PINOY ECO TRAVELER: January 2015

Offload Travel Recovery

Every trip is exciting but it creates stress and disappointment in our part if we learned that we are being denied to travel to our selected destination. To some it creates trauma, anger, loneliness and depression.

I still clearly remember our most awaited first trip along with two Filipino candidates for Novice Training in Tamale, Ghana Africa. We are so excited that day Friday of January 2015, rushing to the airport and lining up to the check in counter of Emirates plane. I can really see the tensions and nervousness in our faces but I also noticed the joy when we smile each other. The next move was to line up to the immigration booth for passport control and interview. I almost could not breath when the immigration officer was not satisfied by the documents I presented. I was then advice along with my companion to proceed and see the immigration officer for further details. We are being asked to show additional original documents but we could not provide all those documents they are asking. Sad to say that we really lack original documents needed for that travel. But that evening turned into a nightmare on our part because of the emotional discomfort we experience. I just calm down my composure and politely replied to just list down all the documents needed so that next time when we proceed again to the immigration it will be accepted already.
All these experiences creates emotional disturbances on our part. When we returned at house we are ashamed and our confidence to face trials and challenges seems lost. We could not sleep and think properly but we are so thankful that one of the head of Christian Brother is always there on our side to support us until we successfully completed our documents and traveled to our destination in Tamale, Africa. Before our final departure for Africa we wind up our selves by visiting the famous green parks in Manila that really helps us to cope up and be back to normal life.
The other good side of these experiences makes us more become aware and confident what to prepare and what to do the next time we travel.

AFRICAN JOURNEY: CHRISTIAN BROTHERS TAMALE

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Our group were sent to Tamale, Ghana Africa for Christian Brothers Novice Training and we have to follow the programs and activities given to us. During our free time we can visit places that we like.
Here are the following activities we do at Tamale.

CROSS CULTURAL STUDY OF GHANAIAN CULTURE AT TICCS - (TAMALE INSTITUTE OF CROSS -CULTURAL STUDIES

When we arrived our group together with the African groups have a one week stay-in seminar for Ghanaian Culture at Tamale Institute of Cross-Cultural Studies. This was our first program activity and every body was excited to learn and gain knowledge about Ghanaian culture. Being one of the Filipino in the group of course I'm eager to learn many things about them.

The entrance at Tamale Institute of Cross Cultural Studies

Tamale, Ghana Africa is very rich in culture and unique among other ethnics. One of the famous is the Katarika village, in which unique houses are made up of mud and dried leafs of grass for roofing. Built in similar rounded shape structures. We had the chance to visit one of the village named "Katarika Village" during our cultural study.

Photo taken during the visit at Katarika Village, Tamale Ghana

A Visit at Katarika Village, Tamale Ghana

We also visited the industries in Tamale like cocoa industry. The cocoa are being cook first in a large pot before it was being made into various products like soap, lotion, oil etc.

Our group during the end of our Ghanaian culture study

A dance presentation at the end of our study of Ghanaian culture at TICS

A photo taken at the end of our study of Ghanian culture

The TICCS accommodation block offers 20 double-occupancy rooms with shower, fan or A/C unit. It acts as a guesthouse, which serves the general public when courses are not in session and serves the course participants during courses. Clean and airy rooms are offered at moderate prices (10 USD a night). According to the Lonely Planet guidebook, TICCS is becoming a popular spot with tourists and travelers. Besides the Senior Staff accommodation block located on campus, there are two Senior staff bungalows located off campus at “Nima” behind T-Poly.

Jungle Bar

This elegant, rooftop bar with seating for 45 persons is located atop the Senior Staff quarters where its high ceilings and open air sides offer cool sanctuary and warm conversation to weary learners. Drinks and light snacks of pizza, burgers, dogs and grilled sausages are enjoyed by participants and local patrons in a tropical jungle atmosphere provided by cane and bamboo furniture, zana mat ceilings and hundreds of potted tropical plants. Watch out for the rustle of leaves and two sets of green eyes peering out from the lush greenery. Spooky and Wintone, the two TICCS cats, may be waiting to see if you order the “Kokoroko” pizza; it’s their favorite.
Services
Transport facilities (mini-van for trips & outings etc.)
Communication services (email, fax, telephone)
Secretarial with PC
Availability of PC
Airport with daily internal flights to Accra/Kumasi
Tamale Central Hospital and Shekhinah Clinic are nearby
Tamale is an administrative centre for shopping, business, offices, government
Landscaped grounds and gardens
Jungle Bar: serving drinks and snacks

DAGBANI (DAGOMBA) LANGUAGE STUDY

Another activity that we took was learning the Dagbani language. Dagbani is member of the Gur branch of Niger-Congo languages. It is spoken mainly in northern Ghana by 800,000 Dagomba people. It is closely related to, and mutually intelligible with, Mossi, which is spoken mainly in Burkina-Faso. Dagbani is also known as Dagbamba, Dagbane and Dagomba.

Dagbani is taught in primary and secondary schools, and there are radio programmes in the language.
It was fun and I really enjoy learning the Dagbani language though it's really difficult but at the end of the day I learned something new. The teacher presents the lessons in an easy to difficult sentences for us to learn quickly and easy

COMMUNITY WORK

As part of our training at Tamale, we are all assigned to different NGO’s and non NGO’s facilities and offices to gain knowledge and share our skills also. I was assigned at Tamale Rehabilitation Center together with one African trainee under the Department of Social Welfare. I was assigned to teach English Subject and it's really difficult on my part because my students are all deaf mute.

Our students at Tamale Rehabilitation Center. This photo was taken during the picnic day at Soldiers Barracks compound.

Picture with Sisters of FMS taken at Soldiers Barracks on Picnic day


I was also assigned at St. Theresa's Catholic Parish Church

Br. Dennis and I were also assigned at Parish Computer center wherein we assist clients and students needs.

St. Theresa's Parish church on Palm Sunday

SCRIPTURE STUDY

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS AND OTHER SPECIAL ACTIVITIES

Birthday celebrants are given short programs and token in a one night event.

Acceptance to Novice Trainng

PRAYER

CHILD PROTECTION
Part of a our activity is to be oriented by the Ghana Child Protection Law.
The Ghana Government’s aim of enacting and implementing the child rights legislation (Children’s Act 1998; Act 560) was to protect and improve the welfare of children.
The law has provided opportunities for tailoring some meaningful services to many children in Ghana in the last ten years. A careful study of national and regional initiatives indicated an awareness of the idea of rights pertaining to children. The general population is also becoming cognizant of the attention paid to the welfare of children from both public and private institutions including local and international NGOs.

MYERS BRIGGS SEMINAR

One of our activity was to attend the one week Myers Briggs Type Indicator Seminar provides us with a tool to better understand ourselves and our co-brothers. They gave us test that builds on psychologist Carl Jung’s theory of personality styles, and it is an invaluable aid to learning to work with others in an organization or on a team. In this seminar, participants we take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to determine our personality type and understand both its strength and weaknesses. MBTI measures the psychological attitudes of extraversion and introversion. The Myers-Briggs test provides us with a personality formula, preferences and the description of their type. Discussion of the results were done in a group

This is the entrance to Myers Briggs Seminar venue at SVD Seminary Tamale, Ghana

ARTS

We learned various types of arts aside from cross titching. Second from wright is our cross titching teacher who taught us the basic of crosstiching method.