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 ;)