Ironically, that idea of learning in situations in which no one really expects you to learn is where you gain the most knowledge sometimes. Last Friday, two Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers returned from the field to deliver their presentation on their experience and suggestions before flying back to the U.S. While there were about 10 people present for at least parts of the presentations, the two that stayed the longest were the two long-term volunteers in Accra- a one-year volunteer from the Netherlands and myself. We talked with the two after the rest had left for at least an hour and the other volunteer stayed even later. (I mainly had to leave to charge my computer in order to collect photos from the volunteers.)
During that time was a great opportunity for us to discuss their experiences and what our work is and how to make it all happen. So Friday I spoke with the volunteers, Scott and Deborah, after their presentations, we had lunch with Scott and I had dinner with Deborah at the hotel. On Saturday I had a book exchange with Deborah where we traded books we've already read and I spoke with both Scott and Deborah before they departed. In total, I probably spent around 10-12 hours speaking with each/both of the volunteers over the past two days. I am sad to see them go but have learned a considerable amount from both.
I flew into Ghana with Scott so was excited for him to return so we could talk about his experience but Deborah was welcomed surprise, but I believe she arrived one week before I did so I wasn't aware she was in country.
Broadly, I was able to learn more about international development, pull out more similarities between Ghana and the U.S. and the general things needed to help your Ghanaian hosts. More specifically, I got some great tips on how to construct the website I was asked to build and what to include, as well as some names and numbers of places to visit while working in Tamale and vacationing in Cape Coast.
Information overload, maybe :) But I have thoroughly enjoyed the conversations, lessons learned from others experiences and meeting Gladys, an orange and tomato trader that Scott worked with the last time he was here. Gladys sells to Nigerian and Benin markets and wants to take me to her farmer groups. I am no Scott, nor do I have his wealth of experiences as an ag economist, but being able to meet and work with farmers would be a great experience! I've already thought of ways I can work with Gladys's farmers to help me do some of my volunteer work, such as helping them to tell their story when they have U.S. visitors on their farms to better tell their story in a way that helps provide each side with the information they find most interesting.
I realize that this post has been vague but when you're talking ~12 hours of volunteer intake in two days, not including my regular (and weekend) work, daily experiences and battling my first serious case of diarrhea, I think this post was bound to be less specific in order to not reach novel lengths :) More to come later but for now I'm off to bed so I can make it to another ~3 hour church service tomorrow and finish my weekend work. Congrats on the win MU!
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