I Specialize in Damage Control

I work for an international nongovernmental organization (INGO) that brings foreigners (about 80% Americans) to Ghana, India, Thailand, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Nepal and Ecuador to serve communities in the health, community development and education sectors while living with host families and learning about the country's culture. I am the Project Coordinator for our site in Cape Coast, Ghana. Besides locating and cultivating partnerships with Ghanaians and their nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and developing work plans for foreign volunteers and interns, I also end up doing a lot of the volunteer coordinating. Additionally, I update our media outlets and teach a biweekly cross-cultural training seminar to the volunteers. I live with my boss. I work on weekends, sometimes. I live in a compound connected to our volunteer house. I'm "on call" for the volunteers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. What I do is not a job - it is a lifestyle.

During the summer my job requires a shift in focus. One, I become a glorified camp counselor - a shepherd, if you will. Don't get me wrong - we get some cool volunteers - I even consider a few my friends. But when I'm working with them, I am a shepherd. A "bosslady." My boss Kirsty identifies herself as the Mama of the volunteers and me as the fun older sister. I'm okay with that.

Two, I orchestrate the preparations for the projects for both the volunteers and their project partners. This is my second summer working for this INGO. Last June, there were five volunteers on-site. This June? Twenty-three volunteers and interns are working at 12 different projects. As for July, 10 of the June participants will be staying  through the month, overlapping with 18 new arrivals who will be spread out on nine projects, not to mention a group of 15 university students on five projects. Where do I come in? I'm responsible for checking in with everyone throughout their programs to make sure both the volunteers and their partners are satisfied (mending the inevitable communication problems). I am also managing the project money for all the partners and each of their volunteers.

And three, I specialize in Damage Control. Project and Volunteer Damage Control.

One of my favorite damage control stories is from this May. It involves a volunteer who served as an assistant teacher for an elementary school (called "primary school" in Ghana). The Ghana education system allows canes to be used by the teachers to discipline the students. The foreign volunteers who spend time in the schools are deeply disturbed by this, especially when students are caned for reasons such as getting an answer wrong, not leaving enough space between each letter when they write, or for jumping out of their seat with excitement when answering a question. Caning is so ingrained in Ghanaian culture that even when this particular school's headmaster instructed the teachers to cease the caning, the students' parents complained.

When volunteers sign up for the education projects, we warn them before their arrival that caning is the culture's preferred method of punishment. They still have difficulty witnessing it. One of the girl volunteers asked to be caned by a teacher to see how it felt. Others stepped out of the classroom when they felt uncomfortable or upset about it. Until this May, no one had tried to "fix it."

During our organization's orientation and through the cross-cultural training courses I teach, we encourage our volunteers to know their place within the country they are serving while also maintaining a positive outlook on their roles within their NGOs' projects. We explain at length that it is neither acceptable nor worthwhile to try to change an aspect of a culture by imposing one's own culture on theirs. Some then may think, Well, then why should we volunteer at all? Westernized solutions for X-country's problems will never work. Moreover, it can possibly offend the locals. Attempting to impose one's culture on another's is culturally insensitive, arrogent, naïve and distinctly "American." (Sorry to say it.) However, say for instance a volunteer wants to teach community members about the importance of recycling rubbish. There's no harm in that, as it is a solution suitable for a Ghanaian problem.

However, *Bob was determined to change the minds of the 11 teachers at his school during his three-week program. When he told me he was going to try to "fix things," I got nervous. Then he admitted he knew he couldn't banish caning from Ghana's education system, but he hoped to at least influence the teachers at his school as much as possible during his three-week program. During his first few days at the school he asked for a meeting with the 11 teachers and headmaster and provided examples of less painful methods of punishment. Wall sits was his main suggestion. From what I had gathered from my sporadic informal check-ins with him throughout his first week, Bob was going to continue to educate the teachers on alternative ways to discipline the students and hope for the best. 

One afternoon Bob came to our volunteer house after working at the school. A university group was staying at our volunteer house, and many of them were hanging out in the dining room. Bob had been in Ghana maybe a week before the group arrived. He strode into the house, put his backpack on the floor, pulled out a broken cane and triumphantly raised it over his head. He announced to the room, beaming, "Ten more to go!"

I was mortified.

I asked him to come over to where I was sitting. I asked what he had done and why he did it. I reminded him (informed him?) that he had taken and broken someone else's property and such an action could have severed the relationship between him and the school and perhaps the school and our organization. Then came the excuses: "Well, it wasn't that good of a cane anyway," and "...the teacher can just get a new one." I told him what he had done had gone against our organization's ideals, against everything our staff had told the volunteers about keeping our own culture to ourselves.

What Bob did made me think of all the examples in America's history of self-imposing, both recent and in the textbooks. For some reason, this situation triggered a major disappointment in my home country. I don't know when this hostility toward the U.S. started exactly, and I'm not sure if it's just the U.S. who is guilty of this, but something deep inside me scoffs at people's impulse to "help." What qualifies as "help?" What qualifies as an "improvement?" Every culture, every person has a different perception of what it means to "help" and to "improve." In order for change to occur within a society, the society must be ready for change. Going back to the recycling initiative in Ghana, Ghanaians are ready for an improvement on their waste management system. They want help, they want guidance on how to improve their environment. That's why projects focusing on recycling in Ghana have been working.

Eventually Bob seemed to understand what he did was wrong and the potential ramifications of his actions. He apologized and said he wouldn't break anymore canes.

There are definitely some drawbacks to having a job that becomes your lifestyle, but many many positives too. On a scale from 1 to "nooo way, I can't believe that" in terms of damage control tales, this job has delighted me with quite the range. And in hindsight, long after the initial drama, who doesn't love a good story?

Traveling Alone in Ghana

I was the third passenger to pay for a seat on a tro-tro from Cape Coast to Kumasi, a four-hour trek north. Nineteen more seats filled after two hours of waiting. Waiting inside the tro, mind you, away from the unforgiving sun. I say “unforgiving” because one would assume the African Sun would give us a few hours in the mornings to collect our wits before penetrating our minds and bodies, but it does not. It’s like your boss calling you before work asking you for that thing you had to do for him. Not cool.

It was pointless to wonder how much quicker that wait would’ve been on a weekend, but I wondered it anyway. Besides updating my work expense log and walking across the station to buy a hardboiled egg with pepper sauce (my favorite street snack) and a loaf of bread to nibble on throughout the weekend, I haven’t a clue how I passed the rest of the time. Probably just people-watched. I’ve become frighteningly skilled at waiting by myself for transportation to show up or to take off. Without a car in Ghana, waiting has become my replacement "zone out time" for when I used to drive from Point A to Point B with no recollection.

I was on the brink of embarking on a four-day solo adventure in the Northern Region of Ghana. Waiting for the Kumasi tro to fill and leave was the shortest wait of the entire weekend – I had 12 more hours of waiting ahead. Traveling alone in Africa is doable if you have patience and a substantial way to unwind. All that waiting by myself made me realize how nice it would’ve been to have had another foreigner to chat with about the less than enjoyable transportation conditions. Being alone forced me to internalize a lot, but it will spew out in my writing in this post and the next couple.

Occasionally, others nearby expressed their disapproval of Ghana’s transportation system by saying in exasperation loud enough for just me to hear, “Oh, Africa!” and shake their heads and sometimes laugh. But that wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to wonder aloud and freely without offending anyone. I wanted to ask someone if the people in charge of selling bus tickets were just being lazy or if they are power-crazed and enjoy watching people breathe down each other’s necks for hours in a line that bulges five people wide all the way to the end.

The only reasons I didn't mind that our line at the Metro Mass station in Kumasi was more resemblant of a concert crowd was because we were standing like that from 3 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. and I was too sleepy to care and it wasn’t hot and humid yet. In one of the lines I stood in at Tamale’s Metro Mass station – imagine being in a mosh pit for an hour at the hottest time of the day – the people at the front were waving money at the closed ticket windows but no one even acknowledged them or had the courtesy to explain why they weren’t accepting payment. Why didn’t they accept our money and give us tickets so we could sit down in the shade and wait for the bus to come? Why did the ticket sellers have to wait until the bus arrived before opening the ticket windows? If that’s “just the way it is,” why? Has anyone in a position of authority in the Metro Mass ticket sales department ever questioned the system? I can’t help but wonder if this principle circles back to Ghana’s education system, in which students are forbidden to ask questions to their teachers and professors out of the cultural expectation that they must respect their elders. Can you imagine living in a country in which you couldn’t challenge the way things are? I cannot. I am grateful, but also sad for this.

Traveling alone in Ghana made me realize I only feel comfortable questioning the way things are in Ghana with other foreigners, and I could not do that last weekend. Although many Ghanaians who engaged me in small talk voiced frustrations about the lateness aspect, I couldn’t share my previous rant with just any Ghanaian. Who knows, it could've been considered offensive. I swallowed many questions and exclamations, as I realized they would only add to the stations’ sporadic negative vibes or reinstigate them. There is nothing I can do to change the situation; I am powerless. So I remained silent. I got a taste of what it's like to not be able to challenge the system. Haven't been given much of that taste in my life. Maybe as one could predict, the most memorable occasions were when I was volunteering and working abroad in "developing nations" - Peru and Ghana.

Ranting about these issues to another foreigner wouldn't have solved anything either, so what is the point of ranting or discussing anything at all if there are no real intentions of doing anything to solve the problems? Is ranting like gossiping...people do it for something to talk about? And foreigners detecting another country's "problems" - is that acceptable? Perhaps. Depends on their sources.

My original plans were to travel alone via bus straight to Bolgatanga (the northernmost city in Ghana) which would take all day. After Couchsurfing in Bolga for a couple nights, I was going to take a bus south to Tamale and another from Tamale to Mole. I wanted the alone time to clear my mind before my work's busy season - May to August, when our NGO swells with volunteers and our staff barely has time to eat and sleep. Then some friends in Cape Coast decided they wanted to go to Mole National Park as well, and they have a van. (You could imagine my excitement.) However, the night before we were supposed to leave, one of the drivers had a family emergency and the plans crumbled. The following morning I tried getting a spot on the next Bolga or Tamale bus but by then both were full, as they only leave Cape Coast once a week and tickets are bought days in advance. I ended up going from Cape Coast to Kumasi, overnighted in Kumasi, Kumasi to Tamale, Tamale to Mole, and the same route back home except all in one day. Yeah, I know. You'll read about it later.

Although I daydreamed about my friends' van throughout the trip, and it would’ve been even more fun to have gone with them, I am grateful I had the alone time. I got to exercise my good humor and growing patience, that’s for sure. I also was able to notice more than when I travel with others, which made for an entire notebook of intriguing writing material.

In due time, readers, in due time.

Battling Corruption in Ghana

The international media and the Western education system traditionally have conveyed Africa in a poor light. We have been led to believe Africa is only filled with corrupt officials and rebels, conflict and disease. The average Anglo may go out on a limb and assume there is an abundance of "diverse culture," funny-sounding languages, voodoo and animism and strange food, but that's not what makes the headlines, does it?

Not telling the entire truth, even if the truth given to you is skewed, is considered lying, right? (Ex-boyfriend from 2008, don't answer that.)

But thanks to top scholars such as Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Penelope Cruz, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Mariah Carey, Bono, Salma Hayek, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Paul McCartney, our minds have been opened to the possibility that there is much joy and happiness to be felt and shared in this continent.

Earlier this month the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) held a conference in the Central Region to engage the government, civil society, parliament and private sector in the development of an action plan against corruption in Ghana. CHRAJ has been conducting these consultative meetings in Ghana's 10 regions to spread awareness of the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) and to make contributions and edits to its draft before submitting it to the Parliament at the end of April 2011.

The event took place at Elmina Beach Resort and attracted over 100 invited representatives of the Central Region's NGOs both local and international, the University of Cape Coast, social welfare, media, religious bodies and security members from the police, prisons and the Bureau of National Investigations (similar to the FBI).

But wait! Hold the phone. Where were our friends from Immigration? Or Customs? After all, this party was unanimously called to order because of them. (Read about one of my enchanting experiences with Immigration yet?) Yet, let's give them the benefit of the doubt - they must have had more important engagements to be all, you know, corrupt, and stuff.

In the keynote address, a CHRAJ director informed us that although Ghana is en route to becoming a well-oiled (seriously) democratic nation, a rising leader in tourism throughout Africa and in economic influence in West Africa, 42% of all households in Ghana paid a bribe in 2009. That's not including tourists.

Here is the breakdown of the bribe distribution, as found by this CHRAJ survey:

• 63% to the police
• 44% to the judiciary
• 32% to obtain registration and permits
• 29% to land services
• 20% to education authorities

I have only been in Ghana for nine months and have heard stories or personally experienced corruption in each of the sectors mentioned above. Come on, Atta Mills, this has been an issue since before the beginning of your term. Let's enforce some laws, here! Incidentally, although CHRAJ had been instructed to prohibit participants from discussing the president during the conference (hmmm), that didn't stop things from getting messy. During the question-and-answer series, one of the participants asked for the microphone and raised the point that it seems unfitting for the police to be listed in the NACAP as a corruption watchdog. Everyone laughed. (Flashback to when my boss went to the Cape Coast police station to file a report for one of our volunteers and the policeman on duty laughed and said, "O my sweet, you will need a friend in the police to work on that case.") Still laughing, the MC took back the microphone, walked over to the policeman and said, "That's a great question, why don't we ask the only policeman in the room for his thoughts!" Laughter again. The policeman looked down at his hands folded on the table and mumbled into the mic, "No comment."

Later we broke into groups of about 20 at random. Each group was given a question to answer, which would be included into the NACAP if relevant and worthy. We had one hour to brainstorm and record our answer. I really enjoyed observing my group. We had the I-feel-uncomfortable-being-here policeman, an articulate different-angle-viewing woman from some board of education, a sophisticated woman who, instead of contributing germane comments to the discussion, made remarks about how Ghanaians (our group, CHRAJ, Elmina Beach Resort staff) execute tasks ineffectively, an eloquent composed young man who eventually became our recording secretary, an obnoxious devil's advocate who threw his arms violently in every direction when he spoke, a sly woman whose careless body language did not match her bold statements and a nervous wiry guy who only spoke to report how much time we had left.

Where did I fit in? In this particular group setting, I assumed the role of moving the conversation along when we fell into lulls, or quarrels, more accurately. Whenever I added something to the discussion, the group quieted and listened and did not challenge. I hope to be challenged just as much as I hope to be agreed with, and usually I am not verbally challenged by Ghanaians. At least my interaction with my group wasn't resemblant of "The White Woman Has Spoken," which perhaps was not an issue because these were some of the brightest minds of the Central Region. By "brightest minds" I mean they thought for themselves. Some of the local NGO project partners I've worked with will say "no problem" when later, either through the grapevine or in a surprise meeting (verbal attack on our organization or employees, in some cases) I will sense that there really is a problem. Then why say "no problem?" My guess is because the education system in Ghana teaches students to please their superiors and to regurgitate what the teachers say. Only a fiercely independent mind, further education or travel outside of Ghana can amend these habits. When discussing issues of development, conversation always circles back to the malfunctions of the country's education system.

Here is the question my group was given:
What should be the role of the institutions in the implementation of the action plan?
a) civil society (NGOs, media, religious bodies, trade unions)
b) traditional authorities
c) private sector and contractors
d) the individual Ghanaian

The woman who complained about the ineffectiveness of Ghanaians pointed out that none of us knew the intended purpose of the action plan, so someone fetched a CHRAJ director and asked her to read us the outline of the NACAP. She kindly reminded us that the purpose of the action plan is to prevent corruption, reform institutions, strengthen the oversight responsibilities of anti-corruption institutions, implement public awareness and education and create an enabling environment to fight corruption.

With the NACAP purpose in mind, we were able to move forward. Our answer is below:
What should be the role of the institutions in the implementation of the action plan?
a) civil society (NGOs, media, religious bodies, trade unions) - raising awareness through education, publicizing, raising funds, building capacities, serving as community watchdogs
b) traditional authorities - creating and obeying rules and regulations, implementing sanctions and rewards for acts of integrity (durbars and festivals), improving record-keeping, simplifying internal processes
c) private sector and contractors - desisting and reporting all corrupt activities, forming associations to protect citizens
d) the individual Ghanaian - adopting and encouraging a change of attitude toward corruption (it should not be commonplace), educating others (word-of-mouth), creating and partaking in anti-corruption institutions, desisting and reporting corrupt activities

When we reconvened in the conference room, our recording secretary presented our report to the rest of the participants. The CHRAJ director said our group had unearthed some details missing from the NACAP draft, and they would make sure to include those points in the edited version. Feels pretty cool to be able to contribute to Ghana's first anti-corruption action plan.

It was a collective belief among our group and the rest of the conference attendees that the biggest roadblock for the NACAP would be fear of retaliation against those who report acts of corruption. Anonymity will save reputations and maybe even lives. Apparently there is an anti-corruption hotline for this reason, but the CHRAJ director did not have the number memorized or with him. (Ha.) He promised to e-mail us after the conference the hotline phone number and the opening PowerPoint presentation.

As promised, he e-mailed the PowerPoint presentation but forgot to include the phone number. Oh well, at least the presentation is an interesting read.

Valentine's Day in Ghana: Ghanaians are Geysers

A couple weeks ago one of my best friends asked in an e-mail, “Do they celebrate Valentine’s Day in Africa? It seems like they should be above a holiday like that.”

At first I didn’t know what she meant. Even today, Valentine’s Day, I’m still pondering. I understood the “above a holiday like that” part. We all know Hallmark Day – excuse me, Valentine’s Day – is a marketing ploy for emotional saps. Shouldn’t we celebrate the magic of being in love every day? Shouldn’t we all be “above” this holiday?

But I couldn’t wrap my mind around why “they” (Africans?) should be above Valentine’s Day. To be fair, I don’t think she gave much thought to this idea. Yet it made me wonder what the American society really thinks of Africa.

That was another part of her question that threw me off. Many of my friends and family and most our volunteers make the mistake of grouping Ghana with the other 52 countries that make up Africa. Each country has a different culture, climate, religion, government, economy, languages, and social and health problems. Africa is a continent.

The NGO I work for provides community development projects for international volunteers. During the pre-program contact with the volunteers, sometimes a worried mother takes over their child’s e-mails. One of those mothers wasn’t able to reach Kirsty because she had been on holiday, so she e-mailed our marketing department asking for another way to reach her. Someone from the marketing department forwarded the mother’s e-mail to both me and Kirsty. I believe the third paragraph started with: “My daughter arrives in Africa in four weeks and I have not yet heard from…” In Africa, you say? Where exactly, may we ask, in Africa? Jesus, woman, it’s like grouping the states with Canada and Mexico.

Maybe I’m overreacting. I’ve noticed especially in recent months that I feel strongly compelled to defend Ghana’s culture to the ignorant and to the ethnocentric. Perhaps the most unnerving thing is when foreigners think they are helping the economy by giving out money. There is a time and place for charity. That’s all I’m going to say about that. Unfortunately, I butted heads with my dad on this subject frequently while he visited in November.

I’ve bit my tongue too often in the presence of expatriates who have been in Ghana for 5, 10, 15+ years yet have unthinkably foul attitudes toward Ghanaians. I feel more comfortable defending Ghana to Ghanaians - it's lighthearted and I eventually get them to agree with me. It’s not so much that these native individuals don’t like Ghana, but rather they would like to try living somewhere else. The corruption, the education system and the lateness are the three elements of Ghanaian culture that unnerve the educated locals whose beliefs reflect the “grass is greener on the other side” theory. The less educated “grass is greener on the other side” party have fittingly less reasonable acumen for wanting to live elsewhere: “Because Obama lives there!” and “I want to marry a white woman!” are my personal favorites.

Sans doubt, I’ve grown more and more intolerant of culturally insensitive people since I’ve been in Ghana.

But back to hearts and and cupids and smooching and L-O-V-E love. (Any "Friends" fans out there? Best episode there ever was.)

Valentine's Day was more apparent in Accra than in Cape Coast. I was in Accra last weekend to pick up a volunteer from the airport and had some free time so I ran some errands at the Accra shopping mall, a true step outside of Ghana no matter the occasion. However, last weekend I felt like my body had been transported back to the states. Roses, exotic plants and balloons for sale in the hallway, fiery red and devious black lingerie hanging in shop windows and baskets of candies and small teddy bears at the bookstore cashier. A little slice of home, it was.

I wasn't surprised to learn that Ghanaians do, in fact, celebrate Valentine's Day. After all, Valentine's Day is simply an excuse for everyone to devote one day of undivided attention to our love lives, which works out perfectly with a culture of men who regularly post Facebook statuses like: "my future wife should get ready !! course i want four strong kids.....lol...... where are you !! still looking to find you!!!!" (Sorry, Facebook friend, if you're reading this. To each his own.)

Ghanaians are latently and overtly sexual at the same time. What I find most beautiful, most attractive about Ghanaians is the grace with which they hold themselves; the confidence, the poise, the alluring movements. Ghanaian sexuality is perhaps most comparable to a geyser. Yes! That's it. They're all geysers - hot springs periodically erupting, emitting a forceful burst of water into the sky.

Geyers are very rare, though. I've read that three components must be present for geysers to exist: an abundant supply of water, an intense source of heat and unique plumbing. Returning to the metaphor, I'd say the three mandatory components that must be present for Ghanaians' sexuality to be conjured include: traditional music, highlife music and something that might sound like music.

Happy Valentine's Day from Ghana!