ummm...

During the rest of April it was pretty much the same old stuff for me. I did lots of HIV/AIDS education and outreach programs and worked on various programs providing care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS. From May 1st to May 6th, I had in-service training with all of the other Health and Water Sanitation volunteers from my group. There were 20 of us volunteers altogether, and we each brought our Ghanaian counterpart with us. The training was held at a hotel in Takoradi, which is on the coast. Overall, the training went pretty well. I gave two presentations, one on working with groups providing care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS and on income-generating projects, and one relating to HIV/AIDS education and stigmatization and discrimination. Both presentations went very well. I also arranged for an HIV positive individual to come and give his testimony, which was very powerful. I had a lot of fun hanging out with my friends from my training group, many of whom I haven’t seen since training ended in November. It was very interesting catching up with everyone and hearing everyone’s stories from their sites. After training I went to the beach at Busua for 2 days with some of my friends. It was gorgeous and so relaxing and fun. After that, I came to Accra for some meetings I had to go to.

I really like Accra, but it’s crazy trying to get around the city. It’s just a huge mess. Somewhere around 2 million people live in Accra (depending on which source you believe, since there is no official census) and it is a sprawling urban tangle with unbelievable congestion. There are tons of twisting, winding streets, most of which are not paved (i.e. dirt roads) and most of which don’t even have names. Even for the streets that do have names, usually none of the locals know what the names are, so that doesn’t really help. So if you need to go somewhere you’ve never been before, you’re in for a big headache. And the traffic is horrendous. Accra (like many cities in Africa) has had huge population growth recently, and the infrastructure hasn’t caught up with the number of people and cars. There are big problems with access to water, sanitation facilities, and electricity, in addition to the traffic problems. I have definitely spent 2 hours in traffic just to go 5 miles before during rush hour, and of course there is no air conditioning on public transport, so it’s a really sweaty affair. Transportation here is quite a unique experience. On the other hand, Accra has many amenities that can’t be found in many other places in Ghana, like restaurants, bars, hotels, and places with air conditioning. There are also other foreigners living in Accra, and it’s nice to hang out with non-Ghanaians occasionally.

As I’m writing this, a torrential downpour has started outside. It’s the rainy season again, and in the room where I am writing this, the roof has started leaking. It started with just one leak, but now there are areas of water dripping from the ceiling all over the place, and I’m getting wet, as is the computer equipment, so I’m going to have to leave now. Later.