week two
the past couple of days have really flown by. i have been working in the amassaman office with the two other volunteers, putting the marketing strategy together. the work is interesting to me,and it is refreshing to remind myself that i have skills and talents that i can apply to my work here and elsewhere. i dont know that i realized how burnt out of being a commerce employee i am until i had the chance to dive into a different type of work. i am becoming inspired to look for other types of work *well, on top of working and teaching community college and planning a fall wedding*....i met up with jawara's friends last night, who were of course very interesting, worldly and genuine. we talked a lot about job possibilities and they both seemed to feel with my skills, such as they are, i can definitely move to a development or training job. they even offered to help, which is pretty amazing considering i have just met them. they have a lot of contacts in these areas, and since they are essentially who i want to be when i grow up, i feel lucky for the connection. i've been spending a lot of time feeling in awe of people and the work they are doing, which is just not always the case in my commerce life!
vpwa has some projects that are in full swing, and others that are in various stages of development. vpwa just started a subproject of the microfinance loan, where they provide english lessons to the women who receive the loans. one of the groups we work with is a federation of muslim women in amasamman, so we conducted our first class at the school located next to the mosque in town. as this is ghana, we arrived not knowing whether the class would even take place yesterday or not. we were lead to a stark classroom with cement walls and floors, about nine desks and a chalkboard. because the school lacks electricity like many places do here we had to schedule the classes in the afternoon, in between the 3.00 and dusk calls to prayer. the purpose of the class is to give the microloan beneficiaries a basic grasp of english, which will hopefully lead to teaching business langauge words and concepts. four women and one teenage boy attended the session, which was of high interest to the school children who were milling about. they kept standing by the door and looking in through the windows. i think they were wondering what three white people were doing in one of their classrooms! i had not expected to be teaching english yesterday, but these are the things that happen here! we started very slow, only going from A through E, to introduce them to the alphabet. i think what i enjoy most is the tangible benefits to the women we are working with. between the loans, book keeping guidance and now language acquisition, the work that vpwa is doing will have a real impact on these women's lives. it really is phenomal to think about.
today i will step a bit back into my commerce role, going to the embassy to meet my colleagues there and having dinner with the senior commecial officer and her family. it is interesting getting all of these different glimpses into life in ghana. i am certain that the embassy provided house will be the nicest place i have set foot in while in africa, which may feel a bit strange. i will spend the morning visiting cynthia and then working in the office. hayford was so excited about my profile on her that he wants to connect me with other loan beneficiaries to write more! unfortunately time will work against us on this, but i really, really hope that i can spend thursday working with a couple of the other women. two weeks is not enough time, and i think if i was staying for longer that i could really contribute to the organization. with only three more work days here, i am definitely starting to feel that my time is waning and wish i had the chance to do more.
vpwa has some projects that are in full swing, and others that are in various stages of development. vpwa just started a subproject of the microfinance loan, where they provide english lessons to the women who receive the loans. one of the groups we work with is a federation of muslim women in amasamman, so we conducted our first class at the school located next to the mosque in town. as this is ghana, we arrived not knowing whether the class would even take place yesterday or not. we were lead to a stark classroom with cement walls and floors, about nine desks and a chalkboard. because the school lacks electricity like many places do here we had to schedule the classes in the afternoon, in between the 3.00 and dusk calls to prayer. the purpose of the class is to give the microloan beneficiaries a basic grasp of english, which will hopefully lead to teaching business langauge words and concepts. four women and one teenage boy attended the session, which was of high interest to the school children who were milling about. they kept standing by the door and looking in through the windows. i think they were wondering what three white people were doing in one of their classrooms! i had not expected to be teaching english yesterday, but these are the things that happen here! we started very slow, only going from A through E, to introduce them to the alphabet. i think what i enjoy most is the tangible benefits to the women we are working with. between the loans, book keeping guidance and now language acquisition, the work that vpwa is doing will have a real impact on these women's lives. it really is phenomal to think about.
today i will step a bit back into my commerce role, going to the embassy to meet my colleagues there and having dinner with the senior commecial officer and her family. it is interesting getting all of these different glimpses into life in ghana. i am certain that the embassy provided house will be the nicest place i have set foot in while in africa, which may feel a bit strange. i will spend the morning visiting cynthia and then working in the office. hayford was so excited about my profile on her that he wants to connect me with other loan beneficiaries to write more! unfortunately time will work against us on this, but i really, really hope that i can spend thursday working with a couple of the other women. two weeks is not enough time, and i think if i was staying for longer that i could really contribute to the organization. with only three more work days here, i am definitely starting to feel that my time is waning and wish i had the chance to do more.