Vision Quest

Vision Quest is a 5 day trip designed to show us trainees exactly what it is like to be an old and sometimes jaded volunteer who has been at site for a while. I was fortunate enough to be chosen to go to a great little town called Nalerigu in the Northern Region. Despite the size of the Northern Region (it takes up more than half of Ghana’s land mass) it is considered much more remote and undeveloped than the Southerly regions. Some volunteers dread being banished there but I had sort of had my eye on this region as I heard it could deliver a serious cultural experience and I was eager to dive in.
The trip was long. In fact it took two days. Day one dealt us an 18 hour bus ride from Accra to Tamale and Day Two a few colorful Tro-tro rides (more on these later), and a little hitchhiking delivered me safe and sound and in record time to Nalerigu.





Luckily, it was market day and my host was more than eager to go buy some supplies and (if you know my host) of course, take some new fabric to her seamstress for a new dress. I have personally nominated her as the best dressed Senior High School Madame in all of Ghana. She had a gorgeous dress for each day of the week I was there, and am pretty sure she could have kept up the pace for many weeks after I left. Everybody spends their salary on something or other, why not a great wardrobe!?


The next few days were very busy. Caroline took me to her computer lab where we began to install Ubuntu on many of her computers (apparently it is virus proof in Ghana which is a huge problem with ICT labs). I also had the opportunity to watch her teach a few classes and snap some photos. Pepto pink happened to be the color of her students’ required uniforms, which made for some nice photos.




Alas, Vision Quest was over and it was time to begin the long journey to Kukurantumi where our next 9 weeks of training would be in or near. We got back and compared our stories and it seemed that the people who went to the Central Region had the most fun what with their proximity to some gorgeous beaches.