EWB Saskatchewan

Part of the JF program is to go and live in a village for an extended period of time and do what we do best... learn.  I spent the the last week in the village of Zakoli staying with the family of Alhassan Alhassan.  He is a successful seed grower and one of the biggest farmers in the Yendi district, with about 70 or 80 acres of land and his very own tractor.  His brother, Swali, and his two sons, Muhammed and Abukari, do most of the work, and he hires Konkombas* from down the road to supplement his family workforce. 

I had my host-father, Mr. Sani, arrange a "farming date" for me with his friend Mr. Sumani.  I got up at 6 in the morning, ate breakfast, then went over to Mr. Sumani's compound to see if he was ready.  Mr. Sumani wanted a translator so we waited for his son, Idress, and my host-brother, Latif.  We biked for about a half hour out to his farm on the sandiest dirt roads imaginable.  It felt like I was on a pedal boat at times.  After arriving, exhausted, we grabbed some milk from Mr. Sani's cattle, then started to work.

I had quite an exciting weekend!  On Friday I attended my first Muslim wedding!  It was quite the experience.  I was invited by the bride-groom, Twaheed (probably not the right spelling), to come out on Friday and join the festivities.  I started asking about the wedding and he said that it happened over the course of three days.  From what I understand the first two days are mostly formal, and the last day (the day I attended) is a big party.  He hired a DJ and rented speakers for the dance, and invited what seemed like most of the neighborhood.  It was r

I know I said I'd write about my host family this time, but as I spend more time with them I realize that the little I know wouldn't do them justice. I will post about them when I feel I am less ignorant about the lives they lead. In the mean time I want to talk about the children in Yendi and some of the opportunites and threats that sit on their horizon.

I've arrived in Ghana! After flying into Accra, Mary Roach, an EWB long term overseas volunteer (LTOV) picked us up and escorted us to the Kokomlemle guest house. We went out for our first meal in Ghana, then returned back to the guest house to grab as much sleep as we could before catchig the 13 hour bus ride to Tamale at 6 in the morning.

I would like to take this opportunity to give some context around my overseas placement this summer through Engineers Without Borders (EWB). You'll have to bear with me as this will probably be my least exciting post as the summer waxes and wanes. I promise future blogs will be much more exciting with cultural blunders, workplace challenges and successes, and love from your #1 Saskatchewanite in Ghana. For those of you familiar with the EWB Junior Fellow (JF) program I would recommend skipping this next paragraph, as I give a little explanation of what the JF program is all about.

So I've never written a blog, and I've barely taken the time to read any, so I'll keep this short and sweet for those of you who are impatient about these kind of things, like myself.

I received an email this morning telling me about my placement in Africa! I'll be spending about 3 and a half months in Yendi working at the District Agriculture Development Unit this summer, which, from what I understand, is a division of Ghana's Ministry of Agriculture (MofA).