Afghanistan

I’ve put a lot of my thoughts on politics/current events up on this site this week and there is more below. In truth, it’s a bit tiring, as I get too wrapped up in it, so I will try to get back to more Ghanaian posts next week.

Another Canadian soldier was killed in Afghanistan in a firefight with Taliban fighters. A soldier the same age as me. Being removed from Canada, I don’t have much sense of the public morale over this mission, although my expectations are not high. From what I have read on the Globe website, both the Conservatives and the Liberals are sending strong messages of support for this mission, which is good to hear.

I’m going to take a cue from my cousin, whose excellent blog can be found at http://hughmeighen.blogspot.com. While I think that is vital to be supporting our troops 100% in this mission, it is also important that the government articulates exactly why we are in Afghanistan. This is a worthwhile mission and that needs to be communicated to the public instead of simply saying that questioning the mission is unpatriotic.

I am not going to list all of the reasons as to why this is such a necessary mission (read Hugh’s blog). All I will say is that Afghanistan under the Taliban was one of the worst places to live on the planet. It was a medieval place where women were property, gays were crushed under stone walls and Al Qaeda was allowed a safe haven to train and plan attacks on Western targets. Afghanistan cannot be allowed to revert to that state. It is in our interest as Canadians to ensure that these barbarians are defeated.

My confidence in the backbone of the Canadian public is mixed. I sincerely hope that we have the fortitude to stand by Afghanistan. I would also like to point out that since we first deployed troops to Afghanistan in October, 2001 we have suffered 11 fatalities. When you compare that to Vimy Ridge or Dieppe or Ortona or any other Canadian campaign, it makes this current hand-wringing look ridiculous.

But it’s easy for me to say that, sitting comfortably at home when I don’t have to suffer the consequences. I’m going to include Hugh’s last paragraph that he wrote on the subject a few weeks ago:

“Obviously, I would never want more consequences to be doled out to other people (least of all myself) as a means to 'even out' the consequences of military action. But it makes you wonder how you can take a more active role in the defence of your convictions if a career in the military is not for you. Right now, I think all I can do is try to keep that link between Canada's values and the actions of the soldiers in Afghanistan in mind and in focus. That link does exist, and when it comes to sacrifices, articulating it and defending it is the least that I can do.”

I will also include one more passage. Everyone knows In Flanders’ Fields, written by John McCrae, or at least the first few lines. As important, if not more so, especially at a time like this, are the last lines:

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

This mission is just. Let us as Canadians have the willpower to not break faith with our fallen soldiers.

CPT update II

There is a post detailing Tuesday beneath this one. I found this statement released by the Iraqi Embassy in Ottawa:

The Iraq embassy condemns the comment of "Christian Peacemaker Teams" and calls on all democrats to rally to the cause of a democratic Iraq and to condemn all such phony pacifists... One could hardly think of a more disgraceful response to the efforts of the Iraqi, American and British soldiers that risked their necks to save hostages... They are not pacifists, but stooges of the enemies of democracy. The "Christian Peacemaker Teams" practice the kind of politics that automatically nominate them as dupes for jihadism and fascism.

Tuesday

Today was somewhat similar to yesterday, although I got a lot more accomplished in the morning. We are putting together a series of documents and photos to send to this American organization describing our program and potential volunteer opportunities and I made really good headway this morning.

I went into town in the early afternoon and bumped into Dave (from Ottawa) who is back from a trip to Burkina Faso and Mali. His CIDA internship is over and he’s heading back to Canada (Whistler!) on Friday. So we sat and had a beer and then the other Dave, who I met 10 days ago walked by and he joined us.

I came back and did a bit more work then went to get some food from a little stand near our house. There were several small children playing soccer beside it, which was pretty funny to watch. They were taking penalty shots and each one was pretending to be some superstar. Not too different from me being Stephane Richer in road hockey I guess. But I’m sure you’re all imagining kids playing on a grass field, shooting at a net. Instead, try to picture a fairly dark spot of dirt beside a road and a bunch of little kids diving around without shoes on and loving every second.

One of them had a great line as I was leaving. “Next time you come, buy me a nice car!” Usually if the kids ask for anything, it’s a pen or 500 or 1000 cedis. A car? Obviously he has higher standards.

The kids here (apart from the asking for stuff) are such a great tonic to any bad mood. They have got so little in terms of things to play with, but they are always ridiculously happy. I think my tolerance for some snotty kid at a mall demanding toys from his parents back home will be even lower when I get back.

Two random observations

1) A bumper sticker on a taxi: "On Judgement Day, you'll wish your car had Jesus stickers"

2) On the radio: "Elton John is now my enemy because he is a gay couple. I used to really like him."

CPT Update

Ben came back from the North yesterday, so we met up and grabbed a burger and a beer, which was a lot of fun. He’s heading to Accra tomorrow and back to Canada on Sunday. Apart from a bit of work in the morning, that took up most of my day, so not much to report, except that it’s too bad Ben is leaving.

Following an email I received, I would like to make a small mea culpa. The Christian Peacemaker Teams came out with a statement thanking the rescuers of their members. Here it is:

We have been so overwhelmed and overjoyed to have Jim, Harmeet and Norman freed, that we have not adequately thanked the people involved with freeing them, nor remembered those still in captivity. So we offer these paragraphs as the first of several addenda:

We are grateful to the soldiers who risked their lives to free Jim, Norman and Harmeet. As peacemakers who hold firm to our commitment to nonviolence, we are also deeply grateful that they fired no shots to free our colleagues. We are thankful to all the people who gave of themselves sacrificially to free Jim, Norman, Harmeet and Tom over the last four months, and those supporters who prayed and wept for our brothers in captivity, for their loved ones and for us, their co-workers.

Good for them for thanking those who risked their lives to free them. They did show gratitude, so I retract what I said about them being ungrateful. However, I would be interested to know what their reaction would have been if shots had been fired in their rescue. Would they have been less grateful?

Furthermore, I believe that the Canadian, American, British and Iraqi governments should bill the CPT for expenses incurred during their rescue. They were warned beforehand that they should not be operating in Iraq without armed guards. (It's Tuesday and I just read that the two Canadians were somewhat uncooperative while being debriefed. Who the hell are they "aiding" by withholding information that could help coalition forces stop further incidents like this from happening?)

Lest anyone accuse me of being a total heartless jerk, I do want to reiterate that I am extremely happy that these three men were rescued unharmed, unlike too many other innocent people, both Iraqi and foreign, who have fallen into the hands of these barbarians.

Finally, I want to close with a short poem, written in the early 20^th century by Hillaire Belloc:

Pale Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight
But Roaring Bill (who killed him) thought it right.

Weekend

*** It’s Monday morning. Congrats to Paul on winning a fre tro-tro ride for correctly identifying Dancing in the Dark as the song from which I pulled the title to the previous post. Also, congrats to the Habs to smoking the Laffs twice over the weekend! God I wish I could have been there to see it. Still, making the playoffs will be tough and those wins will be little consolation if we don’t make it.***

On Saturday, we were supposed to travel to three villages where we are going to start clinics, but on the Ghanaian clock, Saturday equals Sunday. There was some confusion with the driver of our van, so we postponed it to today.

The first village, Adumasa, is one that I have been to before with Maxwell. We met with the chief and the local assemblyman and they showed us the building they are going to give us for the clinic. It needs a bit of paint, but it’s more than adequate. After making some arrangements there about fixing up the building, we went to Tedeso, following a terrible dirt road. More on that later. This village had set up a really good clinic with the help of the American Embassy. It was really impressive—lots of space and well-furnished. There were even six, two-bedroom apartments for staff. The only problem was that there was only one midwife/nurse and an attendant running the place. We hope to take over management and provide more staff.

From Tedeso we went to Anyanso. They constructed a building to be used as a clinic almost ten years ago but have not been able to get anyone to run it. The building was good, not quite as well-appointed as the clinic at Tedeso, but it has almost everything we’ll need. We just need to evict the current tenants—several mice and way too many huge wasps.

Because our van is not exactly airtight, we all got filthy from the dirt road. It’s disconcerting to see dark brown water at your feet in the shower. At first I thought my tan had improved until I scratched my arms and saw my skin miraculously lighten.

All in all it was a productive day. The chiefs and officials we met with were all supportive and development-minded, so I think we have found good people to partner with. It’s a bit tough going to these places, simply because you want to help immediately but we just don’t have the resources (financial and human) to do everything overnight. I can’t wait to see the finished product: self-sustaining clinics managed by the communities with technical support from RUCNET. But that is going to require a return trip to Ghana, as the best we can do in the next few months is to have a few of them running, but managed by RUCNET.

I’m just tired and bored with myself

A free tro-tro ride to anywhere in the Greater Kumasi area to anyone who can name the song from which the title of this post was taken.

But seriously, I don’t have much interesting to say about the past few days, as they have been fairly repetitive and uneventful, but also productive.

So instead, I’ll turn to a subject I almost never talk about. Current events. I saw today on the net that three hostages were rescued in Iraq: two Canadians and a Brit from the Christian Peacemaker Teams. Obviously, this is great news, although it’s horrifying that their American colleague was killed and tortured. CPT put out a statement expressing its joy at the securing of the three men while at the same time condemning the US-led coalition for creating the conditions that led to their abduction.

How about a little gratitude? From what I read, this was a planned operation, not luck, that freed these men. Talk about Stockholm Syndrome. Even though their colleague and friend was murdered and tortured by the ‘insurgents’, the CPT saves its harshest words for the people who freed the three men.

The CPT say that they are there to show solidarity with the Iraqi people. Well how about standing firm against the terrorists (oops, I mean militants) who are currently blowing up Iraqi civilians every day in marketplaces, mosques, police stations, etc? Where were the Christian Peacemaker Teams when people were being fed feet-first into shredders or confined in rape rooms when Saddam Hussein and his psychopathic sons were in power? They were comfortably at home, probably criticizing the US for something else. The point is, idealists like the Christian Peacemakers can operate only where the very people they condemn provide them an umbrella under which to work. The CPT is deluded in drawing a moral equivalence between the coalition and Iraqi forces and the headhackers and suicide bombers they are trying to stop.

Choosing to be neutral between the coalition and the ‘insurgents’ is not a virtuous position. One side is trying to win the hearts and minds, with some successes and some failures. The other is simply blowing them up. To curse them both equally is outrageous.

Immigration

Here is some dialogue for all of my avid readers. The setting: Ghana Immigration Services Office in Kumasi.

Me (trying to sound as polite as possible so as not to come across as arrogant): “Good afternoon, I would like to apply for a visa extension please.”

Bureaucrat: “You must come back later, we are on break”

Tony (still trying to be polite): “When should I come back?”

B: “2 pm.”

T: “Can I wait in here?”

B: “You wait outside.”

So I did. No big deal—it was 1:45 and a bench in the hall is no different than one in the office. But it gets better. Twenty minutes later I went back in, really turned on the charm and sat down with a different woman, who obviously recognized me from before Christmas. Her first words to me:

“You’re still in this country?”

Well, I guess you could deport me. Why the hell would anyone ever want to renew their visa if that is the response they get? After that it got a bit better. I still couldn’t get an extension, as I need a letter from RUCNET, but that’s no big deal.

Look, I’m not asking people to kiss my feet just because I’m a volunteer here. There are millions of us anyways. But come on, that was ridiculous.

Life does go on however, and that was merely an unpleasant blip on an otherwise pleasant day. I’m going to go cook myself some spaghetti. Bye for now. Or as a Ghanaian immigration officer might say: “you’re still reading this?”

A few more things

Today (Saturday), I slept in to 9:30 after going to sleep at 10. Also, I dreamt that I was at the Bell Centre for Geoffrion’s number retirement ceremony, so at least I got to see it in some way. Gotta love my malaria pills. I really can’t wait to be off them to see if these are my normal dreams and I really am crazy, at least while asleep!

I wanted to write down a few more things about the past week. Mostly random stories that I want to have saved for posterity.

When we were travelling from Wa to Wechiau, we met some guy who introduced himself as Black Jesus. He was a Muslim, as most Northerners are, but swore a lot. He sounded like he’d stepped out of a rap album.

In the same tro, we met a man with amazing tribal scars on his face who introduced himself as the “vice-chairman of the hippos”. I wonder what voting system the hippos employed to select him. We later found out that this was true, as he is the vice-chairman of the eco-tourism project.

While at Wechiau, our guide Imori cooked the food we bought—rice and beans with tomato sauce and some spice. The beans were a bit hard, which happens some times, no matter how long you cook them. His explanation was that “the beans tried to defeat us”.

At Mole, the little German kid I talked about earlier snuck up behind his dad, who I was sitting next to, at the viewing platform. He tried to spray the back of his dad’s head with sunscreen, but the nozzle was pointing the wrong way and he got a mouthful of it, which gave us all a good laugh, including (surprisingly) the kid.

I guess that’s it. If I think of any more stories I want to remember in the future, you’ll hear them.

The last of the photos

There is a huge post beneath the three photo posts. Also, I found out yesterday that Boom-Boom Geoffrion died on Saturday before the ceremony to raise his jersey. A sad day for hockey. I can't believe that the CBC didn't show the ceremony, even though he died that day and his last wish was for his wife to go to the ceremony no matter what. I guess a game between two non-playoff teams is way more important. If it had been Wendel Clark or Tie Domi or Wade Belak, HNIC would probably have had a day of mourning instead of a 20 second montage at intermission. What a joke. Hockey Night in Toronto strikes again. Rest in Peace, Boom-Boom.

Here are the photos:A croc at Mole

Kob antelope

A warthog

One of about four hundred elephant photos

More photos

Do you need a caption?

Me in an elephant footprint

Baboon at Mole

The view from the platform of the watering hole

Photos

Some hilarious, but slightly malnourished kids, taken from a bus in Sawla

The Black Volta River. The other side is Burkina Faso

The lodge at Wechiau--we slept on the roof

The mosque at Bole

Hippos

Hippos, Baboons, Elephants and lots of other stuff

Seeing as this is going up on Saturday, I hope everyone had a good St. Patty’s Day and a belated happy birthday to Hunter.

This is going to be long. I guess the story starts last Friday night. Ben and I stayed in Kumasi and had some pizza, then made our way to the bus station on Saturday morning to catch a bus to a town called Bole. We bought our tickets only to find out that the bus wasn’t leaving for about 6 hours. Not to worry, as someone quickly offered to get us on an earlier one for a price. That bus was broken down and took about 2 hours to get going. After maybe 100 metres, it broke down again. All this gave me time to check out the public toilet, as I wasn’t feeling too well. It was everything you’d imagine a third world public toilet to be—completely squalid. Whatevs, the bus finally left and we made it to Bole after 5 bumpy hours. The reason we were there was to see an ancient mud and stick mosque, which we did Saturday morning, before catching a bus to the city of Wa.

We got to Wa and jumped into a tro-tro to the village of Wechiau, which runs a hippo sanctuary eco-tourism project. The tro was pretty bad: a pickup with some benches in the bed and a metal frame. The bed was packed and there were people on the roof and sides as well. I took a photo, forgetting that I was in a Muslim region, which is a faux pas. Fortunately, no one was too angry at the stupid obruni. At the Hippo Sanctuary office in Wechiau, they arranged for a guide and a tro to take us to their lodge by the Black Volta River. We bought some simple food and left with Imori, our guide. The lodge was great—no power, but a big Poly-Tank, so there was water, and we cooked over some coals. The room was way too hot, so Ben and I put our mattresses on the roof and slept up there, which was pretty neat. The next morning I got my first hot shower in Ghana. The North is so hot and the black Poly-Tanks do a good job of retaining the heat. After that, we walked to the river and canoed up and down it for about 3 hours looking at hippos. It was pretty cool—we saw about 10 of them, although you mostly just see their heads. We then headed back to Wechiau, although the tro ran out of gas, so we had to wait a while. From there, we went back to Wa and checked into a hotel that looked nice from the outside and was pretty dire inside. But for 3 bucks each, we weren’t too inclined to argue.

The next morning was an early one. We went to catch a bus from Wa to Mole (Moh-lay) National Park and were told to be there around 4:30 to get a seat. We were there on time, but there were no seats left. But unlike in Canada, we could still ride, standing up. It wasn’t the best 3 hours of my life but it was worth the drive to Acton. Mole was amazing. It is the biggest national park in Ghana and the centrepiece of tourism in the North. The Motel is on an escarpment overlooking two watering holes. We decided to go all out for a room with A/C, which was about 15 bucks each per night. This actually turned out to be a bad idea for me, as I got a cold from it! Tuesday we just sat around the swimming pool and the viewing platform, watching elephants, baboons, monkeys, warthogs, and antelope pass us by. The baboons were hilarious, as they will steal any unguarded bag in the hope of finding food, not to mention bottles of ketchup and salad dressing from the tables.

Mole was obruni central, which was a change, but a lot of fun, as there was such a wide range of people and I had some interesting conversations. One guy from Honduras had been hitchhiking around Africa for a year or so and I can say he was probably more different from me than anyone I’ve ever met, but we still had some great conversations. He’d been kidnapped by rebels in Ivory Coast and got lost in the Sahara among other adventures. We also met this man from Nanaimo. He was about 60 and was visiting his son who is a volunteer here. It turns out that he dated Ben’s aunt 30 years ago and still is in touch with Ben’s dad occasionally as they are both lawyers! Small world.

On Wednesday morning we did a guided safari walk, which was predictably incredible. We got so close to the elephants at the watering hole. The only drawback was this German kid of about 5 who hadn’t quite got the hang of not talking extremely loudly. All in all, it was fantastic and it’s hard to argue with a 2 hour walking safari for 2 bucks.

Wednesday afternoon and Thursday were relaxed: swimming, reading, watching animals and talking to various people. At one point there were 20 elephants visible between the two watering holes and two juveniles were fighting (play-fighting?) for hours. I really needed it and I’m so glad to have done it. Most of the people there were volunteers, but from very diverse backgrounds and holding very diverse opinions. Leaving was a bit bittersweet just for that reason alone.

I got up at 4 this morning to catch the bus to Tamale, but I got off it at the main north-south road along with some Dutch and British girls and we took a tro south. They were going to some waterfall, so they left and I went on to Kumasi and am now home. It was a long day and I’m wiped.

Overall, the past week was phenomenal. Ben was really good company and although getting around in Ghana can be a bit of an ordeal, it was still pretty relaxing. And in a week, I spent less than 200 bucks and got to see so many different and fascinating things. The North was really hot and dry, which took a bit of getting used to. I found the people quite friendly and there was almost none of the usual hassle of the south, which was a godsend. Being back in Kumasi and hearing obruni a hundred times and having a taxi driver try to cheat me didn’t exactly make me too happy tonight. But then I got back home and was walking from the junction to the house and this woman tried to help me with my bags, even though she was tiny and had a baby on her back. That was amazing and made me realize that it’s only a small minority who are a pain in the ass.

So that was my week in two pages. I probably could fill ten more, but will spare you from that. I’m exhausted, a little sad that it’s over, but I couldn’t be happier with how the last week went. Thank you Northern Ghana!

On the road again

It's Saturday morning and Ben and I are about to head north. I'll be gone for about a week and am not too sure how often I'll be on the internet, so if nothing gets posted for a while, don't be too surprised. In the meantime, take care.

Also, tonight the Habs are retiring Boom-Boom Geoffrion's number, but he is too sick with cancer to make it. I hope he can at least watch on TV the huge ovation that will be given in his honour tonight.

Wow

I just read that the Habs traded Theo for Aebischer. I’m not too sure about this. The last time we traded a goalie to Colorado, it didn’t work out too well for us. I am trying to find out what Roberto Luongo’s contract status is, but the internet is really slow right now. I think that might be Gainey’s goal though, as getting rid of Theo frees up a lot of space. We’ll see.

Wednesday

Q: What’s brown and sticky?

A: A stick.

Just thought I’d lighten the mood a bit. In fact, I kind of need it, as today was a bit frustrating. First of all, I saw that the Habs lost to the damn Leafs yet again, thanks to an endless parade to the penalty box. So that put me in a bad mood. Then I couldn’t send some photos to an organization in Seattle that is going to send volunteers to us in the fall. And now I’m feeling a bit sick, probably due to the fact that I ate too many bananas. At least Ghana has got me to do something my mom never could: eat fruit.

Dr. Addae’s girlfriend Nana Aba got here tonight for a visit, which is nice. After living with girls for the last two years of university and only guys here, I’d have to say that I prefer the former, so it’s nice to have a woman around.

A meeting has been set up with World Vision regarding our clinics, but unfortunately, it was set for next week, when I’m away and Dr. Addae is at a conference, so hopefully we can reschedule it for tomorrow or Friday. On Friday, I’m supposed to go to another village with Maxwell to look into setting up a clinic there. This one is far—at least 50 km from Kumasi.

Every day I hear the word ‘obruni’ at least a hundred times. Usually, it’s just kids, but sometimes it’s adults, usually men. That kind of annoys me. Even the kids are getting exasperating, which I mentioned to Dr. Addae today. Some days I just don’t have the energy to respond, but I always manage to at least smile at them. But seriously, hearing people yell ‘white man’ over and over and over and over can be a bit much. In the north they don’t speak Twi, so maybe I’ll hear something else next week. I’ll keep you posted.

Monday/Tuesday/(Some) Wednesday

It’s Wednesday morning and I’m taking a quick break from work stuff. On Monday I met up with Dave and Ben for a drink and Ben and I did some planning for our trip north. We’re going to leave on Saturday and I’ll probably come back to Kumasi a week later.

Yesterday, Dr. Addae and I went to a college for the forestry industry near our house to talk to them about using their facilities for the college of natural medicine. It’s a beautiful campus and has good facilities and they were very receptive to us, so we’ll be going back later this week. After that, we went to the office for a bit and then came home and watched the Barcelona-Chelsea Champions League match.

So nothing overly exciting to report, but work is progressing steadily. But it’s hard not to be constantly looking forward to heading north and hopefully seeing elephants and hippos and having baboons try and steal your bag for hope of finding food.

Independance Day

It's about noon on Monday. Today is Independence Day in Ghana, so it's a holiday. Forty-nine years!!! We watched the ceremonies in Accra on TV this morning and they were pretty impressive. The first part was largely a military parade, with all brass bands and different units marching. What was most striking about it was the similarities between that and military parades in Canada, in their Britishness. It's amazing to think that one small island managed to spread its influence so far. Quite a legacy.

There was also some interesting traditional dancing and drumming, which was pretty neat, as well as a good speech by the president. All in all, it was good to watch, although it made me a bit homesick. How long til Canada Day?

On a totally separate note, yesterday, I read an article on the Globe and Mail website about how Canada is almost alone in supporting Guantanamo. Well, I didn't read all of it, just the first few lines, because my time ran out. But in the first two lines, the author called it a gulag twice. I guess any basic historical knowledge isn't necessary to become a journalist these days. What a moron. The gulag was a network of thousands of camps holding millions of people, most of whom guilty of no more than a wayward comment or simply belonging to the wrong class or ethnicity. Guantanamo houses approximately 500 detainees, mostly from Afghanistan. While I do not doubt that some innocent men have been kept there, which is always a travesty, the overwhelming majority were picked up on battlefields in Afghanistan. These are not political prisoners-- they are terrorists. They fight without uniforms or regard for innocent life. To compare them to the millions who suffered in the gulag is ridiculous and an insult to their memory. It is also lazy journalism. Take a history course, or better yet, read Gulag by Anne Applebaum, before you compare a camp for 500 terrorists to a network of thousands of camps holding millions of people in a totalitarian society. Guantanamo isn't Club Med, but its guests aren't exactly candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize.

More pics

There are two new posts below the two photo posts. Enjoy!

Women pounding palm seeds as part of the process of making palm oil

Schoolchildren singing to us

Shaking hands with one of the village elders

Some photos

Susie Kiphart unveiling a plaque beside a well her family donated

Kindergartners learning under a tree--there is not enough classroom space for them

Dr. Addae and I in front of an unfinished nursery RUCNET is building

A little boy who sang a song for Susie and Dick

Saturday

Saturdays can be a bit of a pain here, as funerals dominate. Today it was impossible to get a car to town. Fortunately, after 40 minutes of standing at the junction, our water tanker passed and I got a ride into town. I went out for an early dinner with Joe and his friend Richard, which was really nice. Although it was a bit awkward: we went to a restaurant that I’ve been to a few times. It’s good, but a bit expensive. Rich called me last week and invited me to go and here, if you invite someone, the implication is that you pay. Rich suggested this place cause he knew that I’ve been there (he never had) and I don’t think he realized how expensive it was. He and Joe just had drinks, but I was starving, so I ate. Rich tried to pay for me, but I refused and it’s no big deal, but I felt a bit guilty about the whole thing. The realities of the Third World can hit you pretty quickly here and it helps you realize how good we’ve got it in Canada.

Today I got a call from my parents’ friends’ son, Ben, who is here. He called me over Christmas and said he was planning on coming to Ghana, as he’d been here before with his high school and there were some things that didn’t exactly work out with the charity work they did and I think he wants to sort them out. Just this morning, I was wondering when or if he was coming, and then he called.

The timing of his call was perfect, as I’d been thinking about travelling to Northern Ghana next weekend for four or five days and didn’t have anyone to go with and that’s where he’s headed. He’s supposed to get into Kumasi on Monday, so we’ll meet up and figure things out. I’m pretty excited, as the north is essentially a different country, from what I’ve heard. It’s predominantly Muslim, and more of a savannah, whereas I am in a Christian forest! Knock on wood that I don’t get sick again. I really would like to see some elephants.

Friday

We’re out of water, which is nothing new. But there is a new problem: our well isn’t dry, but it’s really low, so the water it gives is full of clay and we can’t use it. That meant that I washed with about 2 litres of water on Thursday. Today we went to Bon Appetit (his brother’s guest house) in the morning so I got a proper shower there. Not having water is terrible. Usually our tanker fills it after it has delivered to some of the tanks but fuel is so expensive and it hasn’t been able to come lately. Tomorrow, hopefully. It’s pretty amazing not to have it, as you realize just how important it is and how much we take it for granted. We’ve got plenty of pure water to drink, so there’s no problem there, but we can’t wash or do dishes!

Tomorrow Dr. Addae has to go to a funeral, but I’m meeting some friends in town and won’t go, which I’m not overly disappointed about. The rituals surrounding funerals here are really interesting, but they go on forever and are in Twi for the most part, so they don’t really do it for me. For almost everyone else, they are a blast. They happen at least a month after the death, so it’s just one giant party. Drinking seems to be pretty common. I’d like to compare an Ashanti funeral with an Irish one and see who came out on top (or on the bottom, depending on how you look at it).

Thursday

For the past two days we’ve been moving around in two government pick-ups, as Peter, who is on our board, is the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Children. Unfortunately, today, he could only get one car, so I was the odd man out. Since they were going to places I’ve been to a few times, it was no huge loss. It also gave me a chance to take care of a few errands in town. When they got back, we had another great dinner at the Kiphart’s B&B. They are heading back to Chicago tomorrow, which is too bad. It was great to meet them. They are incredibly passionate about Ghana and have given so much to RUCNET. I’m looking forward to working with them in the future.

The tro-tro ride into town was especially crappy today, although I think that probably had something to do with driving around in air-conditioned 4x4s for the past few days! But seriously, being in the middle of a tro-tro (so you’re not getting enough wind to cool you), with all sorts of crap rattling around and the seat in front of you about a foot too close isn’t exactly a picnic.

So nothing too exciting today, apart from buying a pen drive and eating some great food! If you’re ever in Kumasi, stay at the Four Villages Inn. It’s run by a Canadian man and his Ghanaian wife and the food and accommodations are superb.

Wednesday

I can’t believe it’s March. I think one day I’ll wake up and be 80. Today was similar to yesterday. We went to a few villages and dedicated a few wells and a school, which was a lot of fun. The first town we went has the problem of being right on the highway. DANIDA (the Danish development agency) is widening the highway and apparently they promised to build a new building for the primary school on the town’s side of the road so the kids wouldn’t have to cross a dangerous stretch of road, but they’ve backed out due to lack of funds. We’re going to go back to them to see what they can do (or if they’re contractually obligated).

We then went to two other villages to commemorate a school we’re building and three wells, which was great. There was a big ceremony with all these school-children and the local chiefs and we also began to plan what we’ll do next. The Kiphart’s church in Chicago and the families there have given extremely generously, as has a foundation which Dick Kiphart is on the board of and they hope to continue this. We’re hoping to raise another fifty to eighty thousand dollars to spend on several projects, including completion (and expansion) of the school and the water project. I feel a bit bad for them, because every village we go to has great need of something and it can be overwhelming. This has something I’ve struggled with as well—you don’t want to say no to anyone, but you can’t do everything. Tomorrow we’ll get some time to sit down and plan things out and set some priorities.

Ok, enough for now.

It's now Thursday afternoon and I'm in town. I couldn't travel with the Kiphart's today because there was only one car, but it's no big deal, as they're going to places I've been to already and it gives me a chance to take care of a few things in town. But trading an air-conditioned government pick-up for a tro-tro sucks!

Tuesday

Today was fantastic. We went to some incredibly remote villages to deliver some things with the Kiphart’s (the ones from Chicago), as well as officially open up a well and a nursery that had been built with funds raised through their church in Chicago. These villages are so remote that you can only get a car out of them on market days, so the people are quite isolated. The school there was over-crowded (as is common here), so the kindergartners were being taught under a tree. With perhaps two to three thousand dollars a shelter could be put up so that they wouldn’t have to cancel classes when it rains.

The reception we got was overwhelming. I’ve been here for quite a while and I was totally blown away. We had dozens of schoolkids come up and sing for us and were presented with all sorts of gifts. Ghanaians, especially rural ones, might not have a lot of material goods, but they don’t lack foodstuffs, so we got tons of plantains, pineapples, some palm wine, some Kente cloth, and a chicken! I don’t think the Kiphart’s will be able to get it all into their carry-on (they’re leaving on Friday), so we’ve got lots to cook with!

After that, we had a four-course dinner at the B&B the Kiphart’s are staying in. It was all local food and delicious. I don’t get four-course dinners with crepes filled with apple for dessert too often around here, so it was much appreciated!

I don’t even know where to start in telling all about today. Unfortunately, I think it’s mostly going to be a memory for me, as I’m exhausted. I got some great photos and a bit of video as well and I’ll try to get the photos up soon.

I wish any of you could have been there to see all of this. Sorry to get all deep and lame, but it highlighted how nothing makes you feel better than giving something that means a lot to someone else. I’m going to stow today away and bring it out at some of the low points, of which I know there will be some, in the next few months.