The EWB Ghana team is scattered in the upper west, upper east and northern regions and are working in 2 sectors: Agriculture as well as Governance. The long term overseas staff (LTOVs) get together every month in Tamale to regroup, stratagize, give updates, share best practices/stories and have a few beers. Now that us Junior Fellows have been in country for a month, it was time for us to head to our first in country.
Before hand, we spent a couple days to ourselves to reflect on our own experiences. We also were given the chance to check out Mole national park and play tourist.
Mole (like guacaMOLE) was designated as a national park in 1971 and is the largest and best known of Ghana’s national parks. It comprises an area of 4840 square km of open savannah woodland, boval, riverine forest, floodplain grassland and swamp that supports a rich diversity of flora and fauna.
What Ghana is missing is that big tourist attraction. The country isn't known for it's game viewing in the same way that East Africa is, that's for sure. The pro is that there are few people at the park in any given time and allows for exploring by foot. The con is that the infrastructure to the park is in pretty rough shape and things are ludicrously overpriced.
- Taking a Trotro from Domongo, West Gonja to Mole Park.
-James, our guide for the day.
Baboons came to greet us at the gates. They are pretty much trained to know that non-Africans are easy targets for food snatching. The trick to scare them away when you're trying to enjoy your lovely, imported, 7 dollar plate of french fries by the Mole park poolside is to assume the slingshot position with your hands.
-Bush Buck prints!
-Baboons and warthogs have it rough.
Introducing Loxodonta africana!
'Twas an amazing trip!
I'll be honest.
I got a little misty eyed seeing the elephants.
They're such a powerful animal and yet they move so softly and are such playful beings.
James expressed his concerns for the amount of poaching that still occurs in the park, as well as the use of bush burning by local communities that damages a considerable amount of habitat. This is something I've heard a lot about during my time working with MoFA. The practice is done for a variety of reasons: for aesthetics, to clear grass so that fire wood is easier to spot, to get rid of rats/spiders/mice/snakes, preparing the land for planting amongst others.
In farming communities, bush burning is a much easier way of dealing with organic matter as composting making is especially labour intensive and takes time. MoFA tells farmers to recycle their organic matter, but there isn't much incentive or support for composting, especially when there is an easier route of using chemical fertilizer, which farmers get at a subsidized rate with MoFA coupons. Farmer behavior is difficult to challenge, so is MoFA approach to extension. Often, this practice is just another reason why farmers are deemed as lazy, illiterate and don't adopt technologies. The first step to bringing more appropriate extension services to farmers is understanding to get MoFA AEAs to understand and value why farmers behave the way they do. This is where getting AEAs to see farmers in a new light and to value what farmers are doing how the innovation project fits in. We had an innovation workshop, and invited AEAs and MoFA staff from 3 districts to share the innovations they've found and to talk about the next steps. I'll leave that update for the next time!
I'm back in Wa for the day and heading up to Lawra after a week and a half of being out of the community. The country meeting has got me recharged to try a few new things at work. I'm especially excited to see how my field is doing!
Love from the upper west (and best) side!
i just relived it!
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