Too often as an optimist I tend focus on the positives and
want to quickly forget the negatives.
But it’s important to learn and grow from challenges we face which is
why I want to share some of the difficulties I encountered with the peer
education finale. First off the day
before the program my counterpart Joe (see the photo of the two of us in our
awesome polos) found out he had to go to Fumbisi for an interview to help with
voting in the upcoming election. He
didn’t really have a choice so I had to make do without him. We decided I’d cover one of the sessions he
was planning to do in the morning and then have him do another session in the
afternoon since he’d be back by then. He
did return in time to take lunch with us as well as help with the afternoon so
it was all good.
The main problem I had was around a guest speaker I had
invited to talk to my students. I met
the guy by contacting him using information from a list of support groups for
PLWHA that Peace Corps gave me. In July
I went to their support group meeting in the next village over and discussed
with him about coming to talk to my students.
He was receptive to the idea and we’ve kept in touch since them. I scheduled him to come a while ago once we
selected the date and we talked up until a couple of days before the program
when he was working to repair his moto so he could come. The night before and morning of the program I
couldn’t get in touch with him but finally he called me around noon. He told me he was out our station and I
should come get him which I couldn’t do since I was with my students. I asked him to come to our primary school
but he kept calling and repeating himself.
Long story short I was walking with two of my girls to go check on our
food (which was running late) when I called him again since he hadn’t shown up
and one of my girls spotted him. I sent
her to him and when she returned she told me “Madam, he is boozed. He is so drunk he almost fell over.” I sent the girls to check on the food while I
went to talk to him. Indeed he was
completely drunk and somewhat belligerent since it took me so long to
come. Unfortunately nobody (like the
headmaster, my counterpart Joseph, or go to guy Chris) was around to help me
handle the situation. The man was ready
to go to speak to my students. I ended
up telling him the program wasn’t coming on today and apologizing profusely but
still offered to pay him for his fuel to come and go. Understandably I was super stressed by this
point. But I ran to my house to pick the
money and bring it to him. Later I found
out he went to someone’s house to sleep the alcohol off and didn’t leave our
village until the next day- I was glad he didn’t try to drive home. I’m just thankful he wasn’t able to find his
way to the primary school and show up in that state to ‘talk’ to my students. That scene could’ve possibly been even more
unpleasant. This is the second time
since I’ve been here that a resource person has shown up to talk to my students
drunk. It’s really sad how rampant
alcoholism is here. I’ve learned from
this that I need to be very careful who I invite to talk to my students. Also I would caution other volunteers to make
sure you know the person very well. My
mistake was thinking a single meeting allowed me to truly assess someone.
The last challenge was just around organizing the food
vendor and the lateness of the food.
First when we planned the menu I thought that’s all I’d have to do. But instead I had to meet with Madam Agie to
write down all the ingredients and the amount she’d need to buy so I could give
her the exact amount to go buy at market.
Then that morning I had to go to our little market to pick out the fowls
to buy amidst trying to setup everything at the primary school. Of course our food was late coming- we
scheduled lunch for noon but the food wasn’t ready until 1:30pm. Thankfully after so long in Ghana I know how
things work and am much more flexible. I
had some role play games and films to keep the students busy and not thinking
about their hunger. In the end, the food
was pretty amazing so it worked out. And
all in all the program was successful- the students learned a lot and also had
fun! 
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