20 Days until I leave...

It truly boggles my mind to think that I will be leaving Canada in 20 days to move to Africa. I don't think the thought has truly settled into my mind. I think I am not letting it set in because I don't want to deal with saying good-bye to everyone and thinking about the great uncertainty that lies before me. I don't even have a clue as to where I will be living, don't know how I am going to deal with being by myself in Kumasi, or how I will cope with being the only female at my office; talk about scary. I  know I will eventually figure things out, but I must say there is no easing me into this, I guess this is the only way to figure things out.

Schools out for the summer?! NOPE.

I’m really excited that July is my last month of summer school and soon I get to relax for a month, before my placement. At this point, though, I am very overwhelmed and burnt out. And I have way too many assignments to even catch my breath. On top of the ridiculous amount of lengthy papers I need to write in the next couple weeks, I have a lot of INDEVOURS stuff to do. If anyone wants to donate more money to INDEVOURS , I won’t protest! But seriously. I don’t have much time to just have me time or hang out with my friends as much as I want to this summer (seeing as though I’m leaving in less than 2 months and won’t be back for 8!). I am also burnt out because this is my 11th month in a row in school. How am I suppose to have the energy and motivation to push through this last month? I also need to get my VISA complete for Ghana, get the rest of my immunizations, extend my healthcare, OH and I’m trying to learn Twi! *insert a million sighs* and that’s the beginning of my list.
All in all, if anyone has some motivation they want to through my way that would be great. Any advice?

Excited for something new!

Today is a “I’m realllllllly excited for Ghana day”. My feelings towards my trip change almost daily. I’m not bi-polar I swear. Today is one of those days where I can’t help but googling Ghana and smiling at all the amazing things I will get to experience. One thing I am really looking forward to is experiencing a new culture. Submerging myself into a culture that is new is going to be very challenging at times but definitely a good learning experience. I wish I had more time to just sit and plan all the things I want to do in the country, but I guess I will have to wait until August for that.
A week ago when my class and I had our inter-cultural pre-departure training I was quite scared. I had thought much about being by myself in Kumasi. The most nerve racking moment that is scaring me right now is the point after I have spent a week with Adam in Accra doing orientation and then having to climb into a car and drive to Kumasi and get dropped off, alone. I’m sure Adam is nervous about this too. I will be sitting in my new place trying to grasp how I am going to a) make friends b) feel comfortable at home and c) fit in at work seeing as I am the only female and probably the youngest person there. I’ll have to blog something as soon as I get to this point just to see the true feelings I am having. Who know, maybe i’ll be busy getting everything together and won’t have time to just sit and think about all this.   But then there’s always before bed….ugh
One thing I’m going to try and do is prepare myself mentally for all of this. It is going to be hard because I don’t really have anything to compare it to besides going away to university for the first time- although I was only 45 mins from home… One comforting thing is that Kyla (another classmate travelling to Botswana) is going to be the only one in her city too. I know I am going to be messaging her along the way and sharing the similar concerns.
But enough about my worries! Today is my “I’m soooo excited to go to Ghana day”!! :)
Have you ever had this experience???

Under the Wire: Canadian Aboriginals

Something that really worries me is how little Canadians know about the issues that are occurring in their own backyard. I must say I am not perfect, and I am constantly learning, which is what everyone should do. This is why I have set out this summer to learn as much as I can about the issues aboriginals face within Canada. In international development we are constantly learning about other countries and the trials and tribulations the people in different ethnic communities have. Not once have we learned about aboriginal history or the current day problems they incur. It is not right. Since taking my environmental assessment classes I have begun to be very interested in the issues facing aboriginal communities and increasingly, their culture. My Canadian geography class (that I took with Kelsey Herglotz) opened my eyes to the different core and periphery regions of Canada and I realized how fortunate I am not only to be Canadian, but to live in Southern Ontario. I hope to continue my learning and hopefully do a masters in northern environments and culture, it truly fascinates me.

Recently I did a presentation on Aboriginal issues in Canada for my geography class. It felt so good to express what I find to be such an important topic. I hope people learned something from it, just like I learned something from their presentations.

A little summary from my presentation:

A meaningful quote:“ The adoption at treaty of your family by mine held promise of a good future for our children… You became my relative at this treaty, you are my relative today, and our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and so on, will be relatives in the future. We have an obligation, Kiciwamanawak, you and I, to make things right between us so that the future generations do not inherit our missed opportunity” -–Harold Johnson Two  Families treaties and government

Colonization

Once again we hear about the white man going over to what they think is a new place (when it’s actually already inhabited!) and abusing it. The aboriginals opened the Europeans with open arms; offering them food, materials, and everything they had to share with them, but instead the Europeans diminished the aboriginal’s wildlife so they had no food, spread disease, and on top of all that made written treaties. What’s wrong with treaties? Well a) they were written in a foreign language b) aboriginal culture supports oral agreements that are not bound to forever and c) yeah they’ll give you all their land and move on reserves while you exploit all the resources they have. That sounds like fun. Sign me up. NOT. Anyways so that’s the summary of treaties/colonization from this girl but there’s a lot more info out there.

Residential Schools

This was not a proud moment for Canada. If you haven’t heard about residential schools you need to listen (or read I guess) carefully. Starting in the 19^th Century and peaking around 1934 the government decided that “modernizing” aboriginals and making them like all other Canadians was what was best so they created residential schools. They figured that children were ‘easiest to mold’ so they took thousands of aboriginal children out of their homes and put them in schools that would teach them English and Christian & Canadian customs. Children spent about 10 months of the year in poor living conditions and abused regularly and then dropped back into their communities. It was very hard for the aboriginal students to try and deal with going back into a culture that they have been taught to hate. The effects of residential schools, in my opinion, are still being felt to this day and some forms of this same “assimilation” is still going on within the school system.

Unemployment

One last thing that I want to talk about is the unemployment/labor participation rate. The unemployment rate for aboriginal people is more than double than the Canadian average. Many unintelligent people would look at this and huff and puff and say that it’s all their fault for not working and they get so much from the government and blah blah blah (I’ve had this argument before). This is far from the actual story. If you look at the labor force participation rate, which is the amount of people working and looking for work, the difference between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians is not much different. Also, there are many more obstacles that aboriginal people face such as job market discrimination. I just want to point out that there are always two sides to the story.

All in all I just want to say, just like mentioned in the quote, we need to work together to conquer the problems that happening in our country. It is not all on the government (let’s be real…….they’re not awesome at it) or all on the aboriginal people or even all on us; we need to collaborate and promote equality. I can’t help but take on a little responsibility for what the Europeans did when they first arrived because I enjoy so many of the benefits that Canada has to offer as a developed nation. We can’t reverse everything that happened in the past, but we can change our attitudes and do something productive instead of destructive (educate yourself!).

If you want a good read the expresses aboriginal history through an aboriginal Canadian’s perspective read the short book: Two  Families treaties and government by Harold Johnson. It’s a really easy read.

What are your feelings about the issues Aboriginals face in Canada?

What are the most prevailing issues? What should we be doing?

Ghana: the place I will be living in for 8 months!

In 74 days I will be leaving the wonderful country of Canada and moving to the awesome country of Ghana in Western Africa. From now on I am going to try and increase the amount of blog posts I have about my placement to a) make it more real b) become more educated about the place I am going to be living in!

One important thing to note about Ghana is that it is a peaceful and stable country. Hopefully that comment calms down some people. I’m not going to die, I’ll be fine. The political environment is also quite stable (which hopefully won’t change with the upcoming elections this year). It will be quite interesting to see how elections are done in another country and how media plays an important role. Ghana also has a fast growing economy; increasing about 6 percent every year (CIDA, 2012). A challenge that they face is the increasing global food and gas prices. Although, recently there has been the discovery of oil, so perhaps things will soon change.

Even though Ghana could soon become a middle income country, there are still many issues that the country faces. About 30% of Ghanaians live on US$1.25/day, 2 million people have limited access to food, specifically in the north where food shortages are recurring (CIDA, 2012). According to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Ghana’s main challenges are:

•  Weak public sector institutions; poor delivery of basic services in areas such as agriculture, health, and education

•  Persistent food insecurity in the northern regions

• Limited access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation

• Inequality between men and women (CIDA, 2012)

Personally, I think these main challenges are lacking at least one other issue; the whole idea of “environmental sustainability”. Everyone I have talked to that has been/is from Ghana has mentioned the lack of solid waste disposal, on top of many other environmental issues. Even the organization I am working with is interested in the impacts of deforestation on local communities. Not focusing on such issues can make Ghana’s other challenges much worse, which is why I believe they are important. 

I am looking forward to going to Ghana and seeing the state of the country through my own eyes. It is one thing to read about it in the newspaper or on the internet, but getting to experience the country first hand will be personally fulfilling. 

The ticket has been bought!

WOW. I’m officially leaving Canada on Sunday September 9th at 8:50pm and arriving in Accra on Monday the 10th at 8:20pm. I’m sorry what?! This does not feel real but it sure is exciting! I keep thinking that me leaving is so far away but it has become a little more real. I’m really glad that I’m going to have someone with me on the flight that is going through the same emotions! I hope I don’t annoy Adam when I keep turning to him and saying WE ARE GOING TO GHANA…..FOR 8 MONTHS. FOR 8 MONTHS ADAM. hahaha I can already picture it in my head.
I know I’m going to look back on this moment and smile so that is why I’m blogging about it. It’s a defining moment of my journey because it makes me leaving in September more final, perhaps more scary. Marking this down on my calender is going to be a weird feeling.
I am also glad the flight is at 8:50pm… nothing worse than being half awake in the morning say good-bye to everyone. And I just know that I am going to be running around finishing my packing the day of. That’s just how I roll.
Anyways, enough of this boring stuff. I’m gonna go stare at the itinerary some more.
Cheers!

What is INDEVOURS?!

If you have never heard of INDEVOURS your life is about to change. My international development classmates and I are very passionate about what we learn about in the classroom and want to explore development even further by completing our 8 month unpaid internships in an array of developing countries this fall. Not only do we want to create awareness of our program and what we aim to achieve personally, but we also are working hard to fundraise for our placements. Our placements are not like the ones volunteers go on because unlike them we are getting school credits for it. Because of this we are required to pay tuition for both terms, pay for housing, food, and airfare there and back, not to mention the fee we need to pay for WUSC  to organize our placements and help us during the process. As you can already tell this is quite expensive!!
Each one of the members of INDEVOURS is an investment. Just like giving money to an NGO in a developing country, giving money to us funds our ability to work on projects. During our placements we will be working on many projects that pertain to microfinance, small business development, and the environment (like myself who will be working on an environmental education project) and many more, and with your help we can afford to do these wonderful things.
We aren’t just asking for donations. We have organized many events this summer to fundraise and spread awareness. A few of these events include an ultimate frisbee tournament, a bottle drive, and a Global Gala. For more details you can check out our website.
We are truly 32 of the most passionate and hardworking students and I hope you take the time to check us out and support us.
Follow us on Twitter & like us on Facebook!!
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