Christmas - 2007

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - for real.

I started on the previous entry and kept on going and going. It ended up so long that I wanted to end that entry and make a separate one to announce what is happening in the future.

Christmas in Beamsville was pretty mellow. Mom, Dad and I pretty well picked out our own gifts. We did wrap them and opened gifts on Christmas morning, but for the most part we each already knew what was in the packages we received. It was still nice to spend some time together, being thankful for what we already have and realizing that we are already so blessed that we don't really need to exchange gifts.

We went to my aunt's for a lovely turkey dinner. This is her Christmas tree, with Dad having a small snooze beside it. The meal was good, the company was good, and it was more about visiting with each other than about giving each other things we didn't really need at all.

Later in the day, Mom and Dad were able to have video phone calls with all of their daughters, many of their grandchildren and one of their great-grandchildren. We spent some time getting that set up but it worked out very well. Those that were not able to participate on Christmas Day will be able to hook up when they get the chance. And it will allow Mom and Dad to keep an eye on the growth of their great-grandchildren, especially, without having to travel from home.

Return to West Africa

I did not mention this earlier, but I did go to a Returned Volunteer Weekend in Ottawa for VSO. It was an opportunity for volunteers who have recently returned from their placements to share time and experiences together. It is a good chance to talk with those that understand some of what was experienced, because they have had similar experiences. And it is important for the volunteer to realize that what was experienced in Ghana, for example, was very similar to what another volunteer experienced in Guyana. There are similar joys and feelings of accomplishments - and there are similar frustrations - no matter where one goes.

Though unrelated to that weekend, I was able to do a lot of thinking and evaluating while I was away from my life in Canada for a weekend. I had already told VSO that I would be interested in returning overseas. My first choice was to return to Ghana and to the place where I had just left. My second choice was another African country for a different experience. What VSO presented me was an opportunity in Nigeria, which I hadn't really even thought about before. After a lot of thinking and soul-searching, I made the decision to accept the position.

I will be working at the College of Education in Akwanga, which is in Nassarawa State, and is located about halfway between Abuja, the federal capital, and Jos, a favoured destination for visitors to Nigeria. The latitude is very similar to where I was in Ghana, so I expect the climate and the environment to be similar. It is a more rural area of Nigeria so I expect the people to be similar to those I worked with in Ghana. The employment challenge will be different from what I have done before, but it seems to draw on my previous volunteer efforts. I am even looking forward to learning Hausa, which will be the prominent native language of the area. Hausa is spoken in many of the countries near the Sahel, so learning this language will be much more beneficial than I found the regional languages that I attempted to learn in Ghana and when I was in Nigeria before.

I will leave for Nigeria on 09 February 2008 for probably two years, though the length of the placement can still be negotiated. I am looking forward to meeting some of my friends from Nigeria who I left in 2003. I am looking forward to seeing how Nigeria has changed since 2003, realizing that I will be in a totally different environment this time. I am looking forward to working with Open Office, as the College of Education is interested in moving to Open Source software so that they will not have to deal with licensing issues, an effort that I find commendable and forward thinking.

You can find a brief description of the posting by visiting www.vsocan.org/display.aspx?pid=499&cid=926, where you will also find a link to make a donation to support my efforts. I encourage you to visit this site and to support VSO.

And I will close by again wishing everyone the best of 2008, which is only days away. 2008 will include another major change in my life. My hope is for peace and safety for me, and for each of you, as the year begins.

Pre-Christmas 2007

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.

Again, it has been a long time since I last updated this blog. My life in Beamsville has stayed pretty routine since returning from Ghana. I continue to help cut wood with a friend in Silverdale, when the weather permits and my friend needs to cut wood. I spent almost two weeks travelling with a cousin who is a truck driver. He had carpal tunnel surgery on one hand and needed someone to secure and loosen his loads. It was interesting to see the life of a trucker. My cousin works independently and does relatively local deliveries now, mostly steel.

His deliveries took us to some places in Ontario that I have never been. Of course, we went to Toronto and Brampton several times. We also went to Barrie and Welland. But I don't remember ever visiting the Amish country of Ontario - towns such as Wallenstein and others north of the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Since winter had started, we had some adventures getting out of parking lots, especially in Wallenstein where the driveway was a solid sheet of ice. For me, it was a good week. We picked up the loads and I spent 15-20 minutes securing everything. My cousin would then handle the hard part of driving to wherever we were going and I road along in the comfortable passenger seat making conversation. At the delivery point, we often had to wait for an hour or more to unload, so we would chat, drink coffee, rest, and otherwise occupy our time until the tow motor or crane became available. then I would spend another 15-20 minutes removing the chains, wait for the unloading, and then close the tarp for the return trip.

It was good to spend that much time with my cousin. We had not known each other that well before because of our age difference and because he had grown up in India. When he returned to Canada, I lived in other parts of the country and the world. We got along very well and I enjoyed our time together. I hope he did as well.


And then Christmas happened, as it seems to do every year. One event of the season was to join my friend, Mary, for her company Christmas party in Simcoe, ON. It was a lovely evening, even though everyone was looking out the windows for most of the evening, checking the weather. Beginning a few days before this event, the forecast had been for a major snowstorm to hit southwestern Ontario. It didn't happen exactly when it was predicted to start, but we were all watching.

The trip to Simcoe was uneventful. The roads were dry and I thought I could have ridden my motorcycle down. It would have been cold but it would have been clear. Even at the party on Saturday night there wasn't a hint of snow. I began to believe that the forecast was in error.


Sunday morning I woke up when I heard what sounded like rain on the windows. The roads were still clear at the time. I called back to Beamsville to see what the weather was doing there, in case I needed to stay in Simcoe another day. I found out that they had cancelled church because of the weather. It still wasn't so bad in Simcoe so I ate some breakfast and then decided I would head back to Beamsville.

By that time the snow had accumulated. Mary and I spent about 30 minutes clearing the ice and snow from the car. Then I had a bit of a struggle getting out of her driveway because of the slope of the road. After that, it was a slow but uneventful drive home. I never exceeded 60 kph, and usually travelled about 50 kph. The trip I usually make in about an hour took more than two hours. There weren't that many other "idiots" on the road, making it safer for me. I wasn't so worried about myself, but got concerned when people were following me - I wasn't sure they were keeping a respectful distance behind. And there was a good portion of the trip where it seemed that it had not even been ploughed yet. But I made it home safely - only to get stuck at the bottom of the hill (driveway) to our house.

So, after a tense ride home, I spent more than 2 hours clearing the driveway enough to get the car into the garage. Dad was having some problems with his shoulder so was not able to help. And I think that the pain of not working was more than the actual pain of his shoulder, later diagnosed as bursitis. He did drive the car up the hill and into the garage. About the time I was finishing all the moving of snow, our neighbours, who share (and own) the driveway decided they wanted to go out. So they were able to take advantage of all of my work with very little effort on their part.

The next day, Monday, I finished cleaning the landing meaning that I spent another 2+ hours moving snow. It was very tiring but also somewhat fulfilling to see what had been accomplished. There was about 40 cm of snow in all and it seemed like we would almost certainly have a white Christmas. However, the following Sunday came with rain and a temperature of 10C and almost all of the snow disappeared (except for the mound created by my snow removal efforts). We did get a bit more snow on Monday so Christmas was white, sort of.

October 2007

This is me back in Canada. The picture was taken in mid-September after I returned from making a presenation to the Lincoln Rotary Club at breakfast. I had been invited to speak and made some effort to prepare a suitable presentation, including photos. And part of the presentation is a Ghanaian dress. Everyone seemed quite impressed with the outfit.

I prepared a talk covering certain things that I felt were important to share about my experience. Unfortunately, I didn't really plan my talk around the pictures I had chosen to show. Both depicted something of my experience of Ghana but they didn't necessarily go together. I chose to tell the story as prompted by the pictures I had chosen rather than forcing a speech and looking for supporting pictures. I have to admit, knowing that the presentation would be no longer than 20 minutes, I was a bit casual in my presentation. I had forgotten that it takes more to prepare a short, succinct presentation than it does to just ramble on.

The presentation was received warmly and several of the members indicated that they sensed my appreciation of the experience from what I said and the enthusiasm with which I said it. And I did use the opportunity to do some "preaching". A point that I wanted to make and continue to make is that African countries, and other developing countries, do not need the things that we no longer have a use for. If I want to send something to Ghana, I need to reach a little bit deeper into my pocket to send something that will be useful for an extended period of time, and not just something that is too good for me to throw in the garbafe.

The example that I used was a real one to me. Computers have a life cycle. Corporations upgrade their computer systems every three or four years. The old computers are still useable, but are not the fastest or the most current. They are often donated to not-for-profit organizations or to schools or to other beneficiaries. These donated computers are used until they are replaced because of new donations. The computers that came to me in Ghana were donated from schools. In general, I would suggest that a computer that is no longer of use to a school in North America is probably of even less use to a school or NGO in a developing country. It takes too much effort to keep the computers running. There is very little technical support for hardware or software for these older computers. They are often set beside a modern computer that has been donated by another agency and the discrepancies are too obvious. The life span of these donated computers is quite short, if they are able to be used at all. And the developing countries have no recycling program to properly dispose of the electronic equipment that was donated to them.

So, instead of donating "stuff" that is ready for recycling or garbage, let's all dig a bit deeper and give what can be used and what has a life span of years and not months or weeks.

I am still finding my feet here in Canada. The weather has been quite a change. From Ghana, I received reports of heavy rains with no breaks between. The result was the collapse of mud buildings because there wasn't a day of dry between the rains for the mud to dry out. Lives were lost, crops were lost, travel was difficult. None of my personal friends died, but some did lose parts of their houses and farms to the rain. The result of the early drought followed by too much late rain will be hunger for many this year and less seed to plant next year so probable hunger again next year. Recovery from this year will take two or more years. Yet the people remain positive and look to a good future. I miss that about Ghana too.

I am doing some work on a friend's farm cutting firewood. I enjoy the manual labour. It is satisfying to realize that I am tired at the end of a day of work, and I can look and see three or four cords of wood ready for sale or use. And I continue to look for suitable and satisfying employment. It will come in time.

Life in Canada

It is already nearing the end of August. I have been back in Canada for 21 days now. And you might ask how I feel about being home

It was a real pleasure to see my parents and to know that they are both doing well, at least as well as anyone could expect at their age. Both parents were there to meet me in Toronto, along with an aunt who drove them. It was good to fellowship together over some food.

Since arriving, things have been busy. The first weekend was the combined Perry/Huntsman reunion. The festivities started on Thursday night when some of the cousins got together in Vineland while the first generation and their partners met in Beamsville for their own time together. The cousins had a good time visiting with each other and meeting new relatives, as our group was multi-generational and so included the children of some cousins. The family keeps growing as the younger ones marry and then have children of their own.

Friday night was the gathering of the Perry family. The day started with a quick trip to Buffalo to pick my daughter from North Carolina. She was able to come and participate in the weekend, and it was nice to have some private time together before meeting with the rest of the relatives. The evening began with food, as usual. And as usual there was too much of everything, and I know that at least I ate more than I needed. The festivities of the evening involved interviewing different groups, such as the first generation brothers and males spouses of the sisters, followed by the first generation sisters and the spouses of the brothers. Interview questions caused each group to reach back into their younger days to tell stories of what it was like growing up on the farm, etc. Of course, I discovered that sometimes our parents did things that they would never allow their children to do because it was too dangerous.

After the first generation, the second generation was invited to the front basically in age groups. Again, various questions were asked to prompt memories and stories of our parents and our grandparents. Finally the third generation was invited. Unfortunately, by that time most of that generation had lost interest and gone on to do other things of more interest to them.

The Perry family consists of five brothers and four sisters. One brother died shortly after birth, but the remaining eight are still alive. Only the oldest sister, who is also the oldest child, is now unable to attend such functions because of her health. The rest remain relatively healthy and strong and very interested in these gatherings. There were 75 or so present for this event.

Saturday was the gathering for the Huntsman family, of which the Perry's are a subset. Someone determined that no Huntsmans were present. I think it is because there were too many daughters and not enough sons. There were up to 100 people for this picnic outing. Fun was had by all, at least it seemed like that as I watched one uncle participate in a pie-eating contest against his own grandchildren and nephews. He joined in out of his good nature and for the fun of it.

That was just the first weekend home. It has not been that busy since.

The weather in Southern Ontario has been very warm and dry. I felt at home and was glad that I decided to come home in August instead of February. All around complained of the heat - I felt like I was still in Ghana. Unfortunately, that has not continued and the weather has recently started to hint at what is in store in only a few weeks. And I have to admit that I have felt cold. After wearing nothing but short-sleeved, breezy shirts for 18+ months, it is hard to put on a long-sleeved shirt again especially when I know that a jacket won't be far behind.

I have been able to get a lot of errands done, simple things that needed to be done. I have contacted the doctors that I need to see and have appointments for August and September. It isn't possible here to just go to the clinic and be seen in turn. There are too many people and not enough doctors, so I have to wait several weeks to be seen. Unfortunately, for one job that I can step into quickly and easily, I need to be seen by a cardiologist first so this delay is affecting me adversely.

I had picked up my car from its storage location shortly after getting home. The car started fine and seemed to run fine. I took it to Buffalo to pick Jamie. On the way home the brake light came on. By Friday night, the brakes were totally gone. So another errand was to see what repairs were needed to make the car roadworthy again. The estimate came out to $2,500, which is more than I paid for the car when I bought it. So I had to take the tough decision of giving it away to a junkyard for $100. It was sad to see it go because I don't know what I will do for wheels while I am deciding what to do next.

I took my bicycle in for service and was happy that it came back with no problems, unlike the car. I had ridden the bicycle in to St. Catharines to the store where I bought it. About 1 km from the store I had a flat tire so had to walk the last bit. But that was the only real problem, other than normal tightening of wires, topping up the tires, lubricating and checking wheel alignment. I have been able to go for some good rides since coming home, though not as many kilometres as I was riding before going to Ghana.

I have done a bit of looking for work but it has not been my priority yet. I plan to go to the US to spend a week with Jamie in September. I hope that by that time I will have a better idea of what I want to do next. And then I will focus on doing that.

The pictures that you see in this post are obviously still from Ghana. The first picture is part of the staff at Bongo Senior Secondary School and the picture was taken during my last visit with them. The second picture is the presentation of a certificate to one of my students in Sandema. These show that my heart is still in Ghana. I left behind some good Ghanaian friends. I am trying to keep in touch with them but it is difficult because so many do not have email accounts.

Finally, I am happy to be home. I feel somewhat unsettled at the moment and unsure of what I will do or where I will go next. Keep me in mind as I make this hard decision over the coming weeks.

01 August 2007

It has been quite some time since I have posted to this blog. I did a better job of keeping up with my newsletter update each week, but even that suffered. Loading pictures to the internet took just too much time, money and patience. Sometimes I was short on all of these.

As of 31 July, I am back in Beamsville, ON. I made the decision to return home because the project that I had come to do - the IT Training on the Educational Management Information System (EMIS) - was pretty much complete. The challenge was that when we started using real data for testing, I found problems in the data sheets that were to be used to analyze the exam results. So, I spent much of the last month working on the spreadsheets at all hours of the day and night.

The power shedding exercise (sharing power outages on a regular basis to avoid a complete outage for the whole country) presented an additional challenge. I kept a calendar so that I had a good idea when the districts were scheduled to have no lights. But VRA (Volta River Authority) did not always stick to the schedule. So there were many occasions when I would arrive at a district for training to find that there was no power.

Overall, Ghana was a good experience. I enjoyed the work that I did. I enjoyed the mobility of having a motorcycle. I met a lot of great Ghanaians, both at work and as friends. The other volunteers were a great circle of support. It was good. But it was finally time to leave.

It was with very mixed feelings that I left Ghana because of the things mentioned above. It is hard to say goodbye to people that I spent so much of each day with over the past several months. Ghana had become the known and it is now Canada that is a bit of the unknown. I am glad to be home, but I know that I will face different challenges here as I try to fit back into Beamsville.

The above picture has nothing to do with my job or with my leaving. But I think it is a pretty neat picture. This camel and rider showed up outside a spot on the outskirts of Bolgatanga one day. I asked if I could take a picture and he seemed happy to oblige. After taking the picture, he then started asking for money. I found out that during the dry winter season (January and February especially) people wander in off the Sahara and Sahel looking for pasture for the camels. This man was probably from Burkina Faso, or possibly even Mali. It was interesting to see. I did not realize how large a camel is until I stood next to this one to take the picture.

I will try to add a bit more here soon to wrap things up. For right now, I just wanted to let those that have looked here that I have arrived safely at home in Canada, and I am beginning the next phase of my life.

Take care one and all.