The Long Road to Tamale

Shea Butter: A Quick Primer

2012-01-05T14:02:00.000-08:00

Source

Shea butter is an oil extract from the kernel of the sheanut produce of the shea tree. It grows profusely in the wild without any special nourishment and attention. Every part of this indigenous tree is found to be useful. Its distribution is exclusive to sub-Saharan West Africa in the savannas, particularly in Burkina Faso where it provides economic sustenance to rural women. Its distribution extends from Senegal to Ethiopia and Uganda over stretch of savanna nearly a thousand kilometers long covering an area of 1 million square km of wooded grassland (about 500 million trees) across 19 countries of the region.

A Shea tree growing in the wild

The shea tree, though slow in its initial growth, has a useful fruit bearing life span of 15–20 years. Under indigenous farming system when clearing land for other agricultural activities, Shea trees are preserved and its exclusive plantation is restricted to avoid shading of other crops; however the operations of weeding and management of soil fertility adopted for other crops also facilitates shea tree growth.The shea fruit matures into the shea nut which has the shea kernel within it. The kernel is the source of the shea butter that is extracted through an arduous several hours of processing, over 22 steps, to produce 1 kg of the butter. In Ghana as in other countries, it is the exclusive prerogative of rural women to harvest and process Shea nuts. In Burkina Faso it is also known as "Karité" which is also the French name for the tree. The fruits are shaped like large plums and have smooth skin with an egg-shaped nut with the kernel that yields the fatty shea butter.

Shea nuts still in the shells

Product

The product that is extracted as fat from the kernel of the shea nuts, which has five primary fatty acids namely, palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, and arachidic; stearic and oleic acids constitute 85–90% of the fatty acids. Though a fat, it is not extracted in a fluid state like other oils, but is processed in the form of a white, odourless, and nearly tasteless creamy paste or somewhat firmer than butter..

Quality

The quality of shea nuts and butter, both of which are also exported in large quantities from Ghana, are basically dependent upon post harvest processing; in this process parboiling of shea nuts is carried out at the beginning of the season as it the eliminates germination and helps in faster drying. Better quality is obtained by sun-drying of the shea nut since smoking the nuts over a fire contaminates it with hydrocarbons.

The butter at different step of the process

The DDA Fellowship; The last Conference

2011-12-15T07:33:00.000-08:00

We had our last conference of the year for the District Directors of Agriculture Fellowship on November 16th. Our aim was twofold, on one hand have the DDAs present their change projects and to try to create a vision for a way forward in 2012 along with getting some feedback from the DDAs.

The Directors hard at work during session 4 in September

It was somewhat disappointing; only 3 of the 7 DDAs showed up; Dickson, Savior and Ahmed Adam were the ones present. Apparently the 4 others were all very sick and couldn’t make it; one of them was actually in the hospital, the malaria season has been brutal. It’s hard to say if we should read something into it? Does it indicate a lack of interest from some of the members? Perhaps they were not happy with their change projects and didn’t want to share with their peers? Or perhaps they were just all very sick?

Considering the low numbers we did some really good work and got some really good outputs from them. I may have to visit some of those DDAs before leaving; we’ll see.

The Change Project presentations were good although they reflected the initial planning. More care should be given in the future in coaching the Directors for the planning phase. They should be introduced to basic tools of Project Management. The projects would greatly benefit by having things like scope and deliverables well defined. It is also important for them to limit their initiatives to something that is achievable during the period of the Fellowship. From this last year working with the DDAs we now better understand the types of constrains the Director are facing, therefore our coaching should improve for the 2012 new DDA Fellows.

What was lacking in proper planning was easily made up by the hard work they put into it.

One Project that stood out was Dr. Savior’s from Karaga. The problem was well defined and the strategy made sense and the project is unfolding as planned. It will be ongoing for a while since his nutrition project is only the beginning of a bigger initiative. His project aims at teaching people how to use soy in their day to day diet. They teach the family recipes and how to incorporate soya into their regular dishes without changing the taste. In his district, as in many district in Ghana, a fair amount of children suffer from malnutrition. The children don't suffer from lack of food but from a lack of protein. There are many reasons for this and they are mostly cultural; people believe for example that eggs and meat are bad for children. People already grow soy as a cash crop so the project simply aim at changing people behaviour by having them incorporate 20% of soy with the maze they use for making Fufu and TeZed.

Ahmed Adam's from project Kpamdie was very challenging. I think that he may have tried to take too big of a bite at building capacity of its staff. One of the aspect that was clever and that used skills acquired from the DDA Fellowship was to create n Performance Based Incentive for the fuel allowances. In each district Extension Agents (EAA) and Directors of Agriculture (DOA are directors reporting to the District Director of Agriculture) receive a fuel allowance. Disregarding the amount of travelling the EAA and DAO receive the same amount every month.

Director Adam instituted a system where the EAA and DAO record their travel in a log and they are compensated according to their travelling. There are also spot audits. He also has included non-monetary incentive as reward for the better performing staffs. This part of the project seems to be getting some traction with the staff.

Interestingly enough when I visited his district in Kpandie the EEAs and DAO were very vocal about this system and there seem to be a strong buy in.

Doctor Dickson's improvement project from Bunkpurugu involved improving the distribution of Government sponsored fertilizers. His first phase was to acquire some hard data on the distribution in his district. His assumption is that by having better distributor locations the access to the program could improve drastically for the more remote farmers. His initiative, although simple, could have a very important effect on the delivery of this particular service.

Overhaul I believe that the three projects were very good and will be on going and will have substantial effects for their respective districts. Equally important, the sharing of this information within the |DDA fellowship could be a way forward to institutionalize some of these changes down the road?

The afternoon was a discussion about a way forward for the DDA Fellowship and work on creating a vision. We were able to come up with draft of the DDA Fellowship Vision. There is more work to be done but it is a good start. I have worked with Doctor Dickson in creating a simple Blog that we'll use to dissipate and share the information.

I'll write some more about the “Way Forward” in a future blog

Keep well allowances

Dominique

My name is Suhuyini.

2011-12-06T05:37:00.000-08:00

Many people coming to Ghana get a Ghanaian name. For example Siera, one of my surrogate daughters was named Tunteya (which means progress) by a woman’s group from a village near Tamale. I never asked for mine and no one has volunteered to give me one; Father Dom works just fine with me. Olivier was giving his by a hairdresser located near the Gumani House. Within hours of arriving in Tamale the hairdresser and her daughter named him Hunpini which means God’s gift; God has a weird sense of humour.

Olivier became good friend with some of the nearby shop owners. I rarely talk to them besides the regular greeting when walking by or stopping to buy something. By Ghanaian standards I am an old grumpy guy who gets annoyed by the overwhelming friendliness. I rarely give my phone number and if someone ask me to be their friend I usually tell them that I already have enough friends and if I take them as a friend then I would have to fire one of my existing ones.

Tunteya and Suhyini on the bus to Mole

So I am not exactly the poster boy for the friendly face of the white race. I used to think that I was a bit of a cranky man; now I have graduated officially to being a cranky old man. I guess I became old because I am reminded every day in so many ways that I am so old. My EWBer colleges have certainly contribute in that departmernt, I guess the difference is just there. For some reason Ghanaian people won’t let me carry my own bag. So it feels pretty much the same, gray hair and wrinkles and all, but I am being treated like if I was 90 years old and not able to start my own motto. Not a big deal; until I came to Ghana I never though of myself as being old; I feel more like a man with a fair amount of millage? ;)

Being old is like getting a title, you may get it but it doesn't mean you get more money. Unstead of the title I would have gladly taken the raise. ;)

As I walked by the few days following Olivier’s naming, the shop owners start calling me Suhuyini when I was greeting them. They just decided that I needed a Dagbani name. Suhyini means the “One Heart” the one who inspires, who brings people together, the one one who thinks and feels for the group. So those people who barely know me gave me a pretty awesome name. I asked a few different people what it meant, just to make sure. When I ask one of the men in Taha he simply said: “it’s you, One Heart”.

Maybe they are just polite and couldn’t find a Dagbani name that meant “Cranky Old White Guy who doesn't want to be my friend”? Or maybe they saw some of the “One Heart” in me?

I can’t say that my Dagbani name is totally fitting, maybe I am somewhat of a “One Heart”. It’s more about what I aspire to become but I feel that there is a long way to go; I struggle in being inspiring and bringing people together. I just wish I was much better at it.

The good news is that I still have many good years left in me. There still some fighting left in this dog . I may comeback in Africa in the future even if it’s only to visit my Ghanaian family. Nevertheless from somewhere in West Africa I am bringing back home a reminder of what I should become; what I should be.

My name is Suhuyini and I don't give a flying (Beep, Beep, Beep) how young I am. And I can carry my own bag.

Cheers you all,

What is one supposed to think? (take 2)

2011-11-19T05:47:00.000-08:00

Two things in the past week that have happened:

I have been asking myself why I am ready to invest my hard earn cash into some Shea Butter processing somewhere in Northern Ghana? As I write this the first building is been completed and things are moving ahead of schedule. I know that what I am doing will not change the system or make "systemic and disruptive change"s as George would say.

In part it’s because of the personal connection I developed with the Taha community. It has to do also with their response to be challenge I gave them. In the end there are maybe thousands of small communities in more remote areas that deserve a hand. Maybe they have even more pressing needs. Taha is my surrogate Ghanaian village, my family here on the Dark Continent. From a development point of view it may not make much sense but much of what is being done in the development sector doesn’t make much sense anyway.

It’s also in part because of my own African experience. After spending a full month in Toronto “learning” about development and all the different ways we are at EWB making changes. After spending the past four months on my own change project and observing what all the other EWBers are doing; I want to make concrete changes. I found my Dorothy and I want to do something that will make her life better. I have seen the impact of similar projects on a community and it doesn’t solve their problems but it helps and makes their life a little better.

And thirdly, all of the above could be just a pile of bull droppings, perhaps I am just being self indulgent.

While in discussion with the 5 member, executive the subject of the Secretary came up. Abdulai will be the interim Secretary and I didn’t understand why. They explained to me that they couldn’t find a woman qualified for the job, a woman who could read and write. You hear it right people; a village of 800 souls and there is no woman or young girl who can read or write. How on earth could this be? Taha is a stone's throw from Tamale the biggest city in Northern Ghana. It’s a small village with no electricity but already under attack from urban sprawl. I could write in length about education, or the lack thereof, or it’s necessity but all that I can think is the how the hell is this possible?

I took Siera to the Tamale Teaching Hospital on Monday for a follow up on some of her tests. The attending physician did his consultation on a table with a few plastic chairs in the middle of the mens ward. He made it clear to Siera that she should never be admitted to this hospital, it’s not a healthy place. We sat there between a few beds with patients in them and it took some time. When the doctor finally came he apologized profusely for making us wait.

There is a man who came to the hospital some time ago to be treated but didn’t have insurance. He was prescribed medications but his family having problem raising the money ($15 Canadian) only bought half of the medication. But after taking the meds he felt fine for a while. He came to the hospital that evening because he got sick again. He waited longer then he should have because the family had difficulties raising the money for the consultation ($6 Canadian). As we were sitting there he was already on oxygen and without a special med ($15 Canadian) to reduce the swelling of his brain he would die within an hour. The family now was struggling not only to get the money but to find the meds since it seems that everyone in Tamale was out. While sitting there during Siera’s consultation I couldn’t help peeking once in a while at the curtain down the hall with the dying man behind.

After the consultation we drove back to Gumany and by the time I went to grab some dinner the man was dead. I have a very hard time driving by someone with a flat tire on the side of the road, or by someone stuck in a snow bank. It made me feel that I just drove by and didn’t stop and yet there is nothing I could have done. The money in my pocket was useless. From the ignorance of that person in not understanding the initial treatment, the constraint that getting the equivalent of $15 Canadian and the nonavailability of a fairly common medication; the outcome was cast.

Ghana has been beautiful but it also has been hard. Walking by and seeing but choosing not to see. Knowing but forgetting that we know. Remembering just enough so that we can carry on and do our job. I am glad that I am leaving soon because this place could syphon the marrow out of my soul. Maybe I am just not cut out for this place.

I am on my last sprint to the finish line; I have to focus on what I came here to do. I have to stop looking around. In my free time I can play with pieces of wood, concrete, small diesel engine, grinding mill and build stuff; that is something I can do. It feels that it is the only real thing that I know how to do, building stuff.

Who knows, maybe some day a few young girls from Taha will be able to make it to High School? Maybe the Shea Butter processing will help? Just not this year.

Rock & Roll Gushiegu and the Malaria Blues

2011-11-15T01:55:00.000-08:00

Three weekends ago I was preparing for my visit to Gushiegu to spend some time with Director Joseph. I don’t know what happened that weekend; I may have got hit by a chronic case of laziness. I could barely get out of bed and get the regular stuff done, like the laundry generated by 5 days of being on the road on the motto.

On Monday morning after packing my stuff I waited for the clinic to open and got tested for Malaria and parasites. The two previous nights I had a short period of high fever, hit the 102 in the middle of the night for a few hours. Then it went back to normal for the rest of the day. I have to mention that I take my temperature often. It’s a tell sign of Malaria and Typhoid Fever. About every bacterial or parasites infections will have the same set of similar symptoms, fever eliminates many options. The oddity with my temperature is that it always registers low. At first I thought it was the calibration of my $10 digital thermometer but after comparing with other thermometers it appears that I am always in the 97.1 to 97.7 degree C range. As opposed to the normal 98.6 C.

Maybe this is why I start sweating before everybody else??? Anyhow I tested negative to everything.

After getting a negative on the entire battery of tests; I hit the dusty trail. I made it to Gushiegu just in time to find out that my Director had been call for a meeting in Tamale and was leaving. Trying to salvage the situation I manage to tag along his MIS officer and get some insight on the District. The next day I went out with one of the extension agent, I least I could spend time getting a good feel for the District. The first night at the guest house, no fever and I got great sleep. Second night, Tuesday, I got the fever and barely slept. So on Wednesday I went to the Gushiegu Hospital to get tested again.

If you are sick, or healthy, the hospital is probably the last place you want to be. The waiting areas were just overcrowded with people sitting on the floor. By the look of it they were just camping waiting to be care for. Fortunately paying cash accelerated things; Paying for the initial consultation, getting the initial consultation, paying for the tests, getting the tests, getting the tests results, paying for the medications, getting the medications, only took 6 hours. Meanwhile people who came before me were still waiting to see a physician. Infants with severe diarrhoea had accident on the floor. Someone would wipe it with a dry cloth and 5 minutes later there would be someone sitting on the same spot.

One of the waiting area, Gushiegu Hospital.

I tested +1 for Malaria, which means it was in the early stage. If you are +2 it is very serious, +3 you’ll probably die. The doctor wanted to keep me in for 24 hours and I just refused. I just wanted to get my meds and go back to the Guest House without touching anything. Although I got started right away on the medication my condition kept getting worse. For the rest of that day and the next I just couldn’t get out of bed. Zachary, the innkeeper, made sure that I had food and water at all time. He even did a run to the Chemical Dealer (pharmacist) to get me some re hydration salts and help me to the bathroom a few times.

By Friday morning I was back on my feet. I packed, fed myself and finally got to spend 3 hours with the Director. The ride back home was uneventful except for the many breaks I took along the way to rest and rehydrate in the shade. It took me a while but I made it home safe and before dark.

This is Africa and we get sick. Sometimes it’s really bad, sometimes it’s just a pain in the ass; there are always cheap drugs available to fix the wide array of ailments we can host. But we get sick. You do all the right things; apply copious amount of bug repellent on your body, religiously use the mosquito net, wear long leg pants and long sleeve shirt at night. But you still can get Malaria. We try to eat the right “safe” food and drink the good water but we still end up with diarrhoea and bacterial infections.

As we speak Siera just finished her Malaria treatment, the second in the past month. Marielle was treating hers a few weeks back, Binnu last week. I am just starting to feel better from a severe case of the runs; my first one since my Malaria bout. It wasted my Wednesday and half of my Thursday. By Saturday I felt much better… I could list the ones from the team who got sick in the past month, one way or another, but it would include just about everyone. Maybe there is something we can do better? What can we do better?

Or maybe that’s just the way it is. It’s just where we are.

Africa is beautiful and exciting Mistress, exotic, full of surprises; but she is a demanding one.

Making Shea Butter Part 2:

2011-11-06T15:59:00.000-08:00

Things have progressed drastically since the last time I wrote about the women group. I went back a few days after giving them the 100 GHC and they had already processed the first batch of butter. They had turned a net profit of 20 GHC. It seems like a lot of work for this little money but they were very happy with it.

So they can make a profit, humble but still a profit.

The mixing all done by hand

I gave them another 400 GHC so they can have a bigger working capital and make bigger batches and be more effective. Now the group is up to 60 women and the energy is just intense. As of today they have increased their net profit to around 350 GHC. Essentially in a few weeks they could reimburse me the initial $500 and have some working capital to keep on going.

Cooking the Shea oil to remove the excess water.As it colls off it will take a creamy texture

Meanwhile I connected with Walesu an independent project coordinator. His work is mainly with the Illich Family Foundation. He acts as the project manager and liaison for the Foundation when they sponsor the building of a school or other facilities. He also has a good working relationship with the Taha community; he was the project manager for a school the Foundation build in the village. He is also involved with different Shea processing facilities. With the support of different NGO they have set up processing plants, train the women groups and also have acted as quality control to ensure the produced butter meets international standards.


Abdulai and 2 elders from to women group

A small diesel engine drive the crusher and the mill. If you want to change tool you just move the strap.

Together we worked out what it would take to build a processing facility with the mill and all. We are still working on the details but it will be over 11000 GHC ($7500 Can.). Meanwhile Karie went back to Canada all excited about the project. She dusted off the rolodex and start contacting wholesaler of cosmetic ingredients; she is getting some traction. In her past life she had a small manufacture of bath products.

The store room for the final product. The black bags are filled with butter. Next it needs to be package in 25 KG boxes.

Last weekend we took 3 of the leaders of the women group to another town where the women have set up shop 30 years ago. They produce on average 1000 Kilos of butter a month that they make for Body Shop. They show us around in details the process they use. They talked about the importance of consistency and quality control. They talked in length of what it did to their community. The women were so impressed and so excited. When they went back to the village and share with the other women of the group all hell broke loose.

They reeeeeaaaalllllyyyy want to do this.

So here’s what I told them:

1- If they form an official group with a charter and a bank account (in Ghana they can officially register a group and it enables them to do business)

2- If they get the support of the chief and the chief is ready to give the group the land they need

3- If the men of the community commit to provide the labour to build the facility

4- If the woman group commits, as the facility comes on line, to bring their production standards to meet export regulations

5- If they commit to the training that Walesu will provide

I will find the money.

I just receive a txt on Monday morning and the chief has officially given the land to the women. The men have committed to the building. The executive of the group is in place and Abdulai is part of the executive as the community liaison. They are working on the official papers and the bank account.

We already bought the roasters; they should be delivered to the village as we speak. We are buying some of the other equipment that can be an immediate net benefit for production. Mostly small things like the proper mixing bowls. Since the price of the nuts is likely to rise because of the season we are looking at securing 5,000 to 10,000 KG of nuts to enable them to keep producing for the local market till next July. When I return we’ll work out the final sequence of events for acquiring the mill and the construction and the final budget. We also have to account for ongoing operating costs.

Example of a drying rack in the back and a washing rack in the front. The fence prevents animals like goats to contaminate the site.

The normal interest for a loan in Ghana is around 28%. I suspect that the total amount including the working capital will be around 15,000 GHC ($11,000 Can.). Our agreement with them is for 10%. It is a decent return if it works but there are substantial risks attached to it. Ghana is a little far to look after an investment.

The group getting debriefed after the visit.

Until they are fully set up and trained they will keep supplying the local market. We are looking at some of the aggregators like the Body Shop. We are also looking at the Canadian markets; we have a few wholesalers who are interested. The preliminary costing of the different transports and fees indicate that it would be a viable “cottage” business.

So I told Karie to get my sock out from under the mattress and get a thick pile of US dollars to Olivier; my son is coming for a visit on the 15^th. It will be more efficient than using the ATM, 400 GHC at a time.

The game is on.

Dom

Thanksgiving in Ghana:

2011-10-28T01:39:00.000-07:00

How was thanksgiving in Ghana? It was awesome!

We had the WAR near Bolga (West Africa Retreat) which was great but is not the subject of this post. I am quite sure that many people have already posted thousands of lines about how inspiring and awesome the WAR was. It was good, don’t get me wrong but I will leave it to the academic types to chronicle all the workshops and the EWB stuff that happened there.

This is about what was the most memorable to me.

Karie and I on the motto

It started with riding the motto from Tamale to the Farmer Training Center near Bolga with Karie riding shot gun. Sierra (one of my surrogated daughter) was kind enough to take our backpack on the Trotro with her. It took us all day to drive the three hours ride. We first stopped in a Japanese garden where they grow all kind of medicinal plants. We had a tour and were so impressed by the two kids telling us everything about the garden. We stopped chasing those yellow and fluorescent orange birds on the side of the road, taking pictures. We stopped having a chat with Mina who had the crazy idea of riding his bicycle from Tamale to Bolga. We waited for him in Whalewhale while having beans and a beer. He jumps on the Trotto from there and we carried on just enjoying the scenery.

Having a chat with Mina on the side of the road

Sidebar: A guy who doesn`t train or ride much and end up doing more than 100 kms in this kind of heat… kudos Mina.

Dan, a potentially crazy person like me if he doesn`t smarten up, brought a live turkey, it was thanksgiving weekend after all. The problem was, although the turkey looked fine, it was a small bird. After the plucking and the gutting it was a 10 pounds bird max and there were 30 of us. You don’t need to be an experienced chef to know that we had a major shortage of proteins. So I decided that we needed a pig… and I found one. Well, actually I found the person that knew where there was one and Karie walked for miles sealing the deal while I was doing some of the EWB stuff that many people have written thousands of lines about in their blog…

The guy selling the pig brought it to the center on a leash and did the slaughtering. It was a very good deal for him We paid regular price, I think, and he harvested all the stuff that us North American don`t care much for (like the trips and the brain) and left us with a headless carcase.

Don and I massaging the pig

Sunday morning after finding a shovel, digging a pit and lining it with stones scavenged from around we were ready to start. I bought a giant bag of coal, gather some wood and we lighted it up. A few of the kids, Maxim, Dan and Romeo, helped with the tending of the fire which was welcomed in the 30+ heat. Meanwhile Don and Dan killed the turkey and prepared it for the oven.

Don and Dan with the plucked bird

I made a dry rub with whatever I could find and some of Mina’s coffee. Karie made an awesome BBQ sauce. The pig was firmly rubbed and then covered with BBQ goodness. The wrapping was a bit of a problem since we bought a long piece of cloth that we believed to be cotton. It was something synthetic. Since it was Sunday and most of the stores were closed we didn’t think that we could find something in Bolga. So we begged and bribe to get a used piece of cloth that, we were promised, was clean. It was too small but with the help of a few big banana leaves (that were inadvertently freed from the trees in the guest house inner court) we made due.

So we buried the swine in the hot coals and walk away for 7 hours.

Me crrying the coal.

Dan and Maxime helping withthe fire


Lindsay, Siera and Rebecca working at it

Bimu and Romeo working on the desert

As dinner time came closer the kitchen just became very frantic. Rebecca was working on mash potatoes and Yams. Sierra was on the Tomato salad, Binue was on apple pie. Dinner came a little late which was great since the pig took longer than expected. The last time I cooked a whole pig it was buried in coals for 6 hours and the meat was just falling of the bones. This one after 7 hours was cooked but needed to be carved.

getting the pig out of the coals

Here’s a first for me; it’s the first time ever that I carve a large mammal with a Swiss army knife, the only sharp thing around.

The table got set up buffet style and we all dug in. At some point while eating I told Karie; “this really feels and smells like Thanks Giving”. Seeing all the people eating, laughing and enjoying themselves after all the hard work every one put in; it felt like a big family.

That's a table!

After dinner we had the poetry slam. Not being much of a poet I just told a story. That’s what I do best and like doing; cook and tell stories.

I am thankful that I came to Ghana.

I am thankful that I had Karie with me that wonderful Thanksgiving Sunday.

I am thankful that I got to spend that special weekend with all the EWBers from Ghana and Burkina Faso.

I am also thankful that I was born in Canada and that I am going back there.

There are many more things that I am thankful for, the list is long but it belong somewhere in a more private venue. It should be Thanksgiving everyday just to remind us to be thankful.

Cheers

Dom

How is one supposed to feel? Part ONe

2011-10-28T01:04:00.000-07:00

While socializing with the District Director of Agriculture (DDA) and some of his staff I mentioned, I can’t remember why, that I pay around 30% of my salary in income taxes. They had a great time with this bragging that in Ghana they don’t pay income taxes. Which I am not sure if it is accurate, I believe that the government employees do pay income taxes? But as a whole a very small portion of the population or businesses pay taxes, I heard. They may have been exaggerating to tease me.

My answer was “off course you don’t need to pay income taxes, you have the NGOs”

There was not much laughing after that.

The next day in a coaching session with the director we talked about a problem that is persistent in most districts. Most districts have fewer mottos than they have people on the road. The front line personnel, the Extension Agents, are the one travelling the most and meeting the farmers. In Chereponi there are 6 of them. Then there are DAOs and various “experts” that form the next strata of the administrative sandwich. Some of them are required to travel on occasion. In Chereponi the mottos are assigned according to seniority. The 4 available mottos are assigned to the 4 people who spend the most time in the office. None of the Extension Agents have a motto; not one from MOFA anyhow.

So I told the director that 3 years ago CIDA bought many mottos for MOFA (Ministry of Food and Agriculture). Some say that there was 1200 of them. To this day it’s hard to get a straight answer as to where the mottos are. Some say that there are still mottos waiting to be distributed, some just vanished. Some say that some districts close to the capital, everyone has mottos.

The point is that there is a certain amount of corruption and the main complain of the DDA and their staffs is MOFA’s inability to distribute the mottos equitably and/or to provide the number of mottos the staffs in the field need.

We accept and hope that some mottos make it to the people they were intended to. How does it feel to know Canadian money was used this way? Whatever it is we feel, there is not much that either the DDA or myself can do about it. But neither of us likes it.

“But how do you think it feels when I come in a district where there are so few mottos and they are not giving to the people who need them the most? Some of those mottos were bought by a Canadian agency .We know that if the Extension Agents had better access to transportation they would, maybe, help a few more family out of poverty? What’s more important; entitlement and seniority or helping as many people as possible out of poverty?”

“I understand that this is a cultural issue and it is very sensitive. It's not something that you can’t totally change; but this is something you have the power to influence. At the end of the day is about helping the less fortunate of your district? The people you drive by when you drive back home to Tamale on the weekend. The people who live around you, who live around the people with the mottos they don’t really need? This is something that you can influence, in your district.”

How does it feel? That’s what I am asking myself.

Cheers

TThe DDA Fellowship part 2 (or maybe 3); I Have a Dream:

2011-10-20T04:22:00.001-07:00

I have been working with the DDA Fellowship for the past 2 months now. Early in my placement I participate in their third meeting of the year, in one of the session we did a Gap analysis to help us understand what kind of skills they are looking at acquiring and improving.

Last week we had our 4^th meeting. The morning was spent in getting an update on their personal district improvement initiatives and we also had a session on Project Management. With decentralisation they will be tasked with increased responsibilities. Since they will have more say on projects and their implementations it stand to reason that they will need a better understanding of Project Management as a whole. I put together a session that explained the major components of PM but also was about asking the right questions. If you have a projects what are the basic questions you should be asking as opposed to try to teach them specific tools.

It was well received; we decided on this session from the result of the previous session’s Gap Analysis.

The afternoon we had a session with Erin Antclif, my fearless leader, informing the Fellows what’s in store for EWB in 2012. The main themes were:

1- Building internal capacity to properly support our African Programs

2- To be more critical in justifying the initiative that we are supporting

3- Why is EWB here in Africa? To alleviate poverty, to help Dorothy…

Which was followed by a session, facilitated by Siera and Janine, where the Directors were asked to self-reflect on the Most Significant changes they have personally experience as a result of being part of the DDA Fellowship?

The last session, “The DDA fellowship, a Way Forward…” Was the most intense of them al. I started with a pep talk driving home 3 major points:

1- They should be proud of the work they are doing in the type of condition they are doing it in.

2- Their work is “Very Important”. When they improve their district, even just a little, it means that there are actual people in need that may be able to eat better or to send one of their children to school. They have a direct impact on Dorothy…

3- …I Have a Dream to come back to Ghana in 15 or 20 years with my grand child (I haven’t cleared this one with Olivier yet) and not be able to find a NGO. I Have a Dream to come to a DDA fellowship and it’s not run by EWBers. The only EWBers are to ones coming to learn from the Fellowship.

Then I ask about the future of the DDA Fellowship; how could this Fellowship becomes their to own, little by little? How can we shape it for the next year so that it becomes a real fellowship where the more experienced Director help and mentored the others who needs it? How can we help them be proud not only to be a member of the fellowship but to be the ones building it?

I asked them for ideas so that next session, our last of the year, how we can come up with a direction or a vision for a way forward… I also asked them how they wanted to do this, talk in smaller groups? Do they want me to facilitate? Do they want to work on their own?

Doctor Dixon did stand up and told me that for this part I should step aside and they should, the Directors, run the session… I took charge and they went at it. I swear to you, I got a little misty; I was so proud.

They came up with some ideas, some that are pretty good. We could probably have done a better job at getting better ideas if we had facilitated the session. But now those are their ideas which make them much better. They own them.

I still have lots of work ahead of me before the next meeting in a few weeks. I poked at their pride and awaked something in them now we have to put that good energy to good use.

It’s back to my 3 main points:

1- Be proud

2- You and what you do, are important

3- Share my Dream

Over and out for now

Dom

Making Shea Butter Part One

2011-10-05T23:22:00.000-07:00

I went back to Taha to attend the Farmer Group meeting a few days ago. On that occasion they also had the woman group attending. Some of the women are members of both groups.

The womens group is just newly formed and they process shea butter. Shea butter in Ghanian culture is used for cooking, as well as for healing skin rashes. They face some constraints and they hope that by pulling their resources together they can better their situation. As far as I can tell they have two major constraints; they have very limited money-if any-and they have to rely on a mill for part of the processing that is located miles away. They think that if they had their own mill they could increase their output / revenues.

The first part of the process is labour intensive; it consists of grossly crushing the nuts. The crushed nuts are then fried and they are ready to be transport to the mill. The women transport the nuts on their head all the way to the mill and back. From there is the long process of separating the solid from the oil and clarifying the butter. The butter is sold to the market in Tamale, 20 kilometers away.

Meeting with the Farmer and Women Group

So Karie and I spent some time with them and with a stick I drew the whole process on the ground and ask many questions. I have a pretty good understanding of what it takes to make the butter however the quantitative information is very unclear. It’s difficult to assess how much butter is produced with a certain amount of nuts. They sell the butter in bowls that are piled high over the rim. The quantity of nuts they use will depend on how much they can afford or what is available and sometimes a batch is combines with the left over from another to complete a bowl.

Abdulai doing the translation

They show us a small bowl, left over from the last batch, and Karie and I were very impressed. I have to say that Karie in her previous life did own a bath product manufacture and she used to buy shea butter and would pay $60 a pound. Looking at the women’s group butter she was immediately impressed at the quality and the purity of the product. I evaluate, from my questioning, they are selling what amount to about 10 pounds for 10 Cedis ($7 Canadian Dollars).

But I don’t know for sure.

The women's group embracing the photography

So I decided on the spot to invest in them. I lend them the money to buy a 50 kilos bag of nuts and the price of the processing; this amounts to 100 Cedis ($70 Canadian Dollars). I expect a small mason jar of butter as my interest payment. I explained to them that they need to measure the time it takes them for each steps and the exact amount of shea butter they will produce with that one bag. Once I have those measures I can evaluate how profitable making butter is. From there I can look at options with them and evaluate if buying a mill is a good option for them...

Those are beautiful strong women who work hard and live very humbly. They are not very different than we are. They are concerned about shelter, food and the future of their children. They are concerned about making their life better for themselves and their family. The difference is that where they were born they don’t have the same kind of opportunities as we have.

The bowl on the left is grounded Shea nuts, the second if the extracted oil and the small one is the butter

Here I have to take my learned skills, project management, accounting, Business Planning and reduce it to the simplest of expression. All the same principles apply but it has to be understood with few words and perhaps a few drawing in the dirt.

Karie and I are very excited about this and we are already thinking of taking as many jar as legally possible in our luggage.

The Tale of the Missing Visa...

2011-10-05T01:45:00.000-07:00

Karie Wylie is my life partner and is now visiting Ghana. I asked her to contribute to my blog with some of her impressions and thoughts.

I arrived six days ago in Accra and really, am here to see Dom and support him on his endeavour, hoping to share a tiny bit of his experience over here. It's a great opportunity for him, and of course, a chance for me to be a tourist in a country that is not known for it's tourist trade. I can't say it's a place that was high on my list of places to visit-nevertheless I am excited to see all that it has to offer.

Getting here has been an adventure in itself. Before I left Canada I had hit speed bumps with the Ghanian High Commission in Ottawa. Despite applying almost a month before my departure date, my visa was not processed in time. They ask that you allow three to five day processing time-so I assumed 24 days was plenty of time. The High Commission was not answering their phones for the first fifteen days, so that shortened my window of opportunity down to nine days. They finally picked up on a Friday, 8 days before I was to fly and told me “we are moving today, call back on Monday”.

Of course, Monday they did not answer the phones again, despite me calling them with stalker like dedication. Tuesday they didn't answer either. I began to imagine the entire staff on the floor of the new office, victims of some sort of mysterious illness-but I was also concerned about my flights, so I went through the online staff listing and proceeded to leave messages on all the voice-mails I reached, leaving my name and number twice on each message-I went through the entire directory three times that day.

I didn't sleep that night. I now had four days left to get the visa not including the Saturday I was to leave-and still had not talked to the high commission directly.

Wednesday I started at 7 am Calgary time and called every half hour. I talked to Dom and gave him the lowdown. He remained optimistic on the phone with me but was calling often-so I knew he was worried. I didn't get a hold of them until 12:00 Calgary time and admittedly, when I heard an actual person on the end of the line, I was at a loss for words. I had, after all, gotten into the routine of leaving messages “This is Karie Wylie. I am calling about my Visa, I am scheduled to leave on Saturday. Please call me back at 403.... Again, this is Karie Wylie.....”

The human on the other end of the phone told me to hold while I heard her rustling through papers. I had hope, finally. She came back to the line to tell me “Oh yes, your Visa application is incomplete and we didn't know how to get a hold of you.” I tried really hard not to scream but I explained to her that I had been calling for over a week, and that the contact information was on the form, or at the very least on the return courier envelope I had supplied them with. She said it wasn't, that they had no way of contacting me-I just want my visa, so I took a deep breath and asked as politely as I could, what was missing from the application. “We don't know where you are staying while you are in Ghana”. I explained to her that I had sent four copies of the hotel reservation-she claimed not to have them.

She then went on to explain that I needed a resident of Ghana to “invite” me to their country and that person had to be a passport holder. Really? So tourism is non existent in Ghana? You can't just go and visit? I needed not only a letter in invitation, but a copy of the photo id of that person as well as a copy of that person's residency permit-and I had less than an hour to do all of this because they close at 3:00 sharp Ottawa time.

I called Dom immediately and cried into the phone, and through sobs I explained what I needed. Then a flurry on calls to and from Ghana resulted in one of the EWB members sending me photos taken with her cell phone, of the documents I needed, which I forwarded to the high commission with about 10 minutes to spare. “Okay,” she said on the other end of the phone, “Your Visa is ready. Now send a courier to pick it up after two tomorrow and you can have it on Friday.” I had already paid for one envelope-regardless- I called Fedex immediately, then called her back and talked her through the return address form, and hung up, but not before getting the tracking number.

Problem solved...I can sleep tonight. Of course, I didn't.

The next day, at 1:30, I called the high commission to make sure we were on track. “Yes, they have not picked up yet but it is not 2 so don't worry.” I called Fedex to confirm THEY were on target. Yup, Fedex was on board with the arrangement so I headed into a meeting.

I called again at 2:30 to confirm the pick up to which the person on the other end of the phone responded “Oh yes, he was here, but your Visa wasn't ready so we sent him away.”

Seriously? Really? What did you just say to me?

“It's no big deal” she said “ we will drop it off on the way home tonight and you will have it tomorrow.”

Uh huh-sure-of course you will.

18 hours later it was not in the Fedex system. It was supposed to be in my hands. My passport had been “misplaced” and they were back to not answering their phones. I was to leave in less than 24 hours, but had no Visa, and even more importantly, no passport. Was it in the backseat of someone's car buried under fast food containers or was it lost-really, really lost?m Of course, I assumed the worst, and while I was on the phone cancelling my flight reservation, it occurred to my I should probably cancel my passport also. So I did.

I then cried for a few minutes, while downloading the emergency passport application, and began to gather all the information to get a reissue of my passport first thing Monday morning.

My cancelled passport was delivered on Monday, two days after my scheduled departure date, Visa intact.

God bless the passport office for reissuing me a temporary passport by Wednesday and the Ghanian High Commission in TORONTO for issuing my visa in 48 hours.

I am finally in Ghana with Dom.

What am I doing in Ghana, part 2?

2011-10-01T08:55:00.000-07:00

Last time I talked about the three first steps of changes:

1- Creating a sense of urgency

2- Building a coalition

and

3- Creating a vision

So how am I doing so far?

The House Calls:

I have visited with 3 of the seven DDAs (District Directors of Agriculture) so far. Amed Mohamed Adam in Kpendai, Dr. Savior in Karaga and Dr. Dickson in Kunpurugu. Each visit lasted at least a few days, sometime a whole week. I spent some valuable time with the DDA but also some time with some of their subordinates. On a few occasions I accompany a EAA (Extension Agent of Agriculture) in the field.

The first the objective of the visit is to find out from the DDAs' point of view what makes a good DDA and if the fellowship has either improved their skill set or had positive impact on the work they do. I also try to find the same information from their subordinates point of view.

The second objective is to engage the DDAs in a discussion about ownership of the fellowship; about the DDAs becoming the drivers as opposed to be be enthusiastic participants.

These are relatively simple objectives. The big challenge is to get to the “real” answers. Ghanaian have a long history of dealing with NGO and have a tendency to tell us what we want to hear (or what they perceive as what we want to hear). So the big challenge is to get to a better answer.

It is in part about story telling. Their stories and my stories. It's about asking about where they come from, their parents, ancestors, the land, their tribes, about how they live, and farm. It's about our children.

It is in part about building relationship. It's like engaging in a long courtship, about being patient. Once in a while between comparing notes on growing maze in the hilly region of Kungpurugu and my dad growing corn in Quebec when I was a child, the eyes get a sparkle and the door crack open a little and a question is ask and answered.

It's about pride and honour. It's about listening to their stories of perseverance, courage and past glories. Stories telling of the strength of their villages, of being together and looking after each others. Again when the sparkle comes into their eyes I remind them that it's not about Block Farm, NGO, free inputs and other programs; it about helping each other. It''s about looking out for your brothers and sisters.

The DDA Conference:

From our conference last August 16^th we had the directors do a gap analysis of the skill set that is required now compare to the skill set that will be needed after decentralization. The directors gave us a very good indication with this exercise of what skills the Fellowship should focus on for the near future.

For the next conference in a few weeks we are planning on having a session on Project Management among other things. We also plan on having a session on assessing the effectiveness of the DDA Fellowship. We also want to explore the logistic requirements of managing and running the fellowship and look at what requirements could be assigned to the Directors? I am preparing some of those sessions but Erin (my coach) Don (my motto riding instructor) and Siera (one of my surrogate daughters) will heavily weigh in with their wisdom.

By our last conference in late November all the ground work should be done to have the tools to create a vision for the Fellowship going forward. By then I will have visited all DDAs and hopefully we can propel the Fellowship into 2012 with the Directors at the helm.

Lots to do and so very little time. I feel that I am barely starting my work and already I see the end nearing.

Logging off,

Dom

What am I doing in Ghana, Part One?

2011-09-19T08:37:00.000-07:00

The MOFA team, the group of EWBers working with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Ghana, has worked with the District Directors of Agriculture (DDA) to create a fellowship between them. This is one of the many projects the MOFA Team works on. They had their first Fellowship in 2010; 7 DDAs participated and they met 5 times over the year. The goal is to create managerial capacity; by having DDA with better skill sets. This year 7 DDAs have signed up for the fellowship, 3 are returning from last year. We are had the 3^rd meeting of the year on August 16^th. As part of this year's program they were asked to create an improvement initiative for their district and they have to report on it each time we meet.

We believe it can have an important impact in the farmer's lives. If by better managing their Extension Agents (the EA are the ones visiting the farmers and delivering the services) we hope that more or better services will be delivered to the end users; the farmers

My task is to evaluate if the DDA is working and being effective? Also, we want to give the fellowship a direction that will impact more DDAs. In the Northern Region, were we work, there are more than 20 Districts. At the present the Fellowship depend entirely on EWB's leadership and money. We also provide the content of these meetings. Instinctively I would say that the Fellowship is working but this is not based on hard evidences.

Although we will try to evaluate the positive impact the Fellowship has in the districts we also want to get them to take ownership for the program and use this as a measure of success.

How Will we be doing it?

Between now and December I will be working on the first three steps of changes.

Creating a sense of urgency: As mentioned before by making the transfer of ownership and leadership a measure of success we can make it clear that we won't be supporting the program if it doesn't succeed. Therefore they have to start taking action or it won't exist.
Building a coalition: I am already working with 2 of the DDAs. I believe that they both understand the necessity to create ownership within the Fellowship. Some of the key points:
Creating a vision: For this part they will have to come up with it. We want them to be proud of their Fellowship; They are very capable and very smart people. Most of them are a lot smarter than me... they shouldn't need me. ;)

More to come...

2011-09-16T07:50:00.001-07:00

The Village Stay, Conclusion:

So I spent a few more days with my adoptive family. Good hard working people with beautiful kids. By the time I left I was used to the Ramadan and didn't mind not eating or drinking for the whole day. I got wiser in my spending of energy. Memunatou got used to me not finishing my servings and when she realized that I was enjoying my porridge she served me industrial quantity of the stuff. One night she served me a bowl of porridge that I measure to be 2.5 litres. Even the next morning I couldn't finish it.

I made an effort to finish my meat. I got used to have Memunatou barging in my room. I also got used to have kids following me around and constantly laughing at me and me laughing with them. Memunatou got used to me helping with the little ones. She felt comfortable enough to directly ask me (or as direct as sign language can be) to care for her 4 months old son because she wanted to be sewing. Itisam, the 4 years old, help me and we took turn singing song to her brother, me in French and her in Dag-bani Her sister Suraya joined in and before long all three were asleep on my bed.

What happen when you let the kids use the camera...

Abdulai made me a hand written list of key Dag-bani words and greetings with their English translation. Mamunatou went to great length to patiently teach me new words everyday. I may have not liked some of the food but I certainly can appreciate the great generosity and kindness of these people. When I was packing and getting the motto loaded for the trip back, Itisam was crying and wanted to come with me.

I got introduced to more people, met more of the community leaders and I got to spend some time with Abdulai's farmer group. I met about half of the group of 43 farmers and found out that they started this spring and are meeting once a week under a big mango tree. Each of them contributes 10 Pesewas (7 cents Can.) every week to their piggy bank. This season the are farming together 2 acres of rice and they dream of owning a tractor. I drew on the gravelly ground a picture of a tractor with a stick. 30 feet away from the tractor I drew 2 square representing 2 acres. I explain as well as I could that that it's great that they have a dream and now they can create a plan to get the tractor. How many acres will they need to get enough for a down payment? Can they do 10? Can they do 50? Is the land available? Can they store the grain so it fetches a better price later in the year?

So I committed to help them with a business plan. There are a few programs available to help the farmers buy equipment but I have to find out how much of a down payment they need? I'll squeeze some of the extension agents I met, event the few Directors I work with for information. Between trips to the country side I'll stop in Taha to visit. I'll probably attend a few of their Friday night meetings.

Marielle, Siera, Don, Erin, Janine and all the others we form a good team and we are looking after each other as much as we can. I am glad that I have them looking out for me. But strangely enough, for the good and the bad, spending time with Abdulai and Mamunentou's family is the closest thing that I have here that feels like a family. We often, almost always, hear people coming back from a placement talk about their new mother and father. About their adoptive family. Unfortunately I won't be spending long enough in any community to live in a family. But I guess I found a place I can almost call home for the next 3 months.

When I was packing and getting the motto loaded for the trip back, Itisam was crying and wanted to come with me. Mamunatou told me that both her daughters want me to marry them. I told her that I like my wives to be on the mature side and preferably on the legal side. Beside I would have to clear it with Karie and probably convert to the Muslim faith... They are probably better finding, in a few years of course, a nice boy from the village.

The Village Stay Day Three:

2011-08-29T03:20:00.000-07:00

The purpose of the village stay is for us to experience the reality of subsistence farming in Northern Ghana. To achieve this we live in a host family for at least a week. During that time we live, eat and go through life as they do.

This morning I ate my porridge leftover from last night; it tastes really good cold. I keep telling Mamunatou “Boila Boila Kandzra”. Which loosely means I eat very little. It doesn't seem to work. Maybe I should get someone else to help me translate.

Women do most of the chores around the compound. During Ramadan they are up at 3 am and you don't see them going idle until after dark when the meal is over. They usually leave the dirty dishes and pots to be washed the next day when there is daylight. These are beautiful strong women growing old fast. Mamunatou is tall and strong with beautiful features; she has a well proportioned figure except for her sagging breasts that are hard at work feeding the fourth kid. She has the facial scars that some tribes still carve on the face or their new born. I hear that the origin of the scarification goes all the way back to the early days of slavery. Small tribes were always weary of having more powerful tribes attacking them and stealing their people to be sold to the Portuguese, the Dutch or the British. The white men didn't have to venture inland. Local tribes were just happy to oblige, for a price.

Her four children and her husband don't have the scars, one of her 13 year old nieces has the same scars as her. You still see children and infants with the scars but the practice seem to be losing popularity.

Mamunatou is a warm person with a huge heart even if once in a while she come across as a tyrant. When I have my bucket shower I am not allowed to get my own water to the stall; once I tried and she let me know in no uncertain term that I am not to do it myself. I didn't need a translator for this one. I think that she hides the bucket I am supposed to use just to make sure that I don't try to sneak by her. Same when I tried to wash my own shirt, she dragged me all the way to my room to make sure I was giving her all of my dirty clothes. I could spare my boxer shorts and I later hide them with my towel and washed them while taking my bucket shower.

For the family it's a great honor to be my host and it reflects good for their status in the community; it a sign of great trust that Mustapha, the Agriculture Extension Agent, ask them to host me. They are going out of their way to live up to this honor. I am having a hard time with the food but I appreciate the fact they are doing what they believe is extra special treatment.

In the afternoon we sat with a few of the members of Abdulai Farmers Group. I had an interesting exchange with the secretary of the group that went like this:

You are not a Muslim so what are you?

I am a Christian (in these parts you can be any religion and they will accept you, but if you are a non believer they will never leave you alone until you are saved).

Why are you fasting if you are not a Muslim?

My host is fasting and I want to join him in his practice. Maybe by fasting I can understand him, and the people of the village better.

But if you want to try to be a Muslim you should do it all: the fasting and the teaching and the prayers?

A tree doesn't just become a tree, it is first a seed and then has to be a twig before becoming a mature strong tree that will bear fruits. Maybe all I can be for now is a twig (for this part I used some of the on hand props and sign language)

Aren't you are a little old to be a twig?

Well, that year the Agricultural Extension Agent was very busy and the farmers never got their fertilizer and that is why I never was able to properly grow and I am still a twig...

They laugh heartily and slap their legs and one of them pinched my cheek (I have no idea what it means).

Came dinner I ate what I could, especially the chicken. After supper Mamunatou ask me to play "Shark Tails", the kids movie I had already shown in the afternoon. Because of the dark we could do it outside and we had a little stool for the computer and two long benches. Most of the viewers were adults with a fair share of elders. I counted close to 20 people watching at one time. As they watched they kept talking very loud and laughing, pointing at the screen.

The battery ran out three quarter of the way and although most didn't get to see the end it didn't seem to matter. They were just all happy to watch some of it even if they didn't understood the dialogue..

9:30 pm is late when you wake up at 3am.

Dom

The Village Stay Day Two:

2011-08-29T03:13:00.000-07:00

The purpose of the village stay is for us to experience the reality of subsistence farming in Northern Ghana. To achieve this we live in a host family for at least a week. During that time we live, eat and go through life as they do.

This morning I woke up at 3 AM to a nice surprise; besides the rice and stew I share with the others Mamunato made me a Milo, the local hot chocolate, and a loaf of bread. After eating I went back to bed till 6 am; I didn't go for the morning prayers. Sleeping is challenging since there is no fan or window in my room. I leave the door open but because of its location there is no air movement. It also doesn't help that it is a metal roof, the masonry walls and floor accumulate heat all day

I decided to go for a walk to Gbahili again, I was hoping to be less affected by the heat this early in the morning but by the time I came back it was already hot and muggy. At around 8:30 Abdulai and Dumba his eldest son took me to the farm. I didn't know that it took one hour of walking to get to his maize (corn) field. It is two hectares of well spaced row planted maize that stands about a foot high. We did a little weeding and then walked to one of his rice fields, which was another twenty minute walk. It's a hectare of rice about a foot high. The weeds are a problem and Abdulai is considering using an herbicide for the second time. The first time it rained shortly after the application and it ruined its potency.

A woman from the village was harvesting maize from an adjacent field. We help her peel them and load her metal container. I help her lift it up on her head, this bowl had to be at least 40 to 50 pounds. She headed back on the same trail we walked for more than an hour.

Abdulai helping peel the corn, behind him is the rice field.

All loaded up and ready to go.

On the way back we took a short cut but we had to cross a flooded part, just enough to get my pant legs wet and for me to considering investing in a pair of rubber boots. By the time we came back it was close to noon and I was pretty tired. In total I walked around more than three hours and was feeling the lack of liquid. While preparing for my bath I discretely snuck in a few gulps of water. It may take some adaptating for me to become a good Muslim...

I tried to rest sitting in the shade of a cluster of trees just outside the compound as the room is very hot during the day. I decided to show the kids a movie so we watched "Bugs Life". I had to show it in the room and I had to stay with them; they were so excited I was worried about them tipping the computer on the floor. I already busted one on this trip, I need for this one to last undamaged till December. There were a few other kids from the neighbourhood compound. Abdulai join us for the last part.

Then we killed a chicken, I mostly watched. I asked if it was one of the one I brought; it's hard to tell.

He told me he is keeping the one I gave him in a separate box so they get used to the surrounding before releasing them in the general population. This way the will always come back at night to the coop.

I joined Abdulai for the before “break” teaching and praying. In the Mosque everyone was sitting on the floor on mats and someone was reading and making commentaries. The whole thing goes through loud speakers so the whole village can hear and believe me the whole village can hear because it's very loud. The loud speaker was interrupted a few times when the generator stalled. Someone ran out at one point and filled it with gas, another time someone tinkered with it for a few minutes and got it humming again.

Mamunatou cooking the evening dinner.

After prayers we “broke fast” and ate some porridge; my portion was enormous and I couldn't eat more than half. Then there were glutenous balls of clump rice swimming in a thin soup. It had that strong taste of palm oil and chicken fat. With it came the skinniest chicken leg I ever saw. I ate some of the rice ball but it was difficult avoiding the fat it was swimming in. I ate as much as I could and left the rest, including the chicken leg.

I excused myself and went to bed. As I was laying under the net wearing nothing but my boxers, Mamunatou barged in. Actually she say before entering “excuse me”, which are some of the few English words she knows, and as soon as I made a noise she took it as an invitation to come in. I didn't need a translator to understand that she was ordering me to eat the chicken... I got dressed and ate the stringy chicken. Went back to bed and I slept with a plastic bag near the bed, just in case.

Three more days to go...

Dom

My Village Stay: the first day

2011-08-24T05:06:00.000-07:00

The purpose of the village stay is for us to experience the reality of subsistence farming in Northern Ghana. To achieve this we live in a host family for at least a week. During that time we live, eat and go through life as they do.

For my village stay I travelled to Thaha, just half an hour outside of Tamale. Although we are just a few miles from town, the electric wires follow the main road yet they don't stop. Mustapha accompanied me to the village and did the proper introductions to my host family. The family is comprised of the father Abdulai, his wife Memunatou, and four children Jaman. Suraya, Damba and Ruhaina. Abdulai is part of a farmers group Mustapha is their extension agent from the Ministry.

The four kids

The compound, the small cluster of buildings surrounded by a wall, is very humble. The main court gives access to 4 buildings, two that are the traditional round ones with thatched roofs and 2 others that are square with metal roofs. I'll be staying in the smaller of the square building. It's a good sized room normally used for storage or as a meeting place. There is a couch that is quite comfortable but nevertheless Abdulai rushed to town to buy a new foam mattress. I feel bad that he felt obligated to purchase it, but it's hard to communicate at this point since he only speaks broken English and only one of his nephews is fluent. For the price of the mattress the family could probably buy a goat or a sheep. I keep thinking that I am being treated quite well compared to the average dweller. Everyone else is in much more cramped quarters.

The main court of the compound

I came to my host family with a few gifts. I purchased two chickens for the father and mother and they seemed very pleased. I also bough Canada flag pins for the children but the regular ball pens and paper seem to be a bigger hit. For the chief I bought in the market in Tamale 6 Kola nuts; apparently this is what you bring a chief.

I barely had time to have a few bites of my bread and eggs before hitting the road behind Mustapha. My Nescafe is still in my backpack pocket. It is Ramadan and I certainly don't want to be eating (or drinking) during the daylight. The drinking part may be challenging, it is Africa after all and the temperature does get up there.

Shortly after my arrival I went for a walk to the nest village, Ghalihi, and it took me a little more than one hour. When I returned I snuck into my room and had a few ounces of water. I intended to go to work with Abdulai in the field tomorrow and I couldn't imagine spending 12 hours in the this heat without water. I'll have to play it by ear.

Abdulai took me around the village and we visited a few of the village's dignitaries including the chef. The whole encounter was very ceremonious, I just followed Abdulai's lead and bowed when he bowed and nodded when he nodded. After giving him the nuts the chief gave me a small piece to eat. It tasted awful and leaves you with a dry mouth (just what I needed). Apparently it's a sign of trust if you offer and if you eat. Some say that the Kola nut has some “recreational” properties. Beside making me very thirtsy, I haven't noticed anything.

Mamunatou doing the wash

The place:
In the central area there is a corner reserved for cooking; it is done over a coal fire and the cooking pots are held by rocks place in the concrete floor. There is no electricity, in my room there is a small battery LED lamp that couldn't be useful for anything more than finding the walls. You get used to it. In the yard people use a few flashlights at dinner time and we listen to a battery operated radio. Surprisingly the internet connected to the 3G network and it's very fast. But with limited battery power I have to choose between the movies for the kids or surfing... The kids always win...

One of Abdulai rice field

There is no running water but there is a few taps in the village where people go to fill their containers. In the compound we have a few large ceramic pots that we use the water from. The women carry buckets of water on their heads to fill it up. As far as toilets there are none but there are two latrines in the village. What can be said about latrines? Not much except that when you come to a certain age and that your flexibility is not what it used to be, using one is more challenging. But I have developed my own gymnastic and manage quite well. It does requires both arms and hands and has made it impossible for me to read.

We bucket shower twice a day or as required. There is a small enclosure within the compound about 5 feet high (the top comes to my armpits) and you wash using a cup and pouring it over yourself and washing. Very refreshing. The kids were having a good time watching me.

Tonight after dark we ate. First it was porridge made from maize (a kind of corn) followed by rice with stew. The stew is a very thick tomato sauce and you only get a little. This one had a good spicy flavor from the pepe, their hot peppers, and had pieces of dry fish that were chewy but still very tasty.

I am writing this by hand using my camping head lamp. I have to get up at 3am to have breakfast with the men. It's only 8pm but I'll do a last check on the mosquito net and turn off the light. Tomorrow I am going farming.

Cheers

Dom

The motto Ride to Kpendie

2011-08-24T05:05:00.001-07:00

I am working myself backward... I'll be filling those "empty post in a few days.
Meanwhile you can read "Village Stay: the first day"
Thank you

Here are sample videos:

Finally in Tamale!

2011-08-24T05:04:00.001-07:00

I am working myself backward... I'll be filling those "empty post in a few days.
Meanwhile you can read "Village Stay: the first day"
Thank you

In Country Training

2011-08-24T05:03:00.001-07:00

I am working myself backward... I'll be filling those "empty post in a few days.
Meanwhile you can read "Village Stay: the first day"
Thank you

Diversity?

2011-08-03T11:40:00.000-07:00

Culture Clash or Welcomed Diversity?

The biggest challenge we had to face as a team was the culture clash. From the onset, the deck was stacked against us. The team make up was like nothing EWB had encountered before and I don’t think that anyone had anticipated the problems such a diverse group would create.

The program in itself is focused towards what EWB volunteers looked like until now. Most EWB are closer from their academic roots than others who have been in the work force for some time. I remember my college years when the work circle was pretty much your social circle. We went to classes with other students; we ate, lived and partied with more students. Most of us in the work force go home after work and have a social circle outside our profession, or what we do during the day. Most importantly, and here I can only talk about myself and a few other team members, some of us value our privacy.

I have referred, if not on my blog, certainly in conversation, about the team being an experimental petri dish. We were piled up against each other, spend most of our days in sessions together and most of our nights working on assignments together in a smoldering house. The petri dish certainly got baked; we had temperatures going all the way up to “Feels like 46”. This didn’t help.

I applied and wanted to come on the placement with EWB because I believe in the good work that we are doing in Africa. I joined because I believed I could contribute to this effort. I also assumed that EWB wanted to bring people from diverse backgrounds to enrich EWB’s skill set. This may have been the original intent but nothing was done to ensure that those bringing the diversity would also feel welcome.

Worst of all, we not only didn’t feel welcome but we made the long time EWBers feel threatened; they saw us as the one coming to change the organization they cherish and love.

At one end of the spectrum we had Marielle and I perceived as visitors who are only there for a few months and will return to their posh lives working for the “Man”. The other extreme were a few that have done a tour as Junior fellows and worked as volunteers in the Toronto office-now committing to an intense dedicated 1 or 2 year placement. Those are extremely dedicated people who bring great youth and energy to EWB; they are what made EWB what it is today.

Dwelling in the middle are different newcomers to the organisation like Ashley who comes from corporate, has previous experience with development work and is ready to leave her career behind to work for 1 year. There is also David who’s fresh out of University who has also worked in development before. David will be spending the next year in Ghana before moving on to do his masters.

Between all the differences every single person felt pulled apart and no one really felt part of the team.

Interestingly enough you could put any of 2 members together and they all would get along real great. We did OK one on one but we sucked as a team.

Near the end however, we started to look at each other in terms of what we all can contribute as oppose to how different we are. The last few days of sessions has somehow wrapped it up quite nicely but it was certainly not by design, it just happened to happen. The culture gap could have just as easily widened even more.

The concept of Pride and Hospitality:

Marielle and I had the pleasure of having Ashley Good as mentor for our pre training. We had a few sessions talking about how important it is to understand that people in Ghana may be poor but they are also very proud people. Cleanliness and appearances are very important. Some emphasis was also driven home about what hospitality meant to people from Ghana.

On one hand we learned how very important it is for our placement to understand these concepts. On the other hand we are dropped into a house where the pride of cleanliness has left a long time ago; nobody was there to welcome us into the EWB family as individuals or as a team.

One of the arguments we heard from the facilitators and long time EWBers was that the purpose of the house and letting it “free” is to let people figure it out on their own and take them out of their comfort zone. The house is a place where people bond. Having "structure" and "hierarchies" does not fit well with EWB’s culture.

I don’t buy that. It’s the way it is because it has worked in the past and no one has died doing it this way. No one has looked at the cost and consequences of ignoring city bylaws or the fire code. A minor incident paired with the pervasive negligence could take this whole organisation down. I see an organisation that does great work in Africa but that is stretched very thin back at the head office. There’s lots of energy, lots of ideas and many experiments on the go but very little structure and governance.

The way forward from here:

We landed in Ghana last night. We were welcomed by Robin and we cabbed it to the guest house. We were welcomed to Accra, welcomed to EWB. Today the sessions were light and informative. We are all very excited to finally be in Ghana and to have the Pre-Dep training behind us. This evening there is a refreshing breeze blowing from the ocean. Somehow it doesn’t feel so hot, certainly not as hot as Toronto. We will be all right as a team; we will look after each other and support each other. We are all eager to get on the ground and start doing instead of learning.

Tomorrow morning we will be challenged and taken out of our comfort zone. We will be sent in the city on our own trying to figure things out and find our way in this strange land. I was looking at my teammates tonight while Robin was giving us the assignment and I had no doubts in my mind that anyone of us will rock and sock this assignment.

I’ll try to document some of it.

There will be more discussion coming up with the players at the head office of EWB. I am passionate about the work that is being done and I believe the partnership with TransCanada is an incredible opportunity for both TransCanada and for Engineers Without Borders. In the next few months I intend to keep the line of communication open and use some of the framework and "Theories of Change and Influence" that we have learned in the past four weeks. We have a great organization but it has its weaknesses, and we need to work at improving so we can continue to do the great work that is being done in Africa.

Living in the Hood in Toronto

2011-07-28T05:20:00.000-07:00

Living in the Hood
As mentioned in my previous post the house is situated off College Street and Bathurst. The neighbourhood life is very rich and something very different than what one would be accustomed in Calgary. Rich and vibrant and eclectic would be good words to describe it.

Cute front yard Lanscaping

The Houses
Between the major commercial arteries such as College, Bathurst, Spadina and Queens Street most of the houses are older row houses. There are many condos / townhouses projects popping up, but the hood has retained a lot of its character. Typically the houses have small front yard, some with very unusual lush landscaping. They may lack in space but they sure make up in creativity and lushness. Things in Ontario grow so much faster than in Alberta. You see it in some of the backyard vegetable gardens, it feels like you could stick a sausage in the ground and a swine would grow…

Amasing Backyard lush Garden

The Food


Great wings, suds and an old school hardware store... Heaven.

Around College Street there are so many places to get good food for very few coins. You can get a good Sushi meal for under $10. The hot dog vendor at the corner of Bathurst and College and Bathurst is always a delicious option when pressed for time. There is a fantastic soup and sandwich place right next door from the EWB office on Adelaide Avenue. We call it the sandwich place, I never looked at its real name; I just go in. Good cheap food is plentiful.
My favourite spot to treat myself is Oyster Boy on Queen Street. They usually have a selection of at least half a dozen different types of oysters. It’s on the pricey side but I love oysters and it’s a real treat for me to enjoy such a great selection of fresh ones. This is not something we usually see in Calgary. We ate there Karie, Pascal (my brother) and I before I started my placement. I went back a few times to snack on a half dozen raw oysters with a pint and it always made me feel much better. When Karie comes next weekend we’ll definitely have a last visit.

Of course we can’t talk about food without talking about wings. I found a decent spot on College Street called Duff. They have been enabling my wing addiction. I worked myself comfortably to the Super-Hot wings. Over and above the Super-Hot they have a few more levels with perky names ("Armageddon" comes to mind) which I didn’t enjoyed as much, especially the next morning. It’s a good basic place with good wings, a decent selection of suds and friendly waiters that were easily trained in the obscure concept of total beer randomness.

Riding the bike
Having the use of Pascal’s bike has kept my life somewhat more sane, especially in these 30+ degree weather. Being more mobile has allowed me to take a few detours around Queen Street or Bloor Street or zoom by the Kensington Market. It has allowed me to see much more than just the trip to the University from the “House”. In the past week I have moved out of the house and I am now shacking up with Pascal’s family. Being further up (a 25 minute bike ride from the office) it forces me to exercise some more, which I really need. This also allows me to make even more exploratory detours. It also allows me to spend some quality time with Daven my 2.5 year old nephew who is growing like a weed.

It's me riding the bike while sweating...

Toronto Revisited
I lived for two years in Toronto before moving back to Calgary in June 2008. Many of you have heard me say that I didn’t like Toronto and that I really didn’t enjoyed those 2 years. Spending a whole month in my old neighbourhood, riding through the same park I used to walk Buster (previous dog to Tango) or my regular grocery store where I was learning to speak Korean, has been cathartic. I think it has enabled me to close the loop. I love Toronto, the intensity but also the Hoods and the old world feel of some of its communities. And the food…

What I didn’t like was the fake pretentious life style that took me away from who I really was. But this was not Toronto because Toronto as I just rediscovered, I just happen to love.

Kensington Market

The Green Car in Kensington Market

2011-07-27T04:38:00.000-07:00

The power of the first impression.

Karie and I made it to Toronto a few days ahead of my reporting date. I didn’t want to blog for the few days that Karie was around and since we started on July 4^th it has been very intense and “full”.

My first impression (and Karie as well) was my arriving in Toronto and settling in the house. As mentioned, I arrived a few days prior my reporting and had a chance to drop by the house. The simplest way I can describe is” shocking”.

The EWB house is situated just south of College and Slightly West of Bathurst in Toronto. It’s a humble neighbourhood very well situated; it is a 15 minutes’ walk to the University and lots of shops and watering holes along College Street. It’s a typical two storey narrow house. The upstairs has 3 bedrooms and the downstairs has a living room, dining room and a kitchen. It has retained its original layout and suffers from years of wear and tear. The house has all the basic necessities to accommodate modern living; running water, toilets and showers, refrigerator, clothes washers…and way too many people.

On the second floor one of the bedrooms has 1 bunk (2 people) and is occupied by 2 long term residents. The second bedroom has 2 bunks (4 people); the third one has 4 bunks (8 people) and there is a full bathroom. The basement has a washer / dryer a full bathroom and a bedroom.

The 2 bunks room; it's very difficult to get a good photographic perspective since the room is so small to start with

Siera (left) and Marielle sorting things out in the 4 bunk room

There are a few postings on the walls explaining the rules of the house but no resident team leader or manager. It’s implied that it is first come first served, you grab a bunk wherever there’s one available. This should be simple if it were not for the fact that most bed still have the sheets of the previous residents and there were so much stuff laying around that it’s not always clear which bunks were “free”. It appears that over time past residents have abandon stuff and personal items before leaving for their postings.
Since I moved in, there were never less than 14 people living in the house at any one time.

The best bedroom in the house just happened to be outside of the house. Because of the unusual scorching heat I found it more comfortable sleeping on a air mattress in the backyard. I could enjoy a nice fresh breeze (well, later in the night anyhow) and wake up to the chirping of birds around 4:30 am.

The positive about this challenge is that after our first day of Sessions, all the new participants decided to have dinner together to address the situation. We cleaned the house as well as we could, got rid of the dozens of abandoned pairs of shoes and other items that were unclaimed by the present residents. We established a cleaning schedule and hoped that we could make the best of it.

There are a few things that we keep hearing from almost everyone at EWB. These include some of our team mates that have participated in oversee placements as Junior Fellows in the past or have work at the EWB office as volunteers and have lived in the house. The first one is that training as a whole is to challenge us and taking us out of our comfort zone. The second is that it’s part of EWB’s culture of sharing and being open and creating a space for idea to develop and personal growth.

I personally don’t subscribe to this notion. There are better ways to create team solidarity than piling people on top of each other in 30 plus degree temperatures. We should be looking at some alternatives.

I want to apologize for not posting as much as I should have. I have a few posts on the go and hopefully I can catch up in the next few days before flying off to Accra. Some good stuff is coming up; life in the neighbourhood, the great training we have been subjected to, my teammates and more on the role I’ll be playing.

What does mushroom hunting have to do with EWB?

2011-06-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

Beutiful Boletus specimen

Karie and I are avid mushroom hunters. I introduced her to Mushroom hunting at this time last year; it was our first date ever. We picked boletus and had a picnic in the park afterward. On our next date we made homemade raviolis using the wild mushroom as stuffing. But that’s another story all together.

Tango the fearless female dog

Now she is passionate about mushrooms. Last year, for the Boletus season, we went every second day or so to the park, I few minute drive from our house. We would bring Tango and just enjoyed walking in the woods and getting some fresh air. It may not seem like much to most people but it is a little passion that we both share an enjoy spending time with each other. Every hike we do we always involves looking out for new picking grounds and trying to identify new species. Last fall we took a trip on Vancouver Island and had a guided tour of Chanterelle picking.

You can imagine that she has been bummed out by me going away for the later part of the summer.

We didn’t expect to be able to pick Boletus together. Usually the season starts the first week of July in our regular picking ground. With all the rain and the sudden warm weather we decided to give it a try. So last night we packed a picnic basket and Tango and headed to our favourite spot, the one I took her last year.

We were pleasantly surprised with a good harvest considering how early it is in the season. And of course we had our little picnic with a chilled glass of white wine…

What does this have to do with EWB?

It has a lot to do with me going away for a 6 months placement with EWB and Karie staying behind holding on the fort. I am leaving her with a full house. It was great that we could experience this once before I go. The past few months have been too busy to enjoy the many “fun things” that we usually do, we haven’t enjoyed them as much or as often. It has been challenging to get to the start line and it’s nearing fast but there is a very long way to go and at the very least we can say that we didn’t miss the Boletus season.

Finding those few mushroom at the last minute reminded us of those little things that make our life fulfilling; our crazy culinary experiments, archery, camping on the crown land, hiking with a rifle (some call it hunting). That is what I am leaving behind for a while but this also what I am coming back to.

The tale of the One Arm Wall Paper Hanger

2011-06-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

The One Arm Challenge:

In my last post I talked about how the human density of my house has increased in the past few months. Not to mention the critter density. I am a little eccentric when it comes to my living conditions. My place has been in a constant state of repairs (and disrepair); I am quite comfortable with the situation and Tango, the dog, doesn't seem to be complaining.

With the increase in density comes the need for space for things like beds, dressers and places to sit. Unfortunately I have been acquiring kitchen appliances for a distant kitchen renovation; a monstrous gas stove I bought at an auction, a very good dishwasher that the previous owner abandoned for a different model and a really cool range hood fan. I am still working on a kick ass fridge. I did really well in buying those appliances but they just take a lot of floor space and even the rented garage is getting crowded in a hurry.

The gas installation is lined up, the permit has been obtained from the city and the condo board approval has been finalized. All this should happen this Friday (tomorrow).

Last weekend I decided to install the range hood fan which involves moving some of the kitchen cabinet. There’s the added difficulty of venting to the outside as oppose to shooting the hot air back to the cook’s face, as the previous fan was doing. While at it, I decided to install the new dishwasher as opposed to just storing it. Of course my son was nowhere to be found.

Did I mention that I broke my collar bone? After 9 days my mobility was almost all back but there were very few movements that I could do comfortably. Lifting heavy objet over my head wasn’t one of them. Nevertheless the range hood fan is installed and so is the new dishwasher. For a few nights I had to revert back to pain killer (the good stuff) because my shoulder was very sore and swollen. I have been icing the shoulder everyday and my healing is back on track. Someone has suggested that I should heavily duct tape my right arm to my chest to make sure that I won’t use it. Karie has suggested duct taping my arm and my whole body to one of the kitchen chair until I take the plane for Toronto…

A Different Perspective:

Marielle and I have been mentored by Ashley Good who works with EWB in Toronto. She has been wonderful. It has been a very fulfilling process of discovery for the past 2 months. We both have learned so much about Foreign Aid in Africa. I think that I can speak for both of us in saying that our perspective of Foreign Aid has totally changed. Very much like other local "not for profit" organisations, not all are equal and donnations dollars are not always well used.

As we are getting closer to our formal training in Toronto we also started interfacing through emails with volunteers in Africa working on the MOFA project. The same project Marielle and I will be working with. We are reading their weekly accounts; the conditions they live in, what they are working on, their challenges and how they are feeling.

This morning I was looking at some pictures; Andrea Korney from TransCanada sent me a link of a blog her sister created while in Ghana. Follow this link if you want to have a peak: http://www.iliaphotographyblog.com/ghana-part-one-accra-and-kumasi/

Between the pictures and the email it hit me like a ton of bricks. What am I being so frantic about? Better kitchen stove and better dishwashers? I am worry for the teens to have enough dresser space? I will be in Ghana soon and yet I am so immersed in my daily life’s trivialities.

I guess I have to start letting go of the noise, leave it behind. I have to pack and bring with me only what I need; the right "actual" baggage and the right "emotional" one…

Of course I also have to avoid playing with 3 years old in the park and stop using my right arm for a while.

Cheers

The marathon to the starting line and what else can happen?

2011-06-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

It seems that the last 3 months have just gone by in a flash. From the moment I was selected for the EWB placement things got from busy to flat out insane. Here’s a chronicle of some of the "Out of Scope" tasks that were thrown in the mix.

Let's Save the Vegetable:

Karie and I have been literally living together for a while; we were just cohabiting in two different households. We would spend as much time in her condo and in my townhouse. As the pace of things accelerated it became increasingly difficult to manage both places with 1 dog, the 2 cats and the 2 refrigerators. So I admit that I got upset one day for having to throw away spoiled vegetables from one of the refrigerator. So I guess I said something like:

“This is too crazy and we can’t keep on spoiling vegetables like this; we have to move in together”

It doesn’t sound very romantic but the “trigger” for us to move in WAS a few spoiled vegetables. In all fairness the vegetables only precipitated something that was on the verge of happening. If I had not been selected for the EWB placement or if we had managed the 2 refrigerators better, it would still have happened. It is where we were in the relationship.

Never fire a starting pistol at a racehorse:

From the time we had the “Spoiled Vegetable” talk, Karie’s condo was listed for rental on the web the next day. The lease was signed 9 hours later and the moving company was at the door 7 days after that.

Moving is difficult at best and can be challenging; moving one household into another existing one increases the difficulty exponentially. Going through the whole cycle, lock stock and barrel, in 8 days is nothing short of insanity.

I don’t want to get into too many details; just talking about it makes my neck tense up. As you will read in the “Play Nice with Big Younger Kids”, I need to keep my neck loose and relax.

Children are Priceless:

As we were going through the challenge of merging our 2 households, my favorite x-wife kicked my 19 year old son out. Without giving up too much detail, he is a good kid but he needed a kick in the behind. Our parenting approach over the years has been one of “Tag Team”. We always had good communication and been very supportive of each other.

So now he lives with Karie and I. To recap; my townhouse has acquired in that 3 weeks period: 2 cats, 1 girlfriend and one teenage boy to join me with my dog Tango.

Beware of Past Promises:

While in Montreal last December a distant relative, a 17 years old boy finishing his high school indicated to me that he wanted to come to Calgary to learn English. I volunteered to help him out if his parents agreed to send him to Calgary. He could live with me and I would help him. It seemed that the odds where not very good since I had not heard from him in a while.

Whatever the odds were of him coming, it doesn’t matter because now he is coming. Another recap; my townhouse has acquired in less than 4 weeks: 2 cats, 1 girlfriend and ~~one~~ 2 teenage boys to join me with my dog Tango in my townhouse. Did I mention that I am leaving in 8 days?

Play Nice with Big Younger Kids:

They say that 50 is the new 25. Nevertheless my body is still over 50 and has a lot of mileage. I was playing with my friend’s kids in the park. While running as fast as I could possibly run, I took a tumble and landed hard on my shoulder. Now I am sporting a brand new broken collar bone. The kid I was chasing was only 3 years old but he is really big for his age.

If you thought I had a funny smile at the EWB send off party it’s because every time I shook someone’s hand it generated atrocious pain in my right shoulder. I should have been less proud and wear my arm sling.

Fortunately it has been healing very well and there is no doubt in my mind or in my physician’s mind that I will be healthy by the time I have to go.

The downside is that many items on my "to do" list involves power tools or moving large objects.

Scope Change:

This was a very challenging period and I won’t be able to do all that was on my list before leaving on the 29^th. I have to accept it. I am happy that the end result of that crazy period is Karie and I are now sharing more of our lives. I have cut down the list to a minimum and hopefully we can enjoy what’s left of our time together. I am grateful to have her at my side; without her I would not have been able to make this happen.

It has been insane but I am excited and can’t wait to finally start this adventure. Hopefully the actual adventure will be more comb than the getting there…