Sorry for the silence, but time for an update on what I’ve been up to in the last month. My last few days in Prampram were fun – the boys triumphed in the football competition and I had the piviledge of presenting the trophies! Unfortunately there were no trophies for the girls’ comeptitions – something I may have to rectify. We had a party on my last day of teaching, complete with pass the parcel, that the kids had never played before. Leaving some of my stuff in Prampram, I then spent 2 weeks travelling around Ghana, braving the trotros once again. It was great to see such a variety of places. I learnt about the slave trade at CapeCoast and Elmina castles, admired the tree top views on the canopy walkway at Kakum national park, chilled out with the backpackers in Kokrobite beach, fought off the men wanting to be my friend in Accra, strolled through the peaceful botanical gardens in Aburi, tasted coca beans and smelt the delicious aroma of cocoa beans drying near Koforidua and visited the beautiful Boti falls. After the adventures it was back to Prampram to say a very sad farewell to the children and the pastor before I headed to the airport. In typical Ghana style the taxi broke down on the way to the airport, but we made it in the end. Arriving to the winter weather in the UK was a bit of a shock to the system, but once I’d got a few layers on, it was actually nice to not be sweating from the heat all the time! I had a lovely week back at home. Mum cooked me scones and made me much missed cups of tea. Dad had recorded all the episodes of strictly for me, so I watched as many as humanly possible. I caught up with my nieces and nephews (and their parents of course) and had a quick visit to Cheltenham to see friends. Then it was time to prepare for Vietnam, the next part of my world tour. Shopping for toys and craft supplies for my volunteer placement, and then packing again, then my parents took yet another trip to the airport to see me off. And so began Anna’s adventures in Vietnam …. more of which in the next update.
About Ghana
The Global Volunteer Network currently has opportunities to help develop communities through our partner organization in Ghana. Volunteers will help our partner strengthen the organizational skills of local groups who are making efforts to reduce poverty in their region. For example, you could assist a small group of Ghanaian seamstresses and tailors in setting up a sewing training program for local youth. In this way you are volunteering for a short time with a long-term effect. The ultimate goal is to help local groups get to the point where they can approach and collaborate with the international development community as solid partners. In order to do that, we need volunteers with a wide range of skills and a strong belief in the value of sustainability.
This is a program for those interested in development projects who wish to play a leadership role and get highly immersed in a local project. Volunteers will bring the most value in their organizational skills, reliability, project and people management, and basic enthusiasm.
To learn more, please visit the Global Volunteer Network Ghana program page.
Recent Ghana Journals:
There are a lot of churches here in Prampram, and they are a focal point for the community. Most schools are set up by churches, although children don’t necessarily attend the school associated with their church. The churches all hold services on sunday mornings, but also have services, bible study and prayer meetings on most other days of the week too. It’s nice to walk around Prampram on a Sunday morning as you get to hear all the lovely music coming from the different churches that you pass. I’ve been to the pastor’s church (Deeper Life Church) but I also wanted to experience one of the more lively services that I’d heard. After asking at school, I decided to go to the Methodist church, with Beatrice, one of my students. Church starts early here, so we arranged to meet at the tro tro station just before 8am. In the end, Beatrice couldn’t go to church on sunday (she had to carry concrete blocks to the trotro station for her mother – you should see Beatrice – she’s tiny!). Anyway, Beatrice walked me to church and a lady inside welcomed me. The service started shortly after 8am, but with a very small congregation- they arrived in dribs and drabs over the next hour or so. The service was amazing! It started with singing praise songs. I didn’t know the words but could join in with the clapping and dancing! They even tried to get me to join in their dancing and hanky waving at the front! There were some readings, in dangbe and english, lots of praying, and several hymns – including some extras that the minister added when he felt like it. It was a communion service, very similar to those I’ve been to before, except the wine was served in individual tiny plastic glasses – like mini shot glasses! When it was time for the collection, instead of passing round a basket, everyone danced their way up to the collection box at the front with their money, like a conga! Towards the end of the service, the minister welcomed people attending the church for the first time and asked us to go up to the front. Being the only white person there, I was pretty conspicuous, so couldn’t get out of it! I ended up having to speak to the whole congregation, using a microphone, to tell them my name and where I’m from. Speaking some of this in Dangbe seemed to go down well as I got a round of applause! The service went on for over 4 hours!! Apart from my bum being slightly numb from sitting on a hard pew for so long, it didn’t seem that long at all. The two churches that I’ve visited so far have seemed relatively well off compared with the other houses and buildings in Prampram. For example they have electric fans and fairly modern sound systems. People in the congregation donate some of their very little money to their church as a tithe. Whilst this initially might seem surprising, it’s clear that to the people of prampram their church is a hugely important part of their lives, so I can understand why they do this.
Monday was a public holiday here so I decided to visit a hotel just a mile or so from Prampram, to go for a swim. City escape was a lovely hotel, with a beautiful pool, AND even a shower to use too! A very relaxing day. But it makes me feel slightly guilty to go there because spending 10 cedis (about 4 pounds) on a swim is a luxury that most people in Prampram wouldn’t dream of splashing out on. The hotel may as well be a 100 miles from here. On myway home I walked back down the main street and thought about how horrified/terrified I’d been when I first arrived in Prampram, but now that I’ve lived here for two months, it feels much more like home. I’m always glad to get back to Prampram, although admittedly that’s partly due to the fact that I’m relieved to have survived the trotro or taxi journey back!
Today at school we had a little party in class 6, and I gave my students some small farewell gifts. They enjoyed playing pass the parcel for the first time, and showed off their dance moves. Tomorrow is the start of the interschool sports competition, so we’ll be off to the park to watch and cheer on the Bethel School teams – keep your fingers crossed for them!
I can’t believe that I now only have one more week in Prampram – the last couple of weeks seem to have flown by. At school my students continue to delight and entertain me – they always come up with so many questions to ask, from ‘is you hair your own’ to ‘do you know Steven Gerrard’ and ‘do you think you’ll go to heaven’! There is never a dull moment in conversation with these children! Sport fever has hit the Bethel School recently. Next week there is the Prampram inter-schools sport competition, with the students competing in football, netball and volleyball. The students have been training everyday after school, and even Saturday morning too. Many play barefooted. They go home after training to wash their kit and bring it into school the next day, draping it over the fence to dry, ready for the next training session.
I went away again last weekend, joining the people of Prampram in getting up at 4.30am in order to travel! I visited a town called Agomenya, north of Prampram, where there is a huge market on saturdays, selling anything and everything, including some beautiful beads. The beads are made at a local factory that I was also able to visit, and where I was shown how they make the beads by hand – an intricate process that requires a lot of patience!
On Friday I went to Accra to collect my passport and visa extension from the immigration office. I got to experience the infamous Accra traffic for the first time – a 2 hour wait for a bus then a 3 hour bus journey back, crawling through Accra at a walking pace. I was lucky to actually have a seat on the bus though, and we could buy sachets of water through the window from hawkers on the road.
Today I’ve been to the beach in Prampram with a couple of the teachers from school, then they took me to the lady who does their nails and I had the cheapest pedicure ever sitting on her front porch – less than a pound! I wish I’d met her earlier in my time here in Prampram – I’d have been going every week! Tomorrow I’m off to church with one of my students, then we have a public holiday on Monday (the Mulsim holiday Eid).
Next week I’m planning a little farewell party with my students – should be fun!
For anyone who has ever complained about my snoring, please believe me when I tell you that my snoring is nothing compared with the noise that the frogs in Prampram make. I was planning this journal entry last night, whilst being kept awake by the noise, wishing I’d packed some earplugs. I never knew something so small could make so much noise. I’ve even recorded the noise on my phone as evidence. Just as my head hits the pillow they start up their racket. And once one starts, a whole host of others join in with their replies, sounding like a noisy frog argument. Then it all goes quiet, and you hope they’ll finally shut up, but one chirps in again and it all starts all over again. We’ve had a lot of rain over the last few days in Prampram – really big window pane shaking thunderstorms. On a much more serious note, Ghana’s capital, Accra, has suffered major flooding. In Prampram the wet weather means that there are even more frogs around. Since my room is right next to some flooded farmland, I seem surrounded by the noisy creatures. I’m hoping for some drier weather to drive the frogs away, or that they’ll all get sore throats and shut up for a while. At school the heavy rain has washed away parts of the classroom floors. With their usual dedication the students themselves have been repairing the floors, filling in the holes and puddles with more sand. We’ve also had an exciting visit from a van advertising a brand of instant noodles – they cooked noodles for all the children at school and gave out leaflets about the noodles and also road safety. I had one of those heartwarming moments as a teacher when several of my students [click here to read more]
One thing that has amazed me about the people of Ghana is their seemingly endless capacity to carry anything and everything on their head. When you are sitting in a trotro at the station, waiting to depart, street sellers swarm around the vehicle, selling their wares through the window – and their wares are all held in big trays, bowls and boxes on their heads! When in a trotro you can buy whole variety of things – handkerchiefs, plantain chips, water, sweets, mobile phone top up cards, kebabs, biscuits, bread, icecreams, donuts, tablets to treat worms – you name it, you can buy it! The people of Ghana also carry huge quantities of water on their heads. Children start as early as about 3, carrying very small buckets (the sort we’d take to the beach to build a sandcastle) and graduate to being able to carry a 40-50litre container of water when they are about 12-13!! I tried to pick up one of these containers once and could hardly lift it off the ground! And so far, I’ve yet to see anyone drop something that they’re carrying on their head. At school everything is going fine – I’ve taught some Science, English and ICT to the Junior high classes in addition to my teaching of class 6. This past weekend I took a trip to Ada Foah in the East of Ghana, which is a town that lies at the mouth of the River Volta. My accomodation was very unique – a hut on the beach, complete with double bed and electric light! Today I’ve experienced the scariest thunderstorm I’ve ever seen – thunder and lightening like you get in the movies! Unsurprisingly the electricity went out part way through. When it rains here in Ghana everyone rushes outside with [click here to read more]
Last weekend I went on a trip to Shai Hills, a nature reserve. Managed to negotiate the public transport to get there ok, although I was nearly dropped off at the Shai Hills army training centre by mistake! Shai Hills is home to very cute baboons! I also walked to a cave which is a sacred site for the Shai people, who used to live in the area,until the British drove them out to nearby settlements. This weekend I’ve visited Tema, a local town, to go to a lovely hotel to use their swimming pool. It was a little piece of peace and tranquility right next to the sea, in a very busy town! The hotel is famous for being where Queen Elizabeth II stayed when she was entertained by Ghana’s first president in 1961. He even ordered that a new chalet and swimming pool be built at the hotel in her honour! For a hotel, the pool was pretty big, so I did a few lengths, and chilled out in the shade on the sunloungers. A bonus was the fact that the hotel had actual showers that I could use!! This is a particular luxury as in Prampram there is no running water, so I have a bucket of cold water for a shower! My time at the Bethel School continues to be a lot of fun! The children in class 6 are so inquisitive and always asking me lots of questions. Everyday when I get to our classroom they greet me by saying ‘madam, you are welcome’ which is lovely. They refer to England as ‘my country’ – they’ve told me I’m not allowed to call it ‘home’ since Prampram is now my home. The children have loved looking at English money, and seeing my flight ticket to [click here to read more]
Back at my school in the UK, we recently had some training on encouraging creativity in our students. Well here in Ghana, my creativity is definitely being tested when it comes to doing Science practicals. The only Science equipment that I’ve discovered in school are some hand lenses and filter paper. So I’ve become a hoarder of anything and everything that could be turned into a piece of Science apparatus. Nothing gets thrown away! So far empty plastic water bottles have turned out to be the most versatile. I’ve cut their tops off to turn them into funnels and beakers for filtering, I’ve turned them into trays for germinating beans in different conditions and I’ve used a bottle top show that liquids change shape. We’ve dissected fruits and seeds too. The sandy classroom floor came in handy on monday – I stuck birthday candles in the floor, lit them and put a plastic bottle beaker over the top, to show that oxygen is needed for burning. We’ve made paper helicopters to represent wind dispersed seeds – these have turned out to be so popular that the paper clips needed for making them are now a hot commodity in class 6. Our experiment with balloons to show that air has mass was somewhat hampered by the wind unfortunately. Today we made parachutes from plastic bags, to demonstrate air resistance. So. it’s not to say that I’m not missing a prep room full of equipment, but I’m getting by!
The more time I spend in this small town, the more I have grown to love the people here. They are seriously the friendliest people I have ever met! And also the most positive – I’m not sure I’ve heard any of them complain once, despite the difficult conditions that many people in Prampram live in. Whenever I walk anywhere in Prampram, I can be sure that several random strangers will stop me for a chat. I’ve stopped viewing this with suspicion, and now realise that they really are just being friendly. Even on the way to the internet cafe today, the mother of a student at my school (who I don’t teach) called me over for a chat. She taught me a new phrase in Dangbe – “Joy – ah” which means “where are you going”. I have even recieved a marriage proposal from one stranger! The fact that I had never spoken to him before apparently wasn’t a good enough reason to turn him down, so I have to think of a more convincing argument for when I see him again. There are always local people around to explain the Ghanaian ways to me too. The other day I was down near the beach, where are the fishing canoes are kept, and a toples woman ran past into the sea, pouring a bottle of gin over her head! A man told me that this is a traditional ritual performed by the woman if she is upset about something, such as her husband being unfaithful. Thankfully the ritual also involved her being rescued from the sea and carried up the beach. Whilst out for a walk the other day, I heard some amazing music, along with a police siren. When I got to the main street, I realised that [click here to read more]
I realised that in my blog I hadn’t actually written much about the school where I am volunteering. In 1999, the pastor (my host) was concerned about education in Prampram. There were only 2 schools, both government run, but lots of children. Generally in Ghana the education at government schools is not considered to be as good as the education at private schools, as government schools often have HUGE classes – we’re talking 60/70 students. Even though there are government run schools, where there are no school fees, still 20% of children do not go to school – I’m guessing due to the cost of uniforms, books, pens etc. So, the pastor decided to set up a private school in Prampram, named the Bethel School complex. It takes students from nursery (2/3 years) right up to junior high (13/14/15 years). Now yes, this is private school, but it is about as far removed from a private school in the UK as you could possibly imagine! Student tend to have a better chance of passing their external exams if they attend a private school, as the classes are much smaller. The pastor started his school in his church, then when they had raised enough money bought land and built a permanent building. Later more structures were added, but these are wooden and do not have solid floors – this is where my classroom is.The best I can describe these wooden structures is probably that they are a bit like a cowshed! Today it poured with rain, and we had to move all the desks over to one side as the rain was coming in. Also the noise of the rain on the tin roof was so loud that you couldn’t hear anything else! The pastor would like to replace these structures [click here to read more]
Since I arrived in Ghana I have not been eating a typical Ghanaian diet – my host the pastor says that I would not like it! So I’ve been mostly eating things like chicken and rice, yam (like potato), fried plantain and beans. Breakfast is often porridge (called oats here), omelette or toast, cooked in a toasted sandwich maker. My favourite food has to be the delicious pineapple and oranges – but the oranges have green skin! So the other day at school I decided I ought to sample some traditional Ghanaian food. So I sent one of my students off to the canteen with my 50 pesewas (about 20p) and they came back with a bag of banku, some hot pepper sauce, and a small fish. It was the banku I really wanted to try, so I tipped it out of the bag into a bowl. It’s made of fermented maize and cassava and has the texture of sort of sticky dough. Yum! You take a small amount with your hand, then dip it into the pepper sauce. Did I like it? Lets just say that I only tasted one bit! It tasted sort of slimy, cheesy and sour all at the same time. My students were very disappointed that I only had one bite- they love banku! I think it must be an acquired taste. My students told me that when they come to my country, they will only have one bite of the food! So, I think I’ll stick to the lovely chicken and rice that the Pastor’s wife cooks me from now on. Another local food that I’ve yet to try is fufu (also made of fermented maize and cassava). I haven’t yet worked out how it’s different to banku.
Cambodia
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Vietnam Cycling