Thank You

I have so many people and organizations to thank for this incredible journey that I have been on that I'm not sure where to start.  Maybe at the beginning, that might make sense. 

Thank you to the CCA-Sarah Feldberg, John Julian, Laurie Tennian, Anna Brown, David Shanks, and all of the wonderful people that work for this important organization.  What you do is incredible, and I am honored to be a small part.

Thank you to my employer, Servus Credit Union.  Without you I would not have been able to have had the pleasure of hosting Alice in the CCA Women's Mentorship Program and I would not have been able to take this journey that has helped me learn so much about our history and what we really stand for. 

 This man.  The wonderful man I married almost 23 years ago, thank you Sandy.  Thank you for organizing friends and family to write notes to me that I could open all the way through my trip.  Thank you for encouraging me to apply and then embark on this journey.  Thank you for your unending support and love.  I tried to do you justice when it came to taking pictures, failed miserably with only 1000, but maybe next year it will be better.  I love you.

Graeson and Delainey, I thought about you every day I was gone.  Thank you for being there for your Dad, and thank you for being the most wonderful children a mom could ask for.  Delainey, your note lifted me up on a really down day and made me smile.  Thank you both for being you :)  I love you.

 



Thank you Jude for keeping us safe.  Your driving skills are exemplary, your kindness and easygoing attitude were refreshing and you managed to put up with us for two full weeks without pulling out your hair.  You shared your life and your family with us and for that we are eternally grateful.  I wish you all the best and hope that all of your dreams come true.

Nancy, I've said this before, couldn't have asked for a better partner to go through all of this with.  Thank you for your insight, your sense of humor, and for giving us our mantra.  "It is what it is," hope to see you next year for part II of this adventure!

Team Ghana....what can I say?  Thank you especially to Tracey and to Heidi for sharing your experiences from previous trips, it made it easier when I came across something that you had already told me about!  This team was pretty incredible, to all of you a big thank you for your stories, laughter and tears.  Couldn't have asked for a better group of people to work with!

To all my friends and family....I cannot put a picture up of all of you, but you know who you are.  You have given me strength, encouragement and made me smile.  Some of you thought I was crazy for doing this, yet you supported me all the way.  You cheered me on and made me feel like I could DO this!  Thank you for being there for me and for enduring all of the stories to come.  I love you all.


And, with that my friends, my Adventures In Africa come to an end.  I am back home with hot, running water and friends and family surrounding me.  I am truly blessed to have been chosen to have this journey and hope that I can do it again next year.  Thank you for coming with me :)   

Interactive Torture Walk and Hung, Drawn and Quartered

February 2, 2014
London, UK

All of the teams have gathered here in London for a debrief of our Africa time and perhaps a little respite before life takes over again.  We are staying at the Royal St. Katherine's retreat center, a former convent that has rich and wonderful history.  The teams from Uganda and Malawi are here with Team Ghana and we all have so many wonderful stories to tell! 

Our flight arrived in London at 5:30 AM yesterday.  This was our "free" day, so little time was wasted on sleep as we were on the road early to take in as many sights as possible.  First, the Tower of London!  Now, I thought (perhaps I am the only one) that the Tower was just that....a tower.  Figured maybe a half hour to see it, maybe a little more.  Nope.  The Tower is really really large and spread out.  And the history of it probably takes the better part of a day to listen to.  But we don't have the better part of a day, so let's get at it!

We see the towers, hear the stories, then most people want to head to do some shopping at Covent Gardens but Liam, Tracey and I want to stay back to find the torture tower and see all the cool torture stuff from days gone by.  We decide that there must be another tower we haven't seen, and start out on the "Wall Walk" which surely will get us to the torture tower!  An hour later we are still walking, we cannot get down from the wall, there are no exits.  There is no torture tower.  There is no escape.  We are prisoners just the same as the ones who carved their names and pleadings into the walls so long ago.  We are doomed. 

OK, fine.  I'm getting dramatic.  We got out.  Eventually.  Tracey just about killed me with laughter when she dubbed our adventure the "Interactive Torture Walk".  We never did see what we set out to find.  But at least we made it out alive.  Can't say that much about Anne Boleyn.

The rest of London is a blur.  We had lunch at a really cool pub. 



Liam and I did the whirlwind tour to look at Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and a few other sights within walking distance then we all pretty well decided to call it a day.  It's hard being up for 36 hours with no sleep so we were all done by 6 PM.

I learned (well, not really but Liam saved me many times) that if you are from Canada you can easily be run over by a vehicle in London because we may think that we look both ways before crossing the road but we really don't.  Look left, step out on street whilst looking right.  Problem is stepping onto a London street after looking left can get you killed because the lane the car is hurtling at you from is to your right.  Couple this with the "Frogger" type street crossings we have been doing for weeks in Africa and you come up with a very dangerous combination of aggressive crossing and wrong way looking if that makes any sense at all!

Today there were some tears.  Well, quite a few tears.  Everyone has a story, something that has touched them and caused them to reflect on how lucky we are to have been born where we were.  We've been told that the person who will find your journey the most interesting is ourselves.  We know that, although we believe that the stories we have in our minds are riveting and will keep audiences enraptured for hours, it isn't really the case.  We have to say goodbye to the people who have shared these experiences with us and understand the emotions.  We have to go home to our families, whom we have missed terribly, but they have been living their lives without us there and will have stories to tell as well.

We are Out of Africa.  I'm Alberta bound.  I miss my husband and my kids terribly and I know when I see them I will cry tears of happiness and won't be ashamed of them.  And sometime, when the moment hits me, I'm going to cry other tears for what I have seen, and I won't be ashamed of those either.

  

Out of Africa

Friday, January 31

It's my last day in Africa.  Tonight I will have seven hours to reflect on my journey here in Ghana as the plane takes me to London, UK and deposits me back into a world that resembles home.  Sure, they drive on the wrong side of the street.  And they have thick accents.  But there will be similarities that will be both welcome and obvious.  Hot water.  Recognizable food.  Brisk, cold air.  A taste of home before I get home.

This morning we spent some time with CUA, the apex credit union agency in Ghana, giving presentations of what we observed and recommended to help the credit union movement survive and hopefully thrive.  There are many things that these credit unions are doing right, like helping the communities that they are located in through support of small business.  I am sure that I have learned as much from them about credit union values and co-operative principles as I hope they have learned from us.  It makes me burst with pride to say that I belong to this worldwide movement, and that in some way I have made it hopefully a little bit stronger.

Team Ghana has been absolutely wonderful.  I feel like I have made many lifelong friends through our shared trials these past couple of weeks.  It's fitting that our little group of coaches put on the credit union cloth outfits (that CUA so graciously gave us) and had some photos done of the whole team.  I sure will miss these people :(

I'm especially going to miss my partner, Nancy.  We've kept each other sane through BBBW (bugs, bats, baboons and watermelons) and I don't know what I would have done without her! 

One last walk through the dirt streets of Kasoa before we get taken to the Paloma then on to the airport.  One last look at the lives of the residents, they are busy this morning doing what they do every morning: getting water from the well, building fires for cooking, setting up their stalls for the day.  I am hoping I can come back here next year, it will be comforting to know the area and to have a basic understanding of their lives.  We walk by some children in the street, one more time we hear "Obruni!  Obruni!"  I have to go home now, back to where my name is Debbie and my skin doesn't strike fear into toddlers and make babies cry.  Maybe just one more time.....

Nope, she is feeling safe with her sister so she's not going to cry.  Good thing, I really don't relish being the bad guy.  I've got a plane to catch now.  And some reflecting to do.  Maybe one more blog if there's something to offer my friends and family from London.  It won't be anything compared to the last two weeks, but maybe there will be a story there too.

  

Rebel Without a Cause

Thursday, January 30

I'm a rebel.  You know that.  It's in my blood.  Today we spent a few minutes at the CUA chapter office then Jude took us to the Tamale airport.  Hard to believe our journey is coming to a close.  I'm not sure how I feel about that, so I won't talk about it right now.  Let's get back to the rebel business.

The Tamale airport is a little strange.  Instead of "Welcome to the Tamale Airport," or "Thank you for visiting Tamale, please come again!" the sign you see on the airport road reads "You Are Now Entering a Military Zone."  Huh?  I thought we were entering the airport, Jude, turn around!  I pull out my camera in the hopes that there is another sign like that so you, my friends, can giggle a little at it.  No such luck.  We get to the building (unmarked, you wouldn't know it was the airport) and I pose Nancy, Tracey and Liam in front of it.

 

I started a panorama series of shots to take in the whole airport and people start yelling.  There are men waving their hands at me.  There is a military officer standing beside me, he leans in and says "Put the camera away or they will take it from you."  I'm stunned.  I didn't get this far in my journey to have my camera taken away so I put it away.  But there was another sign that I saw that I really wanted a picture of.  It's time.  Rebel Deb emerge.  Tracey will create a diversion if necessary.  Liam and Nancy will block me from their view.  We stroll casually towards the sign.  There are people around, but nobody in a uniform.  Tracey stands a little away from us (she's a beautiful lady, that's diversion enough).  Liam and Nancy gather around me.  I pull out my camera, quickly checking left and right.....I turn it on.....I focus on my subject.....and

I snap it.  Walking back towards the terminal I mutter under my breath...."Yeah, sure you do." 

There is a sign at the entrance of the airport.  "Firearms are only allowed in checked baggage in the hold.  Please remove all ammunition from the firearm prior to checking it in."  Really?  You can bring a loaded firearm into the airport as long as you remove the bullets prior to it hitting the belt but I cannot take a picture of a building without a name?  Am I the only one who finds this a little backwards?

Well, it's off to Accra.  One more sleep at the Sovitel (no, for you hotel aficionados this is not the swanky chain of similar name) and then it is like Meryl Streep and Robert Redford...Out of Africa.

 
 

Swimming bugs and Precious Cargo

Wednesday, January 29

Well, Modern City isn't the palace that it was last week.  Last night was a little rough (compared to last week's stay here, not compared to bats, bugs and baboons).  Air conditioning is a must at 40C, and it wasn't quite there last night.  Then there was this little thing about bugs....I got some water on the floor of the bathroom and was wondering what all these little red dots were.  From somewhere (and I don't know where) in the bathroom floor a zillion (yes, that's a number) little red bugs or spiders came marching up to either splash in (or get out of) the water on my floor.  They seemed to be swimming, but they were quite tiny so I couldn't tell for sure.  I spent the night in the room anyhow, but when the water shut off in the middle of shampooing my hair this morning it was enough.  Time for a new room. 

As an aside, that is one thing I think we are learning here.  You have to clean yourself with intention not leisure.  It seems that, if there is water, you may or may not have some in the next 5 minutes.  But the key learning on this is that you can get shampoo out of your hair with baby wipes.  And if you miss a spot with the baby wipes you get a second chance to get clean when you use the insect repellent wipes before you venture outside.

I'm not really sure that I've gotten away from my little red swimming bugs because the hotel only moved me into the room next door.  Perhaps it will be OK, it would be a journey for them to get here (although it's really not far) and I'm going to assume that swimming tires them out the same as it does us.

TCCCU location on the second floor
 

We are spending our second day with TCCCU today.  I love learning about the women's groups and how well they are doing.  We asked if there are any men's groups at all, and were surprised to find out that they used to allow men's groups to join but they have since stopped that practice.  Men's groups had higher delinquency and they also were more difficult to manage because of the infighting.  It's reverse gender discrimination but totally acceptable here.

Speaking of totally acceptable let's take a look at motorcycle laws.  Or lack thereof.  I need you to close your eyes for a moment and imagine more vehicles on the road than you have ever seen.  Now, throw in hundreds of motorcycles in the middle of all those vehicles.  If you have a motorcycle here you can drive pretty much anywhere, in the middle of lanes of traffic, on the walking paths, on the wrong side of the road....it's all good.  And you can take pretty much anything or anyone with you too.

 

 

Precious Cargo

 



Your toddler

A passenger with a window

Your wife with your baby tied onto her back

A live guinea fowl for dinner



 

These scenes played out in the big cities and in the rural areas, motorcycles are a means of transportation that some people here can afford and they certainly make the most of it!





 

Micro-Finance and Watermelon Woes

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Today is the day we begin the final credit union visit of our time here in Ghana.  It's bittersweet, we've been on the roads (if you would call them that) in remote locations and now we are here in the booming (largest city by land mass in Ghana as per Jude) city of Tamale.  Nancy and I are here to visit the Tamale Community Co-operative Credit Union, a strong and vibrant credit union that has been moving forward via micro-finance with women's groups.

Here is the serious part of my blog, so for those who only wish to have a little laugh please move down a couple of paragraphs as I want to ensure that I can entertain all of my visitors equally :)
TCCCU is very proud of what they have been able to accomplish with micro finance for women, and they have a right to be.  Women who would not otherwise be able to borrow money get together (5-25 women), elect a leadership team, and proceed to place money in savings on behalf of the group (although each woman's contribution is recorded and kept separate on the books.)  Take, for example, this wonderful lady (whom I met in the marketplace in Damongo),

 Azaratu Mlatrama sells beans, rice and other cereals in the market every day.  She makes a meagre profit, and is a credit union member but cannot qualify for a loan to help her business grow so she gets together with

Abulu Salematu, who has been selling cookware and utensils in the same market for years and she makes an decent living at it.  She has a few GHc to put aside in her savings and wants to help elevate the women who work in Damongo and make her community stronger.

Azaratu and Abulu, along with several other women (perhaps introduced by their credit union manager) get together and pool their savings to be able to open an account.  The credit union opens a "group" account, because these women cannot have an account in their own name unless they can put enough money in shares and savings to qualify.  This women's group starts to meet once a week, or once every two weeks, and soon a young lady joins (through a reference from someone) who wants to expand her sewing business but cannot qualify for a loan.  Because the women's group is already established with the credit union they call on the manager and ask for a group (micro finance loan) in which Azaratu may borrow 100 GHc (approx $50 Cdn), Abulu may borrow 200 GHc (to expand her already profitable business) and our new girl can borrow 100 GHc to buy her first sewing machine and a bolt of fabric.  All of these women, on their own, could not have borrowed anything because of the policies in place currently in the industry in Ghana.  But, as a group of co-operative members, they create the qualifications necessary to obtain the loan.  These micro finance groups are strong where I have been, and to have women "graduate" from a group (ie. have enough savings to be able to qualify to open an account in her own name) is a celebration.  Today, in Tamale, there were several women who were graduating from their groups and could set out on their own.  You want to know what made me reflective today?  Not one of the women who was graduating decided that they were leaving the group.  Yes, they set up their own accounts.  But they were committed to elevating other women and wanted to continue being part of the micro finance group as well.  Because it makes a difference.

I don't know this young woman's name, but I met her in Larabunga during my visit there last week.  Perhaps she will be lucky enough to belong to one of these groups.  Maybe she will own a sewing machine one day, and maybe that will keep her (and her family) clothed and fed because of what her credit union, and her group, is able to help her accomplish.

Now, I'm not sure how regular bloggers would do this, but because it is my first time (and I am making you wonder what date is what, and when I am posting....) I needed to make an addition to my Saturday, January 25 blog.  Because we had lots going on that day I totally forgot about the

Weepy Watermelon Woes
January 25, Mole National Park

Bear with me, this story is quite funny but I wasn't actually THERE there, just next door as this was going down (or imploding).  Nancy, Joan, Heidi and I have had a few (OK, more) giggles about this and I'm hoping that Joan and Heidi use it as their funniest story tomorrow at the debrief.

Joan and Heidi knew that Tracey and Liam were suffering a little bit of food withdrawal the week before we all met at Mole for the weekend.  Being the kind and generous souls that they are (and I know that for a fact) they purchased three watermelons to ensure that 1)  we got some sweet stuff on the weekend and 2)  Tracey and Liam would be able to take food up north with them in case of limited supplies.  Isn't that nice?  I thought so, and so did Nancy who invited them to store the watermelons in her room as they had arrived prior to their room being ready.  Nancy put the watermelons on the desk and forgot about it (like who checks on any luggage that is left in your room?)

We had a late night.  Well, relatively late.  Heidi and Joan were not carting watermelon across the complex (there are baboons out there, warthogs, and elephants....all of whom would like a piece of that gift!).  They took their luggage and left the watermelons, we would be having some sweet breakfast in the morning!!!  Nancy and I sat out for a while discussing the day and then took our leave as we had an early start (it's the walking safari tomorrow!!)  I brushed my teeth and cleaned up with the bucket water provided and then I was just laying down when I hear a knock on my door.  It's Nancy.  She needs a rag or towel (Fay Henry, your donation proved VERY helpful here!)

Nancy had gone into her room and noticed something wet on the floor.  Upon further inspection Nancy deduced that it was one of the watermelons leaking.  OK!!!  Readers!!!  What do you think happened?  (This is kind of like a game show now....)  Nancy picked up the weeping watermelon.  It exploded in her hands.  There is watermelon on the desk, on the floor, and nobody but Nancy to clean it up (remember, I'm in bed).  Also, remember how much water there was at Mole?  No?  Don't worry, I repeat myself.  Often.  NONE.  No water at that time of night.  Mole turns their water on two hours in the AM and two in the PM  Nancy is a little SOL.

I truly admire my partner.  It wasn't until the next morning that I found out that she sacraficed one of her buckets of water (each bathroom has them for the 20 waterless hours per day).  Sad that she had to do that.  These blue buckets represent civilized functions for us.  And an imploding watermelon, well, not too civilized.

I'm not sure about the exact details of the clean up.  Suffice it to say that Nancy did her best (with her only room towel and several other methods) to ensure that her room was spic and span for the girls to come in the next day and clean.  AND (this didn't surprise me in the least!) Nancy went to the front desk in the morning and CONFESSED.  (Her words, not mine, not sure that this watermelon woe warranted a confession).  One blue bucket was filled with watermelon slime (yes, they slime when they implode, you didn't think they turned to ash did you??)  I think the other may have been close to empty and had a watermelon slimed towel in it.  Nancy is truly a blessing on this trip.  She is always smiling, and what we have been saying daily (and something to keep in mind in the future), "it is what it is".

 Slime and all.

Who is on the loose still because of Nancy's good natured confession?  Well, they are now labelled, it's "The Watermelon Girls."  They are armed with potentially imploding fruit and may be coming to a city near you.  If you see either of these "Watermelon Girls" do not approach them as they may not know that they are carrying a dangerous weapon.  Immediately call Nancy so she can exact revenge or call the authorities in charge of Watermelon Woes.

"Watermelon Girls"  do not approach as they may have imploding watermelon

Elevation

Monday, Jan. 27, 2014

Today was a full day at Damongo Credit Union.  We met with the Board early this morning and delivered our recommendations.  Nancy and I are feeling better and better, if we had another few weeks here we would be golden!  When we were done, I asked Madame Cecilia, the Vice Chair, if I could walk her back to the market and chat with her.  She said yes, and (although I was planning on closng my eyes to all the guts and flies there AND holding my breath because of the smell) we set out down the road.

Madame stopped and took my hand and said "Thank you for wanting to hear my story."  I really did want to hear her story, I knew that the credit union had helped her immensely and I really wanted to hear from her.  She runs "God's Glory Cold Store" in the Damongo market, selling frozen fish to the community.  Madame Cecilia told me how she started with a small borrowed freezer and how she would travel to Tamale (2+ hours away) to buy fish twice a week because she didn't have any room to store extra fish.  She opened her small savings account with her meagre profits and when she had saved enough money the credit union gave her a loan to buy another freezer.  She was so proud of the fact that it only took her a year to pay off that purchase, and then she took another loan and built her freezer inventory up to three,  Now she didn't have to spend ten hours a week travelling, she could buy enough fish in Tamale to get through an entire week!  Madame paid that loan off and guess what?  She bought another one with a credit union loan and now rents out space in that freezer to other marketers who need to freeze their fresh meat.  Credit unions here elevate women.  We have heard many of their stories on this journey, although there are many, many more who still need help to move them out of the stifling poverty that surrounds their entire families.

Madame Cecilia Vice Chair and business owner

Meat cutters at the front of the market

Madame's husband is a pastor, and they both spend a great deal of time helping their community.  She knows that education is one of the keys to breaking the cycle of poverty, and is planning on taking future loans with her credit union to send her children to university.  She was so inspirational the way she showed such pride in her accomplishments, and in the Damongo Dioscesan Credit Union, that I was bursting with pride to be a small part of this great worldwide movement.

When I had taken too much of her time, and met many of her customers, I thanked her and started to leave.  She stopped me and told me to wait, then walked me back to the branch.  She took my hand again and said, "Thank you for learning from me."  She handed me a carved bracelet, then another one for Nancy and took her leave.  I watched her walk down the red dirt road leading back to the market and thought what a wonderful teacher she had been for me today.

Nancy and I were very excited, we were going back to the palace in Tamale!  Hardi, the manager, walked us to the truck and gave each of us another bracelet, thanking us for our help.  Then he showed us our new necklaces and put them around our necks.  What a great feeling to be appreciated and to have these reminders when we go back home.

We actually thought they were going to remind us ALL the time.  Unbeknownst to either of us, Nancy nor I could get the necklaces off.  We both went to our rooms that night, stood in front of mirrors, twisted, turned, pulled, inspected and virtually tried everything to get them off.  No luck.  We both had a shower and slept with our new treasures.  And we both probably thought the other one liked their new trinket immensely when we met the next morning and we were both still wearing them! 

"Awwww, you're wearing yours too!"

Yes, yes I am.  And I'm really not sure for how long.