The VSO Organisational Development Forum

The first photo demonstrates that the fax to Wa did arrive (see 27th March entry)  - here are representatives from each of the "OD in Practice" stories - from the left Seidu (GES Walewale), Imoro (GES Wa), Njeri (Widows and Orphans Movement, Bolga), Sylvester (GES Wa), Mark (Rural Media Network, Tamale)

Mark feeds back reflections on OD experiences so far

Seidu and Charlotte explain, with various visual aids and exhibits, the Organisation Assessment process and OD work planning process in Walewale

Charlotte and Pat (GES Zebilla) - Charlotte suffering with an as yet unknown malady.

Many group photos followed - eg above, colonial subjects, contrasted with the British/Portuguese group. Overlapping with that (below) is the "Irish descent" group, and then the "can speak 5 languages group" - Njeri and Patricia

Dance fever sets in, led by Richard, but Emily and Stephen (above) and others follow enthusiastically, before we return to the Radach Memorial Centre, where in the morning we recreate the dance competition as an energiser. Richard and Emily win the bottle of wine donated last night by the restaurateur

Education volunteers consider "What = OD success?" for each stakeholder - VSO, Partners e.g. Ghana Education Service, Beneficiaries and the Volunteer, what's working well and what's not in this process, and hence what improvement suggestions we can offer. Cath feeds back one or two examples to the whole group.

In the afternoon there is a Question and Answer session with Nii, the VSO OD lead, who I seem to fail to have photographed, but the session is useful.

Heading for the OD Forum

In a cafe in Bolga Thursday lunchtime I spotted Alison, visiting from Lawra, en route for the OD Forum ,and so now she is staying with us still en route to the OD Forum.
She is Canadian so cannot be expected to like Marmite.

Lizie and Andrea pop in from next door. The horned beast above their heads is the rolled up mosquito net that can be dropped around the sofa

Alison bikes into the office with Charlotte and Janet to experience a little life in a  different GES

and now Charlotte & Alison, and Seidu from the GES, are at the tro-tro station heading for Tamale and the OD Forum.
Footnote: having seen that this page is the most-visited page on the blog with hundreds of page views, I should add that it's the next entry ("The VSO Organisational Development Forum", 31st March) that actually says anything about the OD Forum...

Communicating with Wa - low long does it take to send a fax?

The Organisational Development Forum is approaching. My allotted part in this is to arrange some presentations on "Organisational Development in Practice", by Mar and Mark from Rumnet, Charlotte Letty and Seidu from Walewale, Jemimah & Njeri from Widows and Orphans' Movement, and also two people from GES Wa where Haydn and Linda were working (their placement as Short-Term Volunteers has just completed).
Somewhere back in this blog you may find a reference to 'OD Success Stories' - well, that work is now bearing fruit.

I have had a few conversations with Wa trying to arrange for some people to attend the forum and tell the story. While on the phone I see another scorpion and, I have to admit it, deal the scorpion a fatal blow.  After the phone call the scorpion has disappeared. The ants are arranging a cover-up job and removing the body. What an undertaking!

Anyway I've identified  the people to be invited from Wa (substitutes - I was talking earlier in the week to the original nominees). They're not on email so a fax needs to go to them. I make copies for Seidu and for Letty in Walewale.

There may be some Internet solution for faxing - maybe some blog reader knows a good system - but part of the message is hand-written, so I'm looking for a fax machine. Seidu tells me there's no fax at the GES - try the Community Info Centre.

Mashood (seen here with his sister) says there's no fax at the CIC and none in town - try the District Assembly.

Good grief there's a good-condition Toyota Previa just pulling out from the track that leads from Zangum.  That's a strange sight for Walewale.

At the District Assembly I can admire the mango tree while I wait. Fatima (left) and Juliana are the people who can help. The fax machine is in the DCE's (District Chief Executive's) office. Between mini-meetings Fatima ushers me in to ask permission, Granted.  .

Now she needs to get in to send the fax. After the next mini-meeting she does so. No fax tone.

I phone Wa to ask them to turn the fax machine on. Ah - it now turns out that machine, in GES Wa Municipal Office, is faulty. I'm given another number - this is GES Wa Regional Office. Fatima will try this when she can next get into the DCE Office
Lights-out.
i.e. Power cut
No idea how long this will last .
I suggest leaving my fax with her, but Fatima doesn't want to do that. so "I'll go and come" I say. Chanka Channa.
It's lights-out back home as well, so I don't return to the DCE Office until the power comes back on at home.
Now the DCE and Fatima and Juliana are nowhere to be seen.
Eventually first Fatima and Juliana, and then the DCE return. We have to wait fir a meeting to finish, then Fatima sends the fax. Success - apparently! I phone my contact at Wa who will pick up the fax and deliver it to our invitees. What I hadn't realised till now is that he's a 45-minute walk away from the Regional office where the second fax machine is.
Around 5pm he confirms that the fax has been passed on to Imoro and Sylvester who will be attending from Wa. I started trying to send this fax around 11 am, and getting it sent to Wa is my main achievement in the time since then (apart from the scorpion, that is).

Charlotte returns from overseas and we have some serious blogging to do (see her blog for "Overseas")
On Saturday Charlotte is taking the opportunity to have her hair cut by Janet before Janet leaves.

A group of children call on us and are in luck - Murray mints and mouth-organs

If you see some nonsense typed in this blog, please bear in mind I'm typing in semi-darkness!

Email recovery - episode 27....

Two hours in the Bolga Vodafone office ends up with email working again on my laptop - there's a new driver for the USB modem that I needed.... Not the first problem, and not the last ....

Bike maintenance

Trying to meet up with Sam from Langbinsi, who is on a tro from Bolga, but the attempt fails because my bike chain breaks.
A friendly pick-up truck driver takes me and my bike into Walewale, to yet another of the expert bike mechanics, who sets to work on chain and gears (pronounced "jeers" here).

My camera causes much interest and soon there are photos and video of the whole family. The father particularly enjoys video of himself - sorry, don't have suitable internet connection to post video here.
I'm delighted to have the bike working again. What should I pay? "You decide" the mechanic tells me. Tricky. A quick conference with his brother - what would be right? "Give him 2 cedis and he will be happy". I give him three  (just over a pound) - he's done a great job on chain and gears.

Home cooking

So what to cook when you're on your own in the house?
Charlotte is busy 'overseas' (the other side of the White Volta) working with WorldVision and School Management Committees and Parent Teacher Associations- see her blog)

Recipe 1:
Take  non-stick frying pan. Grab whatever leftovers you can find in the fridge. Heat and serve/

Recipe 2.

Find some cooked yam in the fridge

Fry this up - a little like fried potato,

Answer the  door. It may be Abu Hari, the night-watchman from the next-door house, with a gift of guinea-fowl eggs - never happened before, but it would be good timing now if it was.

It is indeed Abu Hari with guinea-fowl eggs - hurray! Now for fried eggs and yam.

Do I like this? I do, I like fried eggs and yam.

Recipe 3..
As above, with the addition of Heinz baked beans. Who said you couldn't have a varied diet here?

Northern Region meeting in Walewale

The Northern Region VSO volunteers are meeting at Walewale. Better get the house looking nice...

But, seriously, there is so much dust in the air that the quality of the pictures is impacted by dust particles floating near the lens. Oh for some rain!

Fati is cooking lunch

Some children pay us an unannounced visit.

We persuade Fati to come out o the kitchen for a group photo.

Everyone votes Fati's cooling much better value than a restaurant meal.

Mar and Mark stay overnight before Charlotte heads off 'overseas' (across the White Volta)

Organisational Development Planning continues

We have a rather rocky start to today's meeting - the timing was agreed last week, but at first it seems that none of the OD committee can make it.  We have a quick chat with the Director, who sees the problem but also points out the difficulty of fitting in new initiatives such as OD and TENI. He proposes that the meeting be moved to the afternoon, Seidu passes on this Director's proposal to those concerned, and suddenly it turns out that we have a quorum for the morning after all

It still proves difficult to get agreement on objectives and agenda - surprising because this meeting is a continuation of the meeting the week before. But we move forward, and continue to allocate, schedule and group the recommendations, working to the priorities we agreed last week at the start of the meeting with the Director's involvement.

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The workshop includes very timely input from 'Mr Brown' (a nickname based on Gordon Brown, since 'Mr Brown' is the man with the budgets). We have some very good input from Mr Brown, who we have invited because of his role with ADEOP (the Annual District Education Operational Plan). We're trying to make sure that the OD Planning and the ADEOP are at least consistent - ideally, that the same planning work creates both the OD workplan and relevant parts of the ADEOP.

Ultimately it becomes very clear that the most important group of recommendations concerns defining the Annual District Education Operational Plan, breaking this down into separate objectives, allocating "SMART" objectives across the District Education Office, and ensuring an effective performance appraisal system - and making sure everyone involved has the skills and competence needed to do this. It's not a surprising result, but we all feel we now understand the findings of the Organisation Assessment much better, now that we have worked together handling the recommendations from the OA report.

Once again, we have a short evaluation of our meeting which shows enthusiasm and recognition of progress from all taking part, despite the difficulties at the start of the meeting.