Final thoughts

As my days in Ghana draw to a close, I thought I'd put some thoughts down about the experience. First and foremost, on the whole it's been positive. This sort of short assignment is a great way to break the monotony of an otherwise dreary eight months doing IVs in Manila. Sure, NIVs in Accra aren't the most fascinating thing in the world, but at least they're different, and that counts for a surprising amount in this line of work. One of my favorite things about TDY assignments is that you get to meet an Embassy full of new people. The connections you find to them are a vivid reminder of just how small the Foreign Service is - virtually no one is more than a degree or two removed from any other given person. I'm sure I'll come across some of these people again, and hopefully I've left a good impression here. Even if I don't meet the same people again, I've expanded my "corridor reputation" - name recognition, in other words. And of course that glosses over the obvious positive of spending time with new, interesting people. As for the work itself, it's not all that different than NIVs in India or Manila, but it's immesurably valuable to hear new perspectives on the same questions you've asked a thousand times in a different place. India and the Philippines are both known as high-fraud countries (as far as visas go), but west Africa takes it to a whole new level. And even the people who are honest in their interviews have been found to be far more likely to misuse their visas than Indians and Filipinos. This gives the officers an entirely new slant on their evaluations, and results in an extraordinary level of jade and bitterness by the end of two years. Nevertheless, on the whole they leave this post with a positive impression of the place. I had never spent much time thinking about Africa, and I've found that I like it here more than I expected. One of my new friends here asked today whether I found Ghanaian culture more interesting than Philippine (which, to me, is relatively uninteresting, particularly after two years in the cauldron of wonder and mystery that is India). I wasn't sure what to say. Am I more interested in African culture? Not particularly. Yet I find the city a more interesting place to live, for a month at least. Perhaps that's because it's easier here to escape the chain-store sterility that pervades Manila. Perhaps it's because, while Filipinos are an outrageously happy people who never stop smiling, I've found Ghanaians more prone to start a conversation. So - a positive experience? Definitely. Would I do it again? Maybe. It's tough being away from home and family for so long. I think a month is the long end of what I'd do again on a voluntary basis; two weeks is probably a better amount of time. Having said all that, there's no better way to make you appreciate what you've got than to be away from it for a while. Absence, as they say...