Life in the village

Mo Yee, you are welcome to Alorkpem! I have been living in the Ada area here in Ghana for the last 5 weeks, and my Dangme speaking is improving. My last 3 weeks have been spent on an island on the Volta River, quite near to the ocean; the village is called Alorkpem. I want to give you all a picture of how the people I have been living with have been subsiding there for many many years. Generations have passed and still these families are there, facing many of the same challenges day after day. Life in the village is very far from home for me, in every way possible. Let me just send you through what a day may look like:

5am wake-up: sweep the dirt floors outside, sweet the dirtfloors inside, wash all the dishes (by hand of course, as there is no electricity on the island), walk for a couple miles to fetch water from the river to drink/bathe/cook with, bundle some firewood to make a fire to warm the tea for breakfast and later to stir the banku for lunch. By now it's about 7am and i'm ready to go back to bed. But instead most of the ladies go to their wooden frames where they will again weave the same mat that they made two of yesterday so they can go to the market and sell them for a dollar tomorrow. The men will take off to farm their cassava, or the sugarcan they will be able to distill alcohol with to sell also at the market. Others will go to their fishing boats, and set out to check their traps from the last day, some days prove to be in abundance of fish and crabs, but there are those days where the net is barely touched. The children will take off to school, or some will at least, those that can afford to pay for their books and uniforms. The women will continue to cook most of the day, as there is no such thing as pre-packaged food here on the island. They will sell on their heads all day, while the lady next to them is doing the same thing with the same food. By night fall, the lanterns come out and people hang out at their homes as they cannot work without light.

And all this continues day after day. For a very little reward in pay. In fact, most of the people are on the island because once they finish primary and middle school, they would have to move to the mainland for senior school, which costs a lot of money. Generally if you live on the island, your family will not have enough money to send you there, but instead you will stay at home and learn the family business so you can grow up and take over, and make your own family. And so it goes on.

This life is reality for many individuals. My host family lives in it, I participate in it there. But there is a difference, because I have a choice to be there. I have the option to leave whenever i'd like. I don't have to use the bush as my washroom everyday for the rest of my life. I don't have to carry all the water I will use on my head. I am not expected to take on cooking and raising children for the rest of my life. No, instead I am overwhelmed with the options open to me. I have a hard time choosing what I want to do in my lifetime, because there is so much out there. Choice should be available to everyone, it should be available to my family here. They should be able to leave the island to go to school if they like. They should have the choice to go to Trade school to learn a skill that can generate a decent income. While I am here I will see more of their country than they even know exists.

All of these and more have given me a new perspective on travelling. A new perspective on the education I have received. A different attitude towards food. A grave concern for the future generations who must continue this cycle of poverty. A frustration that while I am here, I can do not much to change anything. An anger towards how the lifestyle of countries like Canada contribute to what I see my family trying to fight against.

For goodness sake, I beg you all to think today about what you will buy, where you will go, and what you will see. I most of all ask you to appreciate what you have, and not take advantage of it. I ask you to think twice next time you go to buy chicken breast from the grocery store, because the excess parts of dark meat that we don't like were sent here to Ghana to be sold for extremely cheap in the market, putting many chicken farmers out of business.

We are a global community, and my brothers and sisters here want you to know that your choices DO matter and they DO affect people around the world. And you DO have the choice to act or not, to educate yourself on the products you buy or not, to consume less, to give more, and to live in community with people and not things. I share this with you all because I know you care, life in Canada gets busy at times, but I ask you take this day and think of the choices you can make, and know that it's a right that everyone should have, but is instead only available to a select few.

Think of us as we head to Nkawkaw for a retreat, then in a week we will travel back to the village for another 3 weeks. I will update you then!