When I first got the news that I had gotten a visa to come to Canada, I so happy. I was just so happy about the idea that, finally I was also going to a foreign country where there are incredible opportunities. In my home country Ghana, I realized one comment people made especially after I have told them that I had gotten a visa to come to Canada. Most Ghanaians assume that Canada is a disciplined country and the fact that they’ve allowed me in means I was also a disciplined.
I took pride in that. And indeed Canada is so much a disciplined country unlike my own. In Canada when you meet people on street and ask them for direction, the response you are most likely to get is ‘I’m sorry, I’m in a hurry’ or in simple and plain language ‘I’m sorry I can’t help’ whilst walking on.
As a new person coming from Ghana, I thought these people were very impolite and it just kept frustrating me. I had to devise a strategy to overcome this imminent predicament because in Ghana, we are not use to using maps to locate places, our streets are not labeled not to talk about adding some geographical coordinates like Adelaide street west or East. How am I going to know this immediately?
I’d to improvise. I noticed that, Canadians may not like to give directions but they were very kind people when you ask them to take you a photograph on the street. So anytime I had to ask for direction on the street, I don’t just go directly to the point, I rather say ‘Sir, can you take me a picture’ and it’s amazing how Canadians are always willing to do this. After taking me the picture, I then continue with my questions of where I’m going to.
I would have love Canada the more but for the cold now. It really does get cold here at times but it’s still a great country. A country characterized by a great sense of responsibility rather than entitlement. A Country where the hearts are of most young people are stirred to take initiatives and as well as kindled with the spirit of volunteerism all the time.
I come from Ghana, in West Africa. And like most African nations, we are the most endowed with natural resources. My country has got gold, we have diamonds, we have bauxite, and now we’ve even discovered oil in our country and this criterion is similar to other African national. So how come African Nations like Congo, one of the most richly endowed lands had now become what they called a ‘third world nation’. I believe it’s not an accident, it’s not a mistake; it’s a system. What’s amazing even is that countries like Singapore which has no gold, no diamonds nor oil, and even they don’t have much land support nations a hundred times bigger than them. Singapore is just a city state of a population of slightly 5million people yet its per capita income is almost close to the whole of Africa. I didn’t use Canada as an example, because Canada is far bigger and the world’s second-largest country by total area.
So how can a nation develop from nothing and a nation can destroy everything it has. It’s a system. How can Africans also develop? How can systemic thinking change things around in Africa? Is it possible? I don’t have answers to these questions but I need solutions for Africa because my heart is burning for a change. I want one day to hear a different story for Africa. A story that will tell the world that Africans also do roast what they took in hunting.
I came to Canada under the kind Initiative of Engineers Without Borders and their Kind sponsors like IAMGOLD, HATCH, and AEROPLAN BEYOND MILES among others. It’s amazing how my life is transforming and the approach to which people are using to contribute to the development discourse is just amazing. You see many at times we spent most of our time not saying the things we want to say. The things we should say and it’s wrong to say such words only at the end. I just want to say thank you to all EWBers, the KUMVANA STAFF, and to all the Sponsors who supported this programme and gave me this amazing opportunity to reimagine the world with a lens I have never use before. Thank you to you also out there who is reading this. I appreciate this lot.
