I keep thinking that my situation here in Ghana as a PCV is unique but I suppose at any given time a number of PCV's in Ghana are thinking exactly the same. No matter!
What makes mine different is that I am working, as in performing a job, on an everyday basis in what might be some day a Ghanaian 'business' or profit centre with my Ghanaian colleagues, all of whom have..or did have..defined jobs within this same structure.
And, although my duties and responsibilities were less clear-cut than theirs, as time went by they expanded and became clearer.
Additionally, of course, outside of this, my primary assignment, I have very real secondary assignments, most of which I have selected myself.
My primary assignment is to get the U.S. NGO-sponsored Whuti Community Library up and running and then to bring to life a revenue-generating internet cafe..backed up in the same complex with a revenue-generating Community Guest House.
From a small business standpoint it is probably as complete an opportunity as one could imagine for a PCV in rural Ghana....although that doesn't make it easy.
In some senses, given that it involves working intimately with the U.S. NGO and the community, ..and laying out a plan that juggles time, money, activities, people it is ready-made for a person like me, indeed me, who has years of project development, planning, and execution experience ..and can still walk the walk.
The only flies in the ointment are....This Is Africa..not Frankfurt, London, Milan, New York ..and I, the PCV, have no actual formal status, except as an advisor, a catalyst, a facilitator.
Whuti is a rural community, in a forgotten corner of West Africa, and that means so much.
I am the first PCV to be assigned to Whuti and thus I am the only white person (yevu) that has ever spent considerable amounts of time here..5 months and counting. In fact for most, i am undoubtedly the only white person that they've ever interacted with on any regular basis...and this is true not only of the children and the fishermen and the toothless old ladies but of the chiefs and the elders ..those who might be considered to be 'running' the community.
The point is that in order to go forward with this primary assignment i am and always have been operating on a very intimate/detailed day-to-day basis not only with the Library staff (let's define that..the 'staff', despite plans to add over the next twelve months, has been the Librarian, unfortunately lacking in any Library experience..and come to think of it, any business experience..and two fishermen/farmers who are uncles and cousins of the Librarian who were 'hired' as Security Guards/Maintenance Men/Cleaners), but with other important members of the community who anxiously awaited the arrival of the famous PCV as an extension of the largesse of the US NGO....
It has all been thoroughly educational because if one operates side-by-side with someone and performs/shares many of the same day-to-day tasks then one begins to quickly understand how a "me" and a Ghanaian see things quite differently in a job especially when it comes to the concepts of 'accountability' and 'responsibility'.
Maybe it has to do with being a small rural community...and it is highly possible that it might be quite different in Accra or one of the other cities...but most of Ghana is made up of small communities and so it is a valid experience.
In my experience, accountability is a given at any level and responsibility within a certain job and structure is generally a well-defined concept.
But, what I've seen so far is that they are both quite foreign to my Ghanaian colleagues here..and it is quite frustrating!
What does one do....more of the shared tasks?
Or, even if one does it clumsily, does one try to introduce one's ideas of accountability and responsibility to one's colleagues?
What have I done here? I suppose a combination of the two ....there are things to be done here...a lot of things to be done, both to move forward with the Library and the Computer Centre and every-day tasks for where we are now, and so I do find myself doing more and more simply to keep the Library open and to move forward in our plans; but I can't see that such is good for the long-term because I will leave some day..and I will take time off also..and it really isn't being a good PCV; and so additionally I have tried at intervals and with specific examples to get across the concepts of accountability and responsibility and to sell the true sharing of tasks.
What has been most difficult to work with is the idea that one gets paid, according to one's published job descriptions...which do exist, for a job to be performed for say, 40 hours a week!
What I've come to understand is that this is fine (the 'getting paid' part)...but, if one's friends stop by then whatever one might have been doing is put to the side and the friends are entertained for as long as they're staying...and in Ghana that can be a long, long time; or if a friend or extended family member needs you to go to the nearest town to get something..or to take a multi-day trip to Accra to help with something administrative then..bam..you're gone and you return when the distractions are taken care of. And they aren't 'distractions' they're important to the family member, etc ..and so more important than one's job duties.
The extended family phenomenon is huge and new to me and affects everything from hiring to priorities. Families are large here and have probably been larger in the past and so in a smallish community like Whuti..it seems that almost everyone is related however distantly...and FAMILY ..even the extended version...is VERY IMPORTANT in rural Ghana.
What that means, it seems, in a business environment, is that firstly, all hiring should be done within the family and that familial connections are much more important than qualifications, and secondly, that support, help, visiting, hanging out with extended family members is more important than one's appointed job and any of its tasks!
And woe betide any PCV or any white guy, who might suggest that such is not fair..to one's colleagues or to one's employer.
I am NEVER going to solve that problem and the best I will be able to do is minimise it...hire outsiders, hire people who have no in-town families. (Hiring, Richard? I thought you were a PCV? )
But why is it this way here? Do Ghanaians love their families and feel obliged to support them more than we do?
Or is it that they don't get the ideas of accountability and responsibility??
Or...?
I'm inclined to think I will never really understand those differences but they seem so crucial to making the progress that seems possible in a community like Whuti......sigh.
No comments:
Post a Comment