Pre-Departure

So I've never written a blog before. Which means this could turn out to be a complete disaster... or it could be a beautiful thing! It just seems to be the most convenient way to keep everyone updated on my life. 


I am leaving in 3 days to go to Asamankese, Ghana. I am going to be there for 13 weeks. This will be the longest consecutive period of time I have been away from Canada. Needless to say, it will be a huge adventure. While I am super excited for all the unknowns that lie ahead of me, I am also pretty apprehensive  about them. I'm quite the control freak, and so much about this trip is out of my control. 


The program I am going with is an internship through Redeemer University College (my school). I am going with one other student, Heather. We will be working on separate but overlapping projects. Heather is going to be teaching women how to read English. Last year about 40 women were committed to the classes, and apparently this year about one hundred have signed up already. So that is pretty promising. The project that I am working on sort of goes alongside Heather's. Almost all of the women that come to these classes are traders or farmers. This is where my project comes in. Many of them expressed need for capital for travel to larger surrounding cities to purchase goods for their current small outfits. Also, they are unable to get loans because they do not have capital to invest. As a result, they do not experience any sort of growth in their businesses. My job is essentially to do a needs assessment of those women so that in the future we can put an economic development program into place to bring necessary resources to the people. 


Needs assessment sounds pretty simple, but from my understanding it can be quite time consuming. It involves a lot of work on the ground level interviewing people and doing research, finding out as much as I can about the potential for economic growth. It will also involve a lot of networking with nearby NGO's to see what sort of projects are already in place and how we will be able to work with that. I also need to compile all of the info that I collect into a comprehensive plan or report so that something can actually come of my work. I am so excited about the potential that this program has, but since its the first time I have done anything like this, naturally I am nervous. 


So this is a pretty long first post, but it is an explanation of a lot of things.  Most of you are probably wondering about the title of this blog... it may seem to not fit at all. The physical journal that I will be writing in for my whole trip is actually a re-bound old book cover. This company takes used books, uses the hard cover, and puts new paper in it so its like new and sells them as notebooks/journals. The one I bought has the cover of the book Trixie Belden and the Mystery of the Blinking Eye. She's kind of like Nancy Drew. Anyways, I thought it fitting that my online journal would have the same name as my written journal. Mostly I just couldn't think of a good title on my own. 


Ok, next time I write I will be sweating my brains out in Africa. Here I go!