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.