Travel Blog Posts
July 1st 2011
Woke up few days ago and went outside and there were a few dead goats just lying there. Think they were newborns who had died. Pretty gross actually. Maybe the work of the spiders again? Not sure what to do with them, as they're kind of in my way. In England I used to work for St Helen's council just after high school and they had a dept called Bulky Rubbish (no Jon, that's not my nickname at footy) who would come out and pick up large items that couldn't go in the bin, but I don't think they have that over here. I told the other teachers at school and they just said leave them. So I just left them, and after 2 days they were gone. Not sure what happened to them actually. Avoiding ... read more
June 29th 2011
Apart from teaching here, I also go down and help coach the kids footy team after school for a couple of hours. I'm not exactly Kenny Dalglish, but id say I'm near enough Roy Hodgson level. The kids are amazing players, and have fantastic touch, technique and are all fit and strong. Bit of a cliche, but they have all this yet are tactically naive. Its hard to get through to them that they need to stay in positions and pass, instead of trying to take everyone on by themselves. When they play, everyone in the village comes to watch and they get a few hundred spectators. They even bring down flags and vuvuzella's. A load of people from USIL donated shirts before I came over and the lads all wear them now. The shirts they ... read more
June 26th 2011
I went to a town called Nkoko on Saturday afternoon, its a bigger village about 45 min's from where I'm staying. The taxi's are frustrating round here though, I think they've played the computer game Crazy Taxi and think that's actually how taxi's are meant to work. They go as fast as they can, swerving round animals and people in the road at 80mph, and jumping over hills. They also collect loads of people on the way to destinations, so a 45 min taxi ride will take 2 hours as they pick up and drop off other people. There were 8 people in the car at one point today, and it should only fit 5 at best. There were 3 people in the front passenger seat ffs! It can be difficult to buy stuff in Nkoko ... read more
June 21st 2011
The spiders may have a more elaborate plan lined up. I got back in today and there was hundreds of small dead ants in a web near my bed. Looks like they are feasting, and could be ready to attack. I left bug spray near the web to scare them. School has been OK lately, but a little boring. I was teaching science the other day and we were talking about the difference between mammals, reptiles etc. I asked them to come to the board and each write down an animal that lives in the village. The answers were COCK, COCK, GOAT, COCK. I told them to call it chicken instead. We went on a field trip to find some animals, as it got them out the class and kept them interested for more than 5 ... read more
June 19th 2011
On Thursday I bumped into a white guy in the village. Theres only 2 other volunteers and me here, and I've never saw anyone else who isn't from the village, so it was a bit of a novelty. I stopped and had a chat with him. His name was Humphrey Barclay and he was a TV director/producer from London. He was the producer on Desmonds! I told him I used to love watching Desmonds when I was little! He looked to be in his late 60's, and said he came here twice a year as he was now a chief and had bought a place over here. We went to a Spot (small bar) and he bought me a drink. Sugar Daddy (y) After a few min's I realised I didn't really remember much about Desmonds ... read more
June 18th 2011
Food here is dry bread and coffee for breakfast, spaghetti and tomato sauce for lunch, and rice with tomato and sometimes salt fish for dinner. And bananas for snack. I don't really eat tomato, salt fish or bananas, and I don't drink coffee. Rice it is then! There's a shop that sells water and Obama biscuits, which I found a few days ago, so I will stock up on them for now. On Saturday I went with Christian to his parents cocoa farm. He said it was a 10 minute walk away so I just put on a pair of flip flops and headed out with him. It was nearly 2 hours each way. Thanks again Chris! Obviously the language barrier isn't ideal, but he doesn't help things! When he fist picked me up from the ... read more
June 13th 2011
The daily routine should be wake at 7, have breakfast at 8, teach from 8.30-12, lunch, then more teaching from 1-2.30. But due to the cockerels, goats, cats, dogs and sheep that are everywhere and don't shut the fuck up, I usually wake up around 4.30am. Schools really good, and the kids are pretty funny. There's 5 different classes, with kids aged from 3-15. None of them speak great English, but most have enough to get by, except for the really young ones. Obviously they asked me to teach the really young ones for the first few days. All the textbooks were in Twi! Twi isn't one of my language skillz! So I just doodle on the board for 3 hours, and get them to repeat some basic words back to me. But no one stays ... read more
I'm Ghana Have a Great Time
Published: June 19th 2011Africa » Ghana » Greater Accra » Accra » Korle BuJune 12th 2011
Arrived in Accra at 1am. Security took about an hour to get through. Then I went to arrivals and met the guy who was taking me to the school, a fella called Christian. He didnt speak great English, and was with 3 other people. We got in a car and headed off. Five minutes after we left the airport a bus in front of us went off the road and crashed into a barrier. It was going about 60mph at the time and the driver had almost gone through the windscreen, completely shattering it. Christian looked at me and said "Your first fatality in Ghana!" and started laughing. Brilliant. Then 10 minutes later we drive into a really busy market. It was like something from District 9. Big fires here and there, people banging on the ... read more
Pasty The Dutchie
Published: June 19th 2011Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Amsterdam » Amsterdam Zuidoost
June 11th 2011
Arrived in Manchester and had 5 hours before my flight to Amsterdam. Did the usual tourist things, Greggs for a pasty, bookies for a quick bet, and the pub for a pint. Productive day. My bags were too heavy again for check-in. The guy on the check in desk was a spaz too. He thought Ghana was in Asia. Excess baggage would have been another 120 quid, so about $200. Didn't want to pay that, so said I would go get rid of some stuff. Went away, and switched up some stuff from my suitcase to my hand luggage. On the way back to check in I bumped into Scotty!! I have a feeling he planned all this to give me a final goodbye, the old romantic. I went to a new check-in person and they ... read more
June 10th 2011
Arrived at the airport knowing that my bag is too heavy, but I will try and talk to the person on the check in counter and explain the situation, hopefully avoiding the excess baggage charge. Actually arrived early, check in wasn't due to start til 7.30, and it was 6.45 now. Still, I saw the line up for Air Transat, so joined it, thinking I can get ahead of the rush. After 10 minutes queuing, I thought that I might actually be lining up at the wrong check in desk. Who checks in to a flight 4.5 hours early? Why was I here so early!? There were at least 40 people ahead of me, and the same amount behind, I had gone too far to leave the line up. I didn't want to ask anyone which ... read more
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