"You're a Catcher"

Quote of the week has to have been 'You're a Catcher'. Let me explain.... on a recent trip to the market I saw a small child staring at me, looking a bit scared. I didn't think much of it because quite often kids don't know what to make of white people, many having never seen a white person before. So all was fine, until the mother pointed and me and said to the child that I'm a catcher. I asked what she meant; she said 'you're a catcher'. I asked what she meant by 'catcher', only to be told that I'm like the police and will take the children away. At this point, the kid starts screaming hysterically, to the laughter of random women nearby! I was horrified and tried to calm him down, but clearly just made things worse as he thought I was going to take him away!! Interesting to note that parents teach their children either to fear the white person, or to ask them for money... food for thought.

Moving on, a small work update - I actually have some to do! I have been asked to give a presentation to the Delegates Assembly in December on Organisational Development. The Delegates Assembly is the highest decision making authority within my organisation, and their meeting will last 3 days I think (still to be confirmed). Now that I have some work to do, I'm actually finding it quite difficult to re-engage my brain! Knowing me, I will leave it until the last minute and then panic - but quite often, that's how I do my best work! ;-) I'm waiting to find out details, but hopefully I'll be travelling across Ghana to various work events in December - quite excited at the thought as it will let me see some of the country, but also give me an opportunity to meet staff/members across Ghana. I will, however, have to buy a rucksack because muppet here forgot to pack one - and there's no way I can carry a suitcase on a tro! :-)

Staying on the subject of work, the drama of the washroom continues. I can't actually remember if I mentioned this, but my organisation doesn't have a washroom. They have been building one since I arrived (which I was told would be finished 2 weeks after my arrival). At this point in time, it's still a concrete shell although I do believe tiles are starting to go up. What I'm curious to know is a) when it will be finished; and b) what on earth the boss is going to do when he returns from London shortly because his office is a dumping ground of dust, concrete and stuff! We also appear to go from extremes in terms of building work - we go from nobody working for days at a time, to hordes of people traipsing through the office (which is tiny!) with ladders that don't fit through the door. Quite entertaining really...

I've also discovered this week that there must be something sweet ingrained in my desk, because the ants are all over it at the moment. Cleaning the desk didn't help... any thoughts on this one? :-)

From a VSO perspective, I have taken on the position of deputy volunteer representative for Greater Accra, working with Samina who is our new volunteer rep. This roles involves acting as the key link between Programme Office and volunteers, attending meetings and helping new volunteers to settle in as well as (hopefully) having a big role to play in February's ICT (In Country Training aka Induction). I've already had the opportunity to put my knowledge and experience to the test by helping a new volunteer to settle in at the weekend. It was good fun, and helped me to realise just how much I have learned about the city and culture already. What was also very nice is that, because she is here on a short term contract and is working directly with the Programme Office, she has been put in a nice apartment with air conditioning, laundry service etc - and was kind enough to give me the use of her spare bedroom for a while, to enjoy the air con. It was a little taste of heaven!! :-)

This weekend also saw a few of us attending the opening ceremony of the African Nations Amputee Soccer contest. This is quite a big event and was opened by the Vice President of Ghana and other important folks in the world of sport/football. As I'm not a very big fan of football, I wasn't particularly excited about the trip but felt it was important to attend, especially due to the work I'm doing. But I have to say, I absolutely loved it! The atmosphere in the grounds was amazing! The people are so happy, they dance/sing/play music in the stands, they entertain everybody else - as well as somehow watching the game. It was seriously the best atmosphere I have ever come across at a football game - and it could convert me to African football!!

This week's electricity/water supply hasn't been great. We're putting it down to the mass digging that is going on across the city at the moment. We asked somebody who is digging up the pavements outside our flat what is happening - we thought they were going to say something like they're installing new drainage systems (i.e. underground drains), but no - they are installing MTN phone lines...everywhere!! I would love to know who sets the priorities around here...

Rachel's embarrassing moment of the week has to have been the drunken attempt at gate climbing. Our landlord locks the gate to the compound at 10pm every night. If you are going to be late, you text him to let him know and he'll leave the gate open. One night last week I text to say I'd be late, however he didn't get my message. I arrived back at 11pm to find the gate locked up - and panicked! There was nobody else in our apartments that night and I knew the landlord would be asleep. So I decided to attempt the gate climb (as recommended by one of my neighbours). Thankfully Ronald wasn't around because his bedroom window gives the perfect picture-taking position. I managed to straddle the top of this gate, looked down and freaked out as I realised I was too drunk for this (I should point out that I'd only had a couple of beers, but you all know I'm a lightweight and the heat just adds to that). So I bottled it and went back to the start (to the amusement of the 'Adabraka boys' who sit in the street every night chatting - loudly). Anyway, amongst all this drama, the guard dog had been barking and woke up the landlord, who kindly came out and opened the gate for me - and wasn't angry!!! I felt so bad - but then I had sent him a message, so am not completely at fault!! :-)

I've been doing my bit for the Ghanaian culture this week. I've watched a Ghanaian movie - which was actually really good - very funny, although not sure if it was supposed to be. And I was sent a Ghanaian joke which just made me laugh - it really sums things up, and I love that Ghanaians can laugh at themselves. I've included a copy of it at the end of this posting.

My final point, the highlight of the week, is that I visited a Girl Guide Unit today. Most of you probably know that I used to run my own Unit in the UK. I was curious to find out how African Guiding compared, and after a few emails with senior people here, they agreed to take me. Interestingly, Guiding takes place in school hours as opposed to outwith, because it can be very difficult to encourage children to come along otherwise. I absolutely loved it. The energy amongst the group was fantastic, they were so smart in their uniforms, so happy, so polite and just lovely. The older girls came and introduced themselves to me and welcomed me. The Unit then sang me a few songs, some of which I knew and could sing along with. One just made me laugh - for anybody reading this who's in Guiding, think of the song 'A Pizza Hut' and change the words to 'A fat girl guide, a fat girl guide, a skinny little brownie and a fat girl guide'. I was in hysterics - we'd be done by the PC brigade if we even thought of that back home! I was then asked to do something with the group - as they were into singing, I taught them a song with actions - starts off slow and gets faster and faster. They found it hilarious because I caught them off guard, but they joined in and managed to do it pretty well. I had to write down the words before I left so they can practice. We're trying to arrange a visit to another Unit on Friday, fingers crossed. I have also been invited to a tree-planting ceremony on Saturday to celebrate their centenary - I'm undecided if I'll go along yet, but it's nice to be asked. I've been buzzing all day since my visit and am starting to hope that there is some way I could become involved in Guiding during my time in Ghana - to be considered.

I'll leave you with the Ghanaian joke and a selection of pictures - enjoy!

Rachel x

Ghanaian joke:

A man dies and goes to hell. Once there, he finds that there is a different hell for each country and he can choose which one he prefers. He asks what happens in the German hell and is told: "First you are put in an electric chair for an hour, then they lay you on a bed of nails for an hour, then the German devil whips you for the rest of the day".

Not fancying that, he asks about the American, Chinese, British and French hells and finds out that they all offer the same treatment. He then notices a long line of people waiting to get into the Ghanaian hell and asks what happens in there.

He is told "First you are put in an electric chair for an hour, then they lay you on a bed of nails for an hour, then the Ghanaian devil whips you for the rest of the day".
"But that's the same as all the others" he says. "Why are so many people waiting to get in?"

"Because there is never any electricity, so the electric chair doesn't work. The nails were paid for but never delivered, so the bed is comfortable. And on top of it all, the Ghanaian devil used to be a civil servant, so he just comes in signs his time sheet, then goes back out on private business for the rest of the day"

Pics:

Cultural event at Amputee Soccer ceremony. The wee guy on the drum was amazing!

The competing teams. If I remember rightly we had Liberia, Nigeria, Niger, Sierra Leone, Angola and Ghana. Ghana lost 2-1 in the first game with Sierra Leone, but that didn't change the happy mood!

Proof that I attended a soccer game!

Apparently this guy in the white shirt is famous. According to the guy sitting next to us, he's famous but the guy didn't know his name..... Turns out the Ghana Video Music awards were happening in Accra that night so he was probably in town for that.

Our first Christmas decoration, courtesy of Ronald. It lights up and everything!! :-D

My first visit to a Girl Guide unit in Africa!

There were actions to go with the song about the 'fat girl guide'... :-)

My attempt at teaching a song/actions...

The group was huge! Should have asked how many kids belonged to the Unit actually.

I love this pic! This is the part where things sped up in the song, and the girls found it hilarious.

Forgot about this one. Was in the office one day when a group from the Freemasons came in, with an offering of high visibility vests for the organisation. They had almost run over a person in a wheelchair at night because they didn't see him, and so decided to do something positive to help. I was asked to receive the offering 'on behalf of my people'!!! :-D

Broken toilets, creepy incidents....and malaria!!!

What a crazy couple of weeks it's been (nothing new there then).

First of all, I've won the award for the first September volunteer to contract malaria! Thankfully it wasn't serious and I was given the all clear today (yippee!!). But it was a strange coincidence that one of my neighbours contracted it at the same time. We've had some helpful advice about further precautions to take in the flat, so we'll try those.

So I've been off work for a week unwell. As well as having malaria I had a cold and sore throat. As if that's not bad enough, we've had an unreliable electricity supply which we think is due to the recent floods - as such, we've been without fans during the night and during the day some days - torture! (To put it into perspective, it is now 5.30pm and 29 degrees!!) However, fingers crossed things seem to be back to normal and I start back at work tomorrow.

While all of this was going on, our toilet decided to break down. Following the plumber's visit to check a simple problem, the toilet decided to spring a leak. The first time resulted in poor Ronald's bedroom being completely flooded (and destroying various electrical equipment/chargers in the proccess); the second and third times were confined to the bathroom. But cleaning up flood water is not what's needed when recovering from malaria. Thankfully we have very kind neighbours...

In terms of creepy incidents, I've had 2 in the last two days. The first was yesterday - I was walking by the main roundabout (Circle) with 2 volunteers, when a disabled guy sitting on the ground grabbed hold of my hand and refused to let go. He started squeezing tighter and tighter, giving me a real fright and I started to panic. A guy walking past stopped to help and I got away. As we were walking, the guy asked if my hand was broken - I said no. He said, wow you're very strong - which makes me think, was the guy trying to break my hand??? The second creepy incident was today - I was sitting in a taxi when a guy reaches in the window and strokes my face - what a fright!!! I know kids like to stroke white skin because it's unusual to some of them, but for a grown man to do it, especially to my face when I'm sitting in a taxi is just frightening. Lessons - occupy my hands when walking; and wind up windows in taxis!! (Also polish up on my krav techniques just in case...) :-D

Now for some positive news:

I got word last week that I have achieved the ‘University Foundation Certificate in Professional Skills in International Development’. All that hard work in the run up to leaving the UK was worth it...

We were on Ghana TV re. the Princess Anne visit! http://gbcghana.com/index.php?id=1.358639.1.630701

No pics this week as haven't really been anywhere....! :-)

R x

In Royal Company

What a mixed week it has been. After the disaster of the Accra floods, we have been without water and electricity on/off for 4 days now. 2 nights without a fan is tough!!! Anyway, after the best night's sleep I've had since arriving in Ghana (it's amazing what shock will do for you), I prepared on Thursday to meet Princess Anne, patron of VSO. Interestingly, VSO only invited UK volunteers to attend the event, which was held at the National Service offices. We arrived in our best clothes and joined representatives from various organisations to wait for the arrival. There were multiple TV crews there who just kept filming us!!! (We later found out we'd been on TV the next day, but we don't have access to one...) After a sweep by security (white people look soooo white to us now!), the 'heavies' positioned on the doors and a rearranging of furniture, Princess Anne and her husband were ushered in. She was introduced to us volunteers first and had a brief chat with each of us. Her husband came round afterwards - turns out he used to work in Rosyth so knows Dunfermline! :-)

After a flying visit, we watched the band/dancers that had been hired for the occasion. They loved the fact that some of the volunteers got up to join them and made a point of teaching them the routine. This was then followed by a free lunch, and a trip in to town - this was supposed to be a familiarisation exercise but ended up with us grabbing a drink in a local spot.

That evening, we attended an ex-pat event. There's a website you can sign up to which invites ex-pats to meet in a local hotel/venue for free beer and free food once a month - not going to say no to that! It ended up being a really good evening. The place was buzzing - rooftop bar in a gorgeous Italian boutique hotel, overlooking the pool. We got chatting to a few people, and ended up joining them at a quiz in a local (western) pub. The quiz was horror themed - my speciality! We came third and won GHc20!!!! Result!

On Friday, 3 of us went out for dinner and found a local restaurant that serves the best burgers ever!! Seriously, we were all in heaven!! On Saturday we were invited to a dance performance at my work compound. One of the guys who works in the compound is part of an able-bodied and disabled dance troop which tours internationally. He had put together a performance to try to raise awareness of the abilities of disabled people. They were amazing! The show started with a woman singing gospel, followed by street children dancing, followed by the main group. They really were fantastic - we just really hope that the TV camera captured the performance, as opposed to us 'obrunis'.... After the show we headed back to the apartment to start Halloween preparations - in the dark!!! Thankfully the lights did come back on for a short time, so it wasn't too bad! I think we did not too bad a job considering we'd had less than 24 hours notice of the party and we have very limited resources! We went out for dinner (oh the looks we got were hilarious!) followed by an ex-pat party (another website offer) which turned out to be dreadful (so glad that wasn't our first ex-pat experience). Somehow, we then ended up at a house party of a guy who works at the American Embassy. It was like walking into an American student frat party like you see on TV! Loads of people squashed into a really small space, amazing decorations and costumes, and really bad beer!!! The saddest part is that we wandered into the kitchen and our jaws dropped in amazement at the size of the washer/drier, the fridge, the contents of the fridge - how sad are we! It has given me food for thought though around just how different the experiences of volunteers and embassy/NGO workers are likely to be...

As for this week, I'm not quite sure what's lined up. However, this is Ghana - anything can (and probably will) happen!! :-D

R x

Pics:
1) Volunteers waiting on the royal arrival
2) and 3) Princess Anne
4) Dancing after the royal visit
5) Halloween!!! Indian Goddess, African Queen of the Damned and zombie tomboy school kid!
6) and 7) Us out for dinner dressed in our Halloween get-up (which Ghanaians don't understand)

Sad day in Accra

Two nights ago we had 2 really bad storms, one in the early evening and one in the middle of the night. Heavy rain and the worst thunder/lightening I've ever seen. Last night we had some more rain, but nothing like I wouldn't expect to see in Scotland.

Turns out it has been far too much for the poor sewage system in Accra to cope with. We woke up this morning to tales of flooding, destruction and death. Literally metres from our apartment (we're on a hill and oblivious to all that's going on around us). Businesses at the local market have been destroyed, roads have turned into muddy tracks, lamposts have fallen down, and houses have been flooded.

Our electricity went off at 2am. As we later found out, this was because an electricity cable had gone down in a river and was making the recovery of bodies impossible - so the electricity supply for much of the city was turned off.

I went to work today to hear that one of my colleagues was concerned about her parents, whose house flooded during the night. As there was no electricity at work, 4 of us piled into a taxi and headed for the house where we spent the day mopping up flood water and sorting through piles upon piles of personal belongings thrown outside. The flood water had reached waist height during the night, evident by the plaster that had fallen off the walls. The destruction was incredible. I was taken around the local area to see rubbish and personal belongings lying everywhere - i've never seen anything like it. I was also told about a 24 year old girl who died during the night after being crushed by a falling wall. Unfortunately, somebody decided to share the photos with me - not something I particularly wanted to see.

Yet amongst all this chaos and destruction, people continued to smile and laugh and went out of their way to make me feel welcome. In saying that, I was there with the intention of helping, whereas they kept insisting I sit down - take a break, have a drink, etc etc. I went outside at one point to help with the sorting, to be told 'go back inside, it's dirty' - I said no, and dug in. I'm not sure that I managed to contribute much, but I certainly feel like I've done a day's hard graft - I ache all over!

Speaking to colleagues, I found out that this sort of thing happens annually, usually between May and July in Accra's rainy season. It is unusual for this to happen in October. The main causes are the poor sewage system (open sewers in many cases) and the heaps of rubbish thrown in the street which clog the sewers. Apparently, many people are reluctant to pay for refuse collections, so when it rains they take that as an opportunity to wash their rubbish away. The traffic in Accra is chaotic at the best of times, but when something like this happens it just adds to the crazyness. The roads around the main roundabout (Circle) - which I assumed were tarmac - turned into a mass of red mud making driving conditions even more hazardous.

All in all, a very difficult day. Bring on tomorrow - Royal Visit from Princess Anne, and then free drinks/snacks at some ex-pat event that we've decided to go along to. I can definitely use that drink!

R x

"Random" is definitely the word...

I'm fascinated by the media here at the moment. The reporting style is bordering on hilarious. One example stands out for me:

- It was reported on the radio that a 6 year old boy lost his arm in a washing machine accident. The radio presenter gave the boy's account of the story - along the lines of "I was spun round and round and round, banged my head and my arm fell off." The presenter couldn't stop laughing and had to repeat this statement at least 3 times because he found it so funny!!!! I was in a taxi at the time, and two of us just looked at each other not knowing whether to laugh or not as it was so awful!

Many of the newspaper articles are very direct, which make for interesting reading. There was a really good one last week about 'Ghana Time' where the author was having a real go at Ghanaians for their poor time keeping and the fact that they are wasting their one valuable resource. Also interesting to see that the author didn't include their name.

Anyway, on to my week. In terms of work, I attended a celebration for White Cane Day on 14th October. This involved lots of speeches, donations by various organisations of white canes, and music/dancing from a local blind school. It was a very good event, although I don't appreciate being handed an XXL t-shirt ("because you're big")!!!!!!!! I have also attended a couple of meetings about next year's Presidential elections. The various disability organisations are working together on a proposal to ensure the needs of people with disabilities are included in the planning for both voter registration and the elections themselves, in terms of sign language interpreters, braille voting papers and accessible voting stations.

One of my work colleagues decided to take me with him to the market one day. He was shocked at being expected to pay a higher taxi fare because he had an 'obruni' with him - he ended up not paying it, leaving an unhappy taxi driver. He was also shocked at the amount of attention I received in the market, while I was happy at the reduced attention because I was with a Ghanaian!

One visit we made last week was very hard. 4 of us visited a local school within a psychiatric hospital. The school has been developed, I believe, in partnership with a Dutch couple, who have built a washroom, 2 classrooms and have painted the outside wall and gate. The school has a class for children and one for adult learners. The majority, if not all, of them live within the hospital. Many were abandoned here by their parents who gave false addresses to staff, such is the stigma attached to mental health in Ghana. It was good to see people learning and having fun with music, etc, although very hard to see the conditions - cheap uniforms, 1 staff member to x number of pupils, etc. We were also taken to the children's ward within the hospital (where they live when they're not at school). This was the hardest part. The children - aged 6 to 28 - sleep in mixed rooms which are no more than concrete cells, on rubber mattresses which need to be washed every morning as the majority of children have not been toilet trained. There are usually 4 nurses on at any given time, with around 20 children living there. The saddest part is that these children are the fortunate ones - they are receiving love, attention, care, food and education, as opposed to the children who are abandoned in the bush or, as one volunteer witnessed, kept in a washing basket in the corner of a room (for 13 years). But I can honestly say there are better conditions in a Scottish prison. The grounds of the hospital itself were huge, and very green. But as we wandered through, we saw one large building lying empty - turns out this is for occupational therapy, yet there are no OTs in Ghana. It just goes to show that quite often, the facilities are available, but there are no staff to do it...Definitely an emotional experience.

Last weekend was a tough one. After a hard day at work, being ripped off at the market when buying a mop, making a child cry just by looking at him (white people are scary apparently!), cleaning the drains and the apartment, I discovered there was no water. This was then followed by a freak storm which led to the discovery that our window shutters are filthy. As the rain hit, everything - and I mean everything - got covered in great drops of dirty water! Grr... Anyway, it turned out there was a problem with the water pipe which resulted in the water staying off until Wednesday. I never thought I would be so happy to see a load of dirty water gushing out that tap!! It's not until you don't have water that you realise just how much you rely on it - and how filthy everything gets!! To add to the tough weekend, the internet connection was very very slow, and I ended up losing 1GB in data (not impressed!) Welcome to Ghana, as I keep getting told!

Last Saturday we had a leaving party at one of the volunteer flats - which has a balcony, I'm so jealous! :-) I had to laugh though - halfway through the evening, while people are chatting and others are dancing to Ghanaian music (which I'm really starting to like), on comes a piece of Scottish Country Dancing music followed by the Proclaimers. And I tell you - everybody was sweating more after dancing to this, than anything else the entire night!!! We Scots know how to enjoy ourselves... :-D

On Wednesday we were invited to join the VSO International Chief Executive for dinner. Free feed, not going to say no! It was a very good night and very interesting to hear about the wider context of VSO, and how VSO Ghana fits into it. Most random part of the night, however, has to be Rose, Ronald and I flagging down a taxi, negotiating a price back home, getting in to the taxi - and then getting kicked out of it! All because the driver spotted 2 white volunteers who he thinks he'll get a better fare from. Obviously, 2 white faces are better than 1!!

This weekend was spent at the beach. Kokrobite is a resort roughly an hour outside of Accra. After a bit of drama first thing on Saturday morning (woken up at 4am as a funeral party started outside my window - this went on until 9pm on Sunday night!) and a bit of difficulty meeting friends and finding the right Tro, we made it to the beach where we met the rest of the group (9 of us in total). We stayed in a place called Big Milly's which is a backpacker haven I think. It was nice enough - the rooms big enough and clean enough, it was right on the beach and had a fantastic tree house to sit in and just watch the world go by. The only problem - no sun! In fact, it was cold! We all had goosebumps!! Not complaining though - it was so nice to feel cold again. It's not until you get out of Accra that you realise just how dirty, busy and stifling it is. We had a fantastic dinner at Italian Gardens - giant pizza, and birthday cake for Kathy - followed by Reggae Night at Big Milly's. Not quite my thing, but a good night nonetheless. I also had the best sleep since I came to Ghana!!! When the music finally stopped at 2am, the place was silent. Other than waking a couple of times as I was cold due to the fan, I slept through until 9.30am (who ever expected that I would class that as a lie in!!) The sun was out on Sunday, although not as stifling as we're used to, so a very nice morning was had sitting in the tree house reading my book, while others played in the sea and went shopping for sarongs.

We've learned some lessons from this weekend, in terms of - book your own room as opposed to coordating a big group; and leave at least an hour at the end of your holiday to sort the billing!! :-) We've also agreed to start doing some more day trips to the beach just to get a break, and are also starting to plan Christmas/New Year.

This week looks like it'll be a quiet one (although they all tend to start out like that) with the exception of Thursday, where I've been invited to meet Princess Anne! She's the royal patron of VSO and is in Ghana for a short tour. Most of the local volunteers have been invited to an event with her - should be interesting!

Pics this time:
1) White Cane Day
2) and 3) Proclaimers and Scottish Country Dancing
4) Visit to Psychiatric School
5) Look - it's green!!! (Taken on the journey to Kokrobite)
6) The Group at Italian Gardens
7) This may look like an innocent glass of milk. In actual fact, it's the deadliest pina colada Georgina and I have ever come across. 3 shots of dark rum and coconut milk. Undrinkable!!
8) Kokrobite Beach
9) Big Milly's
10) The view coming back from Kokrobite - stunning, yet one scary bit of road!

Enjoy!
R x

Busy Busy!

Hi All

Sorry for the delay in posting an update, but things have been really busy around here.

I'll start with work. I was invited to attend training last week for solar powered wheelchairs. What a great idea! MTN (mobile phone company) have designed these wheelchairs with the intention that they will provide employment to people with disabilities, by allowing them to sell MTN products and charge mobile phone batteries using solar power. The training gave a selection of people the opportunity to test the wheelchairs and make comments on the design ahead of the formal launch. It was so good to see people enjoying the wheelchairs - they appeared to see the potential in terms of more freedom due to increased mobility. It wasn't long before it turned into a mad game of dodgems - people enjoying the accelator a little too much, crashing into walls, trees, each other - so funny! The formal launch is apparently scheduled for next week where around 140 of these wheelchairs will be presented to GSPD (I think) and the Vice President of Ghana is due to attend. Looking forward to it!

I was also asked to play match maker at this training session - one of the attendees wants me to find him a white wife! So if anyone's interested.... :-D

I attended my first formal meeting of the various disability organisations last week too. This was an eye opener in terms of how meetings are conducted here in Ghana. Things are very relaxed with people coming/going, people talking on phones, others falling asleep, constant stream of water/juice/pies, etc. It was also interesting to note that some people felt they could not speak without authority from their Director. There is a very strong respect for hierarchy, which can make things difficult if meetings are arranged at short notice and Directors cannot attend. It was a very useful meeting however to get to know who everybody is and what each of the organisations are doing.

Moving on to Ghana time (a recurring theme I suspect). The electrician was supposed to arrive at 5pm last Wednesday to install our living room ceiling fan. He appeared at 6.30am the next morning!! Following this visit we discovered that 3 plug sockets no longer worked - 2 in the living room, and 1 in the kitchen - the one for the fridge/freezer!! We didn't realise it was the plug sockets at the time - we thought the fridge had broken down. With it being a Friday evening, there was nothing we could do until the Monday, so we had to move everything to next door's fridge. It wasn't until the next day that we discovered the plug sockets were the problem - at which point my quick thinking flatmate simply moved the fridge to allow us to keep using it! Electrician came back this morning (early!) to tell us that one of our adapators caused the problem... No biggy, all fixed! All we need to do now is see the carpenter about these termites - one of the sofas is actually dropping pieces of wood now...

Last weekend was a good one - very quiet during the day (managed to catch up on Eastenders, yey!) On Saturday evening we ventured out to a local fabric shop, which was packed from floor to ceiling with the most wonderful fabric. Surprisingly, much of it was made in both Holland and the UK. I bought myself 3 yards - next step is to find a tailor. We then headed out to Paloma, a restaurant that does 2 for 1 pizzas at the weekend! (2 for 1 in Ghana means you have to buy 2 of the same thing, so lots of coordination needed!) After a pizza and some Rose wine, we met up with some other volunteers and headed to a couple of local spots for some sprite(!) and dancing. I've managed to record some of the funniest videos of the group dancing (including the random taxi that decided to pull up right beside us so the passenger could have a look, before reversing up the street) but unfortunately they're too big to upload. If I can figure out how to compress the files I will share them...

Sunday saw me cooking dinner for Ronald, Rose and myself. I attempted spag bol - not the best attempt, but edible. I'll keep working on it... (oh how I miss garlic bread though!)

This week has been busy socially. Monday night saw Ronald, Rahul and I watching Paranormal Activity (huddled on Ronald's bed as his room housed one of the working plug sockets). I've now discovered that one way to make scary movies even scarier is to watch them in a small flat in Africa... Good times. Tuesday saw 8 of us come together for yet another pizza night (we found another placed that does 2 for 1 on a Tuesday). We had a small feast followed by a movie and a power cut! Wednesday was the VSO Accra volunteer meeting, held at Alliance Francais which was a good opportunity to come together for good food, good music and good conversation.

I'm now intending to have a quiet night before the madness of the weekend begins from tomorrow (which is apparently going to start by cleaning the drains tomorrow night, joy!)

I encountered a bit of drama today as I was travelling back from a meeting. The bus I was on blew a tyre. I honestly thought the driver had been shot as the noise was so loud, he slumped over the steering wheel, people were screaming and the bus completely lost control. He recovered very quickly though and managed to steer the bus to a halt without hitting anything (incredible considering we were on a packed 3 lane motorway) or driving us into the sewer we were headed towards. Scary, but actually not as scary as when that happened to me on my motorbike back home...

The most random moment of the week has to go to Ronald though. First of all he has become an air guitar fiend after I introduced him to the wonders of Aerosmith. He then, after a short shopping trip, came back with a Scotland rugby shirt! Go Ronald!! :-D

I actually have some pictures to share this time - enjoy!

Have a good week :-)

Rachel x

Pictures:
1) Solar powered wheelchairs
2) PIZZA!!
3) Samina, Josephine, Kathy and I at Paloma
4) Group of us on Saturday night. Bottom left to right, Kathy, Rose, Josephine. Top, left to right: Ronald, me, Raj, Mona Liza
5) Ronald the Scotland supporter!!
6) My work compound - Accra Rehabilitation Centre
7, 8, 9) My office

;'

General Observations

Hi All

Some general observations that I thought I'd share...

1) As if the roads are not dangerous enough, it appears motorbikes pretty much rule the place and can drive on pavements, as I found out today... They can also apparently go the wrong way up a one way, 3 laned road where nobody uses lanes, indicators or speed limits! All without wearing helmets...

2) One of the hardest things I am having to deal with is the number of street children who spend their days and nights begging. They congregate around the busiest cross roads, roundabouts and streets and either lean against car windows, walk alongside you or actually grab on to you begging for money. The policy appears to be to continue walking and not to give anything, but they really are pulling at the guilt factor. Of course, the parents know this. The parents tend to sit close by watching their children, and the minute they see an Obruni, direct their children towards us. It's very difficult and quite often the kids don't take the hint for a good 5 minutes or so. I've started reading into this, particularly in relation to disabled beggers, and the reasons behind some of this are very hard hitting. This is one to be discussed with work colleagues shortly I think.

3) On the subject of work colleagues, I got talking to a couple of mine recently about their home lives. Put it this way, I have no right to complain about anything pretty much ever again! One woman has 3 children, ranging from 6 months to 10 years. She gets up at 3am ever morning to start her household chores, before taking her older kids to school for 6.50am roll call. She then takes her youngest to nursery before making it to the office for 8.30am. She finishes at 2pm at which point she starts the long journey home to pick up her kids and start her evening routine. She lives in an area with a shared water pipe, however as 2 of her neighbours refused to pay recently, the whole supply was cut off. This meant she had no water for weeks and was having to find a way to fill up a drum of water on a daily basis. With 3 boys and a husband to support, this meant life was very difficult, and quite often she was unable to do washing. Her husband works, but is not on a payroll therefore the monthly income can vary. As such, her life is pretty much 'hand-to-mouth' in terms of wages/living. It turns out we are paid the same monthly wage. That really put it into perspective for me just how lucky I am, even in this situation.

Another colleague mentioned to me that he runs a poultry farm in order to make more money, as his day job does not pay enough. He is in early preparations for Christmas in terms of preparing poultry to sell to the markets, and it is very demanding.

Having looked around me and having taken in this recent information, I actually wonder when people sleep around here. They seem to start very early, work all day both in terms of manual labour/housework and their day jobs, they attend church often, and they work late into the night. In many cases, people seem to sleep during the day - quite often I see them sleeping in their shops, on walls, anywhere they can lay their head down. I actually felt quite guilty telling my colleagues about my fairly relaxed weekend (I thought it was busy at the time, but in comparison.....)

4) Another thing I have noticed is how weak I am in comparison to the women around here. The weights most of the women carry on their heads is incredible (I really must take some pictures). Their postures are amazing also. To put it into perspective, my neighbour and I went to refill our gas cylinders last weekend. The two of us struggled to take the empty canister down a flight of stairs. How ridiculous does that sound after seeing a young teenage girl carrying one on her head! Hopefully I'll develop some muscles by the end of my 2 year stay... :-D

5) I've discovered it's actually easier to give men my number and not pick up the phone, as opposed to trying to explain to them why I'm not giving my number. Today's two encounters saw the first guy hugging and kissing me as I tried to go to the bank and refusing to leave until I gave my number (at which point I said I still had a UK sim card, not a Ghana one) - took a while but I got away; the second guy would not leave me alone until I gave my number, then insisted on knowing when I would call him (I kept saying I didn't know as I'm busy the next few days but he wouldn't accept this). Eventually, he went away, and within 10 minutes was calling me! This continued all morning until he gave up and sent a text message, something along the lines of  "Sweetheart, true friends are like mornings, u can't have them the whole day, but you can be sure they will be there when you wake up tomorrow, next year and forever. Have a beautiful day". Ghanaians really have a way with words! Needless to say, I haven't responded....

6) Ghana time is something I am definitely going to have to just accept and get used to. Today I tried to open a bank account. I went along armed with copies of my passport and a letter from VSO explaining about my resident's permit. After an hour of sitting trying to work out whether there's actually a queue or if it's just survival of the fittest, I was seen by a woman who, after taking her time and talking to various colleagues, decided that I can't open a bank account until I get my resident's permit (despite the letter from VSO explaining what's happening). Grr. Thankfully a helpful work colleague has offered to go with me next time, to see if he can make a difference.

That's all for now - no doubt more will follow!

R x