Zebilla fashion week

Enjoy.

Lost in Translation

Always popular on the internet, here are my offerings.

Outside Gideon's Art Shop- a sign board is prepared for the Gossip Walk In Health Care centre- Ghana Health Insurance cards accepted.

Neither helmets nor number plates are universal in Zebilla. However....

Speed dating-the search for true love ever present- Binaba style

Imported coffee- unsure which market it was originally intended for.

And finally-Lydia- a happy picture of a truly lovely happy woman

So- what is this volunteering all about?

The purpose of VSO style volunteering can be summarized as “sharing skills, changing lives,” a previous VSO strap line. “Reducing poverty” is the overarching goal.

Any volunteer goes on placement principally to work, their job having defined goals and some expected outcomes. A volunteer will live modestly, in the manner expected of a colleague within country, not in hotel style with familiar home comforts, while being offered a safety net in terms of health care, safety, security and the like.

My role has involved raising awareness of disability rights, training a small number of education professionals and changing the lives of some few children with disabilities and their families, through developing their education or bringing them into education.  I shared in the learning process. A very small step has been taken in one part of Ghana on the long road to an ideal of a fully inclusive society.

Experiences have given me an appreciation of details of struggles in people’s daily lives and a respect for commitment. I have made a Special Educational Needs colleague for life in Haruna, bonded with dedicated teachers and been generously welcomed into families’ homes, to eat with the African Spoon.

Haruna attempts to impose female subservience

The man knows his place!

Stirring the TZ- this takes enormous strength-note the metal supports for the feet

But volunteering is multi-faceted; it is not a single minded vocation with a future fast track to some heaven beyond.

Yes-there are sacrifices: missing family and close friends (taunted by the promise of Skype, emails and phone calls for easy communication, then cruelly denied when technology fails); materially losing an income.

However, in this West African country of brilliant colours and the friendliest of people, I have become richer in knowledge, understanding and skills.  And I have had a whole lot of fun. I have met with amazingly talented people. The capacity to give is inspiring.

Timing here goes by the sun, not by clocks. Significant obstacles-the weather, power cuts, fuel shortages, strikes, malaria, poor infrastructure- and differing priorities- greeting, offering a hand to any “brother in need,” observation of bereavements- unite to prevent a tight management of scheduling.  These, plus an absence of home country family obligations, household DIY demands, television, and the like, give volunteers plenty of scope for recreation.  Reading voraciously, enjoying and exchanging downloaded films, TV series and music, travelling to meet up for parties-preferably with a costumed theme,  cards, Scrabble, talking, contemplating; collectively they give a playful veneer to a serious undertaking. Precious new friendships are made with a comradely bonding forged through shared struggles, aspirations and appreciation

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Ghanaian friends in the party spirit

Volunteers in costume- Farewell Toga style party- using VSO issue bedsheets, the less tasteful the better. 

I leave Ghana with a sense of a job well done, and thoughts of possible future volunteering.

Saying "Goodbye"- 2

With my VSO Programme Manager, Gilbert

VSO style farewell

Saying “Goodbye.”

My farewell to Zebilla, and then Elmina and Accra,  took place over a couple of weeks, as I hosted or was guest at meals and “sittings.”

If dreams come true- and a part of the dream is to stumble across some funding – I will return to Zebilla and, working with Haruna and taking guidance from various people and organisations, open a special education day unit in Zebilla, attached to a supporting primary school, to offer an education to children who have learning disabilities and other complex needs.

But for now- shared hospitality, tasty food and cold drinks, well chosen words of genuine thanks and a little Azonto dancing made the ending to my placement cheerful, with tears shed privately among my closest work colleagues and friends.

The admirable Director of Education for Bawku West district

The local Ghana Education Service (GES) management invite me to a "sitting." My colleague Haruna is on the right.

A`shared meal- TZ and stew -with Fati and her children-dancing followed the eating.

The VSO Scrabble box is taken to Haruna's house- we played collaboratively

Haruna and his wife Haleema- they have welcomed me into their family

Gold!

Gold

Gold evokes images of shining, clean, pure metal, enhancing precious stones, decorating and worn with pride, brilliant, light reflecting. Jewellery, status symbol trophies and the like remain the premium use for gold, but the non-reactive metal is also used in our electronic devices, such as mobile phones, laptops, televisions, for dentistry, in medical procedures and equipment and in the aerospace industry.

Gold mining, by contrast, is dusty, noisy, destructive and, when unregulated, deadly dangerous.

Photo- Internet-Youga website

A recent journey across the border, to look at a controlled mine, operating within government and international legislations, left me with overwhelming impressions of dust, of noise, of mountains of explosive-shattered rocks, a site devoid of living things. The Youga mine, 90% owned by Endeavour (registered in the Cayman Islands), is within Burkina Faso but near to the Ghana border and Zebilla.  Health and Safety practices are strictly observed, (cyanide is used in the processing), and environmental controls are in place. But taking 1 ton of gold ore rock to yield 5 grams of gold, damage to the environment is inevitable. The staff are drawn from the locality of south eastern Burkina Faso and northern eastern Ghana, with mainly Anglophone management from Scotland, Ireland, England, Australia and Canada; a medley  of languages and accents perform. The rock crushing plant operates 24/7, 365 days a year, while the quarrying and load moving relies on heavy duty machinery and vehicles- with tyres bigger than a 6 foot male. Costs of $700 to produce 1 ounce of gold- trading at $1200- give a decent profit margin. (Apologies for shifts in scales of measurement.)

Gold ore is quarried-photo-Youga website

Ore is moved to crushing machines and stored as flattened mountains. Photo-internet-Youga web site

Locally, and across Ghana, the country known as Gold Coast in colonial times, there are official, industrial scale mines, but also many local, small scale “Galamsey” operations. The latter are notorious for wrecking the environment, and as mercury is used by miners to extract gold from crushed ore, the potential for poisoning is ever present. Production costs may be minimized by using trafficked child labour, and typical, well documented problems of child and female abuse, violence and accidents persist.

Photos- internet

As reported in Ghana news media recently, (Ghana Chronicle June 2013) the two sectors can overlap with antagonism, as fundamental questions of who owns and can profit from gold are played out. ChinaGold, through subsidiaries, has invested over $50million in installing a processing plant at mining sites in a neighbouring district, under the agreement of national and local administrations, but in conflict with small scale Galamsey mine owners. In protest, with actions causing destruction and damage estimated at several million dollars and the theft of explosives and five drilling machines, local miners and small company owners demonstrated their opposition to the proposed industrial scale mine. Counter charges from ChinaGold saying that generous compensation had already been paid out indicate the complexity of stories surrounding this development and an uncertainty of the truth.

The wealthy international companies, with spending power to meet local needs, and with aid to schools and public services, are in the stronger position to eventually succeed in their quest for mining rights and the proceeds.

Photo- Anglo-Gold Ashanti website

The Ghana government holds a 10% stake in 6 of the 10 major mines owned internationally within Ghana. With Ghana in the top 20 gold producing countries globally and second to South Africa within Africa, this precious metal yields valuable income, but as with the forthcoming promise of exploitable oil and gas reserves, how benefits accrue to the general population remains a political discussion to be long argued over.