Ghana is Hard

I have lived in Ghana now for over a month. And boy sometimes I wasn't sure if I was going to make it.

I thought about if I should only highlight the good parts of my experience, or if I should also share how difficult it can be in Ghana. I remember during my training the field support specialist for my region told me that "Africa is Hard" and your assignment will be difficult. As much as you mentally prepare for the difficulties you will face, it is really unknown, so how can you really prepare. My MFI is full of nice people who don't exactly evaluate time the way we do in America and who often will not provide you with the most straightforward answer. I hear it is because Ghanaian people don't want to deliver bad news or disappoint you, so as you can imagine it has been very difficult to work in such an environment. I chose to come here and I accepted this difficult assignment, so I try to keep the complaints to a minimum. I mean how many people really have the opportunity to move to Africa and do development type of work? So although there are many days, I long for my nice computer office on California Avenue and my old apartment, I am still thankful and realize that these difficulties are part of the experience.

Here is a quick summary of some low points:

-- A rather large cockroach crawling over my hand when I was falling asleep last night. As most of you known, I am easily frightened by insects. After staying up until 2:00 a.m. going through all of my stuff to make sure no other little guys were waiting for me to go to sleep before they came out, I finally made it to bed. This morning I had one of the workers at the main house come check out my apartment with me, and of course no bugs.

-- The death of my cute little netbook (laptop)

-- Meeting some pretty intense Obrunis in Kumasi, who need a vacation to a Westernize country because it does start to wear on your spirits here

-- Having the same conversation with colleagues about the importance of transparency and full disclosure 10 times

-- Missing my family and friends

-- Trying fufu and having stomach problems for the next 4 days (Fufu is a staple dish in Ghanaian diet which is made pounded of cassava and plantains - see this link for a better description -- http://en.wikipedia.org.wiki/Fufu


Some of the highlights are:

-- Getting a chance to live in a developing country

-- Joking around with the same colleagues I mentioned above

-- Meeting with actual Kiva borrowers and conversing with them

-- Going to Accra and meeting a handful of cool foreigners, including my new friend Richelle whom I have a date to go check out a gold mine in the town of Obuasi

-- Laughing at jokes from Richelle until I was literally crying

-- Attending a concert of Nigerian and Ghanaian hip hop and r&b artists, including PSquare with my new friends in Accra

-- Shopping at a legitimate grocery store in Accra (but very sad because it is a 5 hour bus ride from Kumasi)

-- Having a lovely Italian dinner at Michelangelo in Accra

I meant to write a few blogs about the experiences above, but I have been without a computer for the past 3 days. Although this weekend, I will be staying in Kumasi, I do hope to start going to other towns on the weekend to fully maximize my time here.

Hope everyone is well!!!! I am still here and enjoying most of the minutes of this experience - well definitely not the cockroach part or the part where my computer died -- but most of it.