Blogs from Old Tafo, Eastern, Ghana, Africa

Africa » Ghana » Eastern » Old Tafo 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

Village of The Damned United

Africa » Ghana » Eastern » Old Tafo June 29th 2011

Hostel

ianmc

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

Dr Abortion

Africa » Ghana » Eastern » Old Tafo June 26th 2011

Nkoko

ianmc

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

Biscuit Coat

Africa » Ghana » Eastern » Old Tafo June 21st 2011

Kanu

ianmc

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

Barclays Bank

Africa » Ghana » Eastern » Old Tafo June 19th 2011

Meeting

ianmc

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

Obama To The Rescue

Africa » Ghana » Eastern » Old Tafo June 18th 2011

Ama and Seth

ianmc

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

Cock-a-doodle-dont

Africa » Ghana » Eastern » Old Tafo June 13th 2011

School

ianmc

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

Brief history of Ghana

Formed from the merger of the British colony of the Gold Coast and the Togoland trust territory, Ghana in 1957 became the first sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to gain its independence. A long series of coups resulted in the suspension of the ...more history

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