Written by Amanda Hudy - Gapbreak 2009, Ghana
As I write this (i write all my news before typing it to save internet time) Phoebe and I are sitting in our room and have been invaded by doreen, mercy and paa kwesi who are sitting on our beds and requesting that we sing advance australia fair. This is a typical evening for us. Someone asked me the other day what I do on a normal day and it occurred to me that it's probably a bit of a grey area, so the following is a plan of my average ghana day:
7am - wake up and breaky (take anti-malarials!)
8:30am - School starts, begin teaching
10:30am - school break. On Mon, Wednes and Fri I'm finished for the day
11am - Break over. On Tues and Thurs I go to the Nursery and read books or do craft with them. On other days I might do a clothes wash, read my book or plan the next day's lesson
12:30pm - Phoebe finishes teaching and we have lunch - usually fruit
1pm - Often we go into Swedru for internet, bank, post office, general shopping etc and on Wednesdays we have Obruni meeting at 2pm. On Tues we all meet in Swedru and head out to the nearby town Akwakwaa for an arvo at the orphanage
5:30pm - if we've gone into town we come home and have dinner. Dinner is not the same kind of meal as at home - rather than a family meal, everyone eats seperately. Phoebe and I eat, sit and chat together
6:3opm - showers. Almost always bucket, but we've just had 2 consecutive days of the actual shower working - SO exciting!!!
7pm - plan the next day, chat, hang out with the family
7:30pm - Bed. Sounds early but trust me, here it isn't!!
So that's an average day for Phoebs and I in Gomoa Akropong.
Last weekend we made the trek to Busua - 5 hour tro tro to Takoradi (birthplace of dear friend Graham Willis!) then a 1-2 hour tro tro to Busua. We stayed just out of Busua at the indescribable Green Turtle Lodge. It was Max's bday weekend and also a long weekend due to the Africa Unity Day so we were gearing up for a bit of celebrating!
The only way i can adequately describe Green Turtle is totally idyllic. It's literally a cluster of huts spread out along a very beautiful and isolated beach with an outdoor bar. We statyed in tents pitched on the beach - it was so amazing to be able to wake up and walk straight into the Atlantic Ocean.
On sunday we did a day trip to Nzulezu stilt village which involved an epic canoe trip on which my canoe (Gabi, Brig, Soph and I) were convinced we were going to capsize. So we eased our frazzled nerves by having a very rowdy singalong, including a few rounds of row row row your boat!!!!
Other than that we spent the weekend mingling with other travellers and relaxing, swimming, reading, playing pool etc. Definitely my favourite weekend so far!
The next weekend we stayed about 8kms out of Cape Coast at a place called Hans Botel (we think a pun on the word 'Hotel' because the restaurant was over a lake - boat/hotel = botel??)
The lake has 12 resident crocodiles and it was very funny watching the yanks freaking out when the staff lured them out with meat - these crocs would have been 1/4-1/3 the size of a big Northern Territory croc. We thought they were a bit pathetic - but then we are australian!! That friday night we met a college group from Boston College of Music who were here for 3 weeks studying West African Music. We ended up hanging out with the only aussie in the group - a guy called Jackie. Very very weird to hear such a strong accent that wasn't one of our own!! He was telling us that in his spare time he tours with his Dad's band - then casually said that his dad is Jimmy Barnes!! True story - if you're doubtful, google him. Bizarre who you meet travelling!
On Saturday we got up and headed along a very dodgy road to Domama Rock Shrine. We walked for about 6kms along a very hilly road (in thongs!) and then for 1km in the forest to the shrine. We were exhausted on arrival and promptly collapsed in a heap!! Then there was the option to climb a near vertical rock face using only 2 vines. Max, Harry, Cate, Gabi and Char did it but Claud, Soph, Phoebs and I waited down the bottom. Then we trekked the 7kms back, making it a 14km round trip. Needless to say we were completely exhausted that night!
On Sunday we headed out to Kakum National Park. We did a canopy walk made up of 7 sections, about 40m high suspended over the forest canopu. Doesn't sound high, but trust me- it most certainly felt like it, especially when Cate walked beging me shaking and swaying the walkway!! Despite the slight fear factor, there were beautiful views of the national park.
After Kakum we tro-troed it to Elmina, a former Portugese colony famous for it's old slave fort - not unlike the one at Cape Coast. We did a quick tour of it which, if i'm honest is all a bit of a blur - we'd had a big night before so hadn't recovered from the domama trek, and were subsequently delirious with exhaustion!!! We splurged on a somewhat pricey meal at a nearby resort then headed back to Swedru (or 'swedders' or 'sweddy' or 'the swed' as it's now affectionately known) for some serious resting.
Phoebe and I took Monday off to plan the next 3 weeks of school, but other than that the week passed in a blur of teaching, orphanageing and obruniing as usual.
Last weekend we chose to spend some time at home, so other than a day trip to the the coast we hung about in swedru. School was cancelled on friday due to 'water scarcity' - our pipe had stopped running (phoebs and i substituted showers for babywipes for 4 days) so we had a long weekend too :). We spent most of Sunday in bed which was very blissful! We also visited the tailor and our Ghanaian clothes are being picked up this afternoon - fingers crossed.....
Other than that life is great. We heard yesterday that Harry has now got influenza - he's on a roll.
I'm thinking about sponsoring my favourite orphanage baby and Phoebs and I are in the midst of funding new desks, chairs and the startings of a library for our school.
Donations are very welcome!
The weeks are speeding by at a terrifying rate. It's been nearly 8 weeks since I left home, and it's only 5 weeks to the day til I fly out to Joburg. Unbelievable!!! Although I can't wait to visit everyone in europe :)
For those of you with exams and tests and elections, a huge good luck.
To those with birthdays coming up, have a wonderful day!
For anyone just going about life as usual, stay happy :)
And for everyone else travelling or overseas, hope you're having just as amazing a time as I am!
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