As for friends I have a good little network around me, they are mostly VSO Volunteers, a few other Volunteers from other organisations and one or two Ghanaians. The VSO vols are my closest friends. Most of the people I have already told you about, but I will go over it a bit more detail, if any of the following people read this an I am wrong about the ages I am sorry and please don’t hit me.
There are only 3 VSO houses in Wa. My house consists of Me, Ruby and Stephan. Ruby (the Pilipino) who is in her 30s I would guess, is great, lots of energy and has been here for over two years and staying for another. She basically knows everything about the town and if you need to know anything you just ask her. Stephan (the Kenyan) also in his 30s keeps mostly to himself. He has slotted into the community very well already and is out most nights doing this and that. They are both very good house mates, but since English is their second language and they come from very different life experiences I can’t always have a conversation where we are all on the same wave length. After there has been a language/culture barrier all day it’s nice to come home to people who just get you, if that makes sense. Because of this I guess I spend more time with the other vols.
Then there is Cathy, a woman in her 30’s from Liverpool UK, and working as a Social worker for Youth Alive in Wa, the same organisation that I helped out in Bolga and Tamale. She is probably one of the most positive and determined people that I have ever met, and we get on very well. She has unfortunately had the worse time since getting here (she came in the same group as me). She has an allergy to fish, now you wouldn’t think it, but fish is in basically everything here in Ghana, even in the north. The preferred stock cube is shrimp, the seasonings, and oils. It’s also hard to explain that she can’t have anything fish, even if it was in the seasoning, or anything that has been cooked in the same oil or pans as fish without it being cleaned. This has lead to Cathy having outbreaks all the time, which cause her to swell up and become itchy. On top of this her job is not going well, they want her to fundraise only which is not what she does, and her manager is not very supportive has caused her to be very frustrated. Then there is her house, well it’s basically a room in a dorm, no cooking facilities (you can imagine the problem with this for someone who needs to control what they eat) and shared toilets and shower facilities. So, this trifecta has lead to Cathy being very stressed, no eating properly and not sleeping well. Her health deteriorated and she went from a rash that got infected to Malaria, to a chest infection. She was flown down to Accra for treatment because it got so bad. The rash that was on her face ended up going into her eye which cause some scaring and some issues with vision. So, she has now ended up having to be repatriated back to the UK for treatment. So now we are waiting to see if she will come back or not, I hope she does as we got along well, and she was a lot of fun to hang out with.
The third and finally house has the couple I previously told you about, Linda and Haydn (gets called just H) who are in 50s/60s, from the UK and work in the education sector, they have both been head teachers back in the UK. They are great fun and have a brilliant sense of humour and are a wealth of knowledge. I have had many good meals round at their house as they tend to feed me, as I said they are kind of my African aunt and Uncle. They renew my faith in marriage, they have been married for 30 years and they seem as happy as ever, they are a lovely couple. They are on a 6-month placement so will be here until March 2010. The third person is Mel (Melanie) an Aussie girl in her early 30’s. I only met Mel when I got back two weeks ago, and I instantly warmed to her. She has been away traveling in Southern Africa since I have been here, so I didn’t meet her when we first got here. She has been here for about 18 months and is finishing up her placement; she goes home on December 11th. She is a Teacher Support Officer (TSO) here in Wa and a damn good one, the community absolutely love her. She has been a great laugh, loves her motorbike as much as I love mine, so we go for rides. Loves beer as much as I do so we have spent a lot of time discussing this and that while sipping on a bottle of star. She has a great sense of adventure and it’s a pity she is leaving as I think we could have had some interesting times together. We get on like a house on fire and I am going to be sad to see her leave.
About one hour north of Wa is Jirapa, a small little village which is made up basically of just an intersection. We have one VSO house in Jirapa; this is where Cath, Aaron and Noriko live. Aaron is an Aussie guy in his 30’s who is working as a TSO. He has already done a placement in Eritrea, so he is a bit more used to African live. He also has a great skill for languages and is picking up the local language very quickly. Noriko is a Japanese woman and is Aaron’s wife, so she is here as his accompanying partner and doing a bit of translation work as a side project here. Cath is a Woman in her 40’s from Bolton in the UK, I have written a bit about her already as part of my travels to Kof. She is working as a Management Support Officer (MSO) and used to be a head teacher back in the UL. I get on very well with Cath; we met on our second training week back in the UK, and along with Aidan met up in London. We have a similar mindset and both love to travel so we hopefully will be doing a lot of this around our area and beyond. Both Cath and Aaron came over with me and are here for two years.
A further hour north (on dirt roads as the paved road ends at Jirapa) you will come to Lawra a nice little town about the same size a Jirapa. Alison lives here in her own little house which is very cute and minimal. It has two bedrooms, no running water and an outhouse for the toilet. Alison is a woman in her 30’s working as a TSO and is a black Canadian from Toronto. She is probably one of the most positive people I have every met and the nicest. She is a Vegan and doesn’t really drink, although I would never start with this as a description of Alison as I think I would give people the wrong picture of her. She is very interesting and sweet and despite having her vices under control (the only one she could come up with is apple turnover) she is tons of fun and a great laugh. She came in the same group as me and is here for one year but is probably going to extend she says.
These are most of the Volunteers I am close with right now. There are existing Volunteers that I am getting to know as well. There is Anna and Rana who are two British ladies in their 60’s who are working in education. They live in Lawra near Alison and keep mostly to themselves, they have a SUV and a bit of money, so they usually stay in our fancy hotel (Uplands Hotel) when they come to Wa, so I don’t know them well. There is Sandra a woman in her 30’s who is from Barbados by way of Manchester, this makes for an unusual accent. Sandra lives in Nadowli which is about 30 minutes north for Wa. She is the only one there right now. She has been working in community advocacy and has been here for two and a half years. Her placement has ended but she has extended to finish a project she is working on and help two new volunteers settle in once they come to Nadowli in the next few weeks.
There is another Pilipino volunteer that lives about 30 minutes outside of Wa who is name Rasheed. I don’t really know him very well, but I know he is working as a Science teacher. I have also recently met a guy named Pete who is right at the top of the country in a city called Tumu, about four hours from Wa and four hours from Bolga along the road I wrote about in my bus trip post. He is the only volunteer there and is very much part of the community as there is no one else for him to associate with. He is from the UK, in his 30’s and working as a Science teacher. He is here until July and we got along quite well, we are talking about going to Mali next year sometime. There are one or two more volunteers that I have yet to meet.
I would say that I am friends with a few Ghana’s right now, but I would also add that there is still a cultural barrier between being very good friends. I find that a lot of the time they still treat you as very wealthy or more important, it’s very hard to get to feel as if we are on the same level, and of course some are using the friendship to try and gain something else out of it such as money or items. Of the people I consider friends though first there is Adrian who is from Wa and in his early 20’s and studying Computer Technologies as University. He is very hard working and I’m sure will go far if he keeps at it. I try to help him with his studies and he helps me a lot with getting my bike fixed or when I have a question or need something. Lawrence is from Jirapa but lives in Wa now; he is in his early 20’s and an artist. He is a great painter and I have already bought one painting from him to put in my room. I am talking to him about making a website for him in exchange for a painting or two as he needs a website to help him get his art out there he says. Samson is a guy from Accra in his early 30’s who I met when he was up in Wa visiting another vol. We got on very well and he took me for Pito and showed me where to get good food around Wa. I ran into him by accident in Accra and we went for a drink, a very nice guy and interesting to talk to, he has a lot of entrepreneurial spirit. There are a few other Ghanaians that I would call acquaintances that I am just beginning to get to know and trying to break through the cultural difference.
Aside from this there are other Volunteer organisations and NGOs that have people stationed in Wa. There are the American Peace Corp volunteers, Engineers without Borders, and a couple of Dutch organisations. I have met a few people through these and I am starting to meet more people through them.
Well I think that about wraps that up, I hope that wasn’t too boring, went on a lot longer than I intended.
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