Sal in Ghana - the movie!!

I don't know whether anyone reads this but anyway! -

I am currently comitting to photo albums the 230 carefully selected photos from Ghana and putting them into two albumo, complete with little name captions (hours spent printing and cutting and arranging and re-arranging).

So, photos dealt with I have quite happily spent the last three days on my laptop fiddling around with windows movie maker. On returning to England I had 108 little films of the children. From waving to singing to dancing to pure mayhem! I selected the best ones, the best bits from the best ones, and a collection of favourite photos many not used for Facebook or in my photo albums...

The result: a 9mins 52secs film dedicated to my children I met during my six months in Ghana! I am a little sad that I didn't include travelling pictures too, but I guessed that asking you nice people to sit through 9 odd mins was probably enough! So, here it is!

I know the quality is a bit rubbish...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XiCLbT7paI

I must say I am very proud of little movie. It is cute in every way imaginable and at the end there is even a little song for you - so stick with it!

Sal xxx P.S. The forth song is called "Igwe" and is a popular song by a Nigerian group called "Midnight Crew". The children danced to the song and I have tried to put the right bits of dance to the song, as well as clips from other dances and the song "I'm singing one".

Ghana Sal is no more

I have now been home for... a week and three days. Steve tells me I still speak as if I am still in Ghana, but on Saturday I did unpack all my things and tidy up my room finally! Currently I am sorting through my pictures to put into an album. I have calculated that with three photos per page the photo album I have will allow 144 photos. I have shortlisted 286... I think I will buy another one!

I was told that on coming back to England I would experience some "re-entry shocks". Most of these actually were involved in water so that for most of my first day home I was running around the house exclaiming at the taps and machines and yelling about this and that, even making my parents stand over the washing machine and think about handwashing. Towels and sheets were a nightmare!

I can not describe the joy when I ran the tap in the kitchen and was able to DRINK this water. It suddenly came over me that I would not only be able to drink this but that the water would run every day, all day, and never again would I seriously have to think about the quantity and availability of water. I no longer have to consider the tubs and decide how much there is until the pipes are opened again, and therefore whether I can wash my clothes, or even wash my hair. All I need to do is press a button and I will have hot, hot water and my clothes or dishes can wash themselves whilst I occupy myself with something far more pleasant. Furthermore, I don't have to venture outside to buy drinking water and stumble back carrying all those very heavy water bags!

On returning to England I went to the butchers and Sainsburys and bought a vast quanitity of food that I had missed the most in Ghana. Cheese, salami, sliced bread, fruit, carrots, sausages, yogurt, crisps, biscuits and milk. I also got more eggs than I ever would have done! I turned on the TV. I ran around with my dogs. I lay on my comfy, big bed (although I missed Anna and nearly got suffocated by the duvet when I slept!) and went out and enjoyed the lovely, green English countryside.

I miss my children. I can look at the pictures and think about how cute they are! I went to Alton Towers on Friday and I could really imagine taking some of the older ones (Maabena, Kofi, Kojo, Eddie or Abraham) around on all the little rides.

So now Ghana Sal is gone, as my nice tan will be too. But I hope to go back one time in the future!

Love, UK Sal xxxxxxxx

Goodbye Ghana!

GOODBYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE GHANA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is my last day in Ghana. How has six months gone so fast?! I remember all those funny beginning feelings (thank goodness I don't have to go through them again!) and can't believe I am here now. Six months is looooooong...

Leaving Ghana ...

So, I leave Ghana in one whole week... I don't think I can sum six months up into one blog without forming a book... so here is a list of the things I have learnt during my time here! Some things are pointless and a lot of things are stupid, but hey, here they are!

I have learnt that water is precious and running water is a joy. Two yards of fabric can be used as a sheet, wrap, scarf, dress, towel and baby carrier. White is a stupid colour and underwear and jeans are horrible to hand-wash. Cockroaches are resilient little buggers. I have learnt that vehicles that only look suitable for the scrapheap are capable of fitting 17 people inside, driving for 5 hours on the worst possible roads and only occasionally need to be pushed to start! It is also possible to buy everything you may possibly need through the windows of these vehicles. Whilst on these journeys I have learnt that Ghanaians can sleep everywhere, personal space doesn’t exist and it is perfectly normal to spend 5 hours squashed next to your neighbour and their child with their big bag of plantains/yams/bread under your legs! Loud music is expected and unquestioned, as are bad Nigerian movies on buses.

When it rains it rains hard and long and the rain is used as a perfectly reasonable excuse for staying home. This is most likely a wise decision, because although the majority of tro tros do have windscreen wipers drivers often prefer to peer through the rain splattered glass for a ridiculously long period of time before engaging them. Oh, and if you do decide to brave this most tros will have leaks…

Despite any weather variations it is nearly almost sweaty. For this reason, I have learnt to carry a hankerchief. Hand sanitiser is also extremely important.

I have learnt what it is like to be different and stand out wherever I go. I have learnt to wave vaguely in the direction of obruni calls but to keep on walking. People are friendly to the point of annoyance and it is sometimes to my advantage to have a failure in hearing. Being rude is never the best option, but sometimes it is the only way!

I have learnt that Ghana is possibly the noisiest place I have ever been and I have never woken up with more sounds before: banging, horns, rubbish bins, planes and sweeping (oh god the sweeping!). I have learnt a car horn may mean many things: turning, stopping, pass me, move outta my way or trying to get the obruni to get into your taxi. And whilst I’m talking of taxi drivers I have learnt to always half their original price and if that doesn’t work walking away normally does the trick. Then they mutter “get in” in a grumpy manner clearly furious that they have not managed to cheat this obruni!

To talk about food I have learnt to eat rice every day and enjoy it; to accept vast quantities of oil and to eat the sweet (fried plantain) with the savory (bean stew). I have earned to eat with my fingers! I have eaten large quantities of eggs, avoided most meat and always regretted finding myself in the fish part of the markets. I have learnt that bread and egg is the best thing in the world and that meat pies don’t necessarily have meat in them... A mango a day keeps the doctor away. Or even two. Most of all, I have learnt the very best places to get certain food and fruits so much that each vendor knows who I am and my exact order.

I have learnt that time is flexible and if there is a way to arrive somewhere as a precise time I am yet to find it. Even the best and most expensive coach can quite likely have you waiting at the station for four hours. And what’s more – no one seems to object to this waiting business. Travelling someplace popular on a weekend and especially a holiday is a stupid idea because everyone wants to travel to their village and most likely want to take numerous large, heavy things with them! Ghanaians are not afraid of fighting their way in order to get a seat and I still not have learnt to use my elbows.

On less popular days a tro tro will wait to fill up before leaving and so it is always important to add a couple of hours onto a journey time to account for this. This relaxed attitude extends to all parts of life – Ghanaians walk impossibly slowly and people sleep pretty much all the time on their bench in front of their stall. In fact, the only people perpetually on the move are taxi drivers or fan men who travel endlessly around their neighbourhood tooting their horns.

Although in my time here I have learnt to go with the flow I still walk fast and get frustrated if I wait for too long. I have, on the other hand, learnt never to trust a Ghanaian’s sense of time and never to believe the phrase “another tro is coming” because this could mean five minutes or five hours!

I have learnt all my children’s names, and they have learnt mine. I love them!

The following 5 are pictures taken on 5th August for my last eevvverrr photo shoot with my kiddies

With Auntie Comfort - who cleans the school

See you SOON! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

TWO WEEKS LEFT.... wowza.

me with my trusty guidebook in Tamale - gotta love that thing!

Some things are hard to believe. That I've been in Ghana for nearly 6 months may just be one of them! I mean, I understand that time has passed. Lots of time! But the realisation that it is nearly AUGUST pretty much astounds me every time I think about it!

However, I can't say that time has gone fast, because it hasn't really. Those first few weeks dragged, and then picked up and then just ticked on nicely. After those inital few weeks of adapting I didn't really think the words 6 months much - it was just too scary! And then I didn't really need to because time was dealing with that fact without my help... and now here I am - this time in two weeks I will be at the airport! Like sitting at home a few weeks before my departure the thought of home fills me with this mixed excited feeling although lets face it after the initial crazy I am bound to be filled with (like coming home after uni only about about 10x worse...) I think I will start to miss Ghana.

The sun, the tros, the food (bizarrely, or perhaps I will miss the ease of getting food - off someones head, side of road or tro window), my housemates Anna and Maria, my beautiful children and just travelling through and living here. I wont miss some things (cries of obruni, always being different, stupid Africa-time, being grabbed) but even those will take on some sort of nostalgic value a few weeks after my return.

Before I leave I want to: Visit Kokrobite along the coast, eat lots of bread and egg, get two dresses made at the seamstress, see my children's graduation (this Saturday!!), eat banku and fufu one last time, go to the beach to try to get my tan to the level everyone expects (when really I avoid the sun here), visit the markets again... and lots more I am sure!

Ghana-Sal xxxxxxxxxxxxx

My travels! - Long journeys, elephants, failed boarder crossings, baguettes, taxi motos and voodoo!

I have just returned from my little travelling holiday with Marjo, a volunteer with ICYE from Finland! It was quiiiite an adventure actually, and I am sad to say that this blog will be picture-less due to general virus fears from the internet and Marjo having most of the awesome pictures BUT there will be fabulous picture post that I will try to do a few days before I leave Ghana - otherwise knowing me there will be a few facebook albums dedicated to my time...!

So on Sunday off I went to Kumasi to stay with Marjo. This was annoyingly a truly frustrating trip - as I went to the bus station at 12 and had to wait a joyous FOUR HOURS before the damn bus actually left. The message here really is no travelling on the weekend but apparently 5 months in Ghana isn't long enough to teach me this! I may have learn't some of the patience this country requires but deep (or not so deep?) down my British-ness still lives! Anyway, the next day we had a ticket for the 7 hour bus to Tamale. See the map below!
We stayed in a hotel in Tamale (cheap but a bit skanky and with cockroaches apparently, as we discovered after spraying mosquito spray. oops!) and the next day got a ticket for the metro mass but to Mole National Park. We arrived at midday to the station and the bus was SUPPOSED to leave at 2.30. Although from the guidebook we were prepared for a hell 4 hour journey on bumpy unsurfaced roads even I wasn't prepared for what we got! We waited and waited and waited for this damn bus and at around 5pm it started to rain quite hard. Of course, this was the time that the bus chose to arrive and so everyone ran across to the bus and got on. Here was the first problem - we had seat numbers but no one was anywhere close to their designated seat and no one wanted to go outside in the rain to clear up the isles. It was quite funny in a ridiculous kind of way as no one could move to get to their seat or get out of the wrong ones they were standing in and I tell you squeezing past indignant african mammas is not easy! Eventually, we did find out seat, but the bus company had double booked around 5 seats and to my surprise when we finally did set off there were around 9 people standing... and they stood for the whole way! I had a girl leaning on me, it was pretty awful, and of course it was dark and we were tired and the bus was horribly uncomfortable. I have found a picture of a metro mass bus for you all:
Eventually however we DID arrive at the National Park (using toilets half way that I must admit were truly terrible. I went inside and screamed: there were HUNDREDS of cockroaches all over the walls. Only my need forced me to stay. Urgh I can't even think of it now!) and Marjo and I got a nice big room with another girl from Ireland.

The next morning at 6am we woke for out walking safari. I must say that this was worth the horrific bus journey, because we saw warthogs everywhere, baboons with their babies, antelopes and ELEPHANTS! The elephants were just happily eating by the village for the park rangers and we got really close and took lots of pictures. It was really awesome! After our walk we relaxed by the pool with all the other obrunis but still the animal sightings didn't stop - not only did we have an amazing view of the watering hole where the elephants bathed at midday but warthogs were wandering around the place by our rooms and elephants decided to come around 20m from the pool, apparently unconcerned!

The bloody metro mass bus left for some STUPID reason at 4am the next morning although it was mercifully on time and we got ourselves back to Tamale and then on a tro to Bolgatanga where we stayed for a night in a lovely guesthouse. The next day we went to Paga with the plan of crossing the boarder into Burkina Faso but here was the problem! We got to the Ghana immigration office and as the officials were stamping us out we discovered that the price for the boarder visa had increased on the 1st July (it was the 8th) from 10,000 CFA (around 12 pounds) to 94,000 (140 pounds). Not quite believing this could possibly happen we decided to proceed into Burkina, walking along the road unsure whether we should be speaking French! Unfortunately, it was true, and regretfully had to go the 100m back into Ghana (this time on a Burkinebe's motorbike!) and stamp back in again!

It then was frustrating to go back to Tamale and the next day getting the 6.30am bus back to Accra. The journey took 14 hours with a 1.5 hour break at a roadside village due to a flat tire during which time Marjo and I had a 40minute photo shoot with some of the kiddies - photos to follow - which did make rather a good think out of a flat tire! And it was during this loooong journey that we decided to go to Togo!

Togo was in many ways similar to Ghana - but also very different. French, for one! Also the baguettes they served on the street with tasty avacardo filling. The main form of transport in Lome, the capital, was taxi motorbikes - a hair-raising transport option to say the least, and although we did take them it wasn't often or in rush hour traffic which I think would have been truly terrifying! In Lome we stayed in a cheap (Togo is more expensive than Ghana!) but undeniably awful hotel - the toilets and showers I was incredibly glad to leave! The next day we headed to Lake Togo and crossed the lake to the village Togoville by canoe.

It was paying for this hotel (huge with a pool and we were the only guests) that Marjo realised that she had LEFT HER PASSPORT/MONEY/BANK CARD in our clever under-the-mattress hiding place! Her cries of disaster were heard by the kind english-speaking guide who assured us that it would be quite possible to go back to Lome and the hotel and return again by the evening. Phew! Sooo, we got the boat (painfully slow), a minibus and a taxi to our gross hotel: up the stairs, into the room, under the mattress and PHEW it was still there - the manager gasped in shock and immediately demanded a cadeaux (a gift, money basically!) for not cleaning well enough and keeping the money?! Well, anyway in much higher spirits we did head back to the hotel and were very relieved to relax after our frantic travelling!

Togoville is a small village half of which are Christian and the other half practice voodoo! We had a tour of the village the next morning visiting the Christian structures (a villager supposedly saw the virgin Mary on Lake Togo in 1940 which prompted the visit of Pope John II so much was for him) and then very strange voodoo statues in place for the protection of the market place and a family compound for example. We asked to visit a voodoo lady and our guide did take us to see one - a crazy mad experience! On going inside her house we saw our guide had taken off his shirt and Marjo joked if we should take ours off only to discover that, yep, that is exactly what we should do! We had to wrap ourselves in fabric and then infront of a weird sacrificial thing (with meat?!) we performed odd clapping ceremonies. Marjo has some amazing photos. I will never do anything so weird as that!

The rest of our stay in Togo was relaxation by the pool and back in Tome some touristy shopping! Now I am back in Accra glad to be home for a small time.

This post is stupidly long! I'm sure I wont write so much next time...! I am back in England in less than one month now!

Sal xxxxx

P.S. I am always impressed by the professionalism of officials of Ghana (and Togo and Burkina) as we were asked for numbers, addresses and to be "friends" with 4 of them, and one of the women officials on returning to Ghana asked me for some money as I swapped my currency (pointing to her mouth like beggars do) laughing like it was the funnniiieeessttt thing in the world. Hum. Ha ha?

P.P.S I also argued with yep more officials, as the Ghanaian guy didn't seem to think I had a re-entry visa after I had double triple checked at the Burkina boarder AND on entering Togo so I had to argue pretty hard before he checked with his boss, otherwise I would have had to reapply and pay again!

Just a few...

So here are a few pics from mine and Mum's trip. Of course I only plan to upload a few but... well, I can't promise anything!

All my goodies that Mum brought!

Eating breakfast with the amazing jam!

Mum with two of the little nursery boys

In the tro tro to Butre these women are in funeral clothing. Shortly after this picture was taken around ten more of these women clambered on and the poor tro tro Mate was hanging out of the door!

The rickety bridge over to the Hideout! I imagine when it rained the wood probably would have been impossibly slippy!

Canoe ride up the river with Tony our guide

Walking over to Busua. The village in the picture is Butre and my finger is pointing to where the Hideout was!
Two of the cheeky little girls that took us over the hill to Busua
Daniel the Pancake Man... and me...!
Me and kiddies in Busua

Mum playing with two little kids waiting for our air conditioned tro to Hofill up!

Mum walking through the forest at Wli, pointing out cocoa pods!

Me with our guide, Sebastian

Mum and I in front of the water

Joseph the carver in Wli. Look carefully and spot the wooden penises apparently for AIDS awareness...