After failing to attend the foremost Deutsche Welle (DW) Akadmie development training workshop for Joy FM Journalists with the excuse of writing an end of semester exams, I hardly anticipated a second of the same training workshop was going to be held soon.

It came as a surprise to most of us, especially for Hasmin Mohammed – Northern Region Correspondent – who had given compelling reasons to be absent from the maiden DW workshop.

When Managing News Editor Elvis Kwashie announced at our annual news retreat in the conference room of Sun Lodge Hotel that there was going to be a second of the training workshop, I knew there was no escaping this time.

‘’Where is Kofi (that's me)? Hasmin where are you? Ben Tetteh. He asked. "You are without any form of excuse joining a team I will announce later to participate in another training workshop in Accra starting September, 15.’’

Exactly a week to the programme, Elvis posted the names of those of us who will be attending on the Joy newsroom whatsapp portal.

The names were five, and it included mine, Hasmin Mohammed, Benjamin Tetteh, Ivy Setordjie and Francis Wadjah.

A day after, he followed up with a phone call. The message was short and concise. ‘’Chief I am expecting you in Accra for the workshop. I am not entertaining any form of excuse’’.

Soon after, my mobile phone had begun ringing again. It was a call from Volta regional correspondent, Ivy.

She asked: ‘’Kofi have you received any call from Elvis?’’ I replied in the affirmative.

The message Ivy relayed to me was the same I received from Elvis but in her case she had confirmed a different workshop with the ministry of local government.

However she could not excuse herself because she feared the Joy News manager could crack his disciplinary whip on her.

In no time a Sunday had befallen us.

It was September, 14, the reporting time for the training. We all set out from our various regions to the Paloma Hotel on the Ring Road Central in Accra.

We wondered how the five of us could make the workshop a success because the first group had touted theirs as the best.

However, the next morning at the Patase restaurant where we had gathered to break our fast, surprisingly colleagues Michaela Anderson and ever-smiling Chantelle Asiedu, aka ‘Mr. K‘ showed up.

Perhaps you want to know why Chantelle earned that Nickname. Hmmm, I am tempted to disclose it here but I want to save a situation where a certain assisting news editor may take me on.

“Eii Kofi, wei nso waka? Fiifi! I beg oo boss this piece is without mischief.

Another colleague who turned up after the second day was Wilhelmina Naa Dedey. The  beautiful looking ebony-skinned girl who always appeared natural received massive praises from the DW trainers for her good voice anytime she’s made to read a piece.

I was meeting her for the first time, and in fact she looked African and athletic.

After welcoming each and every one, we were now convinced our group could match Erastus’ group who had broken our ears with terms like ‘’maye wo deeben,importation, Cheesy baby’ and so on an so forth.

Erastus Asare Donkor works with our sister station Luv FM in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital.

The workshop commenced with an introduction of each participant and our Deutsche Welle trainers.

Our chief trainer, Dieter Herman who appeared with an intimidating voice and body structure talked about his rich experience as a war correspondent for DW TV, mostly assigned to the African region.

Norman Laryea, the German half caste who has a Ghanaian father, has for over fifteen years featured for DW radio.

The training began with the trainers introducing us to the inverted pyramid which guides us to structure news stories to catch the eye of editors. We trained on using different and new audio editing softwares, feature writing among others.

For instance, the unofficial photographer of the workshop, Francis Wadjah and Chantelle dealt with maternal mortality, Michaela and l handled non-functioning streetlights on the Tema motorway, Ben and Ivy did single motherhood, while Naa and Hasmin took fallen standards of education.

Of course, news editor, Dzifa Bampoh, was in her elements. She could not let go any blunder without criticizing.

The training ended with a dinner at the la Vienna beach where certificates’ where presented to participants.