Day 2 In Country - Baby's Day Out

Francis - Liaisoning as usual!

Tema Fishing Dock

Around Tema, to the gorgeous looking but interesting smelling Tema fishing dock, Tema harbour, a few churches, nice relatively nearby beach, community 1 market with loud lovely Ghanaian music on the streets ..

Comm1 Market - very africa

Africa wouldn't be the same without the little ones :)

The first thing that hit me about Africa is that people are so stylish.. na, not like just walked off the ramp kinds.. just that each one pays attention to styling their hair differently or well fitting clothes with different cuts or patterns.. like they're conscious of it and I agree that that is what the entire world is moving towards now, but that's not something you see in remote off-locations so much.. do you?

They say just like hamburg

Buy Ghana Made!

Old dogs.. old tricks

Recently, I've been scrambling to get the ideal combination of open-source, free, recommended software for the client in Tema and looking at the best way to tie in dreamweaver, tomcat, mySql with eclipse. It's only when a non-technical team member asked if these were heavy enterprise products, did at some point it hit me, that maybe a four software combination isn't something a non-technology centric school might be able to manage when we're not there. In this case then, a better solution is probably a single ready package software like OpenAdmin for schools, which may be limiting, though much more easier for a less IT Capable school to manage.
"Best solution is the one designed to customer's needs" - makes more sense as you grow in your career, funny then how our increasing experience itself makes us forget about it. Something about old dogs, new tricks? :)

Boundary between work and life .. or lack thereof..

I've always compartmentalized work and home, so much so that my personality changes. Professional, to the point, get the job done at work.. and go home and forget about it(the non-work, non-call times) .
It is strange to think then that I've started considering these ten people as family. This, when I haven't even met them yet! (or maybe cuz ;))
Seriously though, even when I'm trying to be cautious of perceptions with cultural differences, I've noticed the walls I would typically draw up in a professional setting, just don't seem to be there. Maybe it's because I know I'm spending a month with them day and night and they will get to know me very well anyway, or it's just all the Ghana reading which is preparing us to smell the roses first instead of directly jumping to work, or maybe the knowledge that each other is all we'll have there... not sure what it is, it'll be interesting to see the boundaries blur, almost like a social experiment - only I'm the subject :)

Shopping for Gifts

Weekend shopping! More like B'day shopping .. though, for a change, not for me - gifts for Ghanaians, gifts for team members. It may seem last minute since this is the last weekend before departure, though all the scouting and deciding, finally led to buying today(phew!) and frankly, I'm quite happy with the lil collection I have. Ah, I think Bombay Store is my new love for Indian momentos.
A month is a long time and I anticipate there are people I will bond with and I'm sure would want to leave something for them to remember me by. I just hope I don't run short on them.