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Published: February 12th 2009
River
this is disgusting on a morning... smelly and horrible, and has birds sitting on the 'rubbish islands' picking out stuff... nice! Just thought I'd share it with you all!Hey all, again... 2 in one week... aren't you lucky?!?!
Again, quite a long one... I'm about a week behind now, so they won't be as long over the next couple of weeks/days.
Hope you're enjoying them, and I'm grateful for your comments... it's always nice to hear from you.
So, settle in...
Monday 2nd February
Today is my first day of work...
Well, it would have been a great start, if i'd managed to get a good nights sleep... I went to bed and struggled to sleep at first. Then, when I did eventually get to sleep I was woken up by one of the other girls saying that they were going to have to go to hospital cos Jess was ill with really bad stomach pains (oh purleeeese) … and I was required to help them get to the main road to then get into a taxi.
Then, after dropping off once more, I was woken at about 3am by the water truck rumbling menacingly down the road... I have NEVER heard a vehicle sooooooo loud in all my life! It was horrific - I woke up in a sweat with my
Possible opportunity?!
Somewhere I could go if it doesn't work out with the law stuff?! heart racing thinking that it was coming thru my wall!!!
Finally woke about 6.30am and gave in... got out of bed, did the usual morning routine, only this time, I had to actually make an effort... OMG... like putting some make up on, doing 'something' with my hair, and eventually, begrudgingly, and painfully putting a suit, shirt and tights on - ewwwwww! In this heat - ewwwwww!
Amanda, the Projects Abroad co-ordinator for the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) came to pick me up just turned 8am. We made our way in a tro to my stop just before 'Circle' called 'Silvercab' (really people... I'm not making these names up!) from there we had a 15 minute walk, up hill (argh!) to get to the 'office'.
Upon arriving at the office, dripping in sweat (mmmm... nice!) I was introduced to everyone - 'Hey everyone, this is sweaty betty... ' hi, hi, hi!
Spent most of the morning going through all the paperwork and looking back at all the projects they'd been involved in over the last year,... it was really inspiring to see the good work that they do, and it looks like there are all
Walk to work
A couple of little local shops on the walk to work sorts of different projects to get involved with, in many different ways - but hopefully more about that later...
I was able to get stuck right in... and I actually had 2 assistant directors fighting over me and my skills... yeah, get me :o) I was first assigned to my preferred choice - human rights in mental health law. This was fascinating, I was requested to write a document collating all the information from the new Mental Health Bill with a number of proposals from NGOs, the health minister, psychiatric experts etc and present it in a paper to be given to a vetting committee who will then pass it on to the Ministers!
For lunch, myself and the other volunteers, about 8 of us went across the road to eat at a 'chop' house... not like chop suey or Chinese in any way, but this is what the locals call a snack bar... well, it did more than snacks... I think I'll be a regular customer and wanting some discount by the end of my stay! I had a plate full of pasta and salad and a boiled egg (randomly... but just fancied one...) and a drink
Taxi!
Local taxi rank... and you thought it might just be dangerous to get in an unlicensed taxi in London... check out the road worthiness of some of these... and it was all less than £1!! (which is actually quite cheap for here) Woohoo!
By the afternoon, I was reeeeeeeeeeeally hot, and the air con in the office reeeeeeeeally wasn't working and I had a full tummy and I reeeeeeeeeally wanted to sleep! So I had to keep moving desks just to stay awake and cool-ish! After finishing my report I just had some reading to do...which was probably a good thing cos there were 2 power cuts and people were getting really frustrated that they kept losing work! Before I knew it, it was 4pm and we were allowed to go home!!!
The walk home was even hotter :o( I know I'm moaning folks, and you're all up to your necks in snow at the moment... but you have no idea how uncomfortable it is, with tights and proper shoes and a lined skirt.. etc etc... and the dust and the sweat... ok I'll stop now!
Took flippin ages for me to cross the road coming back home... thought I was going to be late for tea! But made it in time - thankfully - cos tonight is omelette and chips night, with more pineapple
Local business
Just one of the many local businesses, others include 'busy as a bee tailors' and 'lord have mercy' cake stall... for pudding - woohoo!!!
After tea, went out with Fibi and some of the other volunteers for a farewell drink for one of the girls who was leaving. It was a good chance to meet some of the other volunteers but made me realise that these kids have a lot of learning to do... bless, they have been soooooo mothered up til now in their lives and you'll only hear them complaining about the slightest thing (not the heat right, that is a serious complaint!) It was also a chance for people to tell you how disorganised their other projects are... hopefully mine will be ok?!
Tuesday 3rd February
Woke at 6.15am,... carried out my usual routine.
Got on a tro - that wasn't going to be going anywhere! It had completely conked out … every time the driver tried to get it going, it was in reverse for some reason, so he kept running into the front of the tro behind... making 2 very angry tro drivers! So, we all had to fight to get on another tro... was worried that I was going to be late on my 2nd day!
I asked Daniel
Saved the best til last
I love this... I have no idea what connotations it's supposed to take... but it's brilliant! for some work, but also got some from Florence... I was stuck between the two of them. Daniel got in a right huff and asked Amanda to tell Florence off for giving me work when I was supposed to be working for him! In the end all I did for Daniel was read through some Human Rights cases and make an assessment of whether we could take any action... the short answer is, 'no'. The slightly longer answer is 'absolutely not a hope in hell'! For confidentiality reasons, I'm not allowed to discuss the specific cases, but here's a brief summary anyway:
1. The first was time-barred - a potential negligent act had occurred in 1999, in 2001 the woman had died, and then her cause of death had been stated on the death cert as HIV... which the family were now claiming was totally incorrect, and tried to link it back to the original potential negligent act. Time limitations and no evidence makes it v.difficult to do anything about it!
2. Young girl had been raped about 5 years ago, but there was, again, no substantive medical evidence, and it would only be her word against his in court,... not something that many rape victims want to go through.
3. Woman claiming unfair dismissal/breach of contract, but again, little evidence and 3 letters to the employer asking for a disciplinary report, had all been ignored = very painful process of trying to get evidence!
So, I passed my opinions across to Daniel, who was far from pleased... he just kept asking ' so what can we do in this case',... er.... not a lot?! I may have been wrong, and just to be certain, he handed the file over to another volunteer who has no legal experience - good luck!
Daniel made an attempt to find me some more work, but then gave in and admitted that he had nothing else for me (maybe I'd peeved him?!?!)
So I went back to Florence - OMG, bad move - She is doing a lot of work on a case known as 'The Gambia killings'... about 3 years ago it came to light that about 40 Ghanaians had been killed after being found just off the shore of The Gambia - you can do lots of reading on this... My task was to research the relevant laws and any action that can be taken... woah... sooooooooo confusing - I'm currently trying to teach myself International Criminal law... great!
Lunch time provided a much needed break. Went across the road again to Gina's and had an absolute feast, which was also reflected in the price... had rice and fried chicken and pasta and a fizzy drink - yum yum!
Slogged away with the same research in the afternoon, but fortunately 4pm came around soon enough.
Fibi and I ate together as Jess was still not well. We had a local bean casserole type dish called 'red red' with some rice... and pineapple!
It was Quiz night at the Projects Abroad office tonight, so after changing into something half decent, myself, Fibi and a couple of the boys from the house across the road, headed over the 'pig farm'. Stuart did well to negotiate a taxi for 3 cedi for the 20 minute journey. There was quite a crowd for the quiz, which is, apparently unusual, cos I'd head that it is usually a flop and a bit boring! Fibi and another girl and the 2 French guys from across the road from us were the quiz masters. Fortunately I had gotten myself onto a 'brainy' team... first round was about the American elections, 2nd round, we had a game of 'guess who' in each of our groups, then the last 2 rounds were dedicated to the 'glorious French nation' including a music round!!! Soooooo funny, especially when the questions were spoken with a very heavy French accent = hilarious! We were all marked, and my team came out on top - woooohoooo! Afterwards we had drinks and biscuits - like being back at a school disco or something!? But there were also plantain chips - yummmy! We all soon got bored of being treated like 5 year olds and headed across the road to a 'spot' bar, for a proper drink... Smirnoff Ice don't come much cheaper - 1 cedi = about 50p!!!
I've posted some pictures of my walk to work... some of the shop signs are BRILLIANT...
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Fran
non-member comment
Yo
Don't mind your wife, chop bar - I think that if you are not exactly seeing eye to eye with your wife it is a place you can take her to chop her up?? Just a thought, p.s. who is 'supa lube' who keeps writing on your blog - I am intrigued. fxx