some market pictures..it's been a while

Sweet Home Alabama..oops, i mean Whuti!

Home again, home again, jiggidy-jog (or however it is spelled)

On the back of an 'interesting' (useful???) week, this was my Sunday..which wasn't much different from my Saturday.

it wasn't a bad day..i actually haven't had a 'bad' day since i came back here three weeks ago.

so let me tell you ...this is a (weekend) day in the life of this PCV in Ghana....

i was up by 6.30.. later than usual because i'd woken at 4 and started thinking about library/computer problems..and that always takes me 40-60 minutes to get 'past' and back to sleep. That and thinking about Sharon Stone.

i haul water from the well for the 'toilet' and for my 'shower'..just like every day!

i check e-mail..i check the Braves..i check the world ..ugly US politics..i have a bar (no, not that kind..a chinning bar, is that what they call it?) so i do pull-ups..both sides..and then go out to run.

Every day..gbe sia gbe..i go run...i go down to the beach.. i run..sandy paths along the edge of the beach and i'm now officially ahead of my '1200 kms in 2011' target..the usual cheery waves, and 'good mornings' and 'efua's' (how are you?) ..20..30 different people of all ages?..and then since it is the weekend, i have time to help my brothers in arms..the fishermen.

Usually, i haul rope but today..with my friend-and Assistant Librarian, Bright ...i was involved in launching a couple of boats. they know what they're doing..i don't. But we get the boats launched..it really is hard work..they're used to it..i'm not but enjoy it! And they enjoy my enjoyment..they love my running shoes..and my watch too!

I stop off (this is 8.45-ish) to buy a couple of eggs for brecky.. i guess i don't understand life here..a couple of young guys..20's...knocking back shots at 20 pesewas for breakfast before nine on a Sunday..maybe it is to face church?

I see it morning and night..i wish i understood..perhaps i will.

MY breakfast..i'm such a boring traditionalist..is two fried eggs, fried tomato, bit of fried bread and a bit of bacon!!.. I recognise that such is how i 'eat' weekend mornings wherever i am!! And it was good!

today..as opposed to yesterday, Saturday being '(hand) laundry' day', i ended up washing all the dirty dishes...and then finishing off the 'planting' of my 'garden' ..seven packets of 'stuff'..basil..rosemary..thru 'wildflowers'. So now i have a garden..or perhaps a garden..i can hope. It would be nice..and rosemary and basil too?

Then back to the grindstone..the Library-the Computer Centre

it isn't work or hard work..but computer stuff takes time, lots and lots of time.

Am i competent/trained to be a network admnistrator..NO!

..but one gets by..you go back to first principles..and kind of try to imagine what the designers, etc were trying to do..or something like that

But i think we have a potential REAL solution to our network implementation problems and so i'm back to prepping for class. I have to set up my 13 desktop computers to 'support' my 'Learn to Program in MS Visual Basic' class which starts on Monday..yikes, this Monday!!!! ('my'..getting very proprietary it seems)

..And so my first task is to set up another download of Visual Basic Express.... 157 MB!! takes forever..the only nice thing is that if you lose your connection , which is almost guaranteed, the download doesn't go back to the beginning.

with the poor, unstable and slow internet connections i have here, i spend enormous amounts of time waiting for downloads, etc . Maybe it is character building?

And then while that is going on i'm off the Market..it's fun, they like me, i like them, i take pictures, i make smiles..i buy garlic, tomatoes, lettuce, Pastis, garlic, a pineapple, eggs..and bread from Togo..mini-baguetttes. There are three Togolose ladies who come every market day to sell bread and by now they HUNT me ..to sell! it is a good feeling! And the bread is great.

I'm searching for my ..tune or groove with respect to photography here. i don't know what i'm seeing and so there is no rhythm in my efforts here yet..i'm not understanding what i'm seeing and so i don't know why i am taking the pictures. I need to work at it more systematically.

The market is very colourful, happy, friendly..it is very much what i understand as Ghana, West Africa

..and today, for sure, i like it

(i try to take pictures..i am not inspired...but i should be

i often think about and have begun to understand HCB's 'decisive moment'...and i believe that i could aspire to it but i'm very far from that state just now. Part of the problem is that with digital, one isn't so concerned with setting up the shot..you just fire away literally and that isn't right. )

Then back to the Library..check in on the world..Hungarian Grand Prix..yea, Jensen!! Cricket..what????...Track...better..after all in just 365 days we'll be in the middle of the London Olympics..and i'll be there!!!

and wince at the slow file download.

I have some prep work for the VB class to finish. I'm nervous about it because i have no real idea what they know and whether they can learn..from me. I've prepared some hand-outs for after class..that will surprise them! They don't do hand-outs in Ghana.

I leave about 7-ish, go back to the 'house' and sit outside to read for an hour or so..and drink my daily coke (what??? yup...one a day..just like a vitamin)..and since i felt good i had a Pastis too. I'm reading a biography of Dorothea Lange and perhaps that is what is moving me to take more pictures and to try to think about what i'm doing. I just finished Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about LBJ for whom she worked. It was really good. the book was published about 35 years ago but she's wrote a new foreward in 1991 which has a funny (to me ) story. Apparently she was offered the position of Peace Corps Director at one time..but she turned it down because she had just got Red Sox season tickets and didn't want to miss out on seeing them!! pretty funny, i thought.

Dinner.. was straight from the market..a mini-baguette filled with avocado salad..very good..and some fresh pineapple also..very healthy ..cost me all of about $0.80.

then early to bed under my cute virginal white mosquito net..and what will my malaria-medicine driven dreams be tonight!!!

probably not Sharon Stone..more likely ..some echoes from my past work life..boring.

..so not a bad day, interesting, useful (helping the fishermen, working in the computer room, being a smiling, buying presence at the market) and healthy too!

..and i promise to add more pictures to this blog this week also!

Random Thoughts..(1), (2), (3).

(1)..On Going Home.

Yup..in approx 189 hours i will be leaving Whuti and heading back to the U.S. for a couple of weeks.

I've been counting the days .. the hours even.. for quite a long time.
I've been (back) in Peace Corps now for just over a year. It has been a completely different experience for me.

Everything has been so different..climate, food, assignment, actual activities, language (duh, of course..i have yet to meet a Romanian-speaking Ghanaian), daily life and chores, living arrangments, PC staff.
And it has been hard work on all fronts...and i need a rest..and good and more food..and to get my computer fixed/replaced..and i want to see my family..and sleep in my bed, and to stock up with stuff to see me through the next year or so (till end-July 2012).
I have been fixated on coming home for a while and i can't imagine going through two years here without going home for a bit.
I leave at an OK time..i've been running the Library on my own since 01JAN and we're now up to almost 50 users per day/each averaging an hour a day. So that's 1000 'users' and 1000 'reading' hours per month where before there was NONE!!! There are NO books to read in the local schools..most children don't even have the crappy Ghana textbooks..there are NO libraries in this area and at home, no parents or grandparents read to children, no siblings read to younger children..NO-ONE has books at home and most adults here can't read. So 1000 hours/1000 users per month is a BIG advance..and i'm proud of it.
Now(as of 25MAY) i have help in the Library..an Assistant Librarian..and so i have been able to turn my attention to the Computer Centre and its max potential 20 computers (desktops/netbooks) and with outside help, we've got all bar four up and running and usable and so as of last Monday(o6JUN) i have been 'teaching' ICT classes to the local JHS students (all of them...165 of them) who come once a week in manageable size groups of 10-14 students to listen to me and watch me scribble on the blackboard(whiteboard actually). It has been fun and hard work but it will pay off..just as with books, they are 'taught' ICT in school without any access or even sight of a computer!
And it will all still be here when i come back..recharged and with a few more pounds on me..hopefully!

(2) More cultural/societal insights.

Peace Corps is big on 'cultural integration'. We report at length on our progress in 'cultural integration' in our 4-monthly Volunteer Report Form.
But 'cultural integration' is a surface thing.
How can the only white person in the community..the only white person who has ever lived in the community for any length of time..ever be culturally integrated? On the other hand it is very valid to ask ..how well do you understand your community, how well do you understand how the 'culture' affects or impacts daily life in the community..and, importantly, how it informs your work and interactions with the community.

So when i fill out my VRF i say that yes, i fell reasonably safe, and 'somewhat culturally integrated' and i pretty much leave it at that.

But how well do i understand my community? Not well, though i am constantly learning...it's like building a huge jigsaw puzzle..and i'm learning in some areas and completely dumb in others.

Obviously more than any place i could have imagined..everybody seems inter-related..part of the 'extended family'. And i begin oi have some understanding of how and why.

Families are quite large..that is to say the female and children parts of families are quite large. It is a matriarchal society. Many (most?) heads of household are the grandmothers..and there are many more females daily resident in the community than males. I was going to write that familes are large..with many children. But it isn't quite like that. In truth, most females seem to have many children by different partners..and mostly the children live with the grandmothers and many are raise by them..or 'guardians' (female) within the 'extended family'. So the nuclear family is a rarity. ...i never see young couple walking together with/without their children. Boys and girls are sexually active at a young age..probably 14-16..and since they can't afford or disdain condoms here (Aids really isn't a problem here at all) , many girls get pregnant while at school..they drop out to have the baby and then return to school..which is why we have 17-year old girls in Primary and many girls of 19 and 20 in JHS ..and the baby is raised by the family, generally the grandmother. This pattern is repeated and doesn't change if the female eventually stops going to school. Young women would appear to have many children before they are 25 but not as part of a settled union. One rarely sees couples with their children..the family unit is grandmother, one or more daughters and lots of young children. Most houses/compounds - with many 'families' living together in somewhat mingled dwellings sharing cooking facilities/fires, access to water, bathing 'facilities', toilet 'facilities' (most have none) have many 'families' living together..all possibly inter-related.
The Library, where i work, is set back from the main(only) road and the space between the Library and the road is a thoroughfare so as i sit and wait for a computer to respond i began to observe how teenagers interact...and it took some illuminating conversations with some teenagers who frequented the Library to understand what i was seeing. I began to recognise that there was a struggle going one between teenage boys and girls wherein ..trying to persuade someone of something...the boys would physically grab the girls and try (and often succeed) to drag them off. This jibes with what i was told ...that boys put a lot of pressure on girls to have sex with them ..and that then sets a pattern for the rest of their lives...for both!!
It is illuminating..because of what it says about respect for the family while also explaining how everyone is inter-related. I'm guessing that this would not go down well with the Tea Party

It isn't a comfortable or comforting society to observe, to live in, to try to help.
But i clearly have to accept it..because there is absolutely nothing i can do about it!

So, for me, there isn't much in this 'culture" to love, to admire, to respect.
All the worst imaginable -isms are at work..and more besides...sexism, nepotism, cronyism, even racism as it applies to people from othr regions of Ghana..and local corruption as well.



So that's the community understanding part..and the more i learn the less i respect this culture ..value and honour its differences? Nope..not me..it all smacks of ignorance.


But i'm not here to make judgements, just to help, and that isn't impacted by this growing 'understanding'.

The growing understanding does help me to navigate better ..and that is important.

I'm this 'sore thumb' around here.
But how people interact with me depends on where they sit within the community and its structure and the extent, if any, to which they have an interest in my being here or in the Library and its NGO sponsor.

To the vast majority of Whuti's population..of 3k to 5k/6K, depending on whether you count the males who leave the area to try to find some work and the children who are sent out of the area for schooling...i am just the 'yevu' (the white person) . They see me a lot, they've been seeing me for months, they see me interact with the children and they're fine with all of that, they wave, they slap hands, etc but basically they have no idea why i'm in Whuti, how long i'll stay, and they have no expectations of me.

There are a set of people, mostly women- market traders, who are conditioned to want something (money-a loan ) from me..because i'm a white man.
I'm committed to helping them - through my work with Lumana (http://www.lumana.org/) - but it has been a slow process with many ups and downs. There are many women..of all ages - in this category.

Sadly, many of them are conditioned to want and expect a hand-out from 'yevus' and so they're angry? and disappointed when i won't (and can't) give them money..they think i'm holding out on them.

The next layer are those who do make money on a regular basis and who want me to help
the community in general i.e. non-specifically, but who haven't the faintest idea how any of this can be performed ..they have no ideas for development projects and no development funds to contribute.

The final and most difficult group/layer are those who have been involved in the PCV (me) coming to Whuti and who have, mostly unannounced, angles or private agendas in interacting with me and PC.
The Library is a long time coming..now in its fifth year since the foundations were being prepared......and some people's energies have lagged.

There isn't really much community spirit here ..and yet this set of people are the chiefs, elders, those with some 'position' in the community. They all have private and personal expectations of me and the 'status' of these expectations this summer, etc is not so good..because i don't directly bring money!

These are the people to whom, I, as the de facto Librarian report, but most of them don't actually give a shit about the Library or the education of the community's youngsters. They are associated with the Library because of the prestige within the community that it brings to them...and because they have their own private interests in making some money out of the work being done on the Library.

And to the extent that I don't go along with all of that and cling to my idealistic goals for the Library, the Computer Centr, and the greater good of the community, they will bad-mouth me.

But I'm not a quitter..and i am learning!


(3) Friends Leaving!

It is a somewhat unexpected but unow understandable 'experience' to say good bye to friends that i've made here! Apparently not everyone signs up for two years!!!
I've met and occasionaly interact with and hang out with the people..B-School students and new grads and interns from other schools in the Seattle area who come here to work with/for Lumana, my favourite microfinance operation. And Lumana also atracts other young people from different countries floating around Ghana looking for supported volunteer work. They've rented a big house in Anloga, next (bigger) community up, and they even have someone who comes in and cleans and cooks for them! Lucky them.

Given the difficulty in actually making friends with Ghanaians here (i have three and i'm not sure we're that close) AND the relief that one (me certainly) finds when one can socially or professinally interact with Brits, Americans, Canadians, Europeans ..and NOT be the yevu under inspection all the time, it is not surprising that i feel a sense of loss when these other vols return to their various homelands to go back to school, etc! I don't suppose that they see it that way but i do! They're probably just happy to get out in one piece.
Fortunately, Lumana and other NGO's that i interact with keep sending in new blood for me to befriend. Long may they continue.

Losing My Religion...R.E.M.?

..Losing my mind more like!!!!

I posted a completely ignored bit of wisdom on FB a few months ago ..a story about my good Lumana friend, Chad,who noted that Ghana is very hard on electronics..and I agreed but noted that it was also hard on PEOPLE (ME ESPECIALLY...I'M NOW DOWN TO WHAT I PROBABLY WEIGHED IN FORM 4 (OOPS FORM IV) AT THE ROYAL HIGH SCHOOL OF EDINBURGH), on clothes, on books, on shoes, on bags/packs..everything i brought here..and yes...... Electronics.

OK, so i'm a Pece Corps wimp..and back in the old days of snail-mail and jungle-drums and runners with messages in cleft sticks here, life was a lot harder, but i am completely dependent on my laptop computer. It is my blood, my breath, my heart, my mind, my soul, my way, my escape. and oh btw..i can't imagine doing what i'm doing here and in the way i'm doing it without my laptop...hmm, yea, that one, the expensive replacement for that one torn from my grasp in Northern Ghana just six months ago.

And so.imagine the horror, the anxiety, the pain in my stomach..when two weeks ago..going into the Library, hooking everything up....AND THE LITTLE GREEN (I'M POWERING YOU!!!!) LED DID NOT COME ON WHEN I CONNECTED THINGS UP!!!!

..it's a problem, it's a not-to-be-fixed here problem..it's like being in love (..with all things Apple..it's a MacBook)..how could you do this to me (Beatles-She's Leaving Home) - it's a wake up in the middle of the night panic problem
It sucks..big-time. I know it isn't personal but jeez..why me, why now?

Well, really, Apple ..of course, it can be replaced or fixed,,,but can i get through the next 24 hours without internet access???
The stock market..why do i care..oh...habit!
Sports..yea well,,i do need to know what time the game is..and how are the Braves doing..and JESSICA ENNIS???

so you scratch around and put stuff together and get some kind of connectivity and remember all your other addictions/compulsions..three-a-day work-outs, the Eagle trials (WOT????), graded work-outs for 5 months before London in '85...etc, etc..including perhaps BEA 494 cutover or LH Cargo Acceptance (really obscure!!!).


It is amazing to have lived a life through so much technological change in the world of computers..and been so close to it...Ed Mack, BOH, SJM, Jim Lindley..Microsofties and electronic newspapers...our 5 minutes with Steve J before he blew our ideas at Next out of the water..he was right, too!
(..and then the greed..i share the blame?)

..and now I'm in very rural Africa..preparing to start (on Monday) 'teaching' Ghanaian children about computers.

...pas mal

..may you live in interesting times (..or make 'em that way!)

baci e abbracci

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is King...tho perhaps not in Ghana!

So big day yesterday!

As we know, I've been operating our swish 2,800 sq ft Community Library (that's big for a community library) with its 4,000+ books in 12 categories...etc, etc and open ( a minimum of) 35 hours a week, single-handedly for the last 3 1/2 months and virtually s-h for the prior 3 1/2 months (cue..applause, hosannas, flowers, dancing girls..).

Well yesterday, given the impending arrival of the Library's US NGO President next month who is desirous of meeting with such as the Library Advisory Committee, the community 'leaders' decided to have the first meeting.

Scheduled for 1000 in the Library..are you sure that you guys know where it is, it's not as if i've ever actually seen you in the Library! (..cynic)...it started promptly at 1100.

..and lasted until 1345! About average for a Ghanaian meeting. I wish I'd been here before cell-phones. They're chiefs, they might have more than one, and no-one would ever excuse themselves to take a call or not take one.

The meeting was conducted in Ewe..fair enough..and sitting beside Michael, my PCV 'supervisor' in the community (every PCV has a 'counterpart' and a 'supervisor' in the community) he would fill me in on decisions, general drift of conversations.

You wouldn't think it would take 2 hours to come up with the list of members of a community Library Advisory Committee and to vote in a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Treasurer (hmmm ?), Secretary, but it did. And at c. 150 books per member we have some 25 members on the Committee.

There was some discussion as to how often the Committee should meet..quarterly seemed the consensus ..though i did point out that at that frequency their impact on the Library's day-to-day operations would be minimal.

But they all seemed quite happy with the results of their first meeting until....

my friend Victor (i have two, maybe three, Ghanaian people i consider to be real friends so far) who is somewhat scorned because firstly, he is not originally from the community, and secondly, because Victor hauled himself up from his nearby village, got himself through Teacher Training College and impressed enough to have Dr Nkrumah send him on a scholarship to university in the U.S. He graduated there and then worked at SUNY Albany? for a number of years before returning to his native Ghana. Thereafter he was head of the Sociology Dept. at Cape Coast University, the most prestigious in the country, until his retirement.

He has been my friend and advisor thru some tough times for me here..and (perhaps it's the country) i find him to be the a very wise and good man (..and i don't know that i have been able to say that too often in my life).

anyway..Victor glanced over at me and asked in English...so now that we have all the positions filled, what exactly is the Committee going to do?

Victor!!!

i almost fell on the floor laughing..as i had been dying to ask that question..but couldn't, of course (..and not because of the language barrier!).

Pregnant pause-hint of laughter round Victor's eyes. Victor you are bad. You're showing your life's voyage too obviously. No wonder they don't properly respect you here!

Resolution...nah, nothing really; let's adjourn (with the post-meeting prayer) before Victor can think up some other difficult questions!

It's all posturing...whoever heard of a 24-person rural community Library Advisory Committee. But the protocols must be observed, mustn't they?

(mostly i resent giving up that block of time..and them telling users as they wandered in..no, you can't use the library..we're having a meeting!)

..sigh...

..and my NIKON recorded these thoughts on its travels..

Don't you just love border towns? Must have been what the Wild West was like? OK, perhaps not. But border towns have their own feel; money-changers..Arab?; more wheeling/dealing than you'd see elsewhere ; and dirty, dusty, everything coated with red sandstone dust...awful roads; swarms of humanity, women all laden down with huge bundles on their heads, men- eyes going from left to right, looking for an angle, trying to make a buck...or a cedi or a franc.

It finally appears that if one 'looks' West African, then one doesn't even need to show any form of ID..just follow the swarm through the gates. For 'foreigners', visas, clearances are a major source of income and so there are controls to pass through for the exit part and the entry part and they all 'seem' to have their hands out.

Interesting, the capital city extends right up to the border..and it's not so big. One could just keep on walking after 'crossing' the border, all the way to the city centre.

Lovely wide boulevard sweeps along the Gulf..beach on one side, remnants of colonial glories on the other...lots of palm trees swaying in the breeze.

Moto's are preferred form of transportation...anything with two wheels and some space on the back is for hire..and there are probably thousands of them.

I search for the right words to describe what i see...a fallen colonial charm, a very definite French colonial feel. Poorer than i've seen before with more people living in the streets..families, or at least women with young children, and lots of squatters in abandoned buildings. Views are not helped by the fact that most of the streets are torn up..for 'road strengthening, putting in drainage system?

The world has moved on and left peeling posters, faded signs..having moved on does it ever come back? How could it...but maybe why should it anyway?

..triste, mais encore exotique..

But then you come across a real 'Patisserie' that could have been transplanted from any French suburban ville.

A line of huge container ships parked out at sea, reminds me of the mouth of the Bosphorus..waiting for space to unload?, more likely load..someone's minerals. I guess that there are very many deep-water ports in this Gulf...and the rusting piers jutting out from the beach are way past their sail-by date.

A French restaurant...seafood...trop cher, but interesting senior staff and clientele..faded colonials, young African women. Worth it for the bread alone..and du vin rouge, s'il vous plait!

Night in a West African city is always exotic and slightly dangerous (or more than slightly?).

There isn't a lot of light but there is a lot of life. After night falls the streets are much busier than before..maybe the heat? but more that people eat outside, sidewalk vendors so there is smoke (..with fire) and sizzling smells and lots of curious stuff in pots and pans and on grills.

There is probably more traffic on the roads then in the daytime but it is crawling along and nobody minds.

So there are lights from the cars and the motos and there is some light from shopfronts or bars/restaurants but in the huge space between the roads and the shopfronts there is little light..except from cooking. Everyone is sitting around eating...brochettes, meat, fish, i really want what he has but somehow it doesn't materialise. It's a bit of a shambles but no-one seems upset. The 'space"..hard to call it a restaurant with only alfresco dining ..seems to be 'served' by two or three different food vendors so what you get depends on the affiliation of the person that takes your order? Separately there is a long table with bottles of wine...wander over, make your choice. Great music too, loud, pulsating.

So it is all pretty much how it is supposed to be here!

....and in the morn ...pain au chocolat ...but no cafe au lait! quelle domage...but i can get a quiche to go (ouf..why not) and a few loaves of french bread..will that be smuggling?

...a la frontiere, s'il vous plait. Mais vite, vite!

My NIKON went-a travellin'