Mike in Ghana with VSO

Mike's assignment with VSO working in Organisational Development (OD)

Monday, January 25, 2010

SARA Girls' Club materials and "Ghana must go"

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 this week 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 identify 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 in the taxi 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-must-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
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The different paths to our VSO placements

THE PATH TO CHARLOTTES PLACEMENT

Jan 2009 - With 2 younger children still at university, Charlotte & I apply for short-term work with VSO. Both turned down - I think they aren't taking people short-term unless they have development experience.
(For more insights, see MORE INSIGHTS below).

Feb 2009 - Charlotte offers to go long-term and her application is reconsidered. I will be able to be more flexible (e.g. travel back to UK) if I am her Accompanying Partner (i.e. not volunteering).

April 2009 - Assessment Day, and Charlotte is accepted.

May 2009 - I start to wind down client work, because there is much to be done before we can go overseas.

June 2009 - Preparing to Volunteer course, for both of us.

Charlotte accepts placement in Northern Ghana. We have decided that I will go out with Charlotte to begin with before returning to UK after some weeks abroad.

July 2009 - Skills for Working in Development course for Charlotte.

August 2009 - Family holiday for 9 (Mike, Charlotte, Tom, Sarah, Peter, Abi, Anna, Daniel and Kate) in Normandy.

Sept 2009 - Anna's 21st party - we couldn't go abroad until after this.
The most common question in September is "Mike, how long are you going out for?" The answer is "I don't know - will decide that when we're out there". Final preparations and off to Ghana. Very busy getting ready to go, but when I'm out there I expect to have plenty of free time for a few weeks...
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THE PATH TO MY PLACEMENT

Sept 2009 Day 2 of In-Country Training - I volunteer to assist VSO Ghana with Organisation Development. For more details, see blog over Oct-Nov 2009. I can't claim any expenses, but volunteers are very gracious at inviting me to stay overnight.

Dec 2009-Jan 2010 Back home, collect Anna and Daniel from university, back out to Ghana for 2 weeks over Christmas (see Charlotte's blog), take them back to university.

Jan 2010. Skills for Working in Development course for me.
Start official placement as Organisational Development Adviser.

So one irony is that I have ended up with exactly what I applied for - a short-term volunteer placement that doesn't clash with university holidays. (Business and Trustee commitments would also have prevented me coming out for 12 months).

The other irony is that I thought it unlikely that Charlotte & I would find work in the same place - she was likely to be in a remote deprived area like Northern Ghana, and I was likely to have a national role given my skills. But now I have a national role, based in the deprived North where most of the volunteers are, which is much better for supporting them than back in Accra, the capital city down South on the coast.
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MORE INSIGHTS - are available here (from our church website in Jan 2010)

What’s In, What’s Out.

The Shenley Christian Fellowship blog gives the opportunity for people in the fellowship to share what’s on their mind with a wider audience. This blog entry comes from Mike Cashman who is an SCF Trustee as Head of Finance.

I’ve just seen a burnt area of semi-forest in the Mole National Park in Ghana. The park ranger explained that fresh grass grows a few weeks later, strong and nutritious, and attracts the wild animals.

What does this have to do with the New Year, the call of Abraham, and being a husband, father, Christian, church member, and professional roles as well? Well, let’s see….

In September 2008 our Church Leader Chris Doig preached on Genesis 12:1, the call of Abraham which came when Abraham was comfortable and settled in Haran – Abraham heard God’s call and left his comfort zone. Later Abraham made a move to Egypt which appears to have been his own idea, and that didn’t work out too well. So - sometimes God calls us to move, and sometimes he calls us to stay, and it’s good to discern which way he is calling. In September 2009, after reflecting on this message, Charlotte (my wife) and I found ourselves in Ghana with Voluntary Service Overseas. Definitely out of the comfort zone.

We can apply this message about God’s call beyond physical movement. Sometimes we need to keep on doing what we’re doing – using the gifts he gave us in our various roles, e.g. Christian, husband, father, church member, professional roles, and indeed our roles in social, community and leisure activities (e.g. gardener, goal-keeper, unofficial agony aunt, devotee of our favourite TV series or soap opera). It may be a juggling act or a plate-spinning exercise, but we feel we are just about managing to fulfil each role. But sometimes there are things that just need to be removed from our lives – not to say they’re wrong, but they just need to go to make space for new growth. I’m not referring to temporary disciplines like giving up chocolate or TV for a while – I mean cutting something right out of your life. Sometimes a friendship is one that no longer benefits either party. (I hasten to add that I have no-one in mind personally as I write this!) Maybe that solo sporting hobby which dates from your unmarried life needs to make way for hobbies which involve the family more.

Our change was a little radical. We both removed many professional and community roles from our lives, trying to do this in an orderly fashion. For Charlotte this included teacher, parish councillor, magistrate, chair of Loughton Residents’ Association, school governor, school governor trainer. What Charlotte found hardest to give up was home and face-to-face contact with friends and family. What else had to go, at least for a while? TV, sweet things in general, newspapers, car-driving, on-tap hot water, to name a few. (Not as many as we feared – we’re glad that much of the time we have running water, internet, email and phone contact). But in working out how we would follow a call to Ghana, some things were the rocks of certainty – for example I would still be a Christian, still a husband, still a dad, still a Church member, but no longer do I swell the viewing figures for ‘Match of the Day’.

January – the month which for the Romans was the month that looked forwards and backwards – is not the only time we can assess this question, but it’s a good time to do it. What is in your life? What perhaps is worth taking right out, even if that is painful, to make space for fresh growth? What might God be calling you to do which is completely new? What fresh growth could occur when there is space for it? Or – as you look at how you are fulfilling the various roles God called you to, do you feel his pleasure and encouragement to continue on the same path?

Mike Cashman is an independent programme management consultant based in Milton Keynes, currently assisting with organizational development in Ghana on a short-term basis. He is married to Charlotte, who is the VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) Teacher Support Officer in Walewale, Northern Ghana. Mike and Charlotte have four children and two daughters-in-law, aged between 19-26.