To Nadowli and meeting the GES staff
on Michael Cashman (Ghana), 24/May/2010 21:04, 34 days ago
Late change of plan for this week. I was going to be in Upper West and Charlotte's plan was to join a trip to "Overseas" (the remote area of West Mamprugu west of the White Volta river) with WorldVision. At the last minute on Friday Charlotte discovers that the "overseas" trip is being cut short(i.e. is about to finish). So she joins me heading to Upper West.This is not an easy journey. On Saturday we get a tro-tro to Bolga, ready for the long Sunday bus trip Bolga to Wa . Here is Charlotte at the back of the tro with our neighbour Fulera who has just been shopping - Fulera has to feed the Vodafone cable-layers who live opposite us.This little boy had a home-made toy lorry - very appropriate for Walewale main sreet, where the lorries pass heading for Burkina Faso.We stay Saturday in Bolga with Jason and Jillian, and then it's the 4 a.m. taxi ride to join the queue for the Wa bus. Here's Charlotte at the Bolga bus station enjoying a 5 a.m. breakfast.And here's our bus. The bus station is a hive of activity before dawn.At some point we all have to get off the bus while it goes through a police barrier, and the police check the bus for possible illegal arms. After changing buses in Wa, by 3pm or so we are in Nadowli, and are met by Patricia and Laura the VSO volunteers at Nadowli GES (Ghana Education Service), and Greg, a VSO volunteer from Wa in his last week who is staying for the weekend - yesterday was Patricia's birthday. For reasons no-one can now recall, a quiz starts in the evening based on random questions Laura finds in a children's encyclopedia. The head-torch in the picture is for reading the encyclopedia to avoid putting the main lights on and so avoid attracting insects - obviously you lose the effect a little with the camera flash. On Monday we accompany Patricia and Laura to the GES. It'srainingand morning devotiona are on the office veranda rather than outside under the trees. Patricia and a colleague demonstarte a local dance.We have a useful discussion with Godfrey and Evarist from the OD committee and with Patricia and Laura. They explain the progress so far. One things that stands out is an exercise early on where the volunteers wrapped up the staff in toilet paper and challenged them to move (they could only move if they moved together).In the second photo, Evarist has sen the format of workplan that Gofrey uses, and is copying it down for his own use - a testament to the resourcefulness of each of them, but this suggests there is no organisational standard for workplans.A clue to the customer-focussed culture that Madam Director encourages.Views in and around the GES. Four guinea-fowl cross the path. The goats like to shelter under the metal container that serves under a store-room. In the distance some girls carry water. In the afternoon we review the Organisation Assessment progress and discuss next steps. We're also able to give Patricia and Lauara a good idea of the format of their Joint Introduction Meeting (JIM) which will take place tomorrow. Armed with this knowledge Laura prepares some flipcharts for each of their proposed objectives. In the evening Charlotte and I go shopping. This is Paul who we met earlier at the GES offering Charlotte a bowl of pito (local alcohol).It's been a very pleasant day, enhnaced by the fact that following the rain the temperature was really cool, down to 27 degrees or so - in fact it may even have been cooler here than in the UK today!Nadowli is probably the freindliest place we've been to in Ghana. and that's saying something - Walewale is undoubtedly the friendliest place I've ever lived. Nadowli also has a very pleasant environment - residential/rural fringe, very green, and lots of soil with things growing in it!