Amy’s adventures in Ghana

The leader of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Professor Atta Mills, was in Tamale the other day.  The general election will be next year and it is very much hoped (at least in Tamale and everyone I know) that the NDC will take over from NPP.  So, hopefully, this time next year Atta Mills will be the Presedent of Ghana.  I got to meet him in a typically random Ghanaian way. He was staying in a hotel near my house. I went along with Sahadatu and Kailan, who are big NDC supporters, to try and catch a glimpse. Turns out one of the security people was somehow related to Sahadatu and all of a sudden we were ushered inside.  I didn’t really know what was  happening and thought that maybe we’d just get a ringside view of him, but no, we were directed to his bedroom where we had a nice wee chat and a photo opportunity. Seems like a nice guy.

I realised that most of my posts here are about personal things that I have done whilst in Ghana.  Considering that my purpose of being here is to work I have really written very little about what I do.  I guess this is because work is, in my mind, the least interesting part of my life in Ghana. 

Now that my time is coming to end i feel a bit more reflective about what I’ve been doing. What have I been doing?  Essentially my job is an office based job much like I had at home.  I am helping the organisation find funds to continue its work and implementing some systems which should help the organisation in the future.  I have had some success in obtaining funding to develop and continue projects.  The difficult part has been in implementing change in an organisation desparately in need of change in order to survive.  I have found the staff very reluctant to change the way the work or even take on suggestions about administrative issues such as monitoring, evaluation and filing. 

I had hoped that I would be working more at the community level especially in project monitoring, identification and evaluation but that hasn’t been a major part of my job.  Most days I am in the main office which is much like any other office (but with added mosquitos). 

What have been my successes?  Aside from obtaining funding for work, I think my biggest successes have been in training some staff in fundraising techniques to the point that they are able to make applications themselves which have been successful. I think I was more happy the day that I heard someone else had received funding (for a different organisation) than when Simli got money themselves.  I have also introduced some recording systems which are being used and I think the attitudes of some staff have changed with regards to project sustainablility.  SImli AId have opened an Internet Cafe, for example, the profits of which will go towards the core costs, reducing reliance on foreign funders. 

I am quite proud of the new Simli Aid website which I developed and designed.  Have a look! www.simliaid.org

Cape Coast is one of the most famous colonial slave castles in Ghana.  It is where thousands of captured Ghanians were taken, imprisoned & sold as slaves.  Its definitely worth a visit.  We were taken on a tour following the same route captured people would take on arrival.  First they were separated into male and female and then forced into dungeons which they would only leave through "the door of no return" when a ship came to take them to America, unless they died of course. Many people died in the disgusting conditions they were kept in.  The particularly harrowing thing about the castle is that the colonial "masters" lived in grand conditions above the dungeons and the Church was directly above the men’s dungeon. 

The beach at Cape Coast is very beautiful. We thought we’d take a pleasant stroll along the sands only to find it literally covered in shit.  Children shitting left right and centre  - at the same time waving cheerily to me "obruni, hello". The fishing boats were nice and colourful though.

Back in Accra I really wanted to visit a coffin shop which are famous there as the Ga tribe are known for making really elaborate coffins in shapes reflecting the owner’s life.  For example a fisherman might have a fish shaped coffin, a taxi driver might have a car shaped coffin.  Some of the  others we saw were Elephant (hunter/wildlife enthusiast?) mobile phone (businessman?) and a beer bottle (alcoholic?) We spent ages talking to the guy who makes them who told us that Americans are his biggest customer, even more than the Ga people who the tradition comes from. Why am I not surprised?  They cost about $800 each.