Development

While I know that one of my goals is to work towards sustainable development, I can't help but focus much of my attention of individual development.

Maybe it's my Psychology background or maybe my interest in individual development and my decision to pursue a Psychology degree come from the same place. Oops, maybe I'm over analyzing.

I'm the youngest of three children so I've never really had the opportunity to watch a child learn and change on a day by day basis. In the last year, I've gotten to see so much change in Bormase. The tiny, wrinkly newborns that were perpetually strapped to their mothers' backs when I first arrived are now starting to walk around. Toddlers like Atta and Lahweh are running around and talking up a storm. I've seen school age children go from having a mouth full of tiny baby teeth to proudly sporting tongue sized gaps between their canines to having what appear to be far over sized adult teeth (this is a real moment of truth since orthodontics and dentistry aren't real options). On a less endearing note, some young girls have gone from primary school uniforms to maternity clothes and are now sitting at home with newborns of their own.



In addition to seeing the physical changes, I've had a chance to see the different ways that these children play. When I shared a compound with the twins, I could watch them play at washing clothes, washing dishes, drumming and pounding fufu. It wasn't uncommon to see Lahweh flip over his little stool, fill it with rocks and leaves and pretend to drive around like a local lorry driver with a fully loaded car. I occasionally get weird looks when I sit in the dirt and play hand slapping games or catch. When hanging out at the borehole, I'll kick a small plastic ball around with a 6 year old or I'll throw a spherical seed pod as high into the air as I can only to watch children of all ages circle beneath it and make stabs to catch it. Being a white man makes me different already so why not be the only adult male to play games with the small boys and small girls? I'm still the coolest and craziest white dude around. No harm done.

Hannah moved her twin two year olds Atta and Lahweh to a neighboring compound in order to live with the twins' father and escape Dorothy's instruction. The house is between my house and the Moringa farm so I'll try to stop by to say hello on my way to weeding. Since the bushy growth in front of the house was recently prepared for planting (a nice way to say slashed and burned), the children can see me walking up the road and will greet me with repeated entreaties of "Kweku ba!! Kweku ba!!," Kweku is my local name and "ba" means come. I'll enter the compound and join Atta, Lahweh, Teye (the massive 22 month old cousin) and Tetteh (4 or 5 year old cousin) in whatever game they're playing. Recently I've had them take turns hanging on to my index fingers so that I can lift them up and allow them to pull leaves from the Cassia tree (like Ghanaians need help working on their strength).

Though I love playing with these kids, I see Hannah frying Gari with a 16 year old nursing mother and her 14 year old pregnant sister. 22 month old Teye is actually the uncle of the 3 year old twins.

I've recently been working with Hannah, trying to get her to take work more seriously. Seeing that nobody in Bormase sells Popcorn while everybody loves to eat popcorn, I taught Hannah how to make it. I made a loan of three ghana cedis and fifty pesewas (a little more than three dollars) in order to purchase the first supply of kernels. Hannah and I sat down and figured out how many bags of popcorn she would have to sell and at what price if she wanted to make a profit.

After our introductory lesson, Hannah told me that she'd be back in the afternoon and we'd make the popcorn. She didn't come back. I had to track her down in order to set up a time for her to get to work. Sekesua market day came and went with no popcorn made. Dorothy came and asked me if I could get popcorn so that she could start selling it in her store. When I told her that Hannah was planning to make popcorn to sell and that I was trying to help support the twins, Dorothy told me of past business ventures that were unsuccessfully attempted with Hannah. Dorothy and Stephen each assured me (with limited excitement) that they would surely end up supporting the twins. I still have hope that Hannah will get her act together. As it is, she spends most of her time walking around town her pregnant, teen-aged sister in law.

As great as it has been to watch children grow and develop, it's very disconcerting to see the sheer number of children trying to develop. At least the children don't seem worried about it.

Love to all,
Kweku