“Wale Wale…”

The last five days I spent in Wale Wale the capital of the West Mamprusi district. I visited the local NGOs working on the project, the Districts Water and Sanitation Team (DWST), the District Assembly, the area mechanic and with several villages in the area. It really helped to gain a total picture of how the project has progressed up to this point and highlighted some area for project improvement. It was interesting to see the different stakeholders and determine what their motivation was to work on the project. Sometimes the motivation was quite shocking.

Going to the villages was a huge wake up call. Rural poverty was no longer an abstract concept or something viewed through the television screen. Most children had on clothing that by all appearance must be either their only piece of clothing as it was thoroughly worn through or one of only a few pieces. Most of the clothing was of western origin. I assume they acquire it through aid or the markets. In the market western clothing is referred to as “Obruni-wowoo” which is “dead-white man clothing” because they assume the original owner must have died that is why they have given away perfectly good clothing. Some younger children were either naked or wore only a string of beads around their waste. Although they were clearly poor western standards the lack of material goods did not hamper their spirits. They were very proud of their accomplishments and showed us their latrines and water sources. They also showed us some of the tools that they make themselves. It is really remarkable that they have the ingenuity to live in what by all accounts appears to be the middle of nowhere. This people are truly remarkable. As it is now the beginning of the rainy season many of the villages were out in their fields getting their crops ready. Some of their fields were very far from the village itself and would probably take an hour to walk to before they could start work. I don’t think I can really capture in words all the things that hit you when going into this experience. One village we went to had yet to have a safe water source. Their only source of water was a river that was 7 kilometers away! That is like a 3 hour hike with all your pots and water carrying jugs to and from the community. Sometimes it takes them a day to walk there and back. I still have trouble believing it. Oh yeah and this 7 kilometer walk is to a water source that is practically unsafe to drink from but is the only option. There are guinea worm, hook worm and a whole bunch of other nasty things that can get you sick. One year half the village came down with guinea worm and was unable to help during the rainy season with the crops. I can’t believe that we can’t help everyone get safe water and why we (i.e. the so called developed world) have not helped those who want it. Although it was a very trying experience there still is a ton of joy in the village.

Everyone really got a kick out of my attempt at Dagbani. So far I can do the greetings and a bit of an intro. My latest is “N Paga beila Canada” or my wife is in Canada which usually gets a laugh and the offer of someone saying I should get a Ghanaian wife. Making a real attempt to learn the local language has become very important and a key in gaining trust I think. The kids in the village were great. They loved the digital camera. When they saw themselves on the screen they went into hysterics and jockeyed to get into viewing position. It also made them eager to get into every shot or “snap” as they say and made it a bit difficult to take some needed technical pictures. The best method I have found so far is to take one of them then another of the exact image I need. I am going to try and get approval to spend a few days in a village soon to better understand the issues they face especially during the rainy season when there is so much work to do. Hopefully I can get a better knowledge of the challenges that they face and it will help in the joint solution.

Take Care and God Bless,
Jason