First Impressons after 6 Days in Ghana

Dublin to Accra

I was lucky to be sitting beside the woman in seat 28A. Gloria, a nurse educator and Ghanaian native has been living in Virginia, U.S.A., for the past 17 years. A Barack Obama supporter and woman acutely aware of African American history and the undercurrents of racism in US society, the paralysis of their media, the corrupted nature of their political system that spouts freedom on one side of its mouth and blows innocent people asunder from the other side.

The trip of 6 hours from Heathrow passed by like a soft cool breeze, a rare act of nature in Kumasi where I currently reside. I have now been in Ghana for 6 days and after calling Gloria yesterday it seems like she will come to Edwenase Centre to give some First Aid training for the teachers and talk on a range of other necessary health and safety issues for the betterment of the project.

Accra

Dorota met me at the airport and she was grateful for myt swift arrival as a number of men had already apporached her to talk about Jesus. It seems the locals are not so good at the chat up lines when it comes to European women. We got a taxi to Date Hotel (a hostel that has dropped the 's' for marketing purposes), stayed 2 nights in the Adabraka district, had some lovely street food from the local roadside eatery, picked some shells and stones on a beach walk and soaked up the rays, though we were a little roasted afterwards.

I was hesitant at first, as the only way we seemed to be able to get access to the beach was through the Afia village hotel. Naomi Klein's tales in her wonderful book on disaster capitalism, 'The Shock Doctrine', sprung to mind as I pondered whether I should ruin a nice sea side walk as a result of my angst against privatised beaches.

Thankfully the beach was public so no such worries came into play.

It's silly to even begin giving impressions of a place one has only visited for a 36 hour period and I have no intention of falling into the usual trap that visitors, volunteers and journalists from the west fall into, as Binyavanga Wainana writes of in my last blog.

So suffice to say that Accra is alive and kicking, buzzing with colour a friendly smiles and a hectic rythymn that would put the fastest of Irish music to the test.

Accra to Kumasi

The tro tro (minibus transportation) station was about a 20 minute walk from our accommodation, so well sweated I arrived and Dorota found us our link to Kumasi. We waited 45 mins for it to fill up, had to endure a Christian preacher barking at us with a bible aloft for the first 20 minutes of the journey (3 or 4 passengers enjoyed his speech and gave him some money at the end), 6 police checkpoints to check the driver's licence and monitor his speed, a good few dozen overtakings performed by our good but fast driver, heat pelting down upon us like we had hit the earth's core. And its not even dry season yet.

All in all it took 5 hours. We arrived at Kumasi around 2.30pm and a short walk brought us to another tro tro en route to Edwenase, my present home until August next. Dorota both me a vanilla icecream on the way so that helped cool the body temperature. They cost 25 pesewas (about 16 euro cents) from the traders who walk around with them on their heads. They are stored in a special wooden casket with a transparent screen and taste like heaven (if heaven has a flavour) when your boiling up.

Edwenase

I have just being at Edwenase Rehabilitation Centre for 3 full days now, but already things are going well for me. There are about 70 residents who learn tailoring, dressmaking, shoemaking, practical agriculture, rural craft, hairdressing, as well as common life skills and a wide variety of games. I will write more about my activities and post some photos taken by the students over the coming days.

I am happy that I have concentrated totally on the life of the Centre thusfar and slowly integrating, getting to know the students special needs. Some are deaf, others blind, quite a number have mobility difficulties, while many have multiple disabilities. Despite the mnay challenges they face they are inspiring people to look at in training, intelligent in mnay ways, some not so obvious from the outset.

The best drummer in the centre, for example, is blind and almost completely deaf.

From Wednesday to Friday I helped organise class activities for what is usually the 'rural craft group', as their teacher had left to attend a family funeral. The class became more a games and activities centre including making paper airplanes, playing bowling, basketball, drawing and colouring, card games to help with numeracy and colour recognition. All games focused on student participation and positive affirmation as the norm unfortunately ends up that many are just unable to perform their class activities without special assistance and constant repetition.

The challenges and needs are many at Edwenase. Due to the fact that it is a Dept. of Social Welfare project the funding is sporadic yet the land and dedication of the staff is really great. The participation of the students in the everyday life of the centre is fantastic and they are always willing to help 'obroni' ('European' or 'white person') find his or her way.

How to Write About Africa by Binyavanga Wainaina

If you have ever mentioned the word Africa from your mouth, or have written something about the continent and its inhabitants, then I hope you have read this beforehand. I hadn't, unfortunately.

I had, however, received good guidance from Dorota about the code of conduct on images and messages regarding the global south and development issues.

Both are important and substantial food for thought. Indeed, they are a life time supply of 5 course meals in wisdom and fairness. All volunteers, journalists, activists, religious, etc. should consider their content carefully. Please read on and check out the links.

Always use the word ‘Africa or ‘Darkness’ or ‘Safari’ in your title. Subtitles may include the words ‘Zanzibar’, ‘Masai’, ‘Zulu’, ‘Zambezi’, ‘Congo’, ‘Nile’, ‘Big’, ‘Sky, ‘Shadow’, ‘Drum’, ‘Sun’ or ‘Bygone’. Also useful are words such as ‘Guerrillas’, ‘Timeless’, ‘Primordial’ and ‘Tribal’. Note that ‘People’ means Africans who are not black, while ‘The People’ means black Africans.

Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.

In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don’t get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn’t care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular.

Read full text here

Edwenase Rehabilitation Centre

Dorota has been based in Kumasi for 2 weeks now. She is a volunteer at Edwenase Rehabilitaion Centre. I will be joining her in Kumasi on Sunday and hope to start volunteering soon after.

Edwenase Centre aims to help with the rehabilitation and provision of vocational training to disabled and physically challenged individuals. At the moment there are about 70 residents at the Centre.

Daily training provided includes catering, education, rural craft, hairdressing, dressmaking, needlework, agriculture, and basic numeracy.

Any community member who is disabled or physically challenged is welcome to join in on the activities where vocational training opens up lots of opportunities for income generation and greater access to the workplace.

Edwenase does not have a website at the moment but solidarity projects have accounts of their interactions with the residents and photos of the centre.

Worldwide Travel and Emergency Medical Insurance

I've had to do a bit of shopping over the past week. On previous travels I've opted out of travel insurance plans but given that I will be away this time for 10 months in an area where I may catch malaria or have an accident but have no medical cover, I thought it best (with some persuasive advice from loved ones and other volunteers) that basic cover is essential for Ghana.

VHI have a global health cover policy for travellers going abroad (worldwide excl. US/Canada option)for 6 months+, but that excludes dental emergency care and costs €763. Maybe they offer a cheaper option to VHI members? But it's a bit steep I think.

Quinn Direct do not seem to have an option beyond 31 days for a single trip. Multi trip does not apply for more than 30 days on any one trip. I spoke to one of their agents and was told the max. they can cover for is 6 months. I didn't get a quote but as they are a private health insurer expect a quote around €500, probably more.

USIT on the other hand have 2 options for backpackers (even though I wouldn't count myself in this category). Their work and travel section only covers US, Australia, for example, so volunteers not going through a USIT programme havethe following options:

Silver policy (10 months)- €330

Gold policy (10 months) - €345

In order to get access to either of them you have to have one of their cards. The cheapest to get if you are not a student is the backpacker card, which will set you back €25. Or if you can prove that you are a teacher (bring a reference) you can get a teacher card costing €13.

The difference between the policies is fairly big in terms of the amount you can be paid out. For example, if you die, under the silver policy you get (or your next of kin) €1 million, whereas under the gold policy you get €1.5 million. But you'll be dead so who cares! Essentially they cover the same ground, including emergency surgical or medical procedures, repatriation in the event of illness, high risk sporting activities, travel cancellation, luggage loss, etc.

Then there are some cheaper options that I searched through, but most do not have appropriate annual cover. For example, Insure have an "annual multi trip cover which means that you may make multiple journeys of up to a maximum of 31 Days duration each, subject to a cumulative 90 days during the policy period."

Watch out for this small print as Bank of Ireland have the same stipulation for their multi-trip insurance. The single trip cover is for 90 days maximum. If you are going on a 3 month voluntary trip this may work out well. It costs €68 for the first 31 days, then €9 for each additional week.

AIB probably have something similar but I don;t have an a/c with them so didn't bother checking.


Just Cover offer a Backpacker / Longstay quote of €200. With cancellation and baggage cover it moves up to €258. This might be the option that I'll take. €130 less than USIT, it has quite good coverage in terms of medical emergency, dental emergency, and you have the option of opting out of cancellation and baggage cover which USIT does not have.

If you know of any more options please add a comment.

Crisis in the West - Opportunity for Africa

Paul Collier, who directs the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University, has written an interesting article about how the global financial downturn provides a timely opportunity to root out the looters of Africa's wealth and their banking facilitators in the West. He is the author of The Bottom Billion

...........now that we have the banks on the run there is an opportunity to extend scrutiny, not only to help ourselves, but to help Africa.

The loot-seeking elites that control parts of Africa illicitly send capital out of the region to the tune of $20 to $28bn per year. Illicit money flows are hard to quantify, but this is the new estimate by Raymond Baker of the NGO Global Financial Integrity, the most careful and ingenious study to date. Capital flight of this magnitude is roughly equivalent to the entire aid inflow to the region, so closing it would generate a similar resource transfer to doubling aid. One side-effect of the financial crisis is that aid commitments will be at the front of the queue for spending cuts. For example, in the vice-presidential debate it was the only Democratic spending pledge that Joe Biden suggested might be rethought.

While the crisis will weaken our assistance for the poorest countries by curtailing aid, it could inadvertently have an offsetting effect if we use it to close the illicit outflow. Money flows out of Africa into our banks, and into the offshore banks that depend for their existence upon being able to transact with our banks. US rules on banking transparency are even weaker than the European rules: vast sums looted from the public purse in Africa are being held in nominee accounts and moved around the world at greater speed than our cumbersome legal processes can track them down.

Western legal systems are stacked, thanks to the hired hands of skilled lawyers, to protect the rights of the crooked over the rights of Africa's ordinary citizens. At the time of the Commission for Africa, I urged that Britain revise its laws on banking secrecy. Yet despite the enormous emotional energy aroused by Gleneagles, there was no political appetite: aid, yes; banking openness, no. The silver lining in this grim cloud is that we have a second chance to clean up the banks. Which takes me back to where I began.

But why would we expect western governments to return that which is rightfully the wealth of Africa's citizens (remember: 54 countries, 922 million people)looted by Africa's elite when they've never returned the wealth (note: gold, cocoa, sugar, coffee, ivory, rubber, oil, diamonds, amongst a wide range of other minerals, agri-produce and resources including, e.g. coltan essential for mobile phones) stolen from their former colonies which they continue to plunder through brutal trade policies, etc.?

Passport arrives, Visa and Flight Ticket on the way

The Passport Office have a great service in Dublin. One can log in online and check the status of their application by entering the reference code underneath the bar code on their receipt.

So I was happy to see that my renewed 10 year passport (obligatory for travel to West Africa) is 3 days early and ready for collection.

That opens all doors for me to get a 6 month visa in the Ghanaian consulate open between Tuesday and Thursday (opening hours 10-12 noon for those interested) and also for me to get to Dublin airport in order to pay for my ticket.

As posted earlier, British Airways flights to West Africa only accept Mastercard or Visa with 'secure code' (This is not the 3 last digits on the back of our card) which Bank of Ireland for one do not even offer their customers. Most British banks do provide the service but one needs to upgrade to Silver, Executive or Gold membership. A bit of a pain really.

Anyhow, things finally seem to be working out ok, and I'm looking forward to heading off on Thursday Oct. 16th. I never realised I would have had to scale so many obstacles just to get there though.

Flights to Ghana - More hardship

Murphy's Law continues. Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. Well, at least it tests one's resilience. After months of researching flights with limited information as to when I could exactly go ahead and book one, I tried British Airways yesterday. Unfortunately, when one is going to West Africa, your Mastercard or Visa does not have 'secure code', then you cannot book online. 

When I rang Bank of Ireland credit card services I was told that they don't offer 'secure code' services. However, British Airways claim that once you get an Executive, Silver or Gold credit card then you should be able to secure your payment and reservation.

Therefore, if you have an Irish credit card and want to travel to West Africa you have to go their Dublin office in person. The catch, you have to have your passport. Unfortunately I won't have mine back from the passport office until Thursday.

Is your head spinning yet? 

At least today I managed to put down a 96 hour reservation for departure from Dublin to Accra Oct. 16th, returning Aug. 15th 2009 for 952 euro. Let's hope they won't ask for my passport when I go to their office on Wednesday!

Hope this helps any volunteers who are planning on going to West Africa in the near future.

Cheap flights to Ghana

I thought I had struck gold last night. Ghana International Airlines gave me a confirmation number and the details of my flight - but I hadn't even paid them a cent or a penny through the booking process.

Reviews of Ghana International Airlines look like a nightmare. Maybe they write the few good ones themselves? I am not a fussy traveller by any stretch of the information, but I do not like getting screwed, so will probably end up avoiding them now.

When you try to book on their website you just get a confirmation number which it seems you have to bring to Gatwick airport. No payment is made until you get to the desk. At least they don't ask or do not provide a service on their website to accept payment for the ticket.

This seems to be what awaits me if I go down the GIA route

Looks like you just have to bring confirmation no. to the check-in desk and if you are too late joining the queue (e.g. no. 301 on a 300 capacity flight, then you don't get on the plane and have to pay a $100 fine in order to fly the next day cause you were supposedly 'late.'

Problem with going there early seems to be that there are already going to be a load of people waiting from the previous 2 days!!!! So despite the cheap prices, it seems like a major risk and may end up costing the same as British airways or Lufthansa in the long run. In addition to that, I would have to deal with getting from Dublin to Gatwick and change terminals, pick up luggage, etc.

Finally, quite a few complaints have been made about lack of or late luggage arrival. Not that anyone would benefit from going through my stock of clothes, but it just causes more unnecessary delays and hardship. Furthermore, it seems that when people get so frustrated while waiting in the queue, they are often willing to pay more for business class seats. So even if you are number 1 in the queue, you will have to wait until those who have paid more money, whether it be for refundable or business class tickets, to board first, thus reducing the posssibility you will get a seat.

Confused???? Me too...........

British Airways have a quote for Dublin-Accra of €944, departure Oct. 16th 2008 and return August 15th 2009.

Lufthansa have a quote for the same route for €918 but the flight stopover in Frankfurt means the total journey is about 3/4 hours longer each way.