An Overdue Update

*This post is dedicated to Tim White, who called me out on not posting for a month and a half :)

A lot has happened since Oct 25th and even before Oct 25th that I never shared- fail on my part!

Here is a list of what I have been up to and all are interesting enough to earn their own blog post, hopefully I'll squeeze a few in before leaving Ghana. (I thought this would be quick and easy but by the time I was done, I realized why I felt too busy to post blogs :)

*Oct 11-12th FAGRO 2011 Food and Agriculture Fair, we supported 6 actors to attend and I created posters for them and took photos of the event (subsequently made a movie of the event as a sample of a communications piece that could be put together)

*Oct 14th sat in on my first debrief of returning volunteers and worked with Elselot to have a manageable schedule

*Oct 21st attended a USAID communications meeting for various NGOs, really good experience and learned what other NGOs are doing- some pretty interesting items

*Oct 25th went to Tamale for first time, recorded a volunteer (as previously mentioned) and got to know two more volunteers, business planning volunteer Stephen and journalism volunteer Tim

*Oct 29-30th Had a great weekend traveling to Mole National Park with Tim

*Oct 31st Photographed Elselot presenting a record keeping session to nucleus farmers

*Nov 2nd recorded Tim's presentation to journalists then went to experience a village without electricity listening to the weekly agriculture show- one of the most amazing experiences I've had in Ghana!

*Nov 5-7th Traveled with Tim to Cape Coast and Elamina

*Nov 10th Attended, photographed and interviewed attendees of the Pre-Harvest Networking Event in Tamale with 268 value chain actors from across the country

*Nov 12th photographed vegetable volunteer Mark's presentation and field day demonstrations focusing on soil health and treating insects and diseases on plants

*Nov 13th spent most of the day in my room writing my Personal Statement for graduate school applications. Once finished, I realized I had ringworm and visited the pharmacist for a cream and 'plasters' (aka band-aids)

*Nov16-17th Presented the writing and photo workshop to the Accra office

*Nov 21-22nd Presented the writing and photo workshop to the Techiman office

*Nov 23rd met with a radio station in Sunyani wanting a website

*Nov 24th went with staff to the Pru District for a stakeholder meeting, got dizzy with upset stomach after snacks, went to hospital, diagnosed with malaria and received a shot and medicines- drove back to Techiman for the night

*Nov 25th Slept and watched 'Dances with Wolves' as an ode to Thanksgiving, sadly had no chicken soup :(

*Nov 29-30th Presented writing and photo workshop to Tamale office

*Dec 1-2nd went with USAID Communications Specialist and Photographer to take photos of our actors harvesting, buying seed, at National Farmer's Day (Friday Dec 2nd), etc.

*Dec 2nd got back to the hotel and messaging a friend on Facebook, was logged out and told my account had been disabled because I was not 'an authentic person' and FB refuses to reinstate my page- there went 5 years and 20 countries worth of friends in the blink of an eye. I started a new account that was disabled within 12 hours because I was adding too many people in too little time, therefore indicating that I was a spammer in the FB world. Nothing screams good times like having 3 FB accounts in 24 hours. Luckily, the gender volunteer Mona was able to take me out for a much needed drink after my original account was disabled.

*Dec 3-4th slept in and enjoyed a much needed relaxing weekend

*Dec 6-7th presented the writing and photo workshop to the Bolga office

*Dec 8th back in Tamale I met with the Tamale Implement Factory to help them create a brochure, price list and advise on marketing their products

*Dec 9th flew back to Accra and met a volunteer at the end of his debrief, we had lunch, went souvenir shopping (90% of my shopping done in 1 hour, talk about relief!), came back to the office and finished up tasks for various people and made it out a little after 6 p.m. (the usual in Accra)

~Tomorrow, Dec 10th I'm going fabric shopping and looking for a seamstress to make more Christmas presents :)

~This weekend: editing articles for quarterly newsletter, editing grad school essays, pack my bag to stay at hotel in Accra when I go back to US (packing my clothes and shampoo back and forth isn't necessary), create internet templates from volunteer reports to share on ACDI/VOCA website, other wonderful ideas that come to mind if I have time :)

~Tuesday I am leaving with the Accra office to head to Cape Coast for the company retreat! I've never been on a retreat but think it will be quite interesting. Must take photos! :) It will be good to see all of my new friends from the workshops in Cape Coast. Head back to Accra from retreat Friday morning.

~Saturday evening fly back to the U.S. for Christmas!

~Jan 7th fly back to Ghana for 3 more months. I'm already excited to continue my work- I only have the Wa office left to give my workshop too and then start tying up loose ends (which could take 3 months in itself, and wrongly insinuates more events/projects won't come up!) Working in another country as been a really good experience. The positives far outweigh the negatives and even the 'negatives' provide a great opportunity for reflection and growth.

~April 5th currently plane ticket back to the U.S. (extendable a few weeks???)

*Fun side note: After sharing many stories with a 'kicker' to Mona, I decided to write a book (or at least a word document) of the random escapades I've had around the world. The title: 'SNAFUs of a Young Female Traveler' If all else, I should at least start a list of the different stories that I would include!