Full-grown mosquito

Today was the end of those end-of-a-chapter days. This morning we met for a final goodbye to classmates and professors, filled our paperwork, got our money and waved goodbye. We are now, in the words of Papa Attah, full-grown mosquitoes.  

 

For the next 30 days we will all be on our own working on our ISPs, most students are staying in clumps in particular major cities, but for me I am truly on my own as I head off to the Northern Region, nine hours from my nearest classmate. There were a few students that had originally planned to complete portions of their projects in the North but because of an ethnic tension blowing over last week into violent protests, many rearranged their plans. Because my entire project is based in the North I held out to see if I would need to rearrange my plans, however things have calmed down, and I am scheduled to depart tomorrow morning for Tamale.

Because I know people are going to start to worry, rest assured that Tamale and the surrounding area are safe. SIT would not let me under any circumstance go there by myself if they had not first checked with every single field contact they have, and assessed the situation and my plans thoroughly.  I'm not too well-informed on the issues behind the protests, and I don't want to be, it  is best to simply have no knowledge or opinion, but what I do know is something very specific and targeted within certain people, and it's really been more media hype than any actual danger. 

 

The police had enforced a curfew between 11pm and 6am as a measure, but as of this morning that has been lifted. I promise to you all that I will be safe, I will travel  the 12 hour journey in the daytime in a State Transport bus that has an armed guard, and because I am the only student in the entire Northern region, I have plenty of staff in the area to take care of me. In fact, I will not even stay in a hotel or apartment like the other students, but with the family of one of our staff members. I will also only be in this area for a few days to arrange things and meet with my advisor, and will soon be out Tamale into the villages I plan to study (which will be away from any conflict area).

 

Those particular village locations are still in question as arranging things here is a lot more difficult than we are used to, phone calls just simply don't work in this culture for setting up things. So upon my arrival, my field staff and I will try to arrange to meet with some people directly and try to figure out details.

Because those that have been following my 'journey to a project topic', I will explain where I stand now:

My proposed project is an assessment of the recent Food Security Program the Ministry of Agriculture started a couple of years ago, and try to identify on the ground what are the main challenges to implementation.

 

However, doing some further research I'm seeing that this program is disperesed through various collaborations with NGOs and the UN World Food Programme, so once I can figure out exactly how it's being implemented, and what areas need assessment I will hopefully help settle it more. Policy is difficult to decipher on it's own, but to do so with limited internet access and outdated websites and information is espeically challenging. So I'm hoping once I get on the field and at least get one good meeting with the WFP office or the Ministry I can get directed in the right direction.

 

I'm very interested in the WFP focus on working with women in ensuring household food security, they have several programs that targeted to education women on nutrtion and food preservation and forming co-ops, like this one they recently highlighted http://www.wfp.org/stories/ghanaian-women-go-business-tackle-goitre.

It's particularly interesting because they work in heavily Islamic communities where a access to women is very difficult. I have a suspicion that despite all the money they are pouring into these programs, few are really success stories like the one they highlighted. However, I'm not attached to any particular specific aspect, but rather want to complete a project that will be helpful to the implementation of these programs, so once I meet with people on the ground and they tell me what their assessment needs are, I'll go from there.

Thanks for all of your support. The next month will be pretty busy, so I'm not too certain on how much updating I will get to do, so bare with me. I welcome all the prayers and best wishes for this next challenge, it's certainly going to be a tough one.


Unfortunately my internet connection is particularly bad today so I can't deliver on the pictures. However, once in Tamale there is a super-fast cafe, the fastest in the nation, right down the street from where I'll stay, so I'll put them up then. Now I shall 'buzz' off.