Loving Ghana

COUNTRY: Ghana
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching & Care work
WRITTEN BY: Jaslyn Goette and Sophie Heard

We've been pretty busy over the past month so sorry to all about the delay on the blog posts- we'll try our best to make it up to you now. We have traveled a lot in the past month going to places along the coast each weekend- doing a lot of touristy things.

3 weekends ago we traveled for 3 hours by tro-tro to get to Cape Coast, which is a big beach town full of tourists (meaning everything was over priced which gave us a large hole in all our wallets). Being a popular tourist destination there were many things to do and see. On Saturday we went to Kakum National Park where we did a canopy walk 18 metres above the ground along a thin plank of wood over an aluminum ladder, held up by worn rope- a very scary experience filled with adrenaline and excitement. Jazzy was very excited when she heard that there were Honey Badgers (her favourite animal) in the National Park; however we weren't fortunate enough to see one, but a plastic display model was enough to keep her satisfied. That night we went back to Oasis (the hotel we were staying at which included beach front accommodation and a very good western menu) where we joined the rest of the guests, mostly western, in dancing all night to many local songs as well as a few hip hop classics.

The night included many tequila shots, pizzas, and watching Caleb take centre stage where he found a pole to dance with... what a great combination. He was actually very good at pole dancing and entertained the rest of the crowd. The following day we headed to the Elmina Castle which was used as a station for exporting slaves to Europe and America. We were given a guided tour through the castle where we were told about its extensive and fascinating history including the brutal treatment and unsanitary living condition the slaves had to endure. The rest of the weekend was spent shopping, relaxing on the beach front and another 3 uncomfortable hours on a tro-tro home.

The following Tuesday was Clara's 19th birthday which was spent at Winneba beach in front of a bonfire made by our Ghanaian friend Ben accompanied again by a bottle of tequila, Clara's favourite drink. That night we stayed at a small hostel close to the beach- sharing beds to save money.

During the next week, Jesse spent many many hours working in the vegetable garden he set up with some of the money that was donated. He was helped by Lawatt (the school teacher) and Lukas (a volunteer from Germany) to plant vegetables for the kids such as carrots, cabbage, tomatoes etc. This will hopefully not only provide nutritious food for the kids (which they are lacking) but also serve an educational purpose for them to learn how to manage the garden and understand how plants grow.



The next weekend was spent relaxing at the Green Turtle Lodge, an eco-resort set up by an English man and his Ghanaian wife to rescue injured turtles and to attempt to create a safe haven for them to breed. The entire weekend was spent lying on the beach and swimming in the just about perfect water. During the night Clara, Caleb and Sophie were sitting on the beach when they were attacked by sand flies, claiming that they were so itchy that they wanted to "skin" themselves. A very lovely weekend was ended with a 6 hour trip home covered in bites from the neck down.

The boys went to work at the school in Swedru however felt as if their help was not needed as there were teachers for every class so the next day they changed to working with the girls at the orphanage which only has one teacher for 4 classes.This then resulted in them leaving their host family to come and live with the girls due the distance they had to travel everyday. They will start teaching at the orphanage tomorrow.

Other than that we have been off doing things like getting clothes made from local materials, spending some afternoons at the beach, going into Swedru, our closest big town, to buy textbooks, playing with the kids, helping them shower and get dressed, changing poo-filled nappies and receiving and giving lots of hugs.

So all in all we have been having a lot of fun in the past month and are currently planning our next weekend away.

We will try to remember to post more often :)

xx