Before I came to Nalerigu, I had an idea about starting a small library in the community, maybe based in one of the churches. I expected to spend my time here discovering if there was any local interest and finding a place to house the books. As it turns out, God has already prepared the way before me. Several years ago, the pastors of the Nalerigu churches met together and decided there was a need for a library for the community. They raised money and started construction on a building, which has just been completed. They even found a committee of community leaders responsible for library oversight. Now, all they need is books. I’ve found an organization called The African Library Project that helps people in the States organize book drives and then matches them up with an African partner in need of books. So far, they’ve just done projects in Botswana and Lesotho, but we’ve decided to approach them with our idea for the Nalerigu library. It may be that they can match us up with donors in the U.S. If not, I have great plans for a book drive (or three) once I get back to the States. Who has books they’d like to donate?
Archive for the ‘Megan’ Category
The Nalerigu Library
Sunday, September 13th, 2009The Great Wall of Nalerigu
Thursday, August 6th, 2009After we left the Nayiri’s palace, we drove out to see the ruins of the Great Wall of Nalerigu. That’s not its actual name (which has something to do with carpet vipers), but it’s what I call it. It was built hundreds of years ago by a Nayiri who wanted to build a monument by which he would be remembered. His only son had only one eye and so by Mamprusi laws of succession, which call for a physically perfect man, the son could not succeed the father to the throne, er, skins. The wall was a way for the Nayiri to preserve his name among future generations. It was also to protect the people of Nalerigu from invaders, but in the telling of the story I heard, this reason was secondary.
All that is left of the wall now is a long stretch of mounded red dirt and a ruined circle that had once stood as a tower. Legend says the wall included milk and honey and the bodies of workers who wearied at their task. We were assured that there were only one or two bodies, since no one else had tried to quit working after the first couple were thrown in.
Our guide was a man named John, who had also taken us to see the Nayiri. He is the leader of the council of elders, who are referred to as the Nayiri’s colleagues, not his subjects. He is the first educated elder of the tribe. Everyone else on the council is illiterate. Also, he is a Christian. The tribal structure is very much rooted in their traditional religion, so it is unusual for a Christian to be able to rise to such stature. When he became the council leader, he was given a name that translates as “Like a Blind Man Picking Gold” because the people thought that a Christian in such a position could only happen as a result of the will of God, as if a blind man found gold, not of his own ability but of God’s blessing.
The Ghanaian Business Model
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009My recent shopping trip to Tamale has gotten me thinking about the African business model. Judging from the Feed the Children ads you’ve doubtless seen, you might not think Africa has an actual business model, and maybe it doesn’t, but I have noticed some distinct practices. I haven’t quite figured out the logic behind them, so I’ll lay out what I’ve observed and then let you post your own comments and ideas.
Most business in Nalerigu comes in the form of family-run shops selling goods like groceries or phone cards or services like sewing or hairstyling. Then, every third day is market day, and women and children come to town and set up shop in thatch-roofed stalls to sell the produce of their farm or other goods like fabric, packaged food or clothing that they’ve acquired elsewhere. These arrangements make sense because they allow each family to generate an income from their sales in an environment where their children are still welcome.
The confusing part comes in the cities. During our day in Accra, Matt and I purchased cell phones to use in Ghana. MTN is our service provider, and the shop was a single narrow room with display phones lining the wall on the right and a counter on the left. At that counter sat no fewer than seven employees. Matt and I were the only customers. I reasoned that perhaps it was just early in the day, and they would be busier later. But when my SIM card malfunctioned and we returned during the mid-afternoon peak of bustle in the tourist district, there were even more employees but no more customers. How can a business pay that many unnecessary employees, and why would it want to?
The first store we stopped in in Tamale was a home goods store called Melcom. It had everything from TVs to freezers to dishes to pens and aluminum foil (I bought the last two). But in order to purchase something, I had to select the item I wanted, find a salesperson and get them to record the item number and quantity desired on a slip of paper. When I had selected all my items, I took my slips of paper to the cashier and paid for them. Then, I returned to all the shelves and took my items. When I left the store, another clerk checked my items against my receipt and then placed them in a bag. It was the most inefficient sales model I have ever encountered.
My final example is the grocery store Zooks. It operated on a more traditional system of carrying a basket around the store, collecting the items you wish to purchase and then paying for them. That was fine. But they had the same phenomenon of excessive employees that I found at MTN in Accra. It was a small shop by American standards, though large for Northern Ghana, but there were employees asleep in chairs in the back corners and a whole crowd of them around the cash register at the front. They were very helpful and carried our groceries out to the truck, but there were so many employees and so few customers. I know people need jobs pretty badly, but how much can they earn with so many people working in the store? And how much can the business earn with so many employees to pay?
In Accra
Friday, July 17th, 2009It’s been months in the making, and now we’ve finally arrived in Ghana. We’ve spent the day in the capitol, Accra. It’s a coastal city with 1.6 million people but still distinctly African. In other words, outside of a large modern bank you can find a rooster parading down the street. There are billboards and signs with President Obama’s face plastered on them in honor of his recent visit. I could have bought T-shirts, scarves, or cloth with his face on them, too. Instead, I decided on a nice wax-print cloth with crossed Ghanaian and American flags and the motto “Yes we can.” Over here people use lengths of cloth for just about everything: skirts, blankets, or baby carriers.
We are staying at the Baptist Guest House, which is a walled compound within the city. We have our own room with a bathroom on the hall and breakfast and dinner downstairs. No air conditioning, but we don’t need any right now. It’s rainy season and might have gotten up to 80 degrees today. We now have purchased our very own Ghanaian cell phones (yes, I can text you from West Africa–I just haven’t figured out how much that costs yet). In the mornin we’re flying north to Tamale (pop. 200,000) and then driving on to Nalerigu (pop? much smaller), where we’ll be living for the rest of our stay. More once we’re settled in our new home.
So, What Are You Going to Do, Megan?
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009My husband is a surgery resident. We are going to work at a missionary hospital in Ghana for six months. Wait. We? Well, we’re both going, and he’s definitely going to work in the hospital. But as someone who’s closest medical work experience was as copy editor for Health magazine, I’m not going to be assisting in surgery anytime soon. So how shall I answer the question I’m getting over and over again: What are you going to do, Megan?
Here’s a quick rundown of my ideas. Some will work; others might not, but I’m excited about them all. For more info on each, just click the number:
1. Develop an audio language-learning resource for English-speaking volunteers wishing to learn the local language, Mampruli.
2. Interview and record the testimonies of Ghanaian Christians in their native languages for use with the hospital’s tape ministry, for preservation online, and (perhaps) for wider distribution as evangelism tools.
3. Record Bible stories in Mampruli using the chronological Bible storying method and following the West African story cloth.
4. Start a church library.
