Departing from Canada...And the Western Monkey Is Coming With Me!

Look at that guy!

Won by me as a door prize at the '08 UWO Wine and Cheese, hidden in a glove compartment for a month and a half and then surrendered to the Windsor Chapter as our faithful, fuzzy mascot, and now, dressed up and lent -back- to me as a cuddle buddy on the trip! I was worried I was gonna have nothing for my sappy, homesick ass to hold onto! Better than my pack....or my own knees....
I wanted to dress it up like Helen Brennek and Shyam in a little orange jumpsuit and bandanna, but that'll have to wait until he gets back from Ghana and gets a substantial wash. The monkey, I mean, not Shyam.

Today, I'm home in Barrie for the last full day--the place I hang out with my dog and scramble around to put the last touches on foundation learning, get my financial and academic ducks in a row for my absenteeism, spend precious time with my family and darling boyfriend, and pack. We had the requisite going-away-party, with friends, family and friends of the family coming out to ask me the requisite questions: What are you doing in Africa? When are you going to Africa? Make sure you stay safe in Africa! It was nice to see them (and some of them even went so far as to pass me money for some of my expenses--Uncle Richard and Uncle Malcolm, I was shocked and surprised and SO thankful, thank you!!), and nice to be able to talk about what I was doing. I even had our brilliant Windsor Co-President and Return JF Holly here, five hours north, to chat with everyone, and tell more of her amazing Zambian stories. She was a brilliant asset, and really helped me clarify what I was doing, and how. I think she helped prepare the people I know for the sorts of stories I may have for them when I come back.

Despite all -my- rampant preparation for this, it's becoming increasingly funny how much is being left to the last minute--not necessarily by me (although I am often guilty), but sometimes by those around me. My list of stuff to do is still pretty huge, but as a huge change from my normal demeanor, I'm neither worried, tense nor nervous. In fact, I'm approaching thrilled--the thought of reuniting with those fabulous fellow goofballs met at the National Conference going on this adventure with me, working hard for something I believe in, meeting new amazing people and doing something totally new is keeping me from worrying about the junk that might happen here while I'm gone. Right now, the worst I'm worried about is teaching my semi-skittish mom to take care of my pet snake while I'm gone.

I think much of this assurance is spurred on by my call to my coach Kristy in Tamale, who gave me the single best treatment for putting me at ease and infusing me with confidence in my ability to do this: more information. Apparently Nalerigu is a pretty happening place; it has one of the best hospitals in the Region, very kind and interesting people, electricity, and the PARED office (which itself boasts employees who speak english and Mampruli, motorbike transportation, a dial-up internet connection, and some amazing people to boot). My prospects for living could be fairly comfortable, with people with lots of kids who also speak enough of my language to minimize the barrier. The biggest pleasant surprise to me was that not only does Nalerigu have a secondary school, but a -drama club- that Mr. Moses, my boss at PARED, is going to put me into contact with. How can I NOT jump at this opportunity? I swear I almost had a glee-triggered heart attack.

I think right now, my biggest drive is to just get out there and do some WORK! Staying in Canada in my municipal office job, I definitely never had this problem.

Tomorrow afternoon, I trek through the Ontario April weather (which right now, despite LOOKING beautiful outside, is hovering around 4 degrees celsius) down to the Toronto EWB house, say a (likely incredibly tearful and huggy) goodbye to the boyfriend and family, calm myself down, and reconnect with everyone/vie for a sleeping space!

1 day til I have to fend off tears for my family and Chris, and

8 hard-workin' days til flyout to Accra.

-Ash out.

Serendipitous!

As I hack and sweat my way through exams and final papers, wishing against all hope that I could have more legitimate excuses to research and blog, someone comes along and makes the quivering unknown of Life in my Placement Village –much- less…quivering?

Long story short, thanks to the grace and presence of mind of the fantastic Kyle Baptista (this dude->)

I was promptly hooked up with not one, but TWO previous JFs who lived in Nalerigu! This eases my mind to NO end—me, the one constantly trying to figure out what the hell she’s in for.

And what AM I in for, you may inquire? Apparently, I should expect

-about half the houses to have electricity (most of them solar powered, from a government project 10 years ago),

-about half the male population to propose to me at least once in an attempt to solve their financial problems,

-latrines and well-water,

-being called a Salaminga over, and over, and over (translation: White person. Surprise.)

-4-5 hour church services,

-complete stymieing on the local language Mampruli, which is apparently incredibly complex and difficult to retain past greetings and basic nouns (note: Looking at how intense Dagbani is, Mampruli’s close linguistic cousin, I can DEFINITELY believe it. Maybe there’ll be a miracle.)

-freezing after it rains, especially after I acclimatize to sweating my face off like any Aryan-looking northern girl would,

-being woken at 6am to Muslim prayers every morning,

-3 hour tro tro rides to an internet source in Tamale,

-a slight lack of fruit,

-the friendliest people in the world (which everyone says, so I’m trying to take it with a grain of salt)

According to Marka, anyway. I have yet to pick Dave’s brain.

On the 27^th, I have a phone conference with the brilliant Kristy, my coach overseas, who hopefully will have more work-related details for me after her endless stack of paperwork and schedule of meetings with PARED.

I also read in some past JF blog that a bunch of the Northern Ghanaian JFs got together to celebrate Canada day….and since it’s my anniversary that day, and I’ll probably be pretty homesick, I’d like to pass the motion that we plan on doing something like that too… just a thought…please?

Back to paper-hacking. One more gargantuan monstrosity of a paper to go, then a final, then I clean my house.

Oh, as another sidenote: I've discovered some of my fellow JFs are quite the writers in their own right: Points to Kim and Emily for informative reporting (and extra points to Em for awesome homespun map-alteration), points to Henry and G-Unit (the great and marvellous Glynnis) for cheek and entertainment, and points to Brian for somehow finding a way to keep the world updated on the goings-on of apparently every single member of Team Zambia regardless of how far away they may actually be from him. We have one of those in the Windsor chapter; we call her VP Stalker. **But we can call you VP Omniscience, Brian!

Twelve kids of awesome. I miss everyone already.

7 days to finish all this junk and go home, and

14 days til Pre-Departure craziness starts and I may or may not share a bed with Sylvie and Glynnis again.

-Ash out.

The First Big News!

Finally, what I've been waiting for! Disambiguation!

Thanks to the painstaking efforts of the beautiful and lovely JFSS Cat, I've received the information I have been aching for since I agreed to join this program seven months ago:

I will be working in Nalerigu, a village in the East Mamprusi District in the Northern Region of Ghana... approximately, here:

The first and most obvious social perk is that the Northern and Eastern regions of the country have a more condensed Muslim and traditional belief population, which is both a huge paradigm shift for me in terms of religious landscape, and also intensely fascinating. Not to mention the languages: Mampruli, Likpakpa and English, two of which are completely alien to me, and one of which is scarce. The first and most obvious geographical perk to this is that after flying into Accra on the southeast coast, I'll have to travel practically the entire length of the country to get to my placement. I'll be a development worker Jack Kerouac--heavily on the road.

I just let my nerdism out of the bag. But it gets even better:

My partnership organization is PARED--the Partners in Rural Empowerment and Development. The name itself gives me shivers; I can't disagree with any of those words. The mission statement?

"To work with individuals, groups and communities in the East Mamprusi District and beyond to empower them to tackle poverty related issues for themselves".
Precisely why I signed up for this program.
PARED's work emphasizes food security, human rights and good governance; they work with MoFA and CIFS; they have a Gender Officer as well as a Field Officer. These little details make things so rich; the previously unshakably lingering What-the-hell-am-I-doing feeling has certainly been shaken, and now I just want to see this place, smell the air...
PARED has worked with OxFam in the past, but never directly with EWB, so this is a fantastic opportunity to learn with a new organization and maybe pave the way for other JFs and LTOVs to work with someone new. Now all I have to do is find some time for the research I want to do...
Oh, speaking of LTOVs, I got my coach, too! Kristy Minor, two-years-established with CIFS in Tamale, and a powerhouse in Good Governance. It's important I stop writing in this thing so I can get enough work done to contact her.

It's slightly frustrating and frightening that the vast majority of the linguistic information available on the Mamprusi people comes from evangelist groups eager to convert them to Christianity from their traditional beliefs or from Islam. Searches show vast supplies of Mampruli bibles, films about Jesus that have been translated to "allow the Lord to speak in their language", and statistics of "percentages of those saved". It is both fascinating and jarring; I hold a great deal of respect for religious beliefs, but I wonder whether that respect will have to compete with my statute of freedom of religion...

Sidenote, I meant to post this earlier, but in addition to my family, friends and dear boyfriend, this is what I'm leaving behind in Barrie:

Oscar von Pupski. Beagle hell-raiser extraordinaire.


Okay, I cant put it off any longer, I need to go do work.


13 days til I go home to get mauled by a puppy and prepare, and
21 days til I leave for Pre-Dep.

Signing off.