Blogs from Ghana, Africa - page 2

Look at a map of Ghana and you’ll soon spot a spiky body of water towards the east that seems to reach its fingers back west and north, as if probing the country for Ashanti gold. This is Lake Volta, the largest manmade body of water (by surface area anyway) in the world. And it was proving remarkably hard to find. After a couple of days in the lively and colourful Accra, I headed east to the hills that form the border with modern-day Togo. My immediate destination was the Wli Falls, thought to be the highest waterfalls in West Africa. The road there led close to the Lake, or so it appeared from the map, but neither during that journey nor on my unexpectedly arduous six-hour scramble up to (and, more wobblily, back down from) ... read more

Durant ces dernières semaines la charge de travail a été bien plus faible que d'habitude, la faute au paludisme qui a mis a plat un de nos hôtes. Comme nous nous sentions bien seul sur ce chantier vide nous en avons profité pour nous balader dans les alentours. Nous avons tenté une petite excursion vers la ville de Princess Town pour visiter son fort allemand (puis néerlandais et enfin anglais). les infos détaillées sur Wikipedia sont meilleures que le résumé que nous pourrions vous faire mais globalement il s'agissait d'or et d'esclaves... Mais la vraie histoire c'est surtout le transport, 1h30 de 'trotro' blindé (le jeu de mots n'est pas fait exprès) après avoir attendu 1h à la station de départ. Puis arrivé sur place une demi-heure pour faire le tour (avec un guide présse qui ... read more

After some migraines and 'funny tummies' this week we've realised that when we're feeling unwell we miss some of the home comforts ! Our living arrangements are pretty nice, right on the beach but it's basic and we've come to find that things like not having clean running water or consistent electricity can seem like a bigger deal when feeling a bit rough. Things like having to go outside to the toilet with a headlight (it gets dark around 6 here), carry a bucket of water to flush and another small bucket to wash your hands...or going outside to shower, again with a lamp and buckets of cold water. Especially in the middle of a tropical rainstorm ! Having some alone time is next to impossible here, there are neighbours and kids from the village on ... read more

Our first home together is a cabin on the beach with no running water and it's very nearly perfect ! We moved in on Sunday and were supposed to got to Princess town for the day with our hosts Julia & Peter but Olivia was sick (something like sinusitis with a fever somehow) so we stayed put and Abdel spent the morning surfing. Lobster red Abdel entered our new home to take off his t-shirt to put on some cream and forgot about the low hanging ceiling fan... The rest of the story is blood and panic as we (mostly Olivia) ran around trying to find out where to go. Luckily our new landlord was nearby to help us out. After a walk through the village to find the pharmacist, we ended up in a small ... read more

As you may well know, we have relocated. We are still in Ghana but working with a different tribe, culture and language group. Not everyone in the family was eager to move so in April we had a two week trial visit to our new area. By the end of the two weeks we were all of the same mind, 'let's move". Who has moved? Well of course Kirk, Praise (soon to be 14) and myself. We also have Ophelia and Cynthia who were students in the remote village school in Apebouso. They are now young adults and eager to join in the work that we do. Emmanuel is among the group. He's our newest (Ghanaian) addition to the family (Born November 18, 2017). At this time we are living in a nice little town. The ... read more