In development work you often hear the words "going into the field". In essence this means that you are stepping out of the office and away from your desk to be driven, usually in a pick up truck but sometimes on the back of a motorcycle (don't tell my parents :)), to a more remote part of the country. It is the time to see and talk to local people near their homes. These visits also often consist of focus group discussions where you gather a group and ask specific questions about the project you are working on. These communities and groups are not random of course. They are chosen according to the communities that were identified in the baseline studies of the project you are involved in. A baseline study is a series of questionnaires asked to many many people in order to determine specific elements of your project. This clarifies the behaviour and needs of the population you will be working with. It also serves as a beginning point for the monitoring and evaluating officers who follow the progress of each project. So basically, in the end, you will get a before and after in the communities that were targeted by the project. And more specifically for our project it is also a good opportunity for the radio teams to get some interviews with farmers on the up-coming topics of their radio shows. That is a very brief and pretty vague explanation of these activities and terms. I hope that for any readers who have been in development work for a long time this is not to far off the mark and for those who know nothing of this type of work that you get a small sense of it nonetheless.
(the women and men are often separated during these discussions so that the women feel like they can truly express their opinions without feeling pressure from their husbands and other men in the community)
(there are generally less men then women during the focus groups)
Anyway, for me, field visits are an amazing time for many reasons. It means seeing the landscapes that I have been dreaming of for so long. It means meeting lovely people who almost never speak english but always manage to convey their joy and appreciation for your visits. It means seeing every colour of the rainbow wrapped around, who I imagine, are some of the strongest women in the world. Women who raise children, work on farms, have no running water, no toilet facilities. Women who often never leave their village except to move to where their husband live. Women who walk everywhere they go , who cook everything from scratch, who carry everything on their heads and backs.
(we literally were in the field this time. The rest of the group was working away behind us while we conducted the focus group)
It is strange because I thought I would have these moments of uncontrollable sadness and cry like a baby when I saw some of the intense poverty. I haven't. I think mostly because the people, their smiles and ease are more powerful than the dirty clothes and lack of "modern comforts". When I ask the facilitators of the focus groups to mention that I will be taking pictures and to ask that they pretend I'm not there, there is often a moment of straightening dresses out and often veils being put on. Just because we are miles away from "civilization" (please take note of the quotation marks) it does not mean that these women are not proud and don't want to look pretty. And they are. Gorgeous in fact.
(Each women had a child either sitting on her or standing between their legs. The children were not squirming, trying to get their mother or grandmother's attention. They sat quietly and waited.)
(You can see the shyness in their eyes and faces in this photo. It often takes a few minutes for them to feel comfortable and really open up.)
(Colours and veils and fabric and little people)
I mentioned above the lack of and often complete absence of washroom facilities. This is true not only in the villages but in town as well. Their are restaurants, office spaces, homes that simply do not have washrooms. I have seen more public urination here than I have ever cared to in my life. Women are more discreet but men do it all over the place. But my point here is not to talk about that. What I wonder a lot about is women's sanitation. What happens when they have their period? If they never use toilet paper do they get infections? How is it when they have sex with their husbands? Is there any element of pleasure in it for them? They probably do not drink enough water and the food here is sooooo oily, what does their urine look like? Oily? I know, not a very pleasant train of thought but as a women I wonder about these things. In town (Tamale) there are shops who sell sanitary napkins but I wonder if everyone has the money to buy them and how much are they available in the remote villages?
(a glimpse inside)
(houses)
(what's for diner?)
(farming tools the women were using to turn the earth over to prepare for seeding)
(house with satellites)
You might think that women have been getting their period, etc. since the beginning of time and have figured it out BUT the twist here is that Ghana and probably a lot of other places are in a time of transition between the old world and the "modern" one. Cell phone and satellite tv towers are going up everywhere before proper water access is. Modified seeds and cash crops are creeping in endangering small scale farmers. Religious philosophy about marriage, sex and homosexuality are very prominent. There is a strange disconnect that I can't seem to ever be able to find the right words to describe. Even as I read this paragraph for the third time I wonder where these thoughts are going. This is not so much a criticism but more of a puzzle that I can't quite seem to put together. I have been here just about three months now and although I have observed many things I will not presume to truly understand the causes and effects of certain behaviour. Although, for those who know me, I will keep trying to figure it out. (maybe I should have studied sociology)
(support the performing arts)
Coming here has certainly made me question my behaviour. As it would anyone I'm sure. One thing that has made me uneasy is this (see photo above). At first glance, and if you ignore my caption, you may just see a picture of a man. BUT, he is wearing a shirt that was most definitely "donated" by a western person. My first issue is that there is a stripper on his shirt. There are no strippers in Northern Ghana. This is in NO WAY part of their culture and behaviour. In another village there was a young boy wearing a WWF (world wrestling federation) t-shirt. Again, so far off anything in his reality, culture and tradition. It bothers me a little bit that we donate, most probably feeling pretty good about ourselves, without thinking about who it is going to. The other thing that bothers me about the donating of clothing phenomenon is that I have noticed that a lot of it ends up in shops and is being slod instead of given away. It reminds me that it is really important to do research about any organization I want to donate to. It also reminds me to check myself in general. I'm sure the guy who originally wore this shirt thought it was hilarious and that it made him hilarious. Me, I think it is sexist and it makes me sad that a small scale farmer in the very North of Ghana is wearing it.
On a happier note...
(these two little faces greeted us and we danced together to the music that was playing on the radio)
Sociology and maybe philosophy. It is good to question oneself. It is the only way to go and to grow.
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