Mike in Ghana with VSO

Sharing skills and changing lives - handover workshop

2010-06-17T21:11:00.089Z

Accra, June 16th and 17th. It's the last 2 days of my assignment with VSO Ghana. The idea is that I can pass on some of the skills and capabilities for the organisatiuonal development support role that I've developed, to the new Guided Self-Assessment Process (GSAP) support group....

After reviewing the new GSAP process document, it's time for the handover workshop.

I ask the group to construct their own agenda after they've thought about what they do and don't want to do - here I'm just working out timings.

"Set up shop" is where each person identifies the support services they will be providing and what they will need to do it.

The whole workshop is a very practical session. As far as possible, we don't just talk about the possible activities, but participate in them during the workshop itself, i.e. use them to make the workshop work. On the first day this includes some practice facilitating self-assessment. Mark and Krista come up with some great questions that, as a group, we assess ourselves on. Very informative!

This is probably my favourite moment in the workshop. We have run "Yes But, No But" for everyone to identify how ready they are to be a GSAP supporter, and then found what needs to happen or each person to get to "Yes I'm ready". As we have committed to each of the necessary actions we have taken the step towards 'yes' that this enables. When we all arrive at the 'yes' end of the room we have asked 'what was important in getting here?', and overwhelmingly the mutual support of the group turns out to be the key factor.

I'm glad that we're comfortable enough with each other to have some fairly robust debate!

The activity we spend most time on is "Top Tips". I could have just written down my top tips and sent them out. But instead I've proposed an activity where we all brainstorm our favourite tips for each step of the new process. Mine are included, but this gives everyone the chance to add to them - or brainstorm their own before they look at the tips I've prepared.

We take turns leading the review of these tips - each step has a different person taking us through the tips proposed for that step. It's a great sharing of skills and ideas.

VSO Ghana permanent staff are fully involved in this as well as VSO volunteers - see the photos of Mary and Emmanuel both leading the session for different steps.

We do a quick evaluation. People are very positive about the participatory approach. They liked that we are open to each other, and ready for feedback. (I tried to squeeze in a quick brain-dump on Thursday morning of some stuff we couldn't cover fully, and this gets questioned - probably too rushed). Everyone is very glad that VSO staff participated at this workshop. And I'm particularly pleased at this comment :"Working as a team - really impressed at working so well together at start of team's life".

And finally, here is the group photo, as at the end of the workshop.

Back row: me. Jemimah, Michael, Dora, Mark, Terry.

Front row: Mary. Olke, Krista.

(Quite an international group - 2 each from Ghana, Holland and England, and one each from Uganda, Australia and Canada).

Emmanuel and Francis were also here earlier (in some of the pictures above), and also Alfred and Tanko - four more from Ghana - plus Charlotte, working with Francis.

I hand over the workshop output, (followed by photos of the output, in the VSO office the next day), and hand over my remaining post-its and stationery, to the GSAP supporters who will carry on what I've started. Later that evening we go to Accra airport to meet Anna (my daughter) and Louisa (friend) who are coming to stay - I have just over a week more in Ghana, before I need to head back to UK, but Charlotte has 3 weeks more.

Sharing skills - in supporting organisational assessment

2010-06-03T21:00:00.003Z

I've been asked to put together

tips and help on the assessment process forvolunteers
the usage and customisation options of the Organisational Development tools.

As a result I have prepared a one-day workshop which is planned to be run in Bolga, Tamale and Accra for volunteers who will be taking on, part-time, the "Organisational Development Support" role which was created when I volunteered to help back in September 2009 on In-Country Training.. Today is the Bolga session with Damien and Jemimah.

I catch the Metro Mass Transit bus at 7.30 from Walewale - always a good start to the day if I can travel on the bus rather than a tro-tro - and this gets me to Bolga in loads of time. A "John Bosco Teacher Training College" pick-up truck stops - Sam Cashman's organisation - and out pops Sam for 2 minutes chat! I confirm my view yet again with Vodafone Bolga that their bills are wildly overstated. And plenty of time to set up the workshop in the VSO Bolga office.

When we get started, we brainstorm what we want to cover - luckily most of this was on the plan, but we have a couple of additions, including clarification on the VSO Ghana OD Policy.

An early activity is "Set Up Shop".

They discuss the services that they will offer and what they need to be equipped with. This is interesting, and brings out the role that Jemimah is already playing in supporting the Programme Manager for Participation and Governance.

We role play different participatory methods of assessment - e.g. private scoring which is then shared, and a "walk to parts of the room" exercise as a group scoring method. Doing this for real brings out a number of points for reflection, e.g. about the differing levels of privacy.

We then put the scores into the assessment tool and do some work practising tailoring the tool to suit different organisations' needs. Also a little data analysis work in Excel - I ran this last week with Cath in Jirapa and she was thrilled with what she had learned in a few minutes - this goes down well today too.

We brainstorm their top tips and compare with 'some I'd prepared earlier'.

The picture above with Jemimah waving a pen around is an exercise called "I feel ready"!

It basically seems to have gone very well, especially the role play, despite the ten-minute overrun on the day.

An interesting poster seen in Bolga on the way home.

Malaria, puncture and kindness

2010-05-31T17:49:00.001Z

I go the local clinic, forced there by too much time all last week in the smallest room in the various houses we stayed in. ....

In a region that's famed for its hippos,
I suffered the low stomach jippoes;
To Bolga from Wa
By bus is quite far.
I consumed nothing else but Kalyppos.

The doctor diagnoses malaria with some conviction, and I emerge with a bagful of drugs to find a totally flat bike tyre.

The rear tyre exploded under me a couple of weeks ago when I was in Walewale buying anti-nausea drugs for Charlotte, and now the front one has gone. Six months in these conditions seems to rot the tyres, but the nearby bike mechanic will fit a new tyre and tube for 11 cedis (about five pounds) so that seems sensible and I leave the bike for him to fix.

After Charlotte comes home via Mandina's photopcopy shop, Mandina hears my story and volunteers her junior brother to collect the bike. He even turns up to our house to get the money, goes back to the bike mechanic, and brings the bike back. People are very kind, especially for anyone in difficulties.

Lawra - and Greg's send-off - and return to Walewale

2010-05-28T22:33:00.005Z

On Friday we talk through Organisational Development next steps with Alison the Teacher Support Officer in Lawra. Our itinerary again owes much to Ghanaian trasnport constraints. We could have gone back to Nadowli last night, and then we would have been half way to Lawra. But being half-way to Lawra and on the tro-tro route is no good if the tro-tros are all full. So we stayed in Wa last night, where the tros start, and we take the two-and-a-half hour trip to Lawra this morning. It's tarmac to Nadowli and rougher after that.

The K (or C) and S sounds together can come out in strange ways in Ghana. "Ask" is pronounced "aks" among Ghanaians we know, and "Mosque" sounds like "Moks". Here's a "CS" created in spelling.

Alison is looking after a friend's dog - the dog neeeds water like the rest of us.

After seeing the excellent Teacher Resource Centre (Alison and Charlotte picrtured with a customer who is borrowing a book), we have our main OD discussion at Alison's house over home-made lemonade

In the evening it's back to Wa. Wa is further away from tomrrow's destination (Bolga) than Lawra is, but Wa is the trasnport hub; there are buses to Bolga from Wa, but there are none from Lawra.

Greg is leaving this weekend, and his Ghanaian friends have organised a party and invited us.

Most meetings in Ghana are quite formal, and this occasion is mock-formal, with a Chairman and a Master of Ceremonies who seek to out- manouevre each other and declare each other's interventions invalid. Someheer in all of this we pay tribute to Greg.

You may have noticed that Greg is quite tall. Not so his regional VSO rep, Ruby,
After the celebrations it's back to the Wa house for some sleep before our 3.30 am alarm call ready to queue for the Saturday bus back to Bolga and onward tro-tro to Walewale.
En route, in Tumu, I discover why the Ghana Bradt guide nominates Tumu as the most disgusting toilet stop in Africa. The nomiation is fair, and I would expect it should win that award.

Panic as it rains and water streams through the bus windows, sprinkling the passengers, Ghanaians don't like getting wet, e.g I've heard people explain they didn't come to work becaue it was raining. (In rural areas this could be fair enough of course, becasue the roads may be impassable).

We get back to Walewale about 4pm - 12 hours after we set off.

Wa - new volunteers, picking up from the assessment Haydn and Linda led

2010-05-27T22:25:00.003Z

We travel to Wa to help Dorien (new Management Support Officer) and Joanne (new-ish Teacher Support Officer - arrived in February) with next steps on the organisational development of GES in Wa Municipal.

I met Dorien (dark T-shirt) in Accra ealier this month. My main contact with Joanne (light T-shirt) was answering some of her 'what to bring ' questions on VSO's online forum in January.

The meeting is at the VSO house in Wa where I've stayed in October & November with Haydn and Linda, who came out with us in September 2009 for a 6-month stint and competed the Wa Municipal Organisation Assessment

We work out what they need to know, which gives us an agenda - that expands a little during the day.

Among other things, we work through next steps, and getting access to the OD resources online. This is a good opportunity for them to work together on what they will take into a discussion with the Director.

We treat ourselves to a night out at the best hotel in Upper West, the Wa Uplands Motel. Clockwsie from my empty chair it's Laura, Joanne, Greg (short-term Secure Livelihoods volunteer just about to leave), Dorien, Patricia and Charlotte

Jirapa, and another Organisational Development Success Story

2010-05-26T22:16:00.005Z

We make the short trip to Jirapa from Nadowli to meet Cath and Aaron and see the impact of organisational development in Jirapa.

Charlotte waits by the bus-stop. Acros the road is the 'spot' (bar) where I talked to the other Nadowli volunteer, our good friend Sandra, about the OD ideas last November.

On the tree (in front of the 'Vodafone' branded shop) is a job advert. Males under 35 years of age only!

Here's a poster for the NALAP initaitive to boost literacy by starting in pupils' mother tongue before moving to English language.

Transport in rural Ghana is interesting. We could easily get on a tro-tro from Nadowli to Jirapa early in the morning when people are going to market. Our meeting is at 12. Trying to arrive for that time is more of a gamble, so we go early. In fact we hitch a lift with a businesman pitching for a contract with the hospital, and arrive by 9.30 am. (In Ghanaian English, he 'picks us'). Considerable curiosity is generated by us getting the laptop out in "Gracelands Spot" while we're waiting for our meeting at the GES (Ghana Education Service).

Cath (here with Charlotte) and Aaron have done fantastic work in Jirapa since arriving in Ghana with us in Septmber. Jirapa has the advantage, in Cath and Aaron, of a very dedicated and skilled Management Support Officer (Cath) and Teacher Support Officer (Aaron), both in post since the start of October. It seems a long time since we were all at the TENI workshop in Tamale late September.

Now why, you may ask, do I blog the Circuit Supervisors' Handbook, including the Contents pages?Simply this. Documents like this are rare - you would think there would be copies in every GES office, but that's not the case. Putiing it on this blog is the easiest way to make at least this much information available for fellow-volunteers!

Organisational Assessment in Jirapa is aother success story, to add to those presented at the OD Forum late March. Jirapa has the most concise report yet - findings, recommendations, action plan and budget request all wrapped up into a single slimline document, which reads very weell.

We work on completing another 'OD in practice' story.

Cath, John (GES Jirapa Human Resources), and the on-the -wall summary of the Jirapa OD Process.

The INSET (in-service training) schedule that Aaron has prepared is impressive.

We meet Elise, a US peace Corps volunteer, with three local girls who she is assisting, on the tro-tro back to Nadowli

Food and drink hospitably arranged as ever by Patricia and Laura.

Nadowli - Joint Introduction Meeting for Patricia and Laura

2010-05-25T21:58:00.003Z

Patricia and Laura invited us to their JIM (Joint Introduction Meeting) because of the organisational assessment component of their work.

I enjoy the rural outlook from their house.

Some last-minute additional summary flipcharts in Laura's elegant script. Madam Director welcomes all the stakeholders to the meeting - representatives of everyone that Patricia and Laura work with. I find a role as a flipchart stand.

They each introduce the proposed objectives - a couple are in common.
Because of their excellent preparation, we can involve everyone in proposing actions to fulfil the objectives - six discussion groups move round the six objectives flipcharts, with Patricia, Laura, Charlotte & me, and VSO Education staff Eric and Ubald as the six fixed points. The groups are happy to include the OD activities that Patricia has advised me that she thinks she will need.
This all works very well, based on the briefing we were able to give them the day before on the VSO expectations for the day and the preparation that they were able to do as a result.

Back home for writing up and checking email. Some children visit and are rewarded with the opportnity to draw some pictures.

To Nadowli and meeting the GES staff

2010-05-24T21:04:00.003Z

Late change of plan for this week. I was going to be in Upper West and Charlotte's plan was to join a trip to "Overseas" (the remote area of West Mamprugu west of the White Volta river) with WorldVision. At the last minute on Friday Charlotte discovers that the "overseas" trip is being cut short(i.e. is about to finish). So she joins me heading to Upper West.

This is not an easy journey. On Saturday we get a tro-tro to Bolga, ready for the long Sunday bus trip Bolga to Wa . Here is Charlotte at the back of the tro with our neighbour Fulera who has just been shopping - Fulera has to feed the Vodafone cable-layers who live opposite us.

This little boy had a home-made toy lorry - very appropriate for Walewale main sreet, where the lorries pass heading for Burkina Faso.

We stay Saturday in Bolga with Jason and Jillian, and then it's the 4 a.m. taxi ride to join the queue for the Wa bus. Here's Charlotte at the Bolga bus station enjoying a 5 a.m. breakfast.

And here's our bus. The bus station is a hive of activity before dawn.

At some point we all have to get off the bus while it goes through a police barrier, and the police check the bus for possible illegal arms.

After changing buses in Wa, by 3pm or so we are in Nadowli, and are met by Patricia and Laura the VSO volunteers at Nadowli GES (Ghana Education Service), and Greg, a VSO volunteer from Wa in his last week who is staying for the weekend - yesterday was Patricia's birthday. For reasons no-one can now recall, a quiz starts in the evening based on random questions Laura finds in a children's encyclopedia. The head-torch in the picture is for reading the encyclopedia to avoid putting the main lights on and so avoid attracting insects - obviously you lose the effect a little with the camera flash.

On Monday we accompany Patricia and Laura to the GES. It's raining and morning devotiona are on the office veranda rather than outside under the trees. Patricia and a colleague demonstarte a local dance.

We have a useful discussion with Godfrey and Evarist from the OD committee and with Patricia and Laura. They explain the progress so far. One things that stands out is an exercise early on where the volunteers wrapped up the staff in toilet paper and challenged them to move (they could only move if they moved together).

In the second photo, Evarist has sen the format of workplan that Gofrey uses, and is copying it down for his own use - a testament to the resourcefulness of each of them, but this suggests there is no organisational standard for workplans.

A clue to the customer-focussed culture that Madam Director encourages.

Views in and around the GES. Four guinea-fowl cross the path. The goats like to shelter under the metal container that serves under a store-room. In the distance some girls carry water.

In the afternoon we review the Organisation Assessment progress and discuss next steps. We're also able to give Patricia and Lauara a good idea of the format of their Joint Introduction Meeting (JIM) which will take place tomorrow. Armed with this knowledge Laura prepares some flipcharts for each of their proposed objectives. In the evening Charlotte and I go shopping. This is Paul who we met earlier at the GES offering Charlotte a bowl of pito (local alcohol).
It's been a very pleasant day, enhnaced by the fact that following the rain the temperature was really cool, down to 27 degrees or so - in fact it may even have been cooler here than in the UK today!
Nadowli is probably the freindliest place we've been to in Ghana. and that's saying something - Walewale is undoubtedly the friendliest place I've ever lived. Nadowli also has a very pleasant environment - residential/rural fringe, very green, and lots of soil with things growing in it!

A week (mostly) in Walewale, and a Joint Introduction Meeting

2010-05-21T19:00:00.106Z

We have an interesting time over the weekend communicating with a new VSO volunteer who may be coming to Walewale. Communication methods include email and then a phone call on the Sunday evening. I stick my neck out a little and make some suggested changes to the Placement Description that the new volunteer has been sent, and send this amended version to the potential new volunteer and to Dora the VSO Ghana Education Programme Manager and to Skev in the UK who arranges these education placements. Charlotte is too malarial to get into emailing, but does join in the phone call.

Once again I attend the Monday meeting at the District Education Office on Charlotte's behalf. This week the value we're looking at is Teamwork, and Robert Kwame runs a little drama encountering various obstacles and needing help. In the picture he is being obstructed by an ant.

However, one disappointment is that the District Teacher Support Team meeting, which last week sounded so much on track, does not appear to have happened without Charlotte to remind the participants on the day. It's very hard to get people to treat a meeting as a commitment rather than just an invitation which they may or may not take up if they remember.

In the VSO Bolga office, here is Damien having an in-depth oragnisational development discussion with Jemimah. Probably. After last week's meeting in Accra I have agreed with Cath in Jirapa that she can be an Upper West supporter for Education, and Damien has areed to support Education volunters in Upper East and Northern Region. Jemimah is the supporter for the Participation and Governnace programme area. And I should really be saying G-SAP (Guided Self-Assessment Process) rather than "organisational development" as that is the new VSO Ghana terminology. G-SAP will mean both the assessment and the subsequent development (i.e. "G-SAP" = "OD" in VSO Ghana).

Here are a few shots from the tro-tro going back to Walewale. It's all looking rather greener now that the rains have started.

In case you were wondering, "stool lands" probably refers to areas with traditional chiefs - e.g. "stool" is the equivalent of "throne", and I have seen references to chiefs being "de-stooled" if not fit for office.

Next is a very exciting picture. The mains water had been off for some time, and our 200 litre "dustbin" of back-up water was down to its last day's worth (i.e. a couple of buckets). The water comes back just in time, and in the pcture you can see that I'm able to fill it up again.

Friday is the Joint Introduction Meeting for Leticia, the Management Support Officer, and for half of Damien's role. Damien is regional gender suport for two districts, Talendi Nabdam and here, i.e. West Mamprusi.

The Joint Introduction Meeting (JIM) is a gathering of people with an interest in the volunteer's objectives, in order to agree the objectives and work plan. The scene is set by the District Director of Education (see him clutching his new SMC/PTA manual). This is Charlotte's first day out of the house after being laid low with malaria. VSO overall aims of the Education progamme are explained, and the volunteers present their proposed objectives.

The meeting is held at the District Assembly (= local council). I thought you'd like to see the facilities for hand-washing. Charlotte has a basin to wash her hands in, though half of the ceramic bowl is missing. However, this is a better facility than in the gentlemen's toilets, where basin and taps are missing.

Anyway the meeting concludes with objectives and actions agreed.

But some school classrooms are still missing roofs after the April 22nd storm...

Malaria, Accra and malaria

2010-05-14T15:27:00.001Z

Charlotte doesn't feel well enough to go out of the house on Monday, but on Tuesday we get her to hospital. One again our neighbour George comes to the rescue and takes us in.(For the record, the first picture is the drain that George's car fell into on the scorpion sting night, 22nd April).

The (Cuban) doctor rapidly diagnoses malaria, even though the blood test doesn't show anything. Charlotte's prescriptions are shown here, with the pills out of the bag being the ones she had to take straight away.

I am due to go to Accra on the 4pm bus on Tuesday, and Charlotte insists I should go because she has company and care from Andrea and Fati. So it's a 4 am arrival at the Sun Lodge where our in-Country Training took place in September. Below you can see Aidan's response when Terry had said "hands up who wants to volunteer for..."

Actually everyone volunteers for something. This is a meeting for those who want to tailor the organisational development tool/process further (re-branded as Guided Self-Assessment Process) and/or take on, part-time the role I've been fulfilling of OD support. Present at the meeting are Aidan, Emily and Michael Pitt from Disability/Inclusion; Krista and Olke from Secure Livelihoods; Jemimah for Participation and Governance; and Michael Rubindayo and myself from Education. Michael R has experience from VSO Cameroon. Plus of course Terry who is co-ordinating.

Conclusions from the meeting are reviewed later that afternoon and evening. This is also a chance to meet up with newly-arrived volunteers, including Dorien who will be Management Support Officer in Wa, so I fix to visit Wa in a visit to Upper West I'm planning in two weeks time.

I can't get a lunchtime bus the next day, but a great discovery is the OA VIP bus which has wider seats that recline more, for only 30 cedis (£15) rather than 24 cedis. Above is "Circle" (Nkrumah Circle,i.e. roundabout) in Accra. Next photo shows the view in Tamale at 5am - the world will end 21st May 2011, you heard it here first.

The bus arrives Walewale at 7am, which suits me much better than the typical 3 am arrival.

Charlotte is still not well, and I manage to fix transport to Tamale to the VSO-linked hosptal there, Kabsad, and we both go expecting to stay. (The picture shows cattle crossing the main road North through Ghana). At Kabsad the test shows malaria paraistes present, and some residual typhoid, so the little blighters have survived the first wave of drugs, which Charlotte has completed. So it's a new wave of prescriptions, but back to Walewale to recover.

An (extra) ordinary Monday morning at the office

2010-05-10T23:29:00.007Z

Charlotte is unwell and has had a sleepless night, and I go in instead of her for the regular Monday morning meeting at the West Mamprusi District Education Office; I have a couple of messages and notices from Charlotte e.g. she has been working with the GES (Ghana Education Service) staff for some time on resurrecting the District Teacher Support Team, and there is a meeting on Wednesday people may need reminding about.

The Monday morning routine is very different from 6 months ago.

Then people would drift in, solemnly record 7.59 a.m. as their arrival time irrespective of the actual time, buy breakfast or other stuff from some of the traders who plied their wares in the office, and chat about the weekend.
Now people are in place for the morning meeting before it starts, and it starts early. After a prayer and a short moral message, the Assistant Director Finance, John, who is chairing the meeting announces we are looking at the core values one by one. (The Director is in Accra). Last week it was Professionalism. This week it is Sharing Knowledge.
He gives some examples, and others do too. This gives me a great opportunity to fulfil one of my instructions and plug the School Management Committee / Parent Teacher Association Training Manual developed by VSO, and I refer to the SMC/PTA trip by Charlotte, Robert, Ramatu and others to "Overseas" (see http://www.charlotteinghana.blogspot.com for late March). I'm able to plug the manual as an example of sharing knowledge across organisations. (I have copies for people if they'll pay for them to cover the photocopying costs).
Here are a few examples of other points covered. A.B.Mahama (Head-Teacher Adviser) gives a good briefing about the District Teacher Support Team meeting. (I was primed to remind people about this, but it's all in hand without my reminder, which is great). He explains there are still problems reconciling which school is in which cluster, but the group has worked on this and outstanding questions are with AD/Sup (Assistant Director, Supervision). A funding proposal has been submitted to TENI (this is what I was helping Charlotte with on April 22nd - the night of the scorpion sting). Next meeting will look at how the revitalised DTST will be re-launched with Head-Teachers - this is important and the DTST will co-ordinate all in-service training. Sirina, the Pre-School Development Adviser explains some ideas from a teacher-training workshop she has been to about key development areas for kindergarten children. There is talk about sharing ideas with teachers more, and strong encouragement for "cluster-based in-service training" - i.e. take the training to the teachers in their own "clusters" of schools. Charles Sumani the Basics Schools Co-ordinator raises questions about teachers not at school which generates some useful discussion for Circuit Supervisors. There is an encouragement to Schedule Officers not to "entertain" teachers in the morning in the office when the teachers should be teaching - if teachers have problems and need to come into the office they should do this in the afternoon after classes. Someone observes that the Schedule Officers need to be in the office promptly in the afternoon in that case - recognised by the Chair as a very good point.
So the culture of this GES (Ghana Education Service) as a whole still has some way to go, sure. But this meeting sets a great tone for the week. It's purposeful, open, interactive, no-messing (someone starts to have a mobile phone conversation in the meeting and is summarily sent out - that's a change!), and has some real problem-solving going on. It is taking the values and making them real - I'm pleased about this, I'd suggested this to the Director and he's taken it up. And this purposeful meeting has become part of the new routine - and it happens like clockwork even though the Director isn't here. There is some way to go, but the impact of the Organisational Development is already very evident.
This is (now) an ordinary Monday morning meeting, but it's extraordinary what a change we have seen in 6 months.

These aren't the greatest pictures because I was trying to be unobtrusive taking them, but hopefully they illustrate the meeting. The Values statement with everyone's signatures is behind AD (Finance) - John - the Meeting Chair. (The Director has now had the values added to the Office's letterhead).

But just as a reminder of the challenges the District is facing, here's another school with the roof blown off in the recent storms (see April 22nd and 30th entries).

By the end of the day Charlotte is feeling a little better, though not eating yet ...

Visit to the Kukoa at Gambaga

2010-05-08T22:26:00.010Z

We make a last-minute decision that this weekend we will visit the Kukoa ("witches' camp") at Gambaga. This is mentioned in the Ghana Bradt guide, and you can read more about it by Googling "Kukoa Gambaga". Also Canadian Maggie, who came to see us February 20th, wrote a great article in "The Advocate" in April after a visit to another kukoa out past Bimbilla (website for "The Advocate" - the development newspaper that Mar and Mark work on - is http://rumnet.wordpress.com and Ghana phone 0244-218898).

A quick summary is that women are sent to the kukoa after being used of witchcraft on a very arbitrary basis, e.g. illness or death of a child in the family. They are sent there for life. This 'imprisonment' has been challenged on humanitarian grounds, but when many of the women were 'freed' they refused to leave, as this has become their home.

We often meet new people on tro-tros. This time it's Agnes, from Norway, working in an orphanage in Nalerigu. We head east on a packed tro, but after Langbinsi there is more room. Charlotte was sitting beside what you would call a window if there was any glass in it. It gets dusty and she swaps with Fati. The part of the roof that's dangling is a little obtrusive. The seat in front of me tips forward rather readily, because although the seat is welded to the vehicle floor, that section of floor has broken off.

The party is (left to right) Charlotte, Jacob, Mandina (who is Mashood's friend), Fati and Mashood. We're given a bench in the shade while waiting to see the chief. The kukoa is not separate from Gambaga as I had thought, but is right next to the rest of the town. Children as usual are delighted to see us.

We meet and pay the chief. Apparently the traditional gift of cola nuts is not really wanted any more, and hard cash is preferred. We compromise with 5 cedis in a handkerchief. This is supposed to benefit the women. However we give some more when we meet the women leaders of the "witches". They are very friendly and apparently happy people. I explain that we respect old people and recognise their wisdom - the women reply that they are happy to be alive. The stripy green shirt (see photo) is "South Africa 2010" so I mime a little Ghana vs England football which is much appreciated.

Our "tour" seems to end rather rapidly, so I ask about the cultivated front gardens that I have read about. We don't see these, but we do get more of a walk around the kukoa. The place seems very well organised, a working community. The yellow nuts are dawa dawa nuts - spread out on the ground to dry. Firewood is neatly stacked. The whole area is tidy and clean - more so than most communities that we have seen in Ghana.

As we head back we see a blacksmith making ploughshares and a goat being skinned.

Lunch in Nalerigu is fufu or rice balls, made and eaten under a tree by the side of the road. I opt for 3 rice balls (10 pesewas each) and 2 pieces of meat (20 pesewas each), total 70 pesewas (or about 30 pence in UK currency). The meat is guinea-fowl - there is a cage of more guinea-fowl awaiting their turn.

There is time for a look around the main square in Nalerigu and a drink in a local 'spot' (bar).

Then we find another decrepit tro-tro for the bone-shaking journey back to Walewale. Some local children are fascinated to talk to us "Sulaminga how are you" while we wait for the tro to fill.

Back in Walewale, look at the picture of the school (behind Charlotte in the photo, to the right of Mashood's Community Information Centre). The roof blow off in the storms of 22nd April (see blog entries April 22 and 30). Nothing has been done to fix it yet. The children will come back to school this week. The last time this classroom featured in this blog was December 16th when we taught each other a song in this room. We think that the children will be taught in the classrooms without a roof but be sent home when it rains - however they will have no protection from the sun

The view of the sky as we headed home.

TENI Launch

2010-04-30T19:02:00.002Z

National launch of TENI project (Tackling Education Needs Inclusively)
and storms in Walewale as per the 22nd April blog entry - see Mashood's great write-up at
http://www.cic-walewale.blogspot.com/
(We take a little credit for this - Charlotte proof-read the story, and Mashood made some of the changes she proposed; I taught Mashood how to blogspot back in October in a candle-lit session as the power was off).

Ouaga - do go!

2010-04-27T17:53:00.043Z

Well, after Charlotte's semi-sleepless night enlivened by Facebooking including a long chat with my nephew in Japan, Charlotte feels sufficiently recovered that we could after all conclude our holiday with a long weekend in Ouagadougou with Mar and Mark. Above are 2 of the 4 back-seat passengers (including a new friend, Antea, of Mar & Mark's) heading for Ouaga.
On Saturday we see masks and other artifacts at the Museum.

Quite a good shot of all three I would say.

Then in the evening to the Ouaga jazz festival.

Before we go in I tell the story of arriving late at Romeo and Juliet and fining the front row of seats free. We go in to the concert and history repeats itself

This is the absolutely delightful Toumani Diabate from Mali, the "Jimi Hendrix of the Kora". World-famous, grammy-winning, and gives us a splendid masterclass in his 24-stringed kora.

The audience join in - some on stage, some just from their seats.

This guy reminds me of my brother-in-law. I have eight brothers-in-law- none of them will think it's them. Afterwards we go for a drink with Mar & Mark's Belgian friend living in Ouaga. Later I ask "Why is he called Radar?" (remembering the TV series MASH, for the over-50s) but he is actually called Reda - because that's his name, and by now you should be able to work out how to pronounce it.

Now perhaps the boys should be more sporting, and desist from playing a 7-letter word first turn, but I have to tell you that we don't resist that temptation.

Gondwana restaurant. Recommended. Quite appropriate, since Gondwana is apparently the now-severed Africa-Australia super-continent.

Heading home. Coming North the taxi driver filled up in one go, but going South there are 3 stops to put about 6 beer-bottles of fuel in (or siphon a similar amount, sucking it from a big pitcher) each time. We have had a guess why - what's your theory - answers by blog comment only.

Storm and sting

2010-04-22T23:59:00.004Z

Well to begin with the storm is enjoyable - one heck of a breeze through the house, which makes a change.

We watch some of the spectacular lightning. Then the rain starts. Horizontally. (These windows face the veranda, so are "under cover"). The rain comes through the windows, the doors and the ceiling. It's been low-voltage anyway (fluorescent lights flickering), but now we turn off all lights. This is officially holiday, but we've both been catching up with some urgent work. After spending a while on some necessary OD emails, I'm helping Charlotte with her District Teacher Support Team proposal, and she's mopping the floor by torchlight in flip-flops. Until her foot strikes a scorpion (unknowingly) and the scorpion strikes back the only way he knows how.

WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE DONE (I'm told).
1. Tourniquet.
2. Ice
3. Elevate stung part
4. Hospital.
(and maybe at step 1 tried the little vacuum pump I bought for the purpose to suck the poison out).

Charlotte is in a lot of pain which is coming in waves, and can feel the poison travelling up through her leg. We have actually Googled scorpion stings but advice seemed inconclusive. Impact varies from mild discomfort to mild death. Impact in this case will also mean cancelling our trip to Ouaga with Mar and Mark as we're due to leave 9am tomorrow, but we decide to leave it till the morning to phone them since it's late now.
We try VSO emergency number - network is down with the thunderstorm. Eventually we raise Accra. "Get to hospital". We can't raise a taxi driver. We try Charlotte's boss - no luck. I try the neighbours - doors locked barred and bolted but I stand outside and shout "George". George, bless him, gets out his 4x4, and off we go through the storm to Walewale hospital at midnight.
George is trying to get close to the door at the hospital. Crash. His nearside front-wheel is now waist-deep in a concrete drain with vertical sides. Don't worry about the car George says. We're ushered through darkened corridors to a lit (but flooded) part. Paddling through we get to see the doctor. Before long (Charlotte might not agree) her foot has been anaesthetised and the world seems a better place, and she's given other drugs too.
George has found helpers to build up rocks and planks to create a ramp out of the drain, and the car is out. Charlotte turns down the offer to stay overnight in the flooded hospital. George won't drop us on the track, but insists on driving up to our front door ... and gets his wheels stuck in the quagmire that our frontage has become since the storm. Charlotte hurries to get to bed before the anaesthetic wears off, and I find some scraps of wood to help George's back wheel out of the hole it's made for itself.
(Then at 3 am as it turns out George is up again to pick up a sick person from a nearby village - you're popular if you have a car! We are very grateful for his help).

Sitting in a warm lake

2010-04-20T20:49:00.024Z

Lake Point Guest house is not far from Kumasi, on Lake Bosamtwe which is a meteorite crater some 8 kilometers across.The interior of the guest house shows a real eye for design - has the owner really not been to Barcelona and studied Gaudi?

In the evening I catch up on email - possibly a mistake, but we're keen to know how Charlotte's brother-in-law's quadruple heart bypass op went, and the news is good. Charlotte picks up her email in the morning.

This is an Austrain-Ghanaian guest house, so I have to tell the joke/puzzle about the client who says to the Austrian restauranteur "F U N E M?" This is particularly relevant given what we are having for breakfast. Stephen the owner loves it. Explanations if needed will come via blog comments.

The lake is warm - a five-mile bowl of warm water. We swim in the morning, pedalo in the afternoon, and watch the tropical storm in the evening. This is the most relaxing place in our holiday.

Akwidaa, the Atlantic, not waving but drowning

2010-04-19T21:01:00.000Z

Off To Akwidaa for three days of get-way-from-it-all at the Safari Beach Lodge. No internet , no phone signal (except, as we later discover, for one little hotspot near the generator)

So, in case you want to know, the room looks a bit like this, and the view outwards looks like this:

See that little rock? Don't even think about getting there. The waves don't look too bad in any of these photos, but for me they count as good waves because you can stand in 'no water' and have a wave break over your head if it's one of the bigger ones. I check - when a few yards from shore - that I can still get back. (It's that area where the increase in depth after the wave takes you out of your depth, but if you just stay in the same place you're in your depth again.) Now I notice I am a little further away from Charlotte and Laura (see previous blog entry) than before, but I'm no more than a third of the way towards that rock in the picture.Try to swim in. I'm swimming forward but the distance to shore is increasing. Feeling pretty silly now, I can't get in on my own, I'm going to have to ask for help. Shout "Help". No effect. (We later check, and against the noise of the waves you're lucky to hear anything beyond 10 metres). I wave - get a wave back from Charlotte, but how do you signal "I'm being swept out further away from you"? Looks like I'm going to sink or swim on my own. Decide to save my energy for swimming. But it's not working, and I seem further away.

Apparently what I should have done, to circumvent the rip current I must have been in, was to swim along and then in. Charlotte says this is in fact what I did. I have no sense of doing anything except trying to swim straight towards shore. No life flashing before my eyes or anything like that, it's just a case of putting everything into swimming as strongly as I can. Eventually I find my depth and stagger onto the beach. It is less than five minutes from start to finish. I feel like I've just run a 4-minute mile; I think in these circumstances warnings about not overdoing the exercise tend to be forgotten.

Anyway, there's a peaceful sunset to look at , and a turtle warning. We find Sarah, or rather she finds us - on holiday from volunteering at a church in Accra.

The bar/restaurant, and the view of Akwidaa life from it. The food is (generally) very good, which is just as well given the prices.

We also bump into Merilyn, (beside me in photo) a VSO volunteer from Nandom who is a big fan of Organisational Development (ok, Merilyn, I have taken you off the OD group email list) and her Mali-geologist-gold-prospecting friend Nicole. Sadly we lose the Ashes at Scrabble to Merilyn and Nicole.

We leave Akwidaa - see the shot of Dixcove which is the nearest place - and head through verdant Southern Ghana towards the Ghanaian Lake District (well, one lake anyway).

Kakum - and Dennis, Annette and their babies

2010-04-15T19:15:00.002Z

For the Kakum rain forest, we negotiate a taxi ride from Cape Coast. We reach there at 8.30 am, and the small party (about a dozen of us) on the rope walk through the tree canopy doesn't feel rushed at all - apparently at other times it can get busy.

Charlotte stops suddenly having almost put her hand onto a green lizard on the "handrail" rope

Our guide shows us several trees including the umbrella tree, and also bamboo (not native to Ghana, but grows well here).Our guide shows us several trees inclusing the umbrella tree, and also bamboo (not native to Ghana, but grows well here).

We head for the nearby monkey (etc) sanctuary, which turns out to be run by a Dutch couple Dennis and Annette who have built it up themselves. We are a party of 5 now, because we gave a lift here to 3 Belgian volunteers from Ouagadougou who were also on the canopy walk.

Obligatory pictures on the high rock. Me & Charlotte of course, then Julie Nikita and Laura.

Dennis & Annette find drinks for all of us and some Dutch speciality meatballs and we all sit and chat. (Incidentally, later, when we are leaving and ask about paying, Dennis says "Just put whatever you think into the duck" - there is a large plastic duck with an open beak for us to deposit some cash in).

Time to hold the python.

Do you want to hold the python, Charlotte? (imagine the Dutch accent)

No, I don't even like small pythons.

Not me. uugh,

But it's cute

This is a sweet little baby python. (Laura loves it)

I still don't want it.

I don't like that python, I don't like Monty Python, I just don't like pythons.

But what was the problem in giving the python a little cuddle Charlotte?

I'd rather see pigs go to the seaside..

.... and hear the life-story of a passer-by who wants to sell me some cards...

... while the sea still pounds Cape Coast castle.

Elmina

2010-04-14T23:18:00.004Z

Elmina Castle was built by the Portugese (a local chief gave away this enormously strategic piece of rock) later captured by the Dutch, and only became British in the 1870s (an attack failed, so a cash deal was done instead).

There are those who say that you don't need to see Cape Coast and Elmina - but we find them very different. Partly, our tour is different - at Elmina it's a tourist group rather than Ghanaian residents, and in a way I miss the seriousness of the Cape Coast tour. But there is plenty to see.

This is where the Dutch Governor went out to see the female prisoners in the yard below.

They would come from the dungeon where you see Charlotte standing. The selected one would be washed and brought up the wooden staircase and through the trapdoor to the governor.

If the woman became pregnant then she would stay as a servant in Elmina and the half-caste child would go to school.

I'm afraid we were struck by the contrast between the caption and the priestess picture here.

The buttresses are structural, but were used by the British army for fitness training - get up the slope using the handrail.

On our way in 2 lads asked our names, and on this occasion we told them. On the way out they had these gifts for us, and they also had a request for us to sponsor their football teams - previous donors had apparently given 40,50,60 cedis....

And then to "One Africa" on the Eastern edge of Elmina for a leisurely lunch.

Ghana is of course famous for its chocolate, and we can see a big seam of galaxy chocolate which is actually visible at the surface here.

The crabs love it. But Charlotte has other things on her mind. And while I am examining the geology, she is accosted by an aging beachcombing Rasta keen to tell the story of his life.

Eventually he starts asking us stuff, including the causes of the Irish conflict, so I give him a little run-down of the key events and influences over the last 400 years. He moves on. Charlotte comes to have a look at the chocolate rock.

There is also a little museum, and the following notices catch my eye and remind us of the horror of the slave trade.

Elmina and One Africa - thought-provoking, definitely recommended. Ok - text included at long last - thanks for the comment of anticipation Linda!

Cape Coast

2010-04-13T23:18:00.001Z

We made it to Cape Coast from Accra in just over two hours in an air-conditioned tro-tro in good condition (5.50 cedis rather than 4 cedis for the basic tro-tro) - in the South of Ghana such things exist.

Start of the 'pigs at the seaside' photo collection.
The next photo is just for Charlotte's sister Emma and her daughter Ellie.

This is Cape Coast castle - where the slaves were imprisoned awaiting ships for America. Going round with a party made up of Ghanaian residents was very humbling. Upstairs

from the dungeons was a church, and one question was "Didn't the white people read the Bible? How could they do this to us?" The guide was very clear and well-informed. He frequently referred to 'our forefathers' in the dungeons.

From the inside the gate is marked "Gate of No Return". On the outside it is marked as "Gate of Return" since it has been the site of symbolic "Return" ceremonies. Here are the boats that would take the slaves out to the waiting ship.

The Ghanaian House of Chiefs erected the plaque "In Everlasting memory" , in recognition of the fact that slaves were captured throughout Ghana and brought to the coast - Europeans took the slaves to Americas, but often Africans had captured them in the first place. I imagine that the European slave trade to America massively increased the amount of slave trading within Africa.

These two photos are just because Charlotte's maiden name is Douglas.

In the shop we met Aminda, who recommended to us a book of short stories for the beach, and signed it for us. Then outside, a water-seller called Sylvia asked to change a British pound coin, which someone had given her for water (normally 5 pesewas, so they had paid her fifty times the normal prices, so she was happy when we changed it for cedis).

Then these couple of lads were keen to sell us a bottle of water "It's Voltic!" (the local mineral water brand) but we weren't allowed to see the label...

Crimimal Record fingerprint check in Accra

2010-04-12T22:47:00.003Z

This is a very functional entry, for the benefit of anyone else wanting a criminal record check in Ghana, e.g. to cover time volunteering in Ghana when seeking a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) certificate in UK on return. If that's not you, please skip this.
Who knows whether it would be the same for you - but this was our experience:
1. Go to Police Headquraters (CID), near Danquah Circle in Accra
2. Ask where to go - told room 22 on second floor.
3. In room 22. told to go to room 5 on ground floor
4. In Room 5, told to go to end room on ground floor.
5. Shown into very crowded end-room where most of the rest of the action happens
6. After being in wrong queue, discover we need to fill in a form first. Get 2 copies of form from man in corner desk and complete them. Interpret codes, e.g. "ED" = Expiry Date on passport.
7. Pay cashier - for each of us it's 5 cedi plus 15 cedis. I think the 5 cedi fingerprinting charge was going to be 200 cedis if we did not have Ghanain residence permit - so show passports. Wait while cashier processes various payments, then get our change and passports back.
8. Supply forms to finger-printing man.
9. Queue up to get photo taken in next door room. Unclear whether this is next thing to do, but was probably a good thing to do next, because photo printing takes a long ime after the photos are taken.
Queue is very uncertain for this, various pushing past, but eventually have photos taken.
10, Queue up for finger-printing. Queuing is perhaps unecessary becasue the finger-printing man is working through forms in order, but you never know..
11. Get finger-printed. Wash hands.
12. Wait outside photo room (still in end-room) for photos to be printed. Again, much doubt re queue-jumping (and since people waiting for forms, for payment, for funger-printing, for photographing, or for photo-printing are all in the same small room, the 'queues' or scrums are all overlapping).
13 Wait more. Get involved in discussions re why people are pushing past others. Meet man from Walewale!
14. Eventually our photos are printed. (By the way it's no good taking your own). My name is called out in the photo room. Since this is behind a closed door I'm lucky to hear it.
15. Collect photos and take them to man in corner desk (see step 6).
16 Man at corner desk unites application form, fingerprint paper and photos.
17. NOW we have to take this to Room 5. Where we find that the result can indeed be collected, but in 2 weeks time (we had been told it was one week). We are going to ask a VSO driver to do this, armed with signed receipts.

End-to-end time for this visit - 2 hours.
There's occasional criticism from officials about people not following the process. There is a lady there who is trying to be helpful - I acknowledge this and suggest to her though that if the process was defined and posted up on the wall then people might know what to do. She says "Ah - you mean No1... No. 2...." - she sees the point.

So we needed, each:
passport with Ghana residency permit, 20 cedis, 2 hours at least.

Fingers crossed

Accra for a day

2010-04-12T22:32:00.023Z

This is Kintampo, which compared to an average British motorway services has much better mango markets but much worse toilet facilities. Hey, you can't win 'em all.

We arrive in Accra Monday at about 4 a.m. and the Crown Prince hotel where we are staying Monday night allow us a very early check-in! The facilities are pretty basic, and the running water stops running, but it's a good deal for us to get one and a half nights for the price of one. When we wake at 7 there is no-one to make breakfast, but we find Josephine at a street stall who is able to make tea, toast and omelettes. While she does this she sings a succession of Christian songs - e.g. "many things have happened in my life - nothing can take away my joy..." and hearing her you wouldn't doubt it. Sorry, can't add the video now!

The day continues with a morning at the police station (see separate blog entry), and a useful afternoon in VSO. I give Terry an informal update on recent OD activities, and Charlotte and I each have useful meetings with our boss Dora on key issues in the Education Programme in general (me) and in Walewale (Charlotte). In particular, from my viewpoint, we establish an informal proposal as to the quorum of people to be involved in Education oragnisation assessments in future, and apply it to propose what should happen when for the assessments not yet started. Thta's followed by a series of phone calls to the volunteers in question - all of whom knew what they were hoping to be agreed, and all are vey hapy with the outcomes.

The day finishes with a Chinese meal at "Tip-Top restaurant" in Oxford Street with Katherine.& Emily.

Athena's leaving party - weeekend in Tamale

2010-04-11T22:15:00.004Z

It's Athena's leaving party in Tamale, she's going back to the Philippines next week.

We never seem to have a photo of both of us with Mar and Mark, so we take the rare opportunity for this rare picture. Then the rare opportunity occurs again on Sunday.

We try to talk to all our children and their other halves once a week, typically Sunday, but sometimes conditions work aganst us - here is Charlotte trying to talk to Tom & Sarah from the coach station in Tamale before we take the overnight bus to Accra.

Navrongo and Zebilla

2010-04-09T21:32:00.053Z

Charlotte & I decide to go to Zebilla (volunteers at Ghana Education Service) via Bolga (Widows & Orphnas Mision, helping with Human Resource Policies) and Navrongo (cousin Sam at the Teacxher Training College). Not quite on the way, but not far off. A swimming-pool not in use is a pretty sad sight here though.

We see a little of the end of inter-college Sports - the 100 metres here. They start (after a false start - "red card" for the unfortunate offender), they run past, somebody wins.

This is an opportunity to meet Sam's boy-friend Grahame, visiting from VSO Cameroon - although he's not directly involved, it's useful to hear a little about Organisational Development in VSO Cameroon.

We stay overnight with Sam's collegaue Mary, seen at the back with Charlotte - thanks Mary!

Then on to Zebilla.

This is the spot, having just alighted from the tro-tro, where Charlotte takes & makes some crucial phone calls. We had discovered that Organisational Dévelopment activities could be funded or subsidised by VSO, and Charlotte manages now to faciliatte phone calls between Seidu (Walewale GES OD Lead), the GES Director (on a workshop in Tamale) and Dora in Accra, which result in a written request being prepared in Walewale for us to take to Accra on Monday.

Many more pigs in Zebilla than at home in Walewale, but Walewale is very Muslim

Lunch in Zebilla, with Stepehn (governance), Ellie and Cherith (new volunteers in Feb/March) and Pat the Management Support Officer who like Stephen was part of our intake. We explore how Organisation Assessment could take place in Zebilla GES Office, with limited time available for Pat to drive this, and Pat settles on her preferred approach that would explore all the issues via five time-bosed workshoips, one per week in May. Talking through some of the examnple and illustrative materials helps Pat and Stephen to make choices on how to recommend the assessment should happen in Zebilla.

We have a stroke of luck at the end of the afternoon in finding a tro-tro going all the way west to Bolga and then south beyond Walewale. Then, back home, we're visited by Seidu with the vital piece of paper - request for funds. In Walewale we're trying to integrate the VSO Organisational Development Planning process with the existing Annual District Educational Operational Plan, and the request is for funds to support the necessary joint workshops - Seidu is, we're glad to say, looking ahead to the whole year in terms of budgeting for this - good indication of sustainabaility!

A landmark

2010-04-07T22:51:00.003Z

This is a notable day. For the first time since 1997 we are not parents of teenagers (Daniel is 20 today). Charlotte has a beer to celebrate - her first since typhoid.

Email recovery ... episode 28.......

2010-04-06T22:30:00.025Z

This isn't the best place to log this, but I'll put it here in case it helps someone who Googles here.
The Vodafoine USB modem has misbehaved again consistently on Vista with "RAS Error code 6". The Vodafone helpline which I'm getting very used to is not much help, I'm kept on hold, promises to phone back not fulfilled, clearly no knowledge at the other end as to what the error message from their own software means.

But it hasn't worked since Saturday afternoon, and I check Windows Update and see some updates applied then. A Restore to the prior state resolves the problem. If the Vodafone helpline person ever phones back as he promised to then I'll tell him how to fix the problem..

Charlotte has been in to work briefly but is sleeping a lot and hopefuly recovering from typhoid.

Since this is a technical entry I'll illustrate it with Powerpoint. I do my write-up for the OD Forum, including the "OD Success" diagrams that the Education volunteers prepared, and send it on to Accra to be completed (with break-out group output where I wasn't in the group) and published.

A well-planned Easter weekend

2010-04-05T13:26:00.002Z

Jemimah organises our Easter weekend. We have planned ahead and Fati has filled the fridge with meals. Charlotte is banned from the kitchen while recuperating from typhoid.

The keen-eyed reader may spot that the movie schedule included "Pride and Prejudice", which we see in two sittings on Saturday and Sunday nights.

Fati takes Jemimah to catch the Bolga bus on Monday morning because Widows' and Orphans' Movement has a picnic for Easter Monday.

Janet's leaving

2010-04-01T23:05:00.005Z

Janet leaves Walewale tomorrow, and so after dinner at our house there is a date for drinks at Moonlite Spot at 7.30. A number of head-teachers have been invited. We're running a little late and don't get there till 7.45 pm - and they're all there! They decided as a demonstration of punctuality to Janet to be there on the dot "British Time".

I missed the head-teacher photos, but here as part of the "Leaving Drinks" are Andrea, Fati, Mashood and Janet.
Janet leaves on the morning of Good Friday - the three head-teachers have hired a pick-up to take them all to see the hippo santuary and then on to Kumasi

Diagnosis - and back to Walewale

2010-04-01T16:00:00.003Z

To hospital in Tamale - the Cabsad hospital (behindCharlotte in photo) where VSO has an arrangement. Within an hour Charlotte sees admin, nurse, doctor, lab, doctor again for the results and diagnosis - typhoid - and pharmacy. Tremendously efficient, wonderful service. We return in a taxi, Charlotte clutching a bagful of drugs, relieved to know what's wrong.

To answer the most common questions: yes you can catch typhoiud despite immunisation, but the symptoms may be reduced. It's a risk wherever there is open drainage - a fly that flies from human waste in the gutter and then onto your soft drink bottle could be the carrier - that's why people often try to keep their bottle tops on when not drinking. We have 5 days drugs.

Earlier we had said our farewells to Yarrow and Veronica at the Radach Centre. There wasn't going to be a phoro of Diana until she said "We will miss you" so we had to snap her too.

We found a big Bolga bus (costs more but does go beyond Walewale to our house) and then realised our tickets would only get us stools in the aisle, but I persuaded my neighbour to give up his seat for Charlotte.

The VSO Organisational Development Forum

2010-03-31T23:54:00.010Z

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/Portgugese 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

2010-03-29T15:38:00.009Z

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 200+ 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?

2010-03-27T00:03:00.005Z

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 disppeared. 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 solutiion 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. Bewteen 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 attendig 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....

2010-03-24T23:14:00.001Z

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

2010-03-23T23:17:00.002Z

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 interent connection to post video here.
I'm delighted to have the bike working again. What should I pay? "You decide" the machanic 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

2010-03-23T17:00:00.001Z

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 Managemnt 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-watchnan 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 beana. Who said you couldn't have a varied diet here?

Northern Region meeting in Walewale

2010-03-21T11:39:00.000Z

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

But, seriouslu, 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 persuafe 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

2010-03-18T21:36:00.004Z

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.

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.

Annual Review of the VSO - local GES partnership

2010-03-16T22:26:00.014Z

A big cast for the first annual review of the partnership between the local Ghana Education Service and VSO. The cast list includes 4 head-teacher, 4 teachers, 4 circuit supervisors, 4 parents, 4 pupils and I think we had all of those and more, together with Dora and other staff from VSO.
I think this time I'll let the pictures tell the story. A good day, with some very encouraging feedback on the impact that Charlotte and Janet have had from the schools and children , and also very positive comments about the Organisational Development and its impact in the office..

On Tuesday thee is a combined Walewale effort (Peter, Janet and me) that ends up with the Review report written. Charlotte has been invited to Accra to present this but she is already booked to go to 'overseas' - see Charlotte's blog - so the report will have to speak for itself.

Sam Cashman in Walewale

2010-03-13T23:56:00.012Z

Cousin Sam visits for the weekend - we planned to do this long ago and never quite made it yet.

Below - Sam, Letty and Charlotte. (Sam accompanied Letty on Letty's initial coach ride north to Bolga) - then Sam heading back to Navrongo.

Organisation Assessment report accepted, and Organisational Development Planning begins

2010-03-10T18:14:00.077Z

I thought I'd add in pictures "from the start" to show the whole OD Planning workshop process. Mind you it started when I woke at about 4 am and decided to catch up with what hadn't been done yesterday daytime because of disruptions to our meeting. Here I am with all the materials for the OD Planning workshop.

and now I've arrived at the District Education Office

Letty and Seidu help with cutting out 'labels' for each recommendation (not sticky, as we just had plain paper for the printer, but we stuck them to post-its). Getting these prepared and printed had been my early-morning task.

Charlotte has chased round and obtained the promised signatures of the whole OD committee, and so the agreed signed report can now be presented to the District Director. It's this Organisation Assessment Report that we're working with - we're taking recommendations from it, and planning them together.

We have a good idea of the likely categories for prioritisation - i.e. what is the argument for doing something this year rather than next. But we get these from a group discussion (rather than our prior ideas from yesterday) so that we're using people's own words / concepts. (So we replace our prepared "Quick wins" with "Immediate Results", and "Mandatory" is replacd by "National Targets").

We agree the priority of the categories.

Now we can decide what category each recommendation is, as a basis for scheduling later.

There is some enthusiasm to try to schedule them all now, which wasn't quite the idea, but we neatly solve this problem by relabelling our chart as an unscheduled temporary parking spoace for recommendations, and make a blank chart for the schedule we're going to come up with.

We're taking plenty of pictures not just to blog, but because there are 2 reasons for me helping the OD work Planning here in Walewale:

1. To help Walewale!

2 Because some aspects of what is done here may be of help to other VSO partners.

We've prepared Powerpoints that make it very clear that the idea is NOT that everyone should do the same thing, but also that there may be ideas in what's done here that may help other VSO volunteers and partners with ideas and materials.

Now we can start to pick out the highest priority recommendations, and make a first estimate of where these might fit in the schedule, but also assess who is likely to be accountable for the recommendation. The schedule that comes out of the workshop won't be perfect and will need refining by those accountable, but it will for the first time be a draft plan of the most important priorities as assessed from a full organisation assessment.

As a natural part of the process we see recommendations which should be grouped together, and pre-requisite recommendations.

We have been organising our planning by the catgories in the Annual District Education Operational Plan (ADEOP), and we're keen that the ADEOP and the OD Planning work hand in hand.

We haven't finished, and will need to continue this at our next meeting, but we now have good momentum.

This is Seidu's first OD committee that he has chaired, and it's gone very well.

OD Planning prep, a new resident in lariba Yiri, and birthday celebrations

2010-03-09T21:58:00.019Z

Seidu (OD Lead for the GES) prepares a birthday message for he and Letty to present to me. We're having another attempt to prepare next steps on OD, and although our session is again substantially disrupted, we do end up with a game plan for the next day. Seidu uses this to prepare an agenda.

Meanwhile Janet's husband Peter has arrived from England for a visit, and has brought with him birthday cards and presents from our children.

Fati brings in a cake with candles. I located 2 crates of diet coke in Accra (part of the shopping hidden behind the breeze blocks, see 7th march) and each crate came with a free cake - we gave one to Fati which was much enjoyed, and the other becomes my birthday cake.

Independence Day - and we discover a restaurant in Walewale

2010-03-08T22:48:00.044Z

We have a holiday for Independence Day. (Independence day is Saturday 6th March and I was travelling, but there is a holiday on the Monday). As usual, no-one seemed to know whether this would be the case until a few days before.

We have heard of Walewale's only restauaant, "Hilltop", and we set out to locate it. We fund it hidden away behind "Brilliant Stars" school.

We think we have been not been given enough change, and have a friendly mental arithmetic discussion.

But it's ok - the meals were 2 cedis each (less than a pound) - I had thought they cost even less. The change is correct and we are glad to have sorted that out. The waitress's name is Lariba (meaning "Wednesday-born"), so here is a photo of two Madam Laribas.

The restaurant is owned by Madam Teni ("Teni" as a girl's name means "Monday-born").

In the evening we have invited Denis, Valentine and Victorya who work at orphanages in Walewale & Tinguri to come for a meal. We run out of drinks but Afecia from Masagri guest house next door responds to our phone call by bringing some more.

Back row - Janet, Valentine, Charlotte .
Front row - Victorya, Denis & Fati

Heading North

2010-03-07T14:00:00.058Z

So it's time to head North again. The third day of the OD workshop was switched from Friday morning to Friday afternoon, so on Saturday morning it's off to the coach station to secure a ticket... I like the posters on the way, with clear illustrations - since there are numerous languages in Ghana I guess this makes sense.

Again, no doubt as to the purpose of this building (nor any doubt about its dedication)

Anything and everything can have a theological title.

Plenty of goats at the coach station. I enquire where they are going, and reasonably enough the answer is "wherever the buyer wants to take them". That's after I've managed to convince the goat-seller that I don't want to buy one.

I have this reputation of always meeting people on public transport. This lovely family - sisters and brother - is Fostie, Jane and Issac.

We have some trouble getting Fostie to smile, but I manage to 'snap' one smile.

Jane says goodbye to Issac, who had come out to the bus station to see her off.

We make our way in the coach down the dirt tracks that run alongside the optimistic very incomplete motorway out of Accra.

Here is my long-distance coach survival kit - jumper and blanket - in fact my 'blanket' is a lightweight towel (the air-con can be quite fierce), a bit of padding, and an inflatable cusion.

I was dropped in Walewale at about 3.20 am but the taxi-driver I've arranged to pick me hasn't turned up and doesn't respond to a phone call. I have more luggage has than when I travelled to Accra (see start of previous entry) as I have a well-packed big bag of shopping from an Accra supermarket. So I hide my shopping behind a pile of breeze blocks, go home with the rest of my luggage, then bring my bike back so that I can strap the shopping on and wheel the shopping home. (The house is empty because Charlotte Janet and Fati are at a hotel in Tamale after Charlotte was at a TENI - Tackling Education Needs Inclusively- conference there last week).

In the morning I complete the 'man-washing' of the clothes I've worn for the week in Accra,

Accra for an OD workshop

2010-03-05T22:56:00.040Z

Back in November I proposed some Organisational Development priorities for VSO Ghana for 2010, and I'd allowed a week in Accra on arrival in January to get these agreed. Well. it's March, and I'm actually heading for Accra to see if we can finally do that.

I have a bus ticket from Bolga (an hour north of us) but the afternoon bus is 3 hours late so it's dark when I set off... necessitating the addition of a white over-garment..

Anyway, in the morning the coach arrives in Accra at a civilised 8.30 am, and it's off to the VSO office.
I think this is the main railway line north from Accra
but in Ghanaian towns you're never far from Premiership football

Navigating these hazards I reach the office.

You bump into all sorts of people at the VSO Office - here is Krista, with her eyes shut (avid blog readers will recall she tackled the whole Organisation Assessment process in a single morning in the open air), Iona beside me who is finishing her placement after 3 years in Ghana, and Danielle.

And a whole bunch of new volunteers arrived in February. Here are Vina and Katherine hard at work in desks that have been squeezed in to the VSO stock cupboard.

This next one is a historic picture for me. Because of my role 'gallivanting around Ghana' as a colleague put it., I've seen all of the September 2009 starters since our Training week, except Aidan. (Aidan told me he had arranged for a Mike-tracking device, so that he could always keep one step ahead of me). But I track him down having breakfast in Accra - seen with Michael Pitt drinking the orange-juice (Michael is another long-term volunteer in Disability sector).

I provide to Nii and Terry a Powerpoint with the chequered history of the OD process so far - because I picked up the baton when the Short-Term Volunteers from Deloitte (Prashant and Cornelius) left, helped volunteers to determine the process they would follow, and released the organisation assessment tool. I also list the decisions that have to be made, and we sequnece these and work through them.

This (below) actually seems to be the best shot I have of our 3-day workshop. Look at the walls - we've done plenty of work and in fact have made a pile of recommendations. I don't have the role of following them up and making them happen (though I've offerd to write them up) but I do think we have a good set of recommendations.

The young people drag me out to enjoy Accra night-life

and the next morning Terry, Vina and Katherine conduct a review of Aidan's prowess on the dance floor.

After the workshop it's off to Nkrumah Circle to give Krista an idea of what we covered, as she may be involved in further Organisational Development support

Moving from assessment to planning next steps

2010-02-26T22:31:00.042Z

It's time to plan what will actually be done in West Mamprugu as part of the Organisation Assessment. In the picture are Leticia the VSO Management Support Officer and Seidu who has been appointed as Organbisational Development Lead for the local District Education Office (West Mamprugu GES, i..e Ghana Education Service) in Walewale. Firstly I'm running an all-day briefing for Seidu and Leticia

We work out what the main questions are and create an agenda that includes these.

and then we work though this, drawing on existing briefing materials where appropriate.
In December I brought out an HP printer-scanner-copier, and while both configuring it and operating it has been something of a nightmare (it's still only configured as a basic printer), nevertheless it has been great to be able to print things whenever we want (subject to printer behaviour) in Walewale. So we've equipped Seidu and Letty with training materials to refer to, for example.

We don't in fact get as far as 'Next Steps', because the afternoon session is just me and Seidu, but we've made a good start.

Meanwhile this amused me the previous day. Charlotte had asked for a bank statement, and one had been produced from the computer. This is the bank's ledger, in which the issuing of Charlotte's statement has just been entered by hand, for her to sign to acknowledge receipt.

And here is a donkey minding its own business in the middle of the main road North (Ghana's M1, for English readers). Charlotte and Janet are receding into the distance.

That was on the way back from church.

New volunteers in Bolga

2010-02-21T23:00:00.001Z

Sunday morning, up to Bolga on a very ramshackle tro-tro to meet the new Bolga volunteers at the Comme Ci Comme Ca restaurant. The new volunteers arrived in Bolga around 2.30 am after the 14-hour coach-trip from Accra after their week of In-Country Training, and then experienced full Bolga heat on Sunday morning.

We expanded the tables into a cross-shape as the numbers of new and 'old' volunteers grew.

With around 15 of us eating lunch, there was considerable speculation as to the time at which all the food would have been served, but in fact the reastaurant did pretty well at feeding us all in a reasonably timely fashion.

Janet posed for a photo by the fountain.

Considerable analysis of the bill needed as everyone calculated the cost of their food and drinks. I've not known volunteers say "well, 150 cedis altogether, 15 of us, so 10 cedis each should do it (£4)", and I think that's a reminder that some people are out here for a couple of years on a very tight budget and can't afford to spend more than they have budgeted, which is fair enough.

Back home to respond to 2 Organisational Development phone messages - I'm interacting with Patricia and Laura in Ghana Education Servivce Nadowli (Upper West) in response to questions they've raised for their OD Committee meeting on Monday - and to find electricity comes back on before dark, and water is flowing again during the night.

Life at the home office and at home

2010-02-20T21:00:00.016Z

Many people asked me about coping with the heat. I have responded that, when I'm working at home, in the shade, with iced water in the fridge-freezer, it's really very tolerable.

I take it all back!

It's getting very hot. Temperature statistics for nearby Bolga have indicated (at worst) a high of 46 C and a night-time low of 31 C. We've also had significant periods without electricity (which means no ceiling fans), and several days with no mains water; we still have water in the tank, but as this runs down it means it's better instead of having a shower to wash with a bucket of water and catch the water to use to flush the loo.

We've had virtually no rain since mid-October, though there was a rain-storm on Feb 16th which has taken the dust out of the air to some extent, and some rain in the night a few days earlier.

Here I am working on possible improvements to the Widows and Orphans Movement Governance Manual in support of the Organisational Development process there. Underneath the laptop is a laptop cooler, which is plugged in to the laptop USB port and blows cold air through a perforated metal stand underneath the laptop. I have made the further adaptation of standing the laptop on 2 bits of wood above the laptop cooler, to get a greater air-flow underneath. All in the hope of avoiding the laptop melting in use. If any would-be volunteers are reading this, then low-power machines like Charlotte's netbook have the advantage that they don't get anywhere near as hot.

The 'curtains' in this room are spare sheets fixed to the window with clothes pegs. We paid to have curtains for the main rooms, but this is a low-cost solution for this room. The sheet can be pegged up during the day to encourage some draught through the room.

The water regime involves freezing an 80% full bottle of water that's been through our filtering system. If you top that up with filtered water and take it out with you then you have a source of cold water for an hour or two if you're going out. This is a big bonus - we didn't expect to have a fridge-freezer when we first came out here.

The rented house next door is full of phone engineers laying cable along the main road up to Bolga. We hope that the reels of cable will be gone from next door before the rains start, so that they don't create water-traps that could be mosquito breeding-grounds.

Andrea brought her friend Maggie to see us - Anna Daniel and I met Maggie at Tamale Airport in December, and it turns out that Maggie works with Andrea on RAINS (Regional Advisory Information Network Systems) and also works with VSO volunteers Mar and Mark on the development newspaper "The Advocate".

Fati and Samkira came to see us on Saturday.

And Charlotte has now filled a photo album with 300 photos of Ghana September-December 2009.

Phone stolen - and replaced, new number

2010-02-14T12:30:00.000Z

Grrrr. Phone disappeared. Tro-tro journet Tamale to Walewale, my patent 'make sure I don't lose anything' system failed me because I still had the phone case but not the phone. I suspect I dropped it as I got out out of the tro-tro in the dark and someone picked it up quicker than I did.
The handset itself was an ancient Nokia, but of cousre it had credit and numbers - a few lost, but most were on computer or also on Charlotte's SIM. I had a spare handset brought out from UK, so bought a new SIM, more credit, and sent 68 text message on valentine's day.
I won't put the new phone number on a publicly viewable website, but email me or put a comment on the blog if you need the new number.

Widows and Orphans' Movement

2010-02-12T21:16:00.116Z

Into Bolga to meet Madam Betty, who founded the Widows and Orphans Movement (WOM) 16 years ago. Jemimah is the VSO volunteer who has been leading the Organisational Development process here, but WOM is something of a special case for VSO because Jemimah's placement started before the VSO Ghana tools and training were available, so Jemimah has guided WOM having taught herself to a great extent. Under her guidance WOM redesigned its governance from top to bottom and has agreed the replacement of the entire WOM Board. The tro-tro journey is a good opportunity to look at the WOM draft governance manual again.

There are plenty of widows at the Widows and Orphans Movement - this is the day to collect their micro-credit loans. In addition there can be all sorts of issues where WOM is able to represent the widows' case.

The posters on the walls give clear indications of the types of prejudice and traditional practices which WOM and similar organisations are battling against, and these are particularly prevalent here in Ghana's Upper East.

Madam Betty is very welcoming, and keen to talk to me. Our conversation is still punctuated by other business. First a widow coming in to greet Madam Betty.

Then some visitors who have been interviewing some of the widows and also want some copies of photos - including a remarkable story about a widow who was rescued from living in a crack in the rocks.

But I'm able to get a flavour of what the Organisational Development process has achieved here, and what more it could help with. On the Governance front, I hear about the General Assembly, which represents the thousands of Widows that WOM works for via 94 group leaders. Each year the group leaders meet up for the General Assembly, and it's this Assembly which hears about potential work for the next year and prioritises WOM's objectives. This sounds like a fantastic exercise in participatory planning by those most closely involved.
There is a tremendous readiness to learn - with all her experience, Madam Betty declares that she herself is just a nurse who became a widow and experienecd the prejudice and set up WOM, and so she invites both me and Jemimah to say if we think she should do anything differently. I have a couple of suggestions on the governance, which I cover in outline and offer to send supporting detail in an email.

For the future, I think that there is more value to be had from the comprehensive approach to direction, externals, capacity and performance that the VSO Organisation Assesment tool provides; for example WOM's major concern is the previaling cultural attitudes, and this may benefit from a review of WOM's dealings with external bodies and trends - my guess is that people at WOM are pretty well-sensitised to and communicating with key influencers, but this could still be a good review topic for the new Board which might cause the Board themselvesd to come up with new ideas.

Meanwhile, Human Resource policies and process have been next on the WOM OD agenda. Madam Betty is very positive about the impact here - "after OD I am able to delegate much more' (see the photo) - ' with good processes the work becomes easy'.
WOM certainly counts as another "OD success story".

There is clearly great work going on here, and I am likely to return shortly because Madam Betty asks if I will help induct the new Board with the new governance arrangements.

Bolga meeting - an uninvited guest - and a dinner party

2010-02-10T23:09:00.001Z

Off to Bolga on Tuesday on the Metro Mass Transit coach for a meeting about TENI (Tackling Education Needs Inclusively)

On the way, it seems like all the Zoom-Lion men (waste disposal) are busy burning some of the big piles of rubbish which litter the middle of Walewale.

The meeting is useful but long - lunch afterwards is a welcome break.

On the left in blue is Letty, then Polly behind Letty, Christina at the table, Michelle hidden behind her, Janet, Charlotte hidden, Jude visiting from Accra, and Rachel.

Look who was on the wall when we arrived home. Charlotte saves its life (i.e. gets to it before I do) and sends it outside. A quick Google search indicates that actually a scorpion sting may be no worse than a bee sting. Or it may cause severe internal organ damage and death. Hm, better shake our shoes out before putting them on.

The day after this we find that we've invited a number of people for dinner. First of all we are visited by several children wanting water and fascinated by Janet.

Then the dinner party.
Back row: me, Maggi, Andrea who is staying next door and working for RAINS which stands for somethiung like Regional Advisory Information Network Systems, so now you know what she does.
Front row: Charlotte, neighbour Elizabeth with her niece Juliet, Milou who works at a nearby school and Janet.
Juliet and I went round the party.

Meanwhile we discover that these youngsters regularly hang out at the Moonlite Spot (= bar), so we join them there the following evening.

Shopping in Tamale - and Janet meets the chief

2010-02-06T22:30:00.008Z

Staying overnight with Mark & Mar gives me the chance to get some shopping done in Tamale.

I don't know whether Barclays Bank should be worried, but the display on the ATM suggests someone has just had a go at connecting some new and perhaps unauthorised hardware device to the ATM....

I bite the bullet and pay out for Zain mobile Internet modem, and eventually this is made to work on my laptop in the Tamale Zain shop. I also pick up various groceries, stationery and even a pair of shoes since mine are thoroughly worn through. Mind you, you can also wait until you are on the tro-tro to do your shopping...

I'd like the third packet from the bottom on the left-hand-side please.
And a pair of brown sandals while you're passing.

The tro-tro ride features a search for fuel. But none of the filling stations in Tamale can help us. We are several miles towards Walewale when the driver stops suddenly, and then reverses for a long way down the main road. Sure enough, a lorry is by the fuel pumps. It's "lights-out" (not literally, this is early afternoon, but "lights-out" is Ghanaian for power-cut), but two men are hand-cranking the fuel pumps. Fuel shortages are common. On this ocasion the tro driver doesn't just fill up with what he needs for the journey, but fills his tank 3/4 full.
This has all taken some time, and I am in danger of missing our 4pm meeting with the chief of Walewale. But we arrive just in ime......
Our friend Mashood is once again our guide and interpreter - and he's not here yet but we enjoy the courtyard scene.

But then Mashood turns up - and introduces us to his sister, Lala, who is the chief's newest wife

We are taken into see the chief, who honours us on this visit by shaking hands. We explain Janet's role here. ("Charlotte is here to help the teachers. Janet is here to help the head-teachers"). Via our interpreter, Mashood, the chief is very appreciative, and quotes proverbs about what happens when the white man helps the black man.

Janet gives the chief a white towel, the symbol of peace.

... whereas we just give him some photos from our earlier visits, which he seems to enjoy.

Then it's time to cycle home, and the girls take most of the shopping in their bike baskets. (Video of this is on my Facebook page).

Another OD success story - Rumnet

2010-02-05T22:30:00.004Z

Friday morning - up at 5.30 am to get an early tro-tro to Tamale to visit Rumnnet for the Organisation Assessment findings. It was a late night last night at Alice's au-revoir party (see yesterday's entry).

Anyway, there is a distinct lack of action this morning in the southbound tro-tros from Walewale, but all is resolved when the Metro Mass Transit coach appears, so I have a comfortable ride to Tamale, and almost manage to get off at the right stop for Rumnet. Mar and Mark share an office - indeed share a desk in a pleasant 2-room office. Rumnet is the Rural Media Network, and a key publication is a newspaper, "The Advocate" whose strapline is 'Communicating for Social Change' - here is a recent page from "The Advocate".

I'm introduced to the other people who work for Rumnet, and there are 8 of us round the table to review the findings and recommendations of the Organisation Assessment.

One of the people present is Razzaq, the part-time accountant, whose involvement in Rumnet is itself a recommendation of the Organisation Assessment - he has joined within the last week. Rumnet is led by Mr Kassim and Mr Al-Hassan, who are both very well respected in the Tamale development community. Bernice, a journalist, and Nash the graphic designer are the other two key players around the table. A large whiteboard shows the plan, article by article, for the next issue.

You'll recognise that there are limits to what I'll blog about here as far as the Rumnet assessment is concerned. It's a privilege to be invited in to be part of this open sharing of the review of the Rumnet organisation.

Mar and Mark have conducted individual interviews with all staff, and this process itself has brought out a number of areas that needed discussion. They have also held shorter interviewers with key external stakeholders. The mood is very positive and forward-looking. The findings are accepted, and after a little discussion actions are put into the diary over the next month to move things forward. Finally Mar asks everyone for their feedback on the Organisation Assessment process, and again the feedback is very positive, for example Mr Kassim says (as far as I scribbled this down) "The process has given us a structure which we were able to follow to get a good report - has given us a focus of what to work on, and cogent issues to discuss - I'm excited about the next phase".

Rumnet has just been recognised by the Tamale assembly for its contribution to development.

Mar, Mark and I then head out to the Catholic Guest House to review the meeting, and also to check on their feelings about the VSO Organisation Development framework that I've proposed (which Dora and Nii are also looking at). The discussion takes the rest of the morning and continues over lunch.

I then have a frustrating Friday afternoon attempting unsuccessfully to get Zain mobile Internet working on my laptop - we've decided we don't want to be totally dependent on Vodafone given our experiences with Vodafone so far. This is later resolved (apparently) Saturday morning, after Mar and Mark's kind hospitality Friday night, though this jury is still out on whether one can rely on the Zain software & modem doing what it's supposed to...

We've been living next door (almost) to Alice

2010-02-04T23:59:00.016Z

Alice, who is researching local government and local decision-making in Northern Ghana for her PhD, is holding a big au-revoir party tonight for all her Walewale friends, before heading back to the USA for a few months. This is at the Ghana Education Service house which Jacob the U.S. Peace Corps volunteer shares with Leticia the VSO Management Support Office at GES and with Alice.
So we gathered to say goodbye to Alice
We do know why she's leaving, and where she's going to go. I guess she's got her reasons, but you just don't want to know. But for sixty-eight days we've been living nearby to Alice.
This was Alice with us at Sala in November.

We have included Maggi in the invitation, who came to dinner with us last night after we met cycling west last week.

Anyway it's a good send-off for Alice. Back row is Charlotte, Janet, Alice & Maggi. In front of Charlotte is Cynthia the hair-dresser but I don't know the others..

After the serious drinking (of Orange Fanta in the case above)

and the serious networking (Charlotte is talking to Charles and Yidana from the GES office) . . . .

..., the serious dancers get going

.... this is Fati, Maggi, Georgiana and Letty ..

There are those who take a little while to get going.... unlike Alice who has been in party mode since 5 o'clock at least..

but in time all the Sulamingas join in to show our Walewale friends that we can dance too..... and Alice is never far from the action all evening.

Felix

2010-02-03T16:43:00.000Z

Here is our house in Walewale, as it looked when we first saw it and met Felix, the young man who did much of the masonry.

As we enjoy the accommodation that Felix and his colleagues built, we remember Felix, who died and was buried yesterday.

Status of some Organisation Assessments

2010-02-02T18:00:00.005Z

Running workshops in adverse environments:

Krista is on the left in this photo, taken in Accra early December when I briefed her on the VSO Ghana OD process - we bumped into Jemimah in the VSO office, and all went out to eat red-red. Krista is working in Accra with the Foundation of Sustainable Livelihoods, and is planning to run the Organisation Assessment workshop from start to end of the assessment over the course of one morning on Saturday, The workshop will be in the open air in Tema because they have no meeting space they can use. The staff are all field workers and feel they cannot take time away from their mission during the week, which is why the workshop is on Saturday and one day only. This will be hard work for Krista - I offer to travel to Accra to help but she is confident she will handle the workshop ok. I send her a copy of a document I've written for the volunteers, "Running workshops, especially in adverse environments". The resourcefulness and commitment of the volunteers is just very impressive at times.

In response to Krista's request, I post online the shell of the West Mamprugu GES Organisation Assessment report (see Tuesday 26th Jan) , i.e. with all the confidential information removed, as a template.

Assessments nearing completion

Haydn and Linda are nearing the end of organisation assessment in Wa - see their blog in the blog list - and Haydn is going to send me a quick summary of the organisation assessment process there - I want to collect a few different Case Studies for contrast which will help in explaining the assessment process for real to new volunteers.
(UPDATE, 3rd Feb. He did! That was quick, thanks very much Haydn).

Mar and Mark at Rumnet have arranged a presentation of findings from the Rumnet organisation assessment on Friday, and I'm invited, so I'll need to catch an early tro to Tamale Friday morning.

Who decides what for Organisational Development

2010-02-01T22:30:00.099Z

I'm still trying to nail down objectives for the assignment - my draft was approved sufficiently for me to come out here, but I need to establish which objectives are really down to me and how much discretion I have with them. We have certainly explored some quite widely varying options. There is an email interaction between Nii (VSO Ghana OD lead), Dora (Education Programme Manager) and me which needs progressing by means other than email. I'm able to get 20 minutes with Nii in the VSO Bolga office on Friday 29th which is quite productive.

We have a convivial weekend entertaining Betty (see photo of Betty and Charlotte on the swing, and also the pics setting up a mosquito net for the sofa). Betty is our outgoing regional volunteer rep (she's had a great 2 years and is shortly heading back to Kenya).

But this is followed by a sad result in the African Nations' Cup Final on Sunday.

Refreshed by the weekend I give the OD responsibilities more thought on Monday morning. At the time of writing I'm hoping that a framework of responsibilities that I've proposed for VSO Programme Managers and the OD Lead, and OD advisers such as me (just me at present) will tick the box for Nii and Dora, but I won't say any more till I've heard more from them.

Meanwhile I'm wanting to widen the case study material. In October I set up an online Googlegroup, which is a group with membership by invitation for VSO Ghana Organisational Development - currently it has 56 members in Ghana and Canada, though not all are active. (One of my proposed objectives is to share what we have developed, and the experience we have gained, more widely with VSO internationally). As well as allowing email to all with a single address, the Googlegroup provides a means by which documents can be posted online and shared. Speed of Internet access is a problem for some people when downloading larger presentations for example, but we try to keep the file sizes down as much as possible. Overall it's a good way of sharing knowledge on an ongoing basis rather than just in some timed 'handover' at the end of an assignment, so it's good for sustainability which is a VSO objective.

There's plenty of material on this Googlegroup from the Walewale GES Organisational Assessment - not the actual results, but materials such as script for the Director to use at the OD launch, notes on the approach Charlotte used to tackle the workshops, guidance as to "one way to tackle the assessment", photos of flipchart presentation material. I've encouraged flipchart presentations rather than Powerpoint - it's not technology dependent, and the flipcharts can be posted up around the office afterwards - "You'll end up doing a 2 to 5-minute presentation 50 times, and getting people talking about it". This is potentially good reference material from Walewale, but circumstances differ and there are other success stories besides Walewale GES, so I'm exploring getting hold of more examples for guidance.

Langbinsi - Sam at the Presbyterian Agricultural Station

2010-01-28T21:05:00.002Z

On Thursday I have fixed to go over to Langbinsi to see Sam, a volunteer working at the Presbyterian agricultural station. Langbinsi should be one of the pilot locations for Organisation Assessment within Secure Livelihoods, but there is a valid but peculiarly Ghanaian reason (which I won’t quote on the blog) that has delayed the start. I want to try cycling there which almost doesn’t work out as my bike was borrowed and then knocked over by a sheep, but the bike is mended and back by Wednesday night.

I meet Maggi on the road, who cycles this way to an orphanage where she works – an hour’s commute morning and evening. It’s not a great distance to Langbinsi, but the choices are to cycle on sand or, if you pick a firmer surface, on ruts running at right angles to the direction of travel. Anyway this is company for the first hour. When she's not in Africa Maggi works in the Justice Ministry in Germany, at the German Criminal Records Bureau. We ask some local schoolchildren to take photos near the orphanage.

The road is really quite a challenge – I get a lift from a lorry but he’s only going a mile to the next village so it’s back on the bike again.

Here you can the road part-collapsed by a broken culvert.

This would all be much tougher in the rainy season.

Well, I could have done this faster on a tro-tro, but it’s good exercise and I’ve worked long enough on previous evenings so I think this is fair.

Sam and his colleagues Ignatius, Thomas, Belinda and Steven greet me warmly and explain how the Station runs. (Sam came to lunch in Walewale on Sunday but I missed him as I was travelling North on the coach from Accra. I've come to the conclusion that you haven't really met a volunteer unless you meet them in their home town - work, home or both). The station is essentially a source of agricultural advice – the staff at the station may not know the answer themselves, but they will know someone who does. They encourage better animal husbandry and crop care – and also encourage the keeping of cattle, which can be looked down on as being something that the Fellani people do rather than native tribes.

Sam cooks a splendid lunch for us (a colleague joins us) . His house is on the agricultural station - basically mud-hut construction but with electricity and running water. We have a good session afterwards talking through options and tactics on the Organisation Assessment.

It’s getting on for 5pm before I go, and this time I take the easy way and put the bike on the roof of the tro. (It probably cost me more to cycle than to tro-tro, because a couple of days later the bike pedal breaks, costing me 5 cedis - £2 - for new pedals).

Sam comes with me to see me off on the tro, and engage in local conversation about the likelihood of a tro coming - one turns up and the bike goes on the roof. There is a very noisy argument lasting some 10 or 15 minutes and involving a dozen people or so which seems to be about who is on the tro and who is not, but my place doesn't seem controversial so I keep my head down and eventually after various adjustments of passengers we move off.

I get back to Walewale just in time to see Charlotte, Janet and Maggi emerge from the Moonlite Spot (i.e. bar) after having caught the last few minutes of the Ghana football team’s African Nations Cup semi-final victory.

Walewale Organisation Assessment complete!

2010-01-26T22:30:00.050Z

This is covered on Charlotte's blog too (and Janet's) , but I'll allow myself to express my excitement about it here as well!

Charlotte had been compiling a report as the organisation assessment progressed for West Mamprugu GES (apparently "Mamprusi" is really just the language, and the land should be called "West Mamprugu"), and when I arrived in the early hours of Monday morning this was not far off ready for review at the Tuesday Organisational Development Committee meeting in Walewale. Although the report contained recommendations that had emerged naturally from the findings of the assessment, it made sense to get the assessment document agreed, as a basis for planning the proposed prioritised changes. My role is principally OD adviser, but in this case I 'rolled my sleeves up' after arriving to help get the report ready for the Tuesday 8.30 am meeting. I brought a printer/scanner/copier out in December, and we were able to print 14 copies of a 22-page document double-sided, though this took a while overnight! We also agreed I should attend this meeting - I wouldn't normally, but this one was quite critical and of course being on hand it's easy to make those decisions.

We wanted to achieve 4 things: really congratulate everyone on finishing the assessment, get an early evaluation of the process, initiate an agreed review process for the report, and establish an understanding that some action planning needed to follow.

In the picture Janet talks to Robert about the newly displayed Mission statement.

I have to say that I think we got an excellent result form the meeting. Ok, at this stage this is talk, but it's good talk to hear at this point!. We ended up achieving the 4 objectives. I facilitated the evaluation session - unusually for me, we stayed in our seats - but I'll put here a few of the evaluation comments.

"We were more than inspired by VSO wanting to help us change our organisation"

SARA Girls' Club materials and "Ghana must go"

2010-01-25T23:10:00.143Z

This isn't really Organisational Development but it's a great example of how a simple thing can become quite lengthy out here in Ghana.
On my first morning in Accra, Aaron the Teacher Support Officer in Jirapa asks if I could pick up SARA girls' club materials from the Ghana Education Service (GES) in Accra for Aaron & Cath to use in Jirapa GES. If Jirapa wants these then I suspect they may be wanted in Walewale and Bolga as well (the other focus areas for TENI Comic Relief project, Tackling Education Needs Inclusively). Phone calls to Walewale (Charlotte) and Bolga (Christina) - yes please. No problem I thought - we have a VSO colleague Jude who works in GES Accra, he can locate them and I'll nip over in a taxi and pick them up.....
(As an aside - Jude is one of several volunteers, namely Emily, Danielle, Lana, Jemimah, Jude and Sandra who come over to the Byblos hotel at different times to meet up with the 3 head-teachers Janet Michelle and Karen who are in Accra for In-Country Training before heading for Walewale, Bolga and Jirapa).
With a few phone calls we identifiy that the contact is called Aunty Devine. (He is the only man in the Girls' Education Unit, so the "Aunty" nickname is Ghanaian irony). Jude bikes over to the Girls' Education Unit on Thursday, and then bikes to the VSO office with 3 important bits of paper - authorisations to collect 3x15 SARA kits from the GES warehouse. In Tema. Which looks like 45 minutes drive from Accra.

Can we get a VSO driver? No, understandably they're all busy. Can we get authorisation for a taxi? Yes, from the Education programme. OK, I have a meeting at 3pm Friday, but I finally have everything we need and we order the taxi at 11 am which should be plenty of time - the taxi is coming straight to the VSO office in Accra as soon as he has filled up with gas.

Well, 12 noon passes and 1pm passes. I am just deciding that I have to cancel this when dear Sandra from Nadowli, but in Accra at present, offers to go instead.
Here's a photo of Sandra and me, at a spot back in Nadowli last November.
The taxi turns up at 2pm (he had to queue for gas) and off they go..... We are still trying to find out by phone, Internet or any other means where the GES warehouse is in Tema, but without success.
Some time after 6pm Sandra returns in the taxi with a car and boot stuffed with 45 briefcases of materials. They had to try 3 different places in Tema, and eventually found the GES warehouse inside a paint factory. Isseh, who has been loading up the pick-up truck that's taking the 3 head-teachers North tomorrow, has gone by now. The total load is seriously bulky. Sandra knows these materials (they're a little old, Jirapa is trying to resurrect an earlier initiative), and we decide that Nadowli should have 12 of the kits leaving 11 each for the other 3 areas - seems fair since we wouldn't have had any of them without Sandra and Sandra will make good use of them in Nadowli.

I create a space beside many SARA briefcases and we take the taxi to where Sandra is staying, stopping to buy some "Ghana-must-go" bags (say it quickly) on the way. At Sandra's the taxi-driver demonstrates his ability to stuff a dozen cases into one Ghana-mus-go bag.

The rest come back with me in the hope that some can be loaded into the pick-up truck the next morning.

A few more Ghana-mus-go bags and various tips later,the taxi driver is signed off after his 5.5 hours work, and the kits are all bagged ready to see if we can at least get the Jirapa (= furthest location) kits in the truck - if we can't do this we don't know when Jirapa will get their stuff.

Up the next morning ready for a 6 am start. Unfortunately the kits just can't be fitted in. So I have 33 kits on my hands.

I go out to scrounge more containers and find a cardboard box. With one or two ripped bags we have enough now to box or bag them up to provide an 8-bag and a 3-box/bag for each location. Two 8-bags can come on the coach with me for Walewale and Bolga, and I taxi the rest to the VSO Office to await the next driver going North, photograph them, and email everyone concerned.

But it's an ill wind that blows no-one any good. Travelling up north on the Sunday 12 noon coach with a VSO volunteer Jemimah who works at Widows & Orphans' Movement in Bolga, we encounter Aminata and Beatrice from Baba Blankets (blankets made in Bolga and exported by Aminata to New Orleans) who are very interested in the SARA Girls' club materials for work they are doing with secondary school girls in Bolga, and we offer to lend a pack at the right time. Each pack contains 4 videos and 4 comic-book booklets about the adventures of girl role-model "Sara".

Photo - Jemimah, Beatrice and Aminata at OA coach terminus in Accra.

The coach arrives at Walewale around 2am, and thankfully Adam our local taxi man responds to his phone. Our back-up plan if he didn't was to leave all the bags at the fire-station overnight, since that's just by where I get off the coach. All safely arrived in Walewale.

(Update, 1st Feb - Walewale is now equipped. I took a bag on the tro-tro to Bolga. Jirapa's should get at least to Wa this week via a VSO driver going there from Bolga, and that's only an hour by tro-tro from Jirapa, so Aaron has nearly got what he asked for 2 weeks ago).

The Bolga tro in the middle of Walewale with the Bolga Ghana-mus-go bag on the roof

Re-defining the assignment

2010-01-21T18:38:00.005Z

I arrived back in Accra Monday Jan 18th (see my "back to Africa" photo from the plane) and stayed overnight with Janet, Michelle and Karen, 3 head-teacher volunteers in Accra for In-Country Training . I was something of an anomaly - in theory I was a new volunteer, but in practice I'd been operating as a volunteer Sept-Nov 2009, so I could skip most of the In-Country Training. There were a few items of admin I needed to cover though.
The important thing to do was to agree objectives for the assignment - particularly since the existing document defining the assignment was one I had written myself. So the objectives were all valid things to achieve, but prioritisation and deciding which to include as my objectives needed local agreement. "Local" involved agreement by two people. The first is Dora, the Education Programme Manager - my boss, because I had initially offered my services within Education, even though I have subsequently helped other programmes too, Governance and Secure Livelihoods. The second is Nii who is the VSO Ghana OD lead.
I spent a little time gathering information by phone about the progress of the 20 Organisation Assessments so far, since it was 6 weeks since I had been actively engaged on this work. There are now some real success stories, and also a number of instances where more work is needed to get the Organisation Assessment started.
There are 4 programme areas altogether: Education, Secure Livelihoods, Governance and Disability, but there are vacancies for two of the Programme Manager posts and VSO are recruiting.
Although I was able to meet up with Nii and update him with progress, it wasn't until 3pm Friday that I could get a meeting with Dora and Nii to go through objectives.
(There are undoubtedly cultural differences in working styles between UK and Ghana. My view is that this doesn't mean we should always push for 'our way of working', but neither should we assume that we work the local way - after all we're here to make change happen, so sometimes there may be things to learn. Not always comfortable though!)
This meeting was almost sabotaged by the "SARA Girl Club kits" saga which I'll blog separately, but luckily Sandra from Nadowli covered the SARA collection for me and left me free for this meeting. However we didn't have long before Dora was called out for something the Country Director needed to consult with her on, and we reached a rather inconclusive point that needed to be progressed by email, since I needed to head North at the weekend ...

This is the earliest post written for the "Mike Ghana" blog.
______________________________________________________________________________
Earlier posts have been copied over, bringing in copies of some material from the "Charlotte in Ghana" blog.

What to pack

2010-01-01T13:15:00.015Z

I put this onto a VSO comunity site, but have been asked about luggage by other volunteers going to Ghana or other places in Africa, so here it is on my blog:

Extract from an email to a volunteer heading for Ghana - questions about what to take.

Some of this is Africa-specific, or specific to warm countries anyway, but posted here in case it's of interest. ..................

1) Is there anything you wish you had taken and didn't?

(1) A long list – we have a very definite measure for this because I was coming back to the UK briefly for family reasons after 2 months out in Ghana and came back to UK with a shopping list! Let me pick out a few highlights – either things we glad we brought, or added in the second trip out.

FOOD Things to spread on bread – e.g. marmite, jam, peanut butter, vacuum-packed hard cheese, or whatever is your favourite that will travel. Treats – sweets, cereal bars.(Either decide to give up cereal, or bring some out to start with – you can buy it in Accra but very expensive)

SOUPS and SAUCES

– packet mixes of the ‘just add water’ variety. Tin-openers and bottle-openers

OLD COMFORTABLE SHOES

A few weeks walking on Ghanaian roads paths and tracks seems to deteriorate shoes – I have brought well-worn UK shoes that are still comfortable and have assumed they will all be wrecked during time in Ghana.

THE GO-EVERYWHERE KIT

We try to make sure that we always have: torch, mosquito repellent, wipes/toilet-paper, hand-sanitiser, on the basis that we may be out of the house longer than we expect.

TRAVEL

I find an inflatable cushion and a small towel handy for long journeys on public transport (e.g. your first bus-ride up North). Travel-wash liquid & clothes pegs have been handy (helped to travel light on short trips away).

CHEMIST

Favourite toiletries and medications of course. We also brought out a DIY-tooth-filling kit from Boots.

AUDIO/ COMPUTING

Something to play music in the house.

ALSO - I wish I had taken an MP3 player and some audio-books as I ended up doing a number of 14-hour coach journeys to and from Accra for various reasons.

People who can get BBC World Service on short-wave radio enjoy this.

Portable hard drive to back up your computer files, and Kensington lock if you’re ever going to take your laptop out of the house (some don’t)I’m experimenting with a “laptop cooler”. I also used a spare mosquito net in order to use the laptop “under the net” in the evenings to keep the insects away.4-gang surge-protector extension-lead - many electrical sockets are quite dodgy, and I always plug my equipment just into my own extension lead, and then plug that into the wall - so that if anything gets broken trying to get it out of a tight wall socket, it's a replaceable extension-lead rather than (say) my laptop charger.

TOOLS

I was glad I brought basic bike tools, e.g. bike pump, and one or two others – hammer, hacksaw, adjustable spanner – but having said that there are plenty of people who will fix a bike problem for one or two cedis (less than a pound ). I have knocked plenty of nails (can be bought locally) into doorframes and shelves to hang things on, but late on brought out some cup-hooks which I’ve not seen in Ghana.

PHONE HANDSET (unlocked) For family calls we have been glad to have had a speaker capability on the phone

CASH & BANK CARDS

Not as easy to change cash as you might imagine, but it can be done. Most towns that have ATMs seem to have at least one ATM that works with foreign bank cards (if you have any money in a UK account, that is!). Getting Ghana bank account set up takes a while, though VSO provided us with first 3 months salary in cash.

STATIONERY

If you want pens, pads etc to do your job, it can probably all be bought locally, but you may want to bring out what you need if that makes a difference to you.

ENTERTAINMENT - BOOKS AND FILMS (DVDS)

Another reason for the laptop is to watch a film in the evening if you bring DVDs. We have been surprised that we haven’t found time for reading though. There is a small collection of various books to borrow in the VSO office in Bolga. You may want to bring pack of cards , book or crosswords or Su Dokus, or whatever you fancy.

2) Is there anything you took and didn't need? Very concious of my luggage allowance!

(2) A common outcome, but I think we brought too many clothes. We quickly found what works well for us, wore that all the time and didn’t touch the other things so much. In my case this was cargo pants and a short-sleeved cotton casual-but-smartish shirt – in Charlotte’s it was an elasticated sundress, with a wrap for her shoulders when required, or ¾ length trousers and T-shirt. I did try the tip of “bring out a pair of trousers that fits you and have another pair made up locally”, but I’ve lost weight out in Ghana so that original made-up pair now don’t fit! We’ve found you do occasionally need to be business-smart (e.g. suit in my case) but not very often.

We brought out “solar showers” from the Outdoor shop – hang up a bag of water in the sun and after a few hours you can have a warm (or even hot) shower underneath. Finding we were in a house with showers we gave away the solar showers we had brought out, and they were popular gifts. (Though in fact I think we’d get warmer showers if we used them.). Everyone’s water situation (when it’s on, how strong the flow is etc) seems to be different, but a common factor is that the water is just a single temperature – basically cold, but can be warming up by the end of the day.

Hope that helps!

A stroll through Walewale market

2009-12-16T20:00:00.000Z

Ths is a typical market day - this was the week before Christmas, during Anna & Daniel's trip.
Near the end some children latched on to us, and we soon had a growing crowd around us.

Visiting Madam Mary's P1 class

2009-12-16T19:55:00.000Z

This was just a brief visit to Madam Mary's P1 class with Anna and Daniel during their holiday - the videos may give you an idea of the classroom environment.

We each taught each other a song.

"Old Macdonald" needed explanation.

The we learned a song from them.....

Updates from Mike about Charlotte in Ghana

2009-11-26T23:01:00.000Z

Mike will be in Uk early Dec and early Jan, with a range of photos etc and is happy to provide people with updates, assemblies, slide shows etc if you want.
The picture shows Charlotte's Organisational Development (OD) Committee looking at the results of the Organisation Assessment that she has been conducting with the West Mamprusi District Education Office .

management and motorbiking!

2009-11-22T11:23:00.000Z

Ramatu and I greet Letty (the new VSO Management Support Officer from the Phillipines) on her first day in the office. She will be working with me to get the Organisational Assessment done over the next three weeks.
Mike advises Mark, Mashood and I about what should go into the ICT proposal for the District Commissioner. Unsurprisingly, we are finding the 7 working computers at the Community Information Centre painfully inadequate for the numbers of students and adults wanting to learn and access the internet.
Here I am working on the master plan for the Organisation Assessment - the start of the Organisational Development (OD) process. Quite a logistical nightmare and then I have to actually make all this happen according to the plan! Planning is not a word much used in Ghanaian contexts.
We shall see what transpires.

Ready for action in the Comme Ci Comme Ca hotel car park. This was before we had actually seen our bikes and the state of the roads!

My TENI bike (TENI = "Tackling Education Needs Inclusively = the Comic Relief funded project = trying to ensure equal access for tyhe disabled and "the girl child" - hence we allocated the 20 places at the ICT club to 10 girls and 10 boys). I can just touch the ground with my feet on either side. I am told it is heavier and therefore more stable than some of the other bikes but this is small comfort when it is lying on your leg and you have fallen into the concrete drain just outside the VSO office in Bolga!

On Day 3 we went to the Tongo Hills to practise steep slopes. The gradient was fine but the ruts and ridges in the road were an added challenge.

We met the Chief who has 17 wives and over 100 children. One of whom showed us around the extraordinary village. There are shrines here where they take animal sacrifices and the shrine will tell the villagers how to vote in the national elections. It only talks to men though! Male children are taken there from 2 weeks old so they can get tuned in.

The chief and the motorbiking gang. One instructor and 10 learners had its moments. Dan was actually a mechanic. He is the one with the dentist mask to keep the dust out of his face.

We found some of his delightful children. You can see some of the animal sacrifices in the background. they were dotted all around the village. the main shrine is up on the hill behind.

The guide demonstrated how to get into one of the houses. it is a bit like a concrete igloo but with a boulder blocking the entrance. Great defensively I am told!

My birthday was spent waiting at the DVLA Office to get the paper work sorted for my driving licence. Now there we saw a whole new level of bureaucracy. Forms in triplicate with carbon paper and 8 receipts for the 20 cedi amount so that each person who signed a form got their appropriate recompense. A certain sequence of form filling that had no apparent logic but required us to return the next day and miss our last day of motorbike practice. Still, I now have a Ghanaian driving licence (for motorbikes and cars!) so I must be a competent road user mustn't I?!

Whizzy Websites Working Wonders in Walewale

2009-11-21T17:52:00.000Z

You may remember seeing some pictures of Mike giving website tuition by candle light on the blog last month. Well, if you want to see the results of his guidance and Mashood's labour, then go to www.walewale-cic.blogspot.com/ and read up on the latest excitements at the Walewale Community Information Centre. We are currently planning the certificate presentation ceremony for Dec 15th, where hopefully 40 of our newly trained ICT Instructors from the Local Junior High School will be congratulated on their effort and achievement. The students are preparing a drama on the importance of ICT for the audience of parents, guardians and officers from the District Education Office. We hope that the Chief Executive of the District Assembly will present the certiificates and we are working out fundraising options for buying refreshments. Hopefully Anna and Dan will be able to attend as well since they will have just arrived for their Christmas visit. Then on Thursday we are all off on a jolly to see the crocodiles at Paga. The students have been saving 20 pesewas a week to cover the cost and are also hoping to save up to have some ICT Club t-shirts made. How cool is that?!