Julia P.
Country of Origin: France
Country of Stay: Ghana
Duration of Stay: 8 weeks
July 2nd 2009 - August 27th 2009
Program: Financial Internship in a Bank
Project: Internship At Unity Rural Bank

As I am a student in finance, I decided to do an internship in a bank. I was the first volunteer working at Unity Rural Bank. So, my first 2 weeks were really boring because I wasn’t allowed to do anything except watching the staff working. They needed time to trust me and make sure I was able to do their work. Afterwards, they considered me like an employee and not like a simple intern. My work was different everyday so it was interesting but sometimes also boring! I had 3 different missions: a strategic mission in order to find a way to improve the bank services, an accounting mission to record all the daily transactions of the bank, and various administrative tasks regarding microcredits. As the bank is not computerized, everything is really slow. All the employees are very nice and I felt very comfortable with working with them. Nevertheless, I was sometimes annoyed to see the staff talking all the time instead of working. The only way to concentrate on working was listening to my MP3 player! My working hours were from 8am to 6pm. I couldn’t leave earlier because they really needed me when the bank closed to customers. However, I could easily ask the manager to take days off to travel or a couple of hours off during the day to do my laundry or to go to the orphanage to visit the other volunteers.

Community

As all the volunteers said, Aflao is a great town. You’ll hear all the time people calling you “yavoo.” If they are kids, just wave and smile at them and they’ll be really happy. Concerning grownups, it depends…

  • If you go to the internet café, you can bring your own laptop. So, you can write all your emails before going there.
  • If you like swimming, there is a swimming pool at Nakave Hotel (3GH cedis for the full day) as it is hard to swim in the ocean because of the strong current and waves
  • At the beginning, I didn’t like Ghanaian food a lot because I thought it was too spicy, but after I got used to it. You need to try the food several times to appreciate it. At work, I had to buy my own food and my favorite was “beans and plantains” aka “red-red”
  • Your host family will be happy if you eat with your fingers (with your right-hand only). It’s a way to show them you’re integrating with Ghanaian culture. It took me four weeks to give up my spoon!
Host Family

I really enjoyed staying with my host family: Nama Lu. She and her sons are really nice and will appreciate a lot if you show them all the pictures you took during your weekend trips.

Weenends

I did the same week-end trips as the other volunteers except that I also went to Kpando, Mount Afadjato, and Tagbo (Wli) Falls. I went to Kpando with Ines for a couple of hours to see the third biggest grotto in the world dedicated to the shrine in Dourdes (town closest to my hometown in France). It was interesting to see a long statue of Mary in the mountain and 13 others representing the passion of Christ. If you’re not religious, it’s just a nice walk in the mountain full of statues! We took a trotro from Ho to Kpando (silent K, when you pronounce it) for GH2.50, then Kpando to Hohoe for GH1.2. As the grotto is situated 8km from Kpando, you need to take a shared taxi for 50 pesewas.

Mount Afadjato is the highest mountain in Ghana. If you’re used to practicing sports and you like hiking, you should definitely go there! It’s a really nice place; it will take you 1 hour to 1.5 hours to reach the top of the mountain and to have a nice view of the Northern part of the Volta Region. As it is hard exercise, you should go there in the morning so it won’t be too hot. Afterwards, you can go to Tagbo Falls; the flat path the reach the waterfall is really nice and wild because it’s not such a touristic area. According to me, it was my favorite hike in a tropical forest! To go to Mount Afadjato, you need to take a shared taxi at the post office in Hohoe (close to Miss Ghana statue) for GH2 cedis (and stay at Grand Hotel). As it’s not a touristic area, don’t go there on Sunday!

Other Tips

If you aren’t German and you came to Ghana with a non-European airline company, the program is supposed to pay you back 6% of your flight ticket. (Now we will give a 5% discount on all flights for all participants including volunteers, interns, and professionals) So, just send an email to Simon (STAESA’s International Volunteer Coordinator) with all the details of your flight and the amount you’re supposed to receive in Ghana cedis. Afterwards, you’ll be able to withdraw the money (via Moneygram) at Ghana Commercial Bank. Don’t forget to bring your passport with you!

  • If you buy DVDs in the street, some computers can’t read them, so be careful; don’t buy too many of them!
  • If you buy a MTN chip, from midnight to 5am, you have free unlimited calls with other MTN users. With Tigo, I was told you can have special nights with unlimited calls to the USA and Canada.
  • If you want to bring back plantain chips to your country, buy them in Accra. They are better than in Aflao! (It’s what my host mother told me!)