Week 10

Sunday 6th September
A generally quiet couple of days spent mostly in and around the compound, save for popping into Bantama for shopping and internet on Saturday, and a few hours spent working in the office on Sunday morning – something of a habit that I seem to be getting into. In actual fact it’s often nice to break up what is usually a pretty uneventful day.

British kind of weather today with baking sunshine turning into torrential rain in the space of a few minutes, the storm pelting down ferociously for a good half an hour. Now I finally understand what they mean by the ‘rainy’ season.

There was cause for celebration tonight when Ghana became the first African nation to qualify for next year’s World Cup (hosts South Africa apart) to the delight of everyone man, woman and child in the area.

With Laura having left to go home on Thursday it’s certainly a lot quieter at the compound – and with most of the group I came over with flying back at various stages over the weekend my thoughts have been naturally turning to home – although there’s still a full month left here, there’s a certain feeling that things are starting to wrap up – a feeling that I’m doing my best to resist.

Without a great deal of work last week that’s probably contributing to the feeling, so I’m looking forward to getting stuck in again from tomorrow.


Monday 7th September
All of a sudden things are very much up in the air with Tiyah – although for a happy reason at least. After years of trying, and applying again to several universities again this year, Small Paul has finally got a place at university. The only thing is he has to leave tomorrow or will miss the opportunity to enrole.

It’s fantastic news for Paul who has found someone able to sponsor him to cover the fees, many intelligent people just don’t get the chance to get to uni with huge competition for spaces. I also feel some personal satisfaction having lent Paul the money for the original application I do feel like I have contributed to him getting there. I’ve seen half of the cash back, and don’t care about the rest of it – everything else aside I know that I’ve made a difference in at least one person’s life.

As to what happens next with Tiyah is anyone’s guess – Paul’s been the one constant presence and a strong driving force, and the source of the majority of our most valuable contacts, while we’ve been seeing less and less of Big Ahmed due to his work commitments.

All of which leaves us at rather a stand still. Without guides or translators there’s very little that we can do in the field – although there’s plenty of office based work and admin to keep Bridie and I busy this week we desperately need a long-term solution quickly. Without Paul, and with the constant flow of volunteers in and out we need a committed local presence for a foreseeable period. Asking a lot for what is an unpaid position though…

I only have about four weeks left, but there’s a new volunteer arriving on the 18th – I hope she has something to do!


Tuesday 8th September
One day after securing his place at Uni, Small Paul has upped sticks and left for the Eastern region leaving us in a state of limbo at Tiyah. He came round with Helen this morning to say goodbye and drop off a bed for another volunteer who’s arriving on Friday, so along with the fond farewells and best wishes we quizzed Helen about what happens next.

The short answer is that she doesn’t know, which wasn’t too surprising given the sudden nature of Paul’s departure. In the short term we’re going to have to keep busy with admin, the website and financial grant applications – giving her the time to recruit a suitable replacement.

Elsewhere, no sign of Big Paul since Sunday evening, it’s very unlike him to clear off even for a few hours without letting us know.

I braved Kejeitia market today on my own – having decided to cook dinner on Thursday night. With limited stove options a one-pot beef bourginion seemed a good option which meant trying to source and haggle for spuds, bay leaves and shallots – all of which I managed to track down, whether I paid the going rate is another matter entirely.


Wednesday 9th September
Bridie and I cracked on with a funding application this morning and I spent a largely frustrating couple of hours attempting to upload new copy to the Tiyah website in the afternoon, but that aside we’re no closer to working out what happens next at the project.

Aside from that a quiet day, catching a few late afternoon rays, preparing the marinade for tomorrow’s dinner, watching England qualify for the World Cup by thrashing Croatia at Wembley, and phoning home to deliver birthday wishes to mum.


Thursday 10th September
The SYTO office in Kumasi in the morning to finish off the grant application with Helen on her PC. We more or less got there in the end, but it typically what was probably a half our conversation ended up taking two hours before Bridie and I could prize ourselves away – edging slowly out of the door as Helen just kept on talking at us.

Without much on the agenda it was time to show Bernice some Western cooking and give her the night off cooking for us for once (not to mention myself a break from the nightly tomato sauce), so knocked up my beef bourginion – the only ingredient that I was unable to track down being the mushrooms.

The timings weren’t ideal – a combination of being delayed in the office with Helen, and Bernice having to leave for Thursday night church by 5.15 meant that I wasn’t able to cook the stew for as long as I would have wanted, but it did taste great. And everyone else – Bernice included seemed pretty impressed.

Not to be outdone, Bridie made pudding – stewed apple with Bird’s custard. The whole thing washed down with a acceptable bottle of merlot it was just like being at home, except for the roasting heat and lizards running past the table that is.

No word from Helen about Tiyah’s next steps – if nothing concrete can be put in place I might investigate other projects here in Kumasi that I might be able to get involved with in my last few weeks. Maybe some kind of construction project where I can get my hands dirty for a bit – I’d just hate to spend too much time sitting around twiddling my thumbs.


Friday 11th September
Been feeling a bit political at the moment, it’s coming from reading Obama’s auto biographic Dreams of My Father, and ended up having quite a discussion with Lovelace over my washing this morning.

As seems to be the case with almost educated, ambitious people (usually men) that I meet in Ghana, Lovelace’s one big mission is to leave the country of his birth and pursue opportunities in the West (USA, UK, Canada…) to help build a better life for him and his future family. It’s a commendable notion in some ways, and totally understandable from an individual’s point of view – the problem is though if all the best educated people, those with ambition, vision and energy end up leaving Ghana the situation here will never improve with the people left behind.

It’s not that they don’t love their country, or aren’t proud Ghanaians, its just to them the only answer seems to be to move abroad. I’m not sure the grass is always greener though when educated men end up working in menial jobs earning minimum wage (if they’re lucky) in the West.

Vocational qualifications are viewed as a ticket out of Ghana, which is why we benefit from so many African doctors and nurses in our hospitals even though their knowledge and expertise is so desperately needed in their motherland.

On an even bigger scale, what is the incentive for the Ghanaian Government to improve the education system if all the best people are just being trained up to leave in a brain drain to foreign climes?

Away from my soapbox, we had a new arrival in the compound today – Julia from Colonge is here for three months volunteering in the local kindergarten. A young, non-drinking, non-smoking, bespectacled German so I’m not holding out too many hopes for a barrel full of laughs.