The Unexpected Journey
The trip to Ghana seemed like Frodo’s journey from the Shire. No one said it would be easy, but there were promises of adventure. It has been good so far.
Our fellowship consists of 13 buzzing professionals (save me) from multiple organisations.
As expected, the work started a lot earlier than the scheduled trip in February but one could sense the togetherness much earlier.
Day 0
I met 2 of my colleagues — Olivia Hipkins and Mack Darrow at Heathrow itself. The delay on BA did not seem to dampen our spirits.
Arriving at Ghana, our airport transfers were well arranged. The first thing you notice about Ghana is that it is hot, hot, hot. Our abode for 30 days, http://www.lavillaghana.com/, is really good. I would not shy against staying here again.
Day 1
Sunday — let me sleep, but there were other plans!
I first met the full fellowship on the 19th Feb, it seemed like I knew all of them.
I must laud Pyxera Global(https://www.pyxeraglobal.org/) for the effort that they had put into the prep coming into Ghana and the orientation. It gave us so much context and we couldn’t be thankful enough for this. Some basic things like how to greet people in Ghana in a meeting (remember, start from your right and go anti clockwise) proved to be useful.
The orientation on day 1 had, amongst other things, a very interesting exercise playing with Legos — I will not forget that in a hurry.
A visit to James Town was pretty good and we did climb a small lighthouse. The breeze at the top was some respite from the heat.
We had our first taste of proper Ghanian cuisine at Afrikiko. It was delicious and we started to know each other a lot more.
Day 2
Now the work starts.
The teams met their clients, 4 successful NGO’s in Ghana. Our team includes Olivia Hipkins from PIMCO, New York, Uwe Langedoerfer from SAP Germany and yours truly. Our client, ‘Hope For Future Generations’ (www.hffg.org) , presented the organisation history and the ask from the project. It was so overwhelming to see all the work the NGO’s are performing here in Ghana. One almost felt an immediate connection and the desire to do more.
We spent the full day understanding each other and making sure we get the basics right.
Day 3–5
The fellowship is now on their own paths with the individual clients. We visited the HFFG offices in Accra.
We were so happy to meet the management and staff and saw the extreme professionalism in all of them. They really made us feel at ease and we loved talking to them.
Look at how serious Uwe gets (I will spare you the more interesting pics).
Amidst, all the discussions, all the beers and all the times where Olivia, Uwe and I tried to kill each other, it has been so passionate that it is hard to express.
I am so glad we are a team. Off to the beach on the weekend and in the field from Sunday. Throughly enjoying this….
