Preparing for Ghana

Time is fast passing by and preparations are well under way for my trip. Tomorrow I have my first appointment for immunisations, and will be putting together a programme involving three rabies jabs, meningococcal meningitis, hep B, yellow fever, cholera and a regime for anti-malarials. I will surely resemble a pin cushion!

The techie fellow from the Local Authority has stopped by and started to design a blog for me on our school's VLE that the children will be able to access and comment upon. I can't use this one because the Bucks filter system won't let it through - clearly the Local Authority don't trust what headteachers may write on their blogs and feel they may be unsuitable for children!

Below is a map of Ghana. The three of us will start off in Accra, the capital, where we will take part in country-specific training, before we move north. We have no idea what the standard of the transfer will be but we do know it will take something in the region of 12-14 hours. My final destination will be Jirapa, a small town north of Wa in the north western region of the country. Nearby is a small national park reserve and a hippo sanctuary!

I have been in email contact with the three people I will be sharing accommodation with. They are Cath who is British, Aaron who is Australian and Aaron's fiance who is an 'accompanying partner'. They all sound like good people, and have asked for supplies such as shampoo, conditioner, fabric conditioner and cotton pads. Not sure how I'll get all this in my suitcase but I'll do my best!

Meanwhile, my sister got married on Friday - brilliant bash - and I'm preparing the school for my time away, whilst also getting ready for Christmas in Somerset and New Year in Kent. You can tell then, that it is a little bonkers in my house at the moment!

VSO training

Back row left to right - Ann, Sarah, Peter, Michelle, Ian, Ken, Janet

Front row left to right - me (!), Margaret, Julia, Cathy, Brenda

This weekend I went to Harborne Hall in Birmingham for my VSO training.


Here I met the other 11 volunteers going to Africa in January. 3 are going to Rwanda, 3 to Namibia, 3 to Nigeria and 3 of us to Ghana. I've been assigned a placement in Jirapa in northwestern Ghana and 2 others - Michelle and Janet - are going to different areas in northern Ghana. We will all fly out together and spend a week in the capital Accra for in country training, before tranferring to our placements in the north.



The course was excellent and filled with useful information like what to do about health, mosquito nets and showers, as well as information about our placements and roles. It was set in the most beautiful building, Harborne Hall. This has a broad history, including being a hospital during the first world war, a prep school for boys, a convent, a multifaith centre and now VSO's main training centre. It was hard to get to though - being in the centre of Birmingham! That said, the facilitators were really good with plenty of their own varied volunteer experience to share. It was also great to meet the other volunteers, especially those coming to Ghana with me, and we shared lots of information, like what to do about internet and mobile access, what to take to wear, and some of the Ghanean customs. Most worrying, we learned that we must always present ourselves in ironed clothes! This is in 42 degrees of heat following a cycle ride of who knows how long to each school! I'm sure it will all become gradually clearer.....