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.