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!

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)

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.

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!

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!

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!

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 :)