evacuation (vacation) recap

Well, this past 2 months has been a whirlwind.

Where do I begin so I don’t lose you in the end? Maybe we can go backward. Last Friday, our evacuation status was lifted, and all the volunteers in my region were green lighted to go back to our sites. About 39 days before that, we were emergency evacuated out of our homes (in the middle of the night, in my case) due to an incident that happened in the city.

Out of respect for my friends and the topic being so over-discussed among us here in Ghana in this past month, I’m not going to talk about what happened. (But I’m 100% that you can Google it.)

So long story short, we were assumed to be in a dangerous position, so Peace Corps pulled us out, and took us to sub offices where we spent the next month slumping around/twirling our thumbs waiting to go back.

I got a phone call at about noon that day, and it wasn’t until 11pm that I was picked up and carried on despite me rushing to pack in 2 hours thinking they were outside my door any minute. My poor counterpart and his wife waited up all night with me until I was picked up. The closest to any pair of Asian parents ever in Ghana.

In the beginning it was sort of cool. I mean, beside the whole we were in possible danger thing, evacuation was sort of like a mini-vacation. Got a nice ride to the office. Electricity. Internet. Food availability. An oven. Ceiling fans. And we weren’t even paying for any of it? Awesome.

Nope. By the end of week 2, we were all a little crazy. Feeling of displacement, uncertainty and boredom-ness took over the best of us and coping mechanism came out. Some spent hours watching TV shows. Some drank. Some cooked. Some painted. All to keep ourselves busy while waiting.

Packing for an emergency is one of those things that you rarely ever do, and when it does happen it’s a terrible game of practical vs. favorite. It didn’t help that at the time, I didn’t know how long I would be gone, and so I packed for worst case scenario of 2 weeks.  So I brought just clothes, passport and decided not to bring my computer with me, a decision that I progressively regretted more and more as time went on. How did I cope? I made a ton of Asian food. So I guess in the end, it wasn’t too bad of a trade.

Another upside is that I was in the direct line to receive all mails and packages instead of having to wait an extra month or so after it arrives in country. So thanks friends who sent me things!

Evacuation cut my first 3 months short. So I had 2 months and 5 days to talk about at my Reconnect IST – a work reunion for all new volunteers after their first 3 months – which took place half way into the evacuation. The elated feeling of seeing all my friends for the first time in 3 months was slightly downsized by the fact that up to that point, I had already met so many volunteers coming in and out of the sub office.

BUT. Don’t let that undermine the fact of how awesome it was to see all my friends again or to be able to meet other volunteers since circumstances aside, traveling out of Upper West has proved to be a pain every time.

Once we learned that we weren’t able to go back to site for another month, travel plans were made. Some of us went to tourists and real vacation spots, some went to other volunteer’s site.

I had the chance to travel to Accra – the country’s capital – visited a friend in the Western Region, attended the swearing for the new Education group who came in last June in the Eastern Region, visited another volunteer there after a training with the Education and even made my way up to the Volta Region – which I never thought would happen this early in my service consider how far it is from my neck of the wood.

Even though we were evacuated, we were still on the job, so our boss expected us to find work to earn our Peace Corps allowances. So at each of other people’s site, we did some small small projects such as making neem cream – an organic/homemade mosquito repellent from local neem trees – or sanitation projects. A good combination of productivity and fun, I assure you.

39 days 5 regions. I think I’m done with traveling after my return to site tomorrow. Maybe except for Thanksgiving with the Ambassador decided to host us (in Accra).