Travelling

Hi,

Well the last few days have been spent mainly travelling from Accra to Tamale. We set off on Saturday for the first leg of our journey to Kumasi. We caught the VIP coach which was rather posh even by British standards, the seats were huge and comfortable as well as reclining slightly, with a foot rest to match ! ! We were on this bus for about 6 hours which gave us a chance to see the changes from city life through the small towns and sometime rural villages. Everyone chasing the bus trying to sell you anything from bread to screwdrivers, of course from a very heavy basket carried on their head. The roads are very interesting in Ghana as they range from tarmac roads to long distances of extremely pot holed sandy, dusty roads with 100m sections of tarmac interspersed.

We stayed the night in Kumasi and left very early the next morning on a minibus to Tamale in the Northern Region. The scenery was quite different as we left the city behind, a lot greener, drier, we saw more small community living, mud huts, farms, people going about the day chores. Sunday is a very church focussed day for most Ghanaians, church starts at 7am, you see people running in huge groups, keeping fit before church from around 5am, when we left at 6am there were huge groups of people already out shopping and buying and selling food. Tamale is a bustling town where you can get most things you could want. I’m staying here for a week with a lovely volunteer called Ellie, she’s also heading up to the Upper West but has a conference later this week in Tamale so it wasn’t worth the travel up to come back again. One of the current volunteers that brought us up, took us out for dinner and we meet up with some of her local friends for a drink.

We’ve had a lovely day being shown the sights around Tamale by another volunteer based here, we have even managed to negotiate a taxi in and out of the town by ourselves, we even shared a taxi with a Ghanaian family on the way back ! !

Tomorrow we hope to go out for lunch with a friend and maybe have a bit of a chill . . . .

I’m looking forward to getting to my house in early October and meeting my new housemate, Adrienne, before starting work.

Day at the Programme Office

Today we went for a trip out to the programme office in Accra for lunch and to meet the staff. It's been quite hot walking around the shops and looking for lots of exciting new things to take to my new place. A new ELECTRIC kettle and a small fan. I am assured that it's still very cool at the minute ! !

A few pictures taken from the bus enroute.



This is the street view in Accra.



Yesterday was my first introduction to the way Ghanaian men just love big women, I was complemented and had my arm stroked by a man who told me I was very beautiful, wanting to hug me and marry me ! ! Today was also very entertaining as men are constantly wanting to chat to you and ask you questions, I'm sure I'll learn some ways to give back some chat as my time goes on.

I'll leave you with a picture of our gang before we all go out to our different placement tomorrow.

Arrived ! !

Well here goes, my first post.

I arrived on Monday evening after a long day of travelling, delays in Manchester and then rushed across Heathrow by a very kind lady working for BA. A train ride later and we reached the gate just in time to get the plane to Accra. Arrived in Accra and was greeted by some volunteers already working in country. We're staying at a lovely hotel in Accra doing in country training til Saturday, when we will take the 14 hour journey up to the Upper West Region. Enjoying the swimming pool and eating lots of new foods, everything is quite spicy in Ghana but very tasty.

Had my first ride in a Tro Tro last night which was quite an experience, a driver and his "mate" shouting 'Accra, Accra, Accra' every 5 seconds. They fit on way more people than I'm sure the Tro Tro is built for and I'm told you often have to share your seat with livestock etc. Looking forward to one of those days ! !

It was also good to meet lots of volunteers and see a volunteer house in Accra although I am assured that my house is very different to those in the capital. Looking forward to going up north on Saturday and seeing where I'll be living for the next twelve months, meet my new housemate and see where I will be working.

I'll post some picture as soon as I can ! !