Cath's attempt at a World Tour.

During my time in Tamale, not one day has passed where I didn’t get called Siliminga. It means white person, but it isn’t said with any malice. Most of those who say it are small children shouting “Siliminga, hello, Siliminga, how are you?” Replying with “Hello, I am fine”, doesn’t dampen their spirits and they continue their musical chant over and over again, getting louder the further we go or more passionate and excited if you answer back. There is no winning in this conversation game that I have found. However, there is a part of me that will miss this daily exchange and the buzz of feeling special even though I’ve done nothing to deserve the attention other than being white. Still very white, I might add after 6 months here …. I must tan when I’m sleeping, and it’s gone by morning. This week was our last 4 days in the office. On Tuesday, we had our last peer education session where we invited a tie dye trainer to come in and teach peer educators from our communities and some ...

This week was our last week visiting the rural communities that we worked with this cohort. After looking at the budget we also decided we were able to do events in one of mine and one of the previous cohort’s communities. We visited them earlier in the placement and education for girls (aka girl child education to Ghanaians) was still a major issue so we went back to see if we could challenge some views and promote a healthy debate. Facilitating a discussion for community members to talk about important issues might seem an obvious way to tackle this but ask yourself – when did you last sit down with your neighbours and discuss issues in your community?   So, we visited Nwagu on Tuesday, the main roads leading us to the dirt one that took us further out into the bush looked unchanged. However, the transformation from the end of January to now in the rural areas was breath-taking. The sky was blue, the small sparse scruffy patches of grass had changed into ankle high carpets...

2 weeks today will be our debrief event marking the end of our placement here. I will have to pack, get some snacks for the 12-hour coach journey to Accra, handwash my final items, give out anything I think would be more beneficial here than taking it 3000 miles back to the UK and, hardest of all, saying goodbye to the people I have spent 6 months of my life with: my amazing host mum and all the staff at International Service. Greetings are very important in Ghana so it will feel strange to end my new routine and not to say “Desba” to the tailor on my way to the roadside, “Antiray” to the PAGSUNG women making soap and “Anula” to the yellow-yellow drivers who already know I am going to home to Bachee-bachee junction before I finish my evening greeting. This week has involved a lot of planning in the office, we have looked over what we can realistically do with our remaining time here and so have a very busy week 9 visiting 2 old communities, delivering a school session, doing ...

Water, an easily accessible necessity in the UK and in most of the developed world. It is easy to get cold, bottled, out of the tap; for cooking, cleaning and washing our clothes. We don’t have to wait for a “rainy season” or worry about the water being purified in case it carries waterborne pathogens. As I am on a DFID funded placement, they risk assess everything to an extreme degree so I have not been placed in a house where water shortage is a noticeable problem. I am also very lucky that my host mum has a fridge and water filter so I only have to run it through the filter before I can drink it out of a glass. Some weeks we have been rationing water as it does not flow through the pipes to the houses at all times. Residents have to wait until the water flows and then open up their pipes to fill storage tanks, jerry cans or buckets. Drinking water, for most people in Tamale, is purchased in small 500ml sachet bags which can be purchased for approximately 15 peswas (2.5p) each...