Hello Blog! Sorry about the delay in updating you all about my work placement. It's been a big couple of weeks, and even though I have more access to the internet that's made blogging seem less urgent and so I've procrastinated a bit. But here it is!
Before I get into moving to Accra and work placement and stuff, I'd like to take a moment to just say that our group retreat in Kumasi was really incredible. We stayed in a hostel, with nice-ish grounds, and a TV with cable (3 channels!). It was a great week to debrief travel time, and the village stay and to talk about things we'd gone through and goals for the future. It was also super amazing to have some real down time. Down time that included Oprah, and Friends - pretty much the best of western civilization right there. I found it super helpful to have set, focused times for discussion and then time to just let go a little bit of the past few months and not think too hard at all. Sometimes, in the villages especially, I felt like I was always actively thinking and learning and reflecting and while that's great, it's also exhausting. TV is wonderful in that it gave me the means to just shut the thinking off, at least temporarily and give myself a break. It was also nice to have that week with the group to enjoy each others company and support before the parting of ways.
It's been two weeks (less a day) since Hannah, Jennifer and I left for Accra. We're all settled in at the YWCA, whose rooms are conveniently made for three. It's nice to have a space of our own, where we know we'll be for 10 weeks. There are pictures up on my wall, of family, and Scout, and one of Harry and Ginny which my Mum sent me...and which reminds me daily that I have yet to see the new film! The room gets really dusty because of the Harmatan (spl?) this wind that blow in from the...North? Maybe? I don't know much about it. Just that it makes the room dusty and we have to clean it a lot. The place is... rustic, but cozy. Our showers just got shower curtains - fancy! Still lacking sinks and toilet seats - kind of a mystery as to why we have toilets with no seats, but whatever - keeps the squatting muscles strong!
My first week I was supposed to start at my work placement, but they were not yet back from holidays. This was difficult because I was super anxious about starting my work placement and knowing what the heck it would entail. I was also anxious to get over the awkward first days of meeting everyone and finding my role...so it was disappointing and a bit of a stressful week. It did give me a chance though to explore Accra a little bit, which was nice. Just going exploring, looking for food, or books made me feel a lot more comfortable in the city - or this small area of the city anyway. Accra is hot and dusty and smoggy and crowded...and yet its really growing on me. I think part of it is the independence I feel here, and the sense of purpose. Often in the village I was at a bit of a loss for what to do, or I had to do what my family wanted..which is fine, and all part of the immersion process. It is nice though to have things to do, and to be able to make a plan for myself for the day, and, now, to have a work placement to go to every day where I can feel a bit more productive than I have the last few months.
It's been weird though too because now is the time when all my grad school applications are due and so I've also spent the last couple of weeks trying to coordinate that from Ghana....mildly stressful. I'm really worried about getting in because I miss school a lot these days. A lot of my experience has kind of reignited my passion for academics - even things like economics which I thought I hated. It's been odd though too, thinking that far ahead while I'm trying to just be really present in Ghana. It's also just such a different life from what I'm doing now that its hard to wrap my brain around it. I know I have to think about it eventually but I'd been putting it off...and now I'm realizing I may have some huge decisions to make pretty soon.
Anyway, Monday I started my placement at Alliance for African Women's Initiative. Things are still a little jumbled, because their office is being redone so the project coordinator (his name is Philip) is working out of this tiny office, shared with his IT guy. He's super nice though, easy to get along with. He also works with a lot of volunteers from North America and Europe, and it seems eager to give me a decent amount of responsibility. So far I've mostly been going over documents, preparing to help out on the annual report for 2010 and to help Philip with grant proposals he has coming up. I've also met with the Executive for the Teen Club that AFAWI runs at a local junior high school. The club is a really cool initiative, which is set up to help empower teens and to fill gaps in the educational system. They meet once a week, and have speakers come to talk about health, puberty, sex-ed, HIV/AIDs and other stuff that isn't really covered by the curriculum. They also have just fun days of organized games, and debates and a yearly excursion to an educational site. Part of my responsibility will to work with the student executive in planning and running these activities. Next Friday is an election, since some of the executives are graduating in April, so that should be cool. I'm really excited to work with them, and on all my projects. Already I'm learning a lot about how NGOs function, and especially about the centrality of fundraising and other financial concerns and the associated difficulties. AFAWI has a lot of other cool projects on the go, and I'll try to update the blog more often and share a bit more about them as I learn more.
One thing that has come up for me, in particular in my work placement is wondering about what the difference would have been if I had just sent money instead of coming to volunteer. They need funding so badly for so many projects, and I feel like if I'd handed over the cost of my flight instead of coming here, it would have accomplished a lot more than just having me here to help out in the office. It's funny, because I remember having a question about this in my interview for One World last year.... It makes me wonder too how much I could have helped my family in the village if I'd given them the money instead of living with them and paying for my room and board- If I'd maybe bought my host sister that laptop she wants instead of spending all that money getting myself over her. It's a difficult question to confront, and brings me back to the selfishness of this program. The only way I can really justify/come to terms with it is to see it as more than just an investment in my education or my career. It really does make me realize that this program is giving me a huge sense of responsibility, to make sure that after all I've seen and questioned I use what I've learned to become a better development practitioner and to try to change things, if not for Ghana necessarily than for the developing world as a whole. It sounds cheesy, but there it is.
Some other thoughts on being in Accra. Sometimes this city seems like the land of temptation. I can buy anything here! There's this North American style supermarket called Koala and they literally have every product I could want - including Cheese, potato chips, all kinds of brands of shampoo, chocolates, cleaning supplies, magazines...only 28 cedis for a cosmo! (that's over $20). It's overwhelming. And yet its overwhelming in a very different way from travel time because there's less of a stark contrast, I feel, between the white tourists, and the rural village. Here in the city, even the people I work with are just of a different class of Ghanaians than I was living with in the village, and its important I think to realize that, like any country, Ghana is made up of rich and poor and in between - my village experience was just one part of one area of Ghana. My coworkers have laptops, and ipods and buy slightly more expensive food...it's interesting to observe and it reminds me a bit more of being home. It's actually a bit of a challenge that I don't have a laptop - they expected I would, as most of their volunteers bring theirs and they' don't really have extra computers laying about for my use. It's interesting too, because even though I'm still committed to simple living and living in solidarity with the economic poor, I can see how this is a bit of a transition period. I'm starting to think about how to live, not just within the parameters of the program, but how to live simply once I'm at home and all these things are accessible to me, but without program restrictions informing what I should or shouldn't buy. Working in an office also blurs the lines between 'want' and 'need'....do I need a laptop to do my job? Do I need nice clothes to fit in at this office? or do I just want them? Anyway, all these things are whirling around in my head. Luckily I still have a couple of months to get used to Accra and to kind of figure them out a little before getting on that plane back home.
Well, that's my update for now. Like I said, I'll try to blog more often about the projects I'm working on at AFAWI and about the things I'm seeing and learning about in Accra. We've past the halfway mark now on the program, and I am starting to think a bit more about going home. I'm excited - but not quite ready. I'm super happy to be in Accra and working and I feel like I really want to take advantage of the next couple of months to learn as much as I can about NGOs and women's rights and other social justice issues in Ghana.
Love to all,
Jac
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