As of today, Friday, 26 January 2024, I have officially been
in Ghana for 10 days! And what long days they have been. We have spent our time
receiving training on many topics ranging from healthcare to language to
cultural integration and safety. There has also been a fair bit of energy-boosting
activities which are most welcomed as our days can be 10 hours long sometimes.
After each day the exhaustion is high but as any Peace Corps volunteer knows
getting to this point is an extensive and emotional journey, and a bit of
exhaustion will not stop the determination to move forward with service.
Key Points:
- My cohort consists of 20 individuals – 14 individuals are Health volunteers and 6 (including myself) are Agriculture volunteers.
- Our flight was over 9 hours and was delayed for about 2 hours. The first delay was down to the weather. It was snowy and cold which caused the loading of luggage onto the plane to move slowly. Then airport staff realized our plane had luggage in the cargo hold that did not belong there, so they had to unload that luggage. Lastly, and because of the unloading of the wrongly placed luggage, the plane was now unbalanced. Meaning they had to shift the remaining luggage in the cargo hold around to evenly distribute the weight.
- The food on the plane was ok, but I can only recall the waffle I had for breakfast – blueberry with maple syrup.
- Our training center has Wi-Fi, cold showers (which is most welcomed in this hot climate), delicious food, and amazing staff that assist us with all our needs – we are spoiled but I am grateful for a splash of ‘luxury’ before heading to our sites where we will have to cook and clean for ourselves.
- Each of us has a room complete with a shower and toilet. We also have TVs complete with 5 channels. Some watch football (soccer) games and others do not use their TV. As for me, I have my external hard drive hooked up which has allowed me to watch TV shows and movies I downloaded back home. I have to say this has been the best part for me because it provides a piece of normalcy in an unfamiliar reality.
- We move in convoy style with police escorts. This has been the weirdest experience for me. I struggle to put words to it and the best I can say is you would have to experience this firsthand to understand. At the bottom of this post, you will find a video of one of our journeys which saw us going head-on into left-side traffic to avoid the right-side traffic jam.
- Many people have found geckos in their rooms.
- We went on an ‘Accra Quest’ without any assistance from the staff. It was a test to see if we could navigate the public transportation system. I am happy to say this was a success. Everyone made it to their destinations – my team went to Black Square which allowed us to see, feel, and smell the ocean – and back, though we were all late. Time, traffic, and transportation are a whole different concept in Ghana, but everyone you meet on a bus (called a TroTro) is friendly and helpful. We had a wonderful conversation with a Ghanaian named Bruce.
- We hand wash our clothing.
- Everyone wants to take pictures with us, and I mean everyone. We might as well have neon signs above our heads that say AMERICAN.
- We drink water like it is going out of style. I cannot begin to tell you how often the water delivery people must come. I am pretty sure classifying us as fish would be acceptable and justifiable.
Tomorrow, we will move from our current location to our training villages. Agriculture will go to one village and health to another. Each of us will live in these villages with a host family for exactly three months. During this time, we will dive deeper into our training specific to our sector and every single day we will have 6 hours’ worth of language training. The days will be long but once this training is complete, we will become full-fledged volunteers sworn in by the Ambassador. Once the formalities are complete our assignments will start, and I cannot begin to explain how excited I am to reach that stage!
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