The Work - Part 3

With only a few months left in my Peace Corps journey I really want to try and capture for myself, if no one else, all of the culture I’ve experienced and lessons I’ve learned. I plan on make a concerted effort to publish more than I have been lately and I can think of no better place to start than another update on the Goal 1 work I've been able to accomplish the past few months.

No Till Agriculture

Since my last update there have been a couple of small “wins” for no till agriculture in my community. First, we GPS’d the farms of the 7 farmers who were already using (or planned to use) no till agriculture. Then we sent 6 of my local farmers to the Center for No Till to learn directly from the experts how to improve their farming techniques. Hopefully, they have success in the next few years and the rest of the community adopts it for themselves as well.

Also, after my trip home I arrived to see that the local school had used cover crops on one of our demonstration plots that we had failed with earlier (due to late planting and not enough rain). We had discussed doing it before I left and ran out of time so I was really excited to see they followed through!

---

Sustainable Home Gardens

I’m really disappointed that I haven’t been able to consistently maintain a garden while in Ghana. This seemed like the one thing I knew I could do at site. But a variety of factors of contributed to this venture not being as successful as I hoped, namely it’s a lot of work for one person who is not an experienced farmer or used to the African heat.

However, I have given it another attempt and tried to focus on making it smaller and easier to maintain. This one is in my own house and allows me to work on it whenever it’s convenient. I made a small water sachet nursery behind my house and when they were ready to be transplanted, I had one of my 4H clubs do the heavy lifting from there. We got lucky with a few good rains the following couple of nights and I’m happy to say this garden is doing a little better than the last one.

Also, last month I took two teachers from my community - one from each school - and brought them to a Peace Corps in service training (IST) to learn about how to make gardens. The Peace Corps also gifted each school a variety of tools and seeds when we departed. I'm very hopeful that these teachers will be able to assist me with the 4H club next term and continue it after I'm gone.

---

Mushroom Cultivation Center

At my group’s Reconnect (a week-long series of meetings after our 3-month site integration period ends), my counterpart, Torgbui, picked up an instruction manual on mushrooms and instantly decided he wanted to grow them. While I have no experience in mushrooms cultivation, I thought it could be a great project because it doesn’t rely on rain and if done properly, we can control the growing environment almost completely. My biggest concern was also a potential opportunity. I’ve never seen mushrooms sold in either of my market towns so even if growing them went smoothly, I wasn’t sure if there was a market for them. That being said, if we could teach people the nutritional value of mushrooms and introduce it into their diets, then we would control the market early on.

A few months later, we had an approved grant for 3,025 cedis (about $700) and an outline of a plan. Before I get into the step by step of what we did, Torgbui deserves a special shout-out here for making this project happen. While I’ve provided some general guidance and organization, his vision and hard work is what has made this project work.

First, he built the frame and roof made of tree limbs and thatch by himself. Then we had some local laborers dig up clay behind his house and use it to build a small wall at the base of the structure followed by having them make a flat cement floor. We needed to make sure there was airflow inside the structure so to complete the wall we bought a dozen thatch-based mats (and later thicker mats when the first proved to let in too much light) and tied them to the frame, just above the clay. We supplemented the structure by building shelves and installing some buckets with water to keep it humid inside at all times.

With our mushroom cultivation center ready to go, we needed mushrooms. We ended up buying mushroom bags from two different sources, 400 from one at 1.5 cedis each and 100 from another for 2.5 cedis each, totaling 850 cedis. All of the bags yielded about the same return over the course

of 2-3 months and while we sold (or ate) everything we harvested, we still only had about 700 cedi of revenue, so clearly we had a sustainability problem.

This meant we had to raise prices or lower the cost of goods sold. We sold out, so raising prices was a legitimate option, but explaining supply/demand is difficult, especially when you’re suggesting raising prices on people in your community who you want to be using nutritious mushrooms in their diet. While we had the conversation and raising prices may be something Torgbui tries at some point, the better solution is to reduce the cost of the bags. The good news is that we were under budget the first time around so we still had some grant money left. With our remaining 600 cedis, we bought everything we would need to make our own mushroom bags (including one-time overhead expenses). With the help of our local pastor, who sold us the 400 bags in our initial run, we made nearly 1,000 mushroom bags. They have only just started to sprout, but so far it looks very promising!

---

4H Clubs

My 4H clubs have suffered from a lack of consistency and organization, but we’ve managed to do some cool projects despite this. We ended up splitting the E.P. school into two groups, one for the Form 1 kids (7th grade) and one for the Form 2 kids (8th grade). All three groups have now made compost piles and sack gardens, as well as learned about gender discrimination. In a hopeful sign for the future, the kids in my area seem to have understood the lessons before they were taught. Time will tell if they’re knowledge will translate into practice.

I’m really excited about my last few months with them though. As I’ve spent more and more time in the community, some of its deep-seeded problems have come into focus, namely drinking and gambling. For the last school term, beginning in September, I plan to conduct alcohol and gambling awareness sessions. While I think most Ghanaians know about the dangers of drinking, very few seem to be aware of the realities of gambling. The lottery (which is privately owned) is very popular in Ghana and my community is no exception. I’m hoping to reach the kids early to teach them about how much money they stand to lose if they participate when they’re older through interactive games.

---

Moringa Farm

I hope to have more of an update about this project soon. We've faced many challenges over the past year and I still think it can be successful. Ideally, this will be the primary project for the volunteer replacing me! Below is a picture from the day we arrived to find the farm had been the victim of a brush fire. We didn't quit and we've made good progress since then but this was a tough day.