For Laughs :D - My ride with Mohammed

A bit lengthy(understatement) but interesting encounter i had yesterday...
After field supervision in Wa i had to head back to Tamale (for my non-Ghanaian readers, these are cities in the Northern region of Ghana)
So as usual i call up the car rental for a driver
Im giving a driver named Mohammed
Through out our phone conversations (before actually meeting up) Mohammed had been VERY VERY professional. I instantly liked him for that.
Then it was time to pick me up
As soon as Mohammed saw me, he giggled and asked if i was Dagomba
Of course i am
We set off for our 5-hour journey...
Just then he turns up the radio on full blast and i kindly request it off
Then we bumped into some of his old friends, he stopped to chit-chat
I really didn't mind until he comes over to the car and says to his friend
'Don't you see she is pretty?' (Awkward!)
We continue our journey
About an hour into the ride (at which point im lying in the back, with my eyes closed tryna nap)
He comes to a stop and signals to a stranger,
The man approaches and Mohammed asks him where he is headed, he replies, Damongo.
Thats when he turns to me to ask if we can give this man a ride
Well saying No! whiles the man is looking on will just make me look like a wicked witch
And well its Ramadan so maybe Mohammed just wants to give a stranger a FREE ride
I agree
We continue our journey (Im dozing in and out of sleep)
Then i hear Mohammed tell our new friend (thinking im asleep) how he is only offering me a ride.
He apparently bumped into me in Wa and offered me a ride to Tamale cuz we live in the same area, plus he's known me from way back. He couldnt just leave me stranded like that (LOL!)
We get to Damongo.
And guess what?
Mohammed charges this man a fare (so, no, it wasn't charity and no i didn't get my share!)
Lol!
At this point i finally doze off to sleep until we arrive in Tamale (Thank God!)

One question i really wanna know is
How did professionalism get thrown out the window so fast?!
Was it realizing after we had finally met, that a) she is young so this one is a 'small madam' or b) realizing we are from the same tribe, Dagomba, hence identifying with me as his 'Peoples'.

Either ways, I'm still baffled :)

Poverty: Nature or Nurture?

So I have spent the last couple of months traveling to some of the remotest parts of Ghana, first as part of my internship with Oxfam and now working with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA). An exciting experience it has been indeed…Like how I’m currently sitting under this lovely tree as it’s the only location in this village with mobile connection (not such a fun fact for a phone/tech addict as myself).

Throughout my travels one question has constantly bothered me and hence the title for this post. It’s a question that has always existed in some corner of my mind. I recently asked my mom what she would define poverty as. She simply replied, “Isn’t poverty a person’s fate? Baffled I probed further, asking her to explain. Mama said to me, a child born in the city to rich parents and a child born in a remote village to ‘poor’ parents are never the same? Instantly that child is also described as ‘poor’?  And if s/he never gets an opportunity to break out of that state, isn’t it then purely their fate? Mama has a point.

Poverty: Nature or Nurture?

For most of the world’s poor, it all becomes a vicious cycle. Born to ‘poor’ parents, attend ‘poor’ schools, and hardly graduate, and if they do graduate, most likely get comparably bad grades (well since they are made to take ‘standardized’ tests) and then end up in second cycle tertiary institutions or just settle for low paying manual jobs, come up with a business plan regardless, tries to get some funding but doesn’t have worthy collateral, eventually settles down, get married, have kids and the cycle starts all over. This may be an oversimplified depiction and even maybe a myopic point of view…but admittedly that’s most often the reality on the ground…except for the few ones that break out of this vicious cycle. The ones that get away.

Then of course there are the world’s poor who are as a result of not ‘making hay whilst the sun was shining’. Those who missed out on opportunities to break out or made one too many bad choices. Those who wait for the world’s hand me downs and never take initiatives. Always waiting on the parent, the government, the donor partners, the IMF and the World Bank, someone, anyone out there.

This same question interpreted in a different way has been the driving force behind my interest in development economics, which is, Why some countries are rich and others poor? I have since read several growth theories ranging from history to anthropology and still yet to find my answer.

I’m guessing there are many out there like myself seeking the answer to this same question… if you are one of us, and find an answer, please do find me and share :)

M.