Blogs from Tamale, Northern, Ghana, Africa

Three days. Three attempts to contact God. I don't know if He was listening, but apparently it's the thought that counts. On the first day I succumbed to peer pressure and curiosity about my physical limits, and agreed to do a day of fasting with the family. For Muslims, Ramadan is 29 or 30 days of fasting from dawn until dusk, no food, no water. I barely made one day, let alone over four weeks. At the moment it is light here from just after five until just before seven, so I had almost 14 hours without water. In Ghana. Which is quite warm, in case I haven't mentioned it. I was up by half four for breakfast, then back to bed for an hour or so. I got up for the second time and cycled ... read more

For those of you who just want the key facts, as you are worried about my safety/looking for a quick laugh, here is a brief summary: · I don’t have malaria, but the mosquitoes are doing their best · I haven’t spent more than the usual amount of time in the toilet · I am not married to a local · I haven’t taken part in any bizarre local ritual involving dancing, drugs or both · Yes it is very hot For anyone wanting more of a narrative, read on. I arrived in Ghana at 5am on Tuesday 12th June, just before dawn, and it was hot (high 20’s). Somewhat bleary eyed I made it through immigration without too many difficulties and hung around waiting for my internal flight. We were bussed out to our very ... read more

Wow, hard to believe we are halfway thru our time here. We have completed the first assignment and will start the 2nd one tomorrow. We are having a great time! We arrived in Accra, Ghana last Sunday night after 26 hrs of flying time. We were picked up by the ACDI/VOCA driver after an hour and a half waiting to get thru customs. After 10pm by the time we reached our nice hotel, we looked at the paper work they had just given us, only to find out we were scheduled on the next morning flight at 7:15am to Tamale, a one hour flight to the North! So up by 5:30am we are up and running! And it continued that busy for the rest of the week. Our project was working with a 'nucleous' farmer. He ... read more

This is something for the record books - only a week between blogs! I have just finished talking to Mum, Dad and David on Skype, which was amazing. It’s great to hear that everyone is well and that the UK whether sucks again! Sorry folks! I’m enjoying (well not all the time) nearly 40-degree heat at the moment but sadly have little tan to show for it (as pointed out by my parents on skype - thank you!). So for the past week I have mostly working in the medical centre (I shall spare you the gory stories) and also teaching a few more lessons in the primary school. Thankfully at long last I have had my stitches out and so have been back in theatre operating with the other surgeons. Thursday was particularly exciting as ... read more

Geo: 9.4072, -0.83935The border crossing on the Burkina side was, once again, relatively humourless but efficient, but much less so as we tried entering Ghana. We had our visas for Ghana but that didn't seem to speed the process. It was difficult to determine which official was accountable for what and they all seemed to want to talk to us about something- once they found out that DH was a police officer, an unscripted commotion erupted with no identifiable purpose. DH didn't even get the normal response from the brotherhood when she flashed her tin- no expedited process, no secret handshake, no free ride, nothing. They did seem very concerned that she was coming into the country on official business which, given the reputation of the Ghana police for corruption, may have been the issue du ... read more