It's been a busy few weeks here. Had my first little bump to get over with the partner organisation I am placed with. I was getting fed up of being asked to 'be flexible, be flexible, be flexible' when things like meetings to discuss my objectives were cancelled a number of times at the last minute due to some piss-poor planning. After all it took to get here I was starting to feel quite under-valued, so I had a pretty honest chat with my line manager, which was well received but I fretted a bit over whether it was the right thing to do at this stage. Anyway, the following week we were all in Tamale for the TENI Review which was a great opportunity to start doing some work together and to show that I do have something to bring to the table. Boon.

Then it was 'moto-training week'!!! I named my 4 stroke Yamaha 125 'black beauty', which I stalled constantly…but by the second day we made it out of the sandy football field and rode up to Bongo. The next day I got my licence! Yup. For someone who has never learnt to drive, barely been on a push-bike in my adult life and has little to no road-sense, I am immensely proud! The training included talks from the Head of the DVLA, who told our group that pretty much anything we do on the road will lead us to crash and die, and the Commander of the MTTU who gave us his two mobile numbers in order to report any traffic accidents!

We did a couple of longer trips on the last two days which were brilliant. We rode out to the rocky Tongo Hills in the Talensi-Nabdam district where I work, and went to the Tenzug Chief's house - a community of the chief's 18 wives (apparently down from 19!) and their children. They hold traditional beliefs and live by the decisions of the shrine with offerings/sacrifices for protection at the entrance to the compound and outside each dwelling. Seems kind of paranoid but absolutely fascinating.

The last trip of the moto-training was to Paga on the border of Burkina Faso, famous for the lake of crocodiles which are trained so that you can sit on them. Most people manage to look quite cool doing this for the camera but I found it absolutely terrifying!

So having driven across a variety of terrain and around town a few times, at the end of the training I was allowed to ride my bike (a red one - not black beauty) home. Woop woop. Embarrassingly I got almost all the way home before the bike ran out of fuel right next to my local spot (bar)! Doh!

Last Sunday a few of us newer arrivals to the Upper East headed over to the Upper West to join their meeting on the cluster model. I was asked as we were heading off at 4am whether I thought the 8hr journey to get to Wa would be worth it for a 3hr meeting - er, no - but I was up for the adventure! It was good to see the other side and mates that I'd made on the in-country training (ICT) but having made the trip on some of the worst roads in Ghana I can safely say that I won't be heading West again anytime soon.

I can honestly say that I am really enjoying life here, despite the heat and dust and constant thirst. I'm loving the randomness of impromptu tours of the fire station when offered a lift into town and the fact that the point that I have reached in this volunteering experience - now I am 'licensed to be mobile' and have developed a good working relationship with my colleague, Bash - I think I can now slowly start getting my teeth into some work. "Small small", patiently and determinedly it will start happening.