Site Assignment June 17, 2010

After lots of quaking anticipation, the day finally came!  The day most of us have been waiting for for many months.  Today we found out where we would make our home for the next two years.

I am destined for the Volta Region northeast of here, in the very north of it, in a village called Damanko.  It sits next to the Volta River and next to Kabobo National Park.  My village sits on the border between the Volta Region and the Northern Region, and most of the Health/Water and Sanitation volunteers are in the Northern Region.  I will be doing a lot of sanitation work (latrine sanitation and open defecation are major issues in Ghana) plus some HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health care, and family planning work.  There are even some environmental secondary projects it looks like.  I will live in a compound with a self contained latrine and bathroom, kitchen, living room, bedroom, and electricity.  And I will continue learning Twi.  I made bank.  This will suit me.  I wish I was a little closer to Tamale or other major city, but that is not the most important.  My traveling stamina will build.  It’s also a replacement site, which means that volunteers have been there before, and I will be able to build on their already established projects and living arrangements.  This will suit me just fine.

I will not be there until August-ish, so I do not know much more than this.  In a few weeks time, we will set out to visit our sites, and I will know more then.

Upcoming posts:  Home stay life.  Stressful and exciting.