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!