Below is a post by guest blogger Andrew Romaner, graduate student at the University of South Florida. He is currently in Adenta, Ghana where he is working to expand access to clean, usable water. Although Andrew is not working on a project directly related to the Global Network, we thought it insightful to share his firsthand experiences and fieldwork. Read on as he describes what he has taken away from his time in Africa so far.
By: Andrew Romaner
The roles of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) read like a most-wanted list for the crime of inflicting human suffering. With a combined prevalence rate of perhaps one billion people worldwide, the scale of that suffering is difficult to imagine. As I sit in an internet cafe, in my temporary home on the northern outskirts of Accra in Ghana, I have only one point to make about that suffering today. Tremendous joy can and does coexist with this brutal suffering. The remainder of this post will concern itself only with that joy (which might be an oxymoron) as I have experienced it.
Joy Source #1 – Children. While family size in Ghana is dropping as life expediency rises (the hallmarks of development as presented by Hans Rollins here), Once old enough to speak, children here routinely clamor for my attention by calling out, “Broni! Broni!”, which means “white man,” and lacks the racially-charged connotations that such an exclamation would have the U.S. There is on little girl in particular named Silvia. She can’t be more than four years old, but with exactly the same inflection every time I cross her path, she asks “Broni, how are you?” just as she did this morning. Ghana’s international reputation for politeness seems to result from a socialization process that begins before you ever sit down in a classroom.
Joy Source #2 – Groundnuts. Familiar to U.S. readers as peanuts, groundnuts are the definitive Ghanaian snack. For a few pesewas (think cents or whatever the smallest unit of coinage is in your country) you can purchase groundnuts from one of the street vendors all across Ghana. A soup of the same name is a staple of Ghanian cooking.
Joy Source #3 – Hitting Water. Adenta, the district where I work, much like the entire south of Ghana, is a fairly water rich place. The scarcity that exists here is social. Water of the appropriate quantity and quality just is not readily accessible where the population most needs it. Given the natural endowments, nobody should have been surprised when we hit water (mud, really) at the first borehole I am managing as part of my project work here. The drilling crew does this multiple times a week, weather and workload permitting. Yet, there is something about that moment, when you push compressed air down into that 100+ meter column of darkness and water sprays out the top, as if you’ve suddenly hit an artisan well. We saw all we needed to in less than a minute of pumping, but the crew kept the compressor on for the assembled community to witness. They’d been gathering slowly throughout the morning to watch the downward progression of pipes. Yes, there was still chem/bio testing to be completed and the water and sanitation committee to be trained. No, the yield was not that impressive and yes, there is already some troubling chatter about salt water intrusion further south. Even so, and even if the proposed expansion of the municipal supply does make it up to this district in a few years, we bought Adenta some time. If the community wishes to put that in their books as a moment of joy, or at least one of relief, I am not one to argue. Conservation measures are a discussion urgently worth having, but only when you have a resource to conserve. Also, the solution currently staving off a humanitarian crisis in this area, driving water in by tanker, is not environmentally friendly either and much more vulnerable to disruption.
Joy Source #4 – Language Comparisons. These happen a lot if you look like you might not be from the Continent. While English is widely spoken here, material for comparison abounds. In Ghana, the phrase “you are welcome” functions as a greeting. While the reversal felt a little unnatural at first, I believe the appropriate reply is “thank you.” Owing perhaps to Ghana’s history as a crown colony, french fries are chips, trucks are lories and the Ministry of Health is home to many a Disease Control Programme.
Joy Source #5 – Guinea Worm Eradication. Speaking of such things, we won’t have a disease program for guinea worm in Ghana much longer. While the dedicated people at the Carter Center might berate me for saying that prematurely, we can all see the writing on the wall. In this case, the wall is at the Guinea Worm Eradication Programme National Secretariat up in Tamale, in the Northern Region, and the writing is a series of zeros on a chart that counts cases across Ghana. While continued vigilance by the program staff and the communities Northern Ghana is absolutely necessary, the vigilance is there. I have seen it. The staff is out in the formerly endemic communities, fixing hand pumps, attending water and sanitation committee meetings and reminding people to call in to the national hotline or tell a health worker if ever they see a suspected case. Before I left for Ghana I wagered certain sum of money against a more skeptical colleague that the mortal blow against dracunculus medinensis had been all but delivered. I am already considering how to spend my windfall. However, the eradication of guinea worm itself, while a cause for unbridled joy, isn’t even what moved me to include it on this list. The joy I wish to cite here is that none of this forward momentum has to stop. The talent cultivated and relationships nurtured during the long years on the guinea worm campaign in Ghana can be leveraged to great effect against other health concerns. Guinea worm need not be the end of all the good work.
Indeed, mindful all the wondrous things present or in prospect for Ghana, when I turn my thoughts to my fellow young global health professionals, there is one crass American expression that comes to mind. “What are you waiting for? An invitation?” However, in a consummately cordial place like Ghana, that would never do. Fortunately, the distinctive Ghanaian dialect of English offers an alternative more polite, direct and therefore quintessentially Ghanaian. If I were to take the liberty to speak for an entire country, especially one I’d only just met; Ghana would say instead, “You are invited.”
Andrew Romaner is finishing his Masters of Public Health in Global Health at the University of South Florida by completing nine weeks of fieldwork with the non-profit WATER in Ghana. He has a Bachelor’s in International Affairs from the Elliot School at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. Prior to beginning his graduate studies, he served for two years in the National Civilian Community Corps, an AmeriCorps program. While in Adenta, he has been splurging on pineapple or passionfruit flavored yogurt for breakfast on his way to work.