Two weeks to go
on VSO in Ghana (Ghana), 01/Sep/2009 11:55, 34 days ago
As we continue to prepare for Ghana, a few challenges present themselves.We have just started taking Larium for malaria prevention. As one of the side effects, psychotic episodes are possible. Therefore, from now on, things we say may be totally unintelligible. We are hoping that family and friends will tell us if this is the case at any time.Packing is a challenge. The amount of clothing we can take is very restricted by the sheer scale of the medical kit we want to take. We couldn’t resist taking this picture ofapproximately two-thirds of the kit we have assembled so far, laid out on the bed. This also restricts the resources we want to take with us: reading books, cameras, laptops and other electronic equipment that we believe will support us in our work and comfort us in our more challenging moments. We have decided that a practice packing session is required to help us prune down what we take.Will Lin survive for 6 months without chocolate?! Current volunteers say that it is very hard to find chocolate anywhere. A fascinating fact, given that cocoa is Ghana’s most important agricultural export earner. When the slave trade was legally abolished in 1807, Britain aimed to establish “legitimate trade” with Ghana. This led to increasing trade in palm oil, cotton, rubber and cocoa over the ensuing years. It will be really interesting to see how much vestige of British colonial rule still exists today in all aspects of Ghanaian life.We have had a really enjoyable meeting with a returned volunteer, Maddy Parker, who is a primary headteacher in West London. She provided us with a delightful meal, showed us great pictures of where we are going, and gave us an advice sheet from first hand experience.We have learned that we will be sharing a house in Wa with an Australian VSO volunteer (Mel Treweek) and we are now in regular email contact with her. She has been in Wa for over a year and will be finishing her placement in December. She tells us that the house is excellent and is often nicknamed“the chateau”. Talk about raising expectations!We are now engaging in some serious reading about Ghana and anxiously await the return of our passports with visas, so that we can enter the country.