Day 6, Friday - And it all comes to an end

It has been a long road and finally, we have come to the end...at least, for now. Today was the awards ceremony. Ghana couldn't obtain any medal, but performed better than last year. Just as the black star of hope rises with the Ghanaian flag each day, we hope to rise, and show the world that Ghana too, can reach high.

A 14 year old from Belarus won the first place. He was awarded with a gold medal, and some other medal (I've forgotten the name). This is his third gold. Impressive!

As I get ready to leave (at 3.00AM) for home, I plan for the future, immediate and later. From what I have seen and realized, there is so much more to be done, that can be done moving from a limited point of view, on to a broader perspective. And I believe we can. I believe in myself, I believe in Ghana, I believe in God.

Day 5 (Thursday), ɛndɛ so biom….

Today too…

Francis and I decided not to go for the excursion to the Black Sea, because the idea of spending 10hrs traveling to go and see a sea for 1 hour or more wasn’t very appealing to us. Instead, we decided to do something more exciting..guess what? SHOPPING. (See the way I’m screaming it…it is not like I bought plenty things too. Just a few clothes (wink wink)).

Oh! Today too, I was late for breakfast. I woke up at 9.45AM, breakfast ended at 10.00AM. I managed to do some one or two things and found myself in the elevator at 10.05AM (We are on the 11th floor). Usually, Francis is the one who presses the buttons in the elevator and down we go, to the reception. This time, he wasn’t with me and me too, I forgot to press the button so that it will go down. I was busy preening and primping before the mirror, whiles the lift was still on the 11th floor! Breakfast too was going…oh charlie. After 5 min of preening and primping, I started to wonder ‘Why hasn’t the elevator reached the reception. Am I stuck? What am I going to do?’. When I turned to look at the buttons, I realized I was still on the 11th floor and hadn’t pressed the reception button. I could have knocked myself! Just as the lift was about to reach the reception floor, I decided the powder on my face was too much, and so I had to go back to my room to clean it up. I went up again, then came down. By the time I got to the restaurant, the food of course was GONE. The way I was hungry! I finally managed to procure some tiny cup of coffee. These white people…they don’t know the cups we drink from at home…ah!

We went shopping in the afternoon, like I mentioned earlier, right after lunch. I can assure you that I really heaped my plates. Yes plates. Over here they give you those tiny side plates as plates for meals. When Francis saw the manner of things I put on my plates, he said ‘I can see you are really hungry’. I didn’t take it easy on the food koraa.

We came back around 7.00PM. Plovdiv looks like Accra, with potholes on many streets, and grass growing at odd places. But it has taller buildings everywhere, and generally, things are more organized. People don’t drive anyhow and you don’t find dogs who are not afraid of cars, walking aimlessly on the streets. And in this season, the sun sets after 8.00PM. That is a bit unsettling. As at 6.30, whiles we were waiting for the bus, the sun was still shining, hot and furious. Here, the sun really burns. You can actually feel the rays piercing. But the funny things is, you don’t sweat too.

We had dinner late this evening. The contestants say they had fun at the Black Sea and spent about 3 hours there. After dinner, the leaders had their ‘ouzo’ party. A lot of drinking goes on there. But I didn’t get to witness it because I wasn’t interested, and was very tired. I came straight up to bed, this time, remembering to press the button for the 11th floor on the lift.

You guys think I’m chilling eeh…lol. Ahia for chilling. When I was busy waking up everyday at 4.30AM to go to work and arriving at 7.00PM, learning Discrete Math, abi you guys were relaxing. Now, it is my turn. :)

       After shopping, waiting for a bus

Day 4

As for today di333, I really WALKED, barefooted and on stones.

I woke up, late as usual, but I was in time for breakfast. Well, kind of. I had an interesting chat with one Bulgarian guy who is in Operations Research. I've always been interested in that, even as a child. Who knows, perhaps, I might just get involved in OR.

We (Francis, Meto, and I) went shopping whiles our contestants were busy sweating in the conference room :). I bought shoes, shoes, shoes. There was one I couldn't just resist. I just had to go back to the shop and get it. I love it already. Can't wait to wear it everyday in Gh. The shoe will start crying "Ama I beg, please stop wearing me" :).

We came back for lunch...I ate well well. If by the time I come to GH, my cheeks are so round, no one recognizes me, don't be surprised. "Onipa 3ny3 ne k3se kwa ..:D".

After lunch, I came to rest but George wouldn't stop worrying me with GHOSS problems. Eventually, I ended up having no rest, as I had to rush with Francis to Novotel Plovdiv, to take pics with the contestants, and then back to get ready for our VIP dinner with the mayor of Plovdiv.

What a dinner it was! Service--very poor(the waitress was giving more than 50% of her attention to some gentlemen who were smiling at her plenty), Food--served in sessions, none had what I liked but I had to eat anyway since it wasn't a serve-yourself like in the hotel. But of course, I had the staple coca-cola, bread, and chicken and that was ok for me. And we even sat in a different room from the mayor. So much for VIP dinner! But I guess that was my fault coz I made Francis and I late so we got the back seats.

We finally decided we had had enough after the food and service (for which I am very grateful but could have been better) got us fed up, and decided to leave the Old Town, where we had the dinner to the bus stop, where our bus was supposed to be. To end the long story, I had to walk barefooted because my heel kept getting stuck in the spaces between the stones on the floor (the whole floor of the Old Town and most of the streets in Plovdiv have been paved with proper stones or pavement blocks) and to the hotel because the bus wasn't around and most of the leaders were also doing the same.

The way I was tired when we came! We walked for about 45 min and got to the hotel shortly after 12AM. I still can't believe I still am awake. It is now 2.40AM. Gotta sleep or else, tomorrow, I'll be late for breakfast, AGAIN!

Day 3 - 4

Whew! What a long day! I can hardly keep my eyes open but I have to get this done with now, or never.

Day 3:

I woke up, as late as usual, and finished dressing right when breakfast was over. There was a bus at that moment, waiting to take us (leaders and deputy leaders) to the AquaPark. We(Francis(deputy leader) and I) managed to grab some fruits, eat some cereal, go for a second helping and managed to run after the bus and enter it :).

On this day, there was no competition. The plan for today was to have half of us go to the AquaPark in the morning and the other half go to a Carting and Bowling place and later in the afternoon, switch.

Switch, we did. Both places were boring(for me...me naa, I don't like going out much) but they both had their moments. At the AquaPark, I was tanning my skin(as if it already isn't black enough..lol), whiles Joel was busy swimming and sliding all over the place. Francis was taking pictures and the others were well, ...just having fun.

At the carting place, I didn't do much either. Just walking about, talking, taking pictures. The rest of the team went bowling...which was interesting. Of course I didn't participate because sports just ain't my thing!

After we came back to the hotel, we went straight to a General Assembly meeting, afterwards, dinner and then a meeting with the other African team leaders to discuss the possiblity of another AIO (African Olympiad in Infomatics). Then those who had to translate the tasks for Competition Day 2 did, whiles we whom's contestants needed no translation, went off to do our own stuff. I, as usual, came straight to bed!

Day 0 - 2

We left Ghana at 11.45PM on Saturday night. We finally got to Bulgaria after many queues and checks and got to our hotel around 11.30PM, Sunday night. 24+ hours without a bath..whew!

I'm the Deputy Leader for Ghana's team for the International Olympiad in Informatics, IOI, which is being held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. I helped in training the contestants (4 of them) for the competition). It was quite an experience for me, having to wake up at 4.30 AM and travel to work and back everyday. But it was a nice experience. Now, we are in Bulgaria, to see what we can do for the IOI.

Our flight was smooth. I didn't like the food. But that shouldn't be any news because I'm very picky. So I ate bread and biscuits. We stayed in Rome for 8 hours. The airport was very busy, with many shops and people going in and out. Everything at the airport was expensive, even water! We had an American breakfast which was advertised as serve-yourself, and so we thought was one price for everything you take, not knowing it was different prices for every group of food you pick from...these Italianos..! After 8 boring hours in the airport, with non-free internet which we didn't use, we left for Sofia, Bulgaria.

At Sofia, the one who was assigned from IOI committee to pick us didn't show up. So after waiting for over an hour, we hired a car from the Airport to Hotel Novotel, Plovdiv. The journey to Novotel, Plovdiv took about an hour and thirty min.

All our travel was worth it. The competition seems better organized than last years, which was hosted in Egypt. (Although there was some mix up with the IOI 2009 t-shirts we were supposed to receive. I ended up with a t-shirt which is so big, I look like a mosquito in it). The hotels are gooooooooood. The contestants are in Novotel, and the leaders in "Park-Hotel Sankt Peterburg". The hotel is plush, services excellent. Food...leaves much to be desired. It seems the main meal here is meat - chicken, suasage, pork, lamb, ... Where is the rice??? Oh. The way I'm hungering for rice - jollof, plain, waakye, vermicelli.. , any rice. It is just meat, meat, meat , meat, bread, drinks, vegetables, fruits...hmmm. And oo...every country has its own room. There is no sharing of rooms with people from other countries (like in Egypt). So I have my own room, a very nice room. And I'm happy about that.

It is Day 2 now and we (the leaders) are in a conference, whiles our children are in Day 1 of the competetion. They didn't have a lot of time to rest because we arrived yesternight, instead of Friday as we originally should have. The Olympiad actually started on Saturday. But I have confidence in them. We will have our results by 5PM this evening for today's round of competition. A guy from Syria is giving a talk now on Taking Kids into Programming (Contest) with Scratch (http://www.learnscratch.org). It sounds interesting, introducing kids to programming without actually teaching them coding first. They get used to problem solving before coding. I want to listen so I'll update later.

Women in the workplace? If I can, let me.

No one ever said it will be easy...

A few days ago, a friend wanted to hire someone to work on her company's website. She said she didn't want a girl. The one who was also looking for personnel for her said he wouldn't give her a girl. They all agreed that a female would be less hardworking than a male. I was very surprised and shocked!

What happened to the national campaign 'Send Your Girl Child To School'? What happened to 'If You Educate A Boy, You Educate An Individual But If You Educate A Girl, You Educate The Whole Nation (Dr. Kwagyir Aggrey)? Why do a lot of Ghanaians promote 'Educating The Girl Child' if they wont give them a fair chance at the work place? Most people just hire a few ladies in their workplaces because they don't want to be thought of as sexist. What happened to equality? What happened to gender equality? Why do we relegate women to the background?

It is true that biologically, women are != men. And that wouldn't change. But what about intellectually? Isn't that what matters the most in the work place? If I am able to, in a few hours, produce what a man can when he stays at work for a full day + overtime, why shouldn't I be hired? Because as a female, the probability that I will work longer hours == 0?? That is not right!

If we wouldn't give women a chance to prove themselves in the work place, then we might as well as keep our female child at home so that a man would come and marry her and be overly protective of her (by virtue of her gender), so that we don't waste our money on education...giving her a sewing machine to while away the time. That is the mentality of a lot of Ghanaians.

If I am diligent and spiritually, physically, emotionally and mentally sound, please give me a chance. Do not relegate me to the background. I can and I will. If you don't give me a chance, I will create one. Yes, I will. Do not discriminate me by basis of my gender.

Check this The Role of Women in Ghana's development

GHOSS

Ghoss is the Ghana Open Source Society. "It aims at promoting the use of open source software in Ghana. It also aims at providing the facilities required to make its members proficient in the use of open source technologies.

We have group meetings twice a week. We mainly work on projects that all members are assigned to. Every so often we invite people to come and give tech talks on different IT topics. Members are also expected to give presentations from time to time. We also have a membership grading system, an idea borrowed from the oriental martial arts, where members get graded up to higher and higher levels as their skills and experience within the community increases.

Anybody who is interested can become a member. To become a member, you will have to come to one of our meetings and register as a member (currently). Our membership is only restricted by resource constraints. We need to make sure that all members are properly mentored during their initial phase. If there are no mentors available, they you would be put in queue in invited as soon as a mentor is available.

GHOSS is sponsored by the Chale Group." Lorenzo Cabrini, Founder