Another Week Of Training In The Books

[Belated post]

Another week has come and gone. Let me try to describe a few aspects of the week.

If you had an external hard drive that held a few movies or music then you were sitting around a power strip near the television in the main hall where you would have sat and grabbed as many files as you could. The amount of laptops and netbooks sitting in one circle numbered easily at a half dozen during breaks. It is humorous to see how much computing power traveled over the ocean for the express purpose of keeping volunteers entertained through the days and weeks. There is wicker furniture arranged around the tv (which works but mostly comes on when Ghanaians want to watch soccer matches) which we lay on to relax and find opportune moments to trade files. I have not really found it necessary to watch movies at night. I am usually stuck at the computer lab during the evenings that I don't need to occupy two hours with a movie.

I brought a volleyball to the hub site and found out that my knockoff Mikasa was not quite up to the abuse of slight peppering between myself and Aldwin. We both like to bump, set, and spike during the breaks but the ball could not stand up to even a moderate amount of use. The thing fell apart slowly and we were reduced to playing with a lopsided ball that looked like it had a tumor bulging out of it. That is what you get when you buy something that seems inexpensive. On some of the warmer days though the sweat came far too quickly so we stopped playing at noon.

During breaks we often just sit and socialize and talk about home or about our site. That was one part which was valuable during training was a session on mental health and while we talk about things it seemed like we were prodded more to discuss what we were thinking at various times during our stay for the first three months in our sites. It was very encouraging to find that many others had experienced similar frustrations and anxieties about large and small things.

The food was terrific here too. I had fufu two times for dinner and the groundnut soup here that you dip your fufu in was very tasty and just the right amount of spice. I haven't had such big meals in a long time and my appetite quickly jumped up a few notches with the bevvy of food options here at training. This was the same thing that happened during the first run of training. I would find myself getting very hungry at 6, 12, and 5 all the time since food was always in abundance at those times. Now I find that in Hohoe I can make do with smaller meals. It will be a trick going back to the irregular schedule and a smaller portion.

So far I have had a good time being here and enjoying everyone's company. It is too bad that they don't let us have an In-Service Training month.