Sylvia's Journal

It seems that every time my mind thinks that my body has changed (for the better and for good), my body changes its mind. My shoulder pain returned and I woke up again with numb hands. May be this is simply a call for patience on the day of the half year anniversary of our crash.

So it has been 6 months and the doctors gave us one year. We are thus halfway. The second half will not see the dramatic improvements of the first half, but rather a slow and steady return to our old selves. Or maybe we are simply getting used to always having some pain somewhere in our bodies. Sooner or later that was bound to happen anyways.

Cabul and I left our Coconut Beach paradise spot (owned by a local politician we discovered) around noon time, after a last swim and another breakfast with a view. We checked into our workshop hotel in Cape Coast a little later. The hotel is built on a hill between the Ghana Health Services Regional office and the Ghana Education Services office. It overlooks the ocean, like everything else here does. The hotel is called the Sanaa Hotel. This has nothing to do with Yemen. Sanaa is the local name for ‘House of the Treasurer’ which refers to this function within the Tribal Council; once the treasurer lived here – he does not own the hotel as I had assumed

Inside is an eclectic assortment of art on the walls. There are many large hand painted (oil) reproductions of old Dutch and Flemish Masters. From a distance you think you are stepping into a Dutch museum but when you get closer you see that the faces and some other details don’t quite work (and the rest of the décor sort of gives it away). Nevertheless I can see the work is done by serious artists who studied the big masters by copying them. More power to them; I wouldn’t even have dared to try. And then there are smaller drawings of variable quality, sketches and watercolors that adorn the many hallways. And in the midst of all this hangs a most extraordinary painting of a flame tree that I covet. I have seen another beautiful painting by the same Ghanaian artist in the US embassy in Accra. I wouldn’t mind clearing an entire wall for his art in my house. I hope to visit a local gallery on Friday to see more of is work but I have a feeling that his art will not quite fit into my purse.

By 4 PM most of the facilitators had arrived and we spent the next few hours going over the program and assigning roles and responsibilities. Everyone picked sessions they wanted to facilitate. There was none of this looking at me and hoping I would do it all with them observing. They all wanted to throw themselves right into the fray. It is already their program and I have to let go of it much earlier than I am used to. It is really wonderful to watch the energy and commitment. My role will thus be observing and giving feedback. It is a good model since I will not be there anyways for the rest of the program that is spread out over the next 4 months.

After dinner everyone prepared their sessions and flipcharts and then one by one they retired. I was the last person out of the conference room. When I turned the air co and lights off everything looked ready and perfect for the start of our workshop on Monday morning. This has been the easiest and most painless launch ever of a leadership development program.