Few weeks before and after arriving in Ghana

When I received the confirmation about going for the mission to Ghana, I cried, feeling emotional, happy and grateful at the same time.

I had about three weeks to get ready. That meant putting together a detailed plan and working it adaptable as time demanded.

Little time and a lot to do. I was checking off the calendar days, changing the “to dos” from the list to “done”. In the same time, remaining cautious, that between all the arrangements, health checks, and other, I do not contract the virus. Parallel I was dissolving my flat, reducing and detaching from my possessions. 

On the way...

Two days before the flight, I was half an hour earlier before   the Covid testing booth was set up to be the first in line. The   test was relatively fast and the results available online the  next morning. I was scared to check them… I only had a   suitcase, a backpack, and what I had on me left. Flat left to   clean up and the keys to return. What if I am positive?

 

 Click that button. 

 Clicked. Negative. 

 Ok. I am ready.

The flight was at 6am, and after 8pm I was landing in Accra.

The procedures were taking longer, as all the passengers needed to fill in health questionnaires and go through the testing again. I left the airport at about 11pm and was very warmly welcomed by both my hosting and receiving organisations and we took off to Ashaiman shortly. After so much excitement, feeling the heat, even though I was tired, I was too excited to sleep and shuffled around until 3am.

Fast-forward. 

The next weeks were happening very fast. There was a schedule for every day and I wanted to absorb as much information as possible. At the same time needed to get my bearings, what is where, how to move around, what and where to eat, who is who, the language basics, the norms, the names…

Street markets in Ashaiman. 

With Pastor Peter, my Twi teacher, buying pineapples in Twi.

My body. 

My body was not taking the adjustments well at all. For the first two weeks I barely slept. From sweating, dust and wearing the face mask all the time, my chin was covered in spots. The noise and the traffic of the main street were having a toll on me. The 4am call for prayer from the mosque on the right of the house, was followed by the neighbours morning routine, by cocks crows at sunrise to morning call for a prayer from church on the left of the house at 6am. Most of the nights, with earplugs in, I laid sweating in bed, watching the fan turn, hoping it will get me tired eventually. The nights and mornings were tough.  

Ashaiman is in the area of Great Accra.
WEM can be reached by a tro-tro
(local minibus) in less than 2 hours.

Work. 

I am the first EUAV to work with the Rays of Hope Centre, my receiving organisation, which provides support to street connected children. 

I was following a very intensive time schedule prepared for me and I was meeting and interacting with the team. It was important to understand the context for the needs assessment, areas of work and support, and for further plans for program development and implementation.

I am two support two centres, one in Ashaiman, FCP, First Contact Point, which is a day centre, and WEM, Welfare Empowerment and Mobility Centre in Ayikuma, where beneficiaries and staff (on rotational basis) live full time.

In front of the FCP center in Ashaiman,
with Barbara Boadi, director of RoHC
and Kingsley Mort, director of KoCDA. 

At a very insightful conference organised by the University of Ghana in Accra on the topic of
"Diseases of Migrant Children in Ghana". Top left: Barbara Boadi (executive director of RoHC),
TetTeh (Field/ Reintegration officer), bottom left: workshop organized for the beneficiaries,
right: group picture.

Because of the pandemic, only very few beneficiaries attend the centres now. Depending on the government decision this might be a subject to change beginning 2021.

In the mean time I started the capacity building training sessions for the teams in both centres and implementing support activities for the beneficiaries.

After the workshop with WEM team:
Sandra, Emma, Judith and Sister Rev. Tonia.

After the sunset, headlight comes in handy.

There is a lot of work ahead of us. And I am looking forward to it. 

Meanwhile, I get my bearings pretty clean, I get up between 4 and 6am, my body adapted to day/ night, heat, I know where to shop, what to eat, and: I sleep. Even though it is hot, I usually walk, and get around on tro-tros (local minibuses) to visit other places, or to move between the centres.

I exchange with my colleagues during the week, and over the weekends, I try to be active, keep a routine, explore the area, and keep in touch and journal on my thoughts, feelings, observations and experiences.

The big tree in the front garden.
And the small, very nosy and noisy rooster,
who visits me on daily basis,
usually at sunrise! :D

 

Visit to Botanical Gardens in Aburi.