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So this will probably be my final blog (although there are a few unfinished ones that need touching up I plan to return to). I write this fond goodbye from Stumble Inn in Elmina where I woke up this morning and went and sat with a cup of tea, orange juice, pineapple and eggy bread, under a coconut tree in a bamboo chair looking out into the sea with a old golden retriever by my side who scoffed my leftovers and wandered just why I was going home?
It is the old age saying that you always leave with you and the crowd/audience wanting more and I feel like that at the moment. The other side is that I have a sort of glowy nostalgia of Tumu and Ghana that you inevitably get when you leave a country that has been your home for the last two years. I will start with a little recap of my fond farewells from Tumu, my trials and tribulations in Accra and finally my final beach holiday which is happening as I speak. If there is time and you are incredibly lucky (and stuck with me that far into the rather indulgent blog!) I might give a few titbits about future plans.
Tumu during my last month has been the same as always just slightly ramped up. Work still popped up randomly except I was no longer required to go out monitoring the schools as I was stuck deskbound writing final reports etc and my last week turned into a blur of typical Ghana goodbyes and wonderful send offs. It really kicked off on my final Wednesday. I went to my last workshop which fittingly was a computer programme with lots of the head teachers which was a great way to say goodbye to them (one of many overlong speeches that I would have to make over the next 5 days!). I left at lunch (after plenty of photos) to prepare for my official office send off that evening but found out later that the workshop was cut short so the ICT man could write up a citation about me with funky text and a good boarder to get framed for my leaving party. While I cannot condone this it was nice to be appreciated!
My goodbye sitting was combined with our Deputy Director who had retired about 8 months previously but like when my parents came, the white people get 80% of the attention. It was meant to start at 4 but as you can see from one of the pictures at 4.15 chairs were being put out so we finally all convinced at 5 and then rushed to try finish before dark!
Speeches were made, we digressed off into weird tangents about people not having paid their due to the welfare fund, stories that had no link to anything were told to rounds of applause for no reason, just a typical Ghana party! When it came to my turn I stood with three members of the GES opposite me and I was presented with my leaving presents. One bizarre tradition that happens in Ghana is you get given your present and then it is immediately snatched off you for someone else to open for you! My first present was a full blown smock (traditional formal dress for men and woman up North) and a matching hat which were very smart and beautiful dark blue with white stitching (see accompanying pictures) and a matching hat which, like my father's a year before me, was a little on the small side but forced onto my head. Next was a deliciously bright scarf made of a florescent yellow with white letters stitched on saying 'Thanks James, GES Tumu 2014'. Not something to wear out but can easily be displayed above a bed as a badge of honour. Next I stood while my citation that members of the office had been so franticly preparing earlier was read out to everyone. I got my hands on the electronic copy and here is what it said:
CITATION IN HONOUR OF MR JAMES HEALE
VSO VOLUNTEER FOR SISSALA EAST DIRECTORATE OF EDUCATION (TUMU), UPPER WEST REGION, GHANA
2012 - 2014
Two years with you have slipped by so fast, James! And we wonder now whether it really is all over with your service to us, as we wish you good bye!
James, it has been a pleasant and memorable time together with you. So much shared between us, so much gained! So much learned, so much progress made not only with the staff of the Directorate of Education but with our over six hundred teachers on the field as well!
Yet we believe that there is so much to share between us. It is a pity we have to part company just because of the expiry of your service period.
Indeed, you have been an affable and dependable friend that has grown so dear to us in so short a time!
So even as we hate to see you go we will forever cherish your happy company with us and the great contribution you have made to our progress as a department.
We wish you and your mum and dad well.
We will greatly miss you and we hope to have you back with us some other day! God richly Bless you…………………Goodbye!
From:
The Director and Staff
Sissala East Education Directorate
(Tumu), Upper West Region, Ghana.
Finally I was presented with 6 signed and stamped copies of an open reference which was basically a more formal version of the above with a few great lines ('Indeed James has been a "useful spade and a jack" to our trade as educators by his resilience, determination and commitment to duty during his period of service.' Being a personal favourite). Ghana references focus much more on a person's character then the actual work they have achieved. Something that is sadly lacking in most modern references.
Meat and soup was eaten (hopefully I will not have to work my way through unidentified bowls of meat in the foreseeable future, something I will not miss!) and club beer was shared. Next was my turn to make a speech. With a handful of notes I worked my way through 15 minutes and 59 seconds of thanks in Ghanaian English (I have recorded it if anyone wants a listen!) with was greeted with laughter and applause (mainly from Kenneth whose laugh is audible for most of the speech!) and a final rush for photos before total darkness took us.
Another task I was left with was clearing out my house. As it is unlikely that I will be replaced, at least in the near future, VSO has to shut where I live down. Combine that with not wanting to bring clothes back that have been subject to Ghana heat, dust and vigorous washing for the last two years I had quite the pile of bits and bobs to get rid of. There was a multi-pronged approach to thing. Anything half decent went to the office and was plundered to great amusement (the high-vis jacket for riding was cause for much laughter). Anything kitchen or washing related went to my lovely washer and cleaner lady. Pointing to different things in the kitchen saying, 'Can I have this, and this, and this', her loading it all into a massive water bin which went on her head and plodding off with a coal pot in one hand and a bag of coal in the other cheerily shouting goodbye and thanks was a highlight of my last week! Anything KG related went to Joshua, the ex Early Years coordinator and now lecturer at the local Training College. Finally anything else went out the front of the house with a big sign asking people to take it but more on that later (there is a picture to help your imagination).
Over the weekend the Jirapa girls came by motorbike and bus over to say goodbye and help do a final push on the house and Molly and Eric (Peace Corps) came over for a final party and to snaffle some of the good stuff (the leftover alcohol was first to go). My original plan was to leave on Monday morning early, so for my last day on Sunday Joshua came over and we went for a final sitting of Guini Fowl and beer where I wore my second smock that he had given to me earlier in the week. That afternoon we did a final push on the house, the highlight was the panicked screams from the kitchen when moving the broken fridge unleashed a family of mice.
Over my two years in Tumu I have acquired a range of magazines from family and friends in care packages ranging from GQ and FHM at one end, onto to a few 'nuts and zoos' to finally something top shelf that Tom and Will brought out with them when they came to visit and a playboy I had received at Christmas from Gman. While nothing in them was particularly offensive by English standards I imagine the sight of the 'Boob Olympics' would have been a bit of a shock to any Ghanaian who came across it so quite a lot of the evening was occupied with what to do with them as leaving them would have probably left a negative impression for whoever found them. Dumping them somewhere would probably have lead back to me as who else in Tumu would they have come from as every other Fowli living there has close links to the church. First option was to burn them. Turns out magazines don't burn well. Backup plan was to rip them up first and then burn them. This was only partially successful and led to half burnt pages of women in different stages of undress fluttering around the back of my house leading to me running around chasing burnt paper with a touch in my mouth to great amusement of Alice, so finally after rounding up what was left I shoved it in a plastic bag, wrapped it in tape and took it with me to dispense of at a later date. Not my finest hour….
My plans of leaving on Monday were slightly scuppered with my bringing up everything I had eaten the previous day 25 minutes before heading out to catch my bus at 4 in the morning meaning I had to delay my travel plans for 24 hours. This meant I heard the screeches of delight from outside my window and children and adults came to loot the prizes I had left out.
24 hours late I did my final journey down to Accra. Leave at 4.30 in the morning to catch a bus to Wa. Get a ticket and take the overnight bus to Accra that leaves at 4 in the afternoon and got in at 3.30 in the morning. This was a little early for my tastes so I dragged my bags into the waiting room and joined a group of Ghanaians for a two hour powernap on the floor before all being shoved out by a frustrated cleaner trying to sweep around the variety of bodies sprawled in various positions. Then after dropping my bags it was off the police station to try and get a police check which was quite stressful and ended paying a facilitation fee that seemed to speed up the process but came as close to what I would call a bribe at any point in my time in Ghana but did mean I am able to work when I return to the UK. Next was the VSO office to get reimbursed for all my receipts and to be informed that due to Tumu's 'challenging' geographical position I had only visited the VSO office in Accra on three occasions during my entire placement. My first week in Ghana, when I came down as a rep for a set of new volunteers and that final day. Possibly some sort of record.
After resting small I was off out with some ex VSO volunteers for a super fun night, Scottish dancing with the British Scottish Club (they have a proper name I have forgotten). After Stripping Willows and doing some sort of Waltz for the first time I gratefully went to bed for a good night's sleep.
Broken and still not quite recovered I headed down to Stumble Inn in Elmina which is where I am now. Jirapa Ellie is currently up the road doing some work for SABRE trust with Bolga Ellie and this weekend both of them plus some other ex volunteers from Accra are coming for a final blowout!
After a weekend of fun, laughter, alcohol and Partners (Bolga Ellie said she would disown me if I forgot to bring 'the best board game ever invented!') it will be off to Accra on Sunday before heading home on Monday night where hopefully I will have a dedicated mother and father to greet me off the plane at 6 in the morning with a very warm coat!
Final Word
I have now been back in the UK for nearly two months and have finally been spurred into action to finish off my blogs in a nice neat bow. I have settled back into life surprisingly easily and apart from a few early hitches. (My mother asking me to grab some butter in a Waitrose attached to a petrol station an hour after getting off the plane nearly made my mind melt with the choices and in my first week heading over to Putney which turns out is the whitest place on earth was slightly unnerving after two years in Ghana). Some of that might be the fact that being a teacher means you can supply teach for as much or little as you want. Meaning finding time to do the countless things that need taking care of is made slightly easier (who would have known that doctors, dentists, opticians, banks, phones and countless other bits and bobs would take up so much time).
So here is where I sign off. 22 blogs of varying standards and countless stories and pictures later. There are some gaps but hopefully this will continue to remind me about what a special two years my VSO time away was.
James xxx
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