Did you know...???

http://www.kuapakokoo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=80

I am sat in a stakeholder meeting with 40 cocoa farming community representatives from the District of Suhum in the Eastern Region of Ghana. In the meeting there are Chiefs, local Assembly Members, community members and District ASsembly Officers. The group represent 15 new communities who will work with Cadbury's Cocoa Partnership to help improve the livelihoods of Cocoa Farmers in this part of Ghana, who are amongst some of the poorest people here.

We have just listened to a presentation about the Partnership and I was astonished to hear that Cadbury's UK buy all of its cocoa from Ghana and that equates to 15% of all of Ghana's cocoa export.  The price that the farmers get for the raw product is disgracefully low compared to the final cost of the product in the shops. Much work is now being done to encourage Fair Trade, a fair price and a fair living for all partners in the process.  

Some of you will have heard of Divine chocolate.  The link above will take you to their site where you can find out how this Fair Trade organisation supports cocoa farmers here in Ghana.  You too can help make a difference to the lives of people at the bottom of  the cocoa supply chain by buying Fair Trade chocolate products such as Divine or Green and Blacks (I know many of you already do so).

Check out the website for  to learn more about some of the initiatives going on to make this world fairer and more just place for ALL not just the few.  You know.........

8 months in Ghana .....

October 2011.
http://thekexperience.okeiweb.com/past/ghana/cocoa-revealed-the-pod.html Ever wondered where your favourtie chocolate bar comes from? Click on this link to find out more

 For those of you tenacious enough to keep checking out my  blog I apologies for the large tracts of time in between posts.  I have been persuaded by my many friends here on the merits of using Facebook as a global means of sharing life experiences. To be fair to them it has been a bit of an eye opener for me. In the true spirit of 'sharing skills and changing lives' I  am able to now 'watch and be watched' by family and friends the globe over. Oh the pleasure and the pain, ha ha.

Some of you will know that I have transferred placement here in Accra. As of November 1st I am working as Volunteer Management Adviser with the Cadbury's Cocoa Partnership (CCP).  The partnership was established to improve the lives and livelihoods of cocoa farmers in Ghana. Trade in cholcolate earns the west billions of dollars/pounds every year however, Cocoa farmers remain amongs the poorest people here.  If you are interested to find out more about the lives of cocoa farmers in Ghana check out the NI articles from 1998 http://www.nhs.vic.edu.au/library/ni/issue304/contents.html

I will be working with the team and other international and national service providers to identify and establish corporate, international and local volunteering opportunities with cocoa farmers.  Previous research with farming communities in the cocoa producing areas has highlighted areas a range of support needs e.g. adult literacy, teaching, public health including sanitation and safe drinking water, environmental management, business development and women's empowerment.  I will be interested in any information that anyone has about volunteer management and/or development systems, training, etc. You can e-mail to iglynn2710@gmail.com.

I will try and keep you posted on my placement experiences. I get my first taste of cocoa farming life next week when I visit some communities in the Eastern Region.

October has been another good month for socialising (kakra kakra)  I met the Vice-President of Ghana at Osu Castle and went on to meet some MPs from the northern regions at Parliament as part of a fact finding tour by the VSO International CEO.  Last week (on our Birthday no less) Princess Anne paid a visit to Ghana. As patron of VSO she was very interested to hear the motivations of volunteers to do VSO and the variety of placements undertaken.  There are a couple of amusing photos on my facebook page.

I celebrated my birthday over 4 consecutive nights here and enjoyed every minute of it. Unfortunately as most activities occurred outdoors at nighttime the photos were rubbish but I will try and post a couple here just to brighten up this load of woffle!

I love my life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d93w_tuorrE&feature=player_embedded

It is now mid September and I have been here 7 months!!! Oh my, oh my.  I am really enjoying being here - it's the people that make me 'love my life' here. Check out this You tube video of the song which I hear playing everyday and will forever remind me of this experience. I hope you are loving your life too ..

A snip of the hi life in Ghana

Its my life -;.... its hi life

I hope this link to this video makes up for my long absence from my blog.  I think it captures the sights and sounds that I have experienced here in Ghana really well. 

I am now just over half way through my placement and I can't believe how quickly time is passing. I am really enjoying being here in spite of persistent battles with mosquitoes and cockroaches. Contrary to earlier opinion ... no I never will get used to either of these horrid beasties but I have to learn to accommodate them!! I keep my Ghaniaan friends entertained with my completely off the wall 'cockroach dance' which I will entirely to your ówn imagination!

Click on this link to view the video:
Ghana hi-life -this is my life

Glynn in Ghana



New kids on the block Feb 2011



Kakra-kakra ;-)

Sunday 3rd April - Happy Mothers Day to all you Mothers out there. I hope you are all being especially appreciated today:-)
Slowly, slowly (Kakra,kakra in Twi) is how I am settling and adjusting to living in sub-Sahran Africa.  I have been in my new home on Mango Tree Avenue, Asylum Down, Accra for 3 weeks now and I have recovered from my  initial shock and distress at having an unreliable water and electricity supply along with a level of dirt and grime I have not had to live with since I left Walton St. Leicester!!!!. Slowly, slowly I am learning to adapt to the conditons and accept that life here poses many new experiences and challenges to test me. I can't control the physical sweating but I can learn not to sweat the other small, small stuff! 
This week I have finally managed to get hold of a Dongle and have been chatting to people on Skype and it really helps to reduce the isolation and pass the time. We don't have a TV or radio and I have worked my way through all 5 novels that I brought with me already.  I will have to go and raid other vols bookshelves very soon.  For those of you that haven't sorted out Skype please do as it isfab just to have a chat and catch up with what is going on at home. I feel that I am living in a little Ghana bubble.
I have been playing around with Picassa photo  software and e-mailed a link to photos of my house to some people so maybe you can let me know if you got them. I can upload them quicker through Picassa than on to this blog so it might be a better option, let me know what you think!!
Breaking news.... we have got some new Chinese neighbours!Tthey appear to be moving into an apartment of a house opposite. Maybe I will invite them over for a drink. There are a lot of Chinese people working here helping to build new roads, dams etc.  There is  some debate as to whether they will become the new colonial masters of Ghana in the future. Presently they appear to be supporting the development efforts in a very tangible way; time will tell what conditions may be attached and if this works in the best interests of Ghana. At the moment Ghana is happy to look beyond Europe and USA for development support. In fact they have just signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Chile, who have achieved great things in their health programmes, who have agreed to send some of their Doctors here to help Ghana improve its hospitals and public health. 
There has been a big outbreak of Cholera in parts of Accra and we are being warned to maintain high levels of hygiene - no shitting in ditches or shaking hands! 

The Ghaniaan handshake. This is one of the most fascintating and challenging greetings I have ever experienced. It is like a regular handshake but as you part hands your index fingers kind of slide and click. It's exraordinarily difficult to master and always creates hoots of laughter from your Ghaniaan friend.  I will enjoy trying to teach some of you this method of greeting when I return.

Wherever I lay my hat.....

1.  Sunday 19^th March 2011.

It's 1.30pm here in Accra and I am sat on the balcony of the place that is to be my 'home' for the duration of my stay here in Ghana. I moved here last weekend and, as some of you will be aware, it was not a fortuitous start – no water for four days and no electricity for two days made my move in a very traumatic time for me. In addition I experienced my first heat rash, all around my waist, and also managed to pick up a virus that gave me a hacking cough, sore throat and banging head. Each of these situations in themselves is challenging enough in the drenching heat and humidity but put together I did question whether I would have enough resilience to stay the distance here. However, Monday came, along with water and electricity, and I headed for work at the Ministry with renewed hope. I have quite a pleasant walk from the house to my workplace, passing a number of European Embassies set in beautiful grounds along the way. I can cut down backroads and therefore avoid the rush hour traffic which reminds me of the M60 around Manchester at peak times , so for obvious reasons it is best avoided. Already I am beginning to meet and greet the same people each morning, mostly security guards at prestigious houses and corporte headquarters. I stop at the 'banana lady's stall' to pick up GhC1 worth to bring in and share with my colleagues. Whenever someone brings food they say 'you are invited' which means that you are invited to share. I have to leave by 7.30am as it gets too hot if I leave any later but still I arrive like a proper 'sweaty betty' and gulp down at least 1l water!

My neighbourhood is called 'Asylum Down' and is a fairly affluent and leafy part of Accra. There are two other VSO houses within 15 min walk which is handy to find out where to shop, eat, drink etc. I tried to upload photos but it was taking forever so I have given up for now.. will try again later.

Now for the Rugby.... did you hear the news?

Yesterday I met a few Irish colleagues at Ryan's Irish Bar in Osu to watch the boys in green 'trounce' the English at the new 'Aviva' stadium in Dublin, it was glorious to stop them getting the Grand Slam! It's a shame that the Guiness was so wretched!

Just for Phil and Steve -did I hear hear right that Ireland beat England at the Cricket too!!!!!!!!!

A number of VSO friends are watching a local football derby (Accra and Kumasi) at the stadium in Accra this afternoon, by all accounts it is similar to the rivalry between Man City and United so I am sure it would have been a great experience but I decided that it was just too hot to be in a crowded stadium with over exhuberant, fanaticial football supporters!! I am meeting up with them for a beer at a local 'spot' at 5pm.

… not forgetting the purpose of my trip!!

I am still squatting in the reception office as my light and air con is yet to be fixed. However, my delight at having the air con fixed in recpetion was quickly extinguished when I began to feel like I was sitting in a refrigerator, I wouldn't mind but it was set at 21 degrees! After a couple of days suffering quietly I asked if it would be possible to turn the air con up a bit. Thankfully it is now a very comfortable 25 degrees!

I am presently kept occupied by reviewing the 7 year strategic plan (funded and supported by UNDP) and designing an organisational capacity assessment framework. I am hoping that I will soon have a better understanding of what the Council is trying to achieve and the reality of how that is being achieved, from the perspective of the Board, staff and partners. As they say here in Ghana "small, small" or slowly, slowly.

3 very grown women and a cockroach in the shower

If the title of this blog sounds like the start of a bad joke, well you won't be far wrong! This weekend is a public holiday here in Ghana to celebrate Independence Day. But rather than stick around in the city swealtering, 18 VSO volunteers headed up to the coast to party, swim and enjoy a sea breeze.  The place we went to is in Krokobite on the coast - Big Milly's Backyard - if you google it you will find plenty of pictures and details of the place but it is even better than it looks on line! Every Saturday night there is a reggae party night and the place fills with a mixture of locals and NGOs making the great escape.  There is a live band and it is just so chilled out, some very stoned but harmless people. We danced under the palm trees, various huts and stars until late and then headed onto the beach with some local African Drummers who entertained us until 4am, right by the ocean. It was so idyllic.  Some of us stayed in a lovely place called the Italian Garden only a short stroll from Milly's.  The food was fantastic and the people that run it are really lovely people.  They have created a beautiful oasis of calm  and relaxation in a stunning location only an hour or two, depending on traffic, from Accra. 

The incident with the cockroach will haunt our future escapades for sure.  I think my friend Jacky, the official photographer managed to capture some of the antics so I will try and get hold of some that are not too revealing, to upload. I had just got into the shower when this rather large cockroach decided to make an appearance  in the shower. If you haven't had the displeasure of meeting with these insects, trust me they are revolting looking creatures that scuttle around looking like some historic trillobite. Unfortunately I screamed like a girl, grabbed my rather skimpy towel and ran out of the shower room. My 3 new friends with whom I was sharing the accommodation, came running in to see what had happened. Of course they thought it was all very amusing until they saw the size of the thing! Elizabeth through her shoe at it, but missed and then did a jig on the spot as the 'roach' started scuttling around in an even more erratic manner.  So in came Adele who rescued the shoe and  allowed Elizabeth to throw it again at the 'roach' this time managing a direct hit. However, none of us wanted to get close to it to check that it was dead ...just in case it wasn't. Meanwhile I am trying to hold on to my skimpy travel towel and not reveal all when I realised that I was baring all my rear assets to the compound, at which point enter Jacky the official photographer to find 3 grown women shrieking and a squashed roach about 3 inches long laying very dead on the shower room floor.  After some debate Elizabeth bravely grabbed some toilet paper and scooped up the very dead roach and threw it outside. Needless to say we were all more than a wee bit anxious stepping in to the shower afterwards. I am now back in my air conditoned hotel room in Accra, it's nearly 5pm and it's still too hot to sit outside. I have managed to burn my shins over the weekend which I am quite sure won't go unnoticed by my colleages at work tomorrow. But what a great weekend away. Enjoy the photos :-)

You'll Get Used To It......

You'll get used to it.... this advice has been passed on to me by colleagues that have been in Ghana for some time. Apparently I will get used to the heat, the humidity, the spicy food, fish with heads, mosquitoes, competing with locals for a seat on a tro-tro (photo to follow) at rush hour.. the list grows every day. Usually this daily mantra is followed with a big smile and an outburst of good humoured laughter. But no one can tell me quite how long it takes to get used to some of these things and frankly when it comes to eating fish heads I don't think I will get used to it.  There is just something about the way fish eyes seem to follow you which ever way you try to approach them on your plate, I can't bring myself to tackle them.  I have discovered fried Yam as a very palatable alternative to chips but Ghanaian food is very spicy and I am struggling to find anything substantial, vegetarian and that doesn't cause me to reach for the fire bucket. I am still staying at Hotel Byblos in Osu, Accra awaiting room in a house which is likely to be an area called Asylum Down. Just to get in before some of you skype or e-mail me with a witty retort yes Irene is taking over the asylum (is it okay to use the term 'lunatic anymore??) Until then I have access to all sorts of food at European prices, in Osu. Tonight we have been invited to a Caledonian evening at the British High Commission where I am hoping we will get fed and watered; there's no harm hoping now is there...

Feeling hot hot hot

It's day 11 of my Ghana experience and I have just looked at the picture of sister's garden covered in snow wishing that I could romp around in it and cool off .. just for a little minute!  Don't get me wrong I love the heat and generally I prefer it to cold and most definitely I prefer it to Lancashire's cold and wet! But, give me a wee break I am sweating like I have never sweated.  Thankfully, as some of you will have heard from my e-mails, we had our first tropical rainstorm here the other evening and it was awesome, truly awesome and the humidity levels have dropped at least for now.  I am not used to warm rain in bucket loads. My friend Jacky had to be evacuated from her room as it flooded and soaked her clothes and even damaged some electrical equipment. I was only next door but managed to miss all the crazy shenanigans of the rescue as I was fast asleep :-)  We were watching several men trying to mend the roof in the middle of the heat of the day - using a blow torch, it was quite unbelievable.  I have taken my first journey on the tro tro (photos to come) which was a bit of a baptism of fire, literally. It took me an hour to pick up the courage to engage in the scramble to get on one of these vehicles - an Aussie scrum is lightweight in comparison. Once squeezed in you share your sweat with all those around you, it just pours down your face, legs arms .. it really isn't a pleasant feeling.  People tell me I will get used to it .. watch this space. I will try and upload a photo of my colleagues that started work here with me - a real mixed and lovely bunch of people from every continent.  I know its pretty mis back in the UK right now and I am not missing that but as a friend here says.. I wish I could just turn the sun down a little bit.  Keep in touch 

Akwaaba!

Well I arrived here in Ghana on Sunday 13th February after a very pleasant BA flight from London Heathrow to Accra. We landed at about 10pm and I was compleely unprepared for the sauna like heat that I was met with as I walked off the aeroplane. By the time we got through customs, collected our bags etc it was after 11pm and we then had a one hour bus journey to our hotel.  How delighted we were when we stepped into an air conditioned hotel lobby; how ecstatic we were to discover that our room had air conditioning too! Waking up to intense heat at 6am on Monday morning felt so good; 24 hours previously I had been shivering with the cold at Standstead Airport.  We had breakfast of the most juicy fresh fruits (mango, melon, paw paw and pineapple) followed by toast ( yes there is bread in Ghana) with a choice of jam, honey,  peanut butter and vegemite. I shouldn't forget the ubiquitous Cornflakes and a Ghaanian version of porridge that did not stand up to my friend Paula's (I think they may use maize rather than oats and add some wierd concoction of spices  ... for breakfast???  I don.t think so. Usually we have some kind of fried fish as an option at lunchtime but it has its head on so as many of you know that is a no go area for me. So I am eating lots of rice and vegetables at the moment. I have tried bakuu, which is a bit like a very spicy stodgy dumpling, fried plantain is one of my favourite discoveries and we had pancakes with fruit today which was divine. The VSO programme staff all seem really friendly and keen to make sure that we enjoy our stay in Ghana (most people seem to want to exend their time here ..) there is also more pressure from internatinal donors for VSO and other development agencies to demonstrate how their work impacts on development goals so I think I may be kept busy by engaging in some new OD projects with VSO as well as with my partner organisation.  I think my work rate may suffer with the heat somehow.  It's now after 11pm and way past my bedtime. DayO (Goodnight in Twi)

Farewell Manchester

This is my friend Jude aka 'techno girl' at work!
Okay so it is now January 18th, it has been several weeks since I last posted an update so maybe some of you are wondering what I have been up to?  I had several injections at Cambridge Travel Clinic on Christmas Eve and was advised not to over do the alcohol consumption! So not wanting to tempt fate and make myself ill I had a very low key festive season.  I enjoyed seeing the snow and couldn't help but muse on how different my experience would be next year. As well as my own family Christmas I somehow managed to gate crash the Griffiths family Christmas in Aldeburgh; what an experience that was :-) It was a bit like being an extra in a sitcom starring Dawn French, Maureen Lipman and Julie Walters (if the sisters are reading this I wonder if you can guess which is which??) Thank you for reminding me how wonderful you all are!
Right now I am now sat in Earth cafe in Manchester. I have spent the morning trying to sort out problems with syncing my mac and PC contacts so I can communicate with friends and family whilst I am away. My message to everyone is if you want to accelerate you ICT skills go travelling!  Between skyping, blogging and setting up mobile e mail I feel quite the ICT nerd :-) My next challenge is to upload photos on to this blog ..... doh (can anyone out there advise me on this?) My new friend at the Apple store gave me a good tip which was to publish some photos on a public folder in my mobile me account. Apparently all you lot need is my email address (iglynn@mac.com). maybe you need to go to mobile me...? Let me know if it works but give me at least a week to learn how to upload the photos first! You may have noticed that my friend Jude (aka Judi aka 'techno girl') has managed to post a comment on this blog. For anyone who would like to send me some abuse you need to follow the instructions on the site to create a  blog for yourself and use your login details to post a comment. BUT you need to preview before you press publish for the comment to appear (don't ask me why, but you just do)  Good luck and let's see if we can get a bit of chat going on this blog ....
A little later in the afternoon ... still in Earth cafe! See new uploaded photos below x