Preparing for Ghana

Travel Plan:

I will be flying out of Atlanta directly to Accra. I will leave Atlanta around 9:30pm on December 30th and arrive in Accra around 1:30pm on December 31st. As far as time difference, Accra is 5 hours ahead of Atlanta, so if it's 9:00am in Atlanta, it is 3:00pm in Accra. So my flight will only be 11 hours in the air--not nearly as bad as I expected.

When I arrive:

The first night I'm there I'll be staying in a hotel in Accra. In the morning, the project leader will drive me 40 minutes or so away to the PCO guest house in Buduburam:

The view of the guest house from the courtyard

The guest house is located in the back of the Agricultural Development Bank

I will have my own room with a bed, writing desk, and two tables. There is a shower room attached (bucket shower -- no running water). There is a kitchen, a living room, and a toilet (read: a cement built up hole with a toilet seat--kind of like a port-o-potty, except that it is a permanent fixture in the house).

The guest house is near the Buduburam Refugee Camp which is where the PCO office is. You can read about the Buduburam Refugee Camp here, here, and here. (The last link is an article that talks about a Liberian refugee who is now working with PCO--the same organization I'll be working with in January). I will be working with similarly-situated Liberians that make up the staff of PCO who actually live in the camp.

I've been communicating with the volunteer who I'll be replacing. Her name is Sami Buisson-Daniel, and you can check out her blog here. She has been working in the Peace Cell for a few months now. She has been teaching various community leaders important skills like anger management, mediation, facilitation, conflict management, and utilizing a win/win approach. She has been helping out at the school too. From what she has told me, it seems pretty hectic. The teacher, Mary, conducts three classes simultaneously. The only thing separating the three classes is two big chalkboards (one of which has a big gaping whole that an adult can crawl through). I'm sure Mary has really appreciated Sami's help, and I'll certainly have big shoes to fill.

The bottom line:

I'll have to hit the ground running and expect to have my hands full.