How to live on 1 Cedi 60 pesewas a day (90 cents a day)

Buy 20 pesewas worth of porridge before 8am as it's high in demand and the pot will be scraped clean at 8:01 leaving your belly grumbling. Slice one of the 3 bananas you got for 20 pesewas the night before (you share them with another person so in fact you only pay for and have a right to 1.5 bananas). Prepare a cup of real coffee, which costs about 2 pesewas when you add powdered milk and sugar (all 3 from west African States) that you purchased on Kejetia market.

Use your 30 pesewas piece of fresh bread or sugar bread to finish off the other half banana. You purchase all of these locally to cut out transportation costs and support local traders who in turn give you better deals once they see you are a loyal customer.

For dinner, between 3-5pm, given that you have not invested in pots or pans, charcoal or a grill , etc. you go to one of the many local roadside eating joints, which pretty much serve up home cooking. It's economically better sense for the majority of adults who are working to eat this way. For 40 pesewas you will get a good serving of rice, plaintains, yam or fufu - add some 30 pesewas of cabbage stew, cocoyam leaves with sauce, or salad and mayo - leave out your meat and fish which are an unessential additive, and hey presto you are full for the rest of the day.


You still have enough for a cold sachet of water, costing 5 pesewas, while you can buy for small, fresh oranges for 20 pesewas and spilt them with partner.

Then, to top it all off, you have 20 pesewas for bisuits, a chocolate chewy, more fruit or a cold juice.

That's how you live on a budget of 1 euro a day in Ghana if you are a volunteer! And it all tastes good, is healthy and substantial enough to keep you fighting off all them bugs.

Of course, you will need a supplementary fund for internet and whatever other enterprises you want to engage in. But living on 50 pesewas of food for a month is a good way to start saving for other areas. If you have your own tips, feel free to add.

Volunteering in Ghana and exploring Kejetia market

Outside the tailoring room. Boys dormitory and toilets in the background. Immanuel taking a beak.

Edwenase Rehabilitation Centre - Staff and Students

I've been just over 2 weeks in Ghana now. Tonight I found a great internet cafe so hopefully I can update this blog a bit more. The below entries have been waiting patiently to be uploaded for a week. At last they can see the light of cyber-life. I hope they can give you some insight into daily life here from theperspective of an 'Obroni' (Twi word used to describe anybody with white skin).

Kejetia Market

The livelihoods of thousands of Ashanti region families rely upon daily business at Kejetia market in downtown Kumasi. From the fishermen who supply dozens of fresh choices to the traders, to the weavers who provide yards and yards of traditional, beautifully coloured kente cloth for people to use as curtains, dresses, trousers, shawls and shower towels, amongst many other purposes.

From a high vantage point, the sprawling mass of individual units and mobile sellers seems to be a chaotic mess. But everything has it's own 'way' here, and once one steps of their global northern horse for a moment, the particular districts specialising in certain commodities become more apparent. Entering from the tro tro (minibus) station side, one approaches the stationary area, advancing eastwards towards sweets, lanterns, cups, buckets, brooms, and general household materials. After a few hundred metres one may stumble upon a disused railway track (Ghana's railways are somewhat obsolete and unused nowadays) is home to general clothes, progressing from menswear trouser and shoe wear to women and children's casual western style clothing. It reminded me of images I have seen from a great distance of the Kibera slum district in Nairobi, Kenya – though trading actually occurs on a live railway there and traders have to be efficient in gathering their stock out of the way when trains appear.

Branching off to one of the labryinthine side streets after 200 metres of railway, with a quick sniff you will wander into the nut quarter, and soon afterwards into the massive fish section. Before coming to Ghana I rarely ate fish, but given the fact that I have no or little other source of protein apart from daily fish portions served at dinner, my past habits have gone to the wayside.

Even for carnivores I would imagine that the sight of cows' heads in the back seat of a car are enough to speed up your departure from the meat section. The more pleasant smell of peanut butter and colour of traditional cloth stalls attracted our eyes and we ended up having a useful Twi lesson from the owner. Dorota bought 2 yards of beautiful cloth for a trousers to be sewn in the tailoring workshop at Edwenase Centre. I got 2 yards of cloth to work dually as a cover in bed and a spare, quick to dry shower towel.

After about 3 hours we had pencils, pens, rulers, sketch pads, cups, traditional cloth, soap, a clothes brush and other assorted items in our bags as we headed back to the Centre for lunch.

Edwenase Rehabilitation Centre

Well, my first full week at Edwenase should have been a week to remember but it was so full of activities that I can hardly believe it is already over.

Monday saw Markus from Germany, Mattia from Italy and I cover for the rural craft teacher. We had already done 3 days of his class the previous week, though given the lack of materials, and the students' multiple special needs the class is usually somewhat idle. So after playing Uno playing cards for numeracy and colour recognition, basketball and bowling for fun and accuracy, dominoes, paper plane construction and flying competitions, we decided to keep the inclusive and participatory nature of the class going.

With 'Mikado' game sticks we made the outline of a Ghanaian flag: red (representing the blood of their ancestors), green (for the beautiful fauna throughout large parts of the country) and gold with a black star representing one of their key resources (exploited by Anglo Ashanti Gold) and pan-Africanism, respectively.

Other stuff I have been involved with is our Christmas Card Action, teaching the director basic computer skills, teaching English to Rita, the Needlework teacher and Centre supervisor, co-planning literacy classes for the 70 students (due to commence soon), sports games and activities, general maintenance, manual and cleaning work around the Centre, helped organise the Centre's first group photo, amongst many other things.

I'll write more details in my next blog.

One thing is for certain, there is always something to do at Edwenase Rehabilitation Center in Kumasi.

I'll upload some more photos of our work as soon as possible.

Hope the photos included here satisfy any hunger for images and less text. I'm grateful to Dorota and Lena for allowing me to use them from their blogs.

Dorota's blog

Lena's blog

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.

Flashpackers stay home!

Well, as Dorota enters her 11th last day prior to departure from Berlin for Accra, the coming week will hopefully see me have a return plane ticket in hand and vaccines in bloodstream as part of my own preparations. I'm also waiting to be sent an invitation letter from a local organisation so I can get a 3 month business visa and then all will be set - apart from the packing that is.

After reading an interesting article recently about flashpackers (backpackers with a colossal amount of tech gear in their rucksacks), I've decided the most sensible thing is to leave behind my laptop. It'll only be a nuisance to carry around and consume time that could be better spent learning Twi and meeting people in Kumasi, playing the guitar, not to mention the detrimental barrier to communication that it poses between couples.

My laptop has it's time and place - but this time and place will be best served with my friend Gerald, who has been thinking of getting a laptop for a while. He'll have a free one for a year now and can then decide whether he wants to splash out on his own. And I'll have pain free shoulders when I transport my luggage.

So that's one load less to think about mid-October when I am wedging stuff into my bag. Now, how about the digital camera? yip, no need for that either I think. If I'm desperate I can always get a disposable somewhere. MP3 player that I got from a friend en route to the Mid-East last year? Well, it's very handy for language learning and doing interviews, and most importantly is tiny and weightless. Mobile? Hmmm, well it's also weightless and small and a must for emergency contact, so best bring that too. For sure nobody will pinch it even if I left it behind somewhere as it's falling apart.

On a less tech but still on the bulky side, the classical guitar will also have to be left somewhere in Ireland. I already managed to find a grateful new owner for my acoustic guitar in Poland prior to travelling to Dublin. Hopefully I can pick up a cheap one in Kumasi to avoid losing my mediocre talent.

Knowing that I will be away from TV, my laptop and the multi-faceted digital assaults one must endure in Dublin for a year is quite therapeutic. I'm looking forward to meeting more people face to face and not on facebook! Surely that is the proper foundation for inter-cultural networking.

TWI - Study for Ghana

Here's a little Twi lesson for those of you interested in seeing and hearing what it is like. Follow the audio link here for a sound sample


This is the translation of the above text:

A cow was grazing in a field of grass.
This field was near a pond which was full of frogs.
When the frogs saw him some of them exclaimed, "This fellow is extremely big."
Just as they said this, one of the frogs remarked, "I can blow myself up as big as this cow."
No sooner had he said it, than he began to blow himself up, and he went on blowing until he burst.

Patience isn't just a popular card game

It embodies everything when one is preparing to volunteer, travel, move house, amongst an abundance of other stressful yet exciting transitions. We're still waiting to find out if we will be able to share accommodation through Dorota's organisation. If not, there are contigency plans, but it doesn't help ease the stress factor.

On a positive note though, I found out on Wednesday from Thomas Cook travel agents that British Midland fly Dublin-London-Accra return for €813. That's €70 lower than the previous cheapest quote of €874 we had received with Lufthansa. Dorota heads back to Poland this Thursday so I will be all on my own in overcast Dublin. Let's hope I get relief work in homeless shelters asap for the last month before I head off. Question now is whether to leave early October around the same time as Dorota, or wait, let her settle in, and head over a few weeks later.

Lots of questions, not so many answers at this stage.

I will also have to make do with a 6 month holiday visa initially unless I get an invitation letter from a host organisation. That would grant me the possibility of a 1 year work/volunteering visa.

Anyhow, I'll get the jabs over and done with soon to have that out of the way. One hurdle off the list will help in the long run.

Only the rich need apply (Part 1)

Yesterday was quite eventful as regards my search for a placement in Ghana. Dorota suggested the great idea that I should directly contact the Kumasi based organisations on Idealist.org(a global volunteer portal) and see what replies I'd get. At first, I didn't hold much hope for this avenue. Why?

Well, despite the fact that most local organisations claim they are non-profit, some have offices in Washington, London, etc. and require hugely inflated fees to cover one's administration, accommodation, feeding costs. Even if the HQ of the NGO is locally based, there seems to be an attitude - 'these white folks are rich so let's bleed them dry!'

Could you blame them? Absolutely not. After all, many struggle to run their projects on limited resources, so if somebody with a wallet full of cash from the US or Europe wants the experience of a lifetime then, so be it.

It kind of reminds me of the irony surrounding LiveAid and it's Make Poverty History successor during the Gleneagles G8 summit 2 years ago. Rich popstars flying in from all over, singing to combat mass poverty, but with little or no consultation involving grassroots pan-African social movements about change from below.
Time to be humble. I recently read on Larry James's blog (He works with the 'marginalised' in Dallas) that he carries business cards with an asterisk * directing people to the following warning - "Beware: this man doesn't know what he is doing!" So if you think what I'm saying here is utterly wrong, then feel free to attack.

My problem does not really lie with what seems to be the Poverty Industry's maxim: 'Only the rich need apply'. My problem lies with the fact that many organisations in Ghana and elsewhere just don't want a volunteer who won't cost them a cent. There are always strings attached.

It seems impossible to opt out of offers of having to pay $100 a week for 3 meals a day - this is Kumasi in Ghana, not Galway, Chicago or Warsaw. Food, even taking into consideration recent price increases, preparation time and effort, etc. comes nowhere near that cost in Ghana.

Dorota and I spend a maximum of $100 a week on food for both of us. That would include water, electricity charges. And I'm talking about living in Dublin, Ireland - one of the most expensive cities to live in throughout Europe.

So charging one $3-5,000 for 6 months feeding, accommodation, airport pickup and some other minor accessories seems totally inflated. I've asked around and former volunteers, even people from Ghana and the general region, tend to agree.

The best option I have seen to date is 6 months accommodation and food with a host family for $1,150. This seems to be quite a reasonable price. Am I tight? No! I just don't want to be used and don't see how been used benefits anybody. So I look forward to keeping in touch with the Special Need Children Center and see if we can work something out.


Only the rich need apply (Part 2)
I am not going to whine or name any organisations here. That would be unfair. Suffice to say I developed a healthy scepticism about how NGO's utilise money after hearing about Concern workers dining on lobster in 5 star hotels in Sri Lanka whilst post-tsunami victims picked up the pieces of their lives. Concern workers on the ground, like most NGO relief agenices, do amazing work. The problem lies with their high-living hierarchs.

After following the issues around Dorota's Masters thesis earlier this year (on the motivations of volunteers who go to the golbal south, both those who pay huge amounts of money and those who receive some sponsorship), as well as my own research for volunteer placements over the past few years, one certainly does see the highs and lows of the Poverty Industry.

It's no different here in Dublin. Huge amounts of money for homeless and immigrant services are wasted on unnecessary bureaucracy, branding, huge wages for the CEO and his/her playmates (who from experience rarely call into homeless shelters or hostels for asylum seekers). The have assimilated the stereotypical modern corporate structure - hook, line and sinker.

So where next for me? Well, I'm still hoping that my contacts with the African Centre here in Dublin will come up trumps. I'm also awaiting news from the Spiritans (Holy Ghost Fathers) in Ghana to see if they have any contacts. I'm trying to get in contact with a Ghanaian who I lived with when I was studying to be a priest in Kimmage. Dorota has contacted her organisation to see if they can facilitate our request to be accommodated in the same volunteer house. So singers crossed, or as they say in Polish: Trzymaj kcziuki (Hold your thumbs)!

Preparing to volunteer in Ghana

My name is Damien Moran. I am a teacher from Banagher, Co. Offaly, in the heart of Ireland. Currently I am planning on volunteering in Kumasi, Ghana, from early October, 2008. My hope is to find a non-profit placement for 9 months, followed by visiting social activists in North West Africa for 3 months, then returning to Ireland to share my experiences.

My Polish girlfriend currently has a placement to work with disabled adults through a European Voluntary Service programme hosted by the Edwenase Rehabilitation Centre in Kumasi, capital of the Ashanti region of Ghana. She begins in October and I plan to spend the time volunteering with her.

Dorota and I on my birthday, at The Thatch restaurant in Birr, Co. Offaly

I have decided to set up this blog as a medium for friends, family and interested cyber-visitors to tune into how these preparations and the volunteering experience itself unfold. No mortgage, car, kids - yet, yet, yet (kids are the only 1 out of this trio that I ever want) - my most valued possession at the moment is a rusting raleigh racer.

So if you consider your pockets as bulging, you feel weighed down by all them €500 notes and credit cards in your wallet, you have one to many apartments in Budapest, have decided to give up the drink for November and the cigarettes for December, please consider donating a small token sum of money to help alleviate the substantial costs I will incur in order to work for free and share my skills as an English, Geography and EFL teacher.

Next stop, Ghana!

To get to know me a little bit better and ensure that I am not just another scam artist who is in fact the son-in-law of the former president of Nigeria, please have a look at my personal blog: www.peacenikhurler.blogspot.com

Having previously worked in an Irish bar in Gran Canaria, volunteered in Haiti, worked with a plumber in New York, worked with homeless alcoholics and drug addicts in Dublin, taught English in Poland, and most recently volunteered in Palestine, I should, perhaps, hang up my carbon over-loaded boots and start planting trees for the rest of my life.

But it seems to me that we are so disengaged in the prosperous regions of the global north from the daily grind of life in the vast majority of the global south. To combat counter this it is important to continue developing strong personal friendships and networks amongst those who infinitely toil to meek out a subsistence living. This provides deeper opportunities for us to connect with and positively influence our societies about global responsibilities in a spirit of mutual aid.

From the school classroom to the pub on a Friday night (well, actually, I don't drink, so you may not meet me at your local), we can break down prejudices and help others work towards social justice for all.

So, from our current struggles with the Ghanaian (just one of them) language, Twi, the vaccinations, visas, work placements, travel, preparatory self-defence training to combat affectionate mosquitoes, this blog promises to be a mish-mash of anxieties, hopes, fears, revelations, cultural faux-pas's, successes and failures, friendship-building and inter-cultural learning, struggles and dehydration, and of course, more lethal fights with mosquitoes.



Tune in, stay tuned, spread the frequency amongst the masses, add comments, criticisms, tips, blank cheques and whatever else you feel like.

To conclude, I will try integrate some Twi wisdom, words, phrases every now and then on this blog - partly so I remember them, and partly for you to experience what a beautiful language it is:

'Obi a ɔyɛ basabasa ntumi nyɛ Onyankopɔn adamfo'

In English: 'A violent person cannot be God’s friend'