You've not heard much from me in a while so the first thing for me to do is apologise. I'm sorry that I've not been able to post much as I've been unable to connect to the internet for a lot of the time (Ghana internet is pretty hit and miss) but it does mean that I should have quite a lot to tell you when I can!
So I did plan on writing a couple of times about the things I did in Ghana, and by no means am I saying that this is the last that you will be hearing of it at all. I just decided that if there are readers that aren't particularly interested in this sort of thing, it would be easier for them to skip over one long post than have to skip over lots of shorter ones. Brace yourselves then. Long, long post about probably the best two weeks of my life so far coming up...
Okay, so you all know that I left for Ghana in the middle of July for a trip with college. We flew to Istanbul where we stayed the night then spent the morning exploring Old Town Isanbul before boarding the plane (first class this time but information about that is in my last post) to Accra in Ghana. Again, we stayed the night close to the airport before travelling to Kumasi early the next morning.
When we arrived at the house in Kumasi that we would be sharing with around twenty other volunteers, we were shown to the bedrooms (think dorms) that we would be staying in. We didn't do too badly when it came to sharing as it was only Amber and I with 6 beds between us. I think that was something to do with the house not being full to capacity but you'll hear no complaints from me!
We were fed almost straight away which just followed the common theme from whilst we were travelling (almost a full meal every hour, no kidding) then went up to the common room to hear from the group we'd be working with and to get to know each other. After this we had another meal then packed for an early morning leave to visit the lake and had a lovely peaceful nights sleep as we were mostly shattered from all of the travelling!
In the end, we didn't leave for Lake Boswati until about 9am but it was only about an hour and a half drive with fantastic scenery. I'll upload pictures at some point! We arrived at the 'hotel' we were staying in and shared a dorm for 8 between for of us and a lovely girl from Germany called Annie. Feeling guilty, as we were yet to do any work, we spent the day nice and relaxed: sunbathing, listening to the soothing sounds of the waves and reading!
We had a couple of meals that weren't chicken and rice (the Thrive house's speciality) but I was slightly disappointed when I ordered a chicken salad and it arrived with tomato kepchup all over. Who eats ketchup on salad? Ewww!
On the Sunday, our second day at the Lakes, we has a lovely, peaceful and relaxing morning on the grassy area by the lake itself. I went for a quick run to see some of the scenery then a walk later on as well! In the early afternoon we were given the opportunity to enjoy a boat ride across the lake. And after a fantastic weekend, we left back for our house in Kumasi at around 4pm.
By Monday I certainly felt like it was time for some proper work to be done! So I woke up, early and eager, for breakfast at 6am. We'll skip over the fact it was only made an hour later than planned (nothing happens to schedule in Ghana!). Then at eight o'clock we had our team meeting, led by our brilliant team leader Imogen, to let us know what we'd be doing that day. Quickly and excitedly, we packed up the Trotros with enough equipment to build a library in school and we set off on our hour-long journey to one of the local schools.
Arriving at the school was beyond overwhelming; being greeted by hundreds of excited children, cheering as soon as they saw the Trotro! This made me determined to do a fantastic job of the library. We were shown to the room that we would be transforming quickly then it was time for work!
We split into two groups at first: bookshelves and painting. I was in the bookshelves group so started by sanding down all of the wood until it was perfectly smooth. Having marked and glued the wood, we then built the bookshelves with hammers and nails - something I'd never used before! I was so impressed with how fun it was to do and how quickly we managed to do it! The next stage was to use filler to fill up all of the joins and corners and then it was ready to paint; time to get nice and dirty. Simultaneously, the other half of our group were painting and decorating the inside of the library in the primary school. And pretty soon all that we could do was watch paint dry - literally! Sound like fun anyone? Don't worry, we kept ourselves occupied. We enjoyed our lunch, that the kitchen had kindly made for us and sent in heating containers, then got to work on stamping and sorting the books. After this we were able to go into the room to do any finishing touches. My perfectionist instincts always seemed to drag me in the direction of tidying up the writing and logos! When the shelves had dried we were able to move them inside and stack them; ready to be seen by the headmaster.
He absolutely loved it! And the kids loved it too! For me, it was a fantastic experience to see how happy the children were just at the sight of a newly decorated room with books. I was amazed at how quick and easy it was to make a difference to their lives and it provided me with the drive to help and do more!
After a hard days work we visited a local supermarket (a little bit more like a walk-in cupboard than a supermarket) and were treated to a fan ice. The best invention in the world! It's like ice cream but you eat it out of a plastic bag but tastes fantastic! Then we returned to the house for a shower, relax, noodles for tea then fun and games.
On the Tuesday we found ourselves off to another primary school for building a library again - this time we built it with a jungle theme. I had a little bit more of a role in the painting with this one but still helped to put two full bookshelves together. It was quite odd to see that some of the kids would walk around with machetes but I guess health and safety don't really exist over there!
A couple of the volunteers who has been there a while had brought small presents: brightly coloured bouncy balls; much needed pencils; second-hand clothing and much more. We gave these out to the children in a Santa's grotto type way and the reactions of the children were absolutely amazing and adorable! It just goes to show what a small thing can do!
After work we went to the Cultural centre where I managed to pick up some gifts to take home with me: personalised bracelets for my siblings and I, small ornaments for my parents and grandad.
When we got back to the house, I went for a nice run around the area but returned home to no water for a shower. In fact, it was the second time that day that the water had cut off! But don't worry, I was sorted with a bucket shower in no time. That's exactly what it sounds like; a large bucket of water with a smaller bucket inside and you pour the water over your head. It was actually quite fun and all part of the experience! I then got myself changed into a African-style, patterned skirt and plain black vest top for our meal out - pizza! Now when we say out, it was quite literally out. Pretty much at the side of a road, a bit like a service station with no walls! But it was good to experience their idea of eating out. We ordered the pizza, mine being the margarita, and waited. And waited. Mine was one of the first to come around an hour later so I can't complain; Rob's only two hours after mine!
After Rob had finished his pizza, we got onto the Trotro to leave and by this point I wasn't feeling very well. I felt sick, a little but tired and just very weak. It turns out that I was allergic to Malarone (my anti-maleria medication) so nothing serious. But the next bit certainly didn't help! Our Trotro broke down! The drivers (Frank and Sampson) tried what seemed to be lighting the engine with a cigarette lighter. Then the lighting started flashing and we had to get out. After a while we got back in and they pushed it to get us started. It's a very good job that we were on a hill or we'd still be there now!
Wednesday 23rd July now and we found ourselves at a secondary school to build our third library! It was a much bigger room than our previous rooms so less hectic. What didn't quite help with the library building material was that we managed to forget the sandpaper so we all started on the painting whilst the drivers went back for it and to take Summer, one of our team members, home as she was suffering with her allergy to paint.
As soon as they returned we set to work on sanding the wood down and building the bookshelves. Then we spent our lunch break eating whilst stamping and sorting out books. It wasn't long then until our work was done and it was fantastic to see how all of our work had turned into a room that the children thoroughly loved! One thing I found out that completely shocked me was that children, both boys and girls, had to have their head shaved up to the age of 16 as they're not deemed mature enough to look after their hair.
We returned back to the house, obviously via a supermarket, where we spent most of the evening relaxing whilst the rest of our group and the group that came down from Bolga went out to a nightclub. Our option was by far the most sensible - I was in desperate need of a good rest!
On Thursday I literally couldn't believe I was over half way through my visit a time had flown by! As most of our group had left for Cape Coast early in the morning, we found ourselves spending the day as a college. We visited two schools in the area taking with us two maths sets that we'd brought from home. One of these was the school that our college visited last year to build a computer lab. We enjoyed lunch with the ever so friendly head teacher then left for the orphanage in the early afternoon.
I was shocked the second I saw it. There were so many children in such a small place and so few staff in the area. In fact, the only people I saw with any amount of control seemed to be the English volunteers! One of these, Rosie, offered to give us a quick tour. We met Paul and Francis, both boys with very special needs, in the disability house which slept around 100 people (in no more than 6 bedrooms I might add). And in the bedrooms, it was a rare occasion that there were more than 3 beds. So many of these children with physical and mental disabilities who had to sleep on the floor just didn't seem right to me!
We toured the other two buildings: girls and boys. By this stage I wasn't surprised to see that the bed situation wasn't any better over there. In fact, a lot of the rooms smelled strongly of urine and many mattresses were soaking wet! I thought that the children were living in horrendous conditions and in some ways feel like they are heroes for dealing with it.
However, to brighten the place up, we brought cartoony bed sheets and went around making the beds. Yes! Even the smelly, wet ones! And suddenly I felt satisfied; I had done something to help the situation, even if it wasn't a huge thing. I also took a suitcase full of old clothes for the children in the orphanage.
After the orphanage, we went to a local hotel to use the swimming pool so I could do some proper training! Whilst we were there, the Vice President of Ghana walked past us with several bodyguard type people - it was exciting! We returned home for evening meal and (shattered as always) we went to bed.
Friday. Friday started a little too early for my liking. Now I like mornings so that IS saying something! We were awake at 4am to leave at 4:30 for the bus station. We got in a taxi which had very little room, so I had a lovely cosy ride sat on Amber's knee! I'm sure she appreciated the warmth really! We found ourselves sat on the bus waiting for quite a while and only set off at around 6 in the end. In Ghana buses only leave when they're full - just how it works. We had a 5 hour journey and arrived just before midday.
The first thing that hit me at Cape Coast was the scenery. It was absolutely beautiful! I'd never seen anything like it before. The sound of the waves crashing against the rocks was so relaxing and calming that I spent the whole weekend feeling as if I was in a dream! We were shown to our beach shack (where I ended up on a top bunk), left our bags and ordered our lunch.
The afternoon was spent walking around the endless market stalls and appreciating the Ghanian culture. We then returned (a lot later) for a quick relax by the beach before our evening meal. I ordered some of the nicest pasta that I've ever tasted and was extremely excited when a local dance group started performing for us; another great opportunity to experience the local culture! We did end up leaving quite early as we'd been up for a considerably long time but the rest was just what we needed after a long, hard week of work. And how better can you rest than falling asleep listening to the waves crash onto the shore?
On Saturday we spent the whole day in Cape Coast. Amber and I went for another walk around the markets; they were a whole lot busier than the previous day. We then had a walk down the beach for as long as we could just to appreciate the scenery. Afterwards, we returned to our site and spent most of the day lay relaxing on the beach, me with a book glued to my hand.
It was quite sad to see a lot of our team members and new friends leaving to return to Accra to fly home. And as shocking to think that would be us in only a few days time. Either way, I enjoyed the day and we went for a meal at a slightly fancy beach restaurant for our dinner. We enjoyed the nightlife then went back for our last sleep at Cape Coast.
Sunday was like a repeat of Friday but played in reverse. We were up at 4am again for the bus back to Kumasi and then spent most of the day travelling. When we arrived home we had most of the day to ourselves then had new arrivals - the new group! The house was full for the night as we had two groups: the group going up to Bolga and the group staying in Kumasi for their first two weeks. We were given lovely roommates for the night, but only for the night as they left for Bolga early the next morning. We spent the evening playing all sorts of games to get to know each other including my favourite - Mafia!
Monday next. The day when Amber's lost luggage finally turned up - a little bit late but as they say: better late than never! In the morning we visited a primary school to deliver the books for tomorrow's library then spent a huge amount of time sorting books into school type and subject for the libraries that would be built over the next two weeks. It wasn't too much hard work and was quite enjoyable to help get to know each other.
Afterwards, I nipped over to the seamstress with Lauren to pick up her dresses and skirts and got measured up for my African-print shorts! It was so exciting! We then returned to an empty house as most of the new group had gone out to a bar and we enjoyed unlimited computer time. Yes, for a grand total of two hours the internet worked uninterrupted! The other group returned for dinner then we spent most of the evening playing a tense game of pictionary which was actually a lot more fun than I expected.
I was absolutely distraught when I realised we'd reached Tuesday - my last day 😞 We spent the morning at the same school as we had the day before; this time painting the room and building the bookshelves. I found my perfectionist tendencies making an appearance again as I worked on the writing and design with another girl - definitely my favourite job!
We had our lunch relatively early then we were able to stack the shelves before having a chat with the headmaster. The headmaster was upset that the children couldn't see it as it was school holidays but was thrilled at the work we had done and couldn't wait for others to see! We took lots of pictures and our new team leader, Josh, thanked us for our hard work and finishing the library in what must have been record-breaking time! We then left to return home and had a long, eventful journey but it was hilarious. We were quite close to the house when someone ran up the the Trotro and hit the boot of it which forced it open. We started shouting at Eric (the driver) but it took us about 5 minutes to get his attention to fix it!
When we got back I popped over to the seamstress who had made my shorts and I was absolutely thrilled with them - something to remind me of Ghana for a long time! I returned to the house for a nice chicken sandwich for tea then showered and got changed for our house party. We left our house for the short journey to the other Kumasi house and had a fantastic night! I had fun in many ways, played 'games', did some light dancing and were reunited for a little while with our first team leader, Imogen.
After the party we were meant to leave at around 12 but, entirely my fault, we only ended up leaving between half 12 and quarter to one. As soon as my head hit the pillow I was asleep to get ready for the long day of travelling ahead.
Waking up on Wednesday morning was upsetting. I had the realisation that I was about to leave and knew that it wasn't something I wanted to do! Why couldn't I just stay and help all summer? All year even? But either way I had to pack. We'd stayed out late enough for it to be too dark to pack the previous night so hurriedly (and obviously neatly) I packed my case up before breakfast. I enjoyed my last untoasted toast with pineapple for breakfast then went for our last team meeting, knowing that most of what would be said had no affect on me. I still enjoyed feeling like part of the group but was a little annoyed that I couldn't help with today's library!
Leaving for Accra at half past ten was very emotional but the thought that I probably will get to go back was very comforting. We had a 5-hour coach journey followed by a quick stop at the shopping outlets before we reached the airport - homeward bound. The first flight was delayed by just over an hour which after the 7hour flight left us a little bit pushed for time at Istanbul! We had an hour to get through passport control, get a coffee (very important!) and get onto our next flight. By which time we were in the early hours of Thursday morning. We arrived home at around 11am and it's fair to say I had a warm welcome home after the most fantastic experience of my life so far! It was something I'll never expect and I hope that one day soon I can return to help out some more. Maybe even as a team leader, who knows?
Thanks for reading this far! I hope it wasn't too boring but I appreciate it was just a long account of my time in Ghana. However, I wanted to show the kind of things you'd be able to do if you were to do something similar to this. I would apologise for the length and stuff but someone in Ghana taught me that sometimes you can apologise too much for things out of your control. And I couldn't control how much I had to write about! Anyway that's all for now, see you soon!
Keep smiling!
Kathryn
