Blogs from Ho, Volta, Ghana, Africa

Austin was intrumental in arranging transport at the break of dawn with a driver known as paddy K. We headed north on a five hour journey that took us through Ho and then through Hahoe. The school had forbid us from going to that area due to a previous conflict but I don't think they realized who they were dealing with. Finally we arrived in his village to view one of the most impressive waterfalls this country had to offer. Upon our arrival we were met by Austin's father who escorted us to meet village chief and his entourage. We entered the home first and were seated and then they entered and greeted all of us. We were asked what our mission was and we explained that we were nursing students working at a hospital in ... read more

I have been here for just over a week and I am loving it. I have been to Accra, Ho (including the colony of cured lepers), and been to a community that was one and a half hours drive away from where I am staying (in Ho). I have spent 3 days in the hospital and have worked in the O.P.D (out-patient department) and Pediatrics. Tomorrow we are doing an outreach to a place near Hohoe and we will be taking blood pressures and temperatures. On Thursday I am back in the hospital and will be going to the lepers colony on Friday again. This weekend we are going to go and hike Mount Afadjado and go to Wli Falls. I hope my next 2 weeks are as good.... read more

I arrived in Ho last night and went to a bar around the corner from the house with 2 of the other volunteers. I went to the town centre this morning and might be going back tonight. It's a surreal experience as I've seen scenes like it on television and in films but it is almost exactly the same. The accommodation is good and the other volunteers are great! I think that on friday I'm going to the cured lepers village to do a clinic, but that's all that I know. The weather is very very warm but I'm enjoying it. If the trip continues in this way, I'll be happy.... read more

Right, so last week we actually did some proper work. On Monday I called all of the local schools and organised to go in and do talks to them over the coming weeks on HIV and Malaria/Animal Bites. On Tuesday we went into the maternal health centre as usual, although again nobody turned up (which was also the case today - we are going to try one last time this Thursday and then give it a break for a month.) We did 3 talks in total last week, 2 on the Wednesday and 1 on the Thursday. On Wednesday morning we went into one of the schools in our village and spoke to them about HIV (as it is one of the few local schools not done yet.) I enjoyed giving this talk, the teachers and ... read more

So summer is almost over, well its actually over. But we had to do something new to crown it so originally I thought we could go parasailing in the Kwahu mountains but apparently that only happens in April. So my dad suggested we go see Wli falls and after some research we decided to do that and climb Mountain Afajato, the highest in Ghana! It was hard to find time that suited both my bestfriend, Roselyn and myself but we decided on this weekend as a last minute thing so we were a little ill prepared. But its still been great so far. So the actual journey........ We met up at Kwame Nkrumah Circle to board a bus straight to Hohoe but we couldn't find any buses that take that route so we had to go ... read more

Friday June 18: Benin One thing after another has been happening to the bus. First the front window had a crack in it that had to be prepared and put us back one day. On this day a tire from a truck bust and the impact of it broke out one of the side windows in our bus so we were stuck at the hotel until about 11am, when we were supposed to leave around 9am. We had a group session that morning; it was somewhat tense for many people. There have been some issues on the trip between roommates, races, and people just picking out things to get irritated about. The group consists of 20 girls so there is no way to work around girls being girls. I am glad we had the session because ... read more

This weekend we went to Accra to drop Sophie off as she was flying to Kenya! We stayed at a pretty budget hotel but it was pretty nice as there were no bugs and the bed was big enough to fit all 3 of us! 3.50 a night you can't really go wrong! We decided as it was Sophie's last day we would do all the things in Accra we would do something very leisurely, we went to Accra Mall. Accra is one of our least favourite towns as it is very very very busy (much like any other capital I guess....) and there are open drains all over the place and its very dirty. It is handy in that the food is better and its just bigger but still.... we love our little village! So ... read more

Ok its been a while again.... School: the Children are so sweet! most of them are really nice and friendly but they know we wouldn't cain them so they run circles around us! We have discovered if we threaten to sen them to Master they hush up quite quick! Although it didn't work when he went away for the afternoon..... Harriet and I are usually paired together and we start each lesson constructively but it does deteriorate into just playing and messing about! We've taught in P6,5,3,2 and 1at different times that is! At least one teacher doen't turn up everyday resulting in us taking their place but we have no clue what subject we're actually covering or how many children there are, what equipment they have and to what standard they understand English. When I ... read more