Wedding, Ghana Style

I attended the wedding of a work colleague a couple of weeks ago. It was interesting to see the Ghanaian take on Western traditions. There are some things I can't discuss here as, shall I say, they were not necessarily appropriate for a wedding in my opinion! However there were some good and bad bits to the day.

The bride looked a million dollars. Honestly, the effort that goes into making up a bride for her big day is incredible - not that she needs it; Ghanaian women are known for their natural beauty. 

The turnout was great with a whole range of friends and colleagues around - I was surprised at how many people I knew actually. 

It was held in a Church - my first proper Ghanaian Church experience. For those of you who know my views on Church/religion, you'll understand why everyone thought it was hilarious that I went along. I did survive, but am not keen to repeat the experience. 

There were some points that the Pastor made during his sermon that made me equally laugh and cringe:

1. a marriage is between a man and a woman, not a man and a man or a woman and a woman;

2. if you do not invite god into your marriage, satan will destroy it; and 

3 there was a whole conversation about a woman's role in the marriage and how if she does not satisfy, the man will look elsewhere. Not a conversation I can repeat here.

What was most interesting to me is that the whole wedding was treated like a regular work programme, to the point there was even an MC (yes weddings have pastors, and MCs). I was less than impressed with this guy after he singled me out in front of everyone and lectured me about not understanding the language. I was mortified and furious! It was one of those moments where I was reading something and gradually realised that the place had fallen silent. I looked up to see everyone staring at me. I turned to my colleague and she was giggling away to herself. She said 'he's talking to you'. He asked if I was happy - then repeated it in Twi. When I said I didn't understand, he went nuts! There was a lot I felt like saying to him, but I just smiled and carried on reading. I felt embarrassed that my being there was taking attention away from the bride, but apparently having a white person at your wedding is a huge honour so they were thrilled.

I was double-teamed this time when it came to unwanted attention. One of the guys was the same one as last time. I was so glad when somebody called me away to get my picture taken! At least it wasn't the pastor this time though! 

All in all, an interesting experience that I'm glad I was invited to be part of. The bride has sadly left our office (she was on a temporary contract) but I really hope we keep in contact. She's an angel and had a huge amount of patience when it came to teaching me sign language. It's not the same at work without her!!

 The Beautiful Bride

The Bride and Groom with my work colleagues












Just thought I'd throw this one in - our new addition to the office!

30 Days, 30 Websites, 30 Empowered NGOs

I have recently become involved in a project with a friend who is trying to raise money for tuition fees. Rather than just asking for money, he has decided to offer out his web development services: for every £1000 raised towards tuition, he will develop a website for an NGO/non-profit organisation free of charge. The goal is to raise enough money in 30 days to allow him to develop 30 websites, and in turn empower 30 NGOs. 

Research has shown that many NGO websites are of low quality because organisations do not have the resources available to pay for professional development. This is true of the NGO I am currently working with - they have a website, but it was developed using a free template and is restricted to a small number of pages. My organisation would like to have a professionally developed site, but cannot afford it at this time. The result is that people become bored with it as they are unable to use the website in the way they would like to and as such, content becomes outdated very quickly.

In this day and age, websites can provide huge benefits to NGOs. They can help to promote the work they do to communities, policy makers, donors, volunteers and all other stakeholders. Websites are often the first point of call for people looking for information, and for interested donors when considering whether to partner with an organisation. They give NGOs a louder voice - to shout about the achievements they have made to date, and to highlight the challenges they are facing as well as the support they need to continue to achieve. As global internet usage grows, so does the importance of websites for organisations to stand a chance of being noticed.

30 days is not a long time to try to achieve the funding target, however it is hoped by keeping it short and sweet we can build momentum quickly.

I encourage you to visit the donation site for further information. Any support you can give would be much appreciated and would be going towards two very valuable causes (NGO empowerment and individual education).

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/websites-for-ngos

If you have an interest in NGOs and know of an organisation that could benefit from having a professionally developed website, please visit the Facebook page for further information on how to apply.

http://www.facebook.com/WebsitesforNGOs

Thank you for your support.
Rachel

Tourist Round 2

Another friend of mine came to visit for 10 days, giving me another opportunity to be a tourist in Ghana. It was his first time travelling outside the UK in over 10 years and so there was pressure on me to make this trip a good’un. Apart from feeling the heat, as we all are at the moment as it’s crazy hot, he did really well and loved his time here. Key highlights:

Shai Hills Reserve

A great introduction into natural Africa. We took a day trip to the Reserve and were delighted to see baboons freely wandering about the entrance. After studying the board with details of the tours on offer, we decided to hire a taxi to take us to baboon rock and the ‘bat cave’. In 2 hours we saw baboons, ostrich, antelope and bats; rope climbed baboon rock; entered the ‘bat cave’; and enjoyed some of the most wonderful scenery available in Ghana. It was an incredibly hot day and, due to timing, we ended up doing this in the middle of the day when Ghana is at its hottest. But we did well and it was fabulous!

Pub Quiz

We picked the right night to do the pub quiz – 90s night!!! Scary to think questions about what seems like yesterday are now considered ‘historical’ in a pub quiz. However our knowledge rocked. Our team won 2 out of 3 prizes – bottle of vodka for the Macarena competition (I won that one, oh the shame); and 100 cedis off the bar/food bill for winning the whole quiz (we were miles ahead everybody else, result!!!). Good laugh and we didn’t spend a penny other than transport!

Pizza

My friend now agrees that Eddys pizza is good competition for the pizza joints back home – see, I wasn’t lying!!!

Kakum National Park

Ok, this is a mixed review in that my friend had a great time here whereas I hated every second! We decided to take the Kakum trip to another level and stay overnight in the Treehouse in a bid to experience jungle life and to take a night walk to try to spot some of the wildlife. Key points:

• We were the only ones in the park for almost 3 hours as we waited on our tour guide showing up.
  
• Our tour guide was called George. I kid you not. Cue lots of whistling to ‘George of the Jungle’.
  
• We had a night walk through the forest to find the Treehouse – imagine us carrying our luggage, bottles of water and pizzas(!)  through some pretty steep/rough tracks. The humidity was incredible and we were literally soaked through by the time we arrived (20-30 minutes later).
  
• The treehouse was impressive – up 4 flights of stairs to a treehouse wrapped around a massive tree. It slept up to 22 people – there were just the 3 of us so plenty of room.
  
• This is where things started to go a bit wrong…… I dropped my pizza, resulting in an increase in the number of bugs on the treehouse floor. My friend started looking around the centre tree only to discover a giant spider, millipede and snake. George kindly pointed out that the hair on the spider is poisonous. I at this point freak out – I have a serious fear of spiders and did not relish the idea of sleeping mere feet away from a poisonous one!!! Even if there was mosquito netting in between us. (My friend helped out by saying ah well, if it can get through 2 layers of mosquito netting then it’s earned a bite of us). ARG!
  
• There were bugs everywhere, even with a mozzie net covering the mattresses. I was eaten alive during the night by who knows what – I still have the bites one week later.
  
• Although there was a forest toilet, I wasn’t looking forward to using it so held on as long as I could. Eventually I had to go and dragged my friend with me, only to discover a giant spider on top of it which neither of us was touching. Cue much freaking out and eventually having to give in and go in the forest. We were surrounded by fire flies though which was pretty cool, I hadn’t seen them in reality before.
  
• Sleepless night followed due to plenty of bugs and the most unusual animal noises, some of which seemed really close!!! We decided not to do the night walk for various reasons, but we heard enough to keep us going.
  
• Up at 6.30am to find that the clothes we had hung on the line the previous night were still soaking! Also the spider, snake and millipede had disappeared and I wasn’t particularly surprised to find that the mozzie nets weren’t all that secure…
  
• We then had a hike to the canopy walk – we hadn’t realised quite how steep the walk was the night before, so try doing that first thing in the morning after no sleep and with crazy humidity (I’m definitely not a morning person).
  
• Lots of monkeys were spotted on the canopy walk though so that seemed to make up for things.

It was an adventure, I’ll say that. But not for the faint hearted and not one I will be repeating!! However, my friend turned into an 8 year old kid again and had a fantastic time so I can’t complain as I’m glad he enjoyed it.

Other trips included Cape Coast Castle (as fascinating as ever), the beach and a couple of nights out for various things. All in all, a good 10 day introduction to Africa.

Engagement

I went back to work the day after my friend left to find out my work colleague was having an engagement the next day. To explain, an ‘engagement’ is the Ghanaian version of a wedding. However Ghanaians have also adopted the typical ‘western’ wedding as well, which follows a matter of days/weeks/months after the engagement and is done in the eyes of God.

It was an interesting experience as it is completely different to the way things are done back home. I travelled with some work colleagues and we were seated outside in the parents’ compound. A representative from both the bride and groom’s families stood up to lead ‘negotiations’. This involved the groom’s representatives providing a series of gifts to the bride’s family. This included money, fabric and other gifts which were given to various relatives to show that the groom was serious about marrying the daughter. Once these were handed over, the groom was brought in to answer whether he is serious about marrying the daughter. Once he said yes, the bride was brought in and the ‘engagement’ began. My work colleague looked a million dollars, honestly she was so beautiful it brought a tear to my eye (and others actually did cry). After the blessing, pictures were taken (and I was called upon as the only white person there to be in a special one with the family). Snacks, drinks and presents were then given out to all the guests and the music began. Conversations after the service were quite funny as some people took an interest in what I thought. We talked about how it compares to back home – I had to laugh at the complete confusion when I joked that my dad would pay somebody to take me, as opposed to expecting gifts for me! It then got a bit weird when the Pastor asked me how old I am as he wants me to marry his son before I leave; and then another guy got annoyed when I wouldn’t give him my number! Ah well, nothing like being up front!!

I look forward to attending the wedding in a couple of weeks and will hopefully get some pictures this time. 

Birthday Treats

I celebrated the big 3-0 this week - not as scary as everybody leads you to think it is.... although I definitely do not feel like a grown up!

I had a great week. A friend from home came over for a week and I got to spend some time as a tourist which was nice. He must have brought some Scottish spirit with him because we managed a whole week with electricity (apart from the odd 'light off' but never at night) and full water supply! (touch wood it continues...)

I clearly forgot how draining the heat can be when people first arrive in Ghana as well as the effect it can have on appetite. I may have been slightly over-ambitious in my plans for my friend, but he coped well (and certainly slept well haha).

My birthday week consisted of a people-watching trip to the beach, complete with terrible rasta singers/drummers (cue hysterical laughter at one point as I watched a couple trying to eat their dinner with  this dreadful rasta man singing to them - the poor guy kept catching my eye and laughing. He coped well - for a whole 15 minutes or so!!!); this was followed by an infamous Adabraka party (although it was more of a talking session than a party, man we're getting old) - however my friend did bring over the cheesiest collection of 90s music so that sort of set the tone... We then travelled to Central Region for a few days where we visited both Elmina and Cape Coast Castles as well as Kakum National Park. There are not many people who can say they spent their 30th birthday suspended 40 metres over an African Rainforest. A bit scary but seriously impressive.

We also visited my office at one point where they presented my friend with a Ghana shirt as a thank you to him for donating a laptop. Very very kind of them.

It was really nice to welcome someone from home, and I look forward to doing it again in another 3 weeks or so. It's nice to be able to give people an insight into life here and to know that they will understand my stories, frustrations and pleasures - something that people cannot really do unless they experience Ghana for themselves.

I look forward to seeing what round 2 brings!!

Rachel x

Birthday cakes!!!

Kakum National Park
(Dad, you've traumatised me for life by jumping on the wooden bridges we used to go on when we were kids! The Guide had to take my camera as there was no way I was taking pictures, all my concentration was on walking across these bridges in one piece!)

Beach resort in Central Region

And the drama continues...

Hi

It's been a while since my last  post - partly down to poor internet connection, and partly laziness. A lot has happened since the last time I wrote. From what I can remember, the key highlights include:

Politics
The death of the President a few months ago came as a real shock to most people in Ghana, but was handled with a great amount of dignity and respect. It was interesting to see the country's response to something like this - it bordered on the level of public outpouring that we in the UK saw for Princess Diana. Except for a politician - not something I expect we would see back home. There were a few days of mourning where not much happened in the land of work, and then the build up to the funeral which saw various world leaders/delegates attend. It was really great to see Ghana make headlines as being one of the few, if only, countries in Africa that handled something this serious so calmly and peacefully, with a very smooth handover to the Vice President.

This has since been followed by the Presidential election which took place on 7th December. Yet another interesting experience in terms of the build up to the election, the constant calls for peace, the excitement of just about everybody you meet and the political party related memorabilia which is everywhere! The vote took place last Friday and seemed to have been very peaceful (all VSO volunteers were 'grounded' for the weekend so we didn't get to experience any of this first-hand) and when the results came out on Sunday, there were celebrations in the streets of Accra (including randoms stripping off and running down my street!) Since then it hasn't been as peaceful, with the opposition party contesting the result (it was incredibly close) and trying to take it to court. While some of the response to this has been funny - cars blasting music driving around and stopping in the middle of the street to dance with random people - there have been serious incidents which have now resulted in the riot police/soldiers driving around the city in convoy, sirens blaring, to remind people of their presence. While we have not felt any threat as a result of all of this, it is a case of being careful - another reason to look forward to my beach break next week!

Medical Emergencies
I'm not sure what it is with the Adabraka flat but we are starting to think we have been cursed by a witchdoctor! Following my thumb emergency (which is almost back to normal now, with the exception of a small bit of outstanding nerve damage and a fading scar), we have witnessed minor bumps, scrapes and illnesses, culminating in the emergency run to hospital for my neighbour who fell in the shower and broke her wrist. 9 hours, 3 hospitals, 2 days and some horrific procedures (I won't erase those images anytime soon, so can't imagine what my neighbour felt) we returned home with her in a cast wondering how on earth she is going to do anything. After a few days of successfully converting to the land of left-handedness, she has unfortunately had to return to the UK for surgery and it is unclear if she will be coming back (fingers crossed!)

In the meantime, we have gone from 5 this time last year to just me in this huge flat.... "All by myself......" Not to worry, I have people passing through from up north on their way to airports, beaches, etc. I will find out in January if my neighbour is coming back; and there's the potential in February for somebody else to be moving in - so I'm sure it will all work out fine!

UK Trip
I had another trip home in October, this time for my friend's wedding which went very well! General comments - Scotland is cold, grey and I missed the vibrancy, heat and general randomness of Ghana! Whereas the first time I was home I was nervous about coming back, this time I couldn't wait. Of course I miss everybody back home - and I definitely miss my bed!!!! - but Ghana feels like 'home' for now.

Work
I can't say too much about this for obvious reasons but there have been many many dramas of late and it has been more challenging than expected. I have one last workshop to facilitate this weekend and then I will finish up for a couple of weeks - well earned I think.

Christmas
So it is Christmas once again, and it definitely does not feel like it!! My family were very sweet when I was home and put on a full Christmas day/dinner for me (amazing in October, especially when randoms turn up at the door wondering why on earth there is a Christmas tree in the hallway and a wreath on the door!) I realised at that point that I do in fact miss Christmas, but only when I'm home. Here, I just cannot get into the spirit of it - life is so different. I did make the effort to put Christmas decorations up today but it's not quite the same when the sweat is pouring off you in 35+ degree heat! So while I wish everybody a great holiday back home, I am looking forward to my 'summer holiday' at the beach.... :-D

As for next year, well I have the "joys" of turning 30 to look forward to; but I will also have the opportunity to welcome 2 friends to Ghana which I am very excited about! It will be great to share my life out here with people back home and to see what they think!!!

Have a great Christmas and New Year!

Rachel x

Scottish Dancing once again!

 Saying Goodbye to my lovely housemate Rose - she's missed!!

ICT week - the new round of volunteers (I'm an oldie now!) 

  Saying Goodbye to the lovely Vincent, also missed

Leaving party for Samina and Vincent (and also Kathy, who has ended up staying!!)
- the final four

The Bridesmaids!

The Wedding Party

A very trying 2 weeks...

It all started 2 weeks ago when I cut my finger. As many of you know, I should be banned from the kitchen - 2 Sundays ago explained why.... In a deluded moment of wisdom, I decided to use a drinking glass as a rolling pin as part of my chapati making saga (I should point out that I have done this successfully many times before). 2 chapatis in, said drinking glass shatters in my hands, sending a large shard into my thumb. I didn't even feel it, just saw mess all around me - and then blood dripping everywhere. I quickly rushed to the sink and it was at this point, with the water coming in bursts rather than flowing, that I realised it was serious. Thankfully my phone was in the kitchen with me and I managed to call my neighbour who came through, then ran away to find a first aid box. Next thing I know, she's coming at me with cotton wool doused in spirit. I started screaming hysterically telling her not to come anywhere near me with it - she's used it on me before and it was agony on the tiniest of cuts, never mind a deep slash. So she runs next door to wake my other neighbour who goes into nurse mode. To cut a long story short, I ended up with 3 stitches and the world's biggest dressing, followed by a struggle to find enough cash to pay the hospital bill leaving us no money to get home - we were saved by a Doctor who drove us to the Mall where we were met by VSO staff who dropped us at the nearest pizza joint.

  

It's not until you lose the ability to use a thumb (and neighbouring fingers) that you realise just quite how much you use it. Especially in a volunteering setting. There are so many things that I just can't do right now - cooking, washing my hair, washing my clothes etc etc. Since that first visit I've been to the hospital four more times and have what I hope will be my last visit tomorrow. My stitches were taken out on Monday but there seemed to be some sort of infection. This looks to be clearing up (thanks to the 9 tablets a day I am taking, as well as my anti-malarials) and it is hoped I'll get the all clear tomorrow. What this means, however, is that I'll be left to dress my thumb myself - I still won't be able to use it for another couple of weeks. And I'm seriously hoping the scar is going to fade because it's not the prettiest.... I should mention that the staff at the hospital and VSO have been great, as have my neighbours and friends without whom I'd be a dirty, skinny wreck by now!

Ok, so since this incident and all the dramas that went with it, it culminated in what has to be my most unforgettable public holiday EVER! The following all took place on Monday...(imagine the "24" beeps...)

Incident No 1

Head to airport with a friend to book a flight ticket. Get there at 8am to discover office doesn't open until 9am (website was wrong!). So we decide to head to hospital and come back (I'm due to get stitches out). Heading out of hospital grounds, taxi stops to pick us up. All fine, until about 50 yards down the road we see a guy running towards us with a spiked club. Taxi starts reversing at breakneck speed. We have no idea what's going on - find out, it's an airport security guard trying to catch the taxi because he's not an airport taxi and so shouldn't be picking people in airport grounds. So i start freaking out, telling the guy to stop. He keeps reversing and is an inch away from running a guy over. I force him to stop and we get out and cross over to the other side of the road. Only for the (laughing!) security man to throw the spiked club under the car which obviously sets the tyres off, sending the car spinning out of control and heading straight for us. We have nowhere to run because of a giant fence lining the pavement. Taxi man thankfully got control and sped off, only to hit an SUV and get clamped by police. Scariest thing I have ever encountered - think I went into shock a little bit as started crying and then shouting about what a ridiculous system that was, just put a barrier in place!!! Was all set to find head of security and complain then realised it would only frustrate me as nobody would listen. 

Incident No 2

I won't go into too much detail about this one, but let's just say I saw red at the second taxi driver who, 10 minutes after incident 1, ripped us off - really wasn't the time for him to be doing that, and I lost it.... Didn't get the money back, but did manage to confuse the hospital security guards who heard the taxi driver's version (no doubt painting me as evil while lady) as I smiled and said Good Morning as I was leaving the hospital. Quite funny.

Incident No 3

Hospital - get stitches out (awful). Realise thumb is swollen and possibly infected and nerves through my hand and up my arm are affected. Also have this weird little bubble coming out the scar. Not a pretty sight.... Had to get blood test and was given loads of anti-biotics/painkillers. (As per above, it looks to be ok now but I was worried at this point).

Incident No 4

While I was waiting on blood results, my friend had their own drama about the flight ticket, resulting in a race against the clock to get to another office, home for more cash, then back to the office. All fine in the end.

Incident No 5

So after an incredibly stressful morning (it's only 1pm by this point) we get back to the flat and decide to chill with a movie before heading out for late lunch. Engrossed in the movie, all of a sudden this almighty "boom" happens. If we had glass windows, I guarantee the glass would have blown in - the whole building shook, it was totally crazy!!!! Turns out there was a gas explosion in the neighbouring street. Scared the living daylights out of both of us!!!! Watched the last 5 mins of the movie then decided we needed beer. The latest update according to the newspapers is that 6 people were injured in the explosion, and the flying thing that we saw hurtling through the air at the time of the explosion was part of the gas cylinder that landed in the grounds behind the flat - scarily close.

Incident No 6

Got to restaurant to find the world's most rubbish service, the wrong food served and a kid being sick all over her dad at the next table.

Rather than that being the end of the drama, there's been more of a sliding scale comedown rather than an outright end to the madness. Yesterday after yet another hospital visit, I spent an hour standing by the dusty roadside for a vehicle that was never coming. I gave in and forked out for a taxi only to sit in 45 mins of traffic. Long long morning. 

Then this morning I received a seriously racist email in response to my laptop appeal (I had put a message on a recycling website only the day before). That shocked me and I'm now waiting to find out what action the website is going to take.

I can only hope that this is the end of it!!! I'm going out for a VSO dinner tonight and then hopefully to the beach on Saturday for what I desperately want to be a fun and relaxing day!

Only 6 more weeks until my trip home. I can honestly say I think I've earned it just in these two weeks alone!!

Surprise!!

There is an Irn Bru stockist in Accra - you cannot begin to understand my delight at this discovery!!

In addition to that, we have found semi-skimmed cow's milk. I'm in heaven right now (yes I'm easily pleased - who'd have thought these two things would ever be such luxury items).

:-D

The longest paint job in history

Life in Adabraka has been a bit shambolic in recent weeks. 14 weeks, to be precise...

Let me rewind. Apparently back in 2010 it was agreed that the 2 Adabraka flats should be painted. For some unknown reason, this didn't happen. It was brought to attention earlier this year and it was agreed that painting should start in April. It so happened that this started while I was back in the UK, so my poor flatmates had 4 weeks of negotiating access to the flats with the painter - and chasing him when he didn't bother to show up. They kindly asked him not to come in the weekend that I returned to Ghana to allow me time to settle back in.

I came back to a painted bedroom in my flat, half a painted stairwell and a fully painted flat next door (although questionably done). After 2 weekends of no word from the painter, we tried to chase him up. Eventually that didn't work, and a call to the office revealed that they thought the job was complete. The painter returned to finish the job before somebody from the office was dispatched to inspect the place. The inspection did not go well, and it was agreed that the painter should come back to do a second coat, in another colour in some places.

After 2 days of 2painting round 2", the painter disappeared... Long story involved here, but it resulted in a new painter being found. The new terms and schedule were agreed.... then the new painter disappeared!! After suggesting that we volunteers do the work ourselves and being rejected, he was tracked down - however by this point it was not suitable for any of the housemates to take time off work to sit in (oh, I should mention the locks had to be changed as the old painter disappeared with the house key) so it was yet another week before anything could be done.

As of today, I am pleased to report that after 14 weeks and 2 days of hard work on the part of our new painter, the work is finally complete!!! My seat cushion covers have been replaced (replacing ones that haven't been washed or changed in approximately 8 years - don't want to think too much about that), the place has been gutted and I can now start to make the place feel a little bit more homely - on a budget of course :-)

And I seriously hope that's the last of the DIY to this place!!!

(Pictures to follow)

Scotland vs Ghana

Well as most people are now aware, I ended up back in the UK for a month during April/May. This was an unexpected but very beneficial trip, and eye-opening to an extent. Some of the highlights over the last few weeks include:

• stepping off the plane in Amsterdam and thinking, I can see my breath and I'm wearing flip flops – what's going on?!!?
• everybody's white!!
• the pilot announcing as we come into Edinburgh that it's a glorious 6 degrees (or something around that number, can't quite remember) and me thinking, I left at 10pm last night and it was 27 degrees.
• Getting into Dad's car at the airport thinking, this car is legal, what luxury!!
• My brain being unable to compute how to clean my teeth using the tap and not a bottle of filtered water. It really is safe to put the toothbrush under the tap, honest!
• Having a meltdown in Asda at one point over the amount of choice in one aisle of a particular product, one which is very difficult to find in Ghana. In fairness I hadn't slept in around 2 days and it was just too much for my poor wee head to take in.
• Having to sleep with 2 duvets, a hot water bottle and fleecy pjs for the first few nights due to the fact I was frozen.
• The choice of restaurants – I wanted everything!!! No wonder I've put weight back on.
• The lack of attention as I walk down the street – it annoys me here, but I missed it when it wasn't there!!
• Forgetting how to use my debit card in the card reader when shopping. Mortifying.
• Costa's hot chocolate – nuff said!
• That sweet taste of irn bru..... and the evil people at Amsterdam airport confiscated my collection on the way back to Ghana as it hadn't been purchased in their airport. Gutted!

It was so nice to catch up with people back at home (sorry to those I didn't see this time round – will do my best in October!) As the trip was unexpected, there were only a couple of people who knew I was coming back so being able to surprise people was hilarious!!!

Some of the things I discovered I really do miss in Ghana:

• family/friends (obviously)
• driving! The feeling I got when I sat behind that rental car was one of pure pleasure. I miss that level of independence (not that it's worth driving in Accra, for a start you wouldn't get anywhere as you'd be stuck in traffic most of the time!)
• my washing machine – seriously, this is the one thing I absolutely would take back to Ghana with me if I could.
• My bed!!! Honestly, I love my bed and it pained me to give it up again. Oh and the luxury of not sleeping with a mozzie net and a fan, and the fact that it really is silent during the night – my head worked at a hundred miles an hour the first few nights because I just wasn't used to silence. You genuinely don't get silence in Ghana.
• Scottish pubs. I miss the music, the laughs and the fact you can hear each other talk. Oh and a cheeky pizza on the way home.
• Straight hair and not sweating!!!!!!

In saying that, there are a number of things I missed about Ghana.

• the new friends I have made
• the fun and laughter that is generally everywhere. There's always music playing, people have a smile for you and are always ready to greet you and assist you.
• The heat! Apparently I lost my colour while I was away and am too white again.
• The food. Even though I tried to recreate some dishes back home, it just wasn't the same.
• The work. After a couple of days with no plans, I ended up working! There's something really strange about being a visitor at home and not having a job to do.

So it was an interesting experience to go home, and then to come back out to Ghana and to be familiar with everything, to have people meet me at the airport, pick up a pizza and then head home for a catch up. Home will always be home, but as of right now I live in Ghana. Bizarre but exciting.

In terms of what has happened since I've been back – well it's nice to know that 'random' still sums it up!! Key highlights:

• Really bad storm during the first weekend resulting in no electricity. Thankfully because it's rainy season the temperature is cooler and so it wasn't pure torture.
• Leaving night for a couple of volunteers who had finished their placements – always sad, but good opportunity to catch up with people.
• For some reason, every taxi I took for the first few days had a story associated with it. The drivers were mad! Thankfully I wasn't on my own for any of these trips.
• I was thrown right back in the deep end at work and had to prepare for what I lovingly called 'the workshop of doom'. I had done some work at home, and again on the plane, as I had actually left Ghana at the worst time work wise. However, I managed to catch up and organise the 2 day workshop relatively well. It was a tough couple of days, but we had a very positive outcome. The highlight of that trip though has to have been when a drunk man wandered into the conference room, sat down at a table and started causing trouble. The next thing I know, a security guard bursts through the door brandishing a tree branch and starts hitting the guy, shooing him from the room and then chasing him round the fields!!! Bizarre...

So what happens next? Well, I am swamped at work and am due to run another workshop at the end of June so no rest for the wicked. The flat is still in the midst of being painted: think we're on our 6^th week now so who knows when that'll be finished. And I've jumped right back into my role as Director of Communications by organising a party this weekend, as well as a trip to Scottish Dancing next week – should be entertaining as always! Busy busy, but enjoyable!!

I also heard that I've been leaving traces of Ghana behind in Scotland – ranging from water problems, to electricity shortages to beautiful weather! Hopefully the last one of those continues, and nobody is too badly affected by the first two!!!

Take care

Rachel x

Random sequence of events

Travel

My visit to region 4 as part of the needs assessment saw yet another interesting tro journey. I was told it would take roughly 1 hour to reach my destination. In reality this turned into around 3 hours. The main reason for this, other than traffic, was because the tro was pulled over by the police - turns out the driver didn't have a license. After around 30 minutes of questioning, lots of 'input' from passengers and a 50 cedi bribe, we were back on our way. The meeting was very good; the journey back not so much. After sitting in the tro station for over an hour waiting for the vehicle to fill up - our 'entertainment' included preaching by a group of children and a man selling various pills in plastic bags - we were finally ready to leave only to discover that the tro wouldn't start. It did start after a push down a hill, and we were on our way. Traffic was extremely heavy and so at one point the driver decided to take a short cut through a very narrow path. We came to a point where there was a broken metal 'bridge' that we had to cross. The cars in front all slowed down to a crawl to take this carefully. Our tro driver decided just to go for it at top speed! There were cries of 'Jesus, Jesus, Jesus' in the back of the tro - and then loud applause when we actually made it over. Back in Accra I had yet another tro to sit in to get to Circle, again traffic was murder. As I finally stepped off that Tro, I was followed by a small boy asking for money. I should point out that at this stage I had been awake for around 36 hours (due to an all night church service the previous night - which only got louder as the generators kicked in when the electricity went off!) and it had taken almost 5 hours to get home (a trip that should have taken 1 hour!!) I was in no mood to entertain small boys asking for money...... he's lucky I kept so calm!

That was the last work trip for a while. I was due to visit 4 other regions but, for various reasons, this is now not happening and so the needs assessment will need to be finished via email/questionnaire..... should be interesting!

Fire in Adabraka

I was woken up one night by a series of noises outside. Adabraka is generally very noisy, but these sounds were persistent and different than normal. I finally dragged myself out of bed at 10.30pm to go investigate. I went through to my spare room to see a lot of people standing about outside, but no obvious reason as to why. I then saw the lights on in the landing so went to speak to my neighbours, only to be taken through to Rose's bedroom to see the cause of the noise: the house diagonal to ours was completely alight!! I've never seen anything like it! We ended up packing bags (passport, money, clothes, etc) in case we were evacuated for the night - there was lots of panic as fire spreads so quickly due to most of the buildings being made of wood, and the electricity cables being far too close to everything.

We head outside to find that the building housed a number of families, all of whom managed to get out safely thankfully, and that the fire had been caused by a mosquito coil. We also heard that Adabraka has such a bad reputation for prank calls that the fire service initially refused to turn up. It took my neighbour Peggy phoning for them to take us seriously. What was also interesting was the fact that most people did not know the number for the emergency services, but that's another story.

We sat outside for over 3 hours watching the fire service do their job. What an interesting, and often cringing, sight that was. I don't want to criticise the service because they did their best with the resources that they had, but let's just say it was a very different service to the one we expect at home.... The most surprising thing has to have been the crowd of people who were allowed to stand right up at the house taking pictures - surely that can't have been safe.... Anyway, the fire was finally extinguished after 1am and we were allowed back inside for a reatively sleepless night (noisy street that night and no electricity). I did however manage to make it to work the next morning - I was the only one!!!!

Easter

We headed to the beach again at Easter for 3 nights. It is so relaxing and cool at the beach, the sea breeze is lovely and such a change from the humidity of Accra. Sitting by the sea all day reading books, and enjoying a nice meal and good company at night - fab. We even had champagne one night to celebrate one of the volunteers' birthday - very nice! Random highlight of the trip has to have been catching a thief on the way back home. I caught someone trying to get into another volunteer's bag - I shouted at him to stop and he disappeared into the crowd. Turns out if we had shouted 'thief' he would have been physically beaten by everybody around us.....!!!

Random highlight of the month

Motorbikes in Ghana are basically a law unto themselves. They can jump traffic lights, ride the wrong way up one-way streets, ride on pavements - even wheel their bikes through restaurants! But this one shocked me. There is a large cross roads outside my work compound and as I was walking home on afternoon, I saw a drama taking place with a car, a motorbike and a policeman. The policeman was directing traffic (as the lights were out again). The motorbike had decided to just go for it, and had caused a car to swerve that was passing in front of him. The policeman tried to get the motorbike to stop but when he saw it wasn't going to, he leaped on to the rider's back to try to slow him down. This in fact did nothing to slow the rider down, and the policeman ended up being dragged down the street at full speed!! I didn't see what happened next but it didn't look like it was going to end well...

African Drumming

I love this!!!!!! Turns out African dancing is fun, but not quite my thing. Drumming on the other hand is awesome! Hopefully I can take this up on a weekly basis and perhaps get to the stage where I can drum while the others dance :-)

Pics

Fire in Adabraka. It was relatively close to being put out at this stage, but you can see just how close the crowds are to the scene. Crazy.

Easter Champagne!

Easter Sunday - quite possibly the best meal in Ghana - BBQ at Ko-Sa.

I hope everybody had a great Easter!
Take Care
Rachel x

Travel Part 1

As part of the needs assessment my organisation has asked me to undertake, I have planned to travel to all 10 regions in Ghana to meet with leaders/members to understand their views of the organisation and the challenges they face. So far I have visited 3 regions:

Region 1 - not much to report other than it was a good meeting and I was invited to join their belated Christmas lunch. Unfortunately I could only stay for 15 minutes as had to travel back to Accra, but it was a kind offer.

Region 2 - long trip the day before to arrive at hotel. We left at 7am the next day to travel to the meeting venue, which I was told was roughly 30 minutes away. After waiting for a colleague at the tro station for an hour, we finally set off on what turned out to be a 2.5 hour journey. This was followed by a 5 hour meeting outdoors, with 99% of the meeting being spoken in Twi with little translation...At the end of the meeting I had to wait on colleagues to eat (I didn't want to risk the food with a long journey back ahead of me) and then flag down a tro. At this point a massive thunderstorm decided to hit, so we took shelter at the local barber store. The tro finally arrived after around 45 minutes and we all piled in. Finally ready to go after what had been a particularly trying day, I just had to give up and laugh when after 30 seconds on the road we went over a speed bump - and the exhaust fell off!!!! This being Ghana, the driver just put it back on and off we went!! The trip was interrupted by a long stop at the tro station to change passengers, and was slowed by the torrential rain. It was actually almost like being back home - lots of green, hilly roads and rain!! We made it back to the hotel around 7pm at which point I was very hungry and went straight to the restuarant i.e. table/chairs in the darkened courtyard. Eating by the light of my mobile phone, I was almost finished when colleagues decided to join me - and continue their conversation in Twi. By the end of the day I was just so desperate to speak to somebody in English!!!! I really need to make more of an effort to learn the language....

Region 3 - after an early start (up at 4.15am, ready to leave at 5.30am) I discovered I had been locked in the compound!!! Normally everybody is up and working/sweeping outside at 4am (it usually wakes me up) - but not the one time I need to be out!! I managed to find somebody to open the gate at 6.10am. Good start to the morning. This turned out to be a good day though, a nice trip with gorgeous scenery. The highlight has to have been when the tro had to stop to let a group of monkeys cross the road!! You can almost forget where you are (bits of Scotland; bits of American influence) until you see something like that! (Volunteer up north told me the other day that she had men with camels walking through her village, which just reminded how how close we are to the desert!) Very good meeting, lovely people, and a relatively trouble free trip back home - what more can I ask for!

I'm due to travel again this weekend, although plans are now up in the air so I don't know where I'm going or when.... However, it's my last one for 2 weeks - heading to the beach next week and I can't wait. Desperately need the break and some sleep!!!

Other work events include:
- frustration at being called into a meeting on my one day off, only to be told they couldn't tell me what time the meeting was or really why they needed me (we need you for your listening and note taking skills). The outcome: I didn't go...

- I've adopted the role of IT trainer. The first conversation went a little like this:
Rachel to Colleague: ..... want to start using the front desk computer for training
Colleague: ah, that computer doesn't work
Rachel: oh, ok, let's go look at it....... um, it's not plugged in.....

So once we established that the computer did actually work, I prepared myself to teach my first Microsoft Word lesson. I asked my colleague to open up internet explorer, to discover that she looked confused at the mouse. I asked her if she had used a computer before. Turns out she hadn't. We had to go right back to the beginning - how to turn it on, how to hold a mouse, how to double click. I found a good online training course for how to use a mouse, which my colleague completed today - 1 week later. She's over the moon and even got a certificate at the end of it.  It was so funny - day 2, she came into the office and announed 'Rachel, your student is here!'. I've seen her confidence grow already in that on day 1, she wouldn't move the mouse until I told her to. Now, she's speeding that mouse all over the desk (she hasn't quite figured out to lift the mouse when she runs out of desk space, but that'll come...) 'How to type' starts tomorrow.

As for other news, Accra has definitely entered the hot season. The humidity is incredible - we are all permanently soaking!! I'm so jealous to hear of the weather back home - what I would give to be sitting out on my decking with a cold beer and a BBQ sizzling away in the background. As it stands, it's often too hot to eat and I can't get enough water!!! I really hope my colleague was joking when she said this is us until around July/August...!

I've been nicknamed 'Director of Communications' recently because of my constant attempts to get people to socialise! Many volunteers, myself included, have gone through a bit of a low patch recently - perhaps due to reaching the 6 month mark and realising the excitement is over and real life kicks in. Whatever it is, I'm making a conscious effort to pull us out of it! We had planned to go to the circus last week until we discovered it involved performing animals. Rhinos, crocodiles..... drew the line at that. Instead a group of us went out for dinner which was really nice. Some of us have also joined an informal dance class which is fantastic - a really good workout without realising you're exercising. Hopefully this will become a weekly event.

No pics to share this time I'm afraid. Hopefully next time!

R x

African Bates Motel

Just back after a 4 night stay in Africa's very own Bates motel. What a laugh.... We arrived late on Wednesday afternoon after driving through the worst rain/thunder storm I've encountered yet. (Driving in rain is not advisable here - driving is mental at the best of times, but add in rain, window wipers that don't work well, no lights, no cover for the back of the pick-up, windows down and the driver constantly having to wipe the inside of the windscreen as it was steaming up due to heat. Only seriously crazy drivers stay on the road so we were pretty safe...!) We arrived at our destination to find the grounds flooded and power out. Heading towards reception, it struck me what the place looked like - Bates Motel!! No chance of a shower scene though - a dribble of water that seriously smelled like eggs wasn't going to cut it....

The workshop consisted of a very hot room, good food, and frequent power shortages (even with the generator running). Air conditioning lasted for 2 nights; night 3 saw us all without power (sleepless night due to heat and mozzies - some people resorted to sleeping on the floor to try to cool down, without much success); night 4 saw the fans working so we had a bit of relief).

Random highlight of the trip - being presented with a certificate for attending the workshop (even though I tuned out for most of it as it was in Twi, which I can't speak yet). The President of the organisation gave a lovely speech about the work I have done so far, and 2 of the guys escorted me up to collect the certificate in their role as my bodyguards. So funny..... Didn't feel I'd earned it, but it was lovely to hear the kind words.

Girly moment of the trip - asking one of my colleagues to squish a spider for me.... I discovered a big one in my room. They look different to the ones back home, and since I learned that most of them can jump, I'm even more reluctant to go anywhere near them. Anyway I asked my colleague to come catch it for me, which he kindly did; only for my other colleague to comment "I thought you said it was a big one??" I told him not to ruin my perspective, that I really don't want to think about the size they could be...

I definitely know that life has changed when the highlight of coming home from such a trip is the promise of a good shower with water that doesn't smell of eggs. Felt clean for all of 2 minutes before the sweat started, but it was so worth it.... :-D

Welcome 2012

Hi All

Sincere apologies for the length of time it has taken to post an update; it's been a crazy couple of months. I cannot believe it will be March this week - where has the time gone?? :-)

Lots to update you on; will try not to waffle too much! In no particular order:

(For the record, I have absolutely no idea what's happened with the alignment of the pictures on here, so I apologise - I've given up trying to fix it. It took 4 days to upload them - I now don't care how they appear!!)

Electricity
We had a drama during January whereby our electricity meter stopped working, even though we had just topped up for the month. After a falling out with the electricity company and complaints to VSO, our lovely electrician turned up the next day (I should state our electrician does not work for the electricity company). NB: it's pretty interesting trying to get ready for a night out in darkness while trying to put on make up with only the light of a head torch to support you! Anyway, our lovely electrician picked up responsibility for dealing with the electricity company (I gave up on that when it became clear they had no intention of helping out the 'obruni'). A week and a half later, it was all sorted.... I should point out that during this time we had no electricity at work either....!!! I'm just thankful the water went off at a separate time! Can handle one or other being off, but not both together!! :-D

Scottish Dancing
We discovered there's a Caledonian Society here in Ghana which runs Scottish Dancing classes once a week. So a crowd of us (mixed nationalities) decide to head along one week. After an hour and a half long drama with a taxi (don't ask) we all finally arrive. What a laugh. For those of us who have actually done Scottish dancing in the past, we were shocked to realise we only knew one dance!! No clue what the other ones were but so funny trying to do them - our African friends were looking to us for guidance, and we were just as clueless! ("chase your partner" anyone??) So when our Ghanaian friends started entertaining themselves in the quiet moments by inventing Scottish Azonto (more on Azonto later) we couldn't control ourselves, especially because the instructors had no sense of humour... Successful night out! Not sure if we'll be welcome back mind.... :-D

African Cup of Nations
Football is huge in Ghana. The main favourite teams appear to be Chelsea, Man U and Arsenal (sorry to anyone I've offended by missing out their team!). So there was no escaping the African Cup of Nations which saw many African teams competing. Ghana was one of the favourites to win, so the atmosphere was filled with excitement and tension. We watched most of the games, but the most memorable one has to be the football night we organised in Adabraka. I had agreed to attempt to make chapatis by myself for the first time for myself and 2 housemates. Somehow this turned into catering for 8 people who came over to watch the game!! The two Scottish girls took over the kitchen, under the supervision of our East African cook. Around 3 hours later, food was almost ready, just in time for the game starting. 10 minutes in, and there's an adabraka wide power cut! The shouts of 'NOOOOO' from inside and outside were hilarious. So one of the volunteers has power in her laptop and quickly hooks up to a website doing live text reporting from the game. She starts reading this out while one of the guys starts acting out what she's saying. Only 5 minutes later we realise she's reading the wrong game!!! Being part of the resourceful breed that is volunteers, she then decides to skype an ex-volunteer living in Holland, who puts her laptop/webcam up to the TV to let us watch the game! Chapatis and football in darkness whilst watching TV via Holland makes for a completely random evening!!

(Picture wise we have: Scottish girls taking over the kitchen; a creative use of an empty wine bottle; the wine coming out; head torch time; football via skype; and ice cream to finish it all off (although nto quite sure why it's in cups!))

 

Random

I managed to break my one and only pair of prescription sunglasses. Gutted!! It's almost impossible to step outside here during the day without sunglasses on. Not quite sure how they broke, the leg pretty much just fell off - I'm blaming the Deet even though I can't quite figure out how...! The leg couldn't be repaired (I thought I was being so clever with my little tube of glue, kirby grip plus a clothes peg, but it wasn't to be) so I had my first encounter with a Ghanaian optician. After trying to sell me the most expensive pair of frames in the shop, we came to a good compromise with a solid frame that would be worth around £20 at home plus the lenses from my original glasses, cut to size free of charge. Result! Very impressed with the service, but a reminder that I need to take better care of my glasses since stupidly I only brought one pair of each (sunglasses and regular). Oh how I miss contact lenses....

Dancing seems to have featured quite a bit during January. A few of us went along to a traditional African Dance class one Sunday. Despite the long journey, it was really good fun! The moves are so difficult to keep up with though - our bodies don't move in quite the same way as Africans - we are way too tense/stiff!! The class was really good right up until the teacher had us singing while we danced...ARG! Something different and we hope to go back again some time soon.

I also had an informal lesson in Azonto, the main Ghanaian dance trend. Near impossible for us obrunis to do, but fascinating to watch! Check out these videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-vUsU5auA4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTUIlOudlHI

Oh, and last week I managed to get a marriage proposal from a policeman! I have plenty of attention but it's been a while since I had a marriage proposal. As I didn't have my phone with me and told him I didn't know my number, he gave me his and asked me to 'flash' (one-ring) him so that he got my number. I was a bit cheeky.... I got a mate of mine to flash him from his phone so that he could get rid of any unwanted attention. Within a matter of minutes he received 3 missed calls. He then forgot to save the number, so that when the policeman phoned the next day he answered! Just told him it was a wrong number.... just as well, don't want to get in trouble with the law!

Work
Ok, so it might seem like I don't do any work out here but trust me, I'm swamped at the moment! My boss has returned from his UK placement so I've had to relearn the dynamics in the office. Very interesting to see the difference... Anyway, he is lovely and full of great ideas, ones that he has naturally anyway but also some interesting ones he's come back with from UK (including introducing a health and safety policy!!! - see picture for why I think this is hilarious).

 I've been travelling quite a lot with work recently too. Key highlights:

• Staff Retreat - this was rescheduled from December and I facilitated the full 2 days. Draining but very positive. We have a very good action plan, staff development plan and a couple of other key documents as a result. I've learned some lessons about how to run a workshop in Ghana, particularly one involving a mix of disabilities, English abilities and capacity. But everybody was smiling and it ended on a high, which made me think the stress was worthwhile. The feedback was funny - they want to see me in more Ghanaian outfits, there was far too much food, and I worked them too hard: they would have preferred a day out to socialise! I had warned them beforehand that we would be going by 'white woman rules' for the workshop - in terms of mobile phone use, we only had 3-4 interruptions during the 2 days (result!). Timekeeping was still an issue in my eyes, but actually the latest we started (consistently mind) was 15 minutes - actually quite a good result. The hotel we stayed in was gorgeous - huge bed, air con, fridge, TV and giant bathroom. The downside however was that I got serious food poisoning which resulted in 2 visits to the Dr and me being unable to eat for a week and a half... I think I managed to put on all the weight I lost in my first weekend of eating!!
• I was invited to attend the Board meeting in Kumasi to have a discussion about the work I propose to do over the coming months. 4 of us were due to leave the office on the Friday afternoon to travel the 5 hours up to Kumasi. However, due to problems with the car (i.e. it still being in the garage until 8pm) I had to postpone my trip as volunteers are not allowed to travel during the night for safety reasons. So I had to be at the bus station at 6am the next morning. Thankfully a very kind woman took me under her wing and kept me right at the bus station, as there was no apparent logic to the queuing system. We eventually boarded the bus at 7am and arrived in Kumasi at 1.30pm (the Board meeting started at 9am). I arrived at the meeting in time for lunch, before I led a 45 minute discussion on OD. Although a short session it was very helpful and positive. We then stayed overnight in Kumasi (again, big bed, TV, aircon - fab) - I managed to curl up with an African cup game followed by a good chick flick. TV is such a luxury now! The only downside to that room was that I had a rogue mosquito in with me and I couldn't get rid of it, even by spraying all the windows/doors with Deet (and gassing myself in the process). I woke up the next morning covered in bites :-( We travelled back on the Sunday, stopping by the organisation's training centre which was very interesting. The services offered by the centre, and the potential it has for development, were great - I hopefully sense a project coming on!!!
• I attended another workshop with my organisation recently. I can't go into details (very unimpressed with it though), however I was given an Executive Suite! I saw this as a fabulous birthday present, particularly since I was feeling miserable as I still couldn't eat. This room was amazing - living room, dining room, 2 double beds, dressing area and big bathroom. I actually convinced myself one morning that I was waking up at home - covered in thick blanket in a huge bed with a cold nose! The hotel was the same one we stayed in when we first arrived in country, and the workshop coincided with the arrival of the new volunteers - 5 months to the day since we arrived. I can't believe I'm now an "experienced" volunteer! One of the girls who arrived at the same time as me said of the new ones - "were we ever that excitable and puppy-like?" - that would be a yes!! :-D

Birthday
I celebrated my birthday last weekend (and no Dad, I'm not yet 30, thanks for that!). We held an Adabraka party for both my birthday and Ronald's leaving. Very good night, lots of people turned up, plenty of fabulous music. There was also a fantastic buffet which I couldn't eat - gutted!!! However, I did get an unexpected birthday present - 8 cans of irn bru, 6 regular and 2 fiery. Completely random! Once I could eat again I had a belated birthday breakfast of a fry up and irn bru, awesome!!! (Even bacon is a luxury item here).

(Picture wise we have: Showcasing the creative talents of one of our voluteers; mix of nationalities - Ghanaian, Scottish, Kenyan, America and Ugandan; and "the Bru!"")

   

As hinted, Ronald left us a couple of weeks ago to return home to Kenya. This is the hard part of volunteering, saying goodbye to good friends. The flat is not the same - very quiet and I now have to cook by myself most nights (although next door do help out with that from time to time). Watch this - I'll just get used to living by myself again and somebody new will move in....!

Airport run...(love the dedication to his ex-flatmate!)

What Next?
Work, work and work!!!!

I attended another leaving night on Saturday and will say 'see ya' to another good friend of mine this week. After that, it's work and travel. If I can get the funding I will be travelling to at least 8 out of the 10 regions over the space of a couple of months to meet with members as part of a needs assessment. Looks like I'm not going to get a weekend until some time in May...!!!

I'll try not to leave it so long next time to post an update. In the meantime, have a good one!

Rachel x