By request, I will briefly write about the volunteers I am spending so much time with and roughly what projects they are working on. I am not entirely familiar with the other projects (or with name spellings for that matter) but I am going to give it my best shot. This should bring some additional clarity on what Global Mamas does.
The biggest bunch (8) of common volunteers come from West Point. They are here for about 3 weeks and have been working on various projects including Fair Trade certifications and follow ups, marketing aimed at recruiting volunteers, and business consulting. Katelyn, whom I am working with on the fishing village project, comes from Notre Dame and is also working on a project that involves creating a workbook that teaches the women basic computer skills. Ina, from Duke, seems to be mostly working on fashion and design. In order to make the clothing produced marketable, the women must have up to date designs. Then there is Emi. She has been here for over a year now and is a volunteering with the Japanese equivalent of the Peace Corp. She is also designing. The only other longer term male here is Paul. He is also coming from the UM and I will be working on two projects with him doing business consulting and teaching business management. In addition he is working on the computer workbook. We are all managed (or maybe mothered) by Alice. She was a volunteer last summer and got hired on in December. Prior to this she was working as a designer in New York. In addition to the Cape Coast volunteers, there are several volunteers in Accra, and a Peace Corp volunteer in a village northeast of here called Krobo. Krobo has women that are producing beads made of recycled glass. There is also another Peace Corp volunteer living near Cape Coast that we do see occasionally and is loosley associated with Global Mamas.
So that is the scoop on the diverse, happy, and sweaty group.
5 comments:
Thanks Grant! It's exciting to hear about the other people working there with you, and that you're not all on your own. You should send pictures of your house so we can see what it looks like! Have a great day!
Yeah, I will post some pictures of the home soon. I am still to take pictures around there and it has been rainy lately, so the picture taking has been pretty limited. Although, I must say the house is pretty unexciting, unless you are into moldy, concrete buildings...
Beautiful photos of the trees and coconut gathering Grant! It is good to hear about what the others are doing. Would it be something that you would be interested in doing long term also? What do you see as major set backs, if any, for bringing this village and business to date without diminishing the culture?
I can't really say if it is something I would be interested in doing long term or not. I haven't been here long enough to make that call. At times it feels like I have done nothing productive, but that is due to the slow pace of life here. If I knew that the work I am doing is truly helping others, which in the end I expect it to, then it would be a lot easier to say that I could do this long term. To accomplish anything here takes time, so longer term almost seems necessary.
As far as the village is concerned, that's tough. I wouldn't say that creating a tourist excursion is necessarily bringing it up to date. Since it is only a brief walk through of the village, the villager interaction with the "obrunis" is pretty limited, of course depending upon how popular the excursion becomes. In contrast, if the visitors were to spend the night or stay for a few days, the impact would of course be much greater. All of a sudden there would be a need for a guest house, plumbing, electricity, etc. This would certainly influence life in the village. I say that this is tough because as we walked through the village, I noticed some people on cell phones and many of the men were dressed in western clothing, even trendy clothing. By no means is this village isolated. But the people do make the choice to live there and live that lifestyle, so maybe that alone is enough to preserve what they have. Pretty generally, I think the biggest set back may be an increased material want. If there is indeed an increase in westerners, there will be a corresponding increase in income. This means the villagers have more wealth with more western influence. Unfortunately, western influence may drive them to be more materialistic, and this could slowly creep into their lives and change how they live. However, the income they will be bringing in will also improve their lives there. One thing would be improvement of the restroom facilities. And of course boats will always need to be fixed, nets mended, and huts repaired. So income is not bad if it is spent in the right way.
Sorry if that is a bit of a vague answer, I have only been out to the village once so far am still to really dig into this project. But I will keep you posted as it develops. Thanks for the critical thinking though Krista!
Good work feller! Greetings from the Northstar crew! Its good to see your approach on life....and to see how years of college can be applied in so many different ways in our fast paced world! Enjoy the cuisine over there!
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