Ghana Tomorrow (after half a day in Rome of course)

Ghanadians

So we’re at the end of pre-departure training and getting all packed up for the long journey ahead tomorrow. It’s been a long week of early mornings and late nights with my brain working overtime. At the beginning of pre-departure we had a brainstorming session about what it takes to be an effective ‘development worker’, so as we’re about to leave Canada I thought I’d look back on some initial thoughts. Here’s some of the things we came up with: constantly aware, dealing with uncertainty, optimistic, positive, humility, reflection, empathy, asking questions, self awareness, knowing your limits, recognizing your own assumptions, building trust, and honesty. It looks great on paper, and these are great things to strive for, but I know it’ll be quite a challenge, a challenge that I feel ready for. Any other characteristics you can think of? One thing that comes to mind is something that Levi brought up. All of us heading to Ghana know we’re going to make mistakes, it’s pretty much a given, but the key is to minimize the time between making the mistake and realizing you made it.