Officially back in Holland

Written on the 16th of August
Thursday was my last day in Tamale. I had my last lesson with the kids and this was really hard. I played some games with them etc. and at about 11am I said that I had to go and reminded them that I wasn’t coming back the day after. They sang a goodbye song for me, I gave them each a small letter and I got given some letters as well. Then came the moment I had to go, each one of them cried, it was so hard to leave! They all wanted a photo of me but I’d only brought a few family photos, so I kept them for the girls I read with. They all walked home with me and one of them, the clown of the class, wouldn’t let my arm go. It was so sad!
Between that class and reading I had time to pack my bag and left half of my clothes behind, as I knew that even if I took them with me I would never wear them in Holland, so they’ll be given to the kids. Which meant more space for souvenirs! And don’t you worry, I’ve bought plenty (I’d say about 80% aren’t presents.. but are for me haha). When I went to reading, one of the main girls wasn’t there which was sad, but it was probably for the best as she couldn’t quite get her head around us not being able to see or talk after that day. I got some massive hugs and I know that although I’m leaving them, I’ve really helped them, which feels amazing. At night, Francis and I went on a motorbike ride for a while, although I tried to get out of it as he was hoping on us being in a long distance relationship when I was leaving. But Francis is a lovely guy and we had been great friends and I did remind him every day that we were JUST friends, so I felt rude not to and it ended up being fun anyway.
The next morning I got up at 5.30am to leave at 5.45am to the bus stop and left with the bus at 7am. I travelled the whole day and arrived at Accra at about 8.30pm. I had been very lucky that for once my stomach felt okay as the toilets along the way are.. interesting... Rockson, one of the guys at Fred’s house, had made sure I could get a lift to the resort after my busride with one of his friends. I got a taxi to that friend’s house and for some reason we didn’t end up leaving until 11pm. I thought we’d been waiting for a car, but we ended up getting a taxi so who knows. We arrived around midnight and of course the reservation I’d made, hadn’t gone through. He decided to spend the night there as well and after awkwardly saying about 3 times to the staff at the hostel that I didn’t want a double bed for me and him, we went to the dorms and as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out. The dorm was a wooden room, without walls just wooden fences about a metre high, with mattresses on the floor and mosquito nets hanging over them. The room was £2.80 a night, so I wasn’t complaining!
The next morning, I actually got to have a look around and the location of the resort was beautiful and they’d really given everything a lot of character (see photos). When I asked if there was anything touristic to go and see or do nearby, I got to hear there wasn’t which was a shame as that would mean time would go even slower and I was just ready to go home now. As I was in a dorm it was easy to meet people. Straight away I met 3 people from Leamington Spa (coincidence huh?) and two sisters from England as well. I spent most of the day with the two sisters and we just ended up lying on the beach (hoping for sun, without result) and well eating... They had such good food! Oh and of course, there were souvenirs there as well, so, of course, I couldn’t resist the temptation. The next morning, they left and two other girls joined the dorm. One was Dutch, who I’d met in Tamale (another coincidence seeing her there) and a British girl. I spent all day with them and it was really nice. We just had another day of relaxing. I also heard that day that although I was meant to get a lift back with the same guy who gave me a lift here, he wasn’t able to do that anymore. Seen as I’d exactly calculated how much money I’d need for my last weekend(therefore no money for a taxi to Accra as it was meant to be a free lift), I realised I had to ask my parents for a little bit of money. However, as the British girl, Annie, was picking up her boyfriend from the airport the next morning, the Dutch girl, Gwendolyn, and I joined her so we were able to split the costs. My flight was that same evening. I assumed I was able to leave my luggage somewhere locked up at the airport which didn’t end up being the case. I went to the nearest hotel (and possibly the most expensive one in all of Ghana) and was allowed to leave my luggage there for the day for free, which was perfect!
Gwendolyn and I decided to spend the day in Accra before I got onto my flight and so after finding CROISSANTS (i got so excited) we hopped onto the tro-tro to go to some markets. The ride was about 15 minutes and was £0.20. Tro-tro’s are so cheap because they squash 20 people in a normal sized van, but it saves you so much money! We got there and got told the markets didn’t actually exist anymore, so we ended up going to the markets I went to during my first day in Ghana. More temptations...
So what I’ve bought, for myself, as souvenirs this trip:
- One beautiful long dress made with African fabric
- One short dress made with African fabric
- The top I got made in Tamale made with African fabric
- A painting
- 2 bags, one of goatskin and one of African fabric
- Two necklaces, 5 bracelets, a set of earrings
- The blanket that I’d bought in Tamale of African fabric
- A woodwork of a Ghanaian lady with a basket on her head, in her arms and a child tied on her back, which is the way I will remember them
- A pair of trousers
And I think that’s it...
I’m so glad I’ve done this though as otherwise I think I’d have regretted it. Don’t worry I didn’t only buy things for myself though, of course I also bought this for my family and my one friend in Holland haha. (jitske)
I got to the airport at 6pm and my flight was at 10.45pm, so had lots of time to spare. When I got onto the plane, I had planned to watch at least one movie as they were so good, but I really couldn’t keep my eyes open, so ended up watching 10 minutes of one.
Currently, I’m waiting at London Heathrow as I arrived at 6.30am this morning and my flight to Amsterdam isn’t until 1.20pm. This is kind of annoying, as I just want to get home, but ah well I will be home soon! Can’t wait! Finally get to see my family again, my one friend (haha), Sammy the dog and the house. Looking forward to it. Just 3 more hours of waiting to go...

Last blog in Ghana

Written on the 10th of August
Two more days in Tamale. This means every time I go somewhere or see someone I need to think about whether I’ll see them before I leave. I’ve already had to say goodbye to my peanut lady, the restaurant owner whose restaurant I visited at least 20 times and some people that drop by our house sometimes. The question they always ask is, will you come back? But I’m honest with them and tell them I don’t think so as I love travelling and experiencing new things, so if I was to come back to Africa, I’d visit a different country.
On Monday, we had a lot of rain again, so only two girls came to school. It took us about an hour to get the water out of the class room as the class has no windows. On Monday night, the girls and I went out for a meal. We got pizza, it tasted so good! It was the last night for two of the 3 girls so we had a drink afterwards. Now it’s just Valentine (the Romanian boy), Laura (the German girl in my room) and me left.
There are many things I’ll miss. First of all, I’ll miss the kindness of the people. Walking anywhere you get greeted with big smiles and all children want to shake your hand or just be said hello to. Everywhere we go the kids shout: “Hello Slaminga!” meaning hello white person! And that isn’t offensive just an observation and they will not stop shouting that until you wave to them and say hello, so cute! The volunteers and I were saying the other day that we’ve all gotten so used to talking to everyone that when we go back to our own country, people will just look at us strangely when we all say “Hello” with big smiles, especially to the kids haha.
I’ll definitely miss that I can live without a phone or a watch. In Ghana you can live without the time and it’s been amazing experiencing that as it makes you realise how easily stressed we get when someone or something is late. Here it’s like, you waited 3 hours? Oh wow that’s good, I waited 5 hours last time, so you’re lucky!
I’ll definitely miss people individually, like the girls I’ve taught for the last 6 weeks and the boys from Fred’s house. I can keep in contact with the boys as they have facebook, but the girls from the village, don’t use the internet, so there’s really barely any way we can keep in contact, as they can’t afford writing letters to Holland. It’s sad as I can understand that, but they don’t seem to understand that I can’t call them (as it’s way too expensive) or contact them any other way. They keep saying “I’m not happy” because I’m leaving, which makes it even harder to leave!
I’ll miss the simplicity of life here. No tv, no internet unless you go to a cafe, no one cares about how you look, no expectations, it’s great! I would love to say, I can keep that going in Holland, but I know that as soon as I go back I’ll start caring again about what I look like and what people think.
But I’ve got soooo many things to look forward to, that I can’t wait to get back! I can’t wait to see my family, although time has gone fast, at the same time it feels like I haven’t seen them for months. I can’t wait to see the new house, to see my new room, to settle in. I can’t wait to see my dog, I can’t wait to have my first warm shower in nearly 7 weeks, I can’t wait to sleep in my own comfy bed, I can’t wait for the Dutch food and I can’t wait to start university!
This will be my last blog post written in Ghana as I don’t think I’ll have internet this weekend. I really hope you’ve enjoyed reading them and that I haven’t bored you. I’ll be continueing writing when I’m in Holland, although I’m not sure how long I’ll continue that for.

some of the girls from the class I teach:)

the cake that Valentine made

Hope to speak to you or see you all soon!

My Birthday

Written on the 7th of August
Summary:
When it rains in Ghana, everything stops. No one goes outside, which means no one goes to school, work etc. It's crazy! I mean when it rains it usually rains hard but still if you have a raining season every year you'd think you'd get used to it.. So this happens once in a while, more this week than it's happened before, which means our room has been flooded for a lot of this week as we have no windows. lovely. I had a really good birthday! A volunteer made me a cake, which is really hard to do in Ghana as they don't eat cake here, which was absolutely lovely. During the day we went to the swimming pool and at night I just had some drinks with the Ghanaian boys which was a laugh. I'm now leaving Tamale on Friday instead of Sunday, it's surreal how soon that is! I'll be going to a beach resort near Accra for my last weekend.
Detailed:
On Wednesday it rained from 6am until 11am. This doesn’t happen very often as when it rains in Tamale, it usually rains heavily but only for about 20 minutes. But like Fred said: “when it rains in Ghana, it’s a public holiday”. Everything stops. Kids don’t go to school until the rain stops, people don’t go to work and patients don’t go to their appointments. In other words, I didn’t have work that morning, so I just stayed at home and went to the internet cafe in the afternoon, but the sun was shining in the afternoon, so I still went to reading. When I told my girls I would be able to continue reading with them, I thought I’d read with the 2 girls every day. But slowly it became 3,4,5 and now 6 girls that I read with! This means they don’t get to reach much in the hour, but it seems they’d prefer to read a little bit than not at all. I gave them some biscuits and it was so cute as many of the older girls just saved them for the younger girls, which was really thoughtful.
The next two days were just as normal. Lessons in the morning and reading in the afternoon. After reading on Thursday I went with Musah and Francis for an hour motorbike ride which was fun. Francis at the front, me in the middle and Musah on the back. A Ghanaian sandwich haha! Thursday night though I spent more time on the toilet than in bed, which was really tiring, but I felt a lot better around 7am. The girls left to Mole national park in the afternoon and are coming back on Sunday. This means Valentine and I were left as the only volunteers. He did the Friday day shift and the night shift. On Saturday morning, I went to the internet cafe to chat to my parents and some friends. My parents and Luc and Judith had sat in front of skype with party umbrellas on and blowing some little party trumpets, and sang happy birthday it was so funny, but did make me miss them more. They even teased me by showing my wrapped presents to me, it wasn’t fair haha! I also skyped Jitske, my Dutch best friend, and her family sang to me on skype as well, which was so nice.
Afterwards, I came home and Valentine, the Romanian boy, had a cake with a candle waiting for me. It was so sweet! It is literally impossible to buy cakes here, so after searching for a long time, he’d found two plain bases of a cake, put one on the bottom, put nutella on it with pineapple and banana put the other base on top of that and then put more nutella, pineapple and bananas on it. It was really nice! After we’d had some, we went to the swimming pool. It was pretty cloudy, which was a shame, but still hot and it was nice to just lie down next to the pool for the day and now and again go for a swim. At about 5pm we could see the dark clouds coming really quickly and it suddenly started pouring really heavily. As we were meant to get picked up just after 5pm, but our van’s windscreen wipers don’t work, we couldn’t get picked up until the rain stopped. The rain quieted down a bit around 6.30pm, which is when Rockson, one of the boys, came and got us. But it was still raining, so we drove about 10 miles an hour as the windows were steaming up, the fan doesn’t work in the car so couldn’t get rid of it, and driving without windscreen wipers is near to impossible. We were on main roads and everything, and the drive ended up taking about 40 minutes, but luckily no one died...
I’d given Rockson some money to buy some drinks for us tonight, so he’d bought a crate of 24 smirnoff ice’s. Valentine hadn’t slept for about 36 hours, so he went to bed when we got home, so I stayed up with 5 of the boys until about 12am. We had a lot of fun. They definitely tried their hardest to get me drunk (tried to convince me to drink 18 smirnoffs as it’s my 18th) but they failed as I didn’t want to drink more than two. We had some ipod speakers, so we danced and sang and they decided they wanted to create a new hairstyle for me, using shampoo... Look below for the results. Also it’s a tradition in Ghana, that if it’s someone’s birthday they pour water all over you. At the swimming pool someone had realised it was my birthday and got a whole bucket all over me, but Francis, being the creative one, thought Smirnoff ice would be a good replacement. I was covered in sticky Smirnoff ice, then they found water bottles and poured water all over me, I was soaked! At 12am, after one of the boys Musah had given me a speech of about 20 minutes about how long distance relationships can work and that I don’t have to like someone from my own country and that I shouldn’t go for looks etcetcetc, basically doing the talking for Francis, trying to convince me we belong together, I went to bed.
I’ve decided that I’m going to leave Tamale on Friday instead of Sunday, because if I left on Sunday I’d arrive on Sunday night and I didn’t want to spend the whole Monday waiting in Accra for my flight which is at 10.45pm. I’ll now be leaving on Friday morning to Kokro Bite which is only 25 km away from Accra. I’ll be staying at a beach resort there for the weekend, which is really well known (Big Milly’s Backyard) until Monday afternoon. Then I’ll get a taxi or a tro-tro to Accra for my flight in the evening. Apparently it’s really nice there, so it’ll be a nice way to end my time in Ghana.
It’s so surreal that the end is coming near. I’m really glad I decided to stay the amount of time I did, as some people stayed for 2 or 3 weeks, and that just isn’t enough. It really doesn’t feel like I’ve stayed here for 5.5 already, more like 3! But I’ll be happy to be going home soon, it was definitely long enough for me.

Just 1.5 weeks left

Written on the 3rd of August
Summary:
There have been some problems between one specific volunteer and the Ghanaian boys, which hasn’t been nice because it’s meant that we haven’t seen them around the house as much and we used to be more like a family. I’ve tried to chat to the volunteer to show that he needs to change the way he speaks to them, but without much success I think... I’ve now started teaching the extra classes which I’m so happy about because that means I will be able to teach the same girls for 6 weeks! I’ve put some impressions on Ghana as a whole at the bottom of this blog. Ps. My birthday is on Saturday haha. 18!
Detailed:
We’ve had some tension between us as volunteers and the Ghanaian boys that live at Fred’s. One of the volunteers is very outspoken and English is his second language. I think because of this, some things he says are received as rude and disrespectful towards the Ghanaians. For example, he saw Francis take his mango from the fridge, but Francis will have assumed it was for everyone. The volunteer then didn’t ask Francis about it, but told Fred about it and I think it all turned into a much bigger deal and now Francis doesn’t come around the volunteering house as he doesn’t want to be accused of things. I now go over to Fred’s house to see him and I’m glad that they aren’t holding anything against me or the other girls. Another incident happened which was when the volunteer had found a boy in a village with an really big and infected burn. He took the father and the boy in the van and Rockson was driving it. The volunteer said it was an emergency and he needed to hurry to the hospital, but Rockson had had instructions from Fred to first go past Maltiti to pick us up. The volunteer couldn’t believe that although it was such an emergency that they’d first go past Maltiti. He said things like, “you have no common sense” and other things that they really took to heart.
It’s such a shame as we’ve always been like a family. I’ve tried to make the situation a bit better by talking to the volunteer and telling him that there’s no way he can say things like that and that he should adapt to them and the way they live as for example them following instructions from Fred is very important to them. The volunteer is quite stubborn, but I hope it made him realise he should keep quiet a bit more. I also talked to some of the boys at Fred’s house and tried to make them understand that the things the volunteer says come out ruder than they are meant to be and that he does mean well.
Fred did organise the extra classes! Yay! That means I’m teaching the girls I’ve been teaching for just over a month now (wow time flies), I can teach for another 2 weeks. I’ll be teaching from 8am until 11am every day and will be teaching on my own. I’ve loved that responsibility! It’s great to know what level they are at so it’s now much easier to prepare a lesson than before. The amazing thing is that these lessons are just optional as it’s their summer holiday, but they all come! The even better thing is that these lessons haven’t been offered to the really young kids, so the kids in my class can actually hear my now haha.
A new girl arrived on Sunday night. Her name is Mareike, but she’s calling herself Laura in Ghana as it’s easier, and is 19 years old and is from Germany. She’s now sleeping in Anna’s bed, so I’ve got a new roommate. She’s staying for 2 months.
On Tuesday, Snoopy, one of Fred’s dogs, followed me all the way to school, he then sat under my chair for the whole lesson and walked back with me when I left, so cute!
Some more impressions:
- The schools in villages don’t have toilets, so all the kids go to the toilet in the grass just behind our school. They drip-dry when they pee and they use paper out of their school books if they need to do the bigger business. This is really sad to see as it’s so unhygienic, but I guess it’s what they’re used to.
- Kids above 2 don’t ever cry here. They’re brought up to be tough and as soon as they show tears, the parents will get angry or just ignore them. Also when the kids in the hospitals get an injection and cry, the mums laugh, which is unimaginable in a European country.
- I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned the amount of animals that walk on streets here. Goats, chickens, cows, dogs, everywhere! They’re a major obstacle on the roads.
- The ladies and men are always separate. I never ever see them stand together, walk together or anything! I always see the women working and carrying everything, and all the men of a village sitting together chatting.
- All the women never bend their knees. Whenever they wash their clothes or pick anything up from the ground, they keep their legs straight and just fully bend their backs to reach what they need and can stand like that for at least an hour!
- People always come up and chat to you because you’re white, then within a minute they want either your phone number or you email address. They all say they want to be your friend. It felt nice to be among foreigners for a while at Cape Coast and not continually get asked this.
It’s my birthday this Saturday and all the boys at Fred’s house keep asking me what I want to do haha. I just said we can just go and have some drinks or something. All the girls are going to Mole National park and Marcus will have already left to go back home so it’ll be just me and Valentine which is a shame, but I’ll celebrate my birthday properly when I come back home!

Cape Coast

Written on 31st of July
Summary:
On Tuesday Anna and I were really ill and couldn’t get out of bed as we had really bad stomach cramps, I’ve never experienced that much pain before but when we had to leave to Cape Coast the next morning at 4am, I already felt a lot better compared to before. We had to wait for 6 hours for the bus, which means we could have slept in, and ended up arriving in Cape Coast at 10pm. During our stay there, we went on a canopy walkway which was a walkway created above a forest and we went to visit Cape Coast Castle. We also did a lot of just reading and chatting to people that we met at the resort. On Friday morning, Anna had to go, which was really sad as I’d spent my last 4 weeks with her. On Saturday morning I went to the bus stop and made my way back to Tamale. I arrived back here at 1.30am and ended up having to take a taxi as Fred wasn’t answering his phone. Now it’s just Marcus, Valentine, 2 German girls and I left.
Detailed:
Tuesday Anna and I were really ill. We were ill to the extent of not being able to move as we had the worst stomach cramps ever. We were doubled over in bed all day and both had a cry as it was pure agony, never experienced anything like it. It was her, Matt and Frank’s last night in Tamale, but we simply couldn’t move so we just stayed in bed. We never really got to sleep properly and at 4am we had to get up to get ready to get a bus to Kumasi and then end in Cape Coast. We still weren’t very well but we were a lot better compared to a few hours before. We got to the bus stop at about 5am and were told it would leave between 6 and 7am. We didn’t leave until 10.30am! One thing I will definitely take away from Ghana is patience...
Six hours later we got to Kumasi and an hour after we were on a bus to Cape Coast. A lady got on with a bible and preached to us for 20 minutes in Twi, the main language in Ghana, got paid by the Ghanaians on the bus and then got off. I was quite surprised to hear them asking us for offerings towards her, as we didn’t understand it and just heard talking (mainly shouting) in a different language so I simply explained that and they, funnily enough, agreed with my point. The bus from Kumasi to Cape Coast was very tiny and Frank, being as tall as he is, couldn’t even fit his legs between his seat and the seat in front of him. One thing I didn’t understand, well I do understand it but it just frustrates me, is we had to continually pay separately for our bags on the bus. It was just a way to get more money of people. Francis, one of our Ghanaian friends who stays at Fred’s, had given us a number to call when we got to Cape Coast, which was for a taxi from the bus stop to Oasis Beach Resort, the hotel we were staying at. This was very convenient as it was really late. We arrived at 10pm at Oasis so it had been a very long day. We had booked two doubles for the both of us, even called twice more after having made the reservation for them to confirm to us it’s booked, however on arrival they didn’t have a room for us, so we ended up staying in dorms. We didn’t mind this and nearly expected it, just the one thing that I don’t like about it is that your things can get stolen really easily as everyone walks in and out. We also found out that a rat had gotten into Anna’s backpack, which was lying at her feet all night, to eat her biscuits and part of her bag. We then later on in the day saw it on the ceiling. Lovely.
The next morning, Thursday, I woke up at 6.30am because of my stomach aches and I hadn’t eaten for nearly 2 days, so my body wanted some food but at the same time it was all just a feeling of discomfort. I was able to take a shower at this resort though. An actual shower! It was amazing, it was cold but it felt so good! I felt clean for the first time properly in ages. It was really nice as it’s in a cubicle outside and the cubicle doesn’t have a roof so your view is the palm trees, beautiful! The resort is on the beach and it really does give us a holiday feeling, but Anna and I felt as if it wasn’t really Ghana anymore, the same feeling we got with Mole National Park. For us, and for other volunteers that I meet in those tourist places, real Ghana is the villages where we work. It’s nice to see different parts of Ghana but it definitely makes me realise how lucky I’ve been to have been placed in Tamale. Kumasi, Accra (the capital) and Cape Coast are very crowded and I would not ever feel safe there. In Tamale I can just walk around on my own and you need that comfort if you’re staying for 6.5 weeks. But as a holiday place Cape Coast is very beautiful, it’s got a lot of history and the beach is stunning. It’s nice to be going to sleep and hearing the waves in the background.
We ended up not having time for breakfast as we went to the Canopy Walkway by taxi at 7.30am. We got there about 45 minutes later and were able to go on a tour straight away. It was a bit of a climb to get to the start of the canopy walkway, which definitely made me realise how long I haven’t done exercise. The canopy walkway are walkways that are hung above all the trees at the height of 40 metres. It was breathtaking. On our way back, the taxi’s tyre went really flat, which ended up us driving on the rim. We had to stop and wait for the taxi man to get a new tyre and while we were waiting the women from the village we stopped at, brought us a bench which was really nice of them. About 45 minutes later, which definitely was a lot quicker than I thought it would take, we were back on the road. We got the taxi driver to drive us past a breakfast place where it felt so good to get some food down me. An egg sandwich, yum. Best part was it was 1 cedi (40p).
The rest of the day we just relaxed, I napped on the beach a bit, read a bit, walked a bit and we grabbed a bite to eat at the resort at around 6pm. THEY HAD WESTERN FOOD! It was so exciting! I shared a Margarita Pizza with Anna and we both had a crepe for dessert as well, so good! After dinner, many westerners who stayed in Cape Coast started arriving from their host families to get a drink as our resort has a nice bar and a small night club as well. I met at least 10 Dutch people that night. I swear Dutch people are everywhere... The boys were getting more and more drinks down them and we just cringed at anything they said so Anna and I went and sat on our own for a while on the beach and later on just went back to our room as it was 10pm, late night for me once again haha! We were able to stay in nice little houses for the last two nights, which was a nice luxury.
On Friday we had a bit of a sleep in, yes 8am is definitely a sleep in in Ghana haha, and at 9am went for a walk around Cape Coast to try and find some breakfast. The people are very different in Tamale to Cape Coast, I feel like they’re less friendly here. Afterwards, we went to the Cape Coast Castle. This was a slave castle at the end of the 1600s and was used by British people to capture Africans in. The condition, as I bet you can imagine, were really surreal and the rooms they were kept in was pure darkness and of course without any toilets or anything and as they were with about 300 people in a room, which was maybe just over 30 metres squared, they were not treated like humans at all. Also if the women refused to have sex with the British men they’d be locked up without any food and water for 4 days in a really small room without any windows. It was really nice to hear some history about Ghana, as I’d read some information on it but to hear it being said by a Ghanaian guide made it a lot more interesting. We were able to take some beautiful photos of the castle and sea.
Once again the rest of the day we just relaxed. I swam in the sea for a bit, but the current and waves were really strong so after about 20 minutes I was knackered. I went and sat on my towel and two young Ghanaian girls, about 5 years old, came and sat by me. They talked for ages to me in Twi, while I just smiled. I then taught them a song which was fun as they love learning anything.
Anna had to leave to get to Accra at 3pm for her flight on Saturday morning. It was sad to see her go as she’s been my roommate for the last month. At night Matt, Frank and I went to the bar again to just hang out. Even more Dutch people than Friday night were there and it ended up being a really good night. I really do find it surprising though, that even in a country in Africa, everything is still all about alcohol, sex and drugs. I mean to get marijuana here is so incredibly easy and so cheap that all the tourists just smoke it all the time, the alcohol is really cheap which means all the tourists get drunk all the time and all the tourists end up having drunk sex with strangers. Maybe I should have expected it, but it still shocks me as it just seems wrong to waste money and time doing that type of thing in Africa. I mean one of the volunteers of my program ended up spending at least 200 cedis (80 pounds) on alcohol and marijuana and that is a hell of a let if you know the prices of things here. So there were definitely many drunk people around, but quite a few sober Dutch people so it was a really nice night overall. There was even a bonfire on the beach, so it was a really nice ending to Cape Coast.
I decided to leave Cape Coast a day early just because it all ended up being a lot more expensive than I thought it would be and my money is definitely close to running out. I left the resort at 9am and was able to get a bus to Kumasi at 11.30am. A Ghanaian woman on the bus asked what my end destination was, I told her Tamale and she got concerned about what bus I should take from Kumasi to Tamale. She called about 5 people and an hour later told me which would be a good bus for me, especially with me being a foreigner. It was so lovely of her to do, it definitely made me feel more at ease as since that morning I hadn’t seen any ‘white’ people and so had felt very alone and uncertain about where to go when I was in Kumasi. She organised for the driver to take me to the right bus stop. I got to that bus stop at about 3pm and got told that it wouldn’t leave until 7pm. I ended up just lying down on the chairs in the waiting room and fell asleep for two hours. Also there at the bus stop, people kept making sure I was okay and asked which bus I was taking, so they could keep an eye out for it and warn me when it was here. The bus left at 7.30pm and I didn’t arrive in Tamale until 1.30am. Fred didn’t answer his phone all night, so I decided to just risk it and take a taxi from the bus stop to the volunteering house. I didn’t feel very comfortable with the decision as I mean you can’t really trust anyone you don’t know at night in any country, but God’s been looking after me incredibly well and I got home only about 10 minutes later. That was the first day in Ghana that I hadn’t seen anyone white apart me which was quite a strange feeling, but Ghanaians are really nice and really put me at ease.
I’m meant to be doing extra classes with the kids the next two weeks, but the teacher had told me that Fred hasn’t contacted them about that at all. This, once again, isn’t surprising to hear, so I guess I’ll just see what he plans last minute for me. I wouldn’t mind doing the orphanage either, but we’ll see!

Mole National Park

Written on the 24th of July
Summary:
I've had an awesome week! All my kids have done their exams and 11 out of 12 got over 70% in them. The teacher I taught alongside with for a while had been ill for a week so I did loads of revision with them and the teacher saw the results and she was absolutely shocked! She said it was because of me that they got these as she didn't think all of them would pass and with such high grades, so I was so happy! They were so grateful as well, so it definitely made my week amazing! We went to Mole National Park on Friday till Sunday. We went on a walking safari and went canoeing. On the walking safari, we got to see elephants, baboons and many other animals. It was surreal to be standing about 30 metres away from them. There were a lot of dutch people at the resort we stayed at and everyone was white there, which felt really strange as we're used to being surrounded by Ghanaians. Monday and Tuesday will be normal work days for us and will be Matt, Anna and Frank’s last two days in Tamale. On Wednesday us four will leave to Cape Coast to enjoy the coast and do some excursions there and lie on the beach. Anna will be staying until Friday, Frank until Saturday and Matt and I until Sunday. Can’t wait!

Detailed:

I’ve had such a good week! On Wednesday and Thursday the girls from my class had to do their exams, which was 45 minutes each day, maths on Wednesday and English on Thursday. I knew what was in the exams so I prepared them to the best of my ability. Went over and over and over things at least 5 times as they don’t have time to study when they’re at home. They probably thought at times I was going over the top a bit when I kept asking them to do it again, but it helped! As when I marked the papers, 11 out of 12 girls passed their exams all having over 70%! I was so proud of them. One of the girls got 27%,but I found out afterwards that she’s just in the wrong class as she’s 4 years younger than the other girls. Their teacher that I usually teach alongside with had been ill for a week, so I was teaching them every morning. When I showed her the results on Friday, she couldn’t believe it! She was amazed by the results and she says they got me to thank for it. That was so nice to hear! So this means that all those 11 girls get to go to state school, so a school where they’ll actually get a qualification! However, education costs money in Ghana and only 4 of those girls have sponsors. So please please please if anyone is interested in sponsoring a girl, let me know! It’s about 80 pounds a year.
After school, I walked home with some of the girls from Maltiti School and one of them was in my class, Nihad, the girl that had written the letter. She said she needed to buy something from the shop but that I could continue walking. She ended up catching me up and gave me a lollipop! This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it really is! Kids never have any or much money and so the little money she had she spent on me, it was so sweet!
For Friday we needed bus tickets for Mole National Park and the boys from Fred’s house said that the best way to buy them is that they buy them at like 5am on Friday morning. I reminded Bwocke again on Thursday night and his reply was: ‘Yeah if I wake up on time...’ That really frustrated me as it’s a big deal for us because if we don’t have bus tickets we’re not going, so I said I’d call him to wake him up. At 4.30am I called him and he woke up, but 10 minutes later I got a phone call saying that he didn’t have fuel, so we all needed to pay him 1 cedi. I got so annoyed as fuel is probably about 1 cedi to get where he needed to get and because he was obviously unprepared to get those tickets. He then also made me walk over to Fred’s house at that time to give him that money. I argued with him for about 10 minutes about why he needed 8 cedis and he never gave a good reason, so I ended up pressing it into his hand while saying ‘There you go, but I’m seriously pissed off’. It just infuriated me as he doesn’t need that money for going over there and Ghanaian people always try and get more money off us. The next morning he returned with the tickets and the 8 cedis back as he obviously ended up feeling bad.
We went to school that morning and after that grabbed a taxi to the bus station. The taxi to town is 50 peswas, which is 20p, so absolutely nothing! When we got to the bus station there were suddenly white people everywhere! They were all going to Mole National Park. We hadn’t seen that many white people together in so long and at least half of them were Dutch. At the bus station there were Ghanaians everywhere selling literally anything you could possibly need. They all carry it on their head and just walk around waiting for people to come to them. You could buy biscuits, bread, fish, chicken, extension leads, perfume etc. The bus ended up being 1.5 hours late, which is apparently not a lot at all as Matt, one of the volunteers, went two weeks ago and waited for 4 hours. The bus had 60 seats which were all filled up and about another 20 people standing. This meant that those people standing, stood for 4 hours! The bus cost us 4 cedis (1.60 pounds), once again absolutely no money for a trip that long. All the Ghanaian people on the bus got off about half an hour before us and we ended up being with only white people when we arrived. We got there at about 7pm and walked into the restaurant and about 100 white people were sat there having dinner. That just felt so strange as there was not a Ghanaian to be seen anywhere except for the waiters. The pool closed at 7pm, but we all really wanted to go for a swim. We ended up paying a cedi each to the night guard to let us swim. It was such a laugh!
The next morning we had to meet at 6.45am for the walking safari. Everyone went in groups of about 10 and a guide (with a massive gun) went up front. The walk was for about 2 hours and we ended up seeing elephants, baboons and many other animals I’ve forgotten the name of haha. We were able to get 30 metres away from the animals, it felt so surreal! It was amazing to see. When we got back we had some breakfast and then got a van into a village nearby to go canoeing. I fell over just before we got into the canoe, full on grazing up one of my legs. I’m really clever like that. A Ghanaian rushed over to help me clean dirt from the cuts which was really nice. The canoe ride was for about an hour and was really nice and relaxing. The rest of the day we just relaxed by the pool. The pool had a beautiful view over the national park. Often baboons came and stole food from the people which was quite hilarious, but obviously not good for them. Once a baboon got a whole cup of sugar and literally looked so cheeky walking off with it. He returned the cup when he’d finished with it, which was nice on him haha.
This morning we got up at 3.30am (beautiful time) for the bus back to Tamale. We got back at about 9am and just have been relaxing since. Monday and Tuesday will be normal work days for us and will be Matt, Anna and Frank’s last two days in Tamale. On Wednesday us four will leave to Cape Coast to enjoy the coast and do some excursions there and lie on the beach. Anna will be staying until Friday, Frank until Saturday and Matt and I until Sunday. Can’t wait!
Oh also what you’ll be interested to hear is that I have two Ghanaian admirers. They were both my friends and one of them about a week in, sent me a text confessing his love for me. It said things like “you are so beautiful”, “i fell in love with you the moment i saw you” etc. I told him I have a boyfriend, which was the easiest way to show him that there’s no way anything is going to happen between us. A week ago another one, who I see every day, also sent me a text confessing his love. His text said things like “i’ve never had someone in my heart like you”, “to tell the truth I always find it hard to tell someone how much I love her” and “I dream of you almost every day” etc.
Interesting...

The group we're going to Cape Coast with.

I got given such a cute note!

Written on the 19th of July
First of all, the dog is all back to normal! Which I’m very happy about, although I still can’t believe what they’d done to him.
Summary:
On Sunday I’d gone to church for the first time in Ghana. It definitely was an experience, but I didn’t agree with everything the pastor had said and he seemed to say Hallelujah and Amen a lot, which for some reason got on my nerves. Very cute thing happened on Monday as well. I got a note from a girl in class called Nihad. She’d written:
Dear Marika, I am very happy to write you this letter. How are you? I hope you enjoy your stay with us at our school. I love you so much. I like you face. Thank you.
We’d found out on Monday that one of Fred’s brothers had died, so Fred will be absent all of this week. It must be so hard for him to leave this all as no one can take over from him and he’s still getting bombarded with phone calls. Today I’m picking up a shirt I got tailored from Ghanaian fabric, hopefully it’ll fit perfectly!
Detailed:
Sunday morning I joined Baba and Francis, two of the boys that live at Fred’s house, at church. The English service started at 11pm. They sang two songs with 6 Ghanaian ladies leading it at the front which was really well sung and then it was followed by everyone leaving. Everyone had been told to go out for 25 minutes and ask people on the street to come to the church service. Apparently they do this every Sunday, it’s a nice way to get people to church but I was a bit surprised that they took time out of the service to do that. When everyone returned, we sang some more songs and prayed. The projector had been broken, so I couldn’t sing along which was a shame but it was nice to just listen as well. When the pastor preached, I understood most of it, but although it was all spoken in English, he had a heavy Ghanaian accent. I definitely didn’t agree on everything he said or did (e.g. he got an ipad out and showed it off a bit, which was uncomfortable), but it was an interesting experience. At the end the team there wanted to know where I lived and if they could have my number, but I didn’t feel completely at ease with that, so I somehow was able to avoid that.
After that I just got a taxi into town and walked around a bit and spent some time on skype with my friends, which was nice. I also have been talking to my parents twice a week which has been nice, it gets me very excited to see the new house and settle back in Geldermalsen. I also received an email from my uni about introduction week, which makes me look forward to it all so much!
On Monday a new boy arrived from Romania. He’s 23 years old and about to start his last year in medicines. He definitely keeps us amused. As I’m the only volunteer left at Maltiti school as the others are now all teaching at the village I taught the first 2 days at, no one was there to pick me up. I didn’t mind that and was trying to find a taxi, when I suddenly saw Bwocke (one of the guys that lives at Fred’s) on his motorbike. He was on the way to town and told me to hop on! So there I was riding on the back of the motorbike for the first time. Of course there are no helmets involved, and he had no mirrors, so it’s definitely an adventure (not sure if it’s a safe one, but it was fun!). He said he’ll teach me one day as well, which is exciting!
We found out on Monday that Fred’s brother has died. We’re not sure yet if it’s a related brother as all Ghanaian friends call each other ‘brothers’ here, but he’s understandingly very torn up about it, so he won’t be around for about a week as the burial isn’t in Tamale. I wonder what this will mean for the organisation around here, but fingers crossed that it will just all continue flowing. The boy with Malaria, Mike, left today to go back to Accra to catch the flight back home, as he just doesn’t feel very good. Prayer will be appreciated for him and also all of us to hopefully be able to prevent this from happening to us.
Aw very cute thing happened on Monday as well. I got a note from a girl in class called Nihad. She’d written:
Dear Marika, I am very happy to write you this letter. How are you? I hope you enjoy your stay with us at our school. I love you so much. I like you face. Thank you.
It was so sweet and definitely will keep the note forever.
Yesterday was a harder morning than usual. The teacher that I teach alongside with was ill, so I did some things we’ve done before and then I tried to explain to them how 11.40am is easier to be said as ‘twenty to twelve’ than ‘forty past eleven’. I tried and tried, but they just didn’t understand. I think it’ll be easier when the Dagbani teacher is back so she can help explain it in Dagbani. For lunch Anna, Matt, Frank and I (who will also be the ones who I’m going to Cape Coast with) just bought a pineapple, 2 mangoes and 5 bananas to make a fruit salad. It ended up being 5 cedis (2 pounds!?) and being absolutely delicious. I’d bought Ghanaian fabric from a lady who had come past our house a couple of days ago and I’d gone to a tailor to make a top for me. It was finished within 4 days and I went by yesterday, but it was a little too big, so I’m going to pick it up today and hopefully it should fit perfectly!
On Friday we’re going to Mole National Park, where you can go on safari’s and they have a pool and a shower as well! Pure luxury! It should be a nice weekend away. We’re going with 8 of us, which should be good!

Off to church :)

Poor dog

Written on the 16th of July
Summary:
Wednesday night ended up being really good! Many people came over to the volunteering house, Fred had organised a dj and he ended up getting the goat from us. Men in Ghana dance VERY differently to ones in Europe and it was interesting to experience that to say the least. The kids that I’ve been teaching have got exams next week and if they pass, they go to proper primary schools as the one I teach them at just prepare them for primary school. I think I have a vague idea of who will pass and who won’t which is sad, but I guess we’ll find out soon! This morning I witnessed something horrific. Fred has 2 dogs and like many Ghanaians, they don’t really care about their pets. Today the boys that live at Fred’s house thought it would be really funny to get the dogs drunk. They forced so much rum down one of their throats that he ended up in such a bad state! He was disorientated, falling over everywhere, peeing everywhere and wouldn’t stop yelping. It was horrible to see. We tried to calm him down and got him to lie down where he just lay still for hours. We were convinced he was going to die, but he’s been walking around so I think he’ll be okay. I just get so angry thinking about how they just did it for a bit of fun and how much laughter took place while doing it! It was just very upsetting to see that.
Detailed:
Wednesday night we all had such a good time! Fred had bought a lot of drinks and organised a dj and about 50 people turned up. The way men dance here is very different to Holland or the UK or many European countries. They have very loose hips and definitely all are able to dance. They also don’t need any alcohol to dance which you can’t say for many men that I know. Men are also very comfortable with each other, which can be very awkward to watch. They dance with each other the way a man dances with a woman at a night club. In Europe everyone would quickly assume they’d be ‘gay’, however in Ghana it’s perfectly normal to dance like that, which I found surprising as being gay is pretty much forbidden here. I had a bit of a dance as well, but you’d quickly have a Ghanaian man coming towards you, which I’m never completely comfortable with, the whole dancing closely with people you don’t know...
One thing that surprised me is suddenly at about 10.30pmish everyone started leaving. I’m assuming this is normal in Ghana and that they don’t dance until midnight or later, but it all surprised us. We ended up being able to buy Fred a goat, which we all got to pet etc, and we’ll probably eat very soon (which definitely is an unpleasant thought). That’s another thing that always shocks me, the way many people treat animals here. It’s perfectly normal to cane your pets. We have 2 dogs at the house and the way the boys treat them is horrific! We always try to prevent it, but they just laugh at how shocked we get. Animals are like objects to many of them.
I did a lot of my laundry on Thursday, which we always do outside and as so many people come and go by our house, it’s the hardest thing to be able to do your own laundry. EVERYONE will offer to do your laundry for you. Young, old, male, female, anyone! I really don’t need any of them to do my laundry as it’s not their duty to, I made it dirty, and so I’ll clean it. They are so kind, but some things, us as westerners, just got to do ourselves. Also when we arrive at our schools the first thing the kids will do is, make sure they take our bags of us, that our desk and chair is straight and that they are clean etc. It’s incredibly endearing, although we can easily do that ourselves.
I really love teaching my class. The girls all have exams next week, which is a scary thought as some of them definitely aren’t ready yet. The exams determine whether they go to a state school, which means an actual primary school, which they pay to go to (or in their case, get sponsored to go to). I have felt that I’ve made a difference though, being able to take many girls one on one and go over their maths with them, which is a good feeling, but I wish I could have helped them for a bit longer. By the way, I heard that school doesn’t finish next week, but the week after, apparently the 28th and I asked Fred what I’ll be doing after that and he said there’ll be classes even in the summer holidays with girls at a higher level, so I’m glad to hear that, but I’m sad that I couldn’t have taught the girls I have been teaching for longer as we’d have formed a stronger bond. Another thing that shocks me is that teachers answer their phones in class!
As last night everyone had had brought some drinks with them as we just had a drink at the house(some went clubbing, but Anna and I, the old sods), some rum (or in Ghana’s case ‘rhum’), had been left over. The Ghanaian boys from Fred’s house thought it was a hilarious idea to get the dogs drunk. I tried everything to get them to stop, but I couldn’t. They’d literally given Snoopy, one of the dogs, so much to drink! As soon as I was able to I grabbed both the dogs and put them in my room. I had to literally lock the door, as the boys were still trying to get the dogs to get them drunker. It was horrible. Snoopy went absolutely crazy in my room, jumped on everything and had no clue what was going on. When I finally realised I couldn’t keep them locked up, I just let them out hoping that they wouldn’t continue. A while later, Mike, another volunteer, said he heard loads of yelping. We ended up finding Snoopy locked in a room and he was absolutely going mad. The noise that was coming out of his mouth sounded like a chicken, he couldn’t stand up straight, kept falling over, kept peeing everywhere and he was just so disorientated. It was so sad and hard to watch! That chicken noise came out of his mouth continually for about an hour. Then we were able to finally lie him down and we were convinced he was going to die. We’ve just gotten back from town, he’s still weak, but he’s up at least, we thought we’d find him dead. It was so horrible the way they’d literally opened up his mouth and poured the rum down it and how they found it so hilarious. We were all fuming, but there’s nothing much we can do. I don’t think the dogs will last long after the volunteers leave...
The group we’re left with now, Anna and Matt from the US, Mike and Frank from the UK, Marcus from Spain and I, are all at least staying until the end of the month now. It’s a really nice group and we’ve been planning a trip down to Cape Coast. All them, but Marcus and Me, fly out at the end of the month, so we really hope we can plan to leave on Wednesday the 27th and go down there for a few days. As I don’t think Marcus would want to come to Cape Coast, I’ll then probably head back to Tamale on the 31st. I just feel that now there are people that I could travel with for a few days, I should take the chance, it sounds amazing, we’ve heard good things about Cape Coast!
We also learned last night that Mike has malaria. He’s on the same medication as me, but still got it, so definitely fingers crossed for me! He’s doing okay, he had to stay in the hospital for 2 days and now has anti-malarial tablets. His parents want him home, but he’s going to see how he feels in the next few days. Definitely hope for him, that with the tablets, he’ll feel better very soon!

It's Fred's birthday today!

Written on the 13th of July
Summary:
On Monday we were 1.5 hours late for the reading club, due to the volunteering solution’s car picking us up late which was really sad to see as they’d all been waiting but they couldn’t read with us anymore as they had to go help their mums with dinner. Today’s Fred’s birthday so we’ll going out for drinks tonight, it’s also the last night for 2 of the volunteers. We’re slowly decreasing in numbers, which is sad. The last 3 days have just been the same as last week, which is nice as it’s good to have a routine. I also got to meet the chief’s newborn baby, she was so cute! Also I just told school finishes next week for the summer holiday, which I never got told, so I wonder what I’ll be doing after that...
Detailed:
On Monday, I went to Maltiti Girls school again in the morning and at lunch 3 more volunteers arrived. One 34 year old Israeli woman and two British 17 year old boys. We were meant to get picked up at Sparkles, the restaurant we have lunch at everyday, at 3pm, but they didn’t get there until about 4pm. This was really sad as the girls at Maltiti had been waiting from 3pm and as we had to drop some volunteers of at the orphanage, we didn’t get there until about 4.30pm. The kids had already set up the tables etc and when we arrived only about 6 of the 40 girls were left over. We felt so bad! I asked Francise, one of the Ghanaian boys, to really apologise and that we got delayed, but all the Ghanaians were just like don’t worry! Which was frustrating as we all just felt incredibly bad.
That lunch many of the volunteers were very frustrated as we often feel like we waste a lot of time at lunch (from 12pm until 3pm) which sometimes can extend to 4pm. Vicky and Colm talked to Fred about this. Also on our trip on Saturday there were 6 volunteers that went which meant that we paid 420 cedis altogether. The entrance fee was 12 cedis each so we really wanted to know where the rest of the money goes. They talked about this too. Fred took this quite badly and so when he came home to the other volunteers we had about a half an hour lecture about where the money goes to and about how we thought he cheated him which we didn’t think at all, we just simply wanted to know where the money is going. The whole lecture was very uncomfortable as it was all about figures and about how much of his own money he puts in etc. Also they’ve now made sure that our lunch is shorter and we do some manual labour like painting and the boys are building an office by the Maltiti school, which is good.
Yesterday was just a normal day, I got a lot of reading done in my breaks and a lot of sleeping. I’ve been going to bed at around 9pm since Sunday night now, it’s been great! People keep asking me, where I go, which I guess is a bad sign, but I love just reading, listening to my ipod or sleeping in my room. I’m going to try a bit harder to socialise a bit more in my free time.
Today is Fred’s birthday. We’re buying him a goat, which we bring to him alive and apparently he slaughters it. Tonight we’ll all be going out for drinks with everyone which is nice.
At the school break today, we got to see the village’s chief’s baby, which is now 7 days old. A week after the child is born they have a naming ceremony, so we got to come along for a part of that. I got to hold her, she was so cute! It was strange though as she was wearing eyeliner and eyebrow pencil and her ears were already pierced as well.
2 of the volunteers are leaving tomorrow and 1 is leaving on Saturday. This slowly cuts down the numbers of our group, which is a sad thought as we all gel so well, but ah well that’s all part of it! I also got told yesterday that the schools in Ghana close after next week, so I wonder what I’ll be doing after that... I’m a bit frustrated that I didn’t get told this, but ah well ‘this is ghana’!

Trips to the Monkey Sanctuary and the Waterfalls

Written on the 10^th of July
uploaded 2 new blogs today

Summary of this blog:
Yesterday I went to see a monkey sanctuary and to see the Kantampo Waterfalls. It was a really nice day out, but was a 5 hour drive there and back. The way they drive here is unreal! We were glad we survived the trip. The waterfalls were beautiful and at the monkey sanctuary we got to feed some monkeys which was nice. We went for drinks on Friday and Saturday night, which was a good laugh, however everywhere we go, people always come up and chat to you (specifically the Ghanaian boys to us girls) which can be frustrating and annoying. Today, I was able to sleep in which was so good as throughout the week I only get about 7 hours which just isn't enough for me at all! 2 things that get me frustrated here is the way the Ghanaians treat their country. there is rubbish EVERYWHERE! The other thing is that the mothers of families get their 4 year old or older kids to look after their baby siblings. It just isn't right..

Detailed:

On Friday night, all of us volunteers with the Ghanaian boys that live at Fred’s house went out for drinks. We got into the club and as we were white all eyes were quickly drawn to us. We tried to ignore it and many of the men greeted us but we’d just quickly respond and walk off. The Ghanaian boys from Fred’s house, Moosa, Kelvin, Francise and Bocke looked after us well and made sure that we kept away from creeps. They are all the sweetest guys ever and really make us feel comfortable and help us whenever it’s needed. Three of us girls decided to go to the dance part. As soon as we stepped on the dance floor, we were surrounded by Ghanaian men. They all grabbed our ass, one would be in front of you dancing with you, one would be behind you, they’d get really close to your face and although we kept pushing hands away, they didn’t get the message. After 5 minutes, we’d definitely had enough and decided to go back to where the others were. It was an interesting experience... At 12 o’clock Rachel, Anna and I were really tired and just wanted to go home especially as we had to leave at 6am to go on a trip. The rest of our lot went to the club and had a good time.

The next morning, Vicky, Colm, Helen, Marcus and I got into a van to take us to the Monkey Sactuary and the Kantampo Waterfalls. It was a 5 hour drive and once again an unbelievably bumpy one. We nearly kissed the ground when we arrived there as we were definitely close to death at least 5 times. The speed that they drive over those bumps and the way they overtake other cars, even around corners, is just crazy! At the Monkey Sanctuary, we first walked through bits of forest, which felt so nice as there’s barely any nature in Tamale. It was nice to be walking and just smell the forest and hear the birds and the monkeys. We got to feed the monkeys and I ended up buying a Ghanaian necklace in the shop at the end. Afterwards, we drove back 2 hours and got to the Kantampo Waterfalls. There were 3 stages of the waterfalls that we could see. The last stage was where it’d really classify as a waterfall. It was a big drop. It was really pretty and we stayed there for a while just putting our feet in, as those are always dirty. At around 4pm we started driving back towards Tamale, a 3 hour drive.

One thing that really frustrates me in Ghana is that the people always say that they love their country so much, but the way they treat it is saying the opposite. Every part of the city is COVERED in rubbish, they don’t have bins anywhere which is why literally everyone just throws their rubbish on the floor. Also most kids pee on the street as there are no toilet cubicles anywhere. I just find that so contradictory as the way they talk about Ghana is like you’re in heaven. Another thing, which I find pretty upsetting is the way 4 year old and older kids, carry their baby sisters or brothers instead of their mums. The Ghanaians always want really big families, although they have no money or time for the kids. So everywhere you’ll see as young as 4 year olds carry around their baby siblings. Some even take them to school!

 It was raining really hard last night, so Anna and I got into our bikinis and decided to shower outside. You get so much cleaner than showering using buckets. We felt so clean afterwards and it was just so funny standing outside with shampoo in our hair washing it out with the rain. As it was Emma’s last night (which is sad as she was one of my roommates) we all went out for drinks again. It was really nice, but us old ladies, Anna and I, were once again really tired so we decided to get a taxi home at 12. I ended up sleeping until 10am this morning, which is the most sleep I’ve gotten in one night so far.

Today, Sunday, I’m planning to just have a relaxing day. Anna, who I’ve gotten really close to, is moving into my bedroom in the place of Emma, which is exciting, and we’ve decided we’re going to give into buying nutella, although it’s super expensive, as we’re just craving European/American food. I’m looking forward to it already haha. 

Showering in the rain

My new Ghanaian necklace

First school week

Written on the 8^th of July
Summary of this blog:
On tuesday I had another day of teaching at the same school which was really hard. However I'd told Fred, the coordinator, my problems with it and he's changed me to a different school. From Wednesday until now when I leave I'm teaching at Maltiti Girls School, which is a much better school and the level of it is a lot higher! I've loved it! I've also loved doing the reading classes there in the afternoon. You just see the girls improve before your eyes which is so exciting! I did have one day where on my own I had to teach a really young class which was again harder, but it was doable as teachers kept checking if I was okay. I also did my first set of laundry which was a new experience haha.
Detailed: 

On Monday night, 3 new volunteers arrived. Helen, 17 from America, Anna, 19 from America and Marcus, 17 from Spain. They’re all lovely and it’s nice to meet new people! Anna is staying 4 weeks and Marcus is staying 5 weeks, so they’ll be people I’ll be with the longest as most of the volunteers leave on the 14^th of July.

On Tuesday, teaching at the school was still hard. There are 3 classes and Matt and I as volunteers go there, but because of the chat with Rachel, she came with. None of the teachers had turned up (what a surprise) and so we had a class each. Rachel was hoping to have talked to the teachers about their attendance, about the students and about their level, but that obviously couldn’t happen as they weren’t there. Rachel had the smallest kids, about 4 to 7 years old, and Matt and I had the same ages about 8 to 12, but Matt’s class is at a higher level. I continued doing some maths with them and did places in town and was able at the end of that to have them draw things up and name them in English. This was improvement, which is always very exciting as you can see they’re taking it in.

We were meant to teach until 12pm, but at 10.30am I decided to play a name game outside and suddenly all of Rachel’s class burst out to play outside. I checked on Rachel and she was literally about to cry. She’s never felt that helpless and with 40 young kids who just hit each other all the time, nothing’s possible. All they were able to do was repeat the alphabet and repeat 1 till 10 in English. If she tried to do a word they’d look at her blankly. It was also impossible to get them to behave, which was the same problem with one boy in my class. You can raise your voice, get in their faces, send them outside, but nothing works. They seem to have a LOT less respect for us than their Dagbani teachers. Especially as we can’t speak Dagbani, it’s hard to tell them off, but she even knew phrases like stop and go outside etc in Dagbani, but they just laughed at her although they understood perfectly well. We gave up for the day and painted the huts that Volunteering Solutions own near the school, which are meant to be used for if volunteers want to stay in a hut for a night. So if we get that all painted and cleaned up again, I’ll definitely give that a go!

In the afternoon I got to hear that I’m changing schools. They’ve moved me to an all girls school, where the teachers are usually always there and most of the children are keen to learn. It’s also walking distance from home, which is perfect as then I don’t need to give the organisation money for transport. They moved me as they knew how much the situation was stressing me out and they said as a 17 year old, I shouldn’t be dealing with that, so I’m definitely not complaining.

At night there was a cultural show. This was absolutely amazing! There were about 200 kids and us and some parents who watched and the chief of the village came and watched as well. It consisted of 4 songs played by a flute and 4 drums and danced to by breathtaking dancers. The video on facebook or the pictures can’t do it justice in the slightest! In the end, they tried to take one of my friends up, but she didn’t want to go so I joined her and we had to dance haha! All the other volunteers ended up joining in as well and we copied one of the dancers with the moves. We definitely got laughed at haha, but it was so much fun! At the end all the dancers came up to the white girls and started chatting and asking for our email address etc. Typical Ghanaians. They were nice though!

Yesterday was my first day at Maltiti, the girls school. I absolutely loved it! One of the teachers came in an hour late, so I taught with Rachel for that hour which was fun and then the teacher came and I helped her mark work etc. As my class I’m helping at is nearly doing exams, it’s all mainly revision so I mainly marked their work. 2 kids got 5 out of 15 which really upset them, which was so sad to see! They had to do improper fractions and big multiplications and all, so some struggled. If they pass these exams then they will be able to go onto state school, which is a normal primary school, but they have to pay for that. So primary school is at a much higher level as Maltiti and the village school just prepare the kids for that. The Maltiti girls all need sponsors for state school, so if you’re interested in sponsoring them, let me know! It will mean that they get good education and can move onto high school after that.

In the afternoon, all the volunteers went back to Maltiti and we did reading club with the girls. I really enjoy that as you see so much improvement every day and you can just see how keen they are to learn and it’s amazing to be part of the help towards that. I ended up getting an early night last night at about 9pm and I heard this morning that all the boys got really drunk and that I missed a hilarious night, but honestly? I really do not mind, seriously love my sleep here, as we all get back so completely drained and exhausted every day.

Today, was another stressful day, but that’s okay I didn’t come here for an easy ride. One of the teachers didn’t turn up for Maltiti and that’s the class which was the youngest ones, so the 4 to 6ish year old. The teacher that teaches them hasn’t gotten paid yet, so we think that’s probably why she didn’t turn up, which would be fair enough, so we’ll see if she’s there tomorrow. Teaching those little ones was such a struggle. I had to think of a lesson plan. We sounded out the alphabet and even when I randomly pointed at letters they could sound them out without me saying them, which was great, and then I made them copy the alphabet followed by a word for it. The class only has really small pencils as they’ve been used a lot, but there weren’t enough for the whole class. There are new pencils available so I gave them new pencils. Those kids got so excited and so suddenly everyone had lost their pencil or it wasn’t good enough. I couldn’t control them, couldn’t get them to sit down or anything. After a while I took the new pencils off them and made them all share between the old pencils as I didn’t know what else to do. Especially as they can barely speak English. Later this was the same case with new notebooks. One kid’s book was finished so I gave her a new one and it was bigger and thicker and so she was so proud of it and so suddenly everyone’s had run out and so I had to, again, take that book off her and just ripped a page out of it.

It was just a very stressful morning as they were always surrounding me with things to mark or to approve (even after they’d only written one word of the alphabet), they didn’t listen and they were never in their seats. Also the class is at very different level as some kids couldn’t even write out the letters of the alphabet, they just looked like random symbols, so that was sad to see as after a while I just needed to move on.

This afternoon I did my first laundry, so hand washing my laundry by hand in a bucket. I think I got most the stains out, except the white shirts were near impossible as they always end up being brown at the end of the day from the sand which flies around, and got them smelling at least a bit clean haha. This evening we found out that one of my friends from Volunteering Solutions, Helen, who stays in a host family across the road, that her ipod has been stolen. And this time for real. She could never lock her room, but she kept everything always hidden. When she walked in her fan was on which she never turns on and her case for her headphones and ipod was lying around. The ipod was missing. Luckily she’d hidden her passport and money in a really good spot, it’s just such a scary thought that someone has been in her room, got comfortable enough to turn on the fan and literally searched through her stuff to find her ipod. They’d left her headphones. That thought is a very scary thought, which definitely warns us again to keep locking our room all the time even if we’re in the garden, as it can be anyone..

We also had to live without running water for 2 days, which means you can’t do your laundry, the toilet doesn’t flush, you need to be careful with the water in the tanks etc, so that was quite hard as even taking a shower you should use only a little bit of water as everyone needs to use that water. As it’s 35 to 40 degrees every day, you feel very gross all the time, so not being able to wash every time you felt like it was a struggle.

Anyways, in conclusion, I’m definitely loving Ghana more every day. Every day I learn more about the culture and about the people and I love (although it’s hard) helping the kids as it’s so rewarding. 

Me doing my laundry

at the culture show

my new blanket:)

the water they drink out of