Village Excursion

Forgive me if it feels like I am skipping important aspects of this trip, particularly Cape Coast, the people, and life as a Women in Progress volunteer. I feel like these should come before anything else but I am still learning about the culture here and I would like to do it all justice when I do post. With that said...

I have been assigned three projects while I am here. I have begun working on all of them and I intend to share with you each project at beginning and end. One project involves creating a village excursion for tourists. The village is a small clustering of huts on the beach East of Cape Coast. Its not an old village, I believe it was established around 60 years ago. It was established as a fishing village and people could join the community and operate as a kind of co-operative. Currently there is around 200 people that are part of the village, however all 200 aren't there at any one time. The village's primary income comes from the sale of smoked fish in the surrounding towns. There are two rivers that flow into the ocean near the village that the people fish with nets. And of course there is the ocean itself. They tie long nets onto palms and send them out to sea with boats. I am not sure how long the nets are, but they seem to disappear on the horizon, so they are pretty darn long. After the nets have sat for awhile a group of men will pull them in. Unfortunately, now isn't a good time to fish because of rough seas so I was unable to observe the process.

I am working on the project with Kate, a student from Pennsylvania, so I am not alone on this one. Our plan thus far is to have visitors come to the village, experience the fish smoking process, pull in the nets, take a canoe ride along the river, enjoy a freshly plucked coconut as a refreshment, and experience African village life. A majority of the fee that they pay will go towards the village and help the people improve their facilities. As I am finding out, traditional African life is disappearing rapidly as the world is becoming more globalized and westernized. So it is important that villages like these are able to continue operating so that the culture doesn't become lost. On that same line, it is important to design this excursion in such a way that the western influence is minimized. So this is certainly going to be challenging project and has already turned out to be a lot of fun. I am looking forward to spending time in the village and interacting with the villagers.

Of course there is so much more to this village but that should give you pretty good overview. Hope you are all doing well!

Within the village

Gathering the appropriate refreshments

I love my job