Life in Tamale
Published by Trevor Whitney on Sunday, September 23, 2007 at 9:46 AM.
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything on my blog so I though I’d give you all a quick update about what I’ve been up to for the past month or so.
HOME
There are a lot of EWB volunteers in Ghana most of whom either work in Tamale or frequently pass through town. Accordingly EWB rents a house just outside of the city for traveling and newly arrived volunteers. This is where I’ve been staying since I arrived in Tamale, though I hope to soon move in with a family in the area to get a better experience of family life and culture in Ghana.
That said I’m not really living all by myself. The household is part of a compound of six: four families, a bachelor teacher/footballer, and then a variety of ever changing volunteers. They’re all very friendly and more than happy to teach me how to do laundry or point me in the direction of the closest store. In return I seem to have become the unofficial French tutor for the children in the compound. I was rather surprised to learn that all of the children start learning French in primary school, but I guess being largely surrounded by French speaking nations it makes sense.
I’m sure it must be pretty strange for the other people living in the compound to have wave after wave of volunteers pass through, but truth be told I think they find it rather entertaining. Everyone in the neighborhood knows “the house where the salamingas live!”
WORK
As you probably already know, for the next year I’ll be working with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA). For the first couple months of my placement I’m focusing on learning as much as I can about MoFA: how the organization operates, what type of projects they do, who they work with, etc. In particular I’m looking how these areas interact with MoFA’s Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system and where I can work to create positive change over the remainder of my placement.
Above: Sign on the main road outside the office
Left: Veranda on top (3rd) floor of the building where my office is
Right: My office
So far I’ve spent the majority of my time at the MoFA’s regional office in Tamale. At the office I’m working closely with Sheref, the regional M&E officer. Sheref has to be one of the most energetic people I’ve ever met. He’s always happy and seems to get excited about everything.
I’ve also gone on a couple trips out to some of the districts with Sheref to help him run some training sessions on the new M&E reporting format. MoFA has undergone a lot of changes with their reporting over the last couple years. In particular they are currently hoping on technological tidal wave sweeping through Ghana and changing to an electronic reporting format. Doing reports in excel allows automatic calculations rather than using a calculator and hitting CTRL+C & CTRL+V saves a lot of time compared to re-entering 18 district reports. That said a lot of staff are new to computers and even those who have experience are often troubled by blackouts, occasionally having to result to running a generator to get electricity.
GETTING AROUND
The EWB house and MoFA office are both located about a five minute drive north of the central market or main part of town. So long as your traveling along the main road there’s a constant stream of shared taxis to take you back and forth. It was a bit of an adventure the first few trips, but once you figure out the names of the main parts of town and junctions it’s not bad. It also helps to figure out the appropriate hand signals to give the honking taxi drivers who are always looking for another fare to cram into the car.
The shared taxis too and from town are relatively cheap, but it all starts to add up. Seeing I’m going to be in town for a long time I decided to buy a bicycle. Going bike shopping was quite an escapade, mainly because I can’t remember the last time I rode one! The first test ride I took I almost bailed and crashed into a fruit stand, but I managed to keep it together.
I eventually found a bicycle I in decent shape that I could ride without my knees hitting the handle bars. It’s not the latest 18 speed mountain bike you’d find in Canada. It’s got one gear, a basket in the front, a light on the front wheel, and mud guards on the tires. (Picture to come soon) The only down side is the front tire is slightly bent which isn’t helping my already sketchy balance.
After a kamikaze ride home was starting to get the hang of riding a bike again, though the bumpy dirt roads and bicycle traffic certainly didn’t help my cause. I guess it’s true what they say, “you never forget how to ride a bike,” but you can sure come close!
Hopefully that gives you a bit of a better idea of what I’ve been up to. I’ll try to keep the time between posts a little shorter next time!
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HOME
There are a lot of EWB volunteers in Ghana most of whom either work in Tamale or frequently pass through town. Accordingly EWB rents a house just outside of the city for traveling and newly arrived volunteers. This is where I’ve been staying since I arrived in Tamale, though I hope to soon move in with a family in the area to get a better experience of family life and culture in Ghana.
That said I’m not really living all by myself. The household is part of a compound of six: four families, a bachelor teacher/footballer, and then a variety of ever changing volunteers. They’re all very friendly and more than happy to teach me how to do laundry or point me in the direction of the closest store. In return I seem to have become the unofficial French tutor for the children in the compound. I was rather surprised to learn that all of the children start learning French in primary school, but I guess being largely surrounded by French speaking nations it makes sense.
I’m sure it must be pretty strange for the other people living in the compound to have wave after wave of volunteers pass through, but truth be told I think they find it rather entertaining. Everyone in the neighborhood knows “the house where the salamingas live!”
WORK
As you probably already know, for the next year I’ll be working with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA). For the first couple months of my placement I’m focusing on learning as much as I can about MoFA: how the organization operates, what type of projects they do, who they work with, etc. In particular I’m looking how these areas interact with MoFA’s Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system and where I can work to create positive change over the remainder of my placement.
Above: Sign on the main road outside the office
Left: Veranda on top (3rd) floor of the building where my office is
Right: My office
So far I’ve spent the majority of my time at the MoFA’s regional office in Tamale. At the office I’m working closely with Sheref, the regional M&E officer. Sheref has to be one of the most energetic people I’ve ever met. He’s always happy and seems to get excited about everything.
I’ve also gone on a couple trips out to some of the districts with Sheref to help him run some training sessions on the new M&E reporting format. MoFA has undergone a lot of changes with their reporting over the last couple years. In particular they are currently hoping on technological tidal wave sweeping through Ghana and changing to an electronic reporting format. Doing reports in excel allows automatic calculations rather than using a calculator and hitting CTRL+C & CTRL+V saves a lot of time compared to re-entering 18 district reports. That said a lot of staff are new to computers and even those who have experience are often troubled by blackouts, occasionally having to result to running a generator to get electricity.
GETTING AROUND
The EWB house and MoFA office are both located about a five minute drive north of the central market or main part of town. So long as your traveling along the main road there’s a constant stream of shared taxis to take you back and forth. It was a bit of an adventure the first few trips, but once you figure out the names of the main parts of town and junctions it’s not bad. It also helps to figure out the appropriate hand signals to give the honking taxi drivers who are always looking for another fare to cram into the car.
The shared taxis too and from town are relatively cheap, but it all starts to add up. Seeing I’m going to be in town for a long time I decided to buy a bicycle. Going bike shopping was quite an escapade, mainly because I can’t remember the last time I rode one! The first test ride I took I almost bailed and crashed into a fruit stand, but I managed to keep it together.
I eventually found a bicycle I in decent shape that I could ride without my knees hitting the handle bars. It’s not the latest 18 speed mountain bike you’d find in Canada. It’s got one gear, a basket in the front, a light on the front wheel, and mud guards on the tires. (Picture to come soon) The only down side is the front tire is slightly bent which isn’t helping my already sketchy balance.
After a kamikaze ride home was starting to get the hang of riding a bike again, though the bumpy dirt roads and bicycle traffic certainly didn’t help my cause. I guess it’s true what they say, “you never forget how to ride a bike,” but you can sure come close!
Hopefully that gives you a bit of a better idea of what I’ve been up to. I’ll try to keep the time between posts a little shorter next time!
