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Hello!
I have had a busy couple of weeks since arriving. After training in the hotel in Accra finished I got a night coach to Jirapa that took 13 hours and played awful screeching films at full blast the entire time.
Once we got to Jirapa we visitied the host families, the stakeholders, the 4 communities where the volunteers will be working and of course, the hospital.
The training for the host families was done next door to the Catholic Church in a facility run by the Sister. Next to this is a bar which is by far the nicest one I've seen so far which is also run by the Sister and appears to be doing a roaring trade! I know where I'll be doing my reports now!
I stayed for one week in a host home run by Momma Rose who is an incredibly hard working lady who worked 3 different jobs including agriculture and still found time to come home and feed us amazing food promptly 3 times a day.
Despite being a richer country than Nigeria, the conditions here are actually worse as my community is in the North and there is a definite North/South divide when it comes to wealth and opportunity.
All of the bathing facilities are outside and it's basically you and a bucket (mostly) covered by a wall in the shape of a square which will be new to many if not all of the UK volunteers and is something that I'd have taken longer to come round to had I not have done VSO Nigeria last year and that's before I even get started on the long drop!
Now that the volunteers are here my job this week is to observe them during training and meal times to see how they are getting on, see what their personalities are, what situations they deal well with and who might need more support from TLs before using this information to decide which community to place them in as this will also be where they are working for the next 10+ weeks.
My 2 communities will be Tizza and Nimbara-Kompoori and at the moment it looks like i'll be in charge of 10 volunteers, 2 of which are veggie which is surprising by I'm always grateful for the company!
- comments
Liz Craddock Well done Sarah. The work you do is amazing. I am halfway to Africa in Malta this week. Hello from Malta. Stay in touch.
Sarah Thank you Liz, I channel your attitude when I need a boost. Enjoy Malta, we're practically neighbours!