Chief Dan

Dan Kolbilla is the Director of Social Services for the PCG in the north.  Dan's main focus is agriculture and water.  Dan's group works with villages and small farmers to teach them to farm a crop so that they may have food to eat and possibly a little food to sell to help pay for their kids school and other essentials of life.  Dan's group also works with school & churches around rain water harvesting.  So LWW is a natural fit in Dan's scope.

Dan has been with the PCG for 26 years.  He joined the PCG after graduating from university in the south.  The PCG was expanding in the north, Dan's from the north - the village of Tongo outside of Bulga - and Dan had an interest in moving back from the north.

Dan's wife Tina is from outside of Accra.  They have several children - their own and adopted - Albert, Amelia, Michael, etc.  Nice house in Tamale where they had me over for dinner Thursday night.

Dan's father passed away back in the spring.  Dan's father was a cattle trader and was the Chief of Tongo.  Now Dan is the Chief of Tongo.  The funeral for Dan's dad was weeks in the planning and was attended by Chiefs from all over Ghana.  As Dan said "it was a good thing I got so many gifts of goats from friends and family - because I had to give every Chief that attended the funeral a gift for coming - so every Chief got a goat!" and we thought bread machines made a good re-gift!

Dan has to travel to Tongo every Friday to "take decisions" pertaining to his village and the territory around the village - btw it's a pretty big territory - we crossed the White River (no not that White River) about 90 minutes south of Bulga and I noticed Dan pull out his Chief head dress from the back seat (small white cloth with a triangular emblem on the front) and put it on his head.  He told me that he has to wear it in the territory or he gets in trouble.  Sure enough - people along the road saw Dan and head dress and would waive and shout.

Today (Friday) Dan has to take a review in Tongo from a group of German (or Dutch) researchers that did a study of the environmental impact of gold mining in Dan's territory - OK you can connect the dots here.

Before anyone body gets any big ideas - the Chief position in Tongo carries no weight with Tina at home!

Chief Dan and family at home in Tamale