"Greater expectation"

 

At the beginning of the month, I was in an art gallery, the Artists Alliance Gallery, in Accra. I was there with some friends on a Saturday afternoon. The place is amazing; it has three floors full of African arts: painting, jewellery, fabrics, statues and so much more (unfortunately, I can’t show you pictures because since it is a gallery and every piece is original and for selling, they don’t allow photos). At some point, I was digging around some oil paintings on a random counter and I saw one that impressed me. It is a painting of three Ghanaian women. One is carrying a baby in the typical way (on the back, wrapped in a fabric) and all three have large trays full of stuff on the head. The background is light brown, like a sky full of sand. It reflects the women reality that I see every day around me in Ashaiman.

It is very impressive how these women can carry heavy things on trays on their heads as if it is nothing, with grace and agility even in the traffic or in crowded places. Sometimes they are also carrying babies on their back at the same time, exactly like the painting. This type of strength amazes me every day in this country.

However, the detail of the painting that most struck me was in the back of it. I turned it and the title was: “greater expectation”. I did not expect it at all.

I started to think about the meaning of “expectation” for me in this deployment. The percentage of unexpected things is high. For example, even the initial plan for that Saturday was not to go to an art gallery. It was to go hiking in a natural reserve at one hour from Accra for the entire weekend. I had the backpack ready and a guesthouse reservation, but it started raining very much and the plan had to change. I was really disappointed by the cancellation and I just wanted to go out of the house to distract me. The beauty of the art gallery was unexpected.

Work-wise, time can change your expectations. Sometimes meetings can be rescheduled or people can be late (the time concept here is not linear, “I am almost there” can mean 5 minutes or one hour depending on the traffic, the weather or other reasons). You need to learn to be flexible and to keep your motivation high. If you consider something important, you will keep rescheduling it and it will happen.

Considering the situation of the beneficiaries, participation also can be unexpected. It might happen that children run away from their households or they return to sell items in the market and drop the program. Therefore, you might plan an art activity for five children and only three show up.

The point is that at the end of the activity, one of them will ask you to do it again and do it every Friday because she really liked it. She will have a big smile on the face. In addition, some members of the staff will thank you for bringing new paint colors and new brushes, because one of the reason they stopped these activities is the low budget and the increase cost of living due to an all-time high inflation rate (see more information about Ghana inflation here https://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2022/10/17/ghana-inflation-driven-by-food-prices-hits-37-2-in-september/ ). Therefore, there will be some positive outcomes even if the activity did not go as planned.

I realized that I came here with many expectations, but maybe they were the wrong ones. I am actually achieving most of my tasks, but in a smaller way that I expected.

So far, I implemented two training about Child Development with 10 staff members. I designed a plan to carry on the Art Creative sessions for children that were started by the previous Eu Aid volunteer with the same role. I was also able to create a network with a mental health counselor that will collaborate with the Rays of Hope Center for psycho-social support after my departure.

If I consider all these results and the other plans that I have for the next weeks, I can be proud of my work, but most of the times I still feel as if I could have done more. The problem is that all of these achievements are only the first steps of something that should continue after my deployment. So probably I feel that I am missing something because I know that I will not see the development of all these. Nevertheless, this is the aim of sustainable development. We are not expected to be here to help in the long-term.

The greater expectation should be in the small start steps.

Believe or not, this reflection come out from the painting. Of course, I bought it.

Me proudly showing my PPT for the first Child Development training

The second Child Development training

The Art Activity in the FCP RoHC Center

Roberta during the Art Activity