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!