September 31, 2007

It's hard to talk about anything else without mentioning the current flooding situation. The rains have actually slowed down but many places in the northern part of Ghana (including the Bawku West district, where I live) are in a "state of emergency". The flooding has taken lives, destroyed farms, and many houses (most of which are made out of mudbricks). There's a big call for aid - mainly food at this point. The aid is slowly getting here but I haven't seen much of it get to the people who actually need assistance. I've lived here for two years now, seen corruption first hand, but this is the perhaps the most disappointed I've been in the government. Here are a few articles that talk a little about what is going on.

Upper East Disaster: 40,000 victims, 10,000 homeless, 100s of houses destroyed (The Statesman) (9/07)
Million hit by floods in Africa (BBC) (9/07)
African floods prompt aid appeal (BBC) (9/07)

I feel bad complaining about my own farm and garden because it's not my only source of income, but neither did well nevertheless. I'm in the process of harvesting my groundnuts now. I got a few nice cucumber and one or two tomato plants are starting to produce fruit in the garden. I found out recently that the 2 papaya trees that I planted in my garden are male and will never produce fruit. They look nice, though, and are growing strong and tall.

As for me personally, I'm healthy (I am now at least), happy, and looking forward to what's next. I suffered from a very pretty serious case of malaria this past week. The doctor is doubting whether it was malaria since I take prophylaxis every week but all my symptoms pointed to malaria and the malaria treatment took care of it pretty quickly. What I can say is that everything you hear about malaria is true. Nothing is exaggerated. I pretty much wanted to die the morning it hit me the hardest. Luckily, I was with friends who took very good care of me and got me medication quickly.

I'm somewhat more of a celebrity in Binaba these days. For the past couple months, I've joined a few other volunteers in the region to host a 1 hour radio program every other Saturday morning. I didn't tell anyone in the village the first time I went to Bolga to host the show. When I came back, everyone who heard was like "we heard you on the radio!! That was so great!" Most homes do not have a TV here so radio is typically the only source of news/entertainment people have. The show is an HIV/AIDS education and Q&A call-in show. We spend the first 10-15 minutes discussing some HIV/AIDS related topic and then take questions the rest of the hour. Our most recent topics were why women in Ghana are more at risk of getting HIV/AIDS than men, the importance of good nutrition if you are a person living with HIV/AIDS, and common beliefs and myths surrounding HIV/AIDS. I actually had to do this last show by myself and it worked really well. I brought along one of my friends here who is a nurse at the local hospital and the whole show was in the form of a True/False game. I said the statement and the 2 guys (my friend + our producer) said what they thought the answer was and why. It worked really well.

In addition to the radio program, I've gotten involved with a few other HIV/AIDS projects. I've sort of become the expert on HIV/AIDS in Binaba (I guess if you're allowed to be on the radio, it's assumed you know a lot about the subject.). I've had a couple community health nurses and nursing students doing their practicals in Binaba come to me with questions and advice for how to talk to patients. I'm starting weekly talks at a friend's JSS  (middle school) this week. I'm also working with a group of other volunteers for a region wide campaign to promote testing on World AIDS Day (December 1st). That will be my last big "hoorah" so to speak before my service ends.

I told you a few updates ago that I helped BWFA get a loan to purchase onions. At 28% interest rate, we took the loan, bought the onions in March/April, and sold them at a margin in July/August. We didn't get the profit margin we were hoping for so the organization didn't actually make any money (after paying back the loan plus interest). I'm currently helping them get another loan at 10% interest. It's being offered through the local government so it's more frustrating and time consuming, but it will benefit the organization if it works out.

Ok, then ... until next time!!! ~MJ

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