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Published: September 25th 2008
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Akwaaba!Welcome to my blog!
I apologise that it's taken me this long to get onto the internet but I am in Africa.
I'm currently sitting in an internet cafe in Takoradi, Western Region, Ghana. It's about 30 degrees and stupidly sunny, how's about that for making you jealous!
The first 10 days of my trip have been pretty cool. We arrived pretty late on the 14th into Accra and we're picked up by our rep Henry. Your first few moments in Africa are pretty intense to say the least and they don't really wait around to start trying to scam money out of you (people here are stupidly friendly, but they also think that everyone is loaded and can just throw money around). Our first week was general orientation to how things work here, we stayed at Henry's "brother" TT's house (note: everybody is everybody else's brother or sister). To those of you who thought I'd be staying in a mudhut....WRONG!TT's house was massive, something like 7/8 bedrooms in a massive compound, better than anything I've seen in the UK (except for the occasional lack of running water, which is a pain).
SO, the orientation week. Well
I think the main thing we learned was that nothing in Ghana ever happens when it's supposed to. EVER. If someone says "oh yeah, we'll leave at 8.30", you'll most likely still be waiting to leave at 11. For me that's a nightmare as I'm always early or on time, but you get used to it pretty quick. The teaching skills course was a nightmare, I didn't learn anything that I didnt't know already so it was a bit of a snooze-fest really!In reality our week pretty much consisted of playing cards and chatting (never played so many games of shithead in my life!), but that was pretty cool as it gave us all a chance to get to know each other. Everyone in the group is really cool, we totally landed on our feet bigtime!I can't really be bothered to name everyone etc just now but you'll get to know them over the course of my writings!
The highlights of our first week were probably the "African Night" that Henry put on for us where we learned how to do some traditional dances and stuff (needless to say my complete lack of rythmn was exposed here). Our trip
Kids at Peter Piper's
This is probably the best photo I'll ever take! to Bojo Beach which was HEAVEN: pure white sand - Check, Palm lined shore - Check, ridiculously strong waves/currents - Check, Bar selling beers for 50p - CHECK! And the Spot Bars are the best bit!It costs 15p for a shot of whisky, 70p for a huge bottle of beer etc. cheap nights out for me!
On Sunday we all left for our placements which was good as this is what it's all been building up to and pretty crappy because everyone was just beginning to gel and the group was getting to be really fun. Myself, Andy and James arrived at Golden Gate and were totally blown away!The school is still only half-finished but it still looks amazing, built in a colonial style, it should look ballin' when it's finished (my new saying, thanks to the Canadians). And our room is immense!Our host, Mr Dadson, obviously went to alot of trouble to do it up for us and it really paid off. The 3 of us are sharing a room but we have our own en-suite bathroom, a tv, and all that sort of thing. Our meals are prepared for us (and they are unbelievable!absolutely love Ghanian food)
Evil Child!
The kid grabbing the camera is EVIL! and the kids have to do our washing and cleaning. This is pretty cool (because I don't have to do it!) and really bizzare at the same time. We all feel quite guilty about it but it's just how things are done here.
Our host is really cool, he reminds me of a cross between Bill Cosby and Pele (which is ace). Aswell as running the Senior Secondary School (our placement, Golden Gate) he also owns Peter Piper's School in Takoradi which caters for kids aged 6 months to 16 years. We were taken there on Monday to meet all the kids and that was an experience!We arrived and they were all lined up in almost military style formation and sang us the national anthem, the school anthem and then presented us each with a bouqet of flowers (which is weird, never been given flowers before!). The whole thing was really sweet and the kids were sooooo excited to see us all!Then we each had to give a little speech, the kids went nuts when I said "wo fre me Ekow" (which is my name is Ekow, my Ghanian name, in Fante) now they all run around shouting "Ekow!Ekow!"
Check My camera Skills!
How cute is he?that's all down to my amazing photography skills! whenever they see me which is pretty cute. Here's a tip for you though, don't pull your camera out when you're around Ghanian school kids, they go NUTS!Everyone started jumping around trying to grab it our shouting "Ekow, snap me!". I suppose that was better than their tendency to scratch my skin because they were fascinated by it going red, that got old really quick!
At our placement the kids are a little more reserved, probably because they're older. The first couple of days everyone was kind of sizing us up but now they come up and ask us questions about where we're from or try and teach us Fante, it's pretty cool! The weird bit is their age, the youngest pupil I have in my Business Management class is 18 and the oldest pupil in the school is 27!Mental!Everyone shows us alot of respect though because we're all graduates and we've done what it is that they want to do which is really good, hopefully that should make things alot easier in the classroom.
The 3 of us are getting along really well, although it can get quite tedious at times as there is so much down
Nursery Class
Que all the women going "awwwwwwwww" time, but we're finding things to keep ourselves occupied so it's all good! Heading to Butre near Busua beach this weekend which is supposed to be amazing (check out www.hideoutlodge.com) with 8 of the other volunteers so that should be really good! I will update you when I get back from that (with pics to make you all jealous.
Love from Ghana
Ekow (that's what I'm calling myself when I'm here, no-one can pronounce my name).
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