Week 1: The flight was hard, I should probably take vacation

After landing from any flight, we all seem to politely ask, “How was the flight?” As if spending 25 hours in a steel tube beside individuals as unkempt, underfed, sleep-deprived, and under-oxygenated as I am could be a pleasant experience. This particular intercontinental journey did meet expectations and Egypt Air provides actual meals! My apologies to Air Canada, but lunch on your flight consisted of the loneliest roast beef sandwich I have ever met. It did not count as a meal, and if you could introduce him to a vegetable or a condiment, then he and I would both be so much happier. But enough about the flight, let’s get to the good stuff!

I arrived in Accra in the midst of the workweek and as a result, my Western brain assumed that first thing Wednesday morning, I would be trudging into an office in my then VERY wrinkled pants and dress shirt (it’s hard to keep things looking good when they are crammed in the bottom of a 75L pack). However, my boss was away on business in Northern Ghana, which left me with two options: 1) stay in Accra and get settled, or 2) tag along with a few EWB fellows on a trip to Ghana’s second largest city: Kumasi. Naturally, I chose Kumasi, and departed the morning after my arrival for a 5-hour bus journey to a new city. We spent the night at an EWB venture house. The venture was Votomobile, they do mobile polling for governments, NGOs, etc. Very cool organization, very talented people.  I met several new friends pictured below:

The following morning we visited the largest market in West Africa. It was truly impressive and no picture will ever do it justice. So here are two pictures that combined, do not adequately capture the experience.

After shopping, we did what anyone would do: left Kumasi for an amazing freshwater lake in the middle of crater created by a meteor! The hotel that my fellow Professional Fellow (FPF), Amanda, and I stayed at had some of the most vocal goats I have ever met in my life (they are usually chatty, but this was something else). It was upon remarking this to a fellow Junior Fellow (FJF) that I learned of a fellow Previous Fellow (FPrF)’s radio show that included a segment entitled: “Goat or Child.”  Sadly, I cannot find the actual thing, so here’s an approximation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlYlNF30bVg. The point is, goats are everywhere, they sometimes sound human, and they make me giggle.

 Alas, vacation could not last forever and my fellow Jolly Fellows (FJoF) – please ensure you have all of these acronyms down – and I returned to Accra for work on Monday. My first day of work was as a panelist with the Young Fellowship Program (YFP), which was conducting a group interview of candidates applying for fellowship positions. The interview consisted of a group case study on the Maize Industry, a group presentation, and an individual interview/debrief. My role was to be a facilitator for one of the groups and then an interviewer. The candidates were truly impressive and it was a privilege to be apart of this event. YFP will be conducting similar interviews in two more cities. They will then conduct follow-up phone interviews with the candidates and then be left with the difficult task of selecting 16 fellows for this year’s program. The fellowship provides one-month of training and then a five-month work placement in an agribusiness in Ghana. If you wish to find out more about this program, visit: http://www.afrileadinstitute.org/programs/ymp/.  I will have another opportunity to work more with YFP in Tamale for a few weeks starting next Monday.

 Tuesday was my first day at the Mobile Business Clinic (MBC) office in Accra. The office is near one of the businesses junctions in the city (Zongo Junction). I will cover more about the MBC in later posts.

My intention was to take a picture of my dinner prior to eating it, but alas, hunger got the best of me. Displayed below is the remnants of my groundnut soup with chicken (it was very spicy), Banku on the right (fermented cassava and corn dough - it takes some getting used to, but is quite nice), and my bag of water on the left.