Working away...

My work in Ghana is very varied and this week I have been called upon to travel out of town to a number of different locations for various reasons. I start this week in Akropong in the Eastern region of Ghana. I like it here because the climate is slightly gentler than that of Accra and the mosquitoes are certainly less hungry. The Eastern region is also where they grow the cocoa and mine diamonds and gold...what more could a girl want!? I’m here to work with the deaf members on writing the fundraising strategy for the next 5 years, rather a large piece of work a Danish donor has quite rightly requested to see, but no one here seems to understand why this is important despite my various attempts at presenting it in different ways!!! The reason I right about this is because of a disagreement which occurred this very morning. Many of you may have heard me mention my rather annoying boss who goes by the name of Mr Asamoah, he is in his 70’s and runs the organisation like a dictatorship, men in their 30’s are treated like the work experience student, staff wings are clipped or publically put down on a regular basis, the communications officer has to iron all his clothes and do his church administration for him and all he seems to do is listen to the radio and watch T.V at the same time oh yes and occasionally tell the deaf that they are stupid. So a little bit of a nightmare really, when I gently tried to ask about some issues to do with internal communications I felt that the organisation had, he shouted at me and then said to a colleague of mine in Twi (the local language, that I am only a small girl, but I am like all whites, so impatient and too demanding!!). So we have our work cut out trying to deal with this man...but I am not one to shy away from a challenge! This very morning the deaf themselves decided that they didn’t want him in their meeting, they didn’t need a welcome address from him (which more often than not is a fairly discouraging, disempowering message telling them how bad and unmotivated they all are – ironic to say the least!) I could not believe how Mr Asamoah reacted, like a small child he walked out of the meeting hall followed by 5 grown up men who listened and cooed as he threw his toys out of the pram (not because they wanted to but because he is their elder so they have to). He had to be coaxed back into taking part in the later stages of the meeting by them telling him how amazing he is, how much knowledge he has, how he has changed people’s lives etc, then a special table and chair had to be fetched for him to feel comfortable. I stayed well out of it all, all I wanted to say was that actually the organisation belongs to the deaf; they are well within their rights to say they didn’t want him in the meeting and actually it isn’t surprising given the way that he normally talks to them!
The frustration I used to feel about this man was enormous, the way that it is him himself who is standing in the way of the organisation making progress because he has to control EVERYTHING, from ordering stationary to allocating hotel rooms, making phone calls, he is incapable of letting others do their jobs properly and knows next to nothing about running an organisation and managing people! The staff are trapped, they see that he is behaving in an inappropriate way, they really care about the progress of the organisation but they have to bow down to him otherwise he will make their lives hell, he threatens people with the sack. So I have decided to focus on small wins, on training staff, on working with deaf members directly and bypassing him at the end of the day he does not control what I do, so I will look for other ways to make a difference and find satisfaction, my colleagues unfortunately are not so fortunate...

So things are looking up at work, I have had a fantastic few days travelling around the Eastern & Central regions meeting the deaf in the villages and small towns, improving my sign language and Twi and working out how together we can change things. There are a number of projects I am now chomping at the bit to get my teeth into, including managing a project training deaf women all over Ghana in hairdressing enabling them to set up their own small scale enterprises and raising funds for a partially completed bakery for the deaf in the beautiful town of Cape Coast right by the sea. I’ll be sure to tell you about these soon...
It just so happens that my travelling for work has coincided with the Africa Cup of Nations, a huge football tournament which has whipped Ghana into a frenzy as we are doing rather well. It has been hugely enjoyable to sit in local spots with people with a nice cold beer, watching the football and observing the ooohs and ahhs and screams of the Ghanaians and it has been amazing to see how the people react when the team wins, running through the streets wrapped in flags, car horns blaring, elderly people dancing uncontrollably...what fun! So Ghana play their rivals Nigeria on Thursday in the semi finals....the match is during office hours, I wonder what Mr Asamoah will do given his normal love for television...perhaps the office will be full of televisions and radios that day!!!