Blogs from Ashanti, Ghana, Africa - page 3

Hello people, I haven’t written one of these in a while and I know how much you’ve all missed them so here goes. I’ve always intended to visit Africa, and I’ve finally got round to doing it via signing up to do 9 weeks of volunteer work in Ghana. On the 7th August 2011 I flew to Accra the capital city of Ghana to start my 9 weeks of volunteer work. The flight from Heathrow left at 9:50am and I Arrived at Accra at around 7:00pm where I was picked up in a car by SYTO (the Ghanaian company who organize the volunteer work) and taken to the Pink Hostel where me and the fellow eight volunteers would be staying during our “orientation week” in Accra. It was an earlyish start the next morning so I ... read more

Weekenden 16.-18. september har vi tilbragt ved Lake Bosumtwi en times kørsel sydøst for Kumasi. Vi var så heldige at en PhD-studerende, som Karin kender hjemme fra Aalborg, tilbød at køre os derned. Der ligger en del hoteller langs søbredden og vi havde bestilt et værelse på Rainbow Garden Village som er meget populær blandt vesterlændinge der arbejder frivilligt i landet. Det var skønt at komme lidt væk fra KNUST og Kumasi, hvor der altid er støj. Søen er 25 kvm stor og cirkelrund da den er opstået ved et meteornedslag. Høje bakker omgiver desuden søen, så den ligger meget smukt i en dal. Vejen dertil er dermed også en snoet "bjergvej" og turen er meget smuk. Fra landsbyen Abono, som ligger for enden af den asfalterede vej til søen, er der ca 4 km af ... read more

Der er allerede gået 4 uger og det er simpelthen for ringe at jeg ikke er kommet igang med dette noget før. Men det er der jo ikke så meget at gøre ved. Der er sket en hel masse! Den første uge boede vi ved en fantastisk sød familie i Accra (hovedstaden). Det var det rene luksus med kokkepige og privatchauffør! Og vi er så heldige at have en stående invitation til at komme "hjem" hvornår det skal være. Hvor heldig kan man være!? Det var rart med en blid introduktion til landet, herunder deres forhold til kirken. Vi tog til KNUST den 19. august. Det tager 6 timer med VIP-busserne som er virkelig behagelige. Vejenes tilstand er knap så behagelig og på en del af strækningen er der slet ikke belægning, så bussen må køre ... read more

So, I've now changed project and host family. I've moved south by about 10 miles to a small village called Dominase. The house is a 4 roomed house with no running water (the water has to be collected from a well) and the toilet is a hole in the ground outside. Very different from my old house! As for the family, 3 live in the house: Host mother Josephine, Host brother called Richard (3 years old) and Josephine's sister (I think) called Eva. The father is in Accra at the moment trying to get a qualification to allow him to go into the oil industry (he is currently a miner). The new project is also really different. It is far more admin based, as at the moment we are trying to raise funds to enable future ... read more

Sorry it has been a while again, but this weekend didn't involve much traveling so there isn't a huge amount to say. On Thursday, Zufa was sick so we couldn't go to the MHC, however, on Friday we went to both a school and a prison. The school talk was to about 200 kids and apparently they found my accent a tad tricky to understand. It's always really tricky to articulate properly when shouting really slowly to a group of kids who don't have a brilliant grasp of the language, but Zufa translated when necessary. The prison, however, was completely different. We went along to try and organise a time to come in and the warden just said 'Come back at 12pm and they will all be ready,' to our complete surprise. Before I talk about ... read more