Last Day In Ghana

last day in ghana today and I feel really wierd about it. I am really looking forward to Hong Kong and I think we will have a bit more of the normal 'traveller' experiences (getting drunk on beaches etc) but I will miss this place as it is so lovely and friendly and you really don't have to worry about things here. No one is trying to rip us off or steal our things or just generally be a nob. I think we may be a bit too trusting after leaving here because we are so used to people just being nice and helping us out. Also we've got really comfortable here, we know bits of the language, how much things cost, how to get around and catch a taxi etc. It will be wierd going somewhere where we have to learn how to do all of that again.
This week we have been teaching again at God's Divine Academy. I could not bum that school any more it is so good. We got our uniforms and they are so cool!! They are dark green big checks with the school logo in alternate squares. I have a matching skirt and shirt tailor made for me and this was all free!! It is definately the best souvenir I have ever had. The classes have got a bit easier as I have got used to the children and what they can do but it's still a bit difficult without training or very good knowledge of English grammar rules. I got my classes to write letters to English schools this week.
Also this week got my two dresses picked up from the tailors. They are pretty cool, although one has been made for someone with African boobs so looks fairly ridiculous on me!
On Saturday we went on a tour of Ho and took pictures of all the brilliant shop names. Most shops are little wooden boxes like beach huts painted really bright colours. And most have brilliant names like Femmy Spot, People Do Not Know But Who Will Tell Them Oh Lord Please Forgive Them Meat Shop, The Observers Are Worried, Jesus Fills My Cup Beauty Salon etc. Oh I do love it here.
On Wednesday we went to a local hotel and used their pool with some volunteers from Projects Abroad. Was so lovely to be cool and have so much water, although it was pretty dirty and there were some scary looking dead bugs floating around. Then the wind got up and there was a big storm. The warmest place was in the water (I was actually cold when I got out, I had forgotton how that feels) so we stayed in and played volleyball while it rained really heavily, which was pretty cool.
We have had more hassle with both of our cameras. They and African computers are crap. Alyssa has been lovely and let us use her mac to try and back up everything until we can get to some decent computers and upload them. She is a goody.
It's got much hotter this week, apparently because it's almost the rainy season. Alex said it got up to 42 oC one day which is pretty hot. I'm a bit burned and look fairly ridiculous.
So I'm off now to try and find a fan ice (frozen yogurt in a packet that a man on a bike with a cool box and a clowns horn rides around and sells) as I haven't had one yet. Hopefully next time I write on here I'll be in Hong Kong!xxxx

AMUSING GHANAIAN THINGS THAT WE HAVE GOT USED TO AND FORGOTTON HOW WIERD THEY ARE:

- All the drinking water comes in little plastic bags that you have to pierce with your teeth to drink
- The shops have brilliant names
- They love God. Most shop names are religious and often the taxis have quotes from the bible or things like 'Big God' or 'Jesus Love' painted in the back windows
- The shops selling coffins display them on the street. Some are really swish.
- There are open sewers along the sides of every road
- All of the men wee in the sewers. Or bushes. They just stop in the middle of the road and wee.
- There is only one type of chair sold here. It is plastic and has a God symbol in the middle and it is everywhere.
- When children need to go to the loo they say "I need to go urinate"

will be updated when I remember to bring my journal with me to the internet xx

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

It's not that bad!

sorry I just reread that and it sounded like a proper rant. I'm not really that miserable! Good things are the lovely food - I could eat yam all day, mike is very brown and I am starting to get a little bit - the children still call me snow white though!, it was Ghanian Independence Day yesterday and we went and watched all of the children marching in a parade, Grandpa's little speeches which always make me laugh - yesterday he told a child that 100 years ago he would have sold her into the slave trade, some of the children are just lovely and now they've got used to us we can actually have good conversations with some of them - mike is reading Moby Dick with one boy every evening and I have started teaching another one the alphabet and trying to learn how to read. There is also the funniest little boy here ever, he constantly makes noise and loves climbing on mike and has the best laugh ever. He also has slightly manic eyes so I think in a few years he may stop being funny and be a bit scary but at the moment he is one of our favourites. Also two of the volunteers who are unfortunately leaving this weekend, Carla and Sophia have been brilliant. They love Volta Home a little bit more than us but they are both really fun and have made some parts of it a lot easier. Oh and Ghana are in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations today which should be good. If only we had some ice cold beers! We watched the semi final the other day (grandpa put the tv on the table in the garden and about 20 people sat around on benches to watch) and although I don't normally like football it was nice to do and I liked listening to the English accents on the commentary.

So some good things too, sorry if I sound a bit grumpy! xx

ghana update

yay the internet is working today! This is the third time since I last wrote that we have trekked to HoHoe. Once the internet was broken and couldn't load anything, once the cafe was shut and today it is finally open and working!! Things have changed a bit here as we've got more used to it. Mike and I have both been pretty ill and I can confirm that having diorreah and having to go in a hole that is filled with millions of flies is pretty awful. I am dreaming of flushing toilets.

Last week we went with Carla and Sophia - two of the volunteers, and some of the older boys from the orphanage to Wli waterfalls, which is a 200m waterfall up in the mountains near us. It was amazing!! So so lovely and we got to swim in the water and get all of the ingrained dirt off us. There were also hundereds of bats which flew around near the top. And after we went and stayed in a hotel!! oh it was so good we left everyone else and went to the Waterfall Lodge nearby and stayed in a chalet with a toilet and a shower and a fan and a proper bed! There was a big veranda with amazing views over all of the mountains and it was just lovely. It was good to get away from the orphanage as well as we are there all of the time and it can get a bit intense. Most of the children are still really nice - although it's a lie that all African children love school and just want to learn, they are just like English kids and sometimes they are nice and sometimes they are not so much! There has been some tensions between the volunteers and the older boys and the Pastor who owns the orphanage and it's all got a bit unpleasant so we're just trying to keep a low profile at the moment and not get involved. Unfortunately this means we have to go to church every week so as not to annoy anyone and that is pretty bad. The pastor gets really angry and yells about how lazy all of the children are - they get up at 5 everyday and spent the whole time at his beck and call fetching water and looking after the younger children, often missing school to do this. Every now and then they will go and play football or run around but they're kids!! Then he spouts some rubbish about Jewish people or how evolution is a lie. The other day he proved that Noah's ark happened by saying that 'all animals hear the language of the country they are from. Noah just went out into the jungle and called the animals and they came' he then called his pet dogs name and when he came into the church used this as proof that the whole theory was correct and unbelievers were devils. stupid man.

I'm trying to think what else we have been up to... We went to a monkey sanctuary a few weeks ago which was pretty cool and the monkeys were just wild in the trees all around us. Mike and I got to feed them bananas! We've taught a few lessons although they normally just bring me down because they are so difficult. The children are used to being caned when they misbehave and so once they know I won't cane them there are some who just constantly misbehave and disrupt the lesson. Lessons aren't really that fun as the classes ability varies widely and there are some who can already do what I'm teaching and then some who can't understand what I'm saying! Think it will be better when we're in Ho as we're going to be working in a nursery which is much more my level!

We're leaving Volta Home to stay in Ho next Saturday. As it's a town I will hopefully have better access to the internet and updates will be a bit more frequent and detailed. xx