Malaria and a 10 Day Whirlwind Tour in Wa

After the Christmas holiday I was back at work for only three days before I began to feel pretty under the weather. I assumed it was only a bit of "bus lag" but it turned out that I had malaria- how could I have a true African experience without getting a chance to see what this was like! Fortunately, I did not suffer as badly as my good friend Nichole and the "experience" was nothing more extreme that a bad case of the flu, though it was very weird to be so incredibly tired for nearly two weeks.

After I shook off the malaria, I was off to Wa, the capital of the Upper West Region, trying to make up for lost time. I am required to try to spread my efforts between Wa, Bolgatanga (in the Upper East Region) and Tamale, so I was due to get a project going in Wa. The "city" of Wa is not nearly as easy to travel to as Bolga-the red dirt road is plagued with pot holes and divets caused by the rainy season and now the Harmattan had blown a thick layer of loose sand over it, adding more obstacles on this difficult terrain.

I planned to put on a Women's Entrepreneurship Event in Wa and I had exactly 10 days to make this happen. Before we got down to business my DREP counterparts were kind enough to take me out to the Hippo Santuary that lies just west of Wa on the Black Volta River that separates Ghana and the Ivory Coast. We set off early in the morning because the hippos are best spotted between 6 and 7am or in the late evening. We picked up a tour guide in the local village near the river and packed the pick-up with life jackets. When we arrived at the bank of the river 4 ancient, traditional wooden canoes awaited us. Most had a decent amount of water sitting in the bottoms which led me to inquire if the boats leaked. I think the old fishermen who had gathered around the boats smirked a little, but finally one of the boys told me no, it's no problem.















So Baba, Matilda and I set off down the Black Volta River while Ziblim stayed on the bank grinning and snapping photos. The canoe ride was absolutely beautiful-the weather was still a little cool from the morning mist and the sun was just beginning to come to its full brilliance above the tree line. It was quiet but for a few small yellow birds that chirped lazily as they pecked away at the trees lining the river. I was happy the scene was so relaxing because I had a small memory of a story in the back of my mind that made me hesitate slightly before getting in the canoe. It was a story my dad told my sister and I- of some travelers that had a bad experience with hippos. It is actually a fairly unknown fact that hippos are one of the most dangerous wild animals. They seem pretty big and lazy (and the cartoon images we're accustomed to of the hippos with funny teeth and a bow tie don't help) but they are actually quite vicious. They tip over canoes and drown people in their mouths even though they are actually herbivores and they can run very fast despite their grandoise build.

But all that aside, on this particular Sunday morning I found myself in a small wooden boat, drifting down the river, seeking these creatures out. The fishermen had seen the hippos earlier that morning and indicated that we would probably have to canoe at least an hour down the river before we saw them. But within a half hour we lucked out-a mother and her baby were in the middle of the river bobbing up and down along the waterline. We shuffled the canoe over to the very far side of the river bank and watched the river, quietly waiting for them to pop up each time for air. I tried to get a picture of them, but it was pretty hard to time it properly.

The Entrepreneurship Workshop in Wa was a lot of fun and I learned so much from the +50 women that attended and assisted with event. I was incredibly lucky to meet a Peace Corp. volunteer on my second day that was working with a local women's development group. She was really keen to help me out with my project and in the end, we figured it was destiny that we randomly met outside the internet cafe- she was feeling a little disenchanted with her posting because things were moving so slowly and I was feeling somewhat lost in Wa, unsure of where to begin in this strange city where I was lacking a network. But Joy knew lots of people, especially strong women in the community, and I had a plan and tight time lines- it was perfect! We built a team of female volunteers living in Wa and local women who agreed to present on various business skills in the workshop. We also managed to get the local Radio Station to come out and cover the event.

The discussions within our workshop were incredibly interesting and I realized how much culture affects business. (For example, when a woman asked me if it's okay to go and take something from someone's house or store when they owe you credit and haven't paid you back even when you've reminded them several times, I found myself a little unprepared. haha But, in fact, credit is a really typical problem for small business owners here.) I also gained an even greater appreciation for the barriers and struggles women in the north face on a daily basis. I hoped that at the end of the day, we had at least provided some knowledge that could help empower our attendees.