In Praise of Small Things

Thanks to everyone who has emailed or posted comments with encouragement. Indeed, as time passes and we slowly and gradually get used to life here, the weight of culture shock slowly lifts. The sense of joy at finding our way, however tentative, is a genuine relief.

So here then a bit of a sunnier post than the last.

Chris will write later, I'm sure, about his first days and week at The Statesmen newspaper, but it seems to be going well and he is learning a lot. He started on Monday and already on Tuesday his name was on the first page of the paper, accompanying an article he's written on his first day. Chris' contribution to today's paper was the editorial. He's off in the mornings and done in the afternoon around 5pm. So he's back to the 9-5 since mid-May when we both finished work; a six month break that was really amazing.

I've been getting to know the city as I zoom about meeting people that I've researched and connected with. Yesterday I went to the head office of SYTO (Student and Youth Travel Organization) and met with their awesome coordinator Tina. SYTO basically gets students and youth from around the world and places them in families and hooks them up in volunteer placements. Since I came in through the back door (I found out about SYTO from some folks at the computer place), I bypassed the $850US program fee. Tina linked me up with Farouk, the director of People's Dialogue on Human Settlements, an NGO dedicated to working with the urban poor. I met with Farouk yesterday, as well as his colleague Kojo, driver Biggie, and associate from another branch of the NGO. We drove straight to a community meeting in Old Fadama, an enormous slum of 35,000 people living beside a lagoon in central-west Accra. The land they are on is especially contentious presently as the government is planning to evict the slum dwellers to clean the lagoon, currently one of the most polluted bodies of water in all of Africa. At the community meeting, the Ghanaian Ombudswoman on Human Rights was the guest of honour and was there to address the concerns and questions of the community as they are being told that their eviction is imminent. Where they are moving to and when is still uncertain and so the Ombudswoman did her best to answer questions though still in vague terms.

It looks like I will be working with Farouk and People's Dialogue facilitating community organizing in the slums. Descriptions of the slum might well be in order at this juncture, although I'm not sure words would suffice. Of course they are, as the name suggests, slums. Overcrowded, flithy, polluted, small ramshackle dwellings. It's an intense, noisy place. Yet, at the same time, the meeting we were at was filled with positive energy and the slumdwellers have begun to organize themselves and were asking key questions, holding the Ombudswoman accountable for her mandate of human rights. When the meeting began, one of the leaders shouted out, "Information!" and the people shouted in unison, "Power!" Again, "Information!" and the response, "Power!" Then the leader shouted, "Homeless!" and the people replied this time, "But not hopeless!" Their energy, enthusiasm, and conviction was infectious. I liked how Farouk deferred attention from himself to the community members, was warmly welcomed in the slum, and didn't hold my hand or put me into some special place of honour (as it seems to happen often by grace of nothing else but my race). I will be back at the NGO on Tuesday afternoon next week and we will talk more about some of the things I will be doing.

Today I met with Professor Nana Araba Apt, an amazing and inspiring woman who did her Master of Social Work at U of T and even did her practicum placement at St Christopher House - same as me! She is now teaching at the university but recently launched CofA, short for College for Amma, an initiative that partners female university students with female junior high students from rural areas in an effort to keep them in school. Nana and I had lunch and talked about some ideas on how I can help out with CofA during these intial steps, writing some grants reports and also talking about some pedagogical questions on how best to proceed in the program design and implementation. It's an exciting venture and I think it will be a good side project to help out with if People's Dialogue begins to take centre stage.

Lastly, Chris and I found out about a kind of pick-up basketball for expats on Tuesday nights at the Ghana International School. We went last night and had a blast. We were a mixed bag of people - probably about 25 in all, including 4 women. We played for a few hours, sweat like crazy, and had a good time just running around and playing some basketball. I had a good time and although it had little to do with me, my team won every game I played - four in all. I'm already looking forward to next Tuesday.

Tomorrow we are off back to the village where we will be meeting with the Chief and our friend David is hoping to launch a new foundation he's starting up in the village. It will probably be quieter than the funeral, but probably fun anyway.

Because I've spent some time this week running errands as well as meeting with people, I feel like I've become much more familiar with the city and how it works - a good first step on starting to feel at home. Slowly too I get to know ways of doing things, ways of getting involved, and learnings to be had. I look forward to the chance to do more in time.

So, after a tough weekend, things start to ease up a little. I am happy for the relief and looking forward to the chance to become ever increasingly familiar with life here.

For those interested, I've now got a cell phone as well. So, for Chris, you can call him at 233 207 343 423. For me, I'm at 233 207 462 914. Our home number (best to call between 8&10pm our time) is 233 213 01405. We are five hours ahead of Ontario and four ahead of Nova Scotia.

Much love to everyone and thanks again for all the support, Miia