Meet Danielle Derks

It's impossible to even think about telling the story of everything I learned in Ghana without first talking about Danielle.

I lived with her, worked with her and was her shadow for the time I was out there. In fact, she refers to me, to this day, as her shadow. And I refer to her as my African Queen, a name reminiscent of a song that was in the charts while I was out there - but really, more about the fact that although Danielle is actually Dutch, she lives a truly African life and has a passion for its people that is especially remarkable.

Danielle volunteers in Ghana for VSO and works with the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership. She's based at the MOFA (Ministry of Agriculture) offices in Suhum.

She taught me how to get around, how to bucket shower, how to survive with no running water and introduced me to the charming people of Ghana in earnest.

Cadbury Cocoa Partnership

Since this blog launched in March, I've mentioned the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership pretty regularly. When I was in Ghana I got to learn loads about it all. Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to take a deep dive into everything that's happening there and share the visions and interactions I was privvy to in Ghana.

During my stay I was lucky enough to spend time with the full spectrum of people that make CCP so special. I met the guys that run the show, spending their days driving around, literally discovering new communities and tagging them with GPS devices. I lived with the volunteers who work on the ground, implementing change one community at a time. There's a lot to talk about. I'm going to start with this teeny overview and then over the next couple of weeks, go into detail here and there as well as introduce you to the people I encountered on my journey.

The ambitions of the partnership can be divided into four main themes, here they are:

1. Sustainable livelihoods from cocoa
2. Sustainable Livelihoods from other means
3. Community centred development
4. Institutional engagement

Behind each of these themes are incredible, human stories, insights and great triumphs over continuous challenges. How do you get a community to vote on how to spend their money when they can't read? How do you empower farmers who don't see themselves as entrepreneurs to take control of their contribution in the cocoa chain? How do you make sustainable change in communities that aren't on any map?

The story of the CCP was a real inspiration for me, I look forward to sharing it all with you. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments.

Zingolo - buy the single

Come on show me your cocoa beam!

Koforidua Bead Market

Ghanaians can sleep anywhere. Fact.

During my travels, I saw people sleeping on concrete ledges on the sides of roads, on tables and just generally anywhere with shade.

On my trip to the Koforidua Bead Market this little guy was wrapped up in a cloth so colourful it camouflaged him amongst the beads his mother had crafted. He slept soundly during my entire shopping expedition.

The bead market embodies everything awesome about rural Ghana: it's as basic as it is beautiful, it's full of energy and fun (every stall demands a conversation) and it's entrepreneurial in the most basic, creative sense.

It takes place in a car park in Kof Town (as Koforidua is known to locals) where it usually bakes in the African sun all day long. On the day I went, it was raining and though the earth was stodgy with mud, the stallholders managed to maintain their typically immaculate stalls. I splodged my way through the sogginess to chat to the people and find myself adorned with beady goodness that had me looking like a member of the Ghanaian A Team. Good times and a truly Ghanaian experience.

 

 

The supermarket - Suhum style

      

The market in Suhum is the most colourful, smelly (good and bad smelly that is) and vibrant place I've ever been.

Every corner is rammed with yellows, reds and greens.

I can't describe the actual place, because it's way too big an assault on the senses to articulate in mere words. The most important thing to know is that efficiency is meaningless, time-indulgence is king.

Imagine going on your regular shop and in every isle there's someone standing there, ready to offer you help and tell you where the stuff comes from and what to do with it. And you can't take that item off the shelf and simply move on without having a laugh and chat to the woman first. There's always time for a laugh in Ghana. Shopping is a big mooch, even if all you want is tomatoes.

The most social, delightful and delicious shopping experience. It rocks.

The hunt for red-red

By the time my last day in Ghana rolled in, I was pretty pleased with everything I'd seen, the people I'd met, places I'd been to and things I'd eaten. In fact, I would have been over-the-moon delighted were it not for the fact that there was still one Ghanaian meal that I was yet to nosh upon: red-red.

I'd read about red-red (that's a strange sentence). It's basically beans cooked in luscious tomato with hundreds and hundreds of garlic, Ginger and chili. It's served with rice or (my personal preference) gooey, sweet fried plantain.

So my final two hours in Accra were spent hunting for the red-red I so desired. I found it at a legendary spot called the Blue Gate. I didn't know it was legendary at the time, but it didn't take too long for me to suss. The smell of bubbling food greeted us as we walked through the door into a community centre type environment - loads of chairs and tables in the middle of a vast room with food being served on the periphery.

A quick glance to my left showed me where the smell was coming from. And this food was like nothing I'd ever seen.

In one pot giant snails simmered in a green sauce. In another lumps of goat tenderised in a sauce of vibrant redness and of course the ever-present vegetable soup broth was right there too.

The giant snails were mind-blowing. The size of my hand, as they cooked they curled up into a ball, like they'd made their way back into an invisible shell. I'd love to show you their beautiful, curliness, but sadly the chef/owner was impossible to charm. No matter how many times I told her that 'I came in peace' she refused to allow me to take a picture of her snails, her pots or her special recipes of gurgling dishes.

So I ordered my red-red, ate it and left triumphant in the knowledge that I'd had it all.

Before and after pictures, for your pleasure, above.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Accra is the most incredible city.

The people, food, pace and buzz make the city beautiful and intriguing. One of the things that adds to its allure is the contradiction between new and old, downright shabby and utterly chic.

During my time there I was absolutely desperate to capture it in a picture. And one lovely, sunny day while walking past the city's swankiest new club Citizen Kofi, I noticed a rather ragged chicken on the other side of the (equally ragged) road.

Please, please, please, I thought, let the chicken cross the road. And by some insane, magical wonder that's exactly what the chicken did.

Here's another shot of the club from the other side - it's epic! Check out the tree painted in Ghanaian colours.

Tro-tros a go-go

When you punch "tro-tro" into wikipedia a page dedicated to various shared taxi systems across the world pops up. There's good reason for this. Across Africa and other parts of the developing world, these taxi/bus things are the only way to get around for local people.

In Ghana tros are everywhere, falling to pieces and rammed full of bodies.

Here's how it works: Pro-active selling is the way it's done in Ghana so when you get to a tro station, the drivers will all try to get your business.

Once you pick your tro, it has to fill up a bit before it can head off. So there's waiting and chatting, both of which are standard in Ghana.

Every driver has an assistant that takes control of peoples destinations, when the tro has to stop and money. This person is called the mate. Mates dazzled me. They are contortionists and acrobats, maneuvering their way through rammed tros and then squeezing into the tiniest spaces. Literally, fully grown men would manage to squish themselves into teeny slithers of seat.A talent!

All in all, tros are noisy, colourful and full of everything I love about Ghana. Read Kellly Avery's post on her regular journey through Ghana, over here.

Things I saw on ONE drive from Suhum to Accra

One of a gazillion shops made out of old containers and named with biblical inspiration.