and the first week has flown by..

So when we first arrived, we met Dave, an English IV (int vollie) who
was here the last few months, but was heading home when we arrived. I
asked him for any parting thoughts, any words of wisdom. He went on
about the camp for a bit, then finally, and quite emphatically stated
'Don't trust the Rastafurians'. So, of course, who did we spend most
of Saturday with? A group of crazy Rastas.

Let me back up a bit. I'll work backwards from now, filling you in on
my week. But over the weekend we headed into Accra (capital). Friday
was a national holiday, Farmers Day, so we left about lunch time. The
tro tro ride included our first tro tro accident, a bump to the front
of the bus, with no one hurt but the two drivers, and only because
they both jumped out of their trotro and tried to rip into each other
:)

First stop was the only bank that takes mastercard, but of course it
was closed due to the holiday...even when it opens I'm not sure if
they'll accept my bank card..so Dad expect an email soon! Saturday
night we ate out, food is crazy cheap, so are drinks - I'm not the
expert, but apparently you can buy almost four smirnoff ices for less
than the price of one back home haha. We watched some African guys
dance for a bit, got hit on by some others and had a late night out
(read: we didn't get to bed til 11pm haha). Saturday we hit the
markets, first the general markets where they sell stuff Ghanaians
would want (just imagine any typical third world market, lots of meat
and strange strange things). There were rows and rows of stacked
material, so I bought some to get made into a skirt. of course, you
can't just buy what you want, you have to buy all of it, so now I have
six metres haha, but will bring some home and attempt to make cushion
covers or something.


Then we met the Rastas :) There is another big market called the Arts
centre, which is all the African stuff tourists would buy. A bunch of
the guys took us to their drum stall and did an african drum welcome,
very cool, and then escorted us around the market. Of course we didn't
trust them with anything, though they ended up being a big help in
bargaining and getting through the rows of shops! I need to check out
Aussie customs rules, cause i have a feeling i might not get a few
things back in...but we'll see :)

We are back at camp and getting ready for next week. I've joined the
HIV/AIDS department, I thought I'd rather spend time there then teach,
especially with holidays just around the corner. the plan is to maybe
teach in my last month here. The department has four members -
Victoria, Beatrice, Abendigo and Ta-ta. On Monday mornings they do
community outreach, Tues to Thurs mornings they do schools outreach
and Friday morning is a meeting day. In the afternoons they do the
Care and Support program, which is working with HIV/AIDS infected
individuals, providing support in a whole bunch of ways. This week was
World Aids Day week, so the Care and Support program didnt seem to be
running as they were working on that.

So far I've just gone around with them and seen what they do,
hopefully though I'll actually be running parts of it soon enough. I
did work on a proposal for them though, which is something I would
like to do more of. Currently they are so underfunded they only
support 5 clients with HIV/AIDS, but if they can get funding htey'd
like to add an extra 15. The stories of the clients are insane, the
burden of being both a refugee and a Person Living With Hiv AIDS
(PLWHA) is huge and they have all been rejected by family and many
friends.

I feel, and the others do too, that we've barely done anything all
week. It's becoming clearer that if you dont take the initiative, you
aren't going to be chased up or anything. Which in a sense is good -
the organisation, Children Better Way (CBW), needs to be sustainable
without relying on IVs. Also means that you can really do what you
want and if you figure out a new way of doing things or improving, you
can work with the team so that once you leave all your knowledge
doesnt go too. As things stand, I feel that I'm getting a better idea
of how the organisation and the camp works, but still unsure on what
my role can be... and thats okay, I've still got three months left!