Out of Africa

I have pulled out the big black suitcase on wheels from behind my bed, it was too big to store away neatly. I have removed the layers of dust from two Harmattans and located the key to its lock. I have decided which of my clothes, destroyed by a combination of long soaks, hand washing, punishing sunshine and Omo, will not be going in the suitcase. I would be too embarrassed to give them away. They will go in the skip near the house and good luck to anybody who wants to fish them out again. I have told VSO which items belong to them, if the lease on the house is not renewed for another volunteer and they need to retrieve them. The desks, gas rings, gas cylinder and fridge/freezer will be relatively easy to transport. The water tank, plumbed in on a plinth eight feet high, may present more of a problem. I have thrown away the accumulated bottles, jars and plastic bags. I have closed my bank account, receiving a free Coke as I queued to withdraw the remaining balance. I have taken half a dozen paperbacks to the VSO library in Accra and decided who will receive my bicycle, radio and rechargeable lamp.

I am currently probably the busiest I have been since I arrived in Ghana. It is slowly dawning on people that I will be leaving in just a handful of days and this is the last chance to get things done. Before I go I must complete reports on both placements, run a workshop for two NGOs and be involved in running a forum on the Cadbury project at the Municipal Assembly. There is also the small matter of emptying and cleaning the house.

On Monday morning I sat in on an interview panel. As part of a separate project with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in the north of Ghana, VSO had introduced a programme of voluntary female agricultural extension workers. The volunteers would be selected from the communities that were to benefit from the scheme. They would receive some training, a bicycle and a little additional support from the Ministry and they in turn would help improve the farms in their areas. VSO wants to repeat the process in the cocoa growing communities.

Our interviews were carried out by the Agric. Director and two of his team, the Municipal Planning Officer and the Deputy Regional Director of Community Development. We saw 13 women from our communities. Their ages ranged from 18 to 60, but were mainly clustered near the two extremes. The older women were composed and not remotely fazed by a room with five interviewers and one almost silent white man. They had generally left school early and in some cases this was more than forty years ago, but when asked to read a passage in English, they were confident, clear and accurate. They had relevant experience and appeared well motivated for the work on offer. The younger candidates, in some cases barely out of school, were shy and nervous. One girl constantly raised the English script to cover her face as she responded to questions. Despite recent and longer educations, they stumbled and struggled over the English and few of them showed any kind of motivation for the work.

There was much discussion by the panel on how this reflected on the current state of public education in Ghana. At the end of the session one of the team started to say that, one of the problems in Ghana is that young people want everything now. They seem to expect good jobs to just be handed to them. This was my cue to say that, this is by no means a specifically Ghanaian problem, but that it is far more widespread.

The environment, conditions and customs may be completely different in Ghana, but not everything is so unlike home.