In-country training

We have spent the last three days on VSO in-country training, having moved to our hotel on Tuesday after saying goodbye to Mariam and Darlington, and leaving our lovely villa.

The Hotel Byblos was very different from our villa and, while we assumed VSO would not book luxury, we gradually realised that the standard of the accommodation was not acceptable. Two of us had been stuck out in a separate building in which the rooms were so pokey we had to remove the furniture to get our luggage in the door. They were grubby too and had varying degrees of poor air conditioning, with no storage space at all. The last straw was the lack of security at night... While the main building had security guards, the other building did not, and we couldn’t lock its main door which opened straight onto the street. Finally the next day, after Janet had argued with him, the manager upgraded us to some good rooms on the main site!

Our training took place at the VSO office where we met a variety of people involved in education in Ghana, including Tenko (Country Director for VSO Ghana), Ubold (Education Programme Officer), Eric (lead for TENI – Tackling Education Inclusively), Dora (Programme Area Officer for Education), Antoinette (Finance & Support Manager), Comfort (Reception) and Nii (National Programme Manager).

Michelle, me, Tenko, Janet and Mike

Dora and Ubold

We had a full range of training in an air conditioned room at the VSO office, led by several different people. Ubold started with a session on expectations and challenges, Nii took us through Ghanaian culture and background, Tenko took us through security, and Dora, Ubold & Eric gave a question and answer session on the Ghanaian education system. On the last day we had a health briefing from the doctor and then were given the following to take with us up north - sterile first aid kit, water filter, sheets & blanket, two mosquito nets and our pocket money for the three months (1058 Ghana cedis which is approximately £400). We believe it is likely that we will be able to live on this if we’re careful with our money as the cost of living is much less than in the UK. That said, we will use our own money when we travel around, partly because we don’t trust the safety of the tro-tros (small buses).

Kwesi, the Cocoa Research Institute driver, arrived at the Ghana office later on the last day with our outfits Gertrude had made for us. They are all made of the same fabric (blue & green with a printed pattern) and are lovely. It’s a good job we won’t be wearing them at the same time as nobody will be able to work out who is who! Mine fits really well apart from being a little long and it will be perfect for Fridays when everyone dresses in national costume.

While we were on the training Mike (who we'd met already in England) organised for a variety of volunteers to come and meet us. On the first night, in the Lebanese restaurant next to the hotel we met Emily who is based in Accra. She was really friendly and chatty, and had been in Accra on a fund-raising placement since September. Over the following days we met Sandra, who is based in a town near me in Jirapa, Lana who is based in Tamale, and Jude, also based in Accra. Jude is working for the Ministry, writing a scheme of lesson activities for teachers. The volunteers’ approach differs from person to person. Jude was very laid back about illness, and eats and drinks pretty much whatever he wants. He says that is the only way to build up an immunity. We decided between us though, that this was not a good idea for us because we are only here for 3 months and don’t want to be ill for any of it! Emily had been ill for three days, recovered and not had a problem since, but she told us about Cath up in Jirapa who had had dysentery and ended up in hospital.

On Tuesday it is Michelle’s birthday so we decided to celebrate on the last night. We went to an air conditioned Italian restaurant, and Janet and I gave her a card, and a bracelet and Ghanaian flag we had picked up at the craft market.

Tomorrow we transfer north which will be a long journey. We will stop at Walewale and drop Janet off at Charlotte & Mike’s house, then at Bolgatanga (known as Bolga) and drop off Michelle to live with her housemate, Christina. I will be staying in a hotel in Bolga until Monday as the driver needs a rest day on Sunday. On Monday I will transfer to Jirapa where my adventure will continue!