Hello from Ghana!

July 11th, 2009 by Sophia Chambers and Nathan Bowles

The last week has been manic – sorry for the delay in writing!

We arrived safely in Accra on July 1st, although our flight was delayed. We spent the first night in a Guest House there as the journey would be too long to our village near Ho. People gathered round us as we came out from the airport – the air smelt different – hundreds of people everywhere – us, the only whites!! It was a huge culture shock. And we were exhausted.

We spent a long day travelling to meet our “host”, Bismark (he co-ordinates BRIDGE – the organisation that we are volunteering for). Travelling through Ghana on this day was a huge “eye-opener” as we saw many of the local villages. Literally like something you would see on TV – mud huts, open fires, dusty roads etc.

We had to travel to Ho (large-ish town) to get to our village which is located on the side of Adaklu mountain. To get to the mountain, you first have to drive across 7 miles of mud and then walk up the mountain for 20 mins to reach our village.

Our village is lovely – everyone is so welcoming. The kids wave and shout “YEVOO” (white person) – they are so excited to see us. However, we have made a baby cry – he had never seen a yevoo before, and was afraid! He is still not used to us! We gave a few kids bouncy balls and within about 10 minutes we had all the village kids round us wanting to play (probably about 30-40 kids!) They are also very keen on pens and paper.

Bismark is a very respected man in the village – he leads the local church and acts as counsellor for the village – evryone goes to him for advice. He is acting “chief” while the current chief is away. He has a car (very very rare) and his house is like a palace compared to most. Our room is lovely – sealed so no bugs can get in (although Sophie thought there was a lizard in there the other night – Nathan laughed lots)!! However, there is no electricity in the village at all and as it gets dark by 6pm, we are in bed asleep by 7pm latest!!

Our shower is a bucket, which is actually really amazing at 5:30am after a night of sweating (no electricity = no fan!) Some men in the village made a toilet for us – this is literally a hut with a hole. However, when we woke up the other day, they had made a proper seat for us!! This is a big thing seeing as the rest of the village (of about 400 people) share 3 toilets. We are treated so well here. Florence (Bismark’s wife) is our caretaker – she makes all our food and does our washing. The food has been really good so far – lots of rice, pasta, plantains, yams, popcorn and eggs. We have not been ill…yet!

The sense of community is fantastic – everyone knows everyone and would help each other out at any cost. We are working with a group of people from the village raise funds and build a kindergarten for the children. There is not a school in the village, and kids have to walk for miles if they want an education. Any fundraising ideas would be appreciated!! They need about $17,000 to finish the project. So far, they have none. It has really made us appreciate what we have at home.

We have found the “public transport” here very very amusing – people travel in tro-tros (like run-down minibuses). There is no sense of personal space in Ghana – about 19-20 people can squeeze in one of these, with several on the roof. We had 9 people in a taxi the other day. Everyone laughs and gets on with it though – there is always lots of laughing. It is also extremely cheap – a 3hour journey would cost a max of 5 cedi (about 3 pounds).

We have also visited the Wli waterfalls (we believe the highest in West Africa) – they atmosphere was incredible. People were dancing, singing, drumming. We have fed some monkeys and crocodiles!! Tomorrow we are going to Kakum National Park to do the Canaopy Walk across the rainforest. The atmosphere has been crazy in Ghana today as Pres Obama visited. Everyone is wearing/selling Obama gifts – Tshirts, flags, underwear !! Madness!

The weather has generally been very hot, although we are still in the wet season. It never rains, it always pours! However, it is always very humid.

We will try to update you asap – due to the lack of electricity this can be hard!

Hope everyone is okay -

Nath and Soph