This is Africa...

The Volunteers here in Ghana often use the acronym TiA which stands for ‘This is Africa’. It is often used to describe anything out of the ordinary, in terms of behaviour, actions, deeds or conduct, which is unique to either this country or continent. You will understand the relevance of my explanation shortly.
Africa is wonderful... it really is a fabulous place to be. The sights, sounds and smells constantly thrill the senses. Its teeming, vibrant streets are a mix of bright, vivid colours and pungent aromas. The hustle and bustle of everyday life reverberates all around you continually drawing your attention to this person, that sight or some other new strange and unfathomable behaviour. Whilst all the while the hot, hot African sun beats down warming both body and soul, and leaving one tired, sticky and content, all in equal measure.
Anyway I am now into my third week here in Ghana and hardly done an hours work. Admittedly the time has allowed me to settle into my apartment in the more ‘well to do’ Roman Ridge district of Accra. The close proximity of numerous prosperous homes and even consular residences belie the appearance and character of the building I find myself in. However it is homely, safe and commands great views of the city. Admittedly we have, for the last five days, been without running water and had the occasional power cut, but this is in no way unusual, and indeed affects most of the city not just our apartment block.
The apartment itself is enormous. It is made up of three bedrooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms, one being an en suite in my room and a living/dining room which alone is about the size of a small classroom and ample balcony. My en suite has a cold shower, toilet and sink. I share the apartment with two other volunteers at present, although one is due to leave next month leaving just Mike and I for the rest of the year. We also have a number of other, more unwanted guests, made up mainly of Mr and Mrs Cockroach, all their children, relatives, friends and general hanger-ons, a fair number of mosquitoes for whom Mike seems to be the particular flavour of the month and the odd lizard. It may all sound rather objectionable but actually you’ll be surprised how quickly you become accustomed to them being around.
The heat here can be somewhat debilitating and at times seems to slow everything to a snail’s pace. This week I had to open a bank account. There were three of us. We arrived the one day only to be told we had to complete a form and have it signed by our employer. That’s fair enough they needed proof of our employment and confirmation of an address in the Ghana. This, the VSO office duly provided with an accompanying letter and we returned to the bank the next day. You can tell that Ghana was previously run by the British because we then joined the first of a series queue... first at enquiries, then for someone to complete an application form in long-hand. He then, despite having the form, the letter and our passport, had to call the office to confirm we were who we said we were. Unfortunately the office were not answering so it was up to the next person we queued up to see to make that call, before she could copy all the details from the hand written application form onto the one on the computer!!! Once granted an account we queued to receive a cash-point card before a final queue to deposit money into our account. All in all, it took 3¼ hours and I’m only surprised that we didn’t need to queue to get out. Oh! and in case some of you cynics out there are thinking, ‘well what do you expect from National Bank of Ghana... or something of a similar ilk’, actually it was Barclays... TiA !!!
As yet I’ve not actually started work. I did have a meeting, on the Tuesday, with Ghana’s Director of Education and her two deputies. It lasted just under an hour and was quite bizarre in that all three of them at some point got up and left the room, were constantly answering their mobile phones or searching for something, I’m still not sure what, the whole time. Anyway, I’m not sure much was achieved other than agreeing that I need not return till the following Monday, by when they would hopefully have found me a desk, a computer and possibly an internet connection. I’m not hopeful on any of those scores but then... TiA.
Then that same night, about 7:30, I received a call from my VSO programme manager who informed me that the director had asked if I could put together a short presentation for teachers on how to make their classroom’s more inclusive. This was needed for the next morning. I duly did the work and took it back to the Education Dept. the next morning. Unfortunately the director was not there and indeed not due till the afternoon. I was passed on to her deputy who took the presentation, thanked me, wished me a pleasant week and told me she looked forward to seeing me on the Monday. I was there for 8 minutes... This is a record for me, I even did more work than that at my last school... although I'm sure my Head wouldn’t agree !!!
So that's enough for now. Looking forward to telling you all about work, sometime soon !!!