Kids Kids Kids

There has been a huge goat waddling around over the last few weeks, so obviously ready to give birth. She’s been hanging out around our house for the last week or so, presumably looking for a suitable place to have her babies. I think she wanted us to make her a bed in our veranda. What a lot of noise a pregnant goat can make ! !

Well she finally gave in and has had what we think is 2 kids, although there were 5 kids all together for the first day. She seems to be feeding two and the other three have disappeared off with someone else. Maybe there was a bit of babysitting going on.

The family, including Dad on occasions, have now decided to move in and shelter under the porch in front of the garage. They as so cute, but very noisy. Mum is extremely protective and will let you know when you are getting too close for comfort. When she leaves them to look for food or to take a short walk the little ones cry until she returns.

Maybe it’s adopt a kid week ! !

I made it into School

I’ve been trying to get into schools for a week or so but it isn’t as easy as it would seem. I had already introduced myself to all the town Heads at a Heads meeting earlier this month. I explained that I am here to come and help their teachers to improve their skills and to help out where I can. Teachers here are very wary of your motives. I made it clear that I am here to help and not to judge.

I started by visiting the local schools near to my office to speak to the Heads to ask if I could maybe come and sit in on some lessons. Some seemed very enthusiastic and welcoming. I went to one school to speak with the Head and she was asleep on the desk in the P1 classroom. I’m not sure I could have got away with that at St. Bart’s ! !

The next school the Head was very enthusiastic and said I could stay as long as I wanted, which classes did I want to see.

Had my first day in a Ghanaian Primary School and it was an experience. I went into a P4 class where the teacher was teaching Maths. Greater than, Less than and Equal to. It was a good lesson and the children responded well. Although no differentiation so some get left behind. It was near to the end of the lesson and He realised he needed to do some photocopying so got on his bike and rode into town to photocopy a letter while the children got on with their work ! !

After break I went into another class P6. The children were learning ‘Speaking and Listening’ in English. The method was to have every child stand up individually and read a poem off the board in English. Some children struggled considerably but their teacher continued to have them recite the poem until they knew it, reading each line about 10 times. Some still struggled to recite each line after her, resulting in one boy taking about 30 minutes to complete the poem while his class just sat and laughed. I wanted to hug him when he’d finished.

Hope to spend some more time in schools soon and then maybe I can see where I’m needed most.

Disaster Disaster ! !

While the housemates away Gemma will ................make disaster strike ! !

Got up this morning and went into the bathroom, was just finished washing my hands when I stepped back out of the shower tray and .......... My foot went through the CONCRETE floor. Seriously, it made me jump, I’m heavy, but, surely not that heavy ? ? ? What do you do ?  Your housemate’s away for the week and you cause damage to the house, only 3 weeks into living there.

Luckily one of my friends had come to stay last night and was much more forward thinking. Kneeling down she realised that actually there is termite nest under my floor and they had eaten away all the ground underneath where I had been standing. There were hundreds of them. The whole concrete floor around the hole sounds hollow, not sure how far they have burrowed. Ellie found a plate and has covered the hole and gaffer taped it down. Let’s hope there are no escapee’s until I can ask in the office tomorrow for a solution.

I'm a local ! !

Today was my initiation to being accepted as a local

On my way to the market yesterday I was heckled by a few guys sat under a tree by a house in my ‘compound.’ So I went over to greet them and see what they were shouting about. I was invited to stop and join in with some Pito drinking. (Pito is a local brew made from Maize and then fermented over 3 days before it is drunk communally from calabashes.)It tastes a bit like cider. I managed to refuse politely as it isn’t really something I’ve fancied and didn’t really fancy sitting around in the blazing heat. I told them I would join them another time.

On my way back from the market today I walked past another house and the same few guys were once again sat drinking Pito. They shouted over and reminded me that I was still to engage in Pito. I couldn’t refuse, I sat under the tree, this time in the shade and was given a huge calabash full of this brown, murky liquid. Mmmm ! ! It wasn’t actually that bad, a vague cider like taste and drinkable. I chatted to who I later found out is actually my landlord and he explained all about how they make it and the alcohol content to match.

Not a bad stop on the way back from the market I was thinking until, I saw that they were roasting a duck, I was also invited to try some of the duck, oh dear, I was given a chunk of what could only be described as fat, gristle and bone. Apparently this is seen as the best bit and is always given to the guest of honour. I tried to chew away at it to be polite, but left most of it in the dish under the bench for later ! !

*Note to self, politely refuse when the meat is given out.

Moto Training

Well it has been quite a while since I was last able to blog, the internet here is rather sporadic.

I moved on from Tamale and reached Bolgatanga to complete a week of moto training. Having only ridden a scooter (twist and go) in the UK, I was very quickly introduced to a larger, geared motorbike ! ! The fun began with a trip on the back routes to Bongo, here we encountered a problem with a huge lake that had appeared on our route due to heavy rainfall. This wasn’t a challenge for the Ghanaian teenagers who appeared with a canoe to take us across to the other side.

The next day was a trip to the border with Burkina Faso. This was a testing day as not only did I come off the bike twice, going down potholes and through thick, slippery sand, I also nearly killed a cow in the process. Animals rule the roads in Ghana and you have to be fast to avoid anything from a goat to a chicken to as I found out a cow.

Next was a trip to the DVLA for a whole mornings wait to get our Ghanaian licences. A grilling about my UK licence, a few photos and an eye test, I am officially a Ghanaian licence holder and can drive both cars and motorbikes. That afternoon we took a trip to the Tengzug hills, a bit like the view in the Lake District. I saw a guy go up what is a very steep hill, in what was probably the wrong gear and he came flying off his bike half way up. That was enough for me and there was no way I was going up there. I stayed at the bottom and tried to chat to a group of children playing with an old tyre and a stick. They enjoyed having their picture taken and looking at themselves on screen.

The final day we took a trip up to Paga. This was a very long and tiring journey with only one stop for a cool coca cola. Paga is rural village which houses a huge crocodile pond with over 200 crocodiles. This is when I got the chance to not only stroke him but also crouch down and ‘sit’ on him. Very scary but the closest I will ever come to a croc again. (I hope)