Ghana

So here I am, now back in England after some time to recuperate.
The last week of travelling was very enjoyable (despite some illnesses) and gave us the opportunity to see some more of the rest of Ghana. I travelled across lake Volta via the Afram plains -a much less well-off area- which was very beautiful, saw the remote Wli waterfall and spent some time at the coast.






Looking back on my time in Ghana I can see that it's been a really beneficial experience for me and will definately inform many of my decisions in the future. I really enjoyed it and feel very priviledged to have spent my summer working as an agent of a charitable organisation and seeing real work in action.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those of you who have supported me and SKIP in this, either with donations or with encouragement and I look forward to my continuing work with this charity and it's development in the future.

We're now into our last week working in Tongo and we're all feeling very sad about it and starting to miss all the children already.

We organised more health talks with Aunty Veronica this week on Malaria and we've been encouraging the children to wash their hands every time they eat which is good because it feels like something really useful we can pass on to them. And we've been having a few 'talent shows' first with the volunteers performing songs/shows/comedy etc. (I was in a re-inactment of the hunchback of notredame) and then we encouraged the kids to perform and we had a few solo and group songs, the macarena and some karate! It seemed like they really enjoyed themselves!

The building is coming on fast with just the last coat of oil paint to go on the outside (blue on the bottom half and cream on the top half) and we had an open day on Sunday for all the community to come and see the building and some of the work the children have done-I felt very proud!

While we're all sad to leave these last two weeks we've hardly had time to catch our breath and so I think everyone is looking forward to a relaxing week traveling at the end (I'm planning to spend some time staying on a small beach on the south coast). Now all that remains is to really make the most of the last of our time with the children!

So since my last entry we have continued lessons with the children and games in the afternoons, it feels like we are finally more settled in now and we are progressing on to teaching more difficult things and just starting to develop our health promotion talks both in the Tongo community as a whole and for the children. We met a local health worker today and it seems like our main issues will be malaria, basic hygiene (there is one toilet which from observation is rarely used with most people just squating down outside even in public and well frequented places like just outside the building we teach in) and HIV which is especiallyprevalent in the community for various reasons.

The building is also progressing with the builders (when they eventuallyarrived-african time) having almost plastered all the walls and we have painting, wall supports and development of the toilet to go.

Two of the commitee have left us this week and two more are coming out to join us next week which will be refreshing. And we spent the last weekend relaxing in mole national park,although this wasn't as relaxing as it could have been if you factor in the 9 hour journey there and backand the torrential rain (guess who forgot their raincoat!).But we actually got to see 4 elephants right up close with our guide and I found my first cup of coffee for weeks! (so I drank far too much of it!)

All in all an enjoyable few weeks and I'm looking forward to the next few.

We started teaching on Monday this week by registering the children who don't go to school which would have been simple if it weren't for the fact that the teacher of the school class that shares our building hurt his leg so we have been trying to contain the school kids for a few days-easier said than done seeing as only one room has a door and it's hard to keep a few eyes on 40 kids! Our classes have grown day by day and the intermediate class that i teach with Mairi and Kevin now number about ten (although that did decrease yesterday when there was a thunderstorm and about half had to rush home to get their flocks in). We're working on the alphabet, learning animals and writing their names at the moment-and singing a lot of songs! I never knew there were so many kids songs but we still repeat them all, especially the ones they like lke o alea alea and if you're happy and you know it. We get wednesday afternoons off so i'm sitting in a sweltering internet cafe in Bolga hoping it's not too long before it rains again...

SO we have finally arrived in Bolgatanga after a very long journey what with a 5 hour wait in gatwick then a quick transfer in libya, a day in accra since we arrived in the early hours with our guides Lucman and Hussein and the a mammoth 13 hour journey up to Bolga by bus which naturally since it was meant to leave at 8 left some time after that. As we went further north the roads and the toilets at the stops got gradually more and more of an experience and today we're just settling into the resthouse and sorting out things like mosquito nets. So far I've been struck by how friendly and helpful everyone is which I'm sure will continue!