The Ghanaian Experience (Part 1) The non-leadership aspect.

It was the third time of applying and I was reluctant to apply. Thanks to Chris who was applying, I was pushed into applying. Behold I was accepted into the program and she wasn't. God's plan?
I wasn't really excited going to Ghana, where I was going to be in holding with strangers. I felt I would have to adapt to the tune of those around me so as not to step on toes and get people mad. I felt I would have to be a different person while at it. The build up to departure was another intriguing event with people getting on your nerves before you even get the chance to meet them. So where is the excitement?
“But you can't let people determine how you feel” is what they say,so it was “I am going to be fine no matter what”. It was going to be three weeks of fun so I had to throw the mask off and be me.

The flood gates of excitement were thrown open upon arrival at the Big Brother house, sorry I meant the GIMPA Executive Guest House where some of the participants were already hosted. I vividly remember Hydra and Lamin from The Gambia welcoming us to the house. Later on we meet with Bendia and Vivian (I guess) from Liberia. The hospitality from other participants was really warm. I felt I was in a safe place or a sandbox where I could actually be me, the Crazy one.
Networking has never been one of my favorites but I tried knowing new people interesting enough I didn't remember 5 per cent of the names I heard on the first day. But that's no problem because we had 3 weeks right?
Actual business started when we had to tune-up in class for the various lectures. The lectures were quiet interactive and fun. This was largely due to the youthfulness of the facilitators who were big brothers and sisters to most of us. But I must say the lectures are more than those in traditional school, because you can dare boycott your traditional classes however, you try that on GIMPA you will be reminded the airport isn't really far from the campus and your return ticket was already paid for.

The lecture part was the school part and we all know the mixed feelings we have for school. The most interesting part comes after lectures, in the corridors especially the corridor of the second floor, where diplomatic unions are forged and solidified. At that point in time there were limited barriers, even language wasn’t a barrier. Such diplomatic relationships are actually a vital part of the backbone of the resourceful network created form the whole experience.
The excitement could easily go from a hundred to zero real quick, especially nerving comments coming your way about you being so full of your self and sorts or some really uncalled for comments from the people you least expected or when your country is ranked among the top 4 noise makers... L 😀 L
Don't judge, it was by the participants or participant rather and not administrators or facilitators.

The earlier days were interesting given that the whole experience had the aura of Big Brother House and you had to wonder if people were being real or being plastic. But then time would always throw the mask off. And as the ball of time rolled on with things becoming more serious especially with the unending group works/competitions you are being pushed to the edge.
Being competitive I wouldn’t love to loose but I had to accept that you can’t win all the time, you win some and you loose some. I remember the first competition, the Poster Presentation where I don’t even know what position my group was ranked simply because it wasn’t among the first 4. Some of the loses were tough on me, like the Simulation, but there was nothing the son of man can do about it other than move on to the next one and make sure my sandbox experience still as great as possible. And in this whole winning and loosing thing, I just made sure I never lost to the Policy Track for those guys make a hell of noise.I was never bothered about loosing to the Entrepreneurship Track, but never to Policy.

With all these mixed of interactions and feelings I got to note some key points
- Africa is Africa, we all experience one and the same problems. It might be at varying degrees but we all have the same problems in our countries. Even witchcraft is continental but as I said , at varying degrees.
- African youths are hungry youths, not hungry for food but for betterment for self and community. They have great ambitions for their societies. What they need is an enabling environment to translate these ambitions into reality.
- You can never please everybody. Even jollof rice can’t, be it Ghanaian or Nigerian. Start with pleasing yourself, that’s one of the informal lessons I learned. In as much as it’s not to the detriment of the people around you, do you and be you. Let’s be Self-ish
- Diversity is a blessing and if not properly managed, it quickly translates into a curse. And in management of diversity, there has to be a great deal of tolerance and tact. The inability to manage diversity would retard the emergence of Africa’s development for we all need to work as one.
- Love is indeed a universal language whether you feel it, believe it or not. I saw people wept whilst their mates departed for their various countries. You met just like that and within three weeks forged bonds which would last generations thanks to the 4 lettered word LOVE. Don’t bother about me being one of those who cried. I would have cried if my tear glands never gut impaired as a stubborn keep constantly in trouble.


Despite these 5 key takeaways, this conversation wouldn't be complete if I don’t talk about how this experience actually impacted me. I have been for a couple of months now trying to be myself in all i do and in all i say, I was tired of living the life people thought of me and just wanted to do me. The Ghanaian experience gave me the opportunity to be myself with no fear of judgement, reason why I call it a sandbox experience.
I say I was my self for the most of three weeks, and when I reminisce over the memories of those weeks, I can’t help but smile with NO REGRETS. If given the opportunity in my next 9 lives here on earth, I would still do same, be myself.

Officials or USAID, MasterCard and YALI would be asking if this is what their investment was for ? No worries the part 2 is coming wherein I talk about the Investment and how it could be leveraged for the betterment of mankind.
I will stop here but the conversation goes on in the comment section. Let us talk about anything regarding my Ghanaian experience but please don’t ask about their jollof.
-Carl #TheCrazyOne
