Travels, tro-tros and, inevitably.... malaria

Since leaving volunteering and Tamale a week and a half ago we have been having some interesting travelling adventures!


It was very sad to leave Tamale and all my friends I made there over the two months. But I was excited also at the prospect of travelling around Ghana. We left two Sundays ago to travel to Mole National Park where I went on my first ever safari and saw lots of different animals, including elephants which was very exciting. This is where as a group we split up as Jo, Aron and I were flying back to London a week later than the others. Jo and I travelled down to Kumasi via the Kintampto waterfalls. Travelling in Ghana is always interesting - buses don't leave until they're full, no one ever knows when they will leave or how long they will take to arrive at the endpoint, and we are generally accosted by many people trying to help us with our bags in the hope that we will tip them generously. Let's just say it can be stressful!


By the time we arrived in Kumasi on Tuesday evening (where we met up with Aron who had been in Accra sorting out his passport) we were exhausted. Kumasi is the second biggest city in Ghana and so was very different to Tamale - lots of people, cars, no motorbikes or cyclists, and no goats and sheep wondering around the roads! We spent one day visiting all the tourist sites in town and then on Thursday we travelled to the nearby Lake Bosumtwi for a more relaxing day. That evening we went to a restaurant/bar and it rained so hard we couldn't even hear each other speak - we sat there for 3 hours waiting for the worst of the rain to stop. When we woke up in the morning it was still raining! (We got very excited when we saw a man with a kippa on - an American Jew in Ghana for 2 weeks...)


Friday morning saw us rise early to travel again from Kumasi - this time to a suburb of Sefwi Wiawso to visit the small Jewish community of Ghana for Shabbat. We had no idea what to expect and it was a very interesting Shabbat. The community welcomed us warmly and treated us so well. After two months of being in Ghana and not seeing any Jews, being in a community that rested on Shabbat and went to synagogue with kippot, tallitot, chumashim and even a Torah scroll was very surreal!


On Sunday we travelled for 10 hours to get down south to Cape Coast. Cape Coast is a small coast town which was once the centre of the slave trade and so has some big tourist sites, such as Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle. It was eerie visiting these castles and standing the slave dungeons, knowing what atrocities happened there. We also went to the nearby Kakum National Park where they have a canopy walkway above the rainforest that is 40m high in places! Once it stopped being scary it was beautiful! This week there is a festival going on in Cape Coast so there was a lot of people there and constant celebrations which was interesting to see.



Tuesday morning I went to hospital and after four hours they told me I did indeed have 'mild malaria'. And so in the end every memeber of our group did end up going to hospital! But I'm okay, they gave me medicine and I'm feeling a lot better now. In fact, malaria really does sound so much more scary from England. I have realised why. It's because we are always being told that malaria kills thousands and thousands of Africans every year. But with anti-malarials to reduce the symptoms and with medical treatment as soon as you fall ill, malaria can easily be stopped. It cost me 16 pounds to get anti-malarials for 3 months and then my hospital trip yesterday (to see doctor, have blood test and to get the medicine) cost 12 pounds. All together 28 pounds is not a lot at all for protection from malaria. But for the average Ghanaian, that is alot of money...

Today we left Cape Coast for Accra. I wasn't feeling so well on the bus so I stayed in the hostel and slept for a long time after we got here. Now I'm waiting for the others who went touring around Accra...

All is going well. Well, asides from the malaria but that was bound to happen anyway seeming as most travellers here do get it! And don't worry anyone who is reading this, I really am okay. We have five days left here and have plans to do some more travelling and to spend our last weekend relaxing at a nice beach. That's if it stops raining!

Cape Coast, Ghana: 5,184 miles East of America

Good evening. This is the news at ten, and I'm John Humphrys.

Actually, I'm not John Humphrys. Many of you (I hope) will be quite pleased to hear that; to those who aren't, I am sorry to disappoint, and I will try harder next time.

Tuesday, 19th August
I threw up after taking my larium again, so decided to change to doxycycline.

Wednesday, 20th August
Jo and Sasha were enskinned as Queen Mothers of Champe. I was at work, and in the afternoon went to get my enskinment garments made.

Thursday, 21st August
Went to get the enskinment garments. This consisted of a white 'butter curry' (phonetic spelling), matching white trousers, boots which make me look like a homosexual cowboy, a white hat, a cow's tail and a walking stick.

Friday, 22nd August
Got enskinned! We went to the village, Bokpomo, after a bit of a hassle getting a bus to take us there. When we arrived we waited while everyone else prayed (it was 1pm). While we were waiting someone asked me if they could marry Abi ("your sister"); I told him that was up to her. We then rode on motorbikes to a nearby village where the chief was that day. When we got there tom toms were beaten to announce that an enskinment was taking place. I don't remember the order of everything, but it involved being presented to the chief, accepting cola nuts from him, eating one (yuck), being given water by a villager, sitting down in front of the chief's dais and having my garments put on me, being presented to the women of the village, having to dance (briefly, thank goodness) to the tom toms, watching some professionals dancing to the tom toms, and probably other things that I don't remember. At one point they set off a gun outside (so that everyone would hear that an enskinment was happening; the gunshot would carry further than the sound of tom toms).

The end result of all this was that I am now Yimahi-Na of Bokpomo.

After this we went back to Tamale, and Mr Sulley had a dinner in the office for me and Abi and other people involved in Nfasimdi to say goodbye to us. Abi, however, had to go back to the house because she had stuff to do before Shabbat.

Saturday, 23rd August
Five of us (Sasha, Abi, Dan, Joel and myself) left the house. We got an MMT bus to Mole, which was possibly the most crowded vehicle I have ever seen. At one point an old Ghanaian woman sat on Sasha's lap for half an hour, and at another I had to put Abi's headphones on Joel, Abi had to DJ, and I fed Joel biscuits because he was unable to move. This journey lasted about six hours. However, when we arrived in Mole, the motel turned out to be very nice, with a pool. We spent a lot of time in the pool.

Sunday, 24th August
We went on two safari walks. We saw elephants, baboons, water buck, kop, bush-buck, and about a billion insects which ate us alive. Basically, it was incredible. I can't really describe it, so I'll just show you the pictures when I see you.

Monday, 25th August
We got a bus to Kumasi, which broke down on the way in a place called Techiman. However, the driver (who was hired by the guy we hired to get us to Kumasi) paid someone else to take us the rest of the way. Anyway, we got there in the end, and were met by a friend of Imoro. Imoro's friend, Shaibu, had got us cheap accommodation at a teaching hospital with some trainee nurses. To thank him for helping us we took him out for dinner in a nice hotel in Kumasi.

Tuesday, 26th August
We got a bus to Cape Coast this morning, and have spent the afternoon looking around town. We have so far found the best pizza so far in Ghana, Cape Coast castle, which we have 'done', and the beach, which is filthy. We plan to go to a nearby national park, Kakum, where you can do a walk through the forest canopy, tomorrow, and Elmina the day after that. On Friday we will travel to Accra, where we will stay until we fly on Sunday.

Champe Wurche

This is my last morning in Tamale! Looking back on my time here I have so many memories and experiences to remeber. What i'll miss the most though has got to be the people i've met.

Leaving school on Friday was very emotional. I was about to cry when saying goodbye to the children but that was until I saw Dan bawling his eyes out - one of the funniest things i've ever seen!! Really didn't think i'd meet someone girlier than me here! Madam Cecillia presented me, Dan and Sasha with cards signed by the children and new african dresses in matching print! The three of us wearing the same pattern together though is enough to make u go cross-eyed!!

Since I last posted i've been made Queen of Champe village and now must be refered to as Champe Wurche! It was a great day but the responsibility given to us was huge and i can now feel the great commitment we have to the people of the village.

I also now have malaria but not to worry as i'm feeling just fine - really is a bit like a bad cold.

Me pnina and aron are going travelling together for 2 weeks.

Today we go to a national safari park to hopefully see some amazing animals. Then were travelling to the second biggest city - Kumasi. We're then spending this shabbos with the Ghanaian jews - well excited!!!! Then visiting the beaches, British slave fortresses, lakes, parks and waterfalls. Cannot wait!

Anyhoo must go as I havent finished packing and we're going in 2 hours!!!

Last Day!

Almost finished and almost time to go back!

The new thing this week is a logbook I have created that keeps track of all transactions between Gigdev and others. I copied it so that it has the same format as the one we had when I worked in Gamestation which I thought worked particularly well. It turns out that Madame Stella has been pressing for a solution to this issue for a while. Hopefully this will mean that Gigdev can make sure that any money spent by future volunteers and others that is given to the workers has a portion going back to Gigdev (which is supposed to be happening anyway). All the book does is make sure that people are doing what they should already be doing with some of the money they are earning.

Next week we are splitting off into groups to go travelling: the 2 week travellers and the 1 week travellers. Its time for all of us to have a bit of a holiday in Ghana.

See you back in England!

Malaria, chieftaincy and traffic cops

Hello! I haven’t written for a while now and there’s a few exciting things to report…

Last week I was the third person from the group to be diagnosed with malaria. Don’t worry its not as bad as it sounds, as long as you get the drugs for it within a few days it shouldn’t kill you! All you really get is a headache, tiredness and some aching bones. I went back to the hospital today as Jo wasn’t feeling too great; turns out she has malaria as well, she’s now on the drugs so all should be fine. Having been to the hospitals here, I don’t think I’ll ever complain about the NHS. With long queues, goats wandering round and a toilet not fit for a Northerner out on the piss, its makes you appreciate what we have at home that much more.

The second bit of news (and the biggest) is that I am now a village chief! The village is called Nanton Zuo and is about 15 minutes outside of Tamale. My title is “Saha Na” which directly translates as Luck Chief, this puts me in the role of Youth Chief, where I am responsible for all villagers aged from around 20 to 30. We had a ceremony to “enskin” me; it started with wearing traditional clothing consisting of a smock, hat and towel draped over my shoulder (pictures to follow). We went into one of the sub-chief’s palaces and sitting on the floor among the villagers a few speeches were made. To become a chief here kola nuts have to be exchanged. Kola nuts are about 2 inches across and have an extremely bitter, acidic taste to them. People eat them as they contain nicotine and give you short bursts of energy. They are used in chieftaincy ceremonies as they are shaped like a heart and so the giving of them is a sign of friendship. After giving me a kola nut, eating it and then handing them out to the rest of the men, I was officially a chief. I made an acceptance speech about how honored I was and told a story to explain why one cannot only rely on g-d and must work for themselves. We then left the palace and met the village women, lots of singing, drumming and dancing followed to celebrate the occasion. They’ve offered me land to build my own palace and I’ve also been told they’d chuck in a few wives as well! So from now on my name is either “Saha Na” or “Chief” and it is an offence to call me anything otherwise!

Today, on the way back from the hospital I was dropping Jo off at Barclays Bank to change some traveler’s cheques. The traffic lights next to the bank were red so I took the motorbike onto the pavement and into the bank. On the way into the bank’s courtyard a traffic policeman stopped us and explained to me what I had done wrong. Of course he then said we’d have to go to the police station to pay the fine and I asked if I could pay the “fine” there. He agreed and said it would be 20 cedis, only 10 pounds but an extortionate amount here.
I said ok fine then we’ll go to the police station.
He replied saying “ok you want to pay more, that’ll be 40 cedis”
I thought “oh s**t this is going to be expensive” but said “no let’s go to the police station”
Then another traffic cop came along and the two spoke in Dagbani and decided to let me off, get in!
(It’s just lucky he didn’t see me going through a red light about 5 seconds before I came onto the pavement!!)

That’s enough for one blog, hope you enjoyed it, will try and write one or two more before I come home…
xx

GIGDEV Leaving

Yesterday (Wednesday) was the last day that most people were in the office at Gigdev because they are at a workshop today and tomorrow and so last night we spent two hours saying goodbye's.

It was quite nice and everybody had something good to say about my stay and what I have done. They stated very clearly that when I come back they want me to become an "ambassador for propaganda for Gigdev". With a certificate of appreciation, rice and vegetable fish dish from Madame Stella, and some fried dough balls I just couldn't say no.

After a bit of Israeli dancing that I taught last week at the party and some jokes I went home only to find a Guinea Fowl in the house. Chief Dan says that he was given it but I have my doubts. Did Chief Dan steal it with Queen Jo and Queen Sasha? I don't know. Only Changli knows the truth and at this moment he is unable to speak (he flaps instead). I suspect "Fowl" play.

Yesterday I also discovered more Gigdev outposts or small learning centres in about an hours travel radius of the main centre (I like to call them mini-Gigdev's). I also saw a ten acre patch of land which will eventually be super-Gigdev but not anytime soon. The mini-Gigdev's were
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1) Tolon - an outpost about 35 minutes away where I went to meet an ambassador for the region who promised to give me a gift to say thank you for visiting and to remind me of Tolon. Although small this miniG was very functional and everybody seemed to be sewing, ironing happily although it will need expanding if there is ever an increased demand of people which is looking 110% likely
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2) Savelugu (I heard it pronounced Savulga). This one was less functional because there was not enough shelter for the girls if it rains to work inside and also in was one sewing machine between two which is hardly ideal. People also defecate in the surroundings because of a lack of watchguard/metal fence and one area where the girls were working really stank. I would really like to see that particular area built up properly and I was disturbed by what wasn't there.
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After these visits I realised the strength of G's outreach because it really is powerful to say that these Girls would have had much poorer lifestyles if it wasn't for G taking them in a training them. G really does turn around peoples lives and I am proud to be part of something this great and effective.

The Chief

I am writing to you as a chief of Chanpe Village, Ghana. Chanpe is the village that we're helping to build the new school in and i am now in a position of authority. Let me tell you a bit about my day....

We arrived at the village at around 11.30 to some very talented drumming by some of the men in the village and we are led in a procession to the [big] chief's palace. We step inside and a small ceremony (that i don't understand as it isn't in English) and then we are led into the palatial compound. The girls (Jo and Sasha) go off to one hut and i go to another. As fits tradition the chief puts on my smock and then takes it off and dresses me in it. I then need a hat....PROBLEM: my head is too big for any of the hats but eventually i managed to stuff my overgrown cranium into the chiefs hat.

We then come back into the palace where i have to eat a Kola (sp?) nut, which is truly disgusting and then i must drink some water (PURE water, kindly bought with us by Mme Cecilia). and then the celebration continues as another drumming procession leads back to the main square.

Myself and the 2 girls (or should i say Queens) partake in a little boogy with the villagers and then i tell the village a story (in short: a religious man's boat sinks and he refuses help from any other boat or helicopter because 'g-d will save him', he dies, goes to heaven and shouts at g-d for not saving him. G-d says that he sent helicopters and boats. The moral being that if you want g-ds help you have to help yourself) and JO made a prayer for the village.

Asd we were about to leave, the called us back and told us they had gifts of thanks for us: a massive sack of yams, lots of tomatoes and.....a GUINEA FOWL (think large chicken), a LIVE guinea fowl!!!!

This has to be the most surreal day EVER: I'm royalty (yes, this IS going on the CV) and i have a live guinea fowl as a pet in my garage for the next 2 days (until we leave). So when you next see me you shall address me as 'CHIEF NacheNa' (Chief of all the youth) but 'Chief Daniel' will suffice.

Oooh, PS i have servant.

3 days and a pile of things I'm gradually finding out

I've realised something this week and whilst I probably already knew it still deserves to be made obvious by mentioning it here.

Everybody has their own motives and drives and these can either work together to create something better or end up in complete disaster. The main thing is that in order to get the best running business we must understand everybody and play the best we can to those strengths.

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On a separate note. I went to morning star and boy, do they need a new floor...

Filling in the gaps...

What Sam failed to mention during our day as a very inefficient courier service is that;

• We had to get up at 5:30am.
• We didn't bring a first aid kit.
• We nearly ran out of fuel despite me asking if the tanks were full before we left.
• The road was completely trashed and there was about a 70% chance on not having a serious accident whilst navigating around potholes (some of which where about 1ft deep and 3ft wide)!
• Once we got there we had to visit the mechanic...twice! (Sam's bearings for his back wheel were completely worn down and we had a puncture.)
• I had a very indecent proposal at the District Assembly Executive's house (not sure if that is his full title).
• The whole thing cost us about 20 Cedis.
• Sam got a flat on the way back.
  
• o ye...one last thing...SAM DROVE ME AND THE MOTORBIKE INTO A RIVER with me very calmly saying, 'no, no, no, stop, stop, no, No, NO...you fool.'

Okay i'm done, thanks for the compliments about the party Sam :-)

Abi

It is a long time since I posted any photos here, so here's one for your entertainment:

This is me petting a crocodile at Paga. As you can see, I my hair is braided. I took it out shortly after putting it in because sleeping was rather uncomfortable.

Last Wednesday's party went quite well. The pasta salad and pizza was not a massive hit with our Ghanaian friends, however. We all loved it, Abi (and others, but mainly Abi) did an amazing job.

On Thursday Abi and I were supposed to go to Karaga, but we didn't because Mr Sulley had not had all the necessary repairs done to the motorbikes.

On Friday we actually did go to Karaga. We spent three hours riding there and three hours riding back, all so we could deliver a couple of letters to the DCE, and lobby him, which consisted of telling him about the project and him saying 'yes, we'll fund it'. This was not, we felt, worth sending 3 people on a 6-hour, 140-km round trip.

On Sunday, Mr Sulley got married to his second wife. We went in the morning to the mosque, where we got a speech from some kind of community leader. We then went to Mr Sulley's house, where we ate outside with a lot of other people. We then went home for a bit and Pnina and I came back at about 3:30 to see some dancers. These were the best dancers we'd seen since coming to Ghana, but not all of us went because some people weren't feeling well.

That brings us up to date. Keep reading!

One week of volunteering left

Rachael: The teachers here get about 10 quid a month. Maybe you should reconsider. Being British i should imagine you will get a visa very easily! Trust me, I am looking forward to coming home and eating proper food, everything here is rice related which is one of the reasons it was nice to go to a French country, they have passion for more than just rice. What I wouldn't give for a nice burger or a pizza from salvos, or meat strudle, or chicken and roast potatoes aaaaaagggggggggghhhhhh...
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sorry drifted off there

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Anyway, there is only one week of volunteering left before we go back to Elmina in the south for a week to learn more about the slave trade. We will also be going to a safari next sunday.
With one week left to go I have to wonder how much effect what I have done will actually make. I hope that what I have done in terms of time-table and a change in the teaching style for some of the teachers will help to improve that quality of the education that the girls get but in reality I know that only time will really tell.

Other people have been writing really long documents, I've taken the opposite approach this week and written the teachers ten commandments, a one page guide with explanation of each of my commandments. The sole reason of doing this was to empower the teachers as most of the commandments really just relate to being confident, installing confidence in the girls and also being willing to be experimental with what they teach, or more to the point how they teach it.

Tzedek worker Dan has visited Gigdev and explained that whilst Tzedek might not have so much money this year he is still hoping that he will be able to give Gigdev something. This is good because I think Gigdev has got a very strong outreach and that money towards micro-credit projects would help them make this outreach stronger. Once again, as with everything, we shall have to see what happens. Nothing that is done or said here is written in stone.

Malaria, adverse drug reactions, and witches

Last Tuesday (that is, 8 days ago, Tuesday 5th) I took my mefloquine shortly before going to bed. In the middle of the night I woke up feeling rather ill. This leads me to think that my previous 'food poisoning', which occurred on a Tuesday morning less than an hour after taking my mefloquine, was actually a reaction to the drug. This theory has been further confirmed by my reaction to the mefloquine last night, which was identical to the previous week.

On Wednedsay (the 6th) we went to Bolga as a group. We found a hotel to stay in (GHc 5/person/night, staying in double rooms). We stayed there until Friday. During this time we did a number of quite interesting things.

We went to a place called Paga, near the border with Burkina Faso. At Paga there is a pool with crocodiles in it, which you can approach with impunity. I can't post photos of me with a crocodile, because I don't have my pictures with me at the moment, but I shall try to upload some soon. There is also an 'ancient village' (the guy extracting money from tourists claims the buildings and the paintings on them are 500 years old, but the metal pipe built into one of them proclaims that they were, in fact, made last week by a man in Birmingham).

On Thursday we went to see an NGO called Afrikids. You can look it up on the Internet for more information about it. We went to their office in the morning, but before going to see their projects I was taken ill, and Dan and Olivia went with me to the Afrikids medical centre, where I was diagnosed with malaria, of the Plasmodium falciparum variety. I was given a course of drugs to take, which I finished on Saturday. After resting in the hotel, I rejoined the group in time to see Mama Laadi's foster home.

On Friday, Sasha, Dan and Joel went to Burkina Faso, while the rest of us headed back to Tamale via a witch village. We never actually reached the witches, due to the poor quality of the road, and the fear that it would rain, leaving us stuck in the middle of nowhere in Ghana over Shabbat.

On Monday (11th) I spent more or less the whole day in the hospital with Mr Sulley, who has hypertension. This did mean that I met another English doctor: a woman this time, named Emma, who went to Cambridge to do the graduate entry medical course.

That brings us to today, Wednesday 13th. We are having a party at the house this evening, for a lot of the people we work with. I will let you know at some point how that goes. My name is Sam Borin, and you've just been filled in.

;)

Whoops

You can tell i'm not a frequent blogger, just published the same post twice and can't figure out how to delete it! Sam...? Joel...? Help...?

Q: What comes before part B? A: Part A!!! Wooo!

I'm sitting at my favorite internet cafe, one of the few buildings in Tamale, possibly in the whole of Ghana, with aircon! However today they seem to be testing my loyalty to the place and have turned it off. Great!

My nose is running and my ears are blocked (the Tzedek cold being passed around the house is in full swing) and I’m suffering from a lack of sleep due to last nights celebrations. Jo's brother is engaged (Mazel Tov Mummy June!) and Jo also received a parcel complete with kosher sweets (g-d bless Candy Planet) and some dodgy pub quiz game. Whilst the whole house was shrieking over the impossible questions on the lap top (many of Tzedek's volunteers seem to have a 'slight' competitive streak in them) I was slaving away in the kitchen making a kosher cake in a pan on top of the stove. You can't accuse me of not having initiative!

Tonight is our official party to say thank you to all the NGOs for looking after us so well during our trip. This has been a long time coming as we still need to return the favour of them taking us all out for lunch on our first day here. However, the issue of food will prove to be very interesting... Ghanaians don't like the majority of our food and we have trouble getting used to theirs. What we miss dearly (cheese!!!!!!!) they have no interest in eating at all! Also they rarely eat cakes and sweets which in my view are essential to any party! This is just one of the many cultural obstacles we face here, whist I respect their opinion on the matter I’m still convinced that if I get my chocolate cake just right they'll see the light. It's only fair, I've spent the last two Sundays in church being preached to, now it’s their turn! I'm also going to attempt to make enough pizza with cheese more expensive than gold in an oven smaller than my suitcase...slightly worried though some would argue it's character building right??!!

Okay enough about food and parties and sweating in an internet cafe were the slow connection means that a page takes on average two minutes to load...'What about the rest of your trip?' I hear you say. 'Why is this your second entry in six weeks?' Well my excuses are poor, its just seems that everyone else says it so much better!

Last night Dan (Tzedek Dan) conducted a session which led us to reflect on our experiences here. He asked us to list three challenges we have faced and three lessons learnt. Mine were as follows;

Challenges;

• Communication
• Seeing the way women are treated here.
• Food (don't act like you're surprised!)

Lessons learnt;

• Patience
• Learning to accept and try to understand other people's opinions and customs despite not agreeing with them.
• Fully appreciating how lucky I am to have been born in the UK.

I think the above is self explanatory. It was really beneficial to actually discuss our experience in this manner whilst comparing it to our worries and hopes before the trip. I can almost certainly claim that we have all had our perception of poverty, Ghana and ourselves somewhat altered in the past six weeks. We have all learnt a tremendous amount about development and the positive (and possibly negative) effects we can have on developing peoples. During our orientation a phrase often said to us as volunteers was, 'do no harm'. Two months is an incredibly short time to have an impact within our NGOs. We are all novices in development and are here to learn.

I'm sure I could ramble on for the rest on my allotted internet time but the real reason I’m here is to finish my NGO's website...http://www.prowacid.moonfruit.com

(Mum and Granny I will write more, I promise!)

Abi

Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou

A really good weekend featuring:

A chocolate croissant
An apple flambe
French bread with Philadelphia
Overly persistent market sellers
One overly persistent racist market seller
Leather bangles for Rachael
Two strikes in bowling
Two days in a old nunnery, now hostel, still run by nuns
A lovely cathedral
Lots of French
Maisel about to smack a market seller
Dan eating Chinese (The food, not the people)
A cheese omelet
Lemon sorbet
French Wachi (no sauce, more salt and oil)
An air conditioned supermarket solely designed for rich people
CFA (roughly 1000-1.50)
A thoroughly good time

I had a great time and am glad I decided to change my mind and go!

More on life in Ghana...

Hello everyone - I apologise it has been quite a while since my last entry. But here is an update of life in Ghana.

Before I begin I want to clarify something that Joel said - I did not at all 'pray hard to Jesus' on our church visit last week. I think he is bitter because I annoyed him for the three hours we sat outside in the rain waiting for the very long church service to finish!!!

The last few weeks have been good and busy. I have been working hard at my organisation. Now the school where I was teaching has vacated for the summer holiday I am no longer traveling to the village every day. Instead I am now working in the office doing various things. I have been writing up a teacher manual for the school, as currently the teachers have no guidelines whatsoever and just teach what they feel like teaching. Hopefully what I am writing will be used in September to boost the quality of teaching in the school. It's quite sad though as we have only two more weeks of volunteering! It has gone so fast and I feel like I have so much more to do in such a little time... but we all knew before we came that the actual volunteering time we had was short. I will just try and make the most of the time left!

Last week we went on a three day trip to Bolgatanga in the north. The trip consisted of us visiting the NGO Afrikids, driving on really bad roads, having our photos taken with crocodiles, driving on really bad roads, walking across the Burkino Faso border (whatever Sasha, Dan and Joel say, we all walked across the border!!!) and getting our car stuck in mud. All in all, I'd say the roads were the highlight. ;) Seriously though, Afrikids was very interesting to visit and we saw some really good projects that they run. It was great to see how children who have lost almost everything have had smiles returned to their faces by the Afrikids projects. But also, getting the car stuck was an experience. One the villagers who came to help us get the car out said, and I quote, 'I will go to find more black men to help'. Sorry to say, the English boys didn't make such a difference to the final effort to move the car... It was shocking how bad the roads are here, but I guess a government who can't afford to boost the education system is hardly going to spend money on roads that aren't used very often... But it does show us what daily life is like for the villagers. It is very difficult for them to transport their crops to sell in the town when the roads are so bad.

Many of us seem to have fallen ill this week - now both Sasha and Sam have malaria. But don't worry parents, they have their medication and are feeling fine. It was about time some of us got malaria after all! Today those of us who fasted the 25hour fast of Tisha b'Av survived with no problems. It was an experience to mourn over the destruction of Jerusalem out here in Ghana!

Anyway, I think that's all for now - I am getting attacked from all angles by lots of bugs in this Internet cafe and I think it's time for me to go...
Thanks for reading!
xXx

Stories from Bimbilla

On Thursday of last week, myself and Karim (the program manager at my NGO) went to a town named Bimbilla to do some research and find out what new projects could be implemented in some of the communities we work with. Here a little diary of the trip:

Thursday -

Our bus was booked for 11:30, however they are notoriously late so we didnt even bother turning up till 12:30, and the bus didnt leave till 14:00...
Arrived at the guesthouse, which was a little basic so I had to learn how to wash myslef out of a bucket, amazing how little water you actually need to clean yourself!

Friday -

Woken up at 5:00 by Karim praying, had breakfast of Ghanaian porridge and doughnut like bread, then headed off on the motorbikes to a village called Kadjeso, on the way stopping off at the Nanumba South district assembly anbd ministry of agriculture to say hello.
The road was so dusty that by the end I was more orange than a footballers wife.
We met with the community and discussed their development and their needs. I pumped a bucket of water out of the bore hole (surprisingly hard work), met the village alcoholic, chief and drug addict. Also lots of breastfeeding, which is a very public thing here. We also spoke to a man who showed us a huge hernia through his clothes, that could be easily treated but whether its due to lack of transport, his fear of hospitals or something else he wont visit a health centre, and will probably die from it.
I also discovered that ive become a christian priest; in these rural areas they rarely see white people and when they do they are usually priests. So as we were travelling through these villages all the children shouted out to me "father!".
In the evening I think I spent my first ever Friday night without any other Jews.

Saturday -

Went to a village called Gundow, on arrival saw a baby lying on a mat outside looking very sick with a swollen head and covered in flies. What I found most disturbing is that I didnt find this particularly shocking, its terrible but ive actually become acclimatised to the poverty here.

I also got another marriage proposal from the cook at the restaurant we went to in the evening!

Sunday -

Rained in morning so didnt get up till 8:00, travelled to village called Kukuo where women accused of witchcraft are sent to be "controlled". We had a meeting with around 20 of them, I asked them a list of prepared questions, following which (pun not intended) we discussed more about their lives. It was very sad to find out about what they had been through. The women accussed of witchcraft are normally from 3 particular groups:
1. Widows
2. Those who are infertile (or havent had children)
3. Those who only had girls as children
Some are also accused if their fellow villagers become envious of them and want to steal their money or produce.
However once taken to Kukuo they are treated relatively well. (theres lots more to say about the women but not enough time, so ask me when im back)

We then travelled to Juanayilli, on the way we were stopped at 2 police checkpoints by polie looking for bribes. We didnt cough up though.
In Juanayilli we had the pleasure of meeting the most drunk man i have ever seen! He stumbled up to me pointing at the 4 toes on his left foot while making aggressive begging gestures. All the villagers found this hilarious and proceeded to take all the money out of this mans pockets. Once the meeting with the community started he kept coming over and interrupting with his load grunts. Every time this happened soemone would pick him up over their shoulder and carry him away whilst everyone else laughed at him (it was very funny!) I later learnt that he was a mad man and had won the lotto to the tune of 40 cedis (about 20 pounds, a v.large sum in these areas) and spent most of it on booze. I also found out he has a wife and 3 children which is pretty sad, what hope have they got?

Monday -

Met the local water and sanitation board that services around 28,000 people. They told us of how they are in massive debt as noone pays their water bills. When they cut people or institutions off for not paying they invariably recieve a call from some local politician demanding reconnection. If this continues they may have to stop operating, so we have begun to plan a strategy with them to get people paying their bills. (There's more to say but no time, so again ask me when i get back)

Went to local hospital to discuss building of new nutrition centre that we are looking for funding for.

That concludes the diary of my trip to Bimbilla! hope you found it interesting (even if I didnt write everything I wanted to). Will write soon xx

Gigdev greatness and Burkina

Ouagadou dou dou, try banana its tasty , to the left to the right.....

In Ouagadou now and it definitley feels very different to what i am used to in Ghana, we are staying near a cathedral, more on that later

I have only done two days in Gigdev this week which is a shame because the teachers are really starting to come on, in my opinion. The education of english and maths is only a small but necessary part of Gigdev, frankly I don't think i am needed in the other areas because Gigdev has them sussed to the best of their ability at the moment. Of course more computers would be great and we urgently need them but there is a plethora of other tools Gigdev are also desperate for. Anyway what i am trying to say is that I think Gigdev is doing a brilliant job considering the tools at our desposal and when I get home I would like to help them out further.

More to follow on Burkina soon...

Africa's hospitals, illiterate kids, and an upcoming trip to Burkina Faso

I think I'm probably one of the laziest people in the group when it comes to updating this blog, but what's the need, normally Joel says everything I ever want to before I get there anyway!

So I've (and Dan, who kindly accompanied me) spent the morning in a lovely (read appalling) Ghanaian hospital before discovering I have a mild bout of malaria - we always knew one of us was going to get it! The hospital was such a bureaucratic nightmare you had to take about 8 tours of the whole building just to get anything done. Nonetheless, I can't complain, 5 hours wait isn't really so bad, and the doctor took great pains to show me the World Health approval on all the needles! There were a ridiculously large number of women and young babies in the hospital, all who looked far sicker than me (and I'm pretty sure I was ushered through much quicker than them). So, now armed with a vast amount of tablets I'm all ready for our trip to Bolga tomorrow (after which Joel, Dan and I are going to Ougadogou in Burkina Faso for a few days! It's all very exciting!

School is also going well, although I've been getting so frustrated with the differences in ability in my class - It's impossible to teach 20 kids - some of whom can't read a word and other's whose reading is perfect!) it just means that invariably half my class are bored (and therefore behaving terribly) all the time! So, for the summer school that we're putting on for them next week I've come up with a solution that will hopefully solve this. The stronger (re: smart) kids will be coming daily from 8-10, and the weaker (re: stupid) kids will come from 10:30 until 2! I'm really excited about this plan and really hope that it'll make some difference. I've also decided to hold half of my class back (10 kids) to repeat the year - I honestly don't know what they've been doing all year because they can't do simple addition or multiplication, and when they are reading they think that every word that begins with c must be cat, and every word that begins with f must be father! It's very infuriating!

Well that's enough of a rant now - I'm actually really enjoying myself and despite the malaria am loving africa!

xx

Go Gigdev

The teachers are finally understanding why little classes that are more focussed work better.

-

As soon as I saw Olivia, I showed her the Wachi place (because food is more important than everything else).Olivia does not like the idea of drinking water from a bag, we shall see how long it takes her to convert.

I've ACTUALLY made a difference....

...a small difference, but a difference all the same.

Since I've been here I've been stressing (quietly) about the fact that i really don't seem to be helping. I'm teaching, yes, and it's great that these children can see a new culture and hear English how it should sound (yes, even though i'm from manchester). But so what? Who cares if they're never going to see an english person again except for perhaps next summer when another voluteer comes. BUT, today i made a breakthrough. I did something that's going to actually help these children!

So, the lazy teachers that i'm working 'with' (read: he sits on his phone all day whilst i teach the class - with a 40 minute break ALL DAY!) filled in their reports today (by making up the class marks so that everybody should be moved to the next year) and i disagreed aboput 2 students.

Suabira: I met Suabira in my second week of teaching, she was ill the first week. She's a quiet girl who's sweet enough but lacks the confidence to do anything. On top of that, she finds the work exceptionally difficult and can't do her times tables (even when i spent 3 hours getting her to learn the 8 & 9 x tables) and her reading is a little shaky. She failed her maths and english exams miserable (amongst others) yet my teacher recommended she move up to P4 (i teach P3). What a joke? I found out today that her attendace is poor because she suffers from sickle-cell anaemia, and as such has missed a lot of work. I made the executive decision to keep her back in P3 (which the school is entitled to do) so that she can catch up the work. If she were pushed forward, she wouldn't cope.

Gifty: I met Gifty on my first day. She's one of the most beautiful girls i've ever met AND she has a personality (if only she were 10 years older a jewish :(....). We start lessons and i can't quite put my finger on what's not right with her....after about a week, it hits me - She's super intelligent. She gets all her work right and then disrupts the class because she's bored. She got 98% in her english exam , 96% in science and 89% in maths. I found out that she'd already skipped straight from P1 to P3 last year. My teacher felt (or should i say, didn't think and was just lazy) that she should move to P4. I would normally agree, especially for the emotional development of a child that skipping years isn't a good idea but in this case i've made an exception. Gifty is intelligence, articulate, full of personality and is at least as mature as any other child in the class (or the class above). So Gifty is moving to P5!!!! She needs to be challenged otherwise her brain will rot.

I know how insignificant that sounds but for me, it's HUGE! I've helped somebody progress at the right pace for them.

More good news on the school front, THEY'RE GETTING NEW TEXT BOOKS! The ones we use at the moment (that only the teacher has a copy of at the moment) look so tattered and old and are in fact, rubbish.

The biggest problem (i think) with ghanaian children (from an academic POV) is that they have no imagination. They don't have money to buy books and schools don't place emphasis on it so they can't do anything. If anybody can think of how i can instill imagination in these children OR know where i can buy cheap school readers for the school library (that doesn't exist) then please let me know - i really want to help these kids!

IN OTHER NEWS:
a) Olivia is arriving tomorrow morning
b) We're going to Bolgatanga, Gambada (the witch camp) and Paga from Wednesday to Friday.
c) On Friday myself, Sasha and Joel are going to Burkina Faso (the country that is north of Ghana). We will be staying in the capital: Ouagadougou. It's francophone so i can practice my (sadly neglected) French.

Oh, i knew i had something else to say! In the village yesterday, i felt really embarassed and unworthy. We came to this village (2 hours late) and all the villagers hadf come out to celebrate our arrival, i thought i'd got used to that but apparently not. We went to the chief's palace (read: slightly harger mud hut than the others) and he welcomed up. We went back to the square and there were women and children carrying these seats for us to sit on. The CHIEF (FYI: Chief is a BIG thing here) was sat on a bench yet I could sit on a cushioned seat. WHo am I? I'm an anaonymous uni student, why should I get the nice seats when the man who has earnt the respect and who leads to whole village must be demoted to a wooden bench. I don't feel worthy but i suppose that's the curse of having white skin :(

I think that's it. I can always write more later or tomorrow

Ciao for now

[Sorry for the rant, again]

The one with the weekend

Another weekend has gone!!!!

Saturday was Saturday, some people saw the car we shall be travelling in throughout the second half of the week, fanta was drunk by the majority, Perudo was played and Sam was going off on one about something the rest of us could not comprehend. Yes, twas a normal Shabbos.

Sunday morning, we were up early in church by 8 ready to congratulate Madame Cecelias daughter who had graduated from a small course (something in the name of Jesus). Pnina and Jo both prayed very hard together and said it was just like praying to Jesus at home, what with the singing of hymns and testifying to the audience. At 10, Jo and Pnina decided they wanted more church and so Madame Cecila showed us another more busy one with more singing this was followed by Lunch: macoroni salad and then more food and more dancing.

We then got in a mini bus on took on a bumpy journey to another villiage where we met the chief and watched Peter sordidly dance behind younger womens [*ahem*] behinds. We took loads of photos especially of one kid that I have decided looks more badass than the rest of them. It was good. By six o clock we were home and knackered. We all went to bed fairly early

Aron, Aron go away, come again another day....(maybe)

The weather this week has been a particular talking point in the Tzedek household. On Thursday Abi, Sam, Sasha, Joel and Dan decided to go out for dinner and Pnina and I planned to go and use the interent. About 30 minutes after they left we were about to take the short walk to the internet cafe when the heavens opened. Now in Ghana when it rains it really pours! I ran outside to bring all the bikes into the garage (the great housemate I am) and in that 1 minute of being outside I got absolutley soaked. We then spent the next 5 mins running round the house shutting the windows, trying to control the garage door which was being flooded by water only to find that the roof had started to leak a little! One bukket later and wearing rubber shoes (I'm terrified of lightening!) all was fine. The others though had to shelter in the restaurant (with no walls!) for the couple of hours that it rained for! Never again will I complain about English rain!

Work is still going very well. There is only one week left of school before the holidays and then Dan, Sasha and I will be running 2 weeks of summer classes. I'm really going to miss my kids! Even though I complain on a daily basis that I've taught them how to read a clock for nearly 3 weeks and some of them still say half past instead of both quarter past and quarter to!!!

This week though I have found a new level of frustration with the Ghanian school system. All our classes are taking thier end of year exams and they are causing the teachers no end of stress. Firstly we spent a fair amount of time going through the exam papers and correcting all the terrible English in them which our school teachers ignored and printed their own versions which don't make any sense at all. Secondly some of the questions on the papers are truely rediculous, for instance: Environmental Studies paper - 'Name 4 animals that do wonderful things?' WHAT DOES THAT MEAN??? Maths Paper - 'Which of these is a multiple of 7: 22, 43, 69?' UM NONE OF THEM!!!!!
On top of this I spent an entire day recalculating all the percentages from their entire years worth of work as they had all been worked out incorrectly! I just can't believe the teachers at this school and it's really making me wonder if anything can be done to help the school when their teachers are so terrible.

Officer's log, stardate 02/08/08, Northern Region

On Tuesday, I got food poisoning. This was probably due to the rice and beans I had for lunch on Monday. I was feeling fine when I got up in the morning, but during my motorbike ride to work I began to feel a bit strange. Just as I arrived at work I felt very ill, so I stopped just inside the SCC yard and promptly vomited onto a pile of rubbish. I immediately felt much better, but decided that just in case this was the beginning of something more serious, I should go to the hospital. So I told Mr Sulley, and he took me to Tamale Central Hospital. I registered, and got an appointment, when a doctor came up to us and said that he would see me. I was stunned, as he had a London accent! Turns out he was trained at George's. Anyway, he examined me and concluded that I had food poisoning, and should rest for the remainder of the day. This I did, undertaking only such unstrenuous activities as a trip to the market to get supplies for the others in the house.

On Wednesday Abi came to work at Nfasimdi Development Association. Since then we have been into the field several times and tried to fill out a proposal with Mr Sulley.

I think that's about all for now. I'll report again when I have more material of interest.

Photo's 3

And here are the final photographs. Don't have much time to talk but here's a summary of what I am doing:

- Writing lesson plans for numeracy and literacy

- Assisting lessons

- Rewritten the timetable so that teaching is in smaller groups and teachers have a set responsability to particular groups

- Still trying to find spare time to sew

So all in all pretty busy!!! A nice little photo taken by Sasha on her posh D20
Another one from Sasha (desktop wallpaper worthy?)
Me in the mango and pineapple forest
A maize field outside of the GDCP

Jo and Sasha outside a village


Hope everyone is well. Will blog again soon

Photo's 2

Everyone in the back of the "vehicle" on the way to GDCP
The mango and pineapple forest in the village
Dan with more than he can handle
Simli radio where we sang Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu
Me and a chief (the one in green, Pnina's face is behind the pillar (sorry!!!)

Dancing Photos

And so the prodigal son returns. To all my fans, I'm sorry about the lack of my blogliness over the last week and will try and maintain my blogability at a much more suitable pace. and now... MORE PHOTO'S!!

These are from the night of dancing!!! Enjoy

Faxes, love and development

Good morning from Ghana!

I'll begin with an funny, but slightly scary, story about a woman who has declared her undying love for me.
Since I had my bag stolen a month ago ive been trying to sort out the insurance in England and getting a new passport with the British embassy in Accra. The lack of sufficent technology i.e. scanners, adobe acrobat, reliable internet etc... has been so frustrating! To get all these forms filled out and sent ive been going to a fax office in the bus station in Tamale. Ive probably been about 5 times and spent less than an hour and a half there. However, last night I recieved a text from the woman who works there - Agnes (no she is not a Scottish man, rather a 40 year old 5ft tall Ghanaian). The text was a little disturbing with her proclaiming her love for me, and then this morning calling me at 6.20 three times! I'm a little scared but the main problem is i'm going to need to send more faxes and there is no way I can go back there!

Anyway enough about Agnes, i wanted to write something about my experiences and views of development.

It can be a pretty frustrating business to be involved in, take this case study as an example.
A German woman called Ricarda has been living and volunteering in Ghana for nearly a year and has spent the last month living in a rural village called Kadjeso attempting to assist them with their development. She has worked with my NGO (WUZDA) in the past so was in the office the other day where I got a chance to chat to her about it.

She went to the village with about 250 pounds to spend on helping them with a specific area of their economic activity. When she arrived she spoke to the people in the community attempting to find out what would be most beneficial to them. After a community discussion the general feeling was that a gari presser would assist them most. (Gari is a type of food product, which before it is sent to market must be squeezed to remove the water from it). To press it they had been placing, large, heavy stones on top of the bags of gari to squeeze out the moisture. The problem with this method is it takes around 4 days per bag. Using the presser would take around 5 hours per bag. So it was decided she would buy a gari presser for them.

However two issues arose; firstly with only one machine and around 30 women involved in gari processing it cannot benefit the majority of them. Secondly and most importantly came the issue of transport. The market is around 24km away from the village with a very poor network of roads. Noone in the village owns a car so the women carry their produce to market on their heads. Even if they are able to produce more gari, or whatever food, it is of little assistance as they cant physically get any more to market. The women know this and so have little incentive to produce more goods.

This demonstrates some of the frustrations one can face, with what actually being needed (new roads and a car) being far too expensive to even consider. As well as it being very difficult to know what steps to take first in the developent process.

DON'T read this and think that development cannot achieve anything! There are ways round this problem, such as purchasing more pressers and some donkeys to assist with the transport. That is the great thing about development, overcoming these challenges. (Don't you love a bit of cheese)

This afternoon i'm off to a town called Bimbilla about 2.5 hours away for 6 days. I'm going with my boss, Karim, and we'll be visiting a few communities in the area, meeting the district assembly, talking to the water & sanitation boards and meeting the women who live in a witch camp. I'll update you in the next blog about what we get up to and anything interesting that happens.

Thanks for reading! xx

"For only $10 a month you can save an African village...."

Dearest Darling Blog,

Firstly, a few announcements:
1) Joel is not in fact, dead. All those adoring fans that avidly read his DAILY blog entries must not worry....GIGDEV's internet is broken and Joel is actually doing some work now ;)

2) I was meant to be the one to post about the weekend but stupid Ghana decided to have a power cut JUST before i pressed PUBLISH POST....

3) Aaron just got a REALLY funny text from a 40 year old woman who works in a fax place telling him that he was the love of her life (he's sat here next to me).

Now on to the maishow:

How many Oxfam adverts do you see on TV? How often has the african child with a swollen belly and flies in his/her eyes flashed before your eyes? How many times have you thought 'Oh, that's sad' before the advert flicks to some annoying car insurance ad or personal injury lawyers and that african child and their entire life dissolves from your memory?

I have to say, i'm guilty as the rest of you! Having now visited that generic african village i can tell you that i intend to pay a lot more attention in the future. I genuinely cannot comprehend the depths of poverty that i'm seeing, it's painful at times.

Over theweekend all these men were asking what England's like, they were amazed that parents are forced to send their children to school and that they can go to prison for not doing so. Half ofese men can't afford to finish their education. For half of them, their parents force them to drop out so they can help out on the farm. Without an education you don't have a life. It makes me so angry when i think of truants in the UK. How dare they take for granted the amazing opportunity they have ot better themselves when there are millions of african who crave just a basic education.

On monday in school, the brother of a girl in Jo's class had died the night before. They'd buried him at 6.30am and she was inb school happy as larry at 8am. We thought this was really bizarre and we went to visit the girls parents when school had finished to send our condolences. These people live in mudhuts, that just about have running water never mind electricity. Essentially no access to the hospital. A consultation in the state hospital costs around 5 quid (10 ghana cedis) but the average wage of a ghanaian is just 1 ghana cedi every day (that's 50p/day). How is anybody meant to afford it?! I feel so lucky to be living in a country with an NHS. You can slag it off as much as you want but whoever you are, whether you're a citizen or not, illegal immigrant or not you will be treated for free. I think about this little boy (he was 2 and a half, btw) and how he probably had a condition that was SO EASY TO CURE but because his famnily couldn't afford healthcare he died. ANOTHER depressing example: The lady that built the school we're working in is trying to build another school in a village. This village were meant ot put on a cultural celebration for us last sunday. We got a call mid-morning telling us that a woman had died during childbirth and that unfortunately we had to cancel the celebrations. This is tragic, how easily could this be cured.

I know i'm ranting but its shocking. You see your african child on TV and it really doesn't affect you that much sat on your leather couch,. watching the advert on your LCD TV, wearing your expensive clothes with a glass of clean tap water or supermarket bought juice but here, it's a way of life.

We were walking with loads of children on the saturday, i had one on my shoulders and 1 on either hand. so did the rest of us. I thought it was great! cute kids and good scenery. I was told when we got back to camp that these kids can't afford to go to school. and that's a cost of less than1 quid (note: there is no 'pound' symbol on this keyboard) a month. I felt like running up to their parents and handing out the money, but of course what does that achieve? THESE few kids get to go to school because the foreigner handed them money. What about the other millions? What's the solution? Should i have given these kids money to go to school? Whats 30 quid to me?

I hope that's given you some food for thought.

P.S. Parents, relative, friends: I'm not a hippy! [Although i am wearing african tribal outfit in this internet cafe, as is Aron. The locals (who happen to be wearing jeans and t-shirts are giving us weird looks)].....

i'm on my way

hi all, i hope this works - i think i have just figured out how to write on the blog. i have managed to read it though - sounds great there and like you have been doing some interesting stuff! can't wait to join you! am arriving in Accra on the 31st but it looks like unfortunately i might have to stay in Accra a few days sorting out my medical registration documents, but i'll keep you posted nearer the time. any last minute things you want me to bring ?. also what size/type mosquito net should i bring? will i be able to hang it somewhere or do i need the pop up one? really looking forward to seeing you all soon. olivia

Since last time

Well, some interesting stuff has happened since my last post. I actually did go to Karaga on Wednesday, but I forgot to protect myself adequately against the sun, so got badly sunburned and also felt rather ill that evening. My neck is now peeling - lovely. The heavy rain that prevented us from going to Karaga on Monday was even worse there, and their dam burst. This dam is their drinking water supply, so unless they can rebuild it before the dry season, they will have problems.

We went to Dalon on Friday, and made Shabbat in front of a lot of people at the Ghanaian Danish Community Project there. We also had an audience with the chief, went on the project's radio station, and had a very bumpy ride back in a pickup truck.

Well, that's about all for now. When something else happens I'll let you know.

The most surreal shabbat ever

This weekend we went to the nearby village of Dalun. Joel has written an entry about our whole trip so I don't want to bore you with repeating what he has said. Instead I will just write what my impressions and feeling where from our visit. (So for the details please read Joel's blog before mine!)

I have, by now, become accustomed to being one of the only eight Jews in Ghana (that we know about anyway!) and I have become used to explaining what Judaism is to people who have never heard of a Jew before. But only this weekend it hit me what that really meant - and how I was one of only two Jews in the whole of Ghana (and possibly even West Africa) strictly keeping all of the laws of Shabbat. But this weekend it also hit me that, despite all the hardships this may bring about, how important it was that I am here in Africa. It was the most surreal thing ever this Friday night as we sang Kabbalat shabbat and made kiddush with about 30 Ghanaians before explaining to them what Judaism was all about. They all seemed to think our religion was great and wanted to know how to convert! It was great to tell people about our religion, and obviously not for any missionary purposes because Judaism discourages converts, but just so that these people know something else about the world. And of course, it was highly amusing to have Ghanaian Muslims wishing us 'Shabbat Shalom' (or rather variations of it that they could remember) throughout Shabbat.

The trip was so interesting as my first proper visit to an African village. We had a tour around the village, met many of the villagers and paid a visit to the local Chief in his palace. They were so welcoming and friendly to us, as all other Ghanaians we have come across have been. I certainly learnt a lot from this weekend as I saw the huge differences between rural life and the towns. Whatever I thought about the problems of urban Ghana, the villages have it so much worse. Many of the children we met don't go to school, either because of lack of money or because their parents want them to help at home or in the farm, and the young adults we met have mostly finished school yet have no funds to continue their education but at the same time are unable to find jobs. It just seems like an endless cycle of poverty. But we found the villagers happy because it rained heavily over the weekend which means a good harvest.

And I cannot finish without mentioning our cultural entertainment on Friday night were the local danced for us - and of course we joined it much to their amusement! I don't quite think we heard the rhythm as well as them... but at least we tried!

And something else I have just seen that Joel has forgotten to mention. The NGO we stayed at had its own radio station for the local area. On Saturday morning we had a tour of the centre which ended in the radio station - where they then told us to go speak live on air, which resulted in Sam sounding very British and Aron giving a shout out to the chief (I'm still not sure how acceptable that was!) and us singing the song 'Od yavo shalom aleinu, Saalam....'. We were convinced no one would have heard, but later on in the day I met a guy who asked me what the song had meant! So we sung a Jewish song about peace on Ghanaian radio station - something else that added to the surreal nature of our weekend!

Chiefs, Palaces and Mango forests

This weekend has been incredibly interesting!!

Friday morning:we were whisked away to Dalun (or Dalon as people seem to call it). Once we had settled at the NGO where we were going to be sleeping we went along to a lesson for adults about conflict management in a Village half an hour away. The men seemed to contribute a lot more than the women who for the most part were very quiet but everybody seemed happy especially after Peter taught everybody a song about the importance of togetherness. A minutes drive later and we were in a Chiefs palace getting our photo taken with him. He seemed very happy to have us and after a quick talk to him (with the help of a translator) we went back to the NGO (Ghanain Danish Community Programme).

We then had a kabalat Shabbat around a table for about 16 of us and when we started singing more people joined us. This was very surreal and was followed by a question and answer session that seemed to go on for the rest of the trip away from Jisonayili. The singing seemed to attract more people and also made people more interested in what being Jewish actually was. Murderer Nina was very good at explaining most things and people went away happy.

And then the true highlight of the evening... African dancing and drumming. Yes, I had a go at playing the drums and Maisel took loads of photos of people dancing too. We also tried to teach some Israeli dancing but we were so interested in theirs that it didn't last very long.

Sleep...

In the morning after making a short visit to Simli radio (which P'nina is explaining more about) we went to see the Chief of the Village. He was very happy to accept our offering of Fanta and Coke (a crate load) and after sharing Kola nuts with each other (a symbol of friendship because when you break them in half they look like a heart). He told us about some of the problems and then we went off to visit the village, we went into a youth centre, saw fish being prepared, frogs mating, got accosted by kids (Dan seemed a bit too eager to put them on his shoulders trying to get me to do the same), and also saw a pineapple and mango forest which I though was very cool.

In the afternoon we met some of the people to talk more about Jewish and English culture and discuss the differences and then we went back home with some us on the back of a pickup truck (I don't know why Sam and Sasha seemed so comfortable in the back, I was sure I was going to fall out at times). When we left people wished us Shaba Shalo or Shalom Shab or just plain Shaaa. We knew what they meant...

Todays activity has been cancelled because there has been a death in the community but we are all still extremely happy with our experience.

P.S. sorry Dan

Photos from Pnina's Collection

This is the second half of my photo extravaganza: Pnina's photos so without further ado:
Here we have:

- lots of school kids from Teacher Nina's school
- Teacher Nina teaching
- Braided Nina cutting a birthday cake (Braided Nina sold seperately)
- More of teacher Nina's school children
- Everyone together bar T-Nina (Captions for Peter are urgently needed for this photo!)

Till next time...

Photos from Dans collection

Murderer Pnina, I can't believe you had a mistake in your last blog! Im never talking to you again!

Anyway, today is photo extravaganza day starting off with some from Dans collection.

So let me explain: The first is me saying no. The second is Maisel about to round house kick the children (or maybe she was playing a game with them. I don't know). There is Dan with Gigdev kids and another shot is of kids Dan is normally with. Last but not least is the infamous Wachi (or rice & beans) that the great Ruki & Faki make for me and Dan almost every weekday lunch (this is the meat edition).

OK sorry about the spelling mistake that I am sure you have all noticed... You should know the keyboards here are really stiff and difficult to use so please don't judge us all for our mistakes... ;)

Week 3 in Ghana...

Hello everyone! I seem to be very unlucky with blog writing - I always manage to delete what I have written and have to start again, meaning I normally give up, but today I am determined yo publish a blog as it has been a while since I last wrote.

Since I last wrote I have just been working, settling in and trying to define my role and plan what I hope to do out here. I seem to have developed relationships with the children in my school and in my after school classes - although its very limited due to the language barrier. I wish I could communicate with them better, but we manage. In fact, I have fallen in love with many of the kids, it's just so hard not to as they are so adorable! (But don't worry, I have been talked out of my plans to sneak some back home with me ;) ) I have been trying to assist the teachers in classes to raise the level of their learning, which is quite basic as they are only nursery school kids. It means I have been teaching a lot of nursery rhymes (and learning a lot of Ghanain equivalents!) and going over the alphabet and basic counting and addition. At times over the last week the depth of the poverty out here has hit me - for example when I remember how most of the children come to school with no shoes, with hand-me-down clothes that do not fit them, often the clothes dirty and torn. Or when I focus on the lack of basic furniture - such as tables and chairs. The school where I teach in the village every day only has benches, when the children write they must kneel on the floor and lean on the benches. And then there are the children who often miss school when they have to look after their father's sheep for the day.

But there are so many good things also. Today I watched the smile on some of the children's faces I helped them to write out the alphabet properly. Or their enjoyment the other day when I took them pictures to colour in with coloured pencils. The work out here is challenging and the effect is slow to come about, but I just try to give the children love and attention on a simple level.

I am enjoying every moment and experience out here. Even Tuesday when in rained crazy amounts until 1.30pm so none of us could go to work, which was so frustrating at the time, turned out to be not so bad. I managed to survive the four days over the weekend when I hardly left the house - althought just barely! And I am now officially sick of Perudo, the game we all constantly play in the house. Cludeo has been an exciting addition - although I did not enjoy being the murderer (yes Joel, I read your blog, why was it obvious I was the murderer?!?!?!)

I just got my hair braided today - so now I feel very African! Will try to put pictures up of it soon.

That's all for now, I hope I have given you a good update. But just to re-emphasise for those who might have misunderstood me in the past - I am having an amazing time out here!

And thanks to everyone for your birthday wishes!