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.