Savelugu - Our Journey So Far

Our Journey So Far.

Team Watermelon!

Two weeks has now gone by, with the Savelugu team now fully on way with their project work with NFED. We have two of the best volunteers this week who have graciously given up their time to write about their experience so far, and also why they both decided to join our ICS team. 

Firstly Louis will tell you a bit about his experience so far, let’s starts from the beginning...

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a step forward. My ICS journey started with an application, when I first heard about ICS, I remember thinking, Challenge yourself to change the world? That sounds awesome! I opted to give it a try. After going through a successful application, I was short listed out of 400 applicants for assessment which would take place in Tamale.

It was finally assessment day... I made my way to the Tamale sport stadium conference hall, extremely nervous. I had no idea what an assessment day was going to be like. I came to a stop outside the door, and took a breath, I then entered the hall.  Everyone was looking at me. I quickly looked down to the floor and made my way to the front desk for my registration. The day was consumed by group activities and one to ones with the ICS staff. To make it through the assessment, you had to compete against yourself. The long awaited day was over, and I was reimbursed for my transportation.

Two weeks later I received a call informing me that I was offered a place on the ICS scheme. However, the placement offer was conditioned subject to my medical clearance, criminal clearance and satisfactory reference. A pre-placement training was organized for in country volunteers awaiting the UKV’S.

On the 9^th of January both ICV’s and UKV’s were hosted at GILLBT for an in country orientation before we move to our various project based communities. I got to know and meet my other amazing team members, and together we made up Team Watermelon (as we chose to name ourselves). The NFED Savelugu team finally arrived in Savelugu the evening after our last day of training. We started work on a positive note, meeting with the director of NFED, where we read through the reports of the previous team. We paid homage to Yoo Naa to announce our presence in his community. This was followed by our first community entry to meet with the various IGG’s, we were welcomed with Kola nuts from the chiefs of the local communities. I must say the team looks set to take this project to the next level. It has been an inspiring, fun, educative and life-changing two weeks, and I can only hope the journey continues.

Luis & Shauna respectively

Next we have our UK volunteer, Shauna....

Sitting on a 5 hour train journey to York, I struggled to keep my eyes open. York had been the closest assessment I was able to attend, and I fully expected to be the only Scottish one there. The day had been long and tiring, it consisted of group activities and also a one-to-one interview, all of which being constantly assessed. Around a week later I received a phone call to say that I had been successful and had been placed on a team traveling to Ghana. I only found out at training that I would be working with NFED Savelugu, helping women maintain their cooperatives and create a sustainable future for themselves and their communities.

I have currently been in Ghana for two weeks, and I am enjoying every minute of it. Living with a lot of children, and my bucket showers in the morning have been quite a struggle. None the less, experiencing a different culture and living here day to day has been the most rewarding experience of my life. I look forward to my forthcoming months living here. Working with ICS is very different from many other charities, instead of offering money to these communities and expecting a change to develop, ICS promote sustainability. Allowing the women, in the communities to help themselves, by producing Shea butter, soap making and rice production. The women can then pass these skills on to the developing generation in the community, creating jobs and a balanced lifestyle. By visiting the various communities we will be working with, and seeing how International Service as well as NFED has already made a considerable impact, will be something I never forget. I can only hope to carry on in this department throughout my career after working as a volunteer, and I will be a strong advocate on anyone who wishes to volunteer in the future, ICS is the place to do it!

The Savelugu Host Home Experience

The year is 2017, and our cross-cultural team of both UK and Ghanaian volunteers will be working hard here in Savelugu, Northern Ghana, from January until the end of March. During this time we will be using our combined skills of cultural knowledge, determination and other various abilities to work as a fantastic team, and to help support and empower communities where most are living far below the poverty line.

An entire week now has gone by, so we have all of us had a full seven days to adjust and adapt to our individual host homes.Two of our amazing volunteers Shirley and Jake, from developed central Ghana and the UK respectively, have written the following to describe their experiences at their host homes so far.

Here is Shirley’s host home experience!

So from the Gillbt guest house and conference centre, our mini-bus took off towards Savelugu. My team leader informed myself and my counter-part volunteers, they had made contact with my host father and he was very ready to receive us. I was for rest of the journey quite anxious and uncertain of both our host home and its appearance. I was very sad about leaving home. Then came the moment I wasn’t sure of...

Team Savelugu arrived safely at the Savelugu Central Mosque, patiently waiting for our host father.Shortly after we arrived, our host father soon appeared with a car and his friend on his motorbike, and they packed my luggage, as well as my two other counterparts luggage into the car, and what wouldn’t fit was carried on the motorbike, and we all then traveled towards our new home.

The welcome we received from our host brothers and sisters was so overwhelming! There were so many welcoming us, that it felt so good. Our host father showed all three of us to our various rooms, of which I instantly realised were very different to the room I was used to back at home. This made me feel very sad and apprehensive. My host brothers and sister, were very young, and were all over us to the extent that we didn’t know what to do. This was another overwhelming experience.

Our host father invited us to see our bathhouse and toilet facilities, it wasn’t at all like the one at home, thus I felt even further concern. Later in the evening, we had some supper which I wasn’t able to eat properly despite feeling famished. Afterwards, he again called us and introduced himself, and his family and we also did the same by introducing ourselves. I and my two counter-parts have two host mothers, and they both dote on us always. Whenever it is time for supper, they allow us to help them cook on their respective days of cooking. WHO HAS THIS?!

 

Our host brothers and sisters are always ready to teach us ready to teach us some new words in Dagbani, the local language, and I always now love to go home and meet them. They are all so bubbly, warm and inviting.

My host home doesn’t have the most sophisticated and conventional of all basic & social amenities, but it surely is a go to home always. I’m looking forward to having a lovely stay at my host home.

Hello! I’m Jake and whilst Shirley is from the more developed central Ghana, I have traveled from rural Somerset, South West UK.

With a very different perspective, I will now share host home experience so far.

The first major difference that I noticed upon arriving at my host home is, although larger than most homes, it is all on one floor. In the centre is an open courtyard, of which everybody’s rooms surround. Each room has a locked wooden door, and a mesh window. Whereas back home in a much colder climate, I am used to double glazed windows/doors to retain heat and repel rain. 

The home doesn’t have a TV in each room, however in the living room, with the one TV that we all watch some evenings as a family. Off to one side is the two cleaning rooms, one with a toilet that sometimes flushes, sometimes you have to pour water down the toilet. In the other room is a basic shower head on the wall and a tap lower down to wash feet. 

All water that comes from the taps is unsafe to drink and comes from a small salty reservoir located just outside the home. All cooking is performed over an open fire, and washing of clothes and eating utensils, is done by hand in a large steel basin. 

As for the room myself and my counterpart share, there is a roof fan, light switch, three plugs, two beds shrouded each by a mosquito net, sometimes we even have to light a mosquito coil, similar in design to an incense stick, of which the faint smoke deters insects and more importantly malaria carrying mosquitoes.

Just that which we need.

There we have two experiences both from Shirley and Jake, and as you can see each of these two volunteers has had so far a varied view. However both are happy, and have everything that they require in which to live a basic but humble way of life.

A home that both volunteers enjoy being a part of, for the duration of their placements.

Thank you for reading, hopefully this has been enlightening for yourselves at home, wherever in the world your home may be.

Jake & Shirley

Bismark's Blog

ICS (International Citizen Service) is a great programme where opportunity is given to young people encouraging them to challenge themselves to change the world in a positive direction. This is enhancing growth, poverty alleviation, community development, sexual health education, women empowerment, helping grow local businesses, livelihood, community integration of the less privileged etc in Ghana and other parts of the world.

For me; Bismark Odum, volunteering with International Service on the ICS programme has being a very great experience as well as challenging. My project – Non Formal Education Division (NFED) project, is in Savelugu Ghana. I am a stranger in this community since it is my first time here. However, I have come to love the community’s peaceful nature apart from the frequent power outage. As a member of the fifth cohort on this project, we have being working over the past nine weeks to ensure six cooperatives who are into rice production and processing, soap making and shea butter production work together as a team and putting away all differences. This we believe will help them meet the aims of the cooperatives. We continue to ensure these cooperatives which are located in Jana, Balshei, Kukuo, Naprisi, Sahakpalugu, and Manguli get access to loans to buy equipment needed to work with. We also help to solve their transportation issues as well as getting access to quality water needed for producing the good quality of products into the market. Through radio awareness raising and various training sessions, we are making a positive impact by helping the cooperatives get vibrant leadership, putting in place sustainability plans, ensuring the cooperatives take and keep proper and up-to-date records. We are demonstrating great commitment to helping the cooperatives improve quality of their products and link them to prospective buyers or get a reliable market to sell their products in order to generate more income. Amidst many challenges, our activities are yielding positive results which we trust will last to benefit generations yet unborn.

Aside project activities, we have been able to educate the community on sanitation. We educated the people on: the need to keep the environment clean, health benefits of washing hands after visiting the toilet, avoiding open defecation, proper refuse disposal and teaching food vendors the need to cook in a very clean environment to avoid cholera outbreak, diarrhoea, typhoid etc. We have also engaged Savelugu M/A Junior High School students to educate them on personal hygiene. These are among the many activities we have undertook to enhance community integration alongside community development.

One great opportunity of being a volunteer on the ICS programme is the cross-cultural exchange experience of being and working with UK volunteer counterparts. This is an opportunity to learn and share from each other. I am learning how to live and work with people from a different cultural background. My commitment to personal and professional development aims at discovering my potential and developing skills in the area of building effective communication, leadership, collaborative and public speaking skills. I am improving my report writing skills and more importantly, am showing great commitment towards contributing to community development.

I have had some farming experience with my host family. I decided to join them to go and harvest beans. It was my first time harvesting beans; my experience was wonderful and memorable. I love to eat the Ghanaian bean dishes, Waakye (made of rice and beans) and Red Red (consisting of beans, fried plantain and palm oil) but never knew how to harvest the beans. Even though the sun was shining with high intensity, we managed to harvest three large sizes of jute bags between the hours of 9:00 am to 3:00 pm on Saturday. One thing I love about my host family is their love and concern for our well-being as well as their readiness to serve us food. I am enjoying these opportunities and encouraging the youth between the ages of 18 to 25 years to volunteer on the ICS programme.

My Harmattan Experience

Keep your skin moisturized!

During Harmattan the weather always changes drastically, the sun is hotter, the wind is drier and the nights are colder, this starts from the ending of October to early April. Growing up in the Northern Regions of Ghana I have experienced the harshness of this season. 

When the harmattan starts there are certain rules that come into play naturally if one wants to stay healthy and make it through the harmattan without much health problems, these include:

           Covering the nose with a cloth when it is dusty or when you are travelling on an  untarred road to prevent you developing respiratory complications;

          Using very good and effective body lotion to keep the skin moisturized and healthy, otherwise the skin often becomes dry and sometimes scaly;
       
   Drinking a lot more water to keep hydrated which of course prevents dehydration, a very serious issue;
      
   Also many people tend to carry around lip gloss, even men because the harshness of the weather can cause the lips to dry up and develop splits. I do not know the health implication of this but I do know that it is very painful and uncomfortable.

Me in my face mask!

There are many more precautions that need to be taken in this season but that above are just a few. So many people expect that as they experience the harmattan so often it should get easier as time goes by. This year’s harmattan will be my 26th experience and I can only remember vividly perhaps 17 or 16 of those, but I am yet to have an easy harmattan. Every single year I dread the coming of the harmattan, I keep hoping ‘this year’s harmattan will be different, it will be mild’, this however is never the case. I know that if I want a mild harmattan then I would need to spend that entire season in the South of Ghana as the Harmattan is always much milder there than it is in the North.

 Harmattan in the North never gets easier, however I love the season because it means the coming of Christmas and I love spending Christmas with my family. It is the season when everyone makes plans to spend time at home with their families and share love. So, we know that when the harmattan starts we also need to speed up our Christmas arrangements, deciding where to spend Christmas, making our travel arrangement, buying gifts for the family ( they do not come wrapped though), making Christmas budgets, buying or searching for Christmas decorations, calling up friends to make arrangements to catch up. So many exciting events happen during this season, for instance this year my family has formed a Christmas planning committee… 

Harmattan gives us the chance to share in each other’s experience and gather to help each other through (at least part of the season).

As I contemplate the harshness of the season, I think of our counterparts from the UK, I have spent 25 harmattans and still dreaded the coming of the 26th. This is their first and I can only imagine how they must be feeling. They have received the guidelines of making it through the harmattan, and they are seemingly prepared, but only time will tell if they are actually prepared.  I have heard that it can be slightly compared to winter for our counterparts only hotter, drier, dustier and less chilly.

We will go through this harmattan as we usually do, as a family sharing experiences, ideas and helping each other through. I may not be keen for the harmattan but one thing is sure this year the harmattan will be a totally different experience sharing it with this family.

Protecting ourselves from the Harmattan whilst in the communities

What I hear, see, smell, taste and feel

What I hear; motor bikes rumbling, babies crying and the laughter of a group of men who are having a jolly at the NPP shelter.

What I see; gutters filled with rubbish and waste, the streets scattered with goats, sheep, chickens and the odd child asking for toffee.

What I smell; the unpleasant odder from the open sewer, and the toxic fumes leaking from the vehicles.

What I taste; the dust which is carried in the air.

What I feel; the uneven ground under my feet, the small but needed breeze and the suns sharp glare on my skin.

What happens when waiting for the women!

This may all seem really negative but don’t worry I’m getting to the good part. So above all of that, what I see when I look around is normal people going through the struggles of everyday life just like me and you, but I see them doing it gracefully by getting up every day and doing a job, any job, anything that can bring them any money in, for me that’s admirable! I see a community packed full of different cultures, religions and personalities but it all works so well together as the people here are so friendly and welcoming. They love to wave and say “Dasiba” which mean good morning in Dagbani. Every night I go to my local shop to get a drink and stand for about 20 minutes each time just speaking to the shop owner about his day and any topics that can be spoken about, the people are so easy to talk to and get along with. What I hear is the laughter of the women on the streets all making food, usually the laughter can be at us UKV’s trying to speak Dagbani, but it’s all just fun. I smell the many different spices and flavours of food rushing through my nose as I travel down each street. I then get to taste the various new foods that are offered here, a favourite of mine is bean stew and yams! Then sometimes as a treat the women who sells watermelon will come to the office and obviously I have to have some, then it’s like there’s a little bit of home here. I feel the hot rays of the sun cleansing my skin and slowly but surely bronzing me, under the many layers of sun cream I apply! The cool refreshing breeze that comes with riding the bike is exactly the break you need from the heat, and finally, I feel happy to be here, on the other side of the world, experiencing this life changing opportunity!

Me in my community- Sahakpalugu

SAUSAGE!

So this week in one word- SAUSAGE! It was one of the best weeks we have had since being here, just because we had multiple activities and we were able to travel to the Upper East region, because we had the Mid-Term Review in Bolgatanga. There were good and bad things about the trip, the one bad thing was the travel. We had to travel 3 hours in a bus or shall I say Tro Tro as they call it, which is like an old school bus with more seats crammed into it, so as you can image it was quite uncomfortable. But, everything else was amazing, we got to see some amazing sights and in fact saw the first hill since we have been in Ghana!  Once we got there we had a nice reunion with the groups from the different districts as we have not seen them since the training at the Gillbt House.

Bus journey to Bolgatanga

The mid-term review in short was an overview of how all the groups are getting along and a big security up date as the elections are coming up and the Harmattan is also about to begin. Oh and back to the one word description of the week; the reason I said sausage is because for the first time since being here we were able to buy sausage in Bolgatanga and it was amazing!! Especially in a bread bun with some tomato ketchup! It just took us back home a little as it's been one of the few foods we have had since being here that tastes like anything from back home. 

On the Thursday of this week we had the group from Tolon come to visit us as they are on the same project as us, NFED (Non Formal Education Division), but one cohort behind so they wanted to come to see how we are doing and take some of the knowledge back with them. We booked the big ICT hall as we have a really small office which definitely wouldn't have been able to fit us all in, and we had a big meeting that lasted several hours and consisted of us asking each other questions and relaying any information that we think would be beneficial. Once the meeting finished at around 4:30pm we decided to have a little social activity before they had to leave at 5pm, so we went and had a quick Alvaro (A non-Alcoholic beverage) at the local bar, which was nice.

In all this week went by very fast, and was helped along by a bike ride we went on, on Saturday, exploring around our community. So as a whole I would say the week was a win.

The number 5

The number 5 is the number associated with perfection and I believe week five of our placement is exactly that. 'Silminga buy toffee' is now a common rhyme, which is heard whenever we walk, cycle or sit in the office with our mates from the UK. 

Mondays are often boring days, but with International Service, it’s a different story. My experience on placement in a rural community is very fulfilling. I wake up to the sound of birds singing at dawn and it gives me the best appreciation of nature. Mondays are always busy for us in the office as we try to do as much as we can and make space to push activities forward and have more time to plan them, hence the breakfast my host mum gives me is very much appreciated as I get the energy I need to head off to a busy day. 

We plan the week and meet with NFED to update them on all that we have been doing so far as well as to inform them of our upcoming activities.

Everyone hard at work in the office

My mate Lewis and I know all the geographical hotspots of the community, like miners in search for gold and we stumbled on a piece of Gold – a successful cooperative not far from our community, which meant that the women from our communities would be able to see firsthand what they can achieve and be motivated to work hard towards it, first however we needed to visit them to make sure that they were worth consideration this required preparation and I must say we were not disappointed. We sought to find out what made their cooperative a success. We had discussions with the chairman who promised communicating and teaching the women how to be a successful cooperative. I saw this as a major step, since it is going to open more doors for information and training for the women.

The day finally came for the MASLOC training, this was arranged to help the cooperatives learn about the various loan packages available and what documentation they will need, the meeting started at 10:30am and the M.A.S.L.O.C trainers explained the process of acquiring a loan, what is required for a loan, the maximum amount they can take and the types of loan products they have, it was a very interactive session between the women and the trainers as the women were eager and had a boat load of questions to ask. The training came to an end at 12.50, We realized that though we had initially thought the motor kings were what the women needed, it seemed the cash loans is what they are interested in the most, and they confirmed this to us when we asked them.

The women at the MASLOC training

As a way to relax midway through the week we had games night and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely. For the rest of our week we compiled reports, and made plans for our supply run and the week to come. Our friend 'Biscuit' the goat failed to visit us early instead, a strange puppy visited us, we are now searching for a name for it, who knows we might name him 'toffee'. Perfection is not achieved when everything you plan goes smoothly, instead it is when we are able to learn from mistakes, adjust to new plans and improvise the old plans…. In this regard I think my friends here will agree with me when I say week 5 has been a perfect week.

One month in Savelugu

So we've been here a month now. It's strange how it both feels like we've been here no amount of time but feels like we've lived here forever. It's definitely good that we have our social activity list which keeps us entertained. Game night on Wednesday, and it was Shiela's birthday this week so we were celebrating. Chloe brought along a new game called Jungle Speed, which made a nice change from the card games we usually play, or Ludo. Friday night's are film nights at my host home which is always nice to just be able to sit and relax. Tonight I'm cooking as well so it'll be a good film and some nice homely food (if I don't poison everyone).

Our 'Social Activities' list- up on the office wall.

 This week has been a busy one, with the Co-operative training in the communities and plenty of report writing and risk assessments. This morning we had our third guided learning session, and we visited the Central mosque. We learnt how the mosque was part of a project including the construction of a school, accommodation for students, a health centre and more. The project would also offer scholarships to some people in need.
For me so far religion has been a prominent part of my time in Ghana. My host home family are Christian and I often wake up to my wonderful host mum singing along to the cheery gospel songs playing from the TV. Then across the road is one of Savelugu's many mosques, so I've also become well used to the call to prayer's (especially the 4am one!). Hearing the wonderfully enriching music of these two religions being celebrated just a few hundred yards apart makes me inherently happy and grateful. So many people live and celebrate religion in harmony, and whilst often it's overshadowed by those minorities who turn to terror, negativity and violence, it's important that we appreciate all those who remain peaceful even in the worst of times and most difficult of situation.

The team visiting the Central Mosque for our Guided Learning Session.

We are in Savelugu to help the women of our communities, but nevertheless we're all learning ourselves. We're experiencing no end of new things, from new foods, learning Dagbani to just spending time with a new group of people and learning about who they are and where they're from.

Community Entry

This week was our community entry, we started off by going to Sahakpalulgu, which is Chance and Sheila’s community. The women were friendly and welcomed us into their community. We then went to Naprisi, which is Lewis and Bismark’s community, the women were dancing and laughing so it seems like a nice community to be in which is good. After that it was Kukuo, this is Molly and Hamdia’s community, the women only spoke a little and just mainly agreed with what was said. 

Next was Jana, Nasiha and Natty’s community, their Chief seemed pretty cool but the women did not speak much. After was Manguli, this is Dan and Selorm’s community, the group of women seemed to be very small we were not sure if that was because of the lack of people turning up or if it was just a small group. 

Finally, was mine and Ridwan’s community, save the best till last, Balshei. The women were so friendly and seemed very enthusiastic to get started, they told us that they were happy to see me and Ridwan as excited to get started as we are. The Chief was cool as well and seemed very eager for us to look at their rice production and see how we can help, so he sent us through to look, I got a few photos and a video which will really help us later on to refer back to. The community is very beautiful as well it’s just full of greenery and these amazing views! We got a pretty cool group
photo in the grass. All in all, the women seemed really friendly and welcoming and eager to get started with the new cohort.

Emily and Ridwan with the women of Balshei

On the Tuesday night it was meant to be a “Fire Festival” so Lewis, Natty and I went to meet everyone at the office to watch from a safe distance, but then it absolutely poured down with rain, it was thunder and lightning and storming for so long. Luckily when we got to the office the caretaker was sat in our office and invited us in so we went in there to hide from the rain. 

Finally, the rain stopped so we pelted home before it started again. In the end the fire festival did go on but just at like 11pm and we were all flat out by then so missed it completely. Massive let down.

Overall, this week has actually been pretty good and went by really fast which is a change from last week. Looking forward to next week and doing the training with our communities and getting to know them some more.

Welcome to Savelugu

Hello from Cohort 5!

Savelugu was a word we'd said many a time before coming here. For UKV's (UK volunteers) when fundraising and for us all when telling our friends and family where we are going. Now finally, we've reached the town. It's a beautiful place, with nice scenery, and full of heartwarming and lovely people.                                                      

The Savelugu Munincipality consists of 149 communities with a total population of 110,000. The primary language here is Dagbani of which our team has had some basic training in. Some of us are definitely better than others! Luckily we have three Dagbani speakers in the team, which will certainly make life a little easier.

"Silaminga buy toffee" is a recitation that the children of the community chant anytime they see the uk volunteers. It means "White man, buy me toffee". (History of why they say this is a long one (trust me!).

Our first full day here was a Sunday, so we decided to visit the nearby lake, it was a good cycle and a worthwhile one, the lake is beautiful, and children were playing in the water.

The office is a nice cozy place (it's a tight squeeze). The first day was really packed, we started by cleaning the office. After work, Chloe, one of the team leaders showed us to the bar, somewhere we can relax after work. Most of us tried a soft drink called Alvaro, it's really good. We spoke mostly of our cultures, and as usual with our group we joked and laughed (mostly at each other).

We decided to designate one night a week as a games night, to ward off the boredom that may be associated with lots of work. Wednesday is the day which we collectively agreed to meet at a volunteers residence and have games. There was Twister, Ludo, Snake and ladders and Playing Cards. There was lots of music and fun. Twister was the funniest of all the games, a new game for all the ICV's (In country volunteers), it involved about four people having their hands and legs on colour patterns on a plastic sheet.

With the help of one of the host parents, we were able to meet the chief of Savelugu. Before we went in we had to remove our footwear in obedience to tradition. The chief welcomed us and expressed his support for us to make our positive impact in the community. We too had a moment to express our mission and thanks to the chief. We also got to meet the NFED team and the supervisors who welcomed us.

It's only week 2 but already we're really fitting into the culture and norms of this wonderful and lovely community.

NFED Savelugu Cohort 5

Becoming one with Ghana

UK volunteer Dionne Heslop sums up her experience at the end of the ICS placement

 

Volunteers amid the organized chaos of Tamale market

 

Let’s be honest: this experience has not been easy. As someone who hasn't had much experience with the poverty line or different cultures, it has been an almighty shock to my system. Yet it has also been the best experience of my life.

I came here with an open mind and was ready to take on any challenges coming my way. Admittedly, I was scared when we landed in Accra – which seems silly now. It wasn’t just a little bit different from what I was used to. It was a whole different world. My first experience in Accra was of a man who approached the open minibus window where I was sitting, demanding I buy some sort of child's toy that had obviously seen better days. All I could do was pray the red light would hurry up and turn to green.

Thankfully, Tamale was a whole different story. The streets are constantly alive with music and people dressed in brightly coloured clothing, rushing around trying to sell flip flops, fruit or even fish carried on their heads in metal bowls or wicker baskets. The biggest challenge I faced in Tamale, was trying not to get run over by the crazy ‘I do what I want’ traffic. I'm not even sure if they have any road laws in Ghana.

After my short time in Tamale I was all set to move in with my host family in Savelugu, they could not have been any more welcoming and willing to help us settle in but, another culture shock. The squat-down toilet and thought of washing from a bucket of rain water every day for the next three months was pretty daunting. You only get one bucket of water per shower, so you have to use the right amount of water for your hair, and then leave enough to wash with. I've become a master of this. Also, if it doesn't rain, then you don't get any water.

Road lead to Savelugu lake

At first, being in Savelugu, where there isn't much to do proved difficult. I don't agree with the food and the food doesn’t agree with me, and that is something that hasn’t got any easier. Savelugu is a quiet town with one bar, many shops that sell the same things and the forever beautiful lake. It took us a while to discover the lake, but we have still managed to make a lot of great memories there. It's quiet, secluded and a lovely place in which to relax and reflect, or in our case play spar (a Ghanaian card game) and kick the football around. ‘The mango tree’ is also a place where all meet and think of endless ways to try and entertain ourselves.

Working out here has not been easy to say the least: the cramped office and numerous dead ends can be frustrating, but getting to meet the working women from surrounding communities has been a pleasure. Learning about the way the women make a small living and what it entails to do so has been mesmerising, and they are truly amazing for what they do on on a day-to-day basis. Juggling family life with processing and selling their products all whilst under the poverty line is something to be proud of. It may not seem like a lot to us, but out here, trust me it is

I have met some amazing friends, who I've made some of the best memories with. I've lived with the kindest, funniest family and I've helped vulnerable women better their small income-generating activities. I feel great for being a part of it all.

What was out of my comfort zone has now become comfortable.

All in all: what a strange, wonderful place. 

After financial training at Savelugu information center

What a culture shock

UK volunteer Sarah Chebrolu describes her journey from fear of change to confidence in responsibility

Frank and Sarah with community members in Jana,  south of Savelugu

Before my ICS journey, I wrestled a lot with my fear of change and I made it one of my personal goals to go beyond my comfort zone. After just a few days in Savelugu adjusting to the new tastes of food and hearing words in a different tongue, I realised I am 4,000 miles away from my comfort zone and now coming to a successful end of week 10.

In one of my many conversations with my counterpart, Mariam, she mentioned that “cooking is just like handwriting… we all may be presented with the same book and pen but each of our handwritings differ. In the same way we may all have the same ingredients but the way we cook is also very different.” I took this view on board, and not only have I been able to appreciate and enjoy Ghanaian culture, but I have also been able to work better in a team and appreciate everyone’s individual way of doing things. This also encouraged me see the project in a new light and recognise how different all the six cooperative groups are.

Over the past few weeks, after successful sessions of soap-making training for the women in our communities, sustainability became our main focus – we decided that creating an English/Dagbani soap manual would be the best way to ensure the women in our communities have benefited from the training.

I was given the task of creating and completing the soap manual and well… facilitating all things soap. This became my new ‘mini project’. I expected to finish the soap manual much earlier but trying to piece it together involved learning about soap production, gaining awareness on the health and safety aspects, calculating the feasibility costs, carrying out market research and, most importantly, recording the exciting intricacies in the soap-making process while soap training.

Throughout this process, I have learnt about the challenges in development, issues that arise while introducing a new income-generating activity (IGA) which are not always immediately apparent.

However, I am eager to complete this soap manual in the coming week with the help of our amazing Dagbani translators (Thank you, Ayisha and Alhassan) and I am hopeful to see the long-term benefits these women in our cooperative groups will reap. I felt a massive responsibility being assigned to this task, but with the support of my lovely team I can confidently say that my journey here has been much more fulfilling.

There are innumerable memories, new springs of motivation to continue volunteering at home and not to forget the super skill of making soap that I will be taking home with me and also to new places. I now feel my fear of change disappearing.

Audio blog: The impact of NGOs on education in the Northern Region

Elvis Aboagye finds a wide range of views on this central developmental issue. For his report he spoke to school pupils, Savelugu's NFED district director, an International Service team leader, and the Savelugu Nanton Municipal planning officer.