Last week I had my first full week at work and what a week it was, full of frustrations, fury and fun! Firstly I still have no moto so am dependant on the GES car coming out to Kumbosgo to pick me up and drop me off everyday! The car can turn up anytime between 8am and 9am (frustration) so the mornings range from anything between a mad rush to shower, throw on some clothes and make a groundnut paste (pretty much peanut butter) sandwich for breakfast to eat in the car on the way to work, to a leisurely book reading, catch-up with housemates, internet checking amble of a morning!
However as we are discovering with this volunteer story and Ghana as a country, it would be too simple for that to be the only frustrating part...on Wednesday last week the GES car broke down so a long, hot afternoon was spent at the mechanics shop after work in an attempt to get it fixed, but to no avail! When I eventually got home that evening I had managed to calm down and tell myself that this is all part of the experience and that I wanted my time here to teach me new things, patience being one of them! This did not stop me from having a good old rant at my poor housemates at the end of last week though!
So my fury came as I spent more and more time in the office and found myself surrounded by some people working very hard and others who would sit around all day long reading newspaper and books! Obviously this is something that would never in a million years go on back home (unless someone really was wanting out of work, but was too gutless to resign choosing to be fired instead) but appears to very much be a part of normal GES working life in Ghana with no-one battering an eye-lid at such behaviour! I was amazed really that the minority of people working hard did not cause a stir about those who would come into the office and do nothing at all! I then experienced some of my first meetings and again found myself gob-smacked by some of the behaviours going on - people would take phone calls during the meeting, often not leaving the meeting so as to not disturb others, people would fall asleep and feel no shame about doing this and everyone at the end would expect T&T (time and travel) money for their effort to get to the meeting (in fact the T&T is often their only motivation for attending the meeting at all because the rate is ridiculously high)!
Luckily after the fury came the fun otherwise I may well have found myself on a plane home! Firstly I decided to embrace the challenges I was facing and to attempt to take them in my stride! Obviously this will not come overnight so there is a long way to go, but I think that if I can manage it over my time here in Ghana then I will have finally cracked the art of patience! Secondly I started to feel less shy in the office (I know can you believe it, me being shy) and found myself engaging more with the GES staff who are in fact all lovely lovely people, just some of them also very lazy! I have found out many more things about life in Ghana and I have shared many things about life back home and I have had fun while doing it! I even found myself on the top table at the District Assembly inaugeration of newly elected members, which was a lot of fun...
However as we are discovering with this volunteer story and Ghana as a country, it would be too simple for that to be the only frustrating part...on Wednesday last week the GES car broke down so a long, hot afternoon was spent at the mechanics shop after work in an attempt to get it fixed, but to no avail! When I eventually got home that evening I had managed to calm down and tell myself that this is all part of the experience and that I wanted my time here to teach me new things, patience being one of them! This did not stop me from having a good old rant at my poor housemates at the end of last week though!
So my fury came as I spent more and more time in the office and found myself surrounded by some people working very hard and others who would sit around all day long reading newspaper and books! Obviously this is something that would never in a million years go on back home (unless someone really was wanting out of work, but was too gutless to resign choosing to be fired instead) but appears to very much be a part of normal GES working life in Ghana with no-one battering an eye-lid at such behaviour! I was amazed really that the minority of people working hard did not cause a stir about those who would come into the office and do nothing at all! I then experienced some of my first meetings and again found myself gob-smacked by some of the behaviours going on - people would take phone calls during the meeting, often not leaving the meeting so as to not disturb others, people would fall asleep and feel no shame about doing this and everyone at the end would expect T&T (time and travel) money for their effort to get to the meeting (in fact the T&T is often their only motivation for attending the meeting at all because the rate is ridiculously high)!
Luckily after the fury came the fun otherwise I may well have found myself on a plane home! Firstly I decided to embrace the challenges I was facing and to attempt to take them in my stride! Obviously this will not come overnight so there is a long way to go, but I think that if I can manage it over my time here in Ghana then I will have finally cracked the art of patience! Secondly I started to feel less shy in the office (I know can you believe it, me being shy) and found myself engaging more with the GES staff who are in fact all lovely lovely people, just some of them also very lazy! I have found out many more things about life in Ghana and I have shared many things about life back home and I have had fun while doing it! I even found myself on the top table at the District Assembly inaugeration of newly elected members, which was a lot of fun...
Thirdly I have created my action plan for my next nine months at work, which involves a lot of time out for Easter, summer and Christmas holidays but I am ready and raring to go...!
SO proud of you Han, this sounds really tough but I know you're making the most of it and will learn a lot from this incredible experience.
ReplyDeleteMissing you and thinking of you xxxxxx
Aww thank you hun bun that means a lot :-)
ReplyDeleteIt is tough at times, but also a lot of fun so yes definitely a lot of learning to be had from life in Ghana!
Missing you always!
HUGE Loves
xx
P.S. Thank you for your email too, will reply asap!