*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!
Friday, December 9, 2011
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!
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 ;)
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 ;)
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