ride the motorcycle through the village on a path to get to the dam. I took a GPS reading and some pictures before leaving. We were there very briefly, maybe 10 minutes or so.

I decided this past week to return to that village, Gbanyamni, to take a water sample from the dam. Most of the places we have collected water from are in urban areas where people don’t care if you take their dirty dam water or they are in rural areas directly off the road and don’t require any kind of village visit. I asked Wahab if we needed to visit the chief of Gbanyamni because I knew we would have to walk through the village because a taxi could not bring us directly to the dam. He said it wasn’t a problem because we weren’t really doing anything in the village with the residents.

So we arrived at the village last week, hopped out of the taxi and started to make our way through the village. When we passed by a group of men hanging out under a mango tree, one of them stopped us and started to talk to Wahab in Dagboni. Now, I could tell from the conversation that the man was not very happy with us. From Wahab’s reaction, sometimes a little too hesitant and timid, I knew we may be in some trouble. The man yelled at Wahab for awhile and then told him to translate for me.

He had said that we should have asked permission to visit the dam because they don’t know what we’re doing- we could be poisoning their water source, etc, etc. I told Wahab to apologize for the misunderstanding, we didn’t mean to offend them, we would like to fetch some water from their dam for an experiment and if it was not convenient at this time then we would happily return at a more appropriate time. Wahab promptly translated for me and the man accepted our apology and sent us on our way. It wasn’t scary per se, but I just knew we were going to have a problem because of the location of the dam. Wahab said the man was being too traditional and it was not customary to ask permission to fetch water- but that’s beside the point.

Now, back to today…we decided to conduct the focus groups in villages where I had tested the water. Wahab thought it would be a good idea to return to Gbanyamni to do a focus group. I asked, “Are you sure it’s a good idea to go back to where the scary man is?” And then I thought, yeah, but what’s the probability that we’ll run into this man again anyway- the village looks pretty big. (This is when you want to knock on wood.)

We took a taxi to the village and sent it away- because I didn’t want to pay for it to wait for us, I figured we would just walk back out to the road it’s only about 40 minutes or so. We asked a group of local men if they could direct us to the secretary to the chief or an assemblyman. They told us to turn around because the assemblyman was right there. Low and behold, I know it’s pretty predictable, it’s our good friend that gave us a spanking the week before. I almost died.

Of course he remembered us, who could forget the white lady fetching dirty dam water. He seemed suspicious of us still because he wondered why we sent the taxi away. Wahab told him that they would return to pick us up, because he thought it would be suspicious if we said we were walking back. Hmm..ok.

We explained to him what we needed and asked to see the chief. He sent us with some men to visit the chief, but he had traveled far to farm, so we were unable to speak with him. We returned to talk to the assemblyman and he agreed to help us organize a group for Monday of 7-10 women for the exercise. Because we spoke to the assemblyman and not the chief, there was no need to exchange money. He asked a few questions about where I was from and such and then we were on our way.

So maybe this story is anticlimactic, but this man makes me feel uncomfortable. He is stone-faced and very serious and while Wahab says he speaks English, he will only speak Dagboni and wait for Wahab to translate. It simply makes things a little awkward especially if he is as well-educated as Wahab seems to think he is.

I’m not gonna lie. . .I’m not looking forward to going back on Monday, but what can I do now.

Off to see animals tomorrow. . .I'll try and post pictures early next week.

2006-07-24T05:35:00.000-05:00

Here’s a week in pictures for your enjoyment. . .

Homes recently burned in the continuing conflict between Dagbon clans in Yendi.

Sara's House
(From Left to Right: Hassan, Mary, Sara, Me)

Transport- Africa style (Aren’t those goats so cute?)

Market Monkey- I love monkeys! Ok, maybe it's a little sad that he's chained to a pole. But wouldn't you like a pet monkey?

Diare Dam- site of a lot of guinea worm, although I believe that Savelugu is higher in reporting this year than Diare. Doesn’t that water look great to drink with all those sheep right there?

Mosque in progress- the mosque in each village is usually painted a bright color and is by far the nicest building in each village, courtesy of the Saudis and Iranians.

We went to visit the secretary to the Kukuo chief on Friday and were able to see a potential clay source and factory site. Here is our guide digging out the clay with a machete. Should they go ahead with the manufacturing facility, Pure Home Water, will pay the local women of Kukuo to dig out the clay with picks machetes to supply the clay for the filter.

2006-07-24T03:06:00.000-05:00

Trip to Yendi

I had a change of plans this weekend because Jessica didn’t feel she would be the best host as she was vomiting and had diarrhea.

We had a presentation for the Department of Education for the district of Savelugu on Friday morning and I met a Canadian volunteer, Kerry, who is here for a year working with Girl Child- which is the division in charge of increasing retention and enrollment for girls within the school district. She lives near a Peace Corps volunteer, Bill, and a JICA (Japanese equivalent of Peace Corps) volunteer, Mary, and they were taking a trip on Saturday to visit Yendi, the seat of the Paramount chief for the entire Dagomba tribe.

The Dagombas are one of the largest tribes in the country, reside in the northern region and speak Dagboni. I am really bad at Dagboni and have only managed to pick a few choice words and the greetings. If in doubt, just answer, “Naaaaa,” you will almost always be right. (Except for the times when you’re not right and they laugh and mumble how you don’t really know any Dagboni.)

Yendi has been the site of unrest in the past because of a dispute involving the succession of the Paramount chief between two rival clans within the Dagomba tribe. In March, 2002 a group of men from the Abudu clan murdered the chief, 5 sub-chiefs, and 28 family members/associates. Since this time there has not been a Paramount Chief for the tribe. In place is a regent that is acting as a mediator and is trusted by both clans to select the next chief.

There have been flair-ups of violence between the tribes since 2002. Here’s a picture of some of the homes that were burned more recently in the continuing clashes between members of rival clans. (ok, no picture this thing doesn't like pictures today.)

Yendi is about an hour and a half by bus, southeast of Tamale and is about an hour west of the Togo border. We were welcomed by Sara and her boyfriend, Hassan, to her very cute home on the eastern side of town. Hassan is also a foreigner, originally from Sudan, they met while working in Rwanda together.

Yendi is a fairly quite place and there isn’t much nightlife- probably because the town is primarily Muslim. We relaxed on Sara’s veranda all afternoon swapping stories and then went to the only restaurant in town for some beers and French fries. Our lodging was a small guesthouse where Sara spent her first five months in the country and cost $3.50 for one night.

Sunday morning we had breakfast and then took a walk through town and the market, enjoying the clean paths and roads. Yendi is very conscious of the garbage problem and keeps the streets and roadsides very clean- surprisingly! People were very friendly and we were able to meet some of the people Sara works with as we took our Sunday morning stroll.

The best part about meeting Kerry is that she is able to go to Mole National Park this weekend! Thank God for travel companions. Elephants and baboons. . .here I come!

2006-07-19T07:17:00.000-05:00

Engineers Without Borders Canada

I spent Monday evening with a group of volunteers from Engineers w/o Borders Canada. Sara and I took Susan's MIT class together this past spring and she is conducting a survey for the home office about volunteer experiences in a number of African nations. She is a public policy graduate student at the Kennedy School- Harvard School of Government.

I have to say that I didn't know much about Canadian politics, but it was interesting to learn about some of the issues on the minds of our neighbors to the north.

Their volunteers spend 10-12 months doing mostly capacity building with district assemblies and the agricultural ministries.

It's great to go out with other foreigners who have been in the country longer than I have. I am learning that it is appropriate to speak in Ghanaian English so that the locals are able to understand you better. This involves leaving out any contractions and pronouncing your t's. As well as saying things like, "Brother, you will take care of my sister," when being sent off in a taxi in the evening. I have not found that people here at World Vision have difficulty with my accent, and I feel somewhat ridiculous speaking in Ghanaian English- but if that's what's best, then I'll be happy to adjust my accent while I'm here!

Weekend Plans

I am off to Dipali this weekend where the PC volunteer Jessica is located. She has a graduation ceremony for the first part of a training that she is conduting in the community on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully she will be able to send the bike out to the road, otherwise I'll get up early to take a car about 45 minutes north of Tamale and then hike 6 miles to reach the community. Located on the White Volta River, this is the site where they harvest river sand to sell at the hardware stores for construction projects. (I know nothing about harvesting sand from the river for construction projects- it's bad for the health of the river, but it is free.)

It will be great to get out of the city for a day or two!

2006-07-17T06:40:00.000-05:00

Local Fisherman

Wahabu bought that boatload of fish for 20,000 cedis or approximately $2. This is Libga Dam, a source of drinking water for the town of Savelugu. By far the best in terms of contamination that I have surveyed, but by no means drinkable.

These two probably earned more by selling the fish directly to Wahabu than they would have if they had sold them to a local distributor.

2006-07-17T06:22:00.000-05:00

What day of the week were you born?

How many people actually know the day of the week they were born? I know that my brother, Shawn, was born on a Tuesday because it was election day. I have looked up the day before, but I can’t remember for the life of me. My best guess is Wednesday, but I’m not certain. Mom, can you shed some light on this?

I didn’t realize that this was an important fact in Ghanaian culture. When I went to mass for the first time, they had a special collection at the end of mass that they collect on the first Sunday of the month. Each person files up by the day of the week they were born. I said, ok…I was born on Wednesday- sure.

When I went to the World Vision office for the first time that following week, someone at the security gate asked me what day of the week I was born and I said, “Wednesday.” I was subsequently named by the day of the week I was born, Wednesday in Twi (the most common language in the Ashanti region farther south.)

Now, I am called Equia. It seems easier for people to remember because it is in their own language and while Melinda is not difficult, World Vision staff members take a lot of pleasure in calling me Equia and saying, “Etisen?” meaning, “How are you?” in Twi.

Weekend Activities

I had a great time this weekend meeting up with the local Peace Corps volunteers and learning about PC Ghana. Their system is slightly different than PC DR, which is interesting to learn about. First of all, volunteers are placed in a community and then 2 more volunteers will follow them from the same sector to ensure continuity and sustainability of the projects. In other words, one community will have three different Americans for a total of 6 years. They found it shocking that PC DR didn't want to place volunteers in each other's communities back to back. Personally, it would be terrible to be that last volunteer because either the project has failed or succeeded by the time you arrive.

The world turns out to be fairly small, because the volunteer that is leaving Ghana, who the party was for, graduated from Northwestern in 2003 and was in the Integrated Science Program. Basically that means we probably passed each other in Tech a whole lot. He is now starting a PhD program at MIT in August. It turns out that another volunteer in the Northern region also graduated from NU in engineering in 2004- as a coop so he would have started in 1999. Crazy! This is a volunteer I was going to contact because he apparently lives in a great traditional village.

I'm planning on visiting a volunteer this weekend, who has a 2 hour walk or 35 minute bike ride from the main road to her community. She's going to send her bike out to the road for me on Saturday. The village is on the White Volta River and has no electricity and a newly installed borehole (courtesy of the people in my World Vision Office) that no one will drink from because they like the taste of river water better. Have I told you all how much I love behavior change?

I've already determined that there is no hope for these solar water bags. Maybe I'm a bit of a pessimist when it comes to behavior change, I guess my development experience has done that to me. I am in the region of the world with the second largest number of guinea worm cases (Sudan being the first.) If you can't get people to pour their water through a cloth filter (which prevents guinea worm) that is free then how are you going to get them to put alum in the water and stir, let the water settle, pour clean water into the solar bag, place solar bag on the roof for 4 hours, take bag off the roof and let water cool before drinking said water the next day? I think it's a little too much to ask. Oh, and did I mention that the water bag would not be free.

2006-07-14T03:13:00.000-05:00

Here are the pictures I wanted to post on Tuesday, but wasn't able to.

Market Day- Melinda with the Filters (the ceramic filter sits inside the top of the bucket inside a hole created in the plastic cover, you can see it on the bucket to the right of me.)

Fiila FM DJ- a humble radio station

Hamdiyah and her sister making fufu.

Melinda's New Clothes

I decided that I needed a Ghanaian outfit both for church on Sundays and to remember my time here in Ghana. I bought some fabric in town and then Hamdiyah’s seamstress helped me pick out the design and took my measurements. In less than 4 days my outfit was ready and I was able to wear it to church on Sunday. So maybe this is not the most flattering picture of me, but it will give you and idea of the traditional dress.

Savannah Picture

To give you an idea of the scenery, here’s a picture of the savannah at sunset. The brother of the caretaker at the guesthouse works for the Guinea Worm Eradication Program and offered to take me to look at some dams in another rural district. I got some great pictures because it was a couple of hours before sunset.

Networking Success

After tracking down the local Peace Corps volunteers, I think I may actually have some semblance of a social life these last few weeks in Tamale. I will be meeting up with a group of volunteers on Saturday evening when they are having a party at their house here in town. Because Ghana is such a large country and Tamale is a regional hub, there is a Peace Corps house for volunteers to stay the night on their way to or from the capital. One volunteer, Jessica, has invited me up to her site for a visit, which is about 45 minutes north of Tamale. She lives in a rural, traditional village with no water, electricity or other amenities. Sound familiar? I think I’ll be taking her up on that visit to get out of town for a change.

2006-07-11T04:30:00.000-05:00

Weekend of Promotions

It’s been a busy week of investigating the manufacturing option. We had the opportunity to visit a local village, Kukuo, that is well known for its Pottery Association. While the entire country has clay soil, some of the clay is better for use in pottery than others. This particular village is located on land that is high quality clay. We took a tour of the former kiln, now dilapidated and no longer in use. Unfortunately, the kiln used too much firewood and it was not economical for the association to use it.

We are waiting to hear from the secretary of the Pottery Association for the day and time of the meeting we will have with the chief. We would like to take samples of various clay deposits to send to the U.S. to be tested. If any of those samples prove useful, Pure Home Water would consider negotiating with the chief to buy that parcel of land to use as a clay harvesting center. The local women would be willing to dig and harvest the clay as paid laborers.

In the midst of the manufacturing research, I managed to test two more water samples this week and on Saturday we had our first promotional event since my arrival here. We went to the local radio station, Fiila FM 89.3, to see if we could have airtime on their morning radio show. We prepared a small script and had 15 minutes to talk about Pure Home Water’s current products- the ceramic filter and safe storage vessels, why they are beneficial, cost, and sales locations. I’ve never been on the radio before- it’s pretty entertaining! Even more so when people told us that they heard us on the radio. I came home to the guesthouse and Sule, the main caretaker, said, “Melinda, I heard you on the radio this morning.” He thought we did a very good job.

Saturday afternoon, Hamdiyah and her sister cooked me a great Ghanaian meal. We had fufu and lye soup with ocra and guinea fowl. I really enjoyed the guinea fowl. The meat was similar to chicken, but a little darker. It fell right off the bone in the soup, so good! Fufu has a very interesting texture- it’s sticky and stretchy in your mouth. It doesn’t have much of a taste, but is quite good with the lye soup.

On Monday, we organized a booth for market day. There are vendors at the market every day of the week, but every 6 days there is a regional market day when most of the women from the outlying villages come in to sell their goods. Our stall was located near the taxi stop, so there was lots of traffic. We were able to sell only 3 filters, but we had some good interest from consumers and gave out our contact information for prospective buyers. This is such a high priced item that it’s a good activity to familiarize people with the filter, but typically people do not have that much money available to buy the product immediately.

More to come. . .I'm having trouble uploading the pictures I want to post.

2006-07-06T06:56:00.000-05:00

An Ode to Cheese (and red meat)

I have not eaten a piece of cheese since I left the country on June 5, 2006. Actually, I don’t think I had cheese the day I left either, so let’s say the last time I ate cheese was brunch on Sunday, June 4, 2006. That’s 33 days ago today.

Now it could be argued by some that I eat too much cheese. I think my mother is still disappointed for not being vindicated by a high cholesterol reading before I left for undergrad. Perhaps I have passed such a love for cheese onto my current roommate, Rachel, who probably never ate so much cheese before this year.

I remember telling my counterparts when I met them in the capital before going to my Peace Corps community that my favorite food was cheese. Little did I know that they would tell the whole community and I would be forced to eat cheese at every house that first weekend I was there. It was a cheese that I learned to love, but it was an acquired taste. (I think the turning point was when they fried it…yum!)

I am craving cheese- in case you hadn’t figured that out. I don’t think I had prepared to go cold turkey. It’s not a Ghanaian delicacy, certainly not for lack of cows or goats to make cheese. People just don’t really eat it. I’m told by Hamdiyah that it does exist and this is my quest for this weekend, because quite frankly I don’t think I can go another day without cheese.

Besides cheese, I seem to be craving a big juicy burger as well. I think this is more a reflection of my anemic state than my love for hamburgers. The only thing that could possibly make me a vegetarian is if I was forced to face the butchering of these animals on a daily basis. It’s so easy for us to completely block out that stage of how meat shows up in the grocery store. Unfortunately, that reminder is usually staring me in the face every week when I have to enter the market. Thus, I don’t cook meat and am therefore severely iron deficient. Multivitamins to the rescue, right?

As a result, I am anxiously looking forward to August 16th when I arrive home, head to the Thirsty Scholar for a juicy cheeseburger with a cold Magic Hat #9, and enjoy some good conversation.

2006-07-04T05:01:00.000-05:00

Cost of Living

I think Hamdiyah thinks I’m crazy because I’m always asking her how much everything costs. Sometimes it’s for my own benefit- how much can I expect to pay in the market for this particular item? Other times I’m more interested in getting an idea of how much things cost in relationship to how much people are earning.

The truth is that people in general are not earning very much. It seems to me that the most stable and best paying positions are with the international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), like World Vision. They are paid a monthly salary, which in and of itself is a huge benefit, and they pay very well, relatively speaking. My guess is that they are paid between $250-500/month, depending on the position.

When Hamdiyah and I were in the capital we went to the Areeba office to buy my cell phone. We happened to bump into a friend of hers from university. I was later told that her colleagues from school who are doing customer service type work for a stable, growing company earn about $170/month. Even Hamdiyah found that number to be prohibitively low for an individual working in the capital and university educated.

So, for the gross majority of Ghanaians, if they do not have a job paying a monthly salary, where do they work? Quite simply, they work in the informal sector trying to sell whatever they can in order to make a days wage. This is why the markets and street vendors are so active in trying to entice you to buy whatever they are selling. These individuals range from young girls trying to sell bags of water that they’ve filled and chilled for market-goers to the numerous vendors selling phone cards for any of the three major cell phone companies. It’s a race to make enough money to eat the next day.

It’s the beginning of the rainy season now so farmers are planting and will expect to harvest in the early fall. This will be a “rich” time for families and when Pure Home Water hopes to be able to sell more filters because people will have money to spend.

To give you an idea of prices, here are some of the costs I’ve gathered over my four weeks here: (We’ll use a loose exchange rate of $1 = 10,000 cedis, but it’s closer to 9,000 cedis.)
1 egg = 1,000 cedis ~ $.10
Clove of garlic = 2,000 cedis ~ $.20
300 mL Coca Cola = 2,500 cedis ~ $.25 (small bottle)
1 pineapple = 10,000 cedis ~ $1
Seamstress cost to sew outfit (top and bottom) = 35,000 cedis ~ $3.50
250 unit phone card = 75,000 cedis ~ $7.50 (this is the most expensive card you can buy)
Fabric for a new outfit (top and bottom) = 75,000 – 250,000 cedis ~ $7.50 - $25
Monthly Rent = 100,000 ~ $10 (for one room in a compound of perhaps 4-5 rooms)
Pure Home Water ceramic filter = 170,000 cedis ~ $17
Sewing Machine = 350,000 cedis (starting) = $35
New, pay as you go cell phone = 390,000 cedis ~ $39
Private University Education Tuition (1 Year) = 10,000,000 cedis ~ $1,000

My daily food budget thus far is coming out to be about $2/day. Keep in mind this is not local fair, but rather high priced items such as peanut butter (45,000 cedis for one jar) and corn flakes (31,500 cedis for a mid-size box). The average family probably feeds the entire family for about $1/day/person, possibly less.

It’s a difficult life for people here in the north, little stable employment leading to economic instability for most families. It seems a daunting task to try and encourage economic development with few businesses willing to invest and create jobs for a largely uneducated population. It’s one reason why I’ve chosen health as a tangible way to help improve people’s economic opportunities. It still doesn’t make improvements inevitable and seems much more difficult when looking at the population and not the success of the individual. This is why Peace Corps was such a valuable way to achieve development; you were working with one population and saw the improvements in their lives as your projects came to completion. Population level projects can make an even greater impact, but it’s difficult to see the impact you make on individual people’s lives and that for me is less satisfying.

2006-07-03T06:05:00.000-05:00

How to legitimize your NGO

In order to create a legitimate non-governmental organization (NGO) in the developing world, there is one major requirement. Upon arriving in country, go to the nearest auto dealership and purchase, preferably a white, Toyota Land Cruiser, but any white pick-up truck or SUV will do. Promptly return to headquarters with the vehicle and place your new logo on both the passenger and driverside doors. Poof! You have a legitimate NGO. Congratulations!

2006-06-30T03:38:00.000-05:00

The Hello Brigade

Every morning I am greeted by about 7 children under the age of 4 that live just outside my guesthouse. I originally thought of them as a choir, but upon further encounters with the children I’ve decided to call them the Hello Brigade.

Upon spotting my terribly white skin exiting or returning to the guesthouse they proceed to yell, “Hello!…hello!…hello!,” each child competing with the other to see who can scream the loudest and longest until I am no longer in sight. It’s really more of an, “ello!...ello!...ello!,” than, hello, just to give you an idea.

The shrieks are typically followed by the children running after me as I say hello and wave. No matter how many times I answer them, there is no stopping the Hello Brigade. I sometimes consider it a success when I can escape unseen!

Reasons I should not share a bathroom with someone. .
So I had a next door neighbor two nights ago, with whom I share a bathroom. This is not usually an issue because I am the only one here in my little house outside the main house. I never met my next door neighbor because he arrived after I went to bed and left after I left in the morning.

However, I was greeted this morning with three things that pissed me off, in increasing order of anger:

My neighbor pissed on the seat. Now, why did you have to do that? Can’t you learn to lift the seat? Is that too much to ask?
My neighbor left the bathroom door open all night, which means that there were hordes of mosquitoes present in the morning. Not really a problem for a man who can pee standing up, but a big problem for my butt when I have to sit to go to the bathroom and proceed to get bitten.
My neighbor took the remaining roll of toilet paper. Now I know you’re asking, how do you know that? Well, number one- the roll was almost entirely brand new the night before. Number two- I did not hear my neighbor going to the bathroom all night with a case of the runs. Number three- no empty roll left on the toilet paper holder. And finally, number four- no empty toilet paper roll in the trash. Yes, I checked the trash.

These are all good reasons why my tolerance for sharing a bathroom has reached an all time low. I used to have a lock on my latrine in the DR so no one could use it. I sure hope I don’t get any more unfriendly neighbors before I leave, because I might be forced to say something..or passive aggressively place a sign over the toilet that says:

Please lift the seat
Close bathroom door after exiting bathroom
Take the toilet paper and die!

2006-06-28T03:43:00.000-05:00

I take my life into my hands every time I cross the Bolgatanga Road....

I witnessed my first road traffic accident this morning. I'm surprised it took so long when trucks, buses, taxis, private vehicles, bicycles, motorcyclists, and pedestrians all share a small two-lane highway with a wide shoulder. A taxi was pulling out of my street into on coming traffic and hit the back of a motorcycle that clearly had the right of way.

Luckily, the motorcyclist was not injured and both pulled over on the shoulder to try and settle the dispute. Of course the taxi driver leaves half his vehicle still in the middle of the main road making it difficult for traffic to pass and for bicyclists to pass on the shoulder. Genius, I assure you.

It's no wonder that road traffic accidents are a leading cause of premature mortality in developing countries. Emergency care is certainly not the same caliber as in developed nations and the streets are not capable of handling the flow of increasing traffic.

On another note, we were disappointed yesterday when Ghana lost to Brazil. Not surprising, but the streets were terribly quite after the game finished around 5pm. The country is still proud of their Black Stars and is anxiously awaiting the African Cup (held in Ghana in 2008) to prove their football achievements.

2006-06-26T04:20:00.000-05:00

Quick Note on Dad. . .

I just want to say thanks to those of you who were thinking about my Dad this past week. He had a very successful surgery on Friday morning- meaning they repaired and did not replace the valve, two bypasses, and a procedure to try and regulate his irregular heart beat. He should be moved to a regular room sometime today and then home by mid-week. I appreciate your words of encouragement and support. It helps to know you have supportive family and friends when you're so far from home. Thanks!

2006-06-23T09:01:00.000-05:00

Ghana Football

It's pretty exciting to be here in a country of such avid football fans. The children formed a parade line and marched around the neighborhood with drums celebrating the Czech victory. And now Ghana will play Brazil in the second stage of the tournament.

People are extremely optimistic about the matchup on Tuesday, although I'm a little doubtful as I've picked Brazil to win the tournament. And I realize that soccer will dominate all conversations from now until Ghana is no longer part of the World Cup.

Honestly, it's pretty exciting to see this country be the token African team that has made it to the second round (thus far). I've found myself to be cheering on the team with just as much enthusiasm as the Ghanaians.

Go Black Stars!

2006-06-21T04:36:00.000-05:00

Health Messages

From what I’ve seen so far including radio, television and billboard advertisements, the public health messages in Ghana are in full force. I’ve seen HIV/AIDS billboards- messages about condoms and abstinence. I’ve seen the Guinea Worm Eradication Campaign’s efforts here in the north to rid this country of a debilitating water-related disease. One of the most interesting messages I’ve seen on television is a warning to Ghanaians about the rise in cardiovascular disease in the country.

This is more evidence of the growing dual burden of disease in developing countries. They have to confront both the infectious disease burden of malaria and water/sanitation related diseases while building their health system to support the growing number of people with what have been typically considered “Western” or developed world diseases such as cardiovascular disease. This shift to a dual burden is the result of changes in both diet and an increase in sedentary lifestyles. Much of this can be attributed to growing urbanization in developing nations as people from rural areas move to get access to electricity, water, health services, etc. and change their lifestyle accordingly.

While this is a growing concern in developing nations, Americans have been faced with cardiovascular disease as a major cause of death for decades. It seems that my family is not exempt from this disease as my father is to undergo heart surgery on Friday to repair a leaking valve and perform a few bypasses as well. I would be lying if I didn’t say that I’m bit a nervous being so far away. I seem to have a poor track record for leaving the country and people passing away at home. So, I would ask that you keep my father in your thoughts and prayers this week- that he may have a successful surgery and quick recovery.

2006-06-21T04:32:00.000-05:00

Religious Notes

I consider it a success that some mornings I am able to sleep through the 5:00am call to prayer from the megaphone just outside the guesthouse. It was easy to tune out the roosters at 3am in the campo, but this singing megaphone has been slightly more difficult.

It’s estimated that 56% of the Northern region’s population is Muslim. Driving between Tamale and Savelugu (where the World Vision office is located), I have noticed that most villages have a small mosque. The boy who runs the guesthouse here will surreptitiously exit the main house and pray the requisite five times a day. This is my first experience living in Muslim culture and from what I can tell the men seem to be very devote.

I have enjoyed attending mass with Hamdiyah on Sunday’s at the Kamina Barracks just north of where I am staying. Hamdiyah converted to Catholicism from Islam before marrying her husband. I didn’t realize this until I arrived, and it was a nice surprise. If I had to describe the mass here in one word, I would choose the word joyful. Mass is two hours long- probably because the gospel and homily (final reading and reflection by the priest) are recited in both English and Twi- the major language in the southern part of the country and most widely spoken throughout the country. There is also a significant amount of singing that extends the mass slightly. The choir is quite impressive with just 4 women and three men they harmonize and fill the church with their voices. It is celebratory. And let’s not forget that when it comes time to give tithes (pass the basket to collect donations) the entire congregation files in front of the altar to place their money in the collection basket up front. Two hours is probably a bit on the conservative side- I would say it’s closer to 2.5 hours.

2006-06-21T04:08:00.000-05:00

Field Laboratory 101

I had my first day of field testing yesterday and it went quite well. We went to visit the Ghana School Dam on the southern side of Tamale. A dam is typically a large hole that has been dug in the ground to collect water during the wet season and store it during the dry season. It is what we would consider a man-made lake.

We asked the women and children collecting water at this site whether or not they would drink it, and they responded, “Yes.” No household treatment, maybe a little sedimentation, but this water will be consumed practically as is. There was a small field on the side of the dam with grass and I asked whether animals graze there. The answer was, “Yes.” It was pretty unbelievable.

I am impressed by these women that are able to carry water to and from their homes each day. This cannot be easy.
I love that my taxi driver didn’t want me to get dirty, so he kicked off his sandals, rolled up his pants, and filled my water bucket.
I just met my 3 hour time limit for testing the water and made myself lunch in the house around noon. I come back to my room and realize that the power has gone out and I had just put my samples in the incubator an hour before. This is the first time the power has gone out since I arrived and I thought what perfect timing! To my relief, power was restored about 15 minutes later and I don’t believe my samples were harmed!

Here’s a quick view of my little laboratory in my room. Unfortunately, I have to suffer the heat b/c I can’t have the fan on with a lit candle during the testing. Oh well…the joys of doing field work!

2006-06-17T05:17:00.000-05:00

"Would you like to be engaged before leaving Ghana?"

I love it! It didn't take very long, did it? Since being asked this question I've made an executive decision to "be engaged" for the rest of my time here. It is so difficult for people outside of American culture to understand how Americans go about marriage. There are so many places that cannot afford the luxury of looking for the "perfect" mate. Young girls get pregnant and marry because of convenience or consider the simple fact that women need a man to survive in much of the world. Without a solid education and job there are not opportunities for women to work as there are men and their roles are still clearly designated as household and family responsibilities. For that reason I find it a difficult discussion to have with women- especially women who did not have the opportunity to make their own decisions or follow their own paths.

Here I have learned that the bride price is still fairly high- 3 cows, 5 sheep, etc. And while the professionals have told me they are trying to modernize that practice in the newer middle class it has evolved to instead buying cell phones for your future mother-in-law. For this reason, many youth are finding it difficult and expensive to marry and have to save a significant amount before it is possible.

In case you were wondering, the answer to the aforementioned question was a chuckle and emphatic, "No."

2006-06-15T11:09:00.000-05:00

Picture Time. . .

The gate to the guesthouse where I am staying. Maison de Sacre Mere

The busy road where I catch the bus to Savelugu where the World Vision office is.

The "neighborhood" in front of the guesthouse- it's set back from the road. There are lots of wandering animals including lizards, goats, and chickens.

The solar water bag that I'm testing. . .I guess one member of the team has named it Solaqua. You fill it at the top and open the valve at the bottom to discharge the purified water

A traditional housing complex that is on my walk to the main road from the guesthouse. They are made from clay with thatched roofs and each compound houses a family. The chief's compound is typically the largest.

More to come. . .next week!

2006-06-15T04:55:00.000-05:00

I had forgotten what happens in developing countries when it rains. A huge storm with heavy winds swept in this morning around 6am and I remembered those days I used to spend reading in the hammock, mopping the floor of my poor campo house. My accommodations have certainly improved since then, considering that I no longer have a leaky roof. So I decided to stay home Wednesday and do some reading here at the guesthouse and then wait to see if my 4:00pm meeting would happen or not. I am assuming that if the day passes with rain then there will be no meeting.

Visitors arrived at the guesthouse last night and it’s a shame I was so tired and didn’t get to spend more time with them. They are a small, local NGO called Ibis (not reproductive health) that does community development with most of their funds coming from the Ghanaian government. It is always interesting to speak with educated people who have strong opinions about the US and opportunities to travel to the states.

I had an interesting conversation last night with a man from Ibis who spoke of an educated friend who was now in the states and working as a janitor at a hospital. I believe that people can make a difference by earning money in the states and sending it home, but I am more and more a believer of transferring knowledge and funds so that these countries are able to lift themselves out of poverty. Unfortunately, that is much easier said than done. At least I know that through improvements in health there can be some alleviation in poverty and an improvement in their quality of life. I suppose that’s what motivates me to work in this field.

After a few days of heavy reading this week I finally have a more substantial idea of how I’m going to spend these next 6 weeks before the rest of the team arrives in August and we shift modes to analyzing the “make” option for the ceramic filters here in Tamale.

Just a little background for those who don’t know- Pure Home Water is an organization that has a two year grant from the Hilton Foundation to investigate and attempt to implement a sustainable business that markets household water treatment technologies in the northern an most needy region of Ghana. Susan Murcott, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT is the facilitator of the grant and the woman with whom I am working. Pure Home Water is comprised of two social entrepreneurs, both young Ghanaian professionals, that are marketing and selling the filters in Tamale and two neighboring regions. The main product that is currently being sold is a ceramic filter that looks like a large flower pot sits suspended inside a plastic bucket, leaving room for water to be stored below the filter and has a spigot at the bottom of the container. This provides both water treatment and safe storage for a household.

In January, a team of engineering and business students from MIT came to Ghana for three weeks to do some background research as well as analyze the “buy” option. Pure Home Water has been buying the ceramic filters from a Ghanaian supplier in Accra and then selling them in the north. Unfortunately, with transport costs, manufacturing costs, and breakage in transport the ceramic filter costs too much for the average family- 180,000 cedis or about $19. The “buy” option will not be sustainable without significant grant assistance for years to come.

As a result, two other team members will be arriving in August and a third in September to fully analyze the “make” option. Can the business be sustainable if there was a facility in Tamale that could produce the filter locally? I will be working with an MIT business student, Howard, and a recent graduate from Harvard, Liz, to see if this will option will prove feasible. Both Liz and the team member arriving in September, Ali, will be staying for six months to help create a sustainable product- whether that is a filter or brand name has yet to be determined.

Until August arrives, I plan on doing my own research that will serve as a basis for my thesis work. The ceramic filter does not provide a viable solution for the poor; therefore, I will be testing a solar water bag to see if it can be a low-cost technology that would potentially be produced locally. The water is disinfected through both UV-A light and thermal radiation, and if you’re really motivated you can check out http://www.sodis.ch/ for more information.

I am finally starting to formulate a plan and it feels good to have some direction. I will spend the first four weeks, starting next week, taking samples from local water sources, returning to the guesthouse to fill the solar water bags with the contaminated water, and then running water quality tests on the both the contaminated water and the disinfected water. This will provide a basis for the feasibility of the solar water bag to function in Ghana.

Then I will spend the last two weeks of July doing a small survey and some focus groups looking at the social and cultural acceptability of the solar water bag and specific design features. This will enable the MIT team that created the solar water bag to continue to improve the design and make a functional product for household water treatment in developing countries.

For those of you from Milwaukee- you’ll be interested to know that to improve water treatment after the Cryptosporidium outbreak of the 1990’s the local water treatment facilities upgraded their plants to include UV disinfection because Cryptosporidium cannot be killed through chlorination or other common water treatment techniques. Ok, so maybe that’s not that interesting to you- but I heard about it so many times during undergrad that I can’t quite forget it. Milwaukee was always the example of choice.

So, at the very least I have a plan. Sorry for such a long entry- I wrote this on my rainy day!

2006-06-12T04:51:00.000-05:00

I arrived safely in Accra on Tuesday evening and spent a few days getting organized in town before the staggering 12 hour bus ride on Friday to Tamale. My favorite part had to be the sign that said "Monkey For Sale." Much to my dismay, the Catholic Guesthouse was not all it was cracked up to be. I think they forgot I was coming, so they showed me the only room they had left- one light, no working fan, windows closed b/c there was an air conditioner that didn't work and no light in the nasty bathroom. Gross.

We decided to forgo that option and I'm now located farther north of town in the same "suburb" where Hamdiyah lives- about a 10 minute walk. It's a little off the beaten track, so I don't think I'll be meeting many foreigners or other travelers, but the place is nice and I have access to the kitchen. I also downgraded, so I just have a fan and "share" a bathroom with one other room, but there's no one staying in the other room. I've been watching lots of World Cup action on the satellite television while getting adjusted her in Tamale.

I had my first African market experience- wow! I don't know if I'll ever feel the same way about meat again, but I will spare you all the details. I love the negotiating atmosphere of life here in Ghana, but I need a little more practice.

The landscape was tropical rainforest and rolling hills on the way north, but now we've settled into a flat, savannah that has lush green grass and a few shrubs and taller trees interspersed. It is the rainy season, which means it rains every few days. All this greenery is contrasted by the bright red clay soil across the entire country.

I'm glad to be slightly more settled and really settle down to work. I'm at the World Vision office in Savelegu which is about 20 km north of Tamale. I'll spend at least one or two days a week here. This week I'll spend my days shadowning Hamdiyah and Wahabu and begin to make a plan for how I'm going to sample the population with the new solar water bag.

Unfortunately, I have my first bought of travelers diarrhea and, wow, it's not a lot of fun. Hopefully this is just my body getting used to the new microbes and nothing more.

More later. . .and maybe some pictures of the landscape when I get more settled.

So I decided to keep a blog. . .

2006-06-03T10:16:00.000-05:00

Although admittedly a bit self-indulgent. . .this may be a better way to keep in touch with people this summer than mass emails. This way you can read my adventures for yourself instead of receiving impersonal updates.

I had high hopes for this summer thinking I would finally be able to put my Peace Corps packing talents to work again. To illustrate my success I've included a picture of all "fun stuff" I have to take with me. Please take note that the box in the middle of the suitcase is an incubator...I know, I'm not kidding. In addition, I will have to carry-on the media that I will be using to do water quality testing because it needs to be refrigerated. Amazing. I didn't include a picture of the little vials that I will be hand carrying for 24 hours. I don't think you really need to see that.

I'm leaving Monday evening for Ghana, flying to London and then directly to Accra. It will be a 24 hour trip in total where I will be met by Hamdiyah, a local Ghanaian and young professional. A few days after arrival, we'll be traveling 10 hours by bus to Tamale, the regional capital of the north, to work for the subsequent eight weeks. I'm going to be working with Pure Home Water, a small social entrepreneurship that is trying to market household water technologies, specifically ceramic filters, that disinfect water within the home. To try and reach all social strata I will be looking at a newer technology that uses solar disinfection. I'm excited to complete my own small study and get real data for my thesis next year.

I'll keep you posted from Tamale once I arrive on June 9th.