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Published: June 23rd 2008
MSA Donation Sorting
Sorting out the crayolas and clothes for donationSo... it's been a tough weekend in my world. Not a whole lot to tell you about since my last entry, but gee whiz. This weekend SUCKED HUGE BALLS. Apologies to my family, I don't mean that sentence in too rude a way. You know when things just keep getting worse and worse. Well, that was me this weekend.
For this weekend, Lucy and I decided to go travel to Ho again, the capital of the Volta Region so that we could venture to Kalpaka Resource Reserve where you can see water buffalo, monkeys, many a bird a some other creatures. We also thought we would give Chances Hotel a crack too because the ‘Bradt’ guide to Ghana gave it huge props about the atmosphere and the good western food and it was also place under the hotel heading of ‘Upmarket’… First, our tro-tro (a little van) broke down twice, then secondly we were stooged by the taxi driver who told us it would cost GHC 5, 50 pesawas (which is about US$5.50) for a ride that was only worth US$1.50, Lucy managed to tell him he was having a laugh and would only pay half that. I think from
Whose on Duty?
This is the duty board with the school timetable aswell. rough. then, the driver learnt never to mess with Lucy on mission! Then we get into the reception and they wouldn’t take my credit card even though the guide tells you it’s one of the better places to use the card. I think it was more so that it wasn’t a big bill, only GHC110.00 for two people for 2 nights. The receptionist also had no idea about the reserve, even though the book also tells you that Chances would have some kind of idea about the reserve.
Anyway, the place was beautiful with an amazing pool and hidden in between a couple mountains with birds and dragonflies everywhere, it was amazing. Our room was also pretty amazing with air conditioning AND a fan and a huuuuge bathroom. We were pretty impressed with the place, even though it was further away from town. So we go to eat lunch, we both ordered vegie soup and French fries. Fries were amazing, vegie soup was good but a bit like attack of the killer garlic salt! Lucy and I downed two bottles of coke as if it were two bottles of corona with lime, therefore, many burps were to be had and
Kid galore
Assei, Ester, Perfect and Phillipene... a.k.a Little terrors each time was like return of the killer garlic salt. So anyway, the good part after garlic, was waiting the mandatory 30 mins after consuming food, to jump into the beautiful pool which was fan-bloody-tastic. The hotel pool keeper also let us stay out for an extra hour after the pool closing time. I think he felt bad to take us away from the amount of fun we were having with the yellow pool ball.
So before we were to be eaten alive by the mosquitos, we headed back in to shower, freshen up, relax then head to dinner. The dinner menu was pretty much the same as the lunch menu but just re-arranged differently and with ‘Dinner Menu’ proudly displayed at the top instead of ‘Lunch Menu’. We both decided to both go for spaghetti as we missed Italian food, Me the spaghetti bolognaise, Lucy the vegetarian version which came out looking like asian hokkein noodles with stir fried vegies. So I braved the meat and at the majority of it. The waitress even gave us a side serving of mayonnaise (a bit strange I know, but we asked for mayo during the lunch time serve of fries
She is just Perfect
Yes. her name actually is Perfect. so she was trying!). So all seems fine, meat tasted good, nice hotel that has big props from the guide for having good food.
The book lied. The hotel lied. The meat lied. I woke up at 3am with my stomach churning. I tried to think mind over matter, went to the bathroom, all seemed clear. Went back to bed, woke up at about 5:30am, ran to the toilet had a violent spew episode. I somehow also managed to pull a muscle in my throat during the episode. I went back to bed thinking, I’m sure I’ll be fine, still siked to go to the reserve. I threw up 2 more times during the day and had attack of the squirts a fair few times too.
I spent the day in the room and poor Lucy had to go eat breakfast and lunch on her own while I alternated between going to the bathroom for various reasons and drifting in and out of sleep. By about 3pm I started to feel better, still not ready for food, but definitely able to stand and stay awake. So we watched a movie on my laptop and just chilled. The weather wasn’t
Ester Bo Bester
She loves when I sing out her name but just completely make up the words.... the greatest either, raining on and off and very cloudy. We also heard some Americans come through but only thought there was a handful.
So on Sunday, we woke up, had breakfast and headed to the pool to make the most out of the hotel and wow it was fantastic. We also met the Americans at the pool from Virginia who were on a study abroad program. I can’t remember for the life of me what college they went to and the only help Lucy can give me is that ‘I think it starts with L’… But a big shout out to you guys, you all definitely brought our spirits up after some pretty stressful times here in Aflao. We also hope you have a great next 2 weeks in your time in Ghana and let us know how Cape Coast/Kakum National Park goes!
So now onto the totally crap part. We get to the lorry station to get onto the tro-tro back to Aflao and for once we aren’t the last two to get on, but in fact the first two. So I go to the little box and pay the man for our tickets, put my
The school
A combination of primary and junior secondary school purse back in the bag and zip it up (mind you, we keep our bags in front of us), take 5-7 steps, get onto the van, I decide to buy biscuits, go for my purse…. It’s missing. I tell Lucy, we look around and we realise it’s gone. All my cards, ¾ of my money that I budgeted to use in my time here, everything. We looked around more and then I just started to cry which made the tro tro man feel really bad so he frantically searched everywhere then made some men that were hanging about empty out their pockets. So, there you go. I was robbed. Luckily, I left enough money for the next 3 weeks in my room in Aflao. I called my family, and my dad, the biggest saviour ever, blocked my cards and got some reverse charge phone numbers for me to call to get a replacement card sent here. Hence, the title of my blog. The person who stole my purse will get it coming to them one day. For a country so stuck in the mindset of being a nation of god-fearing people, there are just too many people who just can’t
abide by common decency.
Well, enough on that. There will be a PTA (Parent Teacher Association) meeting on Friday which will have a photographer there and everything to show Lucy and I off to the community and also to display all the goods that my work donated such as clothes, crayola markers, pencils and crayons, paper, erasers, scissors sharpeners etc and also some things that Lucy also donated. It has been a bit of nightmare, the amount of scandal going on surrounding the goods, but as long as the goods all go out and the children enjoy it, then the nightmare was worth it.
There was also another day of dancing, this time at the primary school with the J.S.S. kids dancing with the primary kids. So I have added photos of that day. Lucy and I also had our stint as teachers in charge for the week which wasn’t a whole lot. We have two seniors (6th graders) who have to come in early to help clean up in the morning and align the kids for morning assembly. We have also been fortunate enough to have the house colours name after us, and also Anna. There are
3 house colours; red, yellow and green which are the colours of the Ghanaian flag. My house colour is yellow, Lucy’s is green and Anna’s is red, but Promise is looking after her team until she starts work here. Apparently, from now on, the house names will always be our names because we were the first here. The kids in the red team are a bit bummed because they aren’t in mine or Lucy’s teams but I am sure they will happy when Anna gets here!
So I think that’s all I have to report. I’ve almost been here 6 weeks so next week will be my half way point. It’s all gone so fast, but I am excited to come back home. I miss too many people and I am especially missing Jordan right now. I don’t think Lucy appreciates it when I start hugging her and I imagine that I’m hugging Jordan… haha, no I don’t really do that. But, when we eat food, we do pretend that we are eating something else!! Oh it’s terrible, but we are living in a dream world here just to get through the tough parts.
Yes, I do make
Twin Paul
On the left is the Twin Paul (his brother is Peter). Paul was our male senior in charge who helped us keep the school running smoothly while we were on duty out that we are having a blast, but to tell you the truth, there is so much going on here that I actually don’t feel comfortable talking about on here at this point. The level of living here is hard to watch and the amount of abuse going on here is hard to take, but is getting better after we made a stand. The reaction we get from some locals is tough as well, purely for the fact that we are white but I guess it’s a glimpse into what receivers of racism have felt previously. However, I have felt that same racism in Australia before due to my blood being half Indonesian. It’s also getting tough to try not to get upset when people try to make you buy things for them, even if you don’t know them. They expect that you have a lot of money, when in the end, we are volunteering, we don’t get money and we have budgets that we try to stick to. The only people we buy things for are the people we live with and for the people who we think deserve a gift of appreciation and even then we have to
Madam Peace and little Radima
This is the 1st grade teacher with her daughter who comes to school everyday. cute little human. be cautious that they don’t expect it all the time. There is one person here that we spent a lot of money on for a weekend, with no thanks and when she was told say thank you to us, it was half hearted and then gave her the thought that she could ask us for a gift each time we went anywhere, even if it was to the local store to buy a coke, it’s almost like we are used and abused for our money that at this point, I don’t even have!! It’s also hard to watch the way some people treat Lucy at times and mainly due to the fact that I have been here only 2 weeks more than her. I made a stand about that the other day and caused a bit of a ruckus, but we are here for a while and it’s no good for us to continuing being unhappy and uncomfortable. Sometimes, I do feel like screaming and crying but it does no good, maybe just releases what I am keeping in.
Well, enough on the downer entry. I’m sure I will wake up tomorrow and be much happier but for now,
I’m just going to wallow for a little bit longer. Don’t get me wrong, this place is great, but it is getting tougher to handle the more the locals feel comfortable with your presence. The only thing that keeps us excited is the weekend trips away and the smile on the children’s faces when we walk into the classrooms each day.
Come on friends, someone write me an email of gossip to lighten me up!!!
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Manya
non-member comment
Geeezus!
How scrawny are you??!! I'm JEALOUS! That's it...I'm stocking up on the Mie Goreng and Ayam Curry Indomie! Might as well stock up on those AWFUL rainbow twizzlers and Laffy Taffy too while I'm at it! First stop...Gray's Papaya :D Cheer up...you'll look back in a few months and giggle about the whole experience. I know I still have a little chuckle about the "Waterfalls" and the "Gas Chamber" from our trip to Bali! "Where's the Vick Vaporub?! WOO HOOO!! " Mwah!