Another volunteer and I have been planning an animal husbandry training for other PCV’s and their counterparts to happen at the end of April in my small and remote village. 10 Peace Corps Volunteers and their counterparts have been invited, as well as 10 participants from my community (or surrounding villages) and 2 carpenters. This training is to teach said people how to build rabbit, grasscutter, snail and chicken cages/coups and in hopes that they will then take this training and build their own cage as an alternative means of making money (capitalizing on the ‘Alternative Livelihood’ part of my Peace Corps title.)

For the most part things have been going smoothly… we found lodging for everyone (as this event extends over the course of 4 days) we hired a lady to do the cooking for all our meals (even if her price is through the roof) and we are in the process of finding organizations or groups that will reap from this training by receiving the cages to rear some animals.

But that doesn’t mean that planning for this event hasn’t come with its own set of problems… and the problems come more in the form of communication. We have offered to feed the 12 invited guest lunch during this training… but my ‘counterpart’ doesn’t understand why we can’t feed them breakfast and dinner as well (because they are from my village and can go home to get those two meals). Then he said that Peace Corps should pay the carpenters to take part in the training (not sure I understand that one… we are offering a ‘free training’ in hopes that they in the end will benefit.) He was also wondering why each individual is not getting his or her own cage (because we can’t build 40 plus cages in the course of 4 days… and that price kind of exceeds the budget). But then why aren’t we giving them money to go home and build their own cage (because if you hand a Ghanaian money they will pocket it and go buy the newest, flashiest item in the market… and how the hell does just handing out money promote sustainable development? It doesn’t… education does. )

I’ve been struggling to get the idea into my counterpart’s head that this training is for the people, for the village, to learn how to build said cages… so they can take this training back to their compound, village, or organization and try to build their own cage or cages, and make some money on the side from their ‘real job’ (if they really have a job). Most Ghanaians it seems though (or at least this goes for my village) want the world handed to them (that’s not to say that this isn’t the case for some Americans), but they bitch and moan that they have no money and when the opportunity comes (yes most of the days are spent laying around, and when you ask for something, like buying food on the street, they roll their eyes and give you the look “of really do I need to get up from my bench and help you… I would rather stay sitting”) up to make some money they bitch and moan that there is work involved… heaven forbid.