Ben in Ghana

Time for a quick update post!

I haven't let you in on any recent details at all, so I thought I'd do a quick summary, sorry for the teaser, its been awhile since I've had time to type anything up in the office.

Things have been going really well over the past few weeks, I've moved in with a family (my director's place actually) and they're amazing. Way too much to write about now, but its been the single most important thing that's happened so far. Breaking away from the rest of the group was a little frightening at first, but I can't imagine what it would be like trying to dive into the culture with even a couple other EWBers around all of the time. I'm defintely getting to be well known in the neighbourhood, and the half block walk to the internet cafe usually takes about 20 minutes! I also get to play football (soccer) with the local kids my age, which is great despite my complete ineptitude.

Work has been a little bit slow as the project I was supposed to be working on was delayed, but it starts this week which is really exciting! In the meantime I've been learning about what my NGO (Integrated Poverty Reduction Program or IPRP, I might also say Africa 2000 Network or A2N, they're kind of two NGOs that work as one) is doing in terms of projects and approach, and things look really good. When I have time I'll do a way more detailed overview of what my work involves (especially after my project starts!), but over the last little while I've been helping out with a project where women are being trained to make shea butter into international market quality soap, which has been interesting, although I don't exactly have much to offer in terms of expertise in that area!

I spent the last weekend in Mole National Park, which is the biggest National park in West Africa, and hung out with elephants, monkeys, and one of the JFs from the upper west region (Bryn Ferris) who I hadn't seen since pre-dep training, so that was great. I leave for 5 days of field traingin on Wednesday, and will be spending a week in a bit more of a rural town after that to improve my Dagbani and get out of the big city for a bit.

That's about all I can get in right now, but I'll try to write again soon!