Baobab Foundation

Welcome dear irimocindizzys,

we have been in the Baobab Foundation for 10 days now and in this post we will report about our start here.

The first few days were full of new impressions and despite significant lack of sleep, it was very pleasant. I will get back to the lack of sleep in a moment. In our volunteer house (a approximately 150 sqm house with 3 bedrooms, a kitchen and a limited clean sanitary area (limited clean because we rarely have running water available)), we were welcomed by the FSJler Lewin, who instructed us about the daily routines.

My days became increasingly filled with physiotherapy sessions and I tried to give structure to the untrained therapist Frederick, whom I am also training here, which is generally rare in Ghana. However, since I can identify more with the way Ghanaians work than with the way Germans work, I found the balance between structure and no structure easy from the beginning.

The medical cases here are almost exclusively neurological, which is a great challenge for me due to lack of experience and sometimes a language barrier.

Unfortunately, Miri has had little luck with work so far, because with her punctual, reliable and diligent approach, the Ghanaians don't really know what to do. In the first few days, worlds literally collided here.

After some conversations and the return of the other volunteer Lea (she was in Accra for 2 weeks), who repeatedly integrated Miri into her day, it is now easier for her to interpret 'work' differently and she has adapted very well to the new circumstances.

The foundation is a kind of boarding school where the children and young people live continuously except during holidays. There are about 80 students plus teachers and management. The children have classes in the morning and in the afternoon they learn a profession in a 'district'. From sewing to weaving, painting, and carpentry, they can choose an activity when they start school which they can learn in great detail during their minimum four-year stay, so that they can earn money with it afterwards. With the limited variety of professions and the country's limited financial resources, both education and learning a profession have a significant impact on the future of young people.

Overall, we feel very comfortable here. So comfortable that we have decided to extend our stay by one month. So, special announcement: we will not fly to Sri Lanka until March 23rd and we still have over 6 weeks here at the amazing Baobab Foundation.

The only drawback of our stay here is the explanation for our sleep deficit. Every morning from 5 to 7 a.m., there is a speech by someone whose vocal cords I would gladly have surgically removed, at a volume that resembles a fully packed football stadium and a quality that exactly resembles the worst point between two radio stations, which painfully wakes us up from our sleep.

After imaginary attacks on the loudspeaker, we try to catch up on 5-6 hours of sleep and get used to this Ghanaian peculiarity.

Unfortunately, we don't have a riddle this week because we need our creativity for our everyday life, but next time we will deliver. Promise.

Greetings Nico and Miri :)