Impact, Planning, Reflection, Drumming … But No Elephants!

It was sooooooo exciting to meet up with the other JFs. They’ve seen each other numerous times since August, but this was my first time seeing some of them again. It was awesome to be with them again.

While we were waiting for Sarah to arrive, had impromptu African drumming lessons. Jody had met an instructor at the Damongo Drumming Centre when she arrived in town and was invited to stop by later. So, we called them up and they agreed to meet the five of us for the afternoon. As always, we quickly became the center of attention, and had probably 30 kids, and many adults hanging around and laughing with us. An old lady even challenged Carissa to a dance-off!

 

Four out of five JFs had a birthday within a month’s time, so it was only fitting we had birthday cake, complete with chocolate frosting and strawberry filling. I think we all know how happy this made me! But just in case you weren’t …

 

The retreat gave us an opportunity share where we were in our community, our work and our lives. We spent time discussing our successes, challenges and goals of our placement. Claire, Jody, Carissa and Nadia are four amazing women. I don’t think we could have asked for a better combination of JFs; the five of us compliment each other very well, leading to very insightful and productive discussions. Additionally, Sarah took time to share more information about EWB strategy and organizational structure, so we could be reminded of where we fit into the picture. From this discussion, there were two ideas that really stood out for me:

1. Disruptive ideas are needed for change to happen, and they are often generated close to the ground.
2. For any system to change there needs to be people who can act freely, who will go above and beyond what the system rewards.

I might elaborate more on these two ideas later on, but for now, I’ll let you ponder on them alone.

In Search of the Elephant

For the second day of our retreat we went to Mole National Park. We spent our safari tracking spoor, but in the end, the elephants were too elusive for us. (I will return!). However, after reading so many Wilbur Smith books growing up, I loved trekking through the African brush hunting elephants just the same. A highlight was when a stampede of warthogs came out of a dilapidated shed in the middle of the reserve and scared the bajeebers out of Carissa and Claire. I also had the pleasure of accidentally stepping on a colony of soldier ants and experiencing the true meaning of “ants in my pants”.

Above: (L) James, our safari leader. LOVED HIM! Totally out of a Wilbur Smith book. (R) Elephant footprints.

Below: (L) Elephant dung. (R) Momma and baby baboon.

 

Left: A Bad Monkey! They warn you to not leave bags or food around the pool and restaurant area and so I was on edge all day. We were eating lunch. I had my hands on the food, dividing it with the person I was sharing with when a monkey swoops in out of nowhere and reaches over my hand and grabs the lid to my burger, flinging the rest of the burger across the bottom across the table. He made off with the lid, and the waiter brought us extra toast. Nadia and I stared at it for a little bit, then added a new lid, cut it in two and ate it. A little later on he came back for more food; I threatened him with a fork. When I was showering off after swimming (in the pool!) a baboon came up and growled at me.

 

 

After our lazy pool afternoon (livened by the occasional monkey or baboon, of course) the 6 of us jumped in a little cab and embarked on a very bumpy and dusty three hour ride to Tamale where we were to join with the other EWB Ghana volunteers and staff for our country and sector meetings.