The Work - An Update (Part 1): 4H, Mushrooms, a "Hackathon" and GLOW/BRO

It’s been awhile since I posted a work update and I’ve made some good progress in different areas since I last posted. In fact, I’m very proud of what my counterparts and I have been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. Overall, my community has been a stellar partner and have collectively put in the work necessary to make these projects become a reality. Although we’ve had some hiccups, some failures and plenty of frustrating moments, they’ve never wavered from their commitment to making our time together a success and for that I’m truly thankful.

This is part 1 of my November, 2017 work update. To read part 2, click here. To see my first blog post about the work I'm doing written in June, 2017, click here.

4H Clubs: 4H is an extra-curricular agriculture-focused club for kids. The four H’s stand for Head, Heart, Hands and Health and if you say “4H” to any of my club members they will immediately say the four H’s with corresponding motions (this is something we created on our own). There is also a 5th H that we've been focusing on, “Her.” So in addition to teaching agriculture-specific lessons, the kids also learn about gender equality.

I now have two clubs, one at each of the Junior High Schools in my community. Each class begins with the 4H pledge, followed by a fun activity, game or energizer (Simon Says is a recent favorite) and finally a lecture and/or farming demonstration. This term we have had practicals on gardening, no till farms, and compost piles, with lectures about proper farming strategy, the principles of water conservation and basic soil science. We also had a day in each club dedicated to gender studies, although I do my best to make a point of identifying and correcting any gender inequalities or discrimination occurring during other sessions as well. Next term I want to focus on sack gardens and other cheap, easy and sustainable methods of growing nutritious vegetables and fruits for the house.

I have had many challenges starting the two clubs, but any explanation of my struggle has to include a brief overview of how Ghanaian schools are run, of which the two in my community are no exception (my schools are probably better than most but still face the same challenges, just to a slightly lesser degree). For many reasons, many of which are a product of the environment and culture (and some of which are not), schools are very disorganized. Teachers regularly don’t show up, class times are inconsistent/unpredictable and the kids are often used for chores or work not related to class. Keep in mind, the schools receive virtually no money for daily expenses, let alone things like furniture and repairs. And when lessons are given, they are often taught with no critical thinking involved, but instead with lectures and required memorization. The first time I approached one of the schools about assisting, they told I could come at any time (even unannounced) and teach any grade any subject I wanted. I tried this once before I started the 4H club and it went about as well as you’d expect.

Recently, a United Nations report warned that while most kids in rural Africa are going to school, they learn very little while they're there. That has been my experience as well and I know other volunteers identified with this report as well.

So with all of that in mind, my first hurdle was adoption. Fortunately, both of the headmasters were interested in having a 4H club, which isn’t always the case. However, a “club” is a completely foreign concept to the teachers and students alike, which has made some easy things in theory confusing in execution. For example, I asked the headmasters for a small group of highly-interested kids who were there not because it was mandatory but because they were interested in agriculture. However, one school initially tried to have me teach three full classes (70+ students) at once while the other school started with two classes (50+ students) because they’ve never had any curriculum based on student interest. I should also mention that having the club after school generally isn’t an option because too many kids are needed at home for chores during non-school hours.

While we have come down in numbers since, I still have a lot of kids that only pretend to be interested (because they think it’s actually mandatory or because they don’t want to miss the class taught by the American) and end up disrupting the club for the ones who are listening attentively. Also, it took a few meetings at each school for the teachers to believe me when I told them corporal punishment (using a switch/stick on misbehaving kids) was strictly forbidden. But in my attempt to keep it light and fun, mixed with the size of each club, the kids are very difficult to control and manage. It has been very challenging finding a balance for the kids between taking the club seriously and having fun. For example, one day students kept coming in late. Normally this isn’t a terrible offense for them because school breaks are inconsistent at best, but it's a rule of our club that you can’t be late. Because the club is supposed to be fun, I asked each of the students who were late who still wished to join us for the day to dance without music for 15 seconds, which sounds easy enough. But the amount of time we wasted as a club because the late students wouldn't dance OR leave was extremely frustrating. After 15 minutes of this, I grew impatient and all of my positive, fun energy for the club was gone for the day.

It’s also socially acceptable in Ghanaian culture to hit, slap and fight while interacting with one another, even (and especially) with friends. All of these things are strictly forbidden in my clubs because I want to teach them the importance and the power of words. But this means I’m routinely kicking people out of class for these types of offenses. Unfortunately, because of the size of the clubs I often cannot keep track of who I’ve kicked out for the day and who I haven’t. Now they’ve learned I’m strict about it they often try to inform me when it happens behind my back – but of course they’re kids and they’re not always honest so it becomes he said she said and my credibility in executing this punishment is soured. They also tell me that they hit another kid because he/she was insulting them, but I can’t tell because I don’t speak the local language well enough and the kids aren’t dumb enough to insult others in English while I’m there.

Overall, managing the kids and keeping the club fun is my biggest hurdle I hope to overcome in the next few months.

Mushroom Cultivation Center: This is the only one of my projects at site that has required a grant. You can read about why I’m avoiding grants for site-based projects here. In this case, it was a relatively small grant (~$700 USD) and the project should not only be sustainable, but we hope it will be used to develop many mushroom cultivation centers in the community in the future. The great thing about mushroom cultivation is that it doesn’t rely on the weather or even the climate. We can be continually making mushroom bags, harvesting and selling so that the cash flow is continuous, as opposed to farming which relies on the rain and has cyclical cash flow, resulting in periods of having no/little money for the household.

Our plan is to start with buying pre-made mushroom bags from mushroom growers in other communities. When we’re ready, we’ll use the revenue to make our own bags, which we hope will eventually provide enough profit to fund new mushroom farmers in our community.

The grant money was budgeted for the structure and required tools, as well as at least 600 pre-made mushroom bags. Torgbui, my counterpart on this project, deserves all the credit for the construction of the building, which we recently completed. The base was made from branches he cut and assembled himself; he collected the materials for the thatch roof and wove it together; the clay base for the wall was dug right from his yard; the matted walls were sourced by him from the local market; and finally he contracted people for the cement floor entirely on his own. During the whole process, I simply provided input/suggestions and helped manage the money. All we have left on the structure at this point is to build shelves for the mushrooms bags to rest on, which is a one or two day task.

I have been a little more involved in acquiring the mushroom bags themselves. Our plan is to buy them from three different sources to reduce the variance if one seller’s bags are spoiled. I visited one of them a couple of weeks ago and arranged the details. They were also able to advise me on the proper water sprayer to buy. The other two sellers have been working with Torgbui but we have proven to be a good team in strategizing how to interact with each. We hope to have all of our mushroom bags by the beginning of January, which should start providing him with income by March, just in time for the end of the dry season when incomes are lowest.

Cashew Hackathon: Although my community doesn’t grow it, cashew is a major cash crop and important export grown primarily in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana. I’m the President of the Tech Think Tank working group in Ghana and an idea was initially proposed for this group by volunteers about to finish their service for a Cashew Hackathon. For a variety of reasons, their grant for this event didn’t end up getting approved but I still believe in the concept, as does the IT director of Peace Corps Ghana who is championing it among staff. I’ve made some adjustments to the grant and it’s been met with a lot of positivity and I expect we’ll run it next July or August. I’m going to go ahead and copy/paste the summary from the grant I submitted below.

We will host a 4-day (5 night) hack-a-thon event in July or August of 2018 with a goal of developing an innovative technology system or systems that supports cashew farmers, NGOs and buying organizations with their data collection, reporting and decision making efforts. We will invite cashew farmers, members of the Cashew Initiative (PCVs), and software developers to work in small groups to brainstorm and develop different innovative technology solutions that solve the challenges farmers and cashew buyers currently face. After the week is over, each group will present their solution to cashew-related NGOs who will give out awards and, we hope, choose to finance one or more solutions to be constructed and implementation in Ghana.

Specifically, we’ll ask the groups to create an application for extension monitoring, crop production, market information, warehouse management and anything else the farmers and NGOs believe would help them in the buying and selling of cashews. Primary users of the software will include farmers, farmer-based organizations, and volunteers. Through the use of this software, farmers will be able to compare their productivity and sales performance year by year, manage their expenses, and get a real time one-page record of their cashew business [sales summary, sales categories (cashew, cashew apple, cashew honey, etc.), sales comparisons etc.] while the NGOs and buyers will have a more accurate picture of the Cashew market and trusted documented sellers to work with. We feel volunteers and farmers are best suited to assist in the creation of these applications as they understand the nature of the business and the challenges of operating within their various communities. The software developers will advise on the practicality and cost of different ideas while building a prototype of the solution if time allows.

GLOW / BRO Camp: This was such an amazing that you can read more about here.