In May 2016 I gave up work to have a sabbatical / gap year / extended holiday / doss about (pick your favourite synonym).
Around the same time, I applied to the ICS programme as a team leader, and have been through the selection process whilst, amongst other things, house sitting in Devon / bar staffing at Glastonbury / numerous wonderful house-stays with lovely friends / Edinburgh fringe festival-ing / seeing Bruce Springsteen in Holland / embarrassing myself at an Elton John gig / driving some of the Pacific Coast Highway / bridesmaid-ing in Italy and Norwich and Greece / hanging out with my new nephew / the school run / re-watching the entirety of Gilmore Girls / lie-ins.
In early November I had a residential training course to prepare me (and 10 other TLs) for the role - we learned a LOT, laughed a lot, enjoyed the hotel hot tub, and left trying to remember all the acronyms we just learned!
Since then I've been making packing lists, booking injections (so. many. injections.), and reading everything sent my way regarding the project.
The programme in Ghana will be (roughly) 2 weeks of training, 10 weeks of placement, 2 weeks of evaluation. I'll be joined by a Ghanaian Team Leader and we'll be leading 20 UK and Ghanaian volunteers. There are permanent VSO project staff in country who will also be looking after us.
The work we'll be doing focuses on soft skills training and income diversification - especially for women and children. There's more info and links on my just giving page. We'll all be living with host families, spread over a few villages in the West Akim region.
Needless to say, I'm very excited! A few people have asked about a blog, and VSO encourage it, so here we go.....
:)
