Written by CorpsAfrica/Ghana Volunteer Ms. Victoria Wintonya Ndebugri

At approximately 30 minutes past 10:00 am, I left home to meet my Field Liaison Officer and some of my Volunteer colleagues to start our deployment. I was excited to see my colleagues again after our memorable moments at our Pre-Service Training (PST).

We started dropping off one after the other and I was the third but last person to be dropped. Immediately we arrived at my community, I went into a panic zone. Thoughts started running through my mind and at that moment, I was trying to match reality with expectations. However, the differences I could make were not much because I was quite familiar with the rural setting in northern Ghana.
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I was welcomed by my host family representative who quickly organized a room for me. This was not the initial arrangement. According to the assemblyman, they were expecting male Volunteers and had arranged for them to pair a room with some selected young men in the community. Since I was a female, my host family representative offered to receive me. His family had a smaller house with 3 rooms situated a few meters away from their family house which was occupied by his niece of about 16 years old. Therefore, 2 other rooms were empty and I was given one. I quickly moved in and settled down. All was set to observe, experience, and explore my new environment. I was provided with food (Tuo zaafi with kuuka soup) and water by my host family. Seeing how receptive my host family members were, and how eagerly they were putting things in order (hanging my window and door curtains, supplying bathing water, etc.) to make me comfortable, made me move from the panic zone to the growth zone.