September 22, 2007

So my birthday was on the 8th of September and I got a ride with some European volunteers in my town to Mole National Park. We had a very relaxing weekend and got to see monkeys, warthogs, cob, baboons, impala, antelopes, lots of birds, and my favorite, the elephants. There are lions and hyena in the park, but they are not accessible. I guess they say you don’t get to see as many animals as you would on an Eastern African safari, but you get a lot closer to them in Mole (pronounced like the Spanish chocolate sauce). I was only about 200 meters away from the elephant and the rest of the animals except the antelope hang out right around the lodge. It was one of those “oh yeah, that’s right, I live in Africa” moments for me.

Today is my official one year anniversary in Ghana. It has definitely not been easy, from the extreme heat to the cold rain to the onslaught of bugs in the rainy season. The malaria medication has its drawbacks too. It really does give you some bizarre dreams sometimes. I woke up this morning straight from a very vivid dream about looking for cottage cheese and sour cream in the supermarket today :) Mmmm…I miss non-milk dairy products. Anyway I really give a lot of credit to those who live in Africa long term and work here for many years at a time.

My project work is continuing well. I helped the association to get a grant from the National AIDS STI Control Program in Ghana for the women to learn how to weave traditional cloth. I was happy to help them fill the very basic grant application because the PLWHA have established their own bank account and are managing the money themselves aside from my non-profit organization. It has been empowering for them to be managing their own affairs. I have been trying to encourage them to be as self sufficient as possible. Funding for the NGO is difficult to sustain so I think my sustainable contribution is empowering them to do things for themselves.

I have concluded after being here for a year that that is the best development all around—responsible, non-corrupt Africans designing projects for themselves with technical and financial assistance from the government and NGOs with proper monitoring systems to periodically make sure the project is on track. I have seen many donor programs fail because the people involved in the program are corrupt or unmotivated because they did not have a voice in the design of the program and therefore have no stake in it. I have seen other programs fail because no one is there to monitor the project, a problem arises that the community cannot solve, and they don’t tell anyone for fear they will lose their funding or are too embarrassed to admit they can’t fix the problem themselves and the project fails. But if the proper elements are in place, I have seen a definite improvement in people’s lives from the development work here.

Sorry I will get off my development soap box now, it is just hard when you see so many preventable mistakes around you all the time. Two weeks from now we are having our big annual festival called Kobine in the town of Lawra. Supposedly it is the one time every year when this place is hopping, we will see what that means for this sleepy town. There will be 2 days of drumming and dancing, I am getting excited. I hope all is well for you all in your corner of the globe.