Monthly Archives: February 2011

Those butterflies are fluttering around in my tummy now! My list of things to do have been whittled down to just a few items, and I’m now planning on what knitting projects to take with me, and what books to read. One of those books is Spellbound by Karen Palmer, which might spark some interesting conversation once I’m there.

Earlier this week I spoke with Julia Baldwin, 2010 L4C participant from the University of Guelph, who went to Ghana to work as an ICT Training Needs Advisor as well. She gave me the real deal when it comes to advice, it’s amazing how much more prepared I feel now. She recommended a bunch of  stuff to take, stuff I wouldn’t have thought of (a flashlight, bandanas, ziplock baggies, a vegetable peeler). She also recommended a guide from the very kickass  http://gisforghana.blogspot.com, which I promptly bought, downloaded and have been reading with fascination ever since.

I’ve procured a “crappy laptop” (a slow, older Vaio with Windows XP) to take with me, which I suspect will be better for creating training materials than my  Macbook Pro. Plus, if it goes missing, I won’t have a heart attack. All the USB memory sticks I’ll be taking with me have AVP on ’em, and I’ve loaded some other programs on DVDs that might take forever and a day to download (Open Office and some handy PC utility tools).

OK, off I go to tie up some loose work ends, then attend to those last few items on my to-do list and pack for GHANA, baby!

Last week the Leave for Change participants (and three other folks heading abroad with Uniterra but not with L4C) had a 2 day orientation to prepare us for our placements. It was great to meet the others* and find out where they’ll be going and what they’ll be doing (most folks will be blogging on the UBC Leave for Change blog if you’re interested in following along).

Both days were full of useful information and fun workshops. There’s still some ambiguity around my mandate and I still don’t know where I’m actually staying in Accra, but I certainly wasn’t the only one in that position, and I am confident that it will all fall into place. I also met an absolutely fantastic woman named Samelia from Ghana – we chatted at length about all kinds of stuff, from Ghanaian politics, common workplace styles, traditions, food and even just general communication differences that I might encounter. She assured me that I would have the time of my life there, and of that I have no doubt. Oh yes – she told me my Akan name: Adwoa (I was born on a Monday). She was very happy to learn this as her mother and her eldest daughter are also both called Adwoa.

*Nancy Hogan has a great photo of all of us in her introductory post on the UBC Leave for Change blog here: http://www.focusonpeople.ubc.ca/leaveforchange/blog/2011/02/06/2011-orientation-for-botswana/