Progress in school interrupted - STRIKE

Most of the schools in Ghana are government run and so the teachers work for the government. This is not entirely true. Some of the teachers have completed their education and have received a posting assignment by the government. These teachers tend to belong to a union such as the Ghana National Association of Teachers and are paid by the government. However, there are not enough teachers or government funds at the moment to go around. Recent college graduates perform a year of service assigned by the government also fill some slots as teachers at a small stipend. Other teachers come from the local community are either paid locally or volunteer their time. Our school has four government teachers, four local teachers, and me.

Government employees also includes doctors and nurses as well as administrative and other workers each to their own union. These workers are now on a multi-sector strike over pension benefits. Similar to the debate in the United States, the conflict is over who should control the pension funds and how the funds should be invested and how much of the investment gains should go to the future pensioners verses the pension administrators. 

Some schools were shutdown starting Tuesday. Our headmaster kept school open until he got official written notice. Our school “closed” for classes around noon on Wednesday. The teachers and students still come to school, but little else is accomplished. On Thursday I spent some time with form 2 and Friday with the form 1 math classes to review long division. I took a couple of hours each day and the headmaster closed the school when I was done.

At this point, I think I will conform to the strike and work on other things until the strike is over.

Solar dehydrator

In Ghana there are Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) for Education, Health, and Agriculture sectors. Volunteers have primary activities in their sector but are also required to have secondary activities in the other sectors. So all volunteers work on health issues such as malaria or HIV education and food security or some other agricultural related local issue.

A local food security method is to dry local produce such grains, peanuts, peppers, and orka on the ground, optionally on top of some canvas or such, under the sun. The produce is covered if possible when it rains.

My first food security project (proof of concept at this point) is a solar dehydrator. I am working with the carpentry department at the local votechnical school to build a cabinet solar dehydrator with maybe six drying trays on the inside. The cabinet protects the trays from rain, direct sunlight, insects, and hopefully dust.

I have been working with the head carpenter on a design based on local materials. For example, the size of the framed trays will be two feet by two feet as the available wire support and screening material we will be using are four feet wide. This will allow minimal waste of material and keep to a size easily handled - at least for personal use. Similarly, the height of the cabinet will likely be around 5 feet tall based on the board length of 15 feet. I don't know exactly because we are making this up as we go along.

I have some experience drying food and I've researched some designs for cabinet dehydrators but I'm working with the carpenter to suit the local situation. He will fabricate a couple of the trays and then we will work out the arrangement of the cabinet. The process will take some time and my goal is to have it completed by the end of November or mid-December.

A solar dehydrator comes under food security by allowing more food options throughout the year. For example, we currently still have tomatoes in abundance and if I had the dryer now could make sun dried tomatoes to be used when tomatoes are scarce and expensive. Tomatoes cannot generally be dried out in the open using current methods. I might miss the tomato season this year, but fresh mango season is coming. Having dried mangoes is hopefully one of my personal food security measures this year.

We also have the moringa tree here. The leaves and other parts are reported to be very nutritional fresh or dried. However, the leaves must not be dried in the sun as the beneficial components in the leaves will be destroyed by sunlight. So the cabinet dehydrator could be used to dry the leaves for home use or to sell as dried powder.

Worm bed update

I've checked my attempt at developing a worm bed over the last couple of weeks. I collected maybe 20 worms over the last couple of months. The problem finding worms locally shows the extreme lack of organic material in the soil.

In the states for the worm bed size that I'm starting I would likely have ordered 5 to 10 thousand red worms and been up and running on the second day. I'm hoping the 20 worms will eventually fill the bed over the next several months before rainy season – but as I look for worms one time each week I only find one each. Hopefully not the same one.

With the dry season now starting I'm going to need to water the bed twice daily to make sure the worms don't bake in the sun. So I'll be the strange white man watering nothing from the perspective of most locals. If I can get the worms established by the start of the rainy season (April / May) then I should be able to demonstrate the benefits by starting seedlings in the worm casing. So, I'll be patient and hope for the best.

Health and ebolia update

I remain healthy and there are currently no reported cases of ebolia in Ghana. Accra, the capital of Ghana, is being used as a logistical staging center for supplies to support the international response to ebolia in the region (again no ebolia reported in Ghana). The international response has generally be slow, which has allowed the outbreak to become more widespread and thus harder to address. I think the experts predict months of continued new cases. Hopefully, it does not gain ground in the states or other countries.

In countries with a significant outbreak there are secondary problems of some farmers not being able to harvest crops and therefore the potential for subsequent food availability issues. This may be reported in the U.S. news as a problem for West Africa.

Ghana is in West Africa. However, it does not have these problems. No reported cases of ebolia here. Farmers are definitely out in the fields working to get the harvest in.  There will be few food choices in my Upper West region during the dry season, but food will be available.

I'll post updates as needed. I'm hoping that the disease does not spread in other countries. It only takes a few mistakes to allow an outbreak to gain a toe hold basically anywhere in the world.

I remain healthy. Due to additional expenses this month (refill my propane tank for 64 cedis and bicycle repairs) I'm just about out of my living allowance of 325 cedis, or about $100. I'm not sure if the month or my living expenses will run out first. I have access to plenty of money from my U.S. account, but I'm want to live within my Peace Corps allowance. Therefore, I'm cutting back on my spending. Next month should be better if we get a hoped for and long overdue a raise and I don't have significant unexpected expenses. I don't yet know the cost of the solar dehydrator but that will likely come from funds other than my living allowance. Don't know yet, again – I'll post an update.

I remain content. Life is hard and I miss family, friends, and some of the comforts of a First World life, but I'm happy with my decision. I'm able to relax, particularly with the strike, and enjoy the company of the host country nationals. Sitting and talking is nice. I need to continue to work on my language skills and might put more effort into that in the coming weeks.

I'm working on getting pictures of pito brewing to create a post, but I still need a few more steps documented. I like posting pictures and I hope the reader enjoys them as well, but they can be a royal pain to upload some days. We'll see for next week.

For now ---
Love always,

John