Ho

Sorry it has been a while since I've been on here. The internet and computers here are just pretty rubbish and I seem to spend hours where nothing actually happens and just getting a bit annoyed. But an update: we are no longer at the orphanage, we have now come down to Ho where we are staying for our last two weeks in Ghana. Don't really want to bitch about the orphanage on here or moan about it (I think I've probably done that enough!) but I think we both felt a bit uncomfortable there and at times it could be a bit unpleasant. Ah well. We met some lovely people there and some of the children were really really lovely and I will miss them a lot. Rubbishly, ALL of my photos got deleted on the last day (don't let children play with your camera) so we don't have too many pictures of it at the moment. But pops says he may know a way to retrieve them so I'm sending the memory card back home for him to try.
Oh actually this internet is getting me a bit down now it is taking about 10 minutes to scroll down the page. But anyway. So we're in Ho now which is a pretty big city and working for about 4 hours a day in a school called God's Divine Academy. The school is another private school but it is soo swish. The teachers aren't allowed to cane the pupils so it is much easier to control a class. And all the pupils seem to be really advanced, they are on the year aboves syllabus (aha the syllabuses are so funny and unrealistic. They have obviously been written by European's who have never been to Africa but are trying to imagine what it might be like. Basically they are rubbish and provide no help at all on how to teach, especially for people like mike and I who have no training) and most seem pretty fluent in English. The school is really nicely painted with lots of pictures and there are loads of books. Oh and every day we get the huuugest hot lunch of all sorts of lovely things with fruit for pudding and cold fruit juice to drink! It is such a nice place, I sort of wish we'd brought all of the paper and stuff here instead as I think it would be better used here instead of locked away in the volunteers room at Volta Home. The only downside of working in a well organised school is that we actually need to teach proper lessons now. At the moment I teach for 3 hours a day to 3 classes aged 6 to 10 ish and spend at least an hour a day planning my lessons, which is a bit tricky due to the problems with the syllabus. But it's ok and it's a nice change. And all of the staff wear a uniform of this african fabric with the school's logo and they're having a tailor make me a uniform!! I'm so excited. Mike didn't get measured and he's well jealous. Oh also about this lovely school, they are looking for an English school to twin with and have pen pals etc. So if anyone is interested please let me know and I'll get you all of the details. Also I'm doing letter writing next week with them and I try and get them to write some to school's in England.
In Ho we're staying in a compound which is like lots of little rooms around a central courtyard. Our room has jungle animals painted on it and is pretty cool except it doesn't lock and the door doesn't shut so we're not particularly secure. Up to today we have been sharing it with Chelsea who'd come to Volta Home a few weeks ago but she has left today and we're pretty sad as she was lovely. Apparently there's someone new coming tonight but nobody is ever that sure about things like that. The best thing about the compound is the shower. it is amazing and the best one I have ever ever been in. The water is heated by the sun during the day so it's always a bit warm and it's in this proper sun trap and it is just so so lovely. I'm averaging about 4 a day. There is also a western toilet which isn't nearly as exciting. It's nice not having flies buzzing around all of the time but apart from that I don't really mind African ones. Oh but last night the most awful thing happened, I was sitting on it and this massive MASSIVE cockroach about half the length of my hand crawled underneath the door and started crawling along the floor. And then it started to fly around!! I didn't even know they could fly I was so scared it was horrible. Mike was a bit drunk and thought it was the funniest thing in the world. Idiot.
We went to the market yesterday which was really interesting. I really liked it and it felt like 'proper' Africa. You could buy absolutely everything there. There was one street that had loads of coal on the ground and people had picked it up and put it into bowls to sell. That bit was a bit odd, the ground was all black and it was really quiet. I bought some jewellery and some lovely fabric. It's a bit Africany but not too much as then I would obviously look like a nob (although I have got a bit browner, it's still not very much). Today I went to the tailors and am getting two dresses made.
Not too sure if there's much other goss at the moment. We're going out a bit more here as it's much more social so there's lots of daft pictures of people sitting in bars. We are still having hassle trying to upload pictures, think I'm going to try again tomorrow. Thank you for all of my little messages, I promise I will write on here more often! xx