Water and Sanitation in Ghana

For those who have been reading my blog for a couple of years, you may remember December 2010 when I limited my water usage for a week of advent and donated to Charity.Water - one of my favorite charities. Issues of sanitation and clean water access were incredibly clear to me in my travels to Ghana. My disclaimer: These are my opinions, impressions, and facts I have collected both in Ghana and through the internet. I do not claim to be an expert on Water, Sanitation, or these issues in Ghana but simply want to offer you my perspectives, experiences, photos, and some resources.

Just to give a brief overview... Even in the capital we were not supposed to brush our teeth with the water and were told to 'keep your mouth closed' in the shower. All of our water came from sealed plastic bottles.

The 'sewer' is an open air trough running along side the road. It is not uncommon to see folks stopping and using the bathroom by straddling that sewer. As you get outside the urban areas water running from taps is a luxury very few possess. According to the CIA World Factbook there is very high risk of food and waterborne diseases. According to Water Aid Ghana, 70% of the population does not have access to safe drinking water. In the cities, those who can afford it, buy water in sashays - pictured below. The huge litter problem this creates is a topic for another blog.


A number of aid programs 'help' with a variety of solutions. For example, USAID funded the installation of water collection towers, as did Rotary. As you can see from the photo, USAID's tower doesn't work. The rotary towers actually all seemed to be working - though I didn't get a picture of those.


Digging boar holes and putting in wells are another 'improvement.' Unfortunately, many of these stop working and/or become contaminated. As you can see in the one photo, the tap is padlocked. We were told this happens when they are experiencing a water shortage. They will un-padlock it after they feel the water table has risen enough. Then once it drops, re-padlocking occurs. So, clean water is still not necessarily available consistently.

Most common in the rural areas, up north in Ghana, are the water holes. They are either naturally occurring or 'bowls' built up by the people to collect water when it rains.

One of our community guides filled his empty water bottle with water from the water hole so we could see the contrast with our bottled water. Keep in mind, some of the most dangerous things in that water are invisible to the naked eye.

While just looking at the water hole, we could almost delude ourselves into thinking that people do not in fact drink this water but as if on cue, after most of the students had walked away, this little munchkin came for a 'refreshing' drink.

Women and children walk to these water holes to gather water for cooking in the morning and the evening. If available women use jerry cans or buckets. Some use large bowls. The community we were in used buckets. For our amusement, we got the pleasure of trying to carry this water.

You will notice that the women who have to do this daily do much better than we weaklings do. Some even carry the water with a baby strapped to their back as well.

So, what is a solution you may ask? One small scale solution is a water filter. There are a number of for-profit companies that produce filtration systems that clean the water for individual families. We had the pleasure of visiting one such company, called Vestergaard Frandsen. They produce the Life Straw and Life Straw Family.



A number of our students (pictured below with our bus driver's son) fundraised more than $1,000 to purchase some of these filters to take to one of our partner communities.

The students taught the community leaders how to use the filters.
First step is to hang the filter, as gravity is key.

Dirty water goes in the top. Clean water comes out the bottom.
With the Queen Mother (leading lady in the community) getting the first taste of the clean water.

Though, all were soon enjoying some clean water (you can see the difference with the bottle of dirty water in my student's hand. She was having the kids point to which bottle had the 'better'/ safer water).


The women even tried out the filter, since it will be their job to use it in the home.

For less than $30, dirty life-threatening water...


Is transformed to clean, safe water.


I leave you with one of the best PSA's I think I have ever seen - as this brings the issue of clean water to your kitchen. Think about it next time you drink from the tap, brush your teeth with that water, or fill a pot to cook your dinner and thank your lucky stars for the safe water that runs from your tap.

Animal Adventures in Ghana

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh MY! Ok, that should actually read, monkeys and elephants and crocodiles, OH MY! Among my many Ghanaian experiences, the wild animals were definitely a new experience.



The first 'wild animals' we got the pleasure of meeting were Mono Monkeys in Tafi Atome. Tafi Atome is a small village in South East Ghana - near the Togo border. Back in the day, the people that lived in the village believed that the monkeys were the spirits of their ancestors - if I remember correctly. They were a traveling people and the monkeys followed them. They stopped traveling when they reached a place were the monkeys could live. They peacefully co-existed with the monkeys. When the Christian missionaries came in, they almost completely wiped out the monkeys. They told the locals that worshiping the monkeys was evil, wrong, etc, etc and that they should kill the monkeys. Fortunately, some of the mono monkeys escaped the massacre and were discovered by a scientist years later. The scientist worked with the community to protect the monkeys and develop their town as an eco-tourism site - having a good chief, that external funding, and a good peace corps volunteer also contributed to making this work. So, they have been protecting the monkeys, there numbers are on the rise and the community has benefited a huge amount. The entrance fee helps to pay tour guides that are the top students from the community. This allows them to save and hopefully go on to tertiary education. They have also been able to build a primary school. Their project attracted national attention and so they got a nice paved road (rare in Ghana outside the major cities) to help encourage more tourists to visit.

Just a normal day, feeding a monkey a banana :)

After the monkeys, our next animal adventure occurred at the Mole National Park. We stayed in the lodge on the property that overlooks the water hole. We also took two different 'safaris' - one in the evening and one in the morning. The most prevalent animal was the Kob. Due to a lack of predatory animals, they are similar to our deer in many parts of the US - they reproduce and nothing slows them down ;-).




There were two other kinds of antelope-like creatures but without a telephoto lense, the pictures are fairly difficult to make out. We also saw baboons and a number of species of monkeys - again, most were hard to capture with the quality of lense I have but the baboon turned out alright.



And you can see the red monkey. Note the baby hanging on to the mama monkey for dear life as it runs away :)



The warthogs (Pumba - for all you Lion King fans) were some of the friendliest and most adorable little animals. Not that I would have pet one, but we could get close before they ran away with their little tails held high! If you remember the Lion King, you will notice that in fact it is not 100% accurate. Pumpa's tail is always raised like a little flag, when in fact warthogs only raise their tails when they are running away. It allows the other warthogs to follow I am told. Since they have no neck, they kneel to eat like in this photo.



One of our most exciting sightings at Mole National Park was... a HYENA! In the four years the prof I traveled with had visited, they had never seen one (we didn't believe that they actually lived there). Our safari guide had not seen one in over a year. Again, he is hard to see in this photo but if you look to the top left you may be able to spot him.



AND the most EXCITED experience of Mole was without a doubt, the elephant sightings :) I think the photos speak for themselves...



After leaving Mole National Park. Our only other animal adventure was at Hans Cottage - a hotel and restaurant that protect a small lagoon where crocodiles live. It is also home to a number of bird species. The 'Weaver birds' as they were called are very impressive in their nest building. Both of these help to attract tourists to the place.



So PRETTY!

He is ugly... and scary!


As you can tell, I was not afraid at all to have my hand bit off by a wild croc.

Thanks for reading about my many animal adventures in Ghana! In case, it was not clear, this was a VERY small portion of my Ghanaian experience... So keep reading for another part of my experience.

Why I bike

I figured it was time to give an update on some of Karen's latest and upcoming travels :) Once I started writing though, this turned into my reflections on being a bike-commuter. So, as to not bore you too much with my life, I will have to give further travel updates at a later time.

Shortly after returning from my Winter Holiday in Oregon, I spent a weekend in NC caring for my nephew - an adorable, black, fuzzy dog :) I ran him ragged. We ran, walked, hiked, and spent time with my friend/roommate Kate and her family and my other roommate Emily who came down to NC for the first time. I also came to the realization, again, that I hate driving. This realization began while I was home over Christmas. My family let me use one of their cars and since suburbia is not easily traversed by bike - and my friends are spread all over the state - I gave up my tree hugging commitments for a month.

For those who don't know, I am a bike-commuter and if I have to go farther away than my little legs can take me and still continue to walk, I use bus or metro or am usually going with someone else who drives. Many think this decision occurred due to a lack of resources not an intentional decision on my part, so I figured I would clarify that and give you some insight into the mind of Karen. Viewer discretion is advised, my head is a messy place :-P

First off, I find traffic ridiculously stressful. While in Oregon, and NC, my back, neck, and shoulders became a mass of knots. People are crazy and unpredictable in cars and they speed by life at amazing velocity. I don't think that is the point of life and do everything in my power to connect with the moment - definitely not saying I always succeed at that. Being in a car detracts from that.

You also get caught in these terrible traffic jams where the bad energy emoted far outweighs the good. In DC especially, people honk if they think you had space to turn right on a red light and you didn't do it. Or, if you stopped for the pedestrians in the cross walk and they are running late to an earth-shattering meeting that they probably don't even want to go to but are doing out of obligation, that they tried to squeeze into an overbooked schedule and are now going to take it out on you because they are so miserable in their lives. (Yes, I am judgmental and that is what I think of you, if you honk in traffic). I always find myself looking in people's back seats when they honk because there better be a woman whose child is crowning or someone in desperate need of medical attention for them to be that impatient.

On my bike, I can weave between the gridlock (yes, I am that 'obnoxious' cyclist). I can be engaged in what I pass on my trip. I interact with the people around me. And I don't want to fall asleep, which happens when I am in cars - now you are all glad I don't drive.

Cars, also disconnect you from other people and the environment - I know, that is why many people love cars but I will argue that our disconnection from one another, as a society, is what causes many of our mental health issues these days - but that is a long tangent. On my bike, I can tell you that since coming back in Jan. it has tended to be cold at the beginning of the week and warm up as the week goes on, until this week that the weather patterns changed. I get to see and hear the world waking up to spring. I see the flowers pushing up from the cold, lifeless earth. I hear the birds starting to sing. When it rains, I feel the water splashing down (or up) and truly appreciate the feeling of 'dry' that I don't think you can really understand if you are not soaked to the bone every once in a while. (You also understand warm and appreciate your heat, home, clothes, blankets, etc, after freezing to the bone for a 45 minute commute).

I get to meet the "Good Morning" crossing guard by my house every morning and wish all I pass an equally good morning. Plus, from a time perspective, I get between 30 and 60 miles of biking in a week, just getting around - who needs 'gym time'. I won't even mention the financial and environmental benefits, with the increase in oil costs and all that jazz. Beyond the obvious expense issues, I am also a far more 'conscious consumer' in other aspects of my life. If I have to actually carry the food I buy (either on the bus or on my back while biking) I am not going to buy any unnecessary items. I also have to make a planned effort to go to the store for any reason, and am FAR less likely to impulse buy or purchase for the purpose of purchasing, because again, I can't just throw it in the trunk of my car.

My friend Max recently shared this link with me that has great information about biking and how our society really needs to move toward that as an alternative.

I realize not all cities are currently designed for bikes. And suburbs were designed to get people outside the city requiring cars, etc. But, I think that means we need to reexamine what we value as a society and what impact those decisions will have on generations to come. Does this mean I will never own a car or I condemn those of you that do? Of course, not. :) I simply think as with all we do and say and are, as a society, we really need to think about these things more. And, I hope this serves as a way for some of you to better understand Karen and why she chooses 'to be poor' by our society's definition.

Thanks for bearing with this insight in to Karen!

Writing Your Life

Happy 2012! In light of the fact that the world will be ending in less than 11 months, I have been thinking a lot about life :) Besides, you all haven't had the pleasure of reading one of Karen's Philosophical Rants recently.

A few years back, I heard Donald Miller - author of Blue like Jazz - speak at a conference. While I don't remember many of the details, as it fell during finals week senior year in that crazy time between when I took all my finals during dead week and then took on the administration of my school to keep my Nicaragua Immersion trip scheduled, I remember him talking about writing the story of your life. This is an idea that has stuck with me.

We are all authors of our own lives. We get to choose if our lives are like a Rick Steve's book, Little House on the Prairie-esc, one of those dollar store novels with a cover that makes you blush, tragedy, comedy, or any other combination - though sci fi and fantasy are a little harder to make happen unless you have a werewolf, zombie, or dragon in your backyard ;) Many times things happen that are out of our control but we are able to choose how we respond.

Just as in a good book, there is an incredible amount of character development that goes on in our lives. We change based on our experiences and most importantly our relationships. All those who enter our lives, even if briefly, will leave an impact on how we see the world. When I traveled home over the holidays this year, I was reminded how important our history really is. As in your favorite book, when you re-read your favorite part, the best chapter, being at home I was able to read through old journals - funny the things that seemed life altering ten years ago - and reconnect with people that I have known - some for my entire life. It is nice to see how people change, situations change, but I am so thankful I had all those experiences and people in my life, even if they no longer have a day-to-day impact on what I do, they have left a mark that I will always carry with me.

And the most beautiful part, in my humble opinion, is that our stories are not limited to 300 pages. Nor are they limited to one genre. Our tragedy can be the start of a new chapter of life, a new adventure. Whether our history is one of rainbows and butterflies or struggles and strife, it has made us the character we are today. We must thank both for shaping our lives and answer the one question, what next?

Hong Kong

AND Week three was spent in Hong Kong - with a day trip to Szenzhen... As you will see from these photos, Hong Kong was warm. It was strange to be in 70 degree weather a week before Thanksgiving. It was BEAUTIFUL there!

One of the many adventures we took was to see the largest seated Buddha. He is located on a hill that you can only reach by a tram. It is a 20-30 minute ride on the tram. To get to the ticket booth you had to go up these amazing stairs (They say welcome in many different languages).


From the tram, there were AMAZING views. These are some of the students and me. And my favorite sign in the trams...








Seeing the Buddha was also pretty awesome. I don't think the photos truly capture the enormity of the statue but it was impressive.







At the same monastery - where I would have loved to spend more time - there was a Wisdom Path through which you could wander and reflect. Or sprint through and take as many photos as possible :)



After the Buddha visit, my Buddhist explorations extended the next day when I went to a nunnery with some of my students. There was a GORGEOUS garden connected to the nunnery and a lot of rules for the garden.



My final adventure in Hong Kong was to see a garden that had an aviary and an Olympic square... that was actually a circle... And the Olympics have never been there... but it was fun to play in the rain and impersonate the trash cans at the play area (I won't post the student's pictures as they may not want those on the internet).




So, as I hope you can tell from this photo journey, I had a blast in China and traveling with the lovely people pictured below. I can't wait until my next traveling adventure!



I leave you with some of the food that I enjoyed while on the trip, as that is one of my favorite parts of traveling. First, you will see the amazing dumplings I had in Beijing. They were even good cold, two days old.



These are sugar-coated crab apples - a Beijing Tradition I was told.


My Shanghai top food was hot pot. Something that should be in the US, if it is not. Basically you have a pot of hot broth and then they bring out plates of things to cook in the broth (the veg variety was lots of 'shrums and greens). You drop things in and then let them cook, pull them out and dip them in the dipping sauce (that you prepare from the sauce buffet). It was tasty.

In Hong Kong, the traditional food we had was milk tea with sticky buns. These buns had sweetened condensed milk drizzled on them (As you can tell Philisile and I were very excited for them).


Happy Holidays!