Blogs from Ghana, Africa - page 20

Some pictures from my time so far... A few of these are from my first day after arrival, Sunday 1st July. It was a very rainy, humid day. Sylva was the main photographer, taking pictures of the children's home, his mother, Baby, who is the cook for the home, and some of the other residents at the home. There's also some pictures from our trip to Lake Volta over the last weekend. Finally, there are some pictures with the older children who left to go back to their schools in other towns today (July 10th) and will come back after I have left.... read more

Now that there are 5 teachers at the school in Apebouso, there's no need for me to spend so much time there so I homeschool Praise, Abigail in town. Being in town so much has it's own set of challenges - one being that Abigail and I get bored. Yesterday we decided to bake cookies to perk ourselves up. Abigail wanted to make cookies AND donuts. Of course, then Praise wanted to make his own batch of peanut butter cookies. Praise's made it thru their mixing stage and time in the oven. As I expected, the oven mouse JUMPED OUT when his little toes got too hot from the lit oven. We had cookies baking, Kirk & Praise chasing a mouse with brooms and Abigail standing on a little stool mixing her dough . . . ... read more

(Hi guys! Internet access, yippee! I've a couple days here in Yaounde, Cameroon to try and get everything up to date but uploading photos is slow. Apologies that this blog isn't split up into smaller digestible blogs but it's better than nothing - I hope!) Friday June 1 Rain overnight meant we packed away wet tents which is never fun (they're smelly!) but sometimes unavoidable. We were in the truck before the next shower hit and sat ready to pull down the sides when it did. It very quickly became hot in the truck but there wasn't much we could do (except take a spoonful of cement and harden ... up - something we say to each other quite often!). We were heading for the Ghanaian border which was exciting because we could speak English again(!) ... read more

The road from Tema to Accra is only 18 km, however, the traffic is so bad that it takes between 1.5-2 hours to get to the capital. The road is being widened; the Chinese have given money for infrastructure building in Ghana. But the project moves slowly, as much a product of corruption as it is limited resources. Tro-tros, pick up and drop off travelers along the way, a cheaper means of travel, and one we should have considered for this adventure had we known we would all be sitting in gridlock for as long as we are. A taxi didn't turn out to be the time saver we had expected. Sitting in our taxi, we move so slowly that our driver periodically turns the engine off to save gas. He pulls over and pees at ... read more

The Central Market in Kumasi is the largest market in all of Western Africa. With approximately 12,000 vendors within a 20-block radius one can find just about anything. There are recycling sections where new uses are found for scrap metals. Small, hot shacks where half a dozen men are making shoes or sewing children’s uniforms. Further down the narrow maze of alleyways that make up the market, there are sections of beads, music, house wares, clothes, food… it goes on and on, anything you want you can find in this market. And one’s choices for any given thing are extensive. You can take your pick from dozens of vendors all selling similar if not the same items. As I navigate the narrow, dusty walkways between the stalls, stopping to take a closer look at this or ... read more