Mondo's volunteers in Ghana

November came and left so quickly. It started with bidding goodbye to the film crew and me subsequently taking my leave for two weeks to attend a friend’s wedding in Cape Town and then going on a road trip through Namibia. After holidays it is always difficult to come back to work, but I was really looking forward to returning to Kongo this time. After a busy two weeks in what didn’t feel like “Africa” at all, but was still on the same continent, I was missing Kongo village, where life is simple, slow and peaceful. This community has really grown on me and day-by-day I feel more and more at home here. I am already dreading the day I have to leave, which is basically just around the corner. I think 6 months is far too short to meet the objectives that I set out to do in the beginning! It is now that I have made good friendships and that community members, especially the cooperative ladies I work with feel comfortable around me and have really welcomed me as their own. Not only pe...

October started with a surprise. I was asked to replace Kingsley, co-founder of KoCDA (our local partner and host organization), at a conference for host organizations of the EUAV programme under the SUDHAV consortium. Kingsley’s visa to France was unfortunately rejected, despite him having been invited by an EU initiative. So, together with Victor, Kingsley’s father and co-founder of KoCDA, we traveled to Paris and from Paris airport by train to Lille and further to Roubaix, where ADICE, the lead partner of SUDHAV phase 1, hosted both sending and host organizations for a one-week conference on capacity training. Topics discussed included the importance of the on-arrival training for new volunteers, how to formulate new vacancies to attract volunteers, problems and challenges that came up with volunteers, the progress of ongoing projects and general project administration and finance issues.   It was really interesting to attend the conference as a volunteer and see the ot...

September came to a close and it was an eventful month. In Accra, Ghana interred one of its dearest sons, Kofi Annan. In New York at the UN general assembly, world leaders convened to discuss global challenges and goals. At the same time, the world marked the third anniversary of the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a “blueprint to achieve a better more sustainable future for all”. Here in Kongo village, we continue day in and day to build resilient communities by supporting three  cooperatives in creating economic opportunities for women one basket, one seedling and one shea butter pouch at a time. T he work of these cooperatives impact women’s lives and that of their families. This month brought a lot of changes into my daily life. First, a new EU Aid Volunteer from Italy arrived, Diana. She will be working as an ict teacher and she was already a friend, since we spent two trainings in Austria and Tallinn together! Then my supervisor and Mondo's Soci...

Blog post August: Taking stock and some reflections Now that I have completed my second month, I feel like I have a way better grasp of everything; my work, an established routine, what to eat and cook, getting around and also my social relationships.   At work, I feel like the women have really opened up to me and see me less as a foreigner (though I’ll always remain the solemiye/the white woman to them haha) and more as a part of the team. They are indeed very protective over me and are always giving me advice. I credit the sheer amount of time I spend with them 6 days a week to this new found familiarity and one result of this is having gained insights into the cooperatives' “office politics”; now as an integrated part of the team, I witness the quarreling, the grudges and see the womens' unique character traits shine through. On the other side of the spectrum, managing customer relations with foreign clients can also get heated. In one occasion I had to act as the “...

The beginning of my EUAV assignment in Kongo, Ghana My arrival time in Accra should have been 5pm, a good time to arrive, just in time to reach the hostel before nightfall and shake out tired legs. Instead, I arrived at 2 am, 8 hours late with swollen legs and to sleepy immigration officers. My journey to Ghana was everything but smooth. The day before at the airport in Paris, we were stuck at the gate in an overheated airplane for 3 hours due to a technical malfunction and strict immigration laws that prohibited us from disembarking the aircraft. After the pilot deemed the vessel unsuitable for flying, we were told to change planes and finally allowed to disembark- luggage, crying babies and duty-free shopping bags in tow. Once at the new gate, aircrew personnel informed us that our flight had been unexpectedly re-routed to Lome. Later that night in Lome, our onward journey was again delayed by another two hours. You would think that passengers by then would have been raging mad...