Tuesday, October 25, 2011

My First Day in Tamale

After I typed my title I thought myself a poet (Tamale rhymes with day FYI). Also, this is one of the first ‘here’s my day’ posts in a while. Sadly, the last post on my flight to Tamale was going to be my first day post but that was a long post for the first 5 hours!

Once we left the airport, we drove to the ACDI/VOCA office. The paved road from the airport was SO smooth- I was in awe! We got to the office and I met David, the Engineers Without Borders Canada, and saw Tim again (Tim’s an ag editor from Ohio and is here to work with journalists to write about agricultural topics- my original job :) The volunteer coordinator wasn’t in so they took me to the hotel to drop my luggage off.

We get to the hotel and I’m excited to see that it’s the one the other two volunteers are staying at. But man was it tiny! Well, we get in and no reservations were ever made and all six of the hotel rooms were booked- yes, there were only six rooms total- I said it was small! I was irritated and the lady was very apologetic but I told her it wasn’t her fault so no worries. She said to send me to a sister hotel that started with an M and another Westerner came out of her room (aka we had been on the same place and she had that last room) and mentioned another really nice hotel that starts with an M. So where does the driver take me? The Silver Rose! Whatever.

I get there, it’s hot and I just want to get to it and start taping the workshop. I love seeing things from start to finish so already missing the first quarter of the workshop was bothering me. I agreed on the room, looked fine to me, grabbed my tripod out of my suitcase and since everything else was in my backpack- I headed back out front. The driver hadn’t left yet and was like- you’re ready already? I said ya, I’ve got things to do, I’m ready to get started. Lol I don’t think they’re used to someone being on such a mission when they hit the ground :)

He had to pick someone else up so called another driver and I waited in the main area. The hotel people were super nice. They weren’t in the main area because it was so hot with the sun coming through all the windows. They guy offered me the seat in front of the fan but I was fine and then a girl offered to move the fan but I didn’t mind so they let it go. They were really nice though. I was impressed at the young guys eagerness for customer happiness and the girls outgoing nature to introduce herself and chat for a bit. It was really nice. Part of me was initially wanting to bail on this place for something cheaper but I didn’t want to leave the nice people.

I saw the driver coming so I met him outside and jumped in the vehicle then he went inside the hotel and came back out- I have no idea why but I wasn’t a fan of not understanding, especially when it was obviously about me- guess who was feeling sleepy?

They take me back to the office and the main volunteer coordinator is back from being at the workshop so we head there. We get there, I set up my camera within 5 minutes (shocked the trainer a bit, he kenw I was coming but I don’t think he was quite ready for me to be that quick about things). I enjoyed the day of taping the training.

At 1 p.m. we went for a lunch break. I went with them and the meal was like a rice and white bean rice dish and they put a sauce on top, served with a piece of meat or fish and some salad. Sadly, the salad looked amazing but that’s not a safe food for Westerners. They piled the plate high and I wasn’t even hungry due to the heat and can’t eat that much when I’m super hungry anways! I put a dent in it and didn’t feel too bad when I noticed only one person ‘cleaned their plate,’ (interesting that I just realized that was an idiom). It was spicy and I was mainly shocked that while edible, I wasn’t a fan. This was the first dish I came across that I didn’t like, but this is being coupled with me eating spicy food while sweating, their beef cattle are also their milk cows and grassfed so the meat wasn’t the tastey, tender meat we raise in the U.S.

After lunch, we went back to the workshop and at 3 p.m. took a five minute break to have a soda (I grabbed another Sprite) and they served a package of cookies, which I really liked :) Once the session ended, I road back with Gary to the hotels. On the way, he had the driver stop so he could buy a papaya- a delicisou tropical fruit hard to get in the U.S. (and expensive). We bought medium sized papayas for 2 cedi ($1.50). I ended up eating half for supper and will eat the other half tomorrow- dinner for $0.75 isn’t bad! Granted, I can’t eat skin and didn’t have a knife or anything but I was able to use my fingers to halve it and then cleaned the seeds out (after taking a picture because they reminded me of fish eggs, eww). I wasn’t sure how to eat it because even though I rinsed it off, there’s still no eating the skin. So I ended up grabbing the cap off my water bottle and using that as a spoon. I figured I would quit eating more out of losing interest from gutting it with a water bottle cap but I actually at as much of it as was ripe!

By the time I got back, I had been told about eating at Laurie’s “There will be a bunch of white people sitting outside” according to the driver. I guess it’s Western. By that time, my neck was killing me, I had a headache, was hot and tired- never a good combination.

I got to the room and had the guy show me how to turn on the A/C and he explained that they were doing work on the pipes so for like three hours there would be no running water for a shower but he could get me a bucket of water. It was 5 p.m. so I could wait to shower (especially sine they have a water heater as well) but he was eager to please so he brought me a big bucket of water. I liked washing my hands at the end of the day, but could have waited nonetheless.

I bought a big bottle of water from the hotel and drank that in the A/C. I noticed that I have four TV stations- a local Ghanaian channel, GTV, CNN and Discovery Channel. I watched Discovery Channel all night!

Finally, after a long weekend I had internet access so I answered a few emails until the connection was lost. The electricity went out once and everything shut down but my laptop was still going, therefore so did I since I wasn’t online.

I charged the batteries that died during training (there is no spare batter for the video camera- I <3 spare batteries) so had to spend the last 30 minutes recording with my digital point and click.

When I realized I didn’t need to wake up until 7 a.m., I decided to type this blog (and the flight post) so as not to get too much sleep. I ended up showering around 9 p.m. There’s an installed showerhead, but it order to get warm water, you have to use the bath knobs and use a handheld shower head. I was happy to have warm water and since it’s so much larger than the water heater at the other hotel, I had more hot water than I knew what to do with. Although, it took awhile for me to realize that there were nighttime bugs around. The occasional one would attach to my laptop but it started to get worse. Then I realized the slated windows in the bathroom were open, letting in the bugs that were making their way to the bedroom. There were a lot more bugs there than in my room so I closed the slates and have kept the bathroom door shut to keep them away from me. That has helped. But a ton had stuck to the bright white tub so I used the handheld showerhead to spray then down the drain- kinda like spraying a trailer with animal poo in it! Only slightly though :)

Also, once I noticed I only had a sheet to sleep under I realized it was chilly (FYI my new room temperature is 80 degrees and that’s too “chilly” for bed! I really don’t know if I’m going to be able to make it when I arrive back to Missouri… in December!

My Flight to Tamale

I woke up this morning at 5:45 a.m. to finish packing (aka put away the pj’s I was wearing and pack my laptop I let charge overnight). I got down to the lobby around 6:20 a.m. and kicked myself when I remembered breakfast starts at 6 a.m. so had I woken up at 5:30 a.m. I could have had one last omelet.

They ushered me to the van that took me to the airport. My flight didn’t depart until 9 a.m. and in Ghana, they advice you to be there “30 minutes before your flight departs!” That’s nothing like the U.S. But, we had to leave early because of the traffic. The driver seemed to know a few short cuts that would shave off some traffic time. The wildest part was this one intersection where a side road joins a large, major road and we’re turning left into three lanes. So guess how many lanes the side road creates to get into three lanes before the light changes? I counted 10! Talk about a jaw dropper- 10 self-made lanes of traffic trying to get into three lanes- craziness! No worries, I made it to the airport alive!

We got to the airport and he dropped me off and as I started to go in, I saw a sign that said international flights and checked with someone else and then walked the street awhile to get to national flights- just because I’m packing heavy doesn’t mean I’m not just going for a two week trip! I get into the airport and this is what I saw:

There are large double doors but aren’t automatic so you have to push your way through- luckily someone was in front of me that held it open. As you enter, there are about 100 (so I did the math and know there are about 96) chairs for people waiting to sit. There are the doors to two restrooms and then when the room opens up, there are about eight luggages check-in areas. They have portable signs and put out the sign of your destination so you know when to bring your luggage up.

While waiting, I got hungry and went to the one little food stand and bought a meat filled pastery to eat- it was pretty good. I also noticed that about half of the passengers for all the flights I saw go out, were Wersterners. It was also freezing cold because they have so many stand up air conditioners that the go everywhere and are cold! They start accepting luggage about 45 minutes before departing. When the time comes, they call your flight to board. You get in line to walk over to the one security/metal detector. All you have to pull out is your laptop- you can take as much liquid as you want and you can keep your shoes on. Once you get on the other side, regardless of the beeps, you are patted down by someone of your gender.

You can grab your bags and go sit in another cold waiting area. I noticed that the only thing being confiscated at check in were aresol cans- which aren’t meant to fly anyways. I thought they take them and whatever but then I noticed they checked to confirm who owned what cans (three men’s shaving creams and one hair spray). I’m not sure why they did that or what ever happened to the cans but the flight staff seemed very accommodating.

When they say it’s time to flight, everyone piles into a van that drives you to the plane. The plane is sitting on the runway and is unlike any puddle jumper I’ve ever been in. It was small but had open propellers(?)/blades instead of wind turbines with the blades enclosed. Once we loaded the plane (oh at no point in time did they ask for my id nor are we assigned seats- you sit wherever lol). Also, my luggage was overweight (not surprised) and the lady told me and I couldn’t do anything about it so she said it was supposed to cost $50 but she would charge me $10 (I thought it started to seem more like a bribe but a cheap one). Then the lady sitting beside her said something and she said nevermind, next time they would charge me. I had my wallet out ready to pay but okay!

We boarded and after we take off, they come around with refreshments. Each passenger got an adult size juice box, a small bottle of water and a sandwich (they said chicken, I call it bologna). I was shocked! The U.S. would give you half a coke and maybe a packet of pretzels for a 1.5 hour flight!

We hit some turbulence and the guy next to me grabbed by arm- I don’t think he likes turbulence, I thought it was entertaining. So once we land (pretty good landing) the plane drives until it stops and everyone was taking their seatbelts and getting up before it was completely turned off- one of the only people I saw wait until the pilot turned off the seatbelt sign (besides myself) was the flight attendant! Then you walk down stairs and walk to the smallest airport I’ve ever seen. For those with reference, it’s maybe half the side of the big red barn on the south side of my parent’s house. For those who can’t relate to that, I’ll try to take a photo when I fly back to Accra Nov 4th.

Then I watched as some guy put all of the luggage on the luggage line by hand. Real kicker- it wasn’t an electrical belt- it was just metal rods side-by-side and the luggage man would have to hand-push the luggage down since it was too heavy to go on its own. Some guy stopped me to confirm I was ADVANCE and then we loaded in the vehicle and headed to the office. Literally when you walk into the airport, you walk straight to where you pick up your luggage and then there are two restrooms and an open door that goes outside. Wam, bam, thank you ma’am! I was so sad my camera was buried in my backpack!

Culture Shock: Prices and Laundry Rant

In developing countries, items tend to be cheaper, especially compared to the U.S. It’s pretty easy when traveling around Ghana to get a hotel for 15-20 cedi (actually less but I’m willing to pay $10-15).

Food is cheaper- a plate of food that holds twice as much as I can eat, starts at 6 cedi ($4) and of course goes up from there but the average restaurant is about $10. Street vendor food is of course cheaper but nothing I’ve had yet. Although there was one day I bought 2 bags of plantain chips (a little larger than snack size chip bags in the U.S.) for 1 cedi ($0.75). I had an orange on the side of the road for 20 pesewas ($0.15). So those items are pretty cheap. This is in Accra though, and I hear it just gets cheaper when you leave the capital city.

But some things have a similar cost. A latter here is comparable to a Starbucks latte.

The main idea- if you buy it off the side of the road, it will be much cheaper than if you buy it in a restaurant or shopping store.

My biggest shock today was the cost of laundry services at my hotel. It was made to seem like having my laundry done at a hotel was not a big deal, my daily allowance will cover it, no big deal. I turned in the clothes I’ve been wearing for the past 3 weeks (I only brought 9 pants and 10 work shirts in total). I turned in my shirts, t’s, delicates, etc. Total cost of washing: 241 cedi ($150)!!! I was outraged! And said I wasn’t paying and I’m not. That is a ridiculous cost. I bought two tailored two-piece suits in Thailand made from scratch for less than $150. There is no telling me it costs that much to wash them!! Needless to say, I’m appalled. My host pays for my hotel and I told the hotel to likewise charge them for the laundry services.

The other part that makes this situation so stressful is that I am given a monthly allowance since I am here for so long. I leave tomorrow for Tamale where I will have to pay for everything myself and since we didn’t get around to getting my November allowance, I’m on limited funds and have to pay for my hotel and daily expenses, whereas here in Accra, the host pays for the hotel.

Now, I’m concerned that I may not have enough cash for the hotel and daily expenses but things are cheaper outside of Accra AND a volunteer gave me the number and information on other hotels in Tamale that cost 15-22 cedi so I have a back up if the hotel the Tamale office suggests is too expensive. I’m glad I was given that information; it makes me feel a lot better and less stressed but man! $150 for laundry! Not sure I’ll get over that one. Needless to say, I don’t plan on ever using the laundry services here again!

Culture Shock: Extreme Privacy

I was watching a TV show and dealing with the plot line (a married couple having issues having children) the wife asked her husband how much money he made at work (he was working late now and it concerned her he was cheating) and he refused to tell her because he said it was none of her business. I was truly shocked at this. (This is actually what spurred this post).

I know that when volunteers work with various individuals here, it can sometimes be challenging because they don’t want to share their numbers with others. As a volunteer put it, it wasn’t that long ago in the U.S. that farmers didn’t want to share how many acres they had because figuring out your income could be pretty easy. The same seems to be here and I thought I was aware of privacy, but it is pumped up here.

We were at a meeting the other day and someone made a comment about something happening in 1986. I said, “I wasn’t even born then.” And my colleague was like, “Oh, don’t say that.” My colleague’s comment in that situation seemed to be a concern that I was sharing too much information. Something I found interesting because I obviously didn’t mind but I guess age is among those things that just aren’t talked about.

On the flip side, thinking this, the church I’ve been attending is preparing the congregation to pay their dues (Leviticus 27) and how much those “dues” are and for one family he even spelled out the total amount they would end up giving (when services last 3.5+ hours you have time to go through the family and numbers). I was shocked he was making it so open how much that one family would be expected to pay (FYI the church is only half built so I think this is a type of fundraiser). Also, when the bible says “30 silver coins” and the pastor has interpreted that as US$30 or 45 cedis lol I think he does that to get a little more money- but that’s just my thoughts.

"Culture Shock"

(So I wrote a blog post on the various areas that were surprising me to find out I was explaing each in too much detail so I will just mention those “shockers” and most will get their own, subsequent blog post to prevent this from being forever long :)

Travelers are warned of culture shock when going abroad. This can take many forms and varies from person to person. Going along with this, one may experience want looks like a roller coaster ride on paper. The roller coaster looks like this:

You arrive in a country and are feeling very elated and happy at the new culture and its novelties. Next you take a dive, feeling upset that things aren’t the way in this country as they are in your own. After a bit, you go back up again, having gotten over those issues and happy. This repeats and usually you are excited when you leave to get back to friends and family but when you return home, after a bit you go back down because you miss aspects of the culture you just left before returning to normal.

So far, I haven’t been too amazed or low. I wonder if this is because working has altered the way I would normally be submersed into a culture- maybe it’s a gentler submersion or more American feeling and therefore it doesn’t seem so novel?

What I mean by culture shock in this post is those areas of culture I’ve been exposed to that have “shocked” me as opposed to the roller coaster ride just explained. Ironically, some of these shocks have been from watching the local stations Ghana TV. And some have been from first-hand experiences, but first hand experiences are often harder to notice than observing those on TV, it’s like being too ‘in-the-middle’ of an issue to notice its different components. For example, who hasn’t been able to give great relationship advice but when it comes to your own, it’s never THAT easy? :)

*Note: as always, these are my assumptions and my attempt to try to figure things out so these aren’t definite, just guesses.

My culture shocks so far:

Marriage Proposals - I’ve already blogged on this so won’t go into more detail.

Extreme Privacy

Prices and Laundry Rant – speaking of roller coaster ride, the laundry sent me a little downhill but I've bounced back!

What Do I Do?

*Warning, this is very long but very informative if you’re into that kind of thing :)

Another great question: What do you do at work?

To the many people that asked me what I would be doing in Ghana before I left, all I had to go off of were six bullet points so I would give a general and vague answer “teach them how to take photos, videos and make a website.” That’s what my bullet points said so that’s what I knew.

My first week I had a lot of projects thrown my way. While I am technically supposed to work on one assignment for the first half (Farmer-to-Farmer) and another on the second half (ADVANCE) both wanted to give me my assignment when I arrived and since there is some overlap and both need special help in November, it makes sense to work on them at the same time. Plus, I rather like knowing what all is expected from me in 6 months so I can start to pace myself and plan things according to how much time they will take. So far it’s working!

For example, I am creating a training for the staff in the five Ghana offices on writing better stories; taking better, more professional photos; taking video; collecting audio; oh and did I mention all the staff also needs to be taught how to edit these pieces?? It took me years of classes at MU to learn all of these things and some I learned through side projects and not even a class! I was thinking I could do it in a week but visiting field offices, they are busy so my boss offered me two days and I bargained for three :)

Well it has turned out that the offices only want to keep the staff in the office for training for two days but my boss has also decided that I can teach writing and photos now and video and audio later, which is so much better on so many levels.
1st I don’t have to stress on trying to squeeze everything into two 5.5-hour days
2nd This won’t be nearly as much information overload for those I’m training
3rd Writing and photography are the foundations of audio and video respectively.

This is what the trainings look like: I have already created on online survey to assess what there current skills/needs are and then I will go to each office and train for two days (one office is only wanting to give me one day- I said I’d settle for a day and a half). After I train on a Monday and Tuesday, I will then go with my trainees into their daily field assignments to have some one-on-one time with them on incorporating what was learned into their work.

So the first few days will be theoretical and with the last few being practical. Also, due to the time constraints, I will give them ‘homework’ where I will give them written and photo projects due to me Friday morning and I will pick winners for various categories to add incentive to doing well on the projects and I can give them an edit to show them how they can improve.

I’m really excited! I love helping others and conducting fun trainings (my time as a National Collegiate Ag Ambassador really helped improve my workshop skills). Plus, field training is fun but a GREAT excuse for me to get into their field myself, where the farmers are and where I really want to be ☺

Granted this is just the explanation of one project, it is the most intensive I have right now and will use the dozen smaller tasks as fillers for when I only have a few, unplanned days a week. I tried typing my schedule but that got bulky quickly, so here is an outline of the rest of my time from now until December. (I’ve been busy but goodness it all came into place these last few days!)

Monday Oct 24-25: Fly to Tamale and take video of volunteer training
Wednesday Oct 26-28: visit farmers in the north to prepare them for the USAID visit (talk with them and learn about their operation to help them know what information USAID would like to hear in order to make this more worthwhile for all involved)
Monday Oct 31- Nov 4: take video of volunteer training on record keeping for farmers
Nov 4-7: come back to Accra for a weekend and to watch Tim White’s debrief on working with Ghanaian newspapers to cover ag topics
Nov 8th: Fly to Tamale to prepare for a Ghana Grains Council partnership and networking event
Nov 14: join the USAID for their visit to take photos of their visit
Nov 21st: begin training the offices on writing and photography. This gives me just enough time (five weeks) to visit each office for a week each.
Dec 20th: Fly back to the U.S. to freeze my bum off :)

Between these events, a few weeks will allot me a few days here and there to finish my writing and photography training material, as well as continue to work on the website and other miscellaneous tasks as they arise. Never a dull moment in Ghana!

I don’t do much on the weekend, primarily because what do you do? Go shopping? If I buy stuff I have to tote it around! I plan on waiting until my last week in Ghana to go Christmas shopping :) Having spoken with others, I already have a good handle on what to get so it’s just going to be a matter of going out and getting those items. Plus, this is the first weekend where I haven’t had an extra side assignment to be working on from the office here- maybe I can visit a museum today. I hear it only takes like an hour so that could be a nice, small outing- I just have to figure out how to get there ;)

An Average Day at Work

I’ve had some friends ask me great questions via Facebook and thought that answering those questions would make good posts!

A few days ago, I was asked: What is an average day like?

Anyone who has worked in communications knows that no two weeks are alike- one of the joys to communications! But generally this is what my day looks like:

Wake up around 7 a.m., watch the news (Aljazeera) and get ready, take allergy medicine

8 a.m. head down to the hotel restaurant for my (amazing) breakfast

8:15 a.m. walk from the hotel to the office. It takes about 15 minutes and gives me a chance to have that time between ‘home’ and work, I get to have a little exercise and see other Ghanaians. I liked the morning when a small girl with her mom shouted ‘Abruni! Abruni!’ (Abruni – white person) and she gave me a big smile and wave :) Too cute!

8:30 a.m. arrive to the office and settle in by checking my email, Facebook and lately, the score for the Cardinal’s game! Go Cards!!

9:00 a.m. get started working if I haven’t already! This can mean working on the website outline, continue gathering information and outlining my writing and photo training, editing audio/video/photos. Usually I finally break when I’m getting brain fried for concentrating so hard for so long lol

2 p.m. Go out to lunch, generally within the A&C Shopping area. There is a mini shopping center, the ACDI/VOCA office, other offices, a money exchange, bank, restaurants, gym, etc. The restaurant located under the office is Koffee- it’s a coffee shop and… Chinese restaurant! It doesn’t taste like Chinese (American Chinese or China Chinese) but is still pretty good. There is another restaurant in our sub area of the center called Temptation CafĂ© I think that serves a variety of food including Indian and is a little more pricier but good as well. The gym has a pool and a poolside restaurant, which serves a lot of Ghanaian food and is really good and well priced but sitting is tricky since it’s bar seating only BUT they played country music- talk about a shocker!

I usually take a notepad with me to lunch to jot down notes on work items that come to mind because I tend to forget my afternoon plan by the time I get done with lunch if I don’t :)

3 p.m. Return from lunch- it can take awhile to get your food and then to get the check. At the office I have a large Milka caramel chocolate bar (German) that I can break a piece from like a Hershey’s bar and then it has a built in re-sealer! What can I say? I like that chocolate :)

Once I’m back, I pick up where I left off on the guides; search the USAID or ACDI/VOCA websites on templates or outlines for writing, photography requirements (since those are our primary media audiences/distributors); or go around asking people in the office questions on my task that I came up with during the morning but would rather ask questions when I’m getting back into things for guidance when restarting after lunch.

4:50 p.m. I fill my water bottle in the kitchen from the Culligan-esque water coolers for water in the hotel. I generally drink two-three bottles of water while at work and my bottle holds 1 liter or 34+ ounces. I’m staying hydrated :) I start to unplug my laptop charger and get papers together, especially if I’m taking work home or it’s a weekend (or in the case of this past Friday, I’m leaving for two weeks!!). And check email and play around on Facebook for a while.

5:30 p.m. I leave work. I like to wait until this time because the sun has started going down and it’s cooler outside, making for a more enjoyable walk and by this time some of the 5 p.m. crowd has cleared out so it’s not as crowded which can be tricky when you’re walking on the side of the road and meet someone because the vehicles are only a few feet away and drive fast and a tad crazy when possible and there seems to be a sense of vehicles instead of pedestrians having the right of way. (I say that but I’ve had vehicles coming off side roads stop for me to cross the road on my to and from work so it really depends on the drivers).

5:45 p.m. Get back to the hotel, get my room key from the front desk and crash in my room. Relax for a bit and watch the news.

Depending of if I’m hungry, I’ll go to supper at the hotel restaurant anywhere from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. When I return, I take my malaria pill. It’s definitely something you have to take with food. I learned that lesson the first time I took the pill, but then I found out so did many others so instead of taking it at breakfast like normal, I followed the suggestion of another volunteers doctor to take it after dinner. I don’t go out too often for supper but partly because it’s dark by 6:30 p.m. and I don’t feel like walking around after dark by myself. I spend my evening watching news and playing on my laptop, doing any work if I brought it home, working out occasionally, listening to podcasts, etc.

9 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. I go to bed, this leaves a pretty large window but I’ll go to bed earlier if I have to wake up sooner and try to stay up if not to prevent from getting too much sleep.

This is what the average day looks like. If volunteers are around, I will eat supper with them around 6 or 7 p.m. and we will talk until 10 p.m. or later. Most Thursdays I go to Paluma, another hotel in Accra that has a “Quiz” night (British) otherwise known to Americans as trivia night! I love trivia nights, even if I’m not that good at it. I went the first time with some volunteers who were at the hotel and had been before but now can go by myself since you take a taxi and almost everyone there is a Westerner and pretty welcoming so I make new friends :)

That my friends, is what an average day looks like!

Amazing Breakfast!

The hotel I am staying at in Accra, the Royal Richester, includes a free “American continental breakfast.” It’s slightly American, but more European. Monday-Friday there are two covered hot pans with eggs and some sort of sausage links in one and mushroom, pork and beans and a spicy type spaghetti in the other. The staff always seems surprised/confused when I don’t want beans for breakfast :)

Next there is a plate of cut pineapple and pears or papaya, a tray of bread for making toast, a few trays of pastries and a few trays with a slice of ham accented with a red pepper, a slice of cheese with a tomato on it and other such plates. At the end is a huge line of about a dozen condiments (ketchup, Tabasco and maple syrup are the ones I remember).

Then there is a hot water pitcher to make instant coffee or tea with and warmed milk, two large bowls of cereal- cornflakes and something else with cold milk. Upon request they will make you a Spanish omelet (two eggs, green peppers, red peppers, onions) and a pancake that is more like a sweet crepe than the American pancake- but I prefer the sweet crepe, I just add a bit of maple syrup out of habit and to add a little moisture but can enjoy one without syrup since it already has a sweet flavor.

Monday through Friday I pretty much eat the provided egg, sausage and toast with some pineapple or watermelon juice and a coffee or two. Saturday and Sunday, I eat strategically. I go all out and have them make me an omelet (2 eggs), pancakes (okay, 2 crepes), five sausage links, a piece of toast, coffee and pineapple juice. I can never finish it all but usually only allow myself to leave a few bites of anything. Today I literally left a bite of omelet, sausage and toast- it would have made a delicious bite had there been any room left for it! This is my favorite breakfast and in all reality, gives Country Kitchen or Denny’s a run for their money. (Fresh pineapple juice is pretty amazing!)

Now that I’m stuffed at 10 a.m., I won’t eat again until 4 or 5 p.m. and call it quits for the day. This way I can spend time doing things rather than having to worry about where I can and can’t eat.

It’s kind of funny the thing that got to me, in a sense. I’ve had stomach issues for a week now so am trying to eat tummy-friendly foods and that means no street vendors, which I haven’t had here anyways. If I didn’t have any stomach problems for a few weeks I might have tried the street food (it was so good in Thailand- best ever!) but since I’ve gotten sick somehow while erring on the side of caution I know I shouldn’t go there. But that’s what annoyed me. Like a 5-year-old I thought, “How come the locals get to eat street food and I don’t? This is so unfair. Why do we have to have such sanitary food in the U.S. that prevents me from being immune to any of these things?” I know the thought was completely ridiculous and childish, but the street vendor food looks so good, so local and so cheap! Someday maybe, but for now, I’ll stick to the safe stuff.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Informal Learning: Meeting Other Volunteers

Last spring I interned with MBS Textbooks, Xplana division, and did some blogging for them titled Informal Learning and they touched on a variety of areas where informal learning takes place.

Ironically, that idea of learning in situations in which no one really expects you to learn is where you gain the most knowledge sometimes. Last Friday, two Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers returned from the field to deliver their presentation on their experience and suggestions before flying back to the U.S. While there were about 10 people present for at least parts of the presentations, the two that stayed the longest were the two long-term volunteers in Accra- a one-year volunteer from the Netherlands and myself. We talked with the two after the rest had left for at least an hour and the other volunteer stayed even later. (I mainly had to leave to charge my computer in order to collect photos from the volunteers.)

During that time was a great opportunity for us to discuss their experiences and what our work is and how to make it all happen. So Friday I spoke with the volunteers, Scott and Deborah, after their presentations, we had lunch with Scott and I had dinner with Deborah at the hotel. On Saturday I had a book exchange with Deborah where we traded books we've already read and I spoke with both Scott and Deborah before they departed. In total, I probably spent around 10-12 hours speaking with each/both of the volunteers over the past two days. I am sad to see them go but have learned a considerable amount from both.

I flew into Ghana with Scott so was excited for him to return so we could talk about his experience but Deborah was welcomed surprise, but I believe she arrived one week before I did so I wasn't aware she was in country.

Broadly, I was able to learn more about international development, pull out more similarities between Ghana and the U.S. and the general things needed to help your Ghanaian hosts. More specifically, I got some great tips on how to construct the website I was asked to build and what to include, as well as some names and numbers of places to visit while working in Tamale and vacationing in Cape Coast.

Information overload, maybe :) But I have thoroughly enjoyed the conversations, lessons learned from others experiences and meeting Gladys, an orange and tomato trader that Scott worked with the last time he was here. Gladys sells to Nigerian and Benin markets and wants to take me to her farmer groups. I am no Scott, nor do I have his wealth of experiences as an ag economist, but being able to meet and work with farmers would be a great experience! I've already thought of ways I can work with Gladys's farmers to help me do some of my volunteer work, such as helping them to tell their story when they have U.S. visitors on their farms to better tell their story in a way that helps provide each side with the information they find most interesting.

I realize that this post has been vague but when you're talking ~12 hours of volunteer intake in two days, not including my regular (and weekend) work, daily experiences and battling my first serious case of diarrhea, I think this post was bound to be less specific in order to not reach novel lengths :) More to come later but for now I'm off to bed so I can make it to another ~3 hour church service tomorrow and finish my weekend work. Congrats on the win MU!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Reactions and Marriage Proposals

*Sorry I wrote this two days ago and am just now publishing.

I enjoy watching people’s reactions when I tell them about my weekend. Take going to the church service for example. As I left the hotel and told the desk attendant that I would be going to church, she had a surprised look on her face- “you’re going to a church service?” Maybe most hotel guests don’t go (or mention they’re going?).

Then today when I went to work I told a young Australian company that’s working with a partner organization of ACDI/VOCA that I had gone and they were both surprised as well- I guess they didn’t think to go.

When I told the driver who takes me from the hotel to work and back, he thought that was great, figured out which one and said he would invite me to his church service sometime.

At work, the Ghanaian workers I told were surprised, as were the non-Ghanaian workers. I was surprised how no one thought that sounded normal or legitimate. I guess you think of touring, shopping and sight seeing but not so much a 3+ hour church service.

I did tell one of my bosses, an American who has lived in Ghana for many years, and he mentioned that there are some major Christian churches- Presbyterian, Methodist, Apostolic, etc.- and then there were the evangelical churches which could be a lot of moving and shaking. Well that helped me to determine that I had attended an evangelical service! :)

Jumping ship to a reaction on advice:

After having three strangers confess their love for me, two marriage proposals and two invites to a concert (the Ghanaians are famous for their marriage proposals), I decided to ask someone at work what to do/how to say no. I wasn’t sure if there were cultural issues, if I should try to save-face, etc. I saw the Australian girl, but being married she had an easy out. Granted I told the taxi driver that I was married (his response: is he Ghanaian? I said No, he’s from the U.S. and then he pipes up “What do you have against Ghanaian’s” My response, “Nothing, I’ve only been here 7 days” lol).

So I asked a European in the office if she gets marriage proposals and with a nod and eye-roll, I knew I wasn’t alone in my annoyance with the “big” question. I asked what to do, how to respond and she was quick in answering!

‘Tell them your married. Tell them your married and you have kids. Don’t worry about being nice. Tell them and walk away.’

So based on her advice and learning from my experiences, the tricks are:

-To not smile (okay I laughed, a marriage proposal was kinda funny when you’re not expecting it)

-Be sure and mention the husband and it sounds like kids too (I did find out saying ‘I have a boyfriend and we are very much in love’ means nothing!)

-Be blunt (I remember once holding out my hands to signal ‘time out’ and was like here’s the deal and you need to leave now- I wasn’t finished with my dinner so he had to be the one to leave, not me)

-Walk away (when possible)

But all of this is really making me wonder if Ghanaians just go up to any person and ask them to marry or if that’s reserved for abruni’s (white women)? Maybe I can ask Cornelia, a Ghanaian, at work and if so, how does she say no? :)


(Although since writing this, I mentioned to a car of Ghanaian co-workers the proposals and they erupted in laughter- but they all have such a great sense of humor that the laughter didn't answer too many questions other than it obviously happens)

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Going to church in Ghana

Disclaimer: Sorry for not posting the past few days- It was really upsetting the first two days when I was having internet trouble in the hotel then yesterday I tried to upload photos and 2 hours later without the photos uploading I had lost interest :) So I'll add photos while I have good internet connection at work.

So skipping the past few days, which were action packed as always, today I went to church in Ghana. I picked this church because it's close and on the way to work so I've seen it everyday. It doesn't have walls and looks to be under construction but there are chairs on the floor level and a sign that says 'God Reigns.' Light blue and orange cloth is draped around the 'room' and twisted around the posts- adding some great color.

It's a 5 minute walk from the hotel but the first 30 minutes of the sermon I was sweating like crazy- it made me wonder if this was what it was like for that person in a particular church saying ;) I walked up, hearing the music long before I could see it. I saw another girl walking in so I followed her. We were greeted by a man that wanted me to sit toward the front. My initial thought was 'I don't need to sit in the front' but it made sense when he ended up sitting me next to two other abruni's (white women). It was nice to follow their lead.

The sign outside said services were from 10:30-12:30 so I knew it would be lengthier than usual. So when I got there they were playing music and singing. I was impressed with their drum set, tribal drums, electric base guitar, keyboard and trumpet! It was intense. There was a lot of singing, I think I knew a total of 30 seconds and would occasionally catch on that I was supposed to follow along :) Then they got really exciting with their music and people started dancing. You went up to the front area where there was some space and you danced in the name of the lord. It was really interesting, especially since as a Presbyterian (a.k.a. the 'frozen chosen'), we didn't even raise our hands much during service. There was a lot of this music. Then a lady, who they referred to as the prophecy, her husband was something as well- got up and talked about her son about to marry a girl she didn't like then she did a prophetic prayer and he met a good woman.

Her son ended up leading some of the songs. After a few songs, a lady and a man in blue (later I find out to be the preacher) said really long, eloquent passages from the bible- a type of scripture reading that was really amazing and soulful. At one point they took offering and I heard the lady say this was the first offering so I had a feeling more were to come. I skipped the first one but the other white ladies went up. It was brought out later in the service with only a few people going up and at the very end the prophetic lady said she sensed a few people in the room that didn't know where their next meal was going to come from. A young man with an injured finger and a girl came up- the prophetic lady prayed for them and took up an offering for them and I and the other white ladies as well as many other gave then as well.

Then after awhile they put some olive oil in a dish and prophetic lady stuck her hand in it and put her hand on her head- a sort of self anointment. I'm all for trying other practices but the amount of me that wanted to put olive oil in my hair was pretty slim. She had a heavenly moment and almost fell over and was in deep reverence(?) for like 30 minutes but the sermon went on without her. They passed the olive oil dish around and I saw I could just dip my fingers in it and put it on my forehead so I was okay with that- especially after watching the two white ladies do it :)

*Sorry if this isn't in order, it lasted for 3 hours

Then there was the sermon. It was a passage in Leviticus about a church tax your supposed to pay according to age and gender and ability (the two ladies later explained they think the church is trying to prepare the congregation to collect more funds to continue building the church :) It was funny because in the bible it is put in a form of currency I'm not familiar with, but the preacher said it in dollars (US) and we had to convert it for him into Ghanaian cedi currency lol Then there was a whole segment on how God will give you more and more and more and more. And how God will make you great, great in all that you do (repetition helps for remembering these things). But the kicker was when talking about being great, he talked about being great from birth, from when your head comes out of your mother and then we got a whole talk on how sperm swims and fertilizes the egg. I'm not sure how the sperm ties in but he went there!

It was interesting because it was also being translated into Twi so the preacher would say 'You will be great in your work' and the translator would have 5 seconds before the preacher would say 'You will be great in your family' and so on. I felt for that poor translator!

Oh! I almost forgot- there was communion! So I was thinking they would pass around baskets with loaves, we'd dip it in something and go for it. But when the time came the head guy (I would say preacher but there were like 5 people taking turns leading the congregation so who knows) explained that we were doing communion a little differently. A lot of people get sick from communion so to be safe, we were handed a sealed, clear container, very similar to a small liquid creamer container. It was filled with something red (grape juice I later found out) and it had an extra flap on top with a cracker- kinda like the extra sprinkles container hidden in cake icing containers. I was like 'huh.' This is nothing I had ever really thought of and would have taken communion without a thought but it sounds like that's not the most sanitary route. Then the prophetic lady, who was out of reverence by now, got up and told people to take it and not save it to show people lol I did take mine but had to keep it to take a picture and share! It was so interesting. She said that taking it to show your friends wouldn't do any good, you needed to take it to remember Jesus and God- I'm glad I wasn't the only person in the room that wanted to take it to show others :)

Okay, so I know there's more but this is getting lengthy lol That in a nutshell my friends is what to expect at a Ghanaian church service! Any questions- feel free to post or email juliashuck@gmail.com if you want to ask me anything about my work, Ghana, etc.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

So much to say!!!

There is so much I want to share but then I wouldn't be keeping my goal of short blog posts that way :( I want to talk about food, my day... okay so I could have sworn the list was longer but nope, everything I want to say comes down to those two categories... food and my day- story of my life! (Seriously, ask a former roommate, I bet they could vouch for that one :)

But in an effort to keep it short, and as usual I'm not sure if this will be interesting to anyone but me, here's just a snipit.

Tuesday Dec. 2, 2008,I had 31 viewers on my blog! Best part, my most commented on blog didn't come out until Dec. 4th! What came out on Dec. 1st though was a blog title 'Help!!! I've Been Robbed!!" I was entering a scholarship contest by writing a blog that dealt with identity theft! I have NO idea why it got so much attention, maybe the scholarship committee? But I feel like that's a sad way to get viewers- especially since that was the least genuine thing I posted. Don't get me wrong, I really was robbed (aka by car window was broken out and brand new purse with the tags still on was stolen while I was at work) but it's not like it came out of the moment lol.

But that was topped yesterday with a whopping 38 views. Even though it really seems like it about now, I really don't care how many people check out my blog. If someone wants to great- glad I could provide some entertainment! But I'm not trying to increase my readership and become famous by any means. I remembered earlier today that I hadn't seen my google analytics, which gives you stats on your blog, in a really long time. So I got on and saw that people are checking it out and they come from 3 places: the U.S. (16 states), Canada and Ghana. So much for thinking just my mom was reading (I'm not even sure of that one. If she reads my blog as much as she gets on Facebook it would amount to 3-4 times per year :) Granted most years that's all I've blogged!

So that's my (lame) snipit. I'm really struggling not to go off on a tangent right now... I think I'll post again on another topic. There problem solved!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Busy, Busy, Busy

Today was very productive, among other things. At breakfast I talked to a waiter I had met the other day and we practiced some Twi. He speaks Twi, Dagboni, Hausa (all Ghanaian languages), a Nigerian language I forgot the name of, English and he dabbles in Portuguese or French, I can't remember which. We talked about the different fruits and vegetables in the U.S. and Ghana. They have a lot of tropical fruits I enjoyed in Costa Rica and Thailand but they don't grow peaches or apples, which I thought was interesting. He told a story how it was odd eating a new fruit in Europe (peaches) and it reminded me of eating mangoes in Thailand because trying a new fruit is a really odd food experience.

Sidenote, as I was writing my blog my computer made a ding. So I looked for the chat in Skype, then Facebook and finally found it in gmail! I'm feeling pretty connected right now!

After breakfast, an ACDI/VOCA driver, David, picked me up for work. I got to work and realized I forgot my charger so within an hour my laptop died. I went through my assignment expectations and started to make notes and went through the Business and Financial Times to make sure my thoughts on creating press releases were the same in Ghana as in the U.S. I went back to the hotel and grabbed the chargers then helped my boss download Dropbox to send me files and she really likes it. I do to because it's fast and everything she sends me is in one spot, which is really nice.

After getting files from here, I created one of the five posters needed for Friday. That was a lot of PhotoShop and InDesign but I was done at 2 p.m. and at that point wasn't hungry so decided to forgo lunch (granted breakfast was huge because the two servers kept bringing me food from the buffet- toast and watermelon). I met the lead for the ADVANCE program and received my job duties from the Northern Outreach Coordinator. My boss, Adwoa, explained that she is internal communications and the Northern Coordinator, Collins, is external communications- I'm getting a wide variety of activities- which I love!

Then Tom, the lead for ADVANCE, realized I was around for six months so he's brainstorming on things to give me as well (not that Adwoa and Collins don't already have more than four pages of assignment combined!) We were asked to gather and send information to a high up in the U.S. to include in a speech so we had meetings about that. We discussed what to provide and while the others were getting the information together, I read up on previous speeches to make it what we're going to send sound similar. We were given the deadline 'tomorrow by the end of the business day' and it seemed really tight. Then I realized, we're five hours ahead so when we end our business day, they're going out to lunch so we have most of the day to finalize it, which is nice to have the opportunity to look more carefully at what we will be submitting.

Also, I learned four new phrases today, even though my goal was one!!! MaChi is good morning, MaHa is good afternoon, MaJo is good evening and thank you is Ma Dsay. I should know good night but that didn't start with Ma and I didn't want to take in too much in one day :) I entertained so many people today by saying MaChi and MaDsay! I pronounced it right, probably just made them happy someone was attempting to speak Twi, one of 44 languages in Ghana! Granted it's the most widely spoken, English is their official language (granted not the first language for most) so most English speakers can get my without having to try really.

So my goal is to write shorter blogs but it was a long day! I came back from work, slept for 30 minutes, woke up, ate supper and came back to relax. Although, the channel that was Aljazeera has changed to BBC, I hope it's a rotating thing though because I preferred Aljazeera and they have an evening line up of shows- granted they're very newsy, they're series nontheless. Which reminds me, I should google some TV shows... I wonder if I'll be able to keep up with Gray's Anatomy...

Also, on the way to work I noticed a Christian church on the side of the road and think I might stop by Sunday. I'm not sure if it will be in English, Twi or something else but it's gotta be interesting!

Monday, October 3, 2011

1st day on the job and in a new country :)

As I mentioned to a few of my coworkers, the first day of a new job is always interesting but the first day at a new job AND your first day in a new country is something else!

This morning, another volunteer, Allen from Alaska, met me at breakfast and we left with our ride from the hotel to the office (about a 5 min ride). It looks like an interesting walk so after a few weeks of getting the route down, I will try it in the morning/after work. I asked Olaf, the regional director of West Africa who has been here for several years and he said that this was a safe area and I should have no problem so I am excited to give it a whirl.

So when I arrived to work at around 9 a.m. I first met with Cornelia, and she gave me the rundown. Then my direct boss and I met after one of her meetings and she gave me the run down of what she wanted me to do during my time. Likewise, Frank from the Northern Region will send me a similar document. So here is what I will do in a nutshell:

-Help create posters for six ag presenters they are sponsoring to a conference in Accra
-Critique their brand new newsletter
-Give presentations at the three Northern ACDI/VOCA offices on taking quality photos and videos
-Teach regional office leaders on speaking with the media and getting more media attention
-Help the offices feel more comfortable discussing how they fulfill the goals of Feed the Future, a USAID project
-Among other projects

Since January, the more I have learned about my assignment, the more excited I have been and can't wait to start these various tasks. Today I began creating guides for taking photos, videos, writing good success stories and offering advice on their newsletter.

Once I had finished my meeting with my boss, I was introduced to Belinda and she took me around the office to meet everyone. It was nice getting a brief introduction of everyone and a feel for the office. During this tour I was shown my desk!!! This was a very exciting moment- usually there are desks for volunteers as they do their paperwork at the end of their short term assignments but since I'll be here for so long, I get to call it my own :) It was very exciting to have my own desk because I haven't really had that yet and let's face it, while in college my desk was piled too high to use so I'm not sure if that even counts as having/using a desk :)

They helped me exchange some U.S. dollars into Ghanaian cedi's (apx $1 is 1.5c). Afterwards, I went to the restaurant under the office. Once there I saw Allen and we ate together. They had and AMAZING cafe latte and oddly served Chinese-type food so I ate the Ghanaian take on shrimp fried rice :) It was good but didn't take much to fill me up so I felt a little bad leaving about half my plate still full but knew when it was served that I wasn't going to be able to eat it all. It was nice getting to have lunch with Allen and he had some great advice. I liked his thoughts on having a diary of sorts so I thought I could keep my blog to keep everyone updated but also have a diary to remember some of the more detailed items about my projects and whatnot. After returning to the office, I took the diary advice in a sense and created a volunteer document where I can keep track of all the other volunteers I meet and what I learn from them. So far, both Scott and Allen have traveled and done international projects for years all over the world but come from different places and have different perspectives, which I find really interesting.

In addition, we did some trouble shooting to get the internet up and going on my laptop. I took a number and waited for 50 minutes at the bank near our office to get my travel advance- the money allotted to me for my first month here so I don't have to pay it all myself up front. It was interesting because signing my check also meant putting down my address, phone number and the date cashed.

My driver back to the hotel was David and seeing the action on the side of the streets really made me want to take a camera out on the weekend/on my way to and from work to capture daily life in Accra, Ghana. While I am by no means an expert, I think it would be really neat to capture the daily experiences of Ghanaians to share with others. I will ask Cornelia in the office tomorrow to see if this is a good idea or not and what things I might want to consider when asking the small hut businesses on the side of the street if I can photograph/take video of them.

I found out today that while I will be traveling, they have changed the reservation at the hotel and booked my room for the entire month of October so I will be in Accra for my first 30 days :) This works well for me because I like the idea of spending some time at head quarters (HQ) to get a feel for the type of work they want me to do and prepare my field presentations as well as learn more about the culture.

So far so good. It was a very lovely first full day- working and in Ghana. Like any other time abroad, I enjoy not having a million things to do but just getting to work on my assigned task. So I'm watching Aljazeera (an international news tv station in English, which is awesome to keep up with the news!!) and will probably go grab some dinner in the hotel shortly. Last night I had Okra Stew with goat meat with fufu (a cassava based food that has the texture of raw bread dough). It was good but tricky to eat, I understand why most Ghanians skip the silverware and just use their hand to eat.

After hearing all of the great stories about being in the field from Scott and Allen, I can't wait to go out myself to get this other aspect of Ghanian life. I'm really happy and relaxed after my first day and am interested to see how the rest of my week goes. While the other volunteers are amazed at the length of my assignment (almost 6 months) and didn't even know assignments could last this long, they think it's great. I can tell the office isn't used to long-term volunteers either but they are really excited to have me here for so long and as with any other communications department, I understand always wanting to do things a little better, wanting another set of eyes and wanting to take more on but need the additional support to make this happen. Okay, I'm getting hungry now so I'll go grab some supper and have a relaxing evening :) Even though it's a Costa Rican saying, I want to sign off with a term that literally translates as 'pure life' but means 'everything has a way of working itself out,' 'it's all good,' and 'no worries,' among other things and encapsulates how I'm feeling: pura vida!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

I'm in Ghana!

After months of excitement, weeks of packing and an 11 hour plane ride- I have made it to Accra, Ghana! I was glued to my window like a 5-year-old as we descended and although extremely jet lagged, I couldn't help but notice the infrastructure. Other than a few very large, paved roads, all of the streets are red dirt roads. From the aerial view, I could see patches of farm land and noticed that there was a lot of farm land but it seemed to be small patches and a variety of crops planted next to one another- I'm interested in learning more.

At the airport, I was greeted by the driver for ACDI/VOCA and met up with another volunteer, Scott. Scott is a rancher from New Mexico that focuses on ag economics and has been on several volunteer assignments with ACDI/VOCA over the past year- he briefly mentioned the assignment he was on last month in another African country. It sounds like this guy is very active in the Farmer-to-Farmer program! It was really nice to ride with him from the airport to our hotel because he has been here before and knows the ropes, which never hurts when I only managed 3-4 hours of sleep on the plane!

The drive to the hotel was really interesting. Scott let my ride up front and there tons of vendors on the side of the street and one of the first vendors I saw was selling cocoanuts like in Thailand and Costa Rica where they machete the top and you can drink the cocoanut milk with a straw :) I'm excited!!!

I also saw this large building that was all glass windows and a really interesting architecture style being built. I was told by Scott and many in the U.S. that Ghanians are extremely nice- I can't wait to actually start meeting some people.

While this isn't my first time abroad, I am still interested by so many things that I see. Even something as small as seeing some chickens running around the street outside our hotel, a place you wouldn't normally expect them. It's funny because I feel sometimes I come off as green or naive because of the little things that I still find interesting; while I know my stuff, I don't think I really come off as an 'experienced world traveler.' :)

Uniquely though, I can already sense that this is the most underdeveloped country I've been to. The roads from the plane were a giveaway yes, but traveling around and seeing more vendors than actual stores was a cue as well. I know the next few weeks will bring a lot of great experiences- culturally, professionally and personally.

This evening I am meeting with Scott for dinner since he seems to have a good grasp on the hotel area and I can ask him some more questions as long as the jet lag waits to kick in too bad :) The hotel has wireless internet (music to my ears :) and my room is really nice- with a personal air conditioner, refridgerator with freezer and a small electric stove. I'm really pleased with the hotel so far. Sorry if this post is a little scattered, or more all-over-the-place than usual, blame it on the jet lag :)