Tuesday, April 28

Pre-Departure Training

Hey everyone!

The journey has begun. I'm sitting in the EWB house in Toronto, also known as Akwaba House, getting to know the other Junior Fellows!

The past couple weeks have been more or less a roller coaster, involving huge moments of excitement and major incidents of fear and discouragement. But overall it's been thrilling! The notion that I've been preparing for a four month visit to Ghana has been next to impossible to come to grips with. It's slowing becoming more and more real.

This week will be packed full of learning! We'll be doing workshops, discussions and training just about nonstop with the aim of building on the preparation that we've been doing for the last four months. Then on May 5th we will fly through Rome to Accra, the capital of Ghana.

From Accra I will travel to the Northern Region capital of Tamale and from the to the village of Pong-Tamale in the District of Savelugu Nanton. In Pong-Tamale I will be partnering with the Pong-Tamale Veterinary College. We will be working with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA)to assess how the college relates to our Agriculture as a Business curriculum.

This college is one of the places in Ghana where Agricultural Extension Agents are trained. These are individuals who work to bring government programs to rural farmers. This can include new technologies, farming techniques, crops, etc. EWB has partnered with the MOFA to develop the Agriculture as a Business program which aims to help rural farmers take advantage of opportunities in a more productive way. By encouraging the creation and imporovement of farmer groups the program seeks to facilitate group projects or investments that will hopefully build upon the strenghts of the group.

The successful application of this curriculum benefits from an Extension Agent with certain kinds of Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes. One of my major aims will be to discover what Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes are developed at this Veterinary College and to determine if there are any significant gaps between the ideal Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes needed for the the program and those developed at the college. Then we can start expirementing ways to bridge those gaps.

So there is a quick update of how things are going, and a descriotion of the work I will be doing this summer. There are a bunch of other things that I will be trying out, but that's the main goal right now, and I will update you when some of the other things become more relevant.

So please let me know if you want anything clarified (there are no questions too foolish, I tend to leave our major things in my explanations), or of anything excites you and you want to hear more.

Hopefully I will be able to tell you a bit more about how things are going here in Toronto later in the week. Until then!