The Orange Grove

A Day Off

Yesterday was too full to send an email. Perhaps you will get two today...

In the morning we loaded survey responses into excel in the and then went through our second survey to make sure we were ready to hit the ground running on Monday after the break this weekend. Then in the afternoon we went to a meeting with the Agric Co-op and some community and BCCDP members (from the Co-op regional offices, The U, The local hospital, and KNUST the university). It was a cool meeting. They all talked about their concerns and plans for the future. It was interesting to hear their opinions. They have good goals and lots of people that want to help them reach those goals. I thanked them again for participating in my research and they all clapped for me. Many people have thanked me for listening to their opinions.

After we came back we had a few meetings and then tried to go out to dinner. Our bus was taking too long so we grabbed a cab. It was fun to haggle with him over a price, but in the end I was arguing over $1.50. Dinner was good and we beat the bus with 20+ students so we were in and out faster than them.

Today, the vast majority of students and teachers went to Mole national park for the weekend. Brooke and I and about 8 other people stayed behind because they have all been before. I am doing a survey in a few hours, but mostly looking forward to relaxing and not having anyone to take care of.

I'll email again in 10 hours or so. Love you all,

The Citrus Grove

Today my group saw the Citrus Grove. I realize that some of you may
not know that Brooke and I are not working together on research
projects. She is doing nutrition research while I am doing
Agricultural and Development Economics Research. So we after 7 AM we
don't see each other again until 5 or so. Anyway, back to the Citrus
Grove.

The trees are a hybrid tree developed to withstand many of the common
problems the citrus trees have in the region. There are about 700
citrus trees and 5 times that many corn stalks. They inter-crop until
the trees mature. The maize provides shade when the trees are young to
keep them from over exposure to the sun. It also helps them have some
money now until the trees produce which is usually 3-8 years (an
average of 5).

Last October, a man related to the Chief destroyed 400 trees because
he felt the land was his. This and other problems are what I am asking
the 32 person cooperative. Their perceptions on how things are going.

We finished 6 out of 8 we were supposed to do leaving 2 of 32 not
sampled. Pretty good numbers and we think we'll get at least 1 of the
last 2.

Tonight I went with my team at the invitation of one of our group
mentors to the Golden Tulip. The food was good, it was free because
the group mentor paid for everyone. I sat out by the pool for a while
with my other group mentor and Joe Marfo, one of the BCCDP employees.
It was a nice relaxing time.

Tomorrow we are doing data entry and meeting again with the
cooperative and some other leaders. Friday all the students are going
away for the weekend, so Brooke and I and a few others have this hotel
to ourselves. It will be a nice weekend.

Pretending to be Chief

When we arrived in Barekuma which is the community we are studying yesterday. I mentioned that I met the Chief, but the story of how he was introduced to our group is bigger than that. I met him in a simple way. I was talking to Joe Marfo, one of the study coordinators and Chief Nana Tiberi arrived and greeted Joe and introduced himself to me. Everyone else met him in a ceremony. The Chief and all the councilmen and women sat at the front of a large church and all 80+ U of U and KNUST (Ghana U we are working with) sat in the audience. There were introductions, everyone in our group went row by row to shake their hands. Then we were all given Coca Cola and clapped for all of the introductions.

Then today my team went back to that same Catholic church to meet with members of what's called the Agric Cooperative. When we had about 20 members of the 35 person Cooperative, My team and I sat where the Chief had sat the previous day. We made introductions, I made up a speech about how honored we were, though really we were. In their community it is a big deal to be part of the Cooperative so we respected that and made introductions a big deal. Then we finished 24 of 35 interviews and came home.

I was hoping to spend some more time tonight working on some data entry, but instead we went out to a restaurant across town. The atmosphere was more upscale than last night which meant more money, but the food was as good as last nights place. Tomorrow I am supposed to go to a really nice place with my team and our leaders. It'll be mine and Brooke's first night apart in a while.

Everything is great, we get back to work too soon. I need a bit more sleep, but Friday the students are going away for the weekend, so hopefully we get to sleep in some days over the weekend.

You gotta Ghana :)

So Mark has been emailing updates to several people, and I thought it might be fun to post them all on our blog. Follow if you'd like. Each day brings new adventures!

Here are the last 2 messages he's written. Enjoy!

So far so good. We've had some hiccups with travel, but interestingly
enough, those have been American errors. Long flights, long bus ride,
but we are now in our hotel room emailing all of you as you are nearly
ready to start your day.

We are in Kumasi, Ghana at the Okubi Hotel. Tomorrow is a laid back
day. We are going to church, I'm not sure if it is a ward or a branch.
Then we are going to the U-17 national soccer game between Ghana and
Nigeria.

Ghana is lush and green. It reminds me a lot of Guatemala, most
specifically Tecal where Return of the Jedi was filmed (the moon of
Endor) though we have seen no Ewoks. It's about 82 and humid, which is
nicer than I thought it would be. There has been light rain off and on
all day. Though there are no Ewoks, mini goats are everywhere in the
way you'd expect there to be dogs. They are the dogs of Ghana, and
probably more tasty.

We have a really great Ghanaian support staff of drivers and travel guides. Cofe (Ghanaian for "Friday) is our driver and he manages the
crazy roads really well. Lots of people here are named for the day of
the week they were born, so I expect to meet lots of Cofe.

I am excited to get to work. Love you all and we'll be in touch!

Richard is the man. Richard is our hotel manager. I was using my dad's voltage converter in the wall and there were two loud pops, some smoke and a black mark on the wall (I'll send a picture, maybe) and no more electricity to our outlets. I feared we may be on third world time to get something like this fixed, so I went looking for the fuse box myself to no avail. Having no other resource at my disposal I went for help. After the front desk assured me they would call an electrician, I prepared for a powerless stay in room 118 of the Okubi Hotel. To my dismay, Richard knocked on the door a few minutes later. I explained the problem and my desire to see a fuse box if things were similar to American electricity. He assured me he knew what to do and after another few minutes, power was restored. Now I can email all of you lovely people, the computer is charged.

Church was also great. Piano lessons are needed in the Kumasi Second ward, so Dad and Mom, maybe you could serve a mission here. The talks were mostly in English, the lessons were mostly in English as well. It was all very nice. One woman had a dress with the pictures of several modern day prophets on it as the print. I don't know if anyone took a picture, but imagine grandeur.

After church, Brooke and I passed out and missed the soccer game, but Ghana won 2 - 0 if you were wondering. Upon waking, we made food from our vast food storage (I'll upload a picture and send that too, we brought 2 suitcases of food). Cup-O-Noodles, but we have no way of heating our water so I put bottled water in a metal water bottle brought from home and placed it in a bucket. I then ran hot water from the shower into the bucket and heated the contents inside. It worked pretty well.

Then team meetings ensuring that we'd be ready for tomorrow and now to bed.

Let me know if there are more specific things you like to know.

Hope you enjoy reading. We're having a good time and we haven't gotten sick yet. Today was our first day in the field. I suppose I'll have to get used to this sticky feeling and be ok with my clothes clinging to my skin, revealing all my secrets. :)