Human Rights Advocacy Centre: update

You will have seen from last week’s posts on the work I’ve being doing with the Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC). I’m posting now to give an update on that work and also give an idea of the general office culture.

The office day starts early and runs from 8am – 4pm. This means lots of early starts. I wake up at 6.45am and am out of the door within an hour.

The atmosphere in the office is great. Everyone is very committed to their work and clearly enjoying what they do. Despite the formal office attire, it’s a laid back environment and there are lots of laughs throughout the day, especially at lunchtime when everyone comes together to eat their locally bought 2 cedi lunches of red red (a delicious paste made of beans and palm oil, served up with fried plaintain), spicy omelettes, jollof rice (rice with tomatoes, peppers, onion and spices) and fresh mangoes. My colleagues are a mix of Ghanaian staff and young Ghanaians doing their national service, as well as international volunteers. On Tuesday evenings everyone gets together to go out for drinks, and I am looking forward to this Friday, when we are all heading out of the office for a teambuilding office away-day.