Welcome to Kumasi

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Ok, so my circumstances have completely changed since I last posted and I have moved from hostel accommodation to my host family - located in a small village called Achiase near Kumasi.

The journey up here was, it must be said, rather pleasant (apart from the fact that I had to be up and ready for 5am even though the driver didn't turn up until 5:45 in the end). Once the driver finally arrived he loaded all of our things into the SYTO minibus and drove us to the coach station. SYTO had paid for us to take the VIP bus up to Kumasi; an air conditioned coach with masses of leg room, reclining seats and a television! The 4.5 hour journey ended up taking more like 6.5 due to traffic and the fact that half of the motorway seemed to being rebuilt so we ended up swerving around the potholes on a dirt track instead.

Once we got to Kumasi we were picked up by the local SYTO branch and given a tour (albeit very brief). After this we were picked up by one of our host brothers (a 16 year old called Richard, currently on Easter holidays from school) and taken to the tro-tro station. Now this wasn't so fun.

I think it is fair to say that tro-tros (tros for short) were not designed for any form of large baggage. We just about managed to squeeze on with bags squashing us into our seats (and everyone else for that matter) as well as my day bag behind our heads against the boot window. Fatal error. About 5 minutes into the journey there was a rather large crashing sound which was the sound of the boot opening and I turned to see Richard just about grabbing onto my bag. At the time I was very relieved as my bag contained all of my anti-malarials, mosquito net, camera, kindle etc. (Although on closer inspection today I have -much to my annoyance- found out that my kindle screen has been smashed and is no longer usable).

So on arrival at the house (after about an hour in the ridiculously hot tro) Richard showed us where we were going to be staying. We are staying in a rather basic outhouse next door to the host family's house (although we are able to use their facilities). There is already an American called Bret staying here who has been here doing the HIV project for 3 months, with another month left. He is a really nice guy who also told us that the project we are on is entirely run by the volunteers - but I will tell you more about this when I have actually started.

The rest of the children of my host family are all at school still (boarding school), but the father Francis is an English teacher and the mother Helen is actually the local SYTO rep.

Now, about Kumasi itself. Kumasi is completely and utterly chaotic. The number of vehicles is almost incomprehensible and the number of people, particularly around the market, can only be likened to something like London's anti-war demonstration or the recent anti-cuts march - just with everybody carrying things on their head. Everybody in Ghana seems to do this (particularly the women) and yesterday I saw a lady with 60 bottles of Lucozade on her head and a man with a 50kg bag of flour!

I think that is more or less it for now, so until next time.

Sam(uel) x

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