In Country Training and First Experience of Accra
on The Ghana Experience (Ghana), 13/Jul/2010 12:09, 34 days ago
6-9 July 2010I am writing about the expereince of in country training which we wentthrough from 5-9 July. After arrival of the volunteers VSO arranges anin country training to familiarise them with the VSO programmes in thecountry and culture. Generall they make it a point that volunteersarrive in the country of their placements at a certain date so thatthe training can take place in groups. Sometimes if a volunteer doesnot arrive in a country as per the schedule he may miss thatopportunity and will be put directly in the place of his placement.As I came as per the scheduled date, I could attend the in countrytraining and everything was properly organised from arrival into thecountry upto the travel to the base of placement. We were totalvolunteers in the batch. Speaking nationality wise there were 2Indians, 1 British, 1 Philipino, 2 Kenyans and 1 Ugandan. Speaking sexwise there were 2 females and 5 males. They had also invited volunteerrepresentatives from various regions in which the volunteers weregoing to be placed. This interaction with the volunteers helped tolearn a lot through interaction with them because of their first handexperiences.The first day was sort of getting acclimatised to the conditions,which were actually good because of the nice hotel. We were taken on atwo hour city tour in which we moved around the Accra city. Getting toknow all these new people and VSO Ghana was the main part of the day.Various sessions on VSO programme areas and approaches followed in theremaining days. There were sessions on how to keep oneself healthy andavoid diseases. A special session on HIV and AIDS and new goal areacalled inclusion where the issues with the disadvantaged sections ofthe society are mainly dealth with. These include gender issues mainlydealing with women and people with disability. A session on socioeconomic situation of Ghana was also taken. It helped a lot to learn alot about approaches in the programme areas and needs of developmentof the country. VSO has given us loads of material to read. (which isalso a large weight to carry ;)Evenings were great part of this training period. On 6th some of uswent to a cafe run by a Dutch person and their was this big screen onwhich they played the football match between the Netherlands andUruguay. All the dutch community in Accra had gathered and the cafewas full with them. Two Dutch volunteer representatives Krista andDanielle had suggested this event to us. Although not interested infootball much, it was interesting to have a glimpse of life outsidethe hotel. On 7th we went to Alliance Francaise where every Wednesdaythey have some musical programme. It was a great evening with musicplayed by a local Ghanaian band. Friday was the last day of thetraining and we had a lunch organised at VSO office where we visitedpeople working at the office, collected our in country allowances andhad a delicious lunch. They served a dessert which was made from riceflour and milk which was really sweet part of the lunch. I don'tremember the name of the dessert. But the interesting part is recipe.They soak the rice and then grind it to a paste to which they addsugar and milk and then boil it to a guey consistency.We went for shopping afterwards. The market area of Osu is very nearto the VSO office. We visited a shopping mall and roamed around thearea. A person selling hats on the street came after us calling BhaiBhai (brother brother) by recognising that we were Indians. The areais touristy and there were many shops selling clothes with Africandesigns and beads. The beads were just ordinary ones which one canfind even in tourist flooded areas of India. Though the vendors werecalling them African beads, they must have been producing it on massscale some where in China. We came across two Indians and their wassome waving of hands towards each other. Back in India, Indians arevery serious on streets with the strangers but here all of them(including me) seem to have changed. There is a shop called Sagar inOsu area which is run by a Sindhi person. It was full of Indian goods.Most of them were food items such as spices, pickles, ready to cookvegetables, pulses etc. I could also find Pohe (rice flakes) which Idid not expect to find it over here as not so many Maharashtrians areexpected to be in other countries. The prices of all those things wasjust huge compared to India as most of these things were imported.Pohe which cost around 30-60 Rs per kg in India were priced at Rs 240per kg.We visited one other shopping mall called Shoprite which is a hugecompared to those which we had seen in Accra till date ;). There was ageneral departmental store. Most of the goods were imported and priceswere very high. Hearing my constant comparison with Indian prices,Rahul suggested me strongly not to compare them with what one has inIndia. I think I should stop thinking in terms of Indian rupees nowand just concentrate getting to know the pricing structure based onGhanaian conditions.To my surprise I found Kokum which is used as a souring agent by theKonkani people in place of tamarind which is used in rest of India.They were imported and packed by an enterprise in Ghana. I don't thinkthere are so many Konkanis in Ghana so that an enterprise can do thisall importing, packing and selling it. The packing was simple and fromthe information it was clear that it was not meant of Konkanis. But itwas clear that it is being used by some other communities abroad.Certainly it was a proof for me that we native Konkani people have notyet understood the value of Kokum.