At the time I was completing my tertiary education, we were required to fill in options for placement of our mandatory national service. Apart from Accra, one of the regions I chose was the Central region mainly for its proximity to Accra.

Fingers crossed, my friends and I were often anxious about the outcome of the service placements. Alas, the postings came out and I was assigned to an institution called Integrated Community Service for Employable Skills (ICCES) in the Central Region; in a town called Assin Jakai, a name neither I nor my family nor friends had ever heard before. After a good deal of inquiry, I found out that Assin Jakai was a remote village located close to Assin Nyankumasi on the way to Assin Foso.

I was disenchanted at being posted to such a remote town, my friends found it humorous and called me by the name of the town I was posted to; Jakai. They did it in such an irksome manner that got on my nerves. So I decided I wasn’t going to go anywhere unless it was in the capital.

I enquired if my posting could be altered, and was assured that it was possible. Unfortunately, hopes of changing my posting were dashed after sometime when the possibilities started fading.  So, Jakai it was. 

I finally thought of going to register for fear of being penalized by the law even though the National service registration had then elapsed. With heavy reluctance, I set out to the regional national service office at Cape Coast to register.  After going through the registration processes at the regional and district office, I set out to locate the school, thus, Assin Jakai, to complete my registration.

So I navigated my way to my post to complete my registration and also to find accommodation. Upon reaching there, I found out it was not that much of a village after all; that did not mean that I was looking forward to working and living there for the next 10 or more months. I was also astounded to discover that ICCES was not a non-governmental organization as I thought but a technical/ vocational second cycle institution and I could not believe my duties at this school was to teach English language.

Thankfully, I met a fellow service personnel who took me on a small tour of the town and introduced me to one of the teachers from the school, Mends. Mends taught Basic Design and Technology (BDT) at the Integrated Community Center for Employable Skills (ICCES). He offered to help me find accommodation since I had to return to Accra that day. And so I gave him my specifications as to what I wanted; a single room self-contained. He readily made it known to me that; such a room would be difficult to come by. But I insisted and he could only oblige.

I kept in touch with him to find out how the search was going and to remind him of the specifications until one of my calls to him yielded result; He had found a place he was sure I would like.

Was what he found within my specifications? Next week I’ll tell you about how I moved to Assin Jakai, hoping to move in to my self-contained room.