The Rantings of a Disgruntled Volunteer
on Anthony Lovat in Bolgatanga (Ghana), 24/Sep/2010 10:54, 34 days ago
Please excuse the following rant:It has been just over a year since I arrived in Ghana for the first time and I remember that first night in a hotel in Accra with a sizeable cohort of other new fresh VSO volunteers. We talked excitedly and, of course, drank plenty of beer. I was feeling especially lonely because Laura wasn’t able to fly over with me - she stayed for an extra week in England to finish putting our lives on hold for two years. I had just said an emotional goodbye to my parents at the airport and, I admit, had struggled to hold back a few surprising tears. It’s not easy to leave everything behind andplunge into the unknown.All us new volunteers were particularly keen to learn about what life in Ghana as a VSO volunteer is really like so we listened carefully to the words of an Australian volunteer called Kirsty who was living in Tamale.“VSO Ghana is the worst VSO in the world,” she announced before regaling us with stories of unhappy volunteers unable to get simple tasks done by the shambles of a VSO Ghana office.It was the last thing I wanted to hear. I drank too much whilst listening to her frustrations and went to bed unhappy, lonely, worried and slightly too drunk. I promised myself that if I were to ever meet any new volunteers, I would not make them feel as bad as she made me feel.I am afraid that I have failed on that promise. A new volunteer called Alice has just moved in to a house around the corner with Christina, a volunteer who has been here for nine months or so. Yesterday they came around for dinner - yesterday being one of the more frustrating days I’ve had with VSO. I am ashamed to admit that I ranted for rather too long about the terrible state of VSO Ghana.When my motorbike was stolen from outside my house, the steering was locked and it was inside the compound wall with the gate bolted from the inside. When I realised it was stolen, I immediately informed VSO. I appreciated that the process might take some time before I received a replacement bike - two or three weeks I suspected. It has now been three months and I have not yet been issued with a replacement.The motorbike was stolen at a reasonably good time - just as the schools were breaking up for their enormous‘summer’ holidays. We were also just about to travel up to Mali and Burkina Faso for three weeks. When I arrived back from these excursions, I was surprised to find that no progress had been made on getting me a replacement motorbike. The police report that I had requested before leaving had notbeen followed up and without the police report, I was told, VSO could not possibly issue me with even a temporary replacement. I have therefore been forced to use the car for work purposes - spending more money on fuel and, of course, not charging anything to VSO (they pay fuel expenses of £2.50 per week - nowhere near enough for my particular placement, even using a motorbike). I have spent the past six weeks hassling the VSO staff to pick up the police report, send it to Accra and then confirm receipt. Not one of these processes has taken place without me having to metaphorically stand over the individual and force them to do it. Recently I have been making up to ten phone calls a day - trying to get hold of the correct people and begging them to do their jobs - things that they’ve already promised me they’d do and haven’t. Not once - not once in three months - has a VSO memberof staff called me about my motorbike.I have been sending e mails but, up until today, have not received a single reply. This is an e mail I sent today:Dear Dora,This is an e mail to remind you to send an e mail to Baba - just in case you'd forgotten to do so. I have been trying your line this morning and all of yesterday but you are not picking up.When I spoke to you on Monday, you said that you would check that the police report is with you in Accra. Is it there? Please confirm that this is no longer holding up the process.There are spare motorbikes sitting in the office in Bolga that I desperately need to use but am unable to do so. This is not the first time a motorbike has been stolen and is unlikely to be the last. The process to get another motorbike has taken THREE MONTHS so far and I am still without transport. If the process takes this long, there needs to be a review of the process so that no other volunteer ever has to be without transport half way through their placement like this for so long. I have been using the car to some extent but now our car is spoiled I am unable to move. It is a critical time with schools just going back and I want to show my face at the schools I work with early in the term. I am not able to do so. Getting taxis is too expensive, uneconomic, not practical in the rainy season and difficult to do. There is only so much I can achieve sitting in the house.Please, for the love of God, e mail Baba and ring him and tell him to give me a new motorbike. Not even one stage of this process has taken place without me hassling and pestering. I have been calling Baba or going into the office every day for the past three weeks. He has not called me once - no one from VSO has called me about getting a new motorbike in three months.I am a patient man but this is becoming unacceptable.Why am I being penalised so severely for having a motorbike stolen from me? Does anyone in VSO care about my work? Do you want me to go home?Is it that because you know we've got a car you are expecting me to manage with the car and are unwilling to get another motorbike?I beg you, Dora - please sort this problem out.Yours in desperation and confusion,AnthonyYou might be able to detect a hint of frustration in this e mail?In any job, you want your managers and superiors to recognise your hard work. Sometimes all it takes is a kind word or a nod of the head. Sometimes it might be a pay rise or, in the case of bankers, a fat bonus. In this case, recognition would come in the form of enabling me to do my work. How much do the VSO staff in Ghana value my work if they can leave me without a motorbike for this long? How much do they care about me if they have not bothered to call me but have instead expected me to call them? Why should I bother busting a gut if my boss can’t be bothered to supply me with what I need?A few months ago, our VSO allowance (£360 paid quarterly) didn’t appear in our accounts on the designated date. Some volunteers had to spend the day travelling from rural areas to the town to pick their money - only to find their accounts empty. The money was eventually paid about a week late. Why? Can it be that they don’t valueour work?Pity the poor teachers, many of whom haven’t been paid for months. I was sat with Veronica, the science coordinator, in the regional GES office and she spent twenty minutes or so ringing a friend in Garu, Upper East, and a sister in the GES office in Accra - all trying to locate the wages of her son who has been working as a teacher in the Garu area and has not been paid for nearly six months.Listening to the radio, it appears that delayed wages is a common problem. Firemen, health workers and refuse collectors have all been on the radio in the past few days complaining about salaries that have not been paid. From what I have been told, salary money is put into a high interest account by an employer and then, when the interest accrues, the salary is finally paid late. Could it be that the individuals in the Accra VSO office are using our wages for this purpose? Could this be what has happened to the money donated to my science project - the money I had to battle for months to receive just a fraction of what is supposedly available? I don’t know what to believe any more.Can there be anything less motivating than not being paid for the work you are supposed to be doing? Is it so surprising that teachers don’t turn up to work if they aren’t being paid? Is it so surprising that Kirsty told me that VSO Ghana is the worst VSO in the world and that I am now finding myself saying the same thing to the new volunteers?VSO Ghana is certainly not doing a good job of motivating their volunteers.UPDATE:This very afternoon, I finally received a phone call - I can come to the office to pick up one of the motorbikes. It seems the desperate e mail has worked.