Sylvia's Journal

Up and running was far from my mind for months. Actual running is still not in the stars. My regular walking has greatly improved. I am rarely limping. I can get myself into ADRA’s large SUVs without too much effort. I don’t think people here can tell that I was in a wheelchair four months ago. But still, the nerve endings in the ball of my right foot and in my toes are not back to their old state. Sometimes it feels as if I walk on a wad of cotton balls. There has been no significant change in months now and sometimes I wonder whether this is the way it is going to be. I have discovered there are many people with neuropathies in their feet or toes. People usually don’t talk about them unless you ask. I am learning that this condition simply becomes part of who you are, like a scar. You learn to live with the odd sensation(s). If this is the only lasting damage from our fall from the sky, I have no reason to complain.

I am starting to get sloppy about my exercises-in-the-shower routine. Part of the reason is that the shower is actually a narrow bathtub and the angles and surfaces I need are not right. Once I am out of the shower the tasks of the day call me and the exercises are forgotten. There is also no one else around to remind me.

Yesterday was a day of up and running in the figurative sense. At a little past 9 o’clock we had 10 potential leadership development facilitators seated around ADRA’s conference room table, half of them from the ministry, and over half of them women. Nearly all of them were informed at the last minute, some just an hour before. This was not because of bad planning or anything like that; I considered it in a more positive light: a spontaneous response to the seeds we had dropped about the program and scattered into the wind during the last 24 hours.. The group was enthusiastic and diverse, representing various sectors, organizations and professional interests.

I had planned a full day orientation and team building workshop during which people experienced some of the exercises they are expected to facilitate next week in Cape Coast. That way I would be able to observe them in a group. I saw what they are passionate about and gleaned insights from their long and deep experience in Ghana. We shared our personal philosophies about learning, leading and managing and we reviewed some of the challenges that the teams they will be working with will be up against. I asked one of them to facilitate our own visioning exercise which led to a great conversation about inductive and deductive planning approaches.

We took a break that took twice as long as I had planned because we went to a popular lunch restaurant, another maquis, which required a car. Despite our efforts to be organized and order ahead of time it took an hour before all of us had received our meals. The manager of the restaurant was trying to instill an attitude of customer service in her wait staff but it was a lost cause as all of them, including the kitchen staff, struggled to keep up with demand. It was a seller’s market and thus bad luck for us. But the food was great and so was the company and there was lots to see.

Next to us a large number of Maggi sales people (‘Maggi and Me, the Secret of Goodness’). They were celebrating something. They were all dressed in the same bright red and yellow shirts. I regret I did not take a picture of them; it was such a festive sight. I asked the two white managers, older gentlemen, who did not look half as smart in their shirts as their young Ghanaian salesforce, how one could get a shirt like that and their answer was ‘you work very very hard.’ They emphasized every word in a way that made it seem an unattainable dream and look at the proud wearers of the shirts with some envy. Cabul thought it would be nice to have a uniform like that. It does create an instant and clean sense of belonging. In search of the missed picture I went on the Maggi (=Nestle) website of Ghana and found all sorts of useless but interesting information. There actually was a Mr. Maggi (Julius) who founded the famous cubes over 100 years ago. I did also learn that there is a coveted “MAGGI Homowo Kpopoi Manye” title at the grand final event of the Homowo Festival, a harvest celebration in the Ga community around greater Accra. Maggi sponsors cookouts where, I presume, much Maggi is used. This competition has evolved, according to the site, to become not only a key brand-building event for MAGGI, but also for the ethnic group called the ‘Ga.’ Imagine that, brandbuilding for ethnic groups. I am struggling with the concept.