Wednesday 13 August 2014

Quick update and exciting news

A few of you may or may not be aware that I'm going away this afternoon for quite a while. I'm travelling to Ghana in Africa with a couple of other people from college and I will be staying there for two weeks! It's something that I'm extremely excited for because I know that it's something not everyone gets the chance to do and it will be fantastic to be able to help out people who are less fortunate than I am.

I'm only arriving in Ghana on Friday and while I'm there I should have some internet access but it won't be reliable. I'll try to post an update whenever possible but I'm sure I'll be back with plenty of news soon!

Keep smiling!
Kathryn x

Monday 21 July 2014

Journeying

Guess who got to fly first class to Ghana? Correct. I did! Though I should probably start this one at the beginning...

We left from England at around 4pm Wednesday afternoon after a busy morning of last-minute packing. At first I was feeling quite anxious to be leaving as two weeks is a long time to be away from my family and I really don't fly well. I often find the experience quite stressful especially as you are in a strange, confined atmosphere with lots of strangers and there's no way to leave if I need to. However, I was certain that this was the right time to maybe not get over my fear of flying but work towards it. We boarded the plane and took off exactly to schedule with no issues which put my mind at ease a little bit. 

Four hours later, we arrived safely in Istanbul where we spent the night in a very posh looking hotel. I woke up well rested in the morning and enjoyed a fantastic smoothie for breakfast before sightseeing in Istanbul Old Town. Obviously this was an opportunity to take photos so I'll try to upload some of those later.

At 1pm we returned to the airport to board for our second flight; Istanbul to Accara. After a small lunch at the airport we boarded the plane but as we were boarding, my friend Amber and I were taken to first class by an air steward as there wasn't enough room for everyone's hand luggage in economy class. We also took one of our teachers with us who managed to bring the other but we left Rob behind. I felt so bad! It was a great experience though. There seemed to be a constant supply of food which became a little bit annoying but having four times as much leg room was brilliant! Also, we each had our own TV that came out of an arm rest! It was a fantastic experience. 

We arrived at Accara quite late and spent over an hour at passport control followed by a similar amount of time discussing lost baggage but then travelled around ten minutes to a house where we would be staying the night. From the minute my head hit the pillow I was asleep; travelling tires you out a lot! We woke up quite early and bought digestive biscuits for breakfast (healthy, of course) then got onto a coach for a five hour ride to the house where we will be staying for two weeks.

We arrived at around 2:30pm all very excited for our two weeks of volunteering!

Keep smiling
Kathryn x

(P.s. I hope you didn't find this post too boring, just wanted to keep you all up to date with the things I'm doing over summer)