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Published: July 27th 2008
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last family meal in Ghana
holiday coming to an end...at anamabo...fav beach resort During my recent visit home to the UK I was shocked when a number of people asked me why I had stopped writing my blog. “Had I stopped writing my blog?” I asked myself. It was true that it had been 6 weeks or so since I had last made an entry, but had I consciously decided to stop communicating with folks this way? The answer was “no” and I realised that there were a number of factors that had prevented me from exercising my two typing fingers for this purpose.
The most obvious reason was that I had less time to fill. No, this did not mean that suddenly I was meaningfully employed and feeling the anticipated ‘volunteer glow of good deeds accomplished’;…rather it meant that I was spending long ( and tedious) periods of time camped in an office ( not mine - I don’t even have a table I can call my own) at my employers, determined to get them to recognise that I was here and was not intending to disappear again; listening to conversations ( mostly in Fante) in the hope I could pick up who was who, who the important people are, who I might be able to make an ally of etc etc. When I wasn’t doing this I was walking about the town, sometimes alone, sometimes with a very helpful colleague from Special Education who I had happened upon without any help from my organisation, “finding” disabled children. Not that they had become lost, but rather had been consciously “hidden” from normal community life, and completely divorced from any medical, social or educational support. To date we have found 9 children in this way, and are looking for ways to help them.
The second reason relates to the latter activity above. Now that I am having contact with people and children in need…should I be writing about them in a blog? And if I don’t write about my work , which, as always, is a significant part of my raison d’etre, what else can I write about that would be of interest. So I think it was the case that I had encountered some bloggers’ block, and I have been pondering how to approach it. I have decided to be pragmatic - regarding people I work with…those in the community and colleagues, other professionals, NGOs etc, I will aim to maintain people’s privacy as much as possible unless they have given me permission to tell their story to others. I will try not to be voyeuristic but to let others know of some of the challenges, achievements and disappointments that are part of my life here. Regarding other content, I am not a skilled observer, nor do I possess any great powers of description, but given the enthusiasm people have shown for my blogs I will try and share some thoughts and experiences on Ghana from time to time. Promise.
A third factor that also meant I had less time for blogging was that I started to feel at home here! Looking back, I can see how initially I operated pretty much on “auto-pilot”, doing things as a matter of routine, as a safeguard about having to think too consciously about being so far from home, for so long. Gradually, being here became OK and natural, and I found I could happily while away hours simply sitting on our verandah spotting birds, wandering around town, even pottering away at the domestic chores of hand-washing and sweeping with a traditional brush ( a handful of long dried sticks- of some unknown origin- tied in a bundle….the technique being to bend from the waist and coax the dust to skip along in front of you). Of course I have had a bit of a setback recently after a month spent with my lovely daughter ( first in UK and then during her holiday here) and 2 weeks with my son and his girlfriend but, small, small, my sad moments are lessening in intensity, and aimless pottering is again becoming the norm.
Well hopefully bloggers’ block is broken, although you must be the judge of that! This entry is a bit low on real content, but don’t want to overburden your email boxes. We are still in the rainy season here, apparently*, …it is much cooler some of the time, and we have had rain from time to time…but it is not the constant tropical storm weather that I expected. I think we are heading for another drier spell soon ( *at least according to the Bradt guide, cos locals rarely talk about the weather) and am not relishing the prospect of days of unrelieved heat and humidity again..but, of course, TIA ( This IS Africa!) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(had problems uploading photos..put wrong caption on this one...couldn't upload the one that was meant to be here!! sorry)
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Gail
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Back in touch
I thought my email address had fallen off the list. Glad to hear from you again, it only seems five minutes since we had the "special" curry club night for your visit. Interesting that the weather is not much of a topic of conversation there, how would we survive in this country if we couldn't spend hours moaning about the temperature, whether cold or hot, and the rain!