Akrapong Village

Written by Nicole Donaldson - Ghana 2008 Year Out Volunteer

Hi everyone,

I am writing this from the stingyest little internet cafe after arguing with the people who run it to let an obruni use compute!!! they just kept pushing people in front of me!!!!

So spent the last four days with my host family in a village called Agona Akrapong! the closesest big town is Agona Swedru and that is where I am now. its much more dirty than Accra, but so beautiful as well. I like it much more than the hostel that is for sure!

It was great to move into our families - Rose and I are getting on realyy well, though it was very nerve-racking at first, sitting on the bus waiting to pull up to our house. It’s off the main road and is the only house in the area with power and one of the only ones with water. The surrounding houses are all mud huts and there is a little girl (about 2) that cries everytime she sees us as we are the first white people she has ever seen! Everyone looks at you, and shouts, but the kids go crazy, pointing and laughing! It’s sooo nice. I am so comfortable with my host family. There is mama Mery (61), Sister Rita (20), afua (10), mabenna (8) and paa-kwesi (13) also Godson (??) but he works at cape coast so is only home on w/es. there are always more people in the house though and Rose and I have no idea who they are!

We are travelling to an orphanage every day to work for the next two weeks. the first day, when the bus pulled up all the kids ran at us, and before we’d even gotten off there were three children clinging to your legs. For the first day I was on nursery duty, looking after the babies and i had one strapped to my back all day while i did the washing (the ghanian way) and played with the other ones.

Also, we wend to Odaa yesterday to go to an ATM. We were told it was 40 mins by tro tro but after 2 hours we were finally there. no one here (even tina or seth) has any concept of time!!! it was also raining sooooo heavily, we just got off the tro tro, ran to bank got some fried rice and chicken (that actually is just half a chicken deep fried on the plate!) an then went home. A five hour expedition just for money!!! sooo crazy!!

Having sooo much fun though. I love it here. It feels like I have been here for ages as I am just so comfortable! The shower is fantastic, that is definitely my favourite time of day, just standing in the shower, cool water on me. However the second you turn the water off you cannot dry yourself as the humidity is too high.

Also grandma, I dont know if you remember this, but one time you said to me that you wished you had a magic wand that could just stop people so you could ask where they are going. Well, you would love ghana!!! Everywhere we go people ask 'obruni, where are you going?' And not just people we know, or taxi drivers, EVERYONE and its not just to us because we are white - its to everyone.

Getting better at twi - the local language. now can sort of carry a conversation with my mum, though she does speak perfect English.

On the w/e we are going to Winneba to see a 300 year old festival about catching and sacrificing antelope. Rose and i are going with sister rita but some other girls are going to stay the w/e. Tomorrow is a public holiday so we are going to the beach. Should be good.

Yeah, happier than ever before here.