A day in the life of a GM volunteer 11-Aug-09

For my first few weeks, I had done without an alarm clock. No worries though – I was never late. I am blessed to be woken up by a posse of roosters. Some days they start around 6 am, other days at about 4 am. I’ve slowly grown used to them.


(the morning culprit)

Today, however, I was woken up by an alarm clock that my former roommate, Jen, left behind. Yet I haven’t figured out how to reset the time from when I used it the day we left for Axim, so it promptly goes off at 5:30 am.

I climb out of my mosquito net-covered bed and head to the bathroom. I’ve been lucky to have running water (so far, I’m crossing my fingers and knocking on wood!). But the water is ice cold, so I do a little dance in the shower as a get one arm wet with the hose, turn it off, rub in soap, then turn back on to rinse. I repeat several times, and I’m always dismayed by how long it takes to rinse out my shampoo.

After quickly getting dressed, I head into the kitchen. My breakfast is typically two slices of sugar bread (there are four types of bread in Ghana, and all are delicious!) and a banana or two. I never forget a cup of tea or, if I’m lucky and I bought one the night before, a Nestle 3-in-1, which I am convinced is one of the greatest inventions since sliced bread.

It seems, since Grant left, that I’m typically the first one in the kitchen, but I like the additional time to read or write a blog entry before I leave for work. Around 7:30am, Alice, Christina, and I head out for the office.

The commute from the volunteer house in Elmina is about a 20 minute drive via taxi. To go to Cape Coast in a shared taxi costs 70Gp (pesewa) each…roughly 45 cents. Almost everyday I think to myself that no one in the world has a better commute to work than me. On my right as I leave Elmina I can see Elmina Castle, then it fades and the road follows the coast of the Atlantic. On my left is a village.


(the view from the door of the Global Mamas store)

I set up my computer in the office and get to work, bouncing between poster design, Excel spreadsheets, and finishing my latest blog, but we take time to talk and joke around. Today, Paul received the suit from Dorcus that she made for him, a batiked suit!



(Paul wearing his batiked suit, with Dorcus)

For lunch, I picked up one of the “Greatest Grilled Cheeses” in Ghana off the street; and I promise you the name does not do it justice – they are the greatest in the world! However, this trip around town was not just to satisfy my hunger. I was on a mission to find foam, which we use for batiking. Paul had made a great map to the store, but someone we got lost in translation. I ended up roaming around Cape Coast for at least 30 or 40 minutes, walking back and forth, before several people started asking me, “What are you looking for?”

After a few more dead ends, I decided that shopping was the only thing that would help the situation. So I stopped by Francesca (one of the GM jewelry makers) at her booth, and bought a couple of necklaces and a small Ghanaian flag.

On my way back, I ran into George, one of the staff members, who was giving our new volunteer Tyler his official tour of Cape Coast. I told them about my trouble finding the foam store. Then, as if by magic, I looked beyond the two of them and realized we were all standing right in front of it! After I laughed at myself, I wished them good luck on the tour and made my purchase. 2/3 of the foam will go to GM, and the rest is for me. I’m doing a batiking workshop tomorrow morning, for which I am designing my own pattern.

I get back to the office, quite hot and sweaty, but laughing about the journey to the other volunteers and staff. Christina is finishing her consulting work with Esther, as her last day is today. She flies out on Thursday. I’ll be sad to see her go, she’s great – and her pictures I’ve been using for posters are awesome!


(Wisdom showing off a new prototype for a hoodie)

I went downstairs, where the store is located, to sit with Nancy. I did a bit of consumer research, but mostly we spent time setting her up with an e-mail account. It was fun – but strange having to describe the “To” box, “Subject” box, etc. She seemed very concerned about someone logging into her account, and she also wished she had an account that would “ding!” when an e-mail was received, like she saw in the movies. But I assured her that Gmail is the best and that it is what I had, and she was very happy with that.

While we were working, the bread lady came. This is a particularly dangerous situation. Can you imagine having fresh bread, still warm, delivered to you to your office for you to pick? Tea bread, butter bread, sugar bread, wheat bread, banana bread, and cake = I’ll probably be on carb overload by the time I come home next Thursday. Today, I restrained myself to just a loaf of banana bread. I shared it with everyone in the office, and they seemed to enjoy it, although I don’t think Ghanaians typically eat banana bread. They thanked “Ma Kristy;” apparently, providing food for everyone elevated me from “Sister Kristy” to “Ma Kristy.”

We usually leave the office anywhere from 5-6pm. I walk just down the street to a cab station, and I hop in the first taxi that says “Elmina” on the miniature chalkboard that is placed on the roof of the car. Fares are guaranteed 80Gp (about 55 cents) back to Elmina, but you have to wait for the taxi to fill up. This can take no time at all – if you’re the fourth person – or almost an hour if you’re unlucky. Today, we had just enough to fill a cab so Richie, a staff member, got a cab for us and it picked us up outside the office.

The taxi drops us off at the “Hotel Junction” and it’s a 3 minute walk to the house. After freshening up and chilling out for a few minutes, we make our way over to Eli’s (pronounced Ellie’s). Eli has an informal “restaurant” down the street. She is, quite possibly, the greatest cook I have met, and one of the nicest I know! One time, she forgot to give me an egg (a substitute for the one dish that typically has meat or seafood), and she was completely horrified, promising me 6 the next night. Little does she know, I don’t like hard boiled eggs, so I usually give it to one of the boys anyways!


(Alice, Christina, and I goofing around as we wait for dinner)

For the next three days, we are enjoying Paul’s last requests for meals. He has been in Ghana for 11 weeks and has made suggestions for his last few dinners. On today’s menu is palavra and yam. I couldn’t be happier – I love yams! They’re nothing like yams in the States, I like to think of them as Ghanaian potatoes. At the end of the meal, when our plates were being cleared I had to say, “Wait! Are there more yams?” I was lucky, and I grabbed another piece before it was taken to the kitchen.

After dinner Tyler, Paul and I went to the Shell station. Except this isn’t a typical Shell station. It has a decent sized convenience store and an area outside for truckers (lorry drivers) to sit and watch TV/movies on a projector. We picked up Ghanaian marshmellows, as I had the brilliant idea to make smores that night.

We then headed to Christine’s across the street from our volunteer house. It is basically a convenience store, and I usually pick up a Coke and a 3-in-1 for the next day. If I forgot to return the Coke bottle from the night before she scolds me, as they turn them in to recycle. Today, we picked up “Graham crackers” and Kingsbite chocolate for the smores.

When we get back to the house, Alice suggests that we use forks to cook the marshmellows over the store, but I scoff at the idea. I headed outside and grabbed twigs off of a nearby tree, and Paul and I used our Swiss Army knifes (mine is a pink miniature one) to cut them to a point. The smores were delicious, albeit a little “off.” That’s ok though, I love Ghanian smores, and I liked them quite a bit when I freestyled and used ginger cookies instead of the graham crackers.


(Tyler, Paul, and I making smores over the stove)

At night, I may sit around chatting with other volunteers, or I pick out a book from the library and read a bit. One day, after this I thought “Well, it’s probably about 10:30 – I’ll head to bed.” Then I looked at a clock, and it was 8:56pm. How embarrassing! Ghanaian time seems so different, and I’m tired much earlier.

Today, I made myself a cup of tea and started reading in the game room. But after about 10 minutes, I felt myself falling asleep. So I eventually will myself to get up and go to bed. It was another great day in Ghana!

"I am coming"

Very quickly, I had to learn that I could either 1) accept that things happen a bit differently here in Ghana, often a bit more slowly, or 2) remain in a constant state of frustration. Fortunately, I’ve picked up the former trait, an ability that all Global Mamas volunteers seem to acquire.

Fast service is rare in Ghana and certainly not a priority. This past weekend, four volunteers and I spent our time at the Axim Beach Resort, about three hours west of Cape Coast. For lunch the day we left, we placed our orders, went up to our rooms to shower and clean up, packed, and started checking out. By the time we got back to the restaurant – wonderfully located on the beach – we waited another 45 minutes for our food. Shortly thereafter, Tyler ordered a pineapple boat; essentially, it’s a cut-up pineapple. It took close to an hour to prepare.

“I am coming” is a common expression in Ghana. If you call someone and ask them if they are on the way, you would undoubtedly receive the response, “I am coming.” This can mean they are coming in 15 minutes, an hour, or four hours. Going with the flow is the name of the game.

Checking out from the beach resort took forty-five minutes. If it ever took someone in the States 45 minutes to check-out of a hotel, the manager would be called and some sort of discount given. But such delays are expected. And it would be very “Yank” of us to complain. Very quickly you learn to slow down, relax, smile, and say to yourself, “When in Ghana…”

But this works both ways. Our taxi driver, who was to take us from the resort to the tro station, waited for us patiently while we checked out, for a commission that was only 3 cedi (about $2.00). And our waiter seemed to have no problem bringing us an endless supply of rolls during each morning’s complimentary breakfast, although I’m sure we took it a bit to excess.



We canoed out to the village on stilts Saturday afternoon, a ride I enjoyed almost more than the actual village tour. Drifting along in a canoe as we went through a black river- the water was naturally reddish when you stuck your hand in it - we paddled through two small “jungles” before we got to the lake that was the home of the village on stilts. As much as it was interesting to see, an awkward exchange with the village chief led us, of course, to leave a donation for the development of the village.



All in all, it was a beautiful weekend. Over three days, I finished a book on the beach, enjoyed extended meals with friends I have come to greatly admire, and “gone back to my [younger] roots” by playing in the sand and boogie-boarding in the Atlantic.



And over the course of the weekend, I continued to meet so many friendly and welcoming people. The volunteer guide was dead-on when it said that Ghanaians are “The Friendliest People in the World.”

26 hours via bus, 9 hours in taxi, 2 hours in tro…

Last weekend, I learned that what I once thought was difficult travel, is all relative. Having believed that driving 10 hours to Charlotte, North Carolina, in one day is taxing, I have come to reexamine my idea of “difficult.”

Wanting to see the north of Ghana, and especially wanting to visit Mole National Park, had been a priority of mine before I arrived in the country. So when a hired car and driver was coordinated by another volunteer, we soon realized that six of us desired the five spots in the vehicle. Not wanting to take someone’s spot, but still hoping to go, I suggested to my roommate in Cape Coast, Jen, that we follow along via public transportation, being “only a couple hours behind” the others.

We left on a 9:30 bus from the STC bus station in Cape Coast, and surprisingly it was running only 15 minutes late. The bus ride to Tamale took about 12 hours, and we arrived at the Catholic Guesthouse about four hours after the others. Jen was surprised by my excitement with our living quarters. After having spent the last weekend in tents, I was overjoyed to have a bathroom with soap and toilet paper and a TV – with two channels - in the room!

The receptionist had told us to get to the Metro Mass station at 7am the next day in order to buy tickets for the bus to the Mole National Park. But when we got there at 6am, we were told that all tickets had been sold out within a half hour of opening. Only slightly deterred by the setback, we eventually found a taxi driver who offered to drive us the 4-6 hours to the park for $100 cedi, or roughly $60 dollars.



Our hired car was unique, to say the least. I was shocked that we made it to Mole in one piece, without any breakdowns. Luckily, I was able to sleep for about half an hour at the beginning of the trip with a makeshift headrest I had fastened out of my traveler’s pillow. When we asked our interpreter, the co-pilot who translated for our driver, how long it would take to get to Mole he said, “An hour – until the junction. Then the road is bad.” Words cannot describe the drive that ensued along the unpaved, hole-ridden dirt road to Mole. I can roughly assimilate it to riding in an old, wooden rollercoaster – except instead of a 5 minute ride, it was 5 hours.

We got to the Mole Motel, sneakily darted into the room after Christina had told reception that there were 3 in the room instead of 5, and immediately hopped into the pool. Without a doubt, I have never enjoyed a dip in a pool more than I did last weekend! And the view from the hotel is superb. The bar, restaurant, and pool at Mole overlook the game park. It wasn’t long until we saw warthogs walking by and baboons attempting to steal someone’s evening snack.



That night, after a filling dinner, Christina, Bethany, Jane, Jen, and I overlooked the game park as we shared a bottle of wine. It was a perfect ending to a tiring day.
The next morning, we woke up early for our foot safari. Although we were excited to see more warthogs and baboons as we headed into the game park, I think we were all patiently awaiting the elephants. However, we did not want to jinx ourselves: We had heard that some have not seen elephants when they went to Mole. Of course, the whole time I was dearly hoping that the 17 hours we had already spent in transit would not be in vain!

Nearing the end of our two-hour hike through dense brush and grass, I was starting to feel a bit disappointed. Having seen gazelles, warthogs, and multiple types of monkeys, I was dejected at the thought of failing at our primary mission – seeing elephants! But soon, I looked up to see a huge grin stretch across Jen’s face. Not far from us was a beautiful, huge African elephant bull.



Undoubtedly, our group became snap-happy with our cameras. Getting a bit lost in the moment, a few of us must have gotten too close for comfort for our new four-legged friend. After seeing the bull make a few threatening steps in our direction, our armed ranger had to tell us “Back up, he’s coming! Elephants are the 2nd fastest animals.”

After more photos, we made our ways around the watering hole, where we saw more bulls roaming about. After a short hike up a nearby hill, I looked over the game park from the top; and the view was simply breathtaking.



We happily returned back to the hotel, and we enjoyed one last swim and hearty meal before Jen and I headed back to Tamale. Luckily, our driver from the night before was waiting for us, and both he and our interpreter were overjoyed to see an elephant on the road as we were driving out. Seems like by the end of the trip, it was impossible not to see them!

The road was worse this time – compounding the bumpiness was the fact that it had not rained the night before, causing an inch of dust to cover everything in the cab, ourselves included. And aside from a less-than-comfortable visit to the mosque in Larabanga on the way out (built in 1421, it’s the oldest in Ghana and one of the oldest in West Africa) and a couple of stops to check that the engine wasn’t overheating, Jen and I arrived safely back to the guesthouse.

We went on a short walk around Tamale, and we each took a long-awaited shower before going down the street for dinner. Relaxing over Cokes and a fantastic meal (I had a falafel hummus wrap, yam chips, and spring rolls) was the perfect way to prepare for the next day of travel. In short, Monday was characterized by a pattern of 3 hours driving and then a 15 minute rest break and use of somewhat-frightening “urinals.” This continued for 15 hours until we arrived in Accra, where we were able to catch a fastcar to Elmina. By the time we walked into the volunteer house at about 12:30am, we were both ready to collapse!

But all in all, I had a fantastic, unforgettable weekend; and I’m so blessed to have these opportunities!

Let's get to work

Never have I experienced “culture shock,” or at least been aware of it when I’ve traveled. But in Ghana, what I have had to learn, is how to work in a different culture. Whereas I may be used to my own pace and the U.S. work environment, having to adjust has been a learning experience.


(the Cape Coast store and office)

The Global Mamas office in Cape Coast is located directly above the store. As a result, the real Global Mamas are constantly coming in showing their new ideas for products, discussing a new design, or simply to chat with some of the staff. Learning to focus amidst lively disagreements about product assignments, heated interviews being conducted ten feet from you, and the Global Mamas’ children curiously looking over your shoulder, is a skill.


(Quality control area in the Global Mamas-Cape Coast office)

There are other issues that arise with doing business in a developing country. Learning to be flexible is paramount. For me, this was a bit difficult at first. Wanting to complete as many projects as possible, I was first dismayed by the often problematic internet connection and power outages (think about working on a project with no fan and a bit of natural light in the office). I had to learn to have a few projects going at once. Now, in case of a power shortage, I try to have some going that require internet, some that do not, and others that don’t require power at all, so that I won't be without work. In short, I’ve learned to be more adaptable.

However, I’m not complaining - It’s all part of the adventure! I’ve come to love all the volunteers and staff and the lively atmosphere of the office, and I can’t believe my time in Ghana is halfway done. As much as I love home and IU, I am already wishing I could stay much longer!


(From left to right, fellow interns Christina, Grant, and Paul hard at work)

I greatly admire many of the volunteers and staff in the office. Jane, a middle school art teacher, is volunteering for two weeks, having already worked with Global Mamas last summer. Jane was the first “co-worker” from Cape Coast that I met, and she was the one who guided me from Accra to Cape two days after I arrived in the capital. She’s great, and she seems to produce a new, gorgeous batik design every half hour. Needing to get back to New York to help her son with his college search, she’s leaving tomorrow and will be greatly missed!

Alice is the manager of the Cape Coast office, but she also holds the informal titles of “welcomer to Cape Coast” and “Mom” to the volunteers. Once a designer in New York City for Sears, she disliked the stress and busyness of her work and came to Cape Coast for a year after having volunteered the summer before. Always able to answer a question or lend a helping hand, Alice is supportive, helpful, and in general a great leader for all the staff and interns. I can’t imagine what the office will do without her at the end of the year!

Patience, the manager of the store and general “Superwoman,” is a force to be reckoned with. She’s fantastic, and she can keep all the interns and staff in line with just a quick glance. A week ago I watched Patience and Alice conduct an interview. I would never want to be put in the interviewee's position! Although the girl was interviewing for a position in quality control, Patience asked her questions that the girl addressed in her application. For example, I assume the girl wrote down that she is a batiker, which inspired Patience to ask, “What colors do you mix to make teal?” The girl had some difficulty answering the question, and when she later began to laugh, Patience very sternly asked, “Why are you laughing?” However, after the interview, when another interned asked Patience how it went, she said, “I think we can make a difference for her.”

More on the staff and volunteers will follow, as well as a summary of my unforgettable weekend up north!