One month and one week and one day... HEY!

Dear everyone!

How is cold cold England?! It is still hot here and very sticky and humid most of this week. We have also had week of power cuts - no power for most of Sunday or Monday with a small power cut on Saturday and Wednesday evening and Thursday night AND when I got back from work today (Friday) although it is back now (I’m on Anna’s laptop and hope to get to the internet café tonight). Power cuts don’t really change our lives too much anyway. The worst thing is not having the kettle to boil water for hot drinks… when it gets dark we just hang my head torch from the ceiling or Maria gets her candle out!

So, ONE MONTH DOWN!

WORK:
Work has been slow this week and last. I absolutely ADORE the children and have so many special favourites that I love and would like to take home with me! But on the other hand sometimes I can’t help feel that the teachers either view us as a mild help or just a nuisance! Although I am making great progress with some children I come across a few blocks by teachers – Auntie Elom in particular has been having issues this last week with me doing one-to-one. I’m not sure what she thinks I do with the kids but I think she almost sees it as a treat to be withheld. One boy, Doe (has obvious learning difficulties, and gets very frustrated when he can’t write letters) is mostly ignored by Auntie Elom – but he really works well under constant and positive attention. However, a few times he hasn’t been allowed to go with me because his shirt is untucked, he forgot his shoes, or something equally daft, especially when he doesn’t really understand what he’s doing wrong and then gets more frustrated and angry! Mostly Auntie Elom tries to give me Cephas and Eyram for the whole morning which just doesn’t work as they can’t concentrate for that long. The problem is really that they are so behind they can’t get the required attention and therefore do nothing (and I mean nothing) in the classroom.

As a result of all this on Thursday I decided to stay in the classroom but it was very trying. The children are really just left to their own devices and if they don’t know how to do their exercises or (worse) don’t even have a book there is a LOT of sitting and messing around. If work is done on the board Auntie Elom just called on the smarter children at the front despite the fact that Doe or Cephas or even Eyram with some encouragement would be able to easily count the circles she had drawn there. I hope to resume one-to-ones on Monday…

Tuesday was a little different as the teacher of the highest class (Kindergarden 2) was off so Anna and I spent the morning trying to work with her class! I say tried because I’m not sure whether we totally succeeded as chaos did break out often (unless an Auntie comes in and threatens the cane – then they are angels!!) but we did some exercises on the blackboard and some kids were great. Within both classes it has really struck me how varied the abilities are; and how much the kids learn by rote instead of thinking for themselves. It is quite often a process of elimination – if you write CAP, CAT and BAT on the board and draw a picture of a cat and ask them to spell it most will just shout out the letters randomly until they hit the jackpot!

Anyway, so on Wednesday afternoon I decided to get a more broad understanding of the orphanage so went to house 3 (mixed sexes, ages 3-6) with Anna who has been working there 7 months now. It was good to do something different, although essentially there was yet more hitting and screaming and getting jumped on and pulled around! I fed the two disabled girls who are very sweet but so unbelievably thin on their arms and legs. I hope to go back next week I think as it was a nice change.

LIFE:
Life in Ghana is ticking along nicely. I definitely have a routine here that is not dissimilar from university to be honest. The Ghanaian men are still driving me crazy with all the attention we get. Some are mildly annoying and quite entertaining (for example Katter and I were approached by a guy who announced “I want to marry an obruni”, and men often shout “my wife!” at you, or call random names out to see if you turn – in Ghana you have a name depending upon what day of the week you were born on) but at the markets or on the streets in the centre of Accra men will grab our arms or hands mostly to try to sell something to us! There isn’t much banter to be had with Ghanaians either… it’s all where are you from, what is your name stuff or it’s lectures about Ghanaian culture or about business and success all with this “God will provide” argument that makes discussion impossible!

On Wednesday evening Maria, Kattie and I (along with some others) went to a salsa evening at a hotel around 15 mins tro tro ride from where I live. It was around a pool and it was really fun! The creepy guys were out in force, of course, but the best bit was this line formation thing like line dancing but salsa steps. Some of the routines were really complex and everyone just seemed to know them, but some I managed to pick up on and it was really quite funny!

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So another long rambling blog, anyone tell me if I get boring! I sit down to write something nice and to the point but fail dramatically. Ah well, I’m sure everyone reading this knows how I open my mouth and random stuff just comes out… it’s clearly the same with typing!

I include some more photos from the past few weeks! Okay so it was SUPPOSED to be a few... but after compressing them they load so fast I can't resist! Sorry! Enjoy!

Sal xxxxx

My life in Ghana!

Me and Nana Ama

Morning singing just tooooo much!

Got that Friday feeling?? Chaos.

Augustina and Felicia

Me and Ally one of my favourite little boys

Me with Augustina

Kindergarden class 2

Nana Ama on the blackboard

Anna helping

Wednesday song morning turns into dancing too!

One way to get arm muscles – carry around a sleeping two year old (Felicia) because she screams everytime you try to put her down!

With Betty at her house - she's such a cutie!!!

The market at Nkrumah circle

Katter with her package at circle!

Me with Maabena
Ally
Cutting Anna's hair a few weeks ago

Sitting in my favourite room :)

Don't chop turtles

So, this weekend we went to the "Green Turtle Lodge", a little eco resort type thing with self composting toilets, bamboo everywhere, turtle conservation and an idyllic palm tree lined beach on the Ghanaian coast close to Busua and Dixcove.

Our weekend started on Friday at 6am as we all got the day off work, and we tro tro-ed to one of the bus station places in central Accra and got a tro tro after lots of waiting around for the tro tro and then waiting on it for it to fill up! It's hilarious because whilst you're waiting loads of people try to sell you stuff through the windows - pure water, frozen yogurt, bread, soap, razors, pies, rice, watches, children's books, biscuits, soft drinks, hankerchiefs you name it!


We finally set off at 8.45am and rattled our way for 3.5hours to Takaradi. The tro tro wasn't particularly comfortable and I was the middle seat middle row and didn't have an awful lot of leg room so I didn't sleep I just took in the scenery and watched the road and observed some skillful tro tro driving! I also know now why the colour green in the Ghanaian flag is supposed to stand for "vegetation" - because Accra is so dusty and urban that I kind of forget they have grass here too...

So after arriving in Takaradi we were directed to yet another tro tro to a place beginning with A (the name of which escapes me, sorry! We weren't totally sure where we were going either!) and when we arrived here we were pointed to yet another tro tro who would drop us off at the Green Turtle Lodge.

This journey started normal enough - driving through little towns with everyone leaning through the windows selling their water and plantain chips (even more so when they saw threee "obrunis" sitting there!) and the towns with their colourful corrugated iron shops (interestingly coloured for the mobile phone networks - yellow for MTN, red for vodaphone, purple for tigo) with names such as "Jesus Cares Ent" or "Virtuous Ladies Beauty Salon". But then the lovely tarmac road disappeared and we were following a red dirt road and bouncing all over the place through small little rural villages even picking up a lovely boot full of smelly fish in one (we were on the back seat) and the road got more and more rough and bumpy! I now have even more respect for the tro tro divers that manage to swerve and miss potholes and ditches quite successfully whilst still going quite a pace! (The picture left was taken in the taxi when we left).

Finally - we were deposited on the side of the road next to a sign saying GREEN TURTLE LODGE.

Below - Anna and Katter on the road by the Green Turtle sign.
















So, this place was a paradise with a bit of a dangerous rip tide (that we kind of got stuck in the first time we went in the water - I swallowed A LOT of sea and had a few rather unpleasant moments stuck under the water being dragged around but I wont dwell on that and I was fine and learnt my lesson well and truly!) Anyway, when we first staggered up the dirt track we were told that the place was full... how full? Really full. The guy hadn't received the text I had sent making reservations (as instructed by guide book) but he offered to let us sleep on the beach with mattresses and moz nets. We accepted, gladly although with some reservations about quality of sleep, and proceeded to enjoy a coke before jumping into out bikinis and braving the waves (and you know what happened there!)Luckily for us a large group didn't turn up so at 10pm we were told we could sleep in tents which we greatfully climbed into! By that point we were exhausted and the worst part was not knowing where we could sleep so the relief when we were told we could have the tents was immense. And, a rare treat, I had a tent to myself!!!! Another lovely factor of being near the sea was the breeze, which made a change of the oppressive heat and humidity of Accra. In the tent there was a lovely breeze and I actually enjoyed using the silk sleeping bag liner I brought. Also, whilst I'm loving things I would also like to thank my nice travel towel that folds up so small!

The next day we decided to stay again and so spent the day sunbathing, reading, eating and generally relaxing!The lodge made very nice food and drinks and I particularly enjoyed the lovely fresh coffee and having real milk in some tea. Below are some photos that I would like everyone to see! I think it is particularly weird because it's MARCH and yet here I am sunbathing, sweating, unable to wear jumpers (I miss them...) and riding around in little broken things that are actually transportation!




























Below - Katter and I in the hammock

Below - Me, Katter and Anna posing

Below - me in the hammock!

Below - Loving the shade!

Below - two children walk to the village along the beach

So we left on Sunday after breakfasts to make sure we got tro tros back. Sunday is always an issue because everyone is in church! For this reason we got a taxi from the lodge to the nearby town as we didn't fancy walking along the beach to the village only to find out everyone was in church and there wouldn't be a tro tro for hours. Once we were in the town it was fine to get a tro tro to Takadori and back to Accra. We also got EXTREMELY lucky with the tro tro on the way back - it was COMFY! It had air conditioning (oh! to be cold again!) and a video (not great, but I love my ipod for noisy moments like this, and the seats were sooofffttt which made me happy! I doubt I will ever ride in a tro tro like it again. It was worth waiting for it to fill up before we left! We were back in Accra by 4.30pm or so which was nice!

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So I've been struggling to post this blog and now I have there are a few things I will add since I wrote this...

It is definitely a bit cooler here in Accra! Last week I actally had my hoody draped over myself from about 3am! Last night there was also a craazzyy thunderstorm and I woke up with the wind blowing on me and actually got into my sleeping bag liner! Wow! Today was cool... but not enough for a jumper or trousers, although I did wear I tshirt

At work it is just me volunteering in the school full time now - with Emily (who is doing a semester abroad at the university here) with me on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I have started to seriously write some notes on each kid I see so that I don't work just on things they can do - however tempting this is! Today was a little slow with Cephas and Eyram but as they know so little it's not surprising. If anyone has any teaching tips on how to teach kids basic letters and how to write (they can do basic counting) when they barely speak any English it would be much appreciated! I don't mind it being hard though - Cephas is a lovely kid who has such a cute laugh and who is truly proud of himself when he gets it right. Eyram seems to be trusting me more now, and is getting a little bit cheeky and laughing a lot - which makes a change from a week ago when she sat stubbornly refusing to even look at me! I'm considering buying one of those boards you can write on with the special pens and then erase it because this would be soo much better than the scraps of paper I carry around, or the poor quality exersize books. I wish I could write in some of the workbooks we have rather than just tracing the letters with our fingers!

Anyway, I better be off :) you know on Thursday I will have been here ONE WHOLE MONTH! I hope I am making some progress! More and more kids are knowing my name (not just obruni, thank goodness) and every day I fall in love with more and more of them! The heat is becoming less and less of an issue, which an only be a good thing.

I'd love some comments from some of my readers?

Love, Sal xxx

My little "luxuries"....

Dear everyone,

This week has been an interesting one containing some spectacular highs that all you folks in England will think are weird and normal! I am quickly realising that the complex things (such an internet or a mobile phone) are the most mundane, and the things that I would take for granted in the UK are luxuries here! I mentioned in my last blog my sheet dilemma and I am extremely happy to tell you that on Thursday Katter and I succeeded in our quest for a sheet! I brought three yards of checked fabric from a shop near the orphanage and was veeery pleased to remove the old horrible one! I am now engaged in an endless battle to keep it clean and wash my feet many times a day and tiptoe from the bathroom to my bedroom in the evenings!

The second "luxury" that I managed to obtain on Thursday was a TOWEL which I brought from the popular Koala supermarket on Oxford Street. Okay, so that place is expensive, but it's possible to buy tons of western stuff (the Nutella, at around 7 pounds, was calling to me but I resisted...) and so I managed to get a nice big fluffy purple towel for not an insane amount of money!

Number three is not so much a luxury but did finish off Thursday nicely - I got a small roll of sellotape and have since decorated my wall with pictures! I hope to print some more when I can! I also stuck a few tickets and such into my journal to make it a little more interesting than just text!

The next little drama that contains something so readily available in the UK is WATER! Normally the water runs for a couple of hours a day giving us time to fill up our big tubs, but since Thursday the taps have been dry and the tubs have been getting lower and lower until there wasn't enough yesterday to shower in! Luckily this morning Katter and I woke up and joy of joys the water was running! It took us one hour of filling buckets and hefting them around from the shower to fill the tubs but we did it eventually and were both rewarded with a wonderful shower with water from the shower head! It was truly the best shower ever, although it did feel a little excessive using so much water when normally half a bucket will suffice.


















(Celebrating the joys of water in our wash room!)

















Work this week had good and bad days. Bad - Grannie left. Good - I had some progress with Cephas as we worked on colours and numbers and I taught him some basic things such as hand, nose, mouth, ears which at the moment I think is more important than his ABCs. However, Wednesday and Friday were right offs as on Wednesday they do a sort of music morning which just slowly descends into chaos and Friday's are just chaos from start until finish - I spent most of the day with the most adorable little boy asleep on my lap! The kids just spend the whole time running and mostly fighting with one another over toys - the violence is crazy! There is pretty much always one kid crying in the room at a time. The teacher's tend to deal with this madness by putting Tom and Jerry on the large black and white TV, but it gets so boring just sitting there surrounded by children, so on Friday I got some lined books for Cephas and drew some letters for him to trace.

We get a day off tomorrow as yesterday (Saturday) was Independence Day so we're planning on spending it well and going to the beach. However, we're all kind of suffering from heat rash that pops up all over, so I'm going to be careful and apply tons of suncream! I am much better after my brief sunstroke type of thing, and have started walking to work although I think I will still be getting the tro tro back because it's soooo hot when I finish!
















( picture - the bed! mine is the top one! With my NEW sheet!)



I wondered if anyone might be interested with a little run down of my day so here goes:

7.30ish - I wake up. Realise I am BOILING and roll out of bed.
8-8.15am - I wander around the corner to buy my breakfast. At the moment I am having "wheat" which is kind of like porridge. I get it in a bag (everything in bags here!) and carry it home where I pop the bag into a mug to eat it (I tried pouring the wheat into the mug from the bag but only made a mess!). Sometimes I have bread and egg which is like a herby omlette served between two of the thickest slices of bread I have ever seen!
8.20am - I walk or tro tro to work!
9-9.30ish - I get attacked and jumped on by small children until the teachers decide to do assembly where the kids say the Lord's Prayer, the National Anthem and then march off to their classrooms singing "Arise Ghana youth" or something similar!
9.30ish-12pm - I work with a couple of kids in the computer room (with air con!)
12-1pm - a very needed break around the corner from the orphanage where I grab a drink at the cafe(?) of a lovely lady called Irene. Often, I buy pineapple or mango to eat!
1-2.30ish - more work with the children, often taking from Aunt Regina's class so they are a little more advanced. Normally I work on sounding out words and numbers. It's refreshing to work with these kids, although by this time they are half mad and those who aren't "picked" normally cause trouble by wandering in, being distracting and banging on the door!
2.30pm - home time! I get back and eat and then either relax and read or run little errands for food/money/water etc!




So there ya go! Things are definitely getting easier now - I am eating loads and sleeping more! I am getting through my books at an alarming rate but my little ipod with all it's films on it (thank you Steve!!!!) is proving very popular. If anyone has any questions I would love to answer them - I know it is very hard to imagine!

Clean sheets and quiet times...

So this weekend we went to Kumasi! It was an epic trip that taught me many, many things about Ghana!:

1. Timetables do not exist. Everyone tells you about "Africa time" before you leave but you can only believe it when you see it! We first went to the STC bus station only to be told there were no more buses by a very unhelpful woman, after which (stressed and tired) we headed hopefully to the VIP bus station where we prayed we would get a bus. Here, however, we were met with CROWDS of people and we told that we could get a number to buy a ticket but three buses had already been filled this way. Our numbers were 77 and 78...

2. You must be prepared to wait. We waited over two hours.

3. People in Ghana are incredibly friendly, that is true, but sometimes only to sell you something and it can get very tiresome with every second person asking you where you are going in the hope you will get into their taxi! However, some people just really want to help - for example the very kind man at the VIP bus station who helped us buy our tickets and get the right bus without asking for our names until the very end!

4. On the topic of buses they are very different! The VIP bus was very comfy and with big seats and blasting air conditioning! I had forgotten what it felt like to be cold again. By comparison the STC bus (we took on the way back) was small and cramped and oh so hot!

5. My guide book tells me music is very important in Ghana. So important, in fact, that no one bats an eyelid at the ear-splittingly loud music blaring on both buses we took! It was incredible and awful in equal measure. Sleep? No chance - unless you're a Ghanaian of course! Noise is consequently everywhere, from the man next door who LOVES to play his radio all day very loudly, to the kids at the orphanage!

7. Taxi drivers (we took a lot in Kumasi as road signs are pretty much non existent!) will always take you, but may not always know where they are going and most likely will not tell you this. So, when we asked one guy to go to the Kumasi Fort we found ourselves at the tro-tro station and therefore had to take a further taxi to the Fort only to find ourselves literally 200 yards from where we had started!

8. No one is ever completely clean. Well, I'm not and I can't imagine how anyone else imagines it! I only have to stand someplace and dust and dirt just seems to find me! This is obviously not helped by sweat, suncream and Deet. My feet in particular need regular washes, water permitting, but I still fail at getting them completely clean before I clamber into bed. It is IMPOSSIBLE! As a result my sheet needs a good wash but I am holding out until I buy some fabric that will do too. I fantasise about being able to buy a nice, clean, fitted sheet or a fresh new towel. Alas, I have lead to believe these are forbidden luxuries... like peace and quiet or feeling cold!

So.. enough of the points now. This weekend was really good fun and we saw lots of stuff - including the Palace and the crazy crazy Kejetia Market which was big, mad and oh so smelly! However I think after my beach trip I got some form of sunstroke as over the weekend I was SO hot and my skin was just burning up! This turned into a painful headache behind the eyes that is only just subsiding now. I had a day off work today to try to rest myself but I will return tomorrow and hope I will be better then!

I have decided to work with Cephas and the small girl Eryiam (?), who had never been to the beach, every day because they get no attention from the teacher so I plan to start simple teaching basic English - the alphabet can wait until they can understand some English!

Love to all, Sal xxxxx

Photos!!

So, here are some long overdue photos! I'm excited I finally managed to get some on here!!

So, these are a few pictures!

They include

- The picture of the road outside my house

- Inside the house - our small little communal area! Thank goodness we got the other room opened!

- The Alkot Development Centre. This is inside the orphanage and the school for the young ones and where I work!

- Lots of photos of learning! The boy in the sunglasses is Cephas! My little project!

- Assembly time! All the children sing a few songs and say the Lord's Prayer and the Ghana National Anthem. They also do this ADORABLE marching to their classrooms. It is the only time of the day that has order, and it is lovely! I hope to film it before I leave!

- Nap time is at 1pm, and even the teachers sleep!

- The children dancing at the music performance they had on Friday. It was really cute and I have some great videos of it! Maybe I'll try to add some soon...

- The last few pictures are from the market in Kumasi! There is also a little bit of a tro tro you can see in one picture.