In case you haven’t realized by now, most things in Ghana (and probably it is fairly true to say in Africa in general) don’t usually go as smoothly as those of use spoilt by the easy living in England and the USA are used to.
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| Visual aid just in case! |
Our first country to initiate activities for the NTD (Neglected Tropical Diseases) program is Burkina Faso. I am supposed to travel there for meetings the week of the 25th April, but I can’t get to Ouagadougou J in time. OK so it is complicating things that I am in Rome over Easter weekend and don’t arrive in Accra until late on Monday night. However, in order to travel to Ouaga (the short version) which is approximately 450 miles away (Burkina borders the northern part of Ghana), my only option seems to be to fly from Accra to Lagos, Nigeria (three countries to the East), then fly to Tome, Togo two countries back to the West and then fly north to Ouaga, all of which will take me most of the day to do. Coming back is equally as challenging. Now on some days of the week it is certainly easier and you can actually fly from Accra to Ouaga – you just have to pick your days, which is difficult when scheduling meetings with Ministry officials. So, I am probably going to have to miss those meetings and try again in May, however by then the ‘security’ concerns in Burkina may have improved which wouldn’t be a bad thing J.
So the first travel lesson is don’t assume that just because you are in one country in West Africa you can actually get to a neighboring country in West Africa easily – it doesn’t work that way!! The second lesson is when deciding the most efficient location for a ‘regional hub’ consider the travel options first!! Paris may have been a better bet J and I could have practiced my French everyday……….
Of course on the ‘up-side’ you can fly from Accra to Rome in ~ 6 hours and enjoy a long weekend in a major capital of Europe!
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