Obruni, where are you going??!!??!!

Amazingly, with Mum's visit to Ghana, one more person will actually understand half the things I ramble on about in my blogs! For one, Mum now understands what it means to travel in Ghana - although now she has experienced the crazy experience that is the tro tro it may actually cause more worry than when I first arrived! For example Mum's parting shot "wear a seatbelt!!!!" may not actually be easily realised, considering most forms of transport consider these things mere accessories and in most they are simply absent (the driver mostly has one, but only uses it for show whilst passing police barriers and unclips it as soon as they are behind us!).

Mum is also the only person who has heard the "obruni" cry that titles this blog, as it is a frequent sound whilst travelling around Ghana, and near impossibly to avoid. As soon as you place one little toe outside the tro tro at a station there are calls of TAXI! and popular destinations. As soon as a WHITE person pokes their toe outside the calls intensify, and it is not uncommon to have several taxi men right up inside personal space yelling several things at once. Upon arriving in Cape Coast, for example, myself and Mum found ourselves stuck with a taxi driver for several minutes who just wouldn't let us go, babbling on about fare price, destinations, and simply couldn't get it inside his head that we wanted to walk, of all things! Of course people can be extremely helpful and kind, taking travellers to tro tro stations (in Takoradi an orange seller walked us for around 5 minutes) or even hailing taxis for us (in Cape Coast). But mostly, whether they tell the truth or not, it is veeeerry easy to be taken in by the person who is yelling at you - mostly because standing in a tro tro station surrounded by craziness is really a very overwhelming experience!! Despite being in Ghana for 4 months now this happens frequently and it is only when sitting/driving/paying that you realise the error! This happened when leaving Accra for Cape Coast with Mum as we wanted an air conditioned tro tro but were told by the man yelling CAPE COOAASTTTT that there were not any. Ten minutes later when we sat off we drove past many sititng there. Ah well, we had nice front seats so it wasn't so bad...!

So, as readers may gather Mum and I visited Cape Coast the Friday, after a day in Accra to meet my kiddies. I have visited the place before, but had not been inside the castle at Cape Coast itself (instead the one at Elmina). We arrived midday and thoroughly exhausted ourselves wandering around the shops selling souvenirs and so on before we even went to the castle! I actually really enjoyed visiting the castle as it was actually held by the British when slavery was at its height so although terrible history it was interesting nevertheless. The next morning we proceeded to Takaradi one of the large cities in Ghana around 2 hours from CCoast and from there we caught two other tro tros to get ourselves to the very small village of Butre along the coast. I had never been there myself so it was nice to see something new, and it was great for Mum to see a really rural village and experience the bumpy, dirt track that led most of the way there.

We stayed in a really nice resort type place called the Hideout which was across the river (where it entered the sea) on a very, very, very rickety bridge that twisted and tilted at an alarming angle! We stayed in a really nice clay bungalow and it was just really lovely and peaceful! We watched the Ghana vs. Australia match in a small shack-bar in the village will all the locals and many children on the floor only wearing their knickers (Barack Obama knickers)! The next morning we went on a canoe ride up the river through the mangrove forest, it was really beautiful in the morning sun. We saw lots of birds and crabs and so on and even a small alligator sitting high up in a tree - our guide was pointing and pointing (even standing up in the canoe so it wobbled alarmingly) and eventually we saw it...! Our guide, Tony, even took us further into a little tunnel type thing through the mangroves will all the branches (?) hanging down so we had to keep ducking out of the way. It really was amazing! After breakfast we walked the 3km over the hill and along the beach to Busua, a slightly larger village. We were guided half of the way by a small boy, around 8, wearing only pants and carrying for some reason two small wheels. Bizarrely, two girls also followed, around 4 and 6, both only wearing their knickers. We made quite a strange party actually, the two white women with the three next to naked children - all even holding hands at one point! (Mum has a excellent photo of these two girls so I will post a photo blog next I think!) At Busua we visited Daniel the Pancake Man and had juice from Frank the Juice Man... it was most strange! There is also Joseph the Lobster man but we didn't see him during our wanders!

Our next destination was again Cape Coast for just another relaxing half day instead of going all the way back to Accra. The next day, Tuesday, my birthday, was note worthy mainly because we got an AIR CONDITIONED TRO TRO back to Accra - a huuuge beast of a thing. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling so wonderful, only really my second bad feeling day here in Ghana, and not really helped by the 3 hour journey and the horribly stuffy trip through Accra to our hotel.

Thursday we left again only the other direction to Hohoe, where we proceeded on to Wli with the waterfall. For this journey we made a slight error as we decided to try to get yet another air conditioned tro. After listening to a tout on the street we were led to a small lot with half a douzen or so air con tros. Unfortunately, not many people had the same idea, and we waited a frustrating 2 hours for the damn thing to fill up and leave making me swear off air con tros and long for the broken and rusty (but fast-filling!) tro tros of the larger stations. Really, I haven't sworn off air con tros all together, but just ones from that place as getting one back from Hohoe was easy enough and actually left quicker than the non-air conditioned neighbour!

Annnyway, so Wli was of course as beautiful as last time and we stayed in a lovely quiet hotel with only another two guests. On the way there Mum had another Ghana experience - the share taxi - which squishes 2 people in the front and 4 in the back for a bumpy, uncomfortable ride! The morning for our hike to the waterfall was humid but not too hot, and even though I found it harder than the last time Mum had no problems! Our guide was really nice pointing things out to us and giving us a cocoa pod for us to suck he seeds (sounds disgusting but they tasted like mango!) and this bizarre fruit that tasted like the purest sugar that left a taste in our mouths for half an hour after!

Friday we returned to Accra and after visiting the Art Gallery near my house and a bar by the sea Mum left around 5 ish for the airport. (A small note must be made here on the Ghana vs USA match that I watched after her departure - the atmosphere was truly crazy!)

HOWEVER, Mum may be gone but I have the legacies of her trip sitting on the floor in my room! -- books, books and more books make me EXTREMELY happy and the amount of goodies that Mum bought with her made me quite hyper with joy when she first opened her suitcase. Thanks here go to Kat and Lizzie for the AMAZING care package they sent my Mum which includes jam I had for breakfast, haribo, nutella, a new journal and lots of sweeties! My Mum came with goats cheese, salami (again for breakfast!), crisps, biscuits, tons of flapjack from my Dad (truly, truly well received by Mum, myself and Anna!) and yet more sweets. Thank you also to Steve for the memory stick of the end of Grey's Anatomy season 6 which will give Anna and myself hours of entertainment.

I will post pictures when I can but after the internet cafe gave my memory stick a virus (fingers crossed the pictures can be saved) I don't trust the damn thing with my lovely camera! Anyways, I travel in a week up north and maybe into Burkina Faso so that will be an interesting post! :)

Love to everyone,
Sal xxxxxxxx

P.s. Mum would like me to mention how I argued with a police officer at the police barrier from Hohoe to Accra. Alright, that doesn't sound like such a fab idea does it? Arguing with a potentially armed, potentially corrupt officer of the law? But I have been stopped twice already at that silly police barrier and met with the demands for my passport. Once, I did not have it and was asked a few silly questions about what age group I volunteered with before we were let through. The second time I riffled through my bag to find my photocopy only to be asked what I did and on giving the reply "volunteering" was told to put the photocopy away. He actually refused to see it. So, this time, on being asked, whilst Mum dutifully went back to the tro to collect our heavy bags, I said "you know, you've asked me three times before at this point... yes, I'm a volunteer" and on hearing this they told me to call Mum back and didn't want to see her passport. It really makes no sense! And you know, after the third time of silly questioning, I would definitely argue again and save myself the effort of trudging back to the tro tro! (although, I admit I wont try that at a different police barrier at another location...)

2 months left

Today, I only have two months left in Ghana. Wow.

Today, the sky is a really bright blue like a crayon colour or something, and it is unbelievably hot. Alright, it is always hot, even when the sun is absent. For some reason, the top I am wearing today doesn't allow my skin to breathe as well as it should!

I am sitting in the internet cafe and the football is on, on very loud of course. The one thing I don't understand about the Ghanains is their love of noise. Everywhere, people are just generally loud, and I have no idea why, or even how. For example, to get off at the right stop on a tro tro a voice requires a certain tone and loudness that I lack. Sometimes, I have to say 'Mate, bus stop' at least three times with the guy saying 'bus stop?' and me repeating 'bus stop' several times. Or 'yes, jokers' (my stop) with the mate repeating 'jokers? you want to get off at jokers?' Um, yes, hence the bus stop...! I think I have in the past explained the noise of my neighbour, Hetty, sweeping at 6am, or the other neighbour's radio that comes on around the same time, but recently the morning melody is the rubbish truck that plays a horrific tune over and over very similar to an icecream van. Don't ask me why a rubbish truck needs such an awful jaunty tune. It runs through my head over and over as I lie in my bed trying to tune it out. For hours after I get up both Anna and I find ourselves humming it involuntarily.

My internet cafe neighbour is clapping in my ear. Some team has scored. Alright, it is the world cup, but still! Ghanaians love football. As soon as I say I am from England the standard response is "oh... red or blue?" and no one seems to understand how it is possible to not find football all that fascinating! Normally, I have to say red for Manchester United. I do live close to Manchester, anyway, and I know Emma and Sara would be happy with my response!

After we have finished in the internet cafe Anna and I are going to tro tro to Tema station in Accra to buy mangoes. Obviously this may seem strange to you folk, especially as I can get mangoes close to the children's home, but, as we discovered last week, it is possible to buy lots and lots of large mangoes for very little cedi. I do love my fruit, after all! This morning for breakfast I had a whole, huge, watermelon. Yum!

(photo: Tema station)


Mum comes on wednesday, and I look forward to showing her some Ghana and seeing her response to some things - things that now are normal to me but every now and then I look at and think "woah, okay that's weird!" Today, walking along I saw a man running with what appeared to be a small dog on a rope. As he got closer it transpired that it was, in fact, a small monkey...

Hum!

(alright, so I've never seen that one before, either!)

Love to all, Sal xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Reflections...!

Dear all,

(photos in this blog are from the balloon party Anna and I had at house 3, and some dancing at the school!)

The weekend gone I had my end-of-stay camp in Kumasi. Alright, for me it is more like a mid-stay camp, but for all the other volunteers everything is most definitely in the end stages. Because of this I am now looking towards my time left as being incredibly short! I have two and a half months left in Ghana, which sounds a lot but I know it will go far quicker than the first few months. The remaining time is split up in so many different ways: I now have just over two weeks until my Mum visits, and when she leaves it is practically July. During July both Anna and Maria are taking their travelling months a couple of weeks early and are travelling beyond Ghana to Togo, Benin and Nigeria (Anna) and Niger (Maria), during this time I will most likely be alone in the house! Then, half way through July my own travelling month begins, and I plan to go to the north with another volunteer. And then August begins and I have only 10 days remaining in Ghana! You see how time will disappear!?!!

On Sunday Kattie left Ghana to return to Denmark. As I write this she is waiting in the airport and by the time I get around to posting this blog will already be back home. I find this almost impossible to imagine; how can Kattie, who was so new with me, be going home already?! Here, everyone says “time is running” and although during those first few weeks truly I never, ever imagined I would utter that phrase I simply can not help myself saying it these days! On Sunday I received my certificate of participation from ICYE-Ghana. We all had a group photo, the remaining one-yearers and myself (7 from Germany (2 absent due to illness), 2 from Finland, 1 from Sweden and mee) standing together with Annie, Shiela and Kojo from the office. On Saturday we all sat outside and discussed what we had learnt from Ghana (patience for one!), our projects, challenges, expectations and returning to our own countries. It was really great to hear about everyone else’s projects (those I did not already know about) and learn that actually every project is flawed and has problems and challenges in the same way that mine does. It was funny to talk about my Ghanaian experience as if it is ending, which it really is not, and this only heightened this sense of time running away from under me! At least, a chapter has ended with Kattie leaving.

These past few weeks I have slowly come to realise how different a long term volunteer experience is with a short term experience. Mostly, it is the attitudes of the short term volunteer s that differs so much from ours. In the Home there is a constant flow of short term volunteers who come and go, mostly for one month or so, and it is always interesting to see their reaction to the school and the Home in general. A recent volunteer who stayed for a month really highlighted the difference in her constant expression of her desire to do something and be remembered; in the end she actually spent her last week painting the walls on the school compound to satisfy this. It looks beautiful, I admit! Personally, I now realise that any forward planning is next to impossible, and planning to make any “grand difference” is unrealistic. This can of course be both a positive and negative experience. Firstly, those rosey-tinted glasses of making a big impact and change are well and truly off. Sometimes, I myself see the obrunis coming around the school door and I think “ahhh not ANOTHER ONE” and with this I realise what the teachers and aunties must feel sometimes! I have heard many volunteers (from Ghana and otherwise) saying that the lack of guidance is hard to get used to, but when I see the amount of volunteers somewhere like OSH gets I just wonder how annoying it must be to have to think about new people every single month, occupy them, deal with their questions, hear all their ideas and put up with their disruption. This may seem a little harsh, but to the teachers and aunties I’m sure nothing is more annoying than a group of young people marching in with their colouring pencils, sweets, books, pens and balloons, making the children all hyped up, making a mess and then leaving again! I really just hope that long term volunteers can add something a little more, or at least piss them off less because we are more of a constant presence who know how things work and operate. From our point of view, the long time spent at a project can also highlight the frustrating and annoying things. Really, I have time to get frustrated and annoyed!

However, I feel like during the last month I have relaxed into the totally relaxed atmosphere of workinghere. This was definitely we all discussed during the camp. I really do love spending time with the children and what better time to do this than when the school is not having lessons and just chilling out in front of Tom and Jerry!

Quite often I have one child on my lap, three surrounding me and one doing something with my hair! I am also reallyenjoying the graduation dances, and they are getting better and better with now around 5 dances or so. There are only 15 “official” dancers but the rest of the kids sort of spread themselves around and try to copy them – often I am trying to make Abraham, a lovely new favourite, make the moves with his hands! It’s just really, really good fun. I honestly must say that one of the best things is hearing my name popping up everywhere!

Maybe one child will call me and just stick their tongue out at me or run up and hug me or put their arms around my shoulders. I know for sure that this kind of relationship with the kids would not happen over one month!

Anyway, I am rambling! It is the first of June at time of writing this and this time last year I finished my exams and drank champagne with Lizzie and Kat in Nottingham. I feel that deserves a mention even though I wont post this blog for a couple of days yet!

Love to all, Sal xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx