The First Housing Crisis

There is no nice way to say this: the people AJWS hired to facilitate my housing search are completely incompetent. Beyond that, and in spite of it, I'm a dedicated volunteer and everything is going quite well, thank you very much.

Here is my story: AJWS was supposed to locate housing for me. I assumed that AJWS had successfully found housing for volunteers in the past and it was not something I needed to worry about. How wrong I was. Apparently, AJWS uses, Asseye, a Ghanaian to run the Ghana program. Normally, she is in Accra but for this month she is in the U.S., attending to business I guess. In her stead, she appointed Douglas to help set up my housing.

My request was minimal-I wanted a place with my own bathroom, in a neighborhood with other westerners (which means Osu). On Tuesday of last week, Douglas told me he would take me to look at places. He stood me up. On Wednesday, with much fanfare, Douglas took me to see some places. Actually, Douglas took me to see two places, which, despite knowing that I was coming to Accra, a City of two million, for over two weeks, was all he was able to find. The first place was a hotel that was located at a busy intersection. It seemed as if Douglas had walked down the street, went into the first hotel he saw and asked whether there was a room available for two months. This particular hotel is more suited to hourly guests who are not interested in sleeping, if you get my drift. The hotel was located on one of the busiest intersections of Accra, and Accra is a city where drivers use their horns instead of blinkers. There are also some "spots" (bars) on the corner and, just to make sure that everyone knows that good times are to be had, they blast really bad American R&B and rap into the street. Without exaggeration, its probably one of the loudest places I've ever been.

The next place Douglas had selected for me was unfinished. I don't mean "unfurnished," I mean unfinished. There was no bed, the walls were bare cement and the floor was, well, non-existent (it was dirt). The place was filthy. Douglas helpfully explained to me that the owner was waiting for someone to rent it, so that he could make the place "to their taste." I explained that pretty much everyone had a taste for a bed in a bedroom, not to mention a floor. I met the owner who promised to finish the place in two days if I rented it, and gave him $1600 for two months rent. I guess there are a lot of suckers in Accra.

Since both of the places that Douglas had selected for me were un suitable, Douglas and I proceeded to walk around, in the heat, for two more hours, basically knocking on doors and asking whether they knew of anyplace for rent in the area. Someone actually showed us a vacant restaurant that was for rent. It was spacious, but not what I had in mind. Douglas told the guy that he thought he had a friend who maybe inertest in renting a restaurant.

On our walk, I did see one guesthouse that I liked very much, but it was too expensive. After a few hours in the heat, when it became apparent to me that Douglas had no idea what he was doing, I resolved to take guesthouse and deal with money issues with AJWS. Douglas told me that the following day he would meet the owner and make the arrangements. I packed my bags at the hostel in which I had been staying and withdrew one month's rent (the equivalent of $900 dollars, or, since the bank only had Ghanaian $5 notes, 180 $5 notes).

However, Douglas did not make the arrangements, or maybe he thought he did but in fact did not, so when I arrived, bags and money in hand, I was told was nothing available. Huh? We went to another place that Douglas said had something available. Again, nothing. I was pissed (and I still am). About an hour later, while I waited at a rusturant, Douglas found a cheap hotel, this one on a quite side street. So, for $30 per night, I'm staying in a hotel for the month. AJWS is paying about half.

Where does this leave me? The hotel is fine. Its quiet and there is A/C. Nevertheless, this situation is far from ideal. For one, I don't want to live in a hotel for a month. I can't cook anything, and there is nowhere to sit aside from my room. More importantly, and more unfortunately, AJWS, a charitable organization that funds important programs around the world, is having to pay about $800 to put me up in a hotel, a place I don't want to live. A better local facilitator, or at least one that had even the slightest idea what he is doing (and I've meet a few facilitators with other groups of volunteers) could have done much much better for me and AJWS.

Finally, I need to add this: during the process, on a few occasions, I was told by Asseye and Douglas to that "this is Africa" and this is how it works. I can't accept that. Clearly, Douglas simply failed to do his job and lead me on a wild goose chase. "Africa" is not synonymous with "incompetence."