Food Security Committee Meeting and travel from Kumasi


The Peace Corps has various committees for volunteers to work on besides their primary and secondary projects. I'm on the technology committee and the Food Security Task Force committee (FSTF). The FSTF committee met this week on Thursday and Friday so I had to travel Wednesday and Saturday.

The committee meeting was very productive. This was the first meeting with the new officers and members – so it was a hand-off meeting to review and modify upcoming plans for the year and how we are organized. The committee will look at ways to improve food production, food storage and preservation, nutrition, and financial stability of small groups.

We are interested in alternate practices such as no-till that has a big supporter in a local Ghanaian expert supported by Howard Buffet as well as composting and improvements to traditional farming practices. We are interested in annual and tree crops as well as small animals and bee keeping. Rabbits are a popular small animal and I'm one of the people working on raising rabbits to improve area nutrition. My daughter will be happy to know that we don't include dog in small animal projects. We have a native rodent, a grass cutter, with small animal and also a number of snail projects for the southern regions (where snails can grow and are eaten).

There are a number of in-service training (IST) sessions planned along these lines for the coming year.

Note: People eat dog in some areas of Ghana. I've eaten some meat that tasted really good and some no great. Mainly the meat place near me cooks a lot of pig. So when I eat meat, not often, it is the other white meat.

We held the committee meeting in the Kumasi sub-office. This is the first time I've traveled to this office on my own. It is about 360 miles from my place. About 60 miles gets me down to Wa, the regional capital of my Upper West Region. Wa is the connection point to all other travel points outside of the region. I am in the extreme north and west area of the region. Wa is to the south and west, rather than the center, of the region. About 30 miles of this 60 mile trip is dirt or mud roads depending on the season and it generally takes about 2 hours for a one way trip when the roads are dry. Another member of the group in the Upper West has such a long trip to Wa that he has to spend the night there in most cases – so I shouldn't complain.  

Food security task force committee members


One of the murals on the KSO (Kumasi sub-office)

Why can't I ever take a decent selfie?

Relaxing at the KSO.  The puppy is still cutting its teeth and not on the menu.
Note the good number of books in the background and sorry for the old man leg in the foreground


My trip back from Kumasi


And not that I'm complaining. The following description of travel is very typical travel for a Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa – nothing out of the ordinary. But I'll still whine about it.

So this is from the sub-office in Kumasi back to my place:

I was planning on using a long haul bus company – think long old city buses with those molded seats traveling hundred of miles. The company is called Metro Mass. I needed to be at the ticket office by 4:15 or so to make sure I got a ticket for the early bus. There is a good cab driver used often by PCVs, so I called him on Friday for a 3:45 am Saturday pickup. This was a little earlier than the normal 4:00 departure that most people use for Metro Mass – but I wanted to get there early to get a ticket for the earliest bus. However, people know to call the driver and remind him in the morning - I did not get the memo.

Because it would be a morning bus trip that will last most of the day I like to get up about an hour early so I can shower and use other facilities that are not so convenient in Ghana. (Well, actually many people just go by the side of the road (both versions) which might be considered convenient or gross depending on viewpoint.) So to be ready by 3:45 my alarm went off at 2:45. I was up slightly before that and pulled myself out of bed on time.

I went out to wait for the driver by the guard station at 3:40. At 3:55 the guards were surprised that he had not come and they asked me if I had called to remind him. I had not so we both tried calling him multiple times over the next 15 to 20 minutes and finally we woke him up. I met the very nice driver at about 4:30 or so. I was very calm during this waiting time – figuring – OK, this is Ghana – another delay I can't do anything about – no worries – something different will happen because of it. This may be really surprising to people who know me, it was to me, but I was not upset.

The guards, taxi driver and I decided to go to the tro station instead as the Metro Mass may have already sold out for the early buses. Remember the tro's are like extended vans with extra seats welded and bolted in place – typically seating 15 or so people not including the driver. The long haul tros such as from Kumasi to Wa typically seat 17 and some of the shorter local ones only seat 10.

We got to the tro station at 5 am and found the Wa tro. It was going to take a long time to fill so again I had more time to wait. At about 5:30 they moved me to a different tro saying the driver needed to get to Wa for business at 11:30 so I should ride with him. I was the only person going to Wa at the time. I thought it was my lucky day: I don't have to wait for the tro to fill and the driver needs to get to Wa before noon.

I thought wrong.

The driver also needed to pay for the trip up so he started picking up and dropping passengers along the way. The normal “express” tro would wait to fill and then travel straight to the destination with only one or two rest stops. I don't know how many times we stopped, but I watched my gps recalculate arrival gradually from 11:30 to 12:30 and then 1:30 and then 2:30. The metro mass bus that I think I would have been on passed us at maybe 1 pm.

Thirty minutes before we made it to Wa we needed to unload and reload onto a different tro. Don't know why we had the tro exchange. However, I lost my good seat and ended up in one of the bolted seats by the door (so padding not so good). All told the trip took about 9 hours to go the 300 miles from Kumasi to Wa (all on pretty good paved roads).

When I got to Wa at 2:30 I bought the last ticket for the next tro going out to Nandom, so again I would get the last bolted seat by the door. But I thought I would not have to wait because the tro was now full.

I thought wrong.

The tro we were to take did not start well and so we had to change vehicles. All told about an hour delay. The station people directly me to be the first person to the alternate tro so I could have picked a decent seat.

I also could have picked a decent seat because I was the first person on the tro and because I am older than most people traveling. However, I decided to demonstrate that older white volunteers don't take advantage of situations (all the time) and I took the seat less padded bolted seat for the last 2 hour trip.  (This noble thought and the whining of the lady when I picked a seat by the window.)

I made it back to my site at 6:30 (Arrived at 5:30 – got something to eat and a short visit with Roger and his brother with some pito, before taking the lead on to my place). So from the time I woke up to the time I got back to site was from 2:45 am to 6:30 pm or about 16 hours. Travel time on the first tro was 5:30 am to 2:30 pm or 9 hours to go 300 miles on good roads. The travel time for the second part was 2 hours. About 1 hour to get ready and 4 hours to wait.

Again – this is a very typical description of travel for a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana. Nothing out of the ordinary.


Mail


I think I have mail but I have not been able to get in touch with the post master. I've ridden my bike to the post office a couple of times but it has not been open and he has not answered his phone for a couple of weeks. I'll keep trying.


Health


I'm feeling better. I've lost a little bit of weight in the last few weeks – my appetite has not been great and the food selection is also not so great this time of year. I was not feeling up to eating out in Kumasi – so I missed the more normal hamburger and pizza food eaten by volunteers as a splurge when away from site. (Which might have made an upset system even more upset anyway.)

I did however, get a massage (a gift from a fellow volunteer).

I still have a few sores, skin infections – nothing major and not getting worse, just slowly getting better.

I'm working on forcing myself to eat and applying the antiseptics and ointments to clear up the infections.



Love always,
John

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