Category Archives: An In-Field Feel

May
5
So with the rainy season only weeks away, many farmers here in Northern Ghana are busy preparing their fields. Baba recently started to prepare the field outside our house, so I thought I’d give it a try! With my digger in hand I headed out to the corner of a piece of our land and began ‘ploughing’ the area. Arc by arc my back started to break; another reminder my endless moto riding has got me out of shape! As I ‘plough’, Baba begins to create single holes for...
Posted in An In-Field Feel, EWB, Life In Ghana |
May
2
Now I must admit, I have a pretty all-star filled cast of AEAs that I work with here in Bongo; however,  if there’s one that has continually excelled since day one, it’s Cosmas. His dedication to his job, as well as the farmer groups he works with, is truly admirable. He’s been part of the ministry for around 15 years now; however, some years back left for a while before returning. According to his colleagues, you’d think someone would usually come back due to...
Posted in An In-Field Feel, EWB |
Apr
17
What do you get when you put together a volunteer introducing agriculture as a business skills, and another volunteer introducing new agriculture technology? You get a very bright future for Bongo! Alnel is a volunteer with VSO who has come from the Philippines. He is currently working just down the road from MoFA with the Bongo Trade Centre, and as ironic as it sounds, I only met him a month after arriving at a party in Bolga (Go figure!). When I first talked to him he...
Posted in An In-Field Feel |
Mar
11
I arrived in Ghana as a volunteer; but if I received $1 each time I was asked for a loan or handout, I’d probably be living in luxury by now. I remember it like it was yesterday; I would arrive to first meet farmer groups and they would usually break into huge grins, which I perceived as “Yes, here comes a white man to give us free stuff.” I was right to some extent – I’ve realized many of those smiles genuinely represented the pure goodness, happiness, and caring...
Posted in An In-Field Feel, EWB |
Mar
2
As you know, for the past few of weeks I’ve been hitting the fields to check out farmer’s realities and also assist in the implementation of the Agriculture As A Business program. A couple of weeks ago – after a typical miscommunication in meeting spot seeing as all we have to use as reference points are landmarks are rocks, trees, and random dirt roads – I headed to check out another dry season gardening field with Grace, one of Bongo’s zone supervisors....
Posted in An In-Field Feel |
Feb
16
I was speechless as I stood there in absoloute awe! Now I’ve haven’t really come from much of an agriculture background, but seeing this lush green garden cover the landscape was pretty cool. It was like a diamond in the rough; this flourishing field of crops with dry destitute all around it. It reminded me of when I was in India a couple of years back and I visited the Taj Mahal, an unthinkable structure amidst the slums of Agra. Abuba is one of the farmers of this...
Posted in An In-Field Feel |
Nov
18
(Pls. note blog posts are delayed by a few days. Sorry!) Nov 13, 2008 So here we are, day 4 in Ghana! As you can tell internet is not as convenient down here, but then again there really hasn’t been any time to even go to the internet cafe’s!On Tuesday we began our in-country training, where we started to learn more about our village stay, health and safety, and setting our lives up once we move to our districts. Basically, a village stay is when you go into a...
Posted in An In-Field Feel |