I know, I know, I haven't written in way too long. But, many experiences and updates to share again! I've been very busy these past weeks on completing our first prototype, and we finished it! I even brought it to Accra to get it tested by the Greater Accra Wheelchair Basketball Team, WITH my mom being there as well! Because yes, my mom is here. After I called my parents to tell them that I want to stay in Ghana for longer she wanted to see which place kept me from home this time :-) The development of the bamboo wheelchair has gone well so far, and I believe we can make a such an impact on many people's lifes that I feel like bringing this to a further stage, so I'm extending my time here! So, I'll start telling about everything bit by bit.
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During the past weeks, things were initially moving a bit slow. with work I was sick for a while, and when I could go back to work there was barely WiFi in the office. It is actually “unique” that we have WiFi. Everyone has internet on their smartphone, but public WiFi spots are very rare. However, when it rains heavily here, which happens quite often, the power often shuts down. So after this slow week, we (me and the other two American girls) decided to go to Busua for the weekend, where we were also meeting an English guy we met earlier.
Hello friends! It has been a while, but I found time to share some more of my experiences. It’s funny because I started writing earlier, saying how I realize now that I’m writing another blog that I am experiencing things in Ghana differently than before. Where I was observing everything so much in the beginning, being here starts to feel more like it’s my everyday life (which I guess it is). However, I joined Bernice to church this weekend, and what I said above is completely opposite of this experience. I literally came home mentally and physically exhausted from all these new impressions. Now, I am sitting behind my laptop, completely in shock from what I just experienced on my way to work. I will tell you about it, but first: church.
As most of you know, my motivation to go to Ghana came from my senior design project at Delaware, during which I worked with the (NGO) The GoGetDem Wheelchair Racing Club. They are using sports to improve the lives of disabled persons, especially youth in rural areas. By training and preparing them, they also want to increase their presence at The Paralympics and other events, to change the existing stigma on disabled persons in Ghana. Raphael, the founder of this club, is not only a great person, but also a phenomenal athlete. He has participated in 3 Paralympics, and many many other competitions! So this weekend was a very special weekend to me, because I planned on meeting Raphael and MacLean!! (MacLean is one of the athletes of the club who was won several gold medals at international competitions). With our design team at Delaware we had had several Skype conversations with each other, but meeting them in person and being part of their lives for the weekend was an even greater experience then I could have imagined.
Yes, holiday! Appearantly I planned my arrival very well, because it happened to be a big holiday with a festival in Cape Coast! Together with the two Americans and Acheampong, a Ghanaian guy who works with one of the Americans, we took the bus to Elmina (a place nearby Cape Coast). The bus system here works just a liiiitle different than how we know it... Instead of leaving according to a schedule, the bus just leaves when it's filled. So, when we got there with the 4 of us, there were just 3 spots left, which meant we had to wait for the next bus to fill which was gonna take about an hour. Well, that's a "Ghanaian hour". We settled in the bus at 7:45pm, and we left at 11:10pm... By the time we got to Elmina it was past 3am. So there we were, in the dark, standing on the side of the road with no taxi's passing us to take us to our place. Thank god there one of us was Ghanaian, because after some calls with the place that we were staying at, they called a friend that was a taxi driver and could pick us up :-)
So much has happened since the last blog I wrote, crazy that that is only 5 days ago... I will tell you about it in two blogs, since (as most of you know) it's quite a challenge for me not to use too many words describing my experiences when I'm excited.
Hi family & friends, as the Ghanaians say; "Akwaabe". Welcome to my blog! If I had to describe these first days in one word: WOW. Everywhere I've been, so much is going on, so many people, so much talking, so many contrasts all around you... Where do I even start? I will just chronologically tell you a bit about what I've done and seen. I am currently in the bus, going from Accra to Kumasi (where I will work). This is called the VIP bus, which means very very nice seats (yes, better then the Delaware Express) and AC blowing (good thing I'm used to that after my time in the US). The past 2 nights I stayed with a host family in Accra, where Victoria picked me up from the airport. That went pretty smooth, except for the fact that I took the offer from a cab driver to make a call with his phone when I couldn't find her initially, after which he obviously wanted me to buy him credit... I just played the dum tourist not understanding him, and apparently my acting skills weren't so bad :-)
It has been a while, not because I had bad internet connection but because it has been hard to find time to write. I'm now in my second week of working here, so I'll update you a little bit on what has happened! Before I went to Ghana MeetAfrica told me that you need to give yourself 1-2 weeks to orientate and observe before you can really start doing the work that you planned on doing (as far as you should really plan much). I have experienced that this is definitely true :-) The first week was mostly about finding out who and what I'm exactly working around, and especially finding out a lot more about the way people communicate (or sometimes don't communicate).
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October 2017
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