The final blog from Shannyn in Ghana. What fantastic adventures the Gappers have had in Ghana!
So i dont know about you, but i am very sad that this will be the last blog i am writing from ghana!
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n the last 3 weeks alot has happened so i guess i shall start with leaving our home swedru....
The last week of teaching was very enjoyable, but i am not going to lie, i cried a bit as i did not want to leave our gorgeous class 3! Maya and I spent the last week absolutely running around swedru looking like chickens with their heads chopped off trying to organize everything for our school! we brought little pencil cases for the kids filled with all types of goodies, but the night before our big class party, we realised that we had forgotten a student as his name was not on the list, so the next morning we woke up so early trying to find any shop that was open to get the stationary!
The class party was so much fun, we bought balloons, snacks and icecream for them and we danced for hours to waka waka! the kids get so into the dancing it is so hilarious, i wished the whole time i could swing my hips like them! Sir patrick presented us certificates which was so nice of him and he said a prayer for Maya and I that made me cry, and it was here we could see how much we have done and made a difference for Prince of Peace! Maya and I were so excited as we had one more surprise for the class! Thanks to our last minute sponsers, we were able to by tables and chairs for the class! they were so excited, jumping up and down saying "thankyou madame, thankyou madame" and sir patrick was so surprised! Maya and I were very happy with our work we have done for the school!
Saying goodbye to the kids was one of the hardest things I and probably all of the group have done! It broke my heart when the kids were like "are you coming on Monday" "are you coming on Tuesday", it was so sad as we had to tell them we won’t see them for a very long time :( Most of the kids were crying as they walked us to the end of the street! Little Prince was in hesterics and it was here i realised that they do really appreciate what Maya and I and other volunteers do for them! I will never forget the moment walking away from the gorgeous class 3 waving to us!
Iona and Eliza bought icecreams for the whole school and similarly they found it so difficult to leave the children. I am really going to miss being called "madame"! it beats "obruni" ANY day! Ma and Erin threw a party for the kids at the orphanage and we all came for the last part of the party on the Saturday! The kids were having a great time eating and singing! My favourite moment of that day was definately when all the kids started singing "Doh a deer a female deer" (as Erin and Ma had taught them) and we all joined in for a group sing along :) Saying goodbye to the orphanage kids was so heartbreaking as well :( every single one of them were in tears so of course, we all teared up! Its hard because they don't understand that we are going because they always ask if we are going to be here next Monday or Friday! It was definately a very emotional week!
On the Friday night, we had our going away dinner where all the families from the group came toghether! It was a very enjoyable night! My and I pulled up our mum and had a great boogie with her and taught her how to shimmie, she was absolutely loving it, she could not stop laughing! we also taught our family the sea saw shimmie when one goes forward and one goes back, and they were literally doing it for the whole night! It was so nice to have a night where we can just relax and spend the last moments with our families!
On the Sunday, Maya and I had the lovely experience of going to church....not one hour...not two hours...not three hours...try 4 hours of sitting in the church, having no idea what is going on as the service is in a different language! there were times where we had to poke each other so we did not fall asleep! It was definitely an experience, i want say that i would do it again though! On Sunday night, Maya and I had the privlidge of going out with our 2 sisters as a good bye celebration! It was so funny watching Linda dance, she is actually an amazing dancer always swinging her hips and moving, i told her that she should go on Africa's got talent, I seriously think she should win! Linda tried to teach me some of her moves, but of course I failed (i really need to learn how to swing my hips smoothly).
So the monday morning 2am wakeup arrived where we left swedru! our family was so cute, they woke up and walked us to our car waiting for us! it was so sad saying goodbye to them! they have been so amazing to us and we are going to miss them SO much!
so now all the goodbyes are over, lets get onto the 2 week travel.....
dont we all love being squished in a bus, swapping sweat and inhaling their dirty smell scents! i know i do....! So we headed to our first stop Kumasi which was a lovely 8 hour ride of my bum being num, 40 billion pot holes, a ladies elbow nearly taking my head out as she was always looking in her bag...all i can say is fun fun fun!
So our easy going day in kumasi soon changed when we got pulled over by the cops from overloading in the taxi! and of course, the taxi driver pins it on erin telling her that he is taking her to court! But dont worry we all stepped in doing our innocent voice "sir, we are sorry this is our first time here and we did not know you cannot overload here", and hell yess we got off and of course the policemen wants our number (Why are policemen here SO seedy)!! We spent the rest of the day looking in museums and souvenir shopping!
We then hoped on a bus with air conditioning (took me an hour to get over the fact that there was airconditioning on the bus and i was actually cold for once!) to Tamale where we met our love of our life, our one and only street breakfast lady who makes the most amazing street milo and egg sandwiches! we were seriously contemplating paying her to follow us around ghana, because her food is THAT good, i could seriously talk about my love for her for hours but should probably move on!
So we hired our personal driver to take us to MOLE NATIONAL PARK!!!! Mole was so beautiful, it was like a scene from the movie, we arrived at the front entrance and there were monkeys running across it! we were like hellooo safari! So we were told before we arrived that it is very rare to see elephants so we made a plan we will not leave until we see the african elephant! well we could of left 10 mins into the park because as we arrived at the hotel and looked at the stunning view over the water hole, there were 3 elephants walking! we were like OMG ran for our camera and took hundreds of photos where the elephant is hardly visible in them! lucky we have MA's massive camera with her mammoth zoom so we could at least see the ears!
We felt so in africa, sitting on the top of our safari vechile with our cameras looking in every direction until we saw animals! So i am proud to say we saw 4 different breeds of antelopes, a snake, a few elephants (which eliza nearly scared away as she screamed really loud when she saw it) and crocodiles! a preety succesful trip! the next day we did a walking safari and god were we lucky. we saw a family of 9 male elephants swimming in the water! it was such a magnificant scene and we were only 20 metres away from them! we sat there for ages, wide eyed amazed at these gorgeous creatures! my memory card on my camera is basically filled up with pictures of these elephants, i just went a tad crazy!
The next couple of days we went further north towards the border! So Erin and I were the lucky ones, we were in a different taxi from the others and we found out that the others taxi had broken down and the taxi driver had jumped on the back of a randoms motorbike and left them stranded there! we were like, what the hell are we going to do, they are in the middle of the country with hardly any taxi's coming past! So we found a taxi and sent him to find them, but he said he could not find them and we were like WHAT tottally stressing on the where abouts of the other ghana girls! it turns out that the taxi driver came back to them, only he got a lift in the boot of another taxi and took them to meet us! he was like "i pick you up tomorrow" and they were like "only if you get a new car"!. Then in paga, we bumped into him again on his motorbike, and then when we were stranded on the road waiting for the taxi, guess who pulls up with his horrible horn, YES the taxi driver! is it possible that he was not stalking us, and he was like "my taxi is always free for you" haha.
Anyway, in paga we went to a crocodile pond filled with 200 crocs which was a nice calming fact! we all got to hold the tail of a 3 metre croc and get this, sit on his back! how many of you can say you have done this! the guide was like i go swimming in the lake all the time and they dont hurt me because they are my friends! and get this, the crocs come out of the lake and cross the road to the guides house at night and lay eggs there! ummmmm why isnt he freaked out my massive crocs sleeping next to him! After the ponds, we walked a supposed to be 2 km walk but try 5 km in the heat to a slave camp! It was so interesting to hear about the punishements they used to get, like carving a plate out of stone when they misbehaved! we even got to watch a drumming show where they made the sounds of a drum by hitting rocks!
So in the days that followed, we made more very long journeys back down to kumasi then towords HoHoe where we entered the volta region which is absolutely gorgeous! when i thought of ghana, i would never think it was actually this green! So we stayed a night in a monkey sanctuary where we stayed in a home stay and got to feed the cute monkeys bananas! we even had dinner in a mud hut which was so exciting, again i was like "wow this is so african". The next day we went to Wli falls where My and I decided to do the upper falls and the other girls did the lower falls and OMG was it a hike! not going to a gym in 3 months really does catch up to you when you literally rock climbing up a mountain! its been more than a week and my arms are still sore! The 2 hour climb to the top was so hard but worth it for the amazing views we got to experience! and reaching the upper waterfall was such a relief! We did plan to go swimming but it was like a hurricane up there and we were so cold! the other girls went swimming and they said it was very cold but nice and refreshing!
After HoHoe we made our way back to our incountry agents house where we were greeted with big hugs from our 2 big black mammas, tina and felica and dad Seth! i absolutely loved it, when we got there, Tina was like "Go to you room", that made us feel so at home :) :) we all love it at this house, and the food is SO amazing!
So the last couple of days we revisted kokrobite and Osu just to get cheese is literally the only reason! and been just having a wind down before we leave which is today!
oh i found out yesterday that I have ringworm which is exciting, i just love having all these circle rashes up my arm! but hopefully the medicine will help it go away soon!
I am so sad, I absoltuely do not want to leave! I LOVE it here, the people, the food (sort of if you take away the rice haha and the fish), our school, the orphanage, the ghana girls! there are so many fantastic memories here and i just dont want to leave!
but most of all i will miss being able to buy anything out of a tro tro window hahah and yes i saw the most random thing being sold, it was a unicorn on wheels with a handle you can push along the ground YEP that definately wins most random thing!
love from shannyn xxx
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