Updates from Mike about Charlotte in Ghana

Mike will be in Uk early Dec and early Jan, with a range of photos etc and is happy to provide people with updates, 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!

Ramatu and I greet Letty (the new VSO Management Support Officer from the Philippines) 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 the 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

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?!

A further tro-tro guide for sulamingas (white people).

You’ll find a basic introduction to the tro-tro at this web address. www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/photo.day.php?ID=76087
[Tro-tro = Any private shared taxi bigger than a car - e.g. small minibus into which 18 passengers will be fitted - generally on a fixed route like a bus]. It’s all true. The defining moment on my first tro-tro ride, with Charlotte’s bike on the roof, and with us sat in the worst seats, four facing four, was when the final people boarded. Eight knees face eight knees and as the final people squeeze in sixteen knees lock like a rugby scrum, and no-one can move until the next stop.
The medium-distance tro-tro (e.g. Bolga to Walewale) doesn't leave the start-point until all seats are sold. This can be frustrating if you’d like to leave by a certain time – or if you’d just like to leave. But there is a way…. On Tuesday I was at Bolga after dark sat on maybe the last tro-tro of the day, hoping to reach Walewale (30 miles). After a while the tro-tro mate (tout) told me the bus wouldn’t run – there were only five people on it. He needed to fill all 18 seats at 1.40 cedis each to make 25.20 cedis (just over £10). Now a way round this is that you buy all 18 seats. This now makes you the Bus Owner, and you get to travel in the front. The bus sets off, and everyone else pays you. (I didn’t realise this on Tuesday, negotiated the 25 cedis down to 10 and was prepared to pay that - £4 - to get home. But I’d missed a trick here. I should have bought 7 seats. Then the first 11 seats filled would have been fares for the tro-tro mate, but if any of my 7 seats had been taken then those fares would be mine. In fact the bus was packed from people boarding at villages between Bolga and Walewale, so the tro-tro won on the deal. I was still addressed as “Bus Owner”).

Just as another illustration, - heading to Bolga on Thursday morning to run an Organisational Development (OD) workshop.

My plans are disrupted by the (reasonably reliable) 7.45 am Metro Mass Transit coach declining to stop for me. I find a tro-tro in Walewale, with many seats taken but as time goes on it’s still not full. One or two passengers seem to be losing interest and looking elsewhere – not good news. Time is slipping by – 8.30 am comes and goes - and I have a meeting to organise starting 10 am more than an hour away. I ask the mate how many seats are unsold – two! I buy two more seats, everyone is suddenly galvanised into action, we can go. I even get my money back for one of the seats because another passenger materialises. I have the privileged view (see picture) that belongs to the front seat passenger as marginal Bus Owner.

Clutching the takings the driver takes us to fill up with just enough fuel for the journey (after a push-start that is). After that the journey is uneventful – just one further push-start in Balungu - the driver has to get out to open the tro-tro sliding door, and unfortunately this time the engine dies. A couple of passengers are summoned to push the tro backwards (downhill slightly) for a jump-start – no good. The driver jumps out again and bangs on the front door. (Having bought two seats, I don’t actually have two seats but I am in the front passenger seat). My neighbour and I get out; I could probably claim exemption from pushing as marginal Bus Owner, but I help anyway. Success! We all get back in. But the sliding door won’t shut. The driver grabs his hammer and goes round to the door again. Engine, please don’t die…..I make it to the workshop at 9.58 – ahead of the attendees, so the day works out ok.

Travel detail to get to Walewale - not for the faint-hearted!

OK, here's an updated entry for travel detail - one or two people have thought of coming out to Walewale to visit, but skip this entry if that's unlikely for you! Here’s roughly what’s involved.

HOW TO GET HERE.

1. FLIGHT
You would need to get to Accra (in Ghana) or Ouagadougou (in Burkina Faso). Ouagadougou is actually nearer to here, but see details below re visa. There are direct flights London Heathrow to Accra (BA 078 and BA081 – leaving Heathrow early afternoon and arriving in the evening, leaving Accra late at night and arriving Heathrow early morning). You may get cheaper deals on Internet by changing e.g. Amsterdam, Casablanca, even Dubai! – but these will all take longer. Search online for flights London Accra..

2. VISA
You would need visitor visa for Ghana which you arrange in UK. We considered the Ouagadougou route but were slightly put off by the need to contact someone in Surrey who acts as the Burkina Faso consulate in UK (and was on holiday at the crucial time) but everyone here seems to say that a 24-hour transit visa through Burkina is easy and costs £10 or so on arrival.

3. FROM AIRPORT TO WALEWALE
This would probably be the day after your flight, so you would need a hotel in the city you fly to. We have been recommended Queen Vic Guest house in Accra and can provide contact details.

From Ouagadougou, it’s an approx 6-hour coach trip, including an hour or so at Ghanaian border. The coach will go through Bolgatanga heading south for Walewale (beyond Walewale it goes on to Tamale) and hence will pass within 5 minutes of our front door. Careful co-ordination would be sensible to make sure bus drops you at the right place - “Moonlite Spot” on right (by the LIGHTHOUSE CHAPEL, WALEWALE sign on the left) after SSNIT office on right (Social Security National Insurance Trust) about one mile before Walewale – “spot” means “bar” - & call us - but the worst case is that you go to centre of Walewale, are met, and then get here in a taxi.

But if you fly to Accra, you have two choices.
a. There is an Antrak flight Accra to tamale leaving Accra at 6.00 am and arriving Tamale about 7.15 am. There is a website but you can’t book online - someone (e.g. we could do this given enough notice) has to take cash into the Antrak office in Tamale or Accra. You won’t find flights to Tamale airport (TML) via any travel search site, e.g. expedia, tripadvisor. Delays are frequent apparently. Tamale is about two hours by coach from here (though the airport is in the right direction, i.e. north of Tamale). Confer nearer the time to see if meeting you is possible. Otherwise you would need to find the coach going North which we can investigate. See www.antrakair.com/schedules.html for the air times (and fares on the same website). There are also now some afternoon flights on Fridays and Sundays (leaving Accra 3.45 pm, leaving Tamale 5.30pm).
b. The alternative is an approx 14-15 hour coach trip from Accra. Air-conditioned coach, and the air-con might even be working, probably packed, some pot-holed roads, stops every 2-3 hours but toilet facilities basic or basic minus. Ours left Accra about 2.30 pm and so we arrived not long before dawn. Again coaches to Bolgatanga and points further (Navrongo, Zebilla) pass within 5 minutes of here - you ask to be dropped at “Moonlite Spot” on the left after GES West Mamprusi District Education Office is on right, one mile after Walewale – “spot” means “bar (by the LIGHTHOUSE CHAPEL, WALEWALE sign on the right), & call us. The coaches go through Kumasi and Tamale before heading north for Bolgatanga and passing here.

Coach travel is very inexpensive. However it's advisable to book in person in advance . I think this can be done at either end - e.g. we could book tickets in Bolga and they should then be reserved for you to collect.

More info:
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Africa/Ghana/Greater_Accra_Region/Accra-2039506/Transportation-Accra-BR-1.html

WHILE HERE
Tourist attractions – that’s another whole story, depends on how long anyone was coming for and how ambitious. Mole National park, Paga crocodiles & slave camp, Sirigu pottery and basket-weaving, Wechiau hippo sanctuary, Tongo Hills. And of course Walewale market day every 3 days.

There are plenty of spare rooms in the house – empty rooms with concrete floors!, and sofas with sofa cushions – the living room has a ceiling fan. Alternatively an air-conditioned double room at Masagri guest house (the top place to stay in Walewale according to the Ghana Bradt Guide) is less than 5 minutes walk away & was about £8 per night when we were first here in October.

HOW TO GO HOME
Same thing in reverse. You might do it quicker if you got the 7.45 am from Tamale to Accra and then a day-time overseas flight – but the Heathrow flight leaves late at night so that’s not ideal in terms of keeping total journey time down though it could give you a day in Accra! Or you could get the afternoon flights on Fridays and Sundays (leaving Tamale 5.30pm) and by this means travel Walewale-home inside 24 hours.

If this has all put you off the whole idea, fair enough! If you’re still interested, we can discuss. It’s not expensive to phone UK from Ghana mobiles (but more costly to phone from UK. However I’d strongly recommend bringing a Uk mobile phone that can make calls in Ghana (you can bring an unlocked phone and then buy and insert a local SIM card, which would be cheaper calling in Ghana if you have or can get an unlocked phone).

A working week-and-a-bit - from 23rd Oct to 3rd Nov

Most definitely not a typical working week, but I thought it’s time to put in some words myself, not just the pictures/captions. (Entries headed "23rd Oct" to "4th Nov" are by Mike and are more about my working week on OD work - see the "posted by" footer). Here’s the last week or so. It’s a little long so I’m going to split it into daily entries. Start reading from entry headed “Friday 23rd October” if you’re feeling ready for this......... (this has already been pushed back into "Older Posts" - you should be able to see all the recent posts in the "Blog Archive" panel on the left, and you can go from post to post by clicking "Newer post" at the bottom of each post)
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Well done if you read it all.. I didn't plan to write all that, but there’s some material for those who've said “I keep looking for new entries on the blog”. You can also blame the fact that I’m trying a radical productivity innovation – I’m using the laptop, but as far as possible inside the mosquito net in the spare room. Makes a big difference to have fewer insects attacking the screen.

Tuesday 3rd Nov - back to Walewale

Tuesday 3rd Nov
Back to Walewale on the tro-tro – but not before Anthony & Laura's chicken is dipped and introduced to his grandiose chicken-house.
He will have company soon.
Back in Walewale, we still have no water, so it's another trip to the well.
Laptop going ridiculously slowly - getting nothing done at all. I decide that the computer is horrendously hot. Reboot anyway once I can persuade it to close down, but also judicious application of frozen water sachets in a tupperware box to try to bring the temperature down. (This isn't even the hot season yet...)

Monday 2nd Nov - all together now (lunch, that is)

Monday 2nd Nov
The Organisational Development Education workshop. This needs to consider all the work done last week (ok, written up on Friday), endorse it or change it and take the process to the next level. We consider what success today equates to, and indeed what success with Organisational Development (OD) means.


We get to work, in groups - Pat and Anthony - Cornelius Charlotte and Rachel... and Ubald Stephen and Kirsty.
The master-stroke for this workshop is lunch. We’re eating at “Swab Fast Food” next door which last time was anything but fast. This time everyone’s orders are taken as the workshop starts, and the restaurant agrees to have the food on the table at 1pm. It’s all there by ten past one, which isn’t bad. During the workshop Mar and Mark emailed with very positive words on the combined OD material from the perspective of Secure Livelihoods volunteers. We end up with a good level of agreement from the Education volunteers too, and decide that we’re far enough forward now that the remainder can be agreed by email. The group will meet in about 6 weeks , but as a User Group to compare experiences etc.

Sunday 1st Nov - double translation

Sunday 1st Nov.
We’ve seen “Calvary Baptist Church” around the corner from where we're staying in Bolga with Anthony & Laura and we decide to worship there. We thought the service was 10.30 am, but it was 10 am so we arrive in the middle. The preacher is taking a passage from Matthew, and his style is “And now a question for the women……” “And now, a question for the men”. This turns out to be a preliminary sermon.
We’re asked of course to explain who we are, where we’re from, what our mission is, etc. All is of course translated into the local language.
And now (we ducked this in Walewale, but are ready for it this time), do we have a word for the local church? I explain our Milton Keynes minister Chris preaching a year ago on God’s call to Abraham when Abraham was very comfortable in Haran, and Charlotte’s reflection and prayer on this which ended up with the VSO assignment. (She invited me to tell the story).
Simultaneous translation hits a bit of a hiccup, which is resolved by double translation – the minister translates my words into Ghanaian English and then the local language man translates that. This works fine. The minister then commences the sermon proper, but says “I was going to preach on God’s call, but what I was going to say in the first half, the white man has said it all – this is an example of the way God works”.A welcome quiet day then at Anthony & Laura's, though Francis the carpenter and his son are still busy building the chicken run.
The chicken (Akaroogu?) doesn't realise what delights await him.

Sat 31st Oct, Printing, hitching, chickening, singing

Saturday 31st Oct. A quiet morning. We collect more water from neighbour George’s well, because the water had been completely off since Wednesday. Fati visits with her little girl Samira, who is getting gradually less afraid of our white faces. Charlotte introduces Fati and Samira to blowing bubbles – a big hit. Fati wants to learn how to play cards so Charlotte teaches her “Beggar my neighbour”. I adapt “American Pie” to make it a Ghana volunteer song while this is happening. Then down to Mandina’s ten minutes away where you can print and photocopy materials for the Organisational Development (OD) workshop on Monday. Actually this is one place in Walewale which is something like a shop premises as we know it – there is a glass window / sliding-door, and the premises are air-conditioned! I want to print materials for everyone attending the workshop on Monday. A tense and lengthy negotiation follows. I cite what printing would be charged at in UK. I try “We are volunteers and we have come to help your country but we need your co-operation”…….. “ Toby and Mandina I value your friendship and it may be that on this occasion I will have to say to you ‘Thank you for talking to me but I cannot afford the price you are quoting and I must go elsewhere’”. I’ve only just met Toby. Eventually a deal is done. Various technical things don’t work, but in the end I’m heading home with 200 sheets of printing and copying.
We’re a little late heading to Bolga – we’re going there today for a party at Jason & Jillian’s – Jillian is the volunteer and Jason is writing up his PhD http://www.jjinghana.blogspot.com/ . We’re staying over till the OD workshop. Info from Fati says we’ve missed the Metro Mass transit bus. Charlotte flags down a 4x4 driven by Mohammed from the Volta River Authority, and we’re offered a lift to Bolga. I say to Mohammed “I’d like to buy you some credit for your phone” and give him a 5-cedi Vodafone scratch card which is appreciated.
We’re staying with Anthony (education volunteer) and Laura (a vet). http://www.coolacoustic.com/ .
By arrangement we meet in the “Hotline Spot”. (“Spot” = drinking place) and buy a few drinks for A&L’s fridge and for the party. Technically it’s Hallowe’en fancy dress – Charlotte and I plan to wear halos she has plaited from the rope we’ve used to fence our plot. (Halloween =All hallow’s eve = All saints eve, so we’re going as saints). But first we need to deal with their new chicken which has made a bid for freedom – their chicken-house is being built but isn’t done yet.
The chicken escapes through a hole in the garden wall. (“Garden wall! Luxury!”). Laura and I dash for the “road” (dirt-track), in my case with a couple of long sticks to lengthen my arms as herding devices. We find the chicken nonchalantly strutting up the street, and corner it in an alley-way. The locals find the sight of two Obronis (white people) chasing a chicken highly amusing. (If you thought "Sulaminga" was "white man", that's speaking Mampruli, as in Walewale - we're in a different Ghanaian region here, different language).
We corner the chicken in an alley-way and Laura grabs its legs. For you, chicken, your freedom is over.
Anthony becomes that famous Halloween character “London Man” by attaching London tea-towels, underground maps etc to his person. Laura transforms herself into Spider-woman with bin bags. Anthony & Laura have a car (their own purchase), which Laura needs for vetting as far south as the vet college in Tamale, and are very popular lift-givers in Bolga. Anyway all reach the party in time. VSO and US Peace Corps volunteers from Bolga and Navrongo. The festivities are not affected by a lack of electricity.

Later in the evening Anthony plays the “Development Pie” song and many others, including a brilliant Ghana-evocative song he wrote - which is on his blog www.coolacoustic.com . See also Rachel's blog
http://www.rachelghana.blogspot.com/

Friday 30th Oct - write-up the OD, and bust-up with Vodafone

Friday 30th Oct. – Well it’s time to catch up with work after recent gallivanting. I had been allowing for the fact that in effect I’d been on duty on Sunday (travelling), but still I have stuff to finish by the end of the week because it’s needed for the next Education workshop in Bolga on Monday 2nd. My catch-up starts at normal waking time around 6 am, and with meal breaks still finishes after midnight.
Slightly extended because of running phone battle with Vodafone – they want the monthly 40 cedi payment, I thought the 100 cedi deposit covered us, mobile Vodafone Internet keeps being disabled which I’m absolutely dependent on because of this, we can’t pay without going to Bolga – if only I’d known yesterday. I’m told there is no way round – I’ve already used the “We are volunteers and we have come to help your country but we need your co-operation” line, so I ask to speak to the relevant supervisor because “I am distraught and this is unfair – you have not warned us”. No mercy is proposed by Vodafone, but the service stops being disabled.

Light relief is provided by the baby goats rooting around in our compost hole.

No mains water - has been off for 2 days - so we're again reliant on the neighbour's well.Anyway, with internet working again I can complete and post online the Organisational development (OD) material which combines all the Secure Livelihood sector output from Saturday with inputs from the Education volunteers, ready for Education workshop on Monday. No-one will read it before then – people’s email access varies, e.g. may just have access once per week - but at least it has been sent and will be in inboxes.

Thursday 29th - not Zebilla, but a bike instead

Thursday 29th Oct.

Leaving the Teacher Training College just before 7 am, it proves a little tricky to find a taxi or a lift into Navrongo (about 3 miles). For amusement I just have the HIV warnings to read and a stream of 3rd year teacher training college students, in uniform, heading out for teaching practice - all provide very respectful greetings.

Eventually I approach a man dropping off his kids to school and he agrees to take me in on his way back after dropping his children off.

I was supposed to go to Zebilla today to talk Organisational Development (OD) with volunteers Pat and Stephen, but I’ve picked up an email from Pat saying she has to postpone. I noticed some decent – new! - mountain bikes in Navrongo when I arrived, and after a lengthy process (negotiation, a higher seat tube, mechanical prep etc) I’m riding off a little after 11 am on one purchased for 110 cedis (£45).

I could get a taxi all the way to Walewale, with the bike in the boot, for a not outrageous price, but decide to ride to begin with to check there are no problems, and sure enough there are one or two – the bell has disappeared, a pedal needs tightening, etc. But with these resolved I’m doing very nicely and am half-way to Bolga on a good road when the rear tyre deflates.Now normally I’d have a repair kit but I hadn’t planned to buy a bike today. I settle down to hail a taxi or a bus or a tro-tro – the bike could go on the roof.
Nothing.
Eventually a lad stops to help, and reinflates the tyre – maybe I can get to Bolga before it goes down again.
No – only another mile or two.
But before too much longer another group of helpers arrive.
A small boy is despatched to fetch equipment and a bowl of water, and under a tree the most professional puncture repair I’ve ever seen is completed.
Needless to say the tyre lasts for the rest of the journey - including some good views of the White Volta - and indeed the tyre is still doing fine.By the way I'm compressing most of these photos by about 90%, which does occasionally give some colour distortions like the pic above, but should mean the pages load faster.

Wed 28th Oct - the road to Navrongo

Wed 28th Oct
I now need the bus to Bolga, which is timetabled to leave at 5.30 am but there are no advance ticket sales so you’re advised to be there an hour early. I book a taxi for 4am, and Cath wants the same taxi at 5am – Haydn and Linda live about 40 minutes walk from the Wa bus-station, on a road past a small forest. The taxi-driver doesn’t turn up and doesn’t answer his phone. I have time to walk it and almost be there the recommended hour early, so I set off. Somewhere after the first corner of the forest there should be a turning to the right but somehow it never appears and as the time edges past 4.40 am and I haven’t found the main road it seems more and more likely that (a) I missed the turn (b) walking towards lights ahead which I hope are the main road I’m going further and further from Wa, judging by the direction of the Muslim prayer calls. Should I turn round? Texted conversation with Cath in case taxi doesn’t arrive for her. A taxi arrives out of the blue (or the black) and I flag it down and head for the bus-station (having established that the original taxi-driver has now turned up for Cath).
I challenge some local queue-jumpers because I’m well down the queue now for the Bolga bus (“Are you not ashamed to push past an older man?”). Sheepish grins, and the conductor doesn’t let them jump the queue – I make it onto the bus (so do they). Cath caught her bus too.
The morning is then more uneventful. This road, however , has a pretty bad reputation and absolutely deserves it. The penny drops as we start on the first bumpy bit that we’re now gong on 100 miles or so of cart-tracks.

The pot-holes are enough to slow the bus to snail’s pace when the driver spots them or to end up with everyone’s bottom leaving the seat when he doesn’t. I’m only going as far as Navrongo, which we reach at about 2pm, and I catch up wth emails at "Unity" spot (drinking spot).The stop at Navrongo provides a chance to see my “new cousin” Sam Cashman,

to get some work (reports/emails) done that day on the laptop in Sam’s living-room (the Vodafone mobile Internet connects even up in Navrongo, to Sam’s surprise)

but also to see round the teacher training college where she teaches which is really interesting.

See www.sam-africanadventure.blogspot.com/
What I establish during the afternoon is that the proposed Education workshop in Bolga on Monday can go ahead – a phone conversation with Dora (Charlotte’s boss) proves much more useful than emails. So I let everyone know the plan for this.

Tue 27th Oct - Wa, and Excel

Tue 27th Oct An easy start today, just an hour ride by tro-tro to Wa for the meeting with volunteers Haydn and Linda ( http://www.landhghana.blogspot.com/ ). This is more like the informal chat that I had envisaged. Haydn and Linda are on a 6-month placement and are well down the road of interviewing local staff for the Organisational Development (OD) assessment.
As well as covering the planned agenda I give Haydn a little tutorial in graphing exam results with Excel and we end up with a series of graphs per school “circuit” (geographical group of schools).
Dinner at Haydn and Linda’s with them and also Cathy, living with them, and with Cath who is staying there one night en route on a trip south.

Monday 26th Oct - impromptu presentation

Mon 26th Oct. Into Jirapa District Education Office with Aaron & Cath. My suggestion for these meetings is to have an informal chat through what was discussed in Education workshop in Bolga (this is a long way away in Upper East, so the Upper West volunteers weren’t there), get any feedback from the local volunteers, and cover anything else I usefully can while I’m there. There are a few introductions, including an introduction to the Director of Education. After ten minutes in his office, with various other pieces of business being conducted simultaneously, the informal chat has turned into a proposed introductory session on Organisational Development (OD) for Director, Assistant Directors, and other senior staff, in 30 minutes time.



A quick tweak of what was prepared for Walewale, with a Jirapa photograph pasted in, and away we go.


The District Assembly building next door has a conference room with screen and projector which is an unexpected luxury. Alison joins us from Lawra, not far away, to save me doing that journey too. By the time we’re part way through, the Jirapa staff present number about 12 (some of them were called in to the office to attend at short notice - my plans changed quite late on because of transport constraints). We share reactions to what’s discussed and flipchart them and it all seems pretty positive.
In the afternoon it’s back to the original agenda, and Aaron and Cath find Charlotte’s notes on OD questions to ask quite helpful (I typed these up and added to them).

Sunday 25th Oct - early start for travel to Jirapa

Sun 25th Oct Wake up at 3.20 am to make sure to be at Tamale bus station by 4 am to catch bus to Wa. Funny how attitudes change – on the long bus-ride Accra to Tamale in September we all thought the toilet facilities en route were sometimes inadequate – now one feels more “I’m on a 7-hour bus-ride – I’d better take account of this ….. “. Anyway my main journey-food is a loaf of bread that I buy at Tamale bus-station. This is just me – Charlotte very tempted to join my mini-OD-tour of Upper West Region but in the end her duties in Walewale keep her at home in Northern region. I’ve heard poor reports of the road but it’s really not too bad – mostly dirt road but generally a reasonable surface.
Reach Wa at lunchtime and find the Jirapa bus – this journey is only about an hour.

In Jirapa I’m staying with volunteers Aaron and Cath, plus Aaron’s fiancée Noriko. I’m quite tempted by the thought of a bucket-wash on arrival, so Aaron and I head off for the bore-hole and queue up to fill water-carriers. Aaron is keen for me to write a VSO B&B guide since I’m doing plenty of lodging with other volunteers – “We’re hoping for a good write-up Mike, and then maybe we’ll get more business”.

I decide that what the guide really needs to do is to give instructions on the local rules for
where you get water
how you wash
whether you save the water you wash with, and what you do with it
local rules for when you flush...

e.g. at Haydn and Linda's ( see Tuesday27th) , you don't need to go out for water, they just leave a big plastic dustbin underneath the shower-head with the shower turned on when they go to bed, and when the water comes on in the middle of the night they wake up and turn it off before the bin overflows.

Saturday 24th Oct - two meetings

Sat 24th Oct – In the morning it’s the Northern region volunteer meeting which Betty chairs with charm and diplomacy. (This is where all the admin gripes get discussed). Then after lunch, the Secure Livelihoods (SL) steering group for Organisational Development (OD). Although I’m primarily working with Education, SL have invited me as a guest. Charlotte can skip this, so takes advantage of Tamale to go shopping at the famous Melkom shop with the bizarre customer purchasing process (choose your stuff from the shelves, give to assistant, who gives you a ticket listing your stuff and puts it all back, then you pay, and with your receipted ticket you come back and collect all your stuff again).
The SL meeting is interesting – I’m able to tell the SL volunteers what the Education volunteers decided 2 weeks earlier at the OD workshop in Bolga; I’m the only person who was at both meetings, and although I had posted a write-up of the Bolga workshop online the SL people are interested in the rationale of the decisions and pretty quickly adopt most of them for SL. (This is all about the detail of how Organisational Assessment will be done for Secure Livelihoods “partners” – i.e. local employers of VSO volunteers).

Mar and Mark have invited other volunteers Rhona, Shirley and Flora for a Philippino-influenced meal. Delicious. We lure Betty in too.