Sunday, 28 August 2011

WEEKEND AT KOKROBITE BEACH 16TH/17TH JULY

Saturday 16th July 2011


After a night of drinking and dancing to a live band and basically letting my hair down athe infamous Big Milly`s ,
 "Great fun and i also met up with a friend Lindsay Williams who has set up her own voluntary organisation in Ghana :)"
I was the first to wake up in the morning so i went outside to sit on a bench and catch up with my journal i was writing because i have such a bad memory these days and i didn`t want to forget all the wonderful things i was experiencing in Ghana ,anyway i looked up i could see something brown and hairy looking over the wall with glass along the top of it ,yes i can confirm it was a monkey ,then i could see another one around the corner tied to a tree which was very sad :(  


When the others woke up we all had breakfast on the beautiful Kokrobite beach ........
Above are just some of the volunteers who were staying in the same volunteer house as me and teaching children in other schools or helping with building projects in Ghana ,they were a brilliant bunch of young people ,all very clever and studying in universities around the UK .
After breakfast we explored the beach ,sunbathed and had a swim to cool off!!
That evening we had another crazy night drinking and dancing to a live band wehere i went on stage grabbed the microphone and sang sing Red Red Wine my favourite sing song ,people i think thought i was part of the band and started to take photos LOL!!!!!





" A brillliant weekend of fun "!

Saturday, 27 August 2011

ON OUR WAY FOR A WEEKEND AT KOKROBITE BEACH IN GHANA

We made a stop in a town named NKAW KAW for a few volunteers to change their money on our way to Kokrobite Beach .
We had to drive on dusty pot-holed roads for about 5 miles,i have never
experienced a journey like it in my life !
The Transit Van we were travelling in would go from side to side on the road trying to avoid the traffic heading our way and pot-holes in the road that were sometimes as much as a foot deep and a foot wide ,certainly felt like it !
The Ghana people would line the route with water,fruit and other foods to sell all carried on their heads ,they also had pictures and even music systems and TV`S lined up on the dusty roads as you got nearer to Accra .
We finally arrived at the Dream Hotel (very funny)where we were staying with headaches ,it certainly wasn`t a dream hotel but it did have a loo that flushed and running cold water from a tap and the shower !!!

THE SCHOOL TOILET

A photo below of the school toilet which was a hole in the ground and full of maggots crawling around your feet while you were squatting !!!
The children also had to buy newspaper from the school to wipe themselves :(

Sunday, 21 August 2011

Another Day Teaching the Children at Bepong Presbie School

THURSDAY 14TH JULY 2011
Today was a stencil teaching day ,they had a choice of animal, sea creatures or trucks and cars stencils but the children couldn`t understand how to form a picture with for example the lion ,he ended up on a road and the cars ended up in the sea or jungle and so on ,we finally had to get the teacher to explain but it was very hard work because they are just used to copying from blackboard to exercise book and not using their imagination ,but we got there in the end and....................
they loved colouring in their pictures with crayons and coloured pencils !!!:)
One thing you could always guarantee was breaktime would be great fun but exhausting!!!
The girls loved skipping !!!
And the boys and girls all loved the Hokey Cokey !!!And the boys loved the drums !!!!
But most of all they loved to feel special and loved :)

Friday, 5 August 2011

THANKYOU MESSAGES TO ANNA RYDER RICHARDSON

WEDNESDAY 13TH JULY 2011

Today at school we sang more songs and also made thankyou messages on large A2 paper to Anna Ryder Richardson for all the T-shirts she gave me to give to the children who were so happy to receive them ,i gave about 50 T-shirts to the school children and the rest went to a very poor community over the other side of Lake Volta


The children loved having their hands painted :) They also loved the glitter glues and foam shapes of flowers and butterflies etc
These children were only used to using a pencil which they sharpened regulary and blackboard work to a tatty exercise book so this was a real treat to be using big white paper , lots of different coloured paints , paint brushes ,glue and coloured glitter and foam shapes for their pictures :)
It was lovely to see the children enjoying themselves in school .

A Job well done by all the children !!!!!!!
In the video below the children thank Anna Ryder Richardson for their T-shirts :)





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZuLrS1reP0



LOTS OF VERY HAPPY CHILDREN BELOW WEARING THEIR MANORHOUSE WILDLIFE PARK T-SHIRTS FROM ANNA !!!!:)

Below is a photo of a typical taxi in Ghana ,they usually had us all packed in like sardines as many as they could fit in ,no seatbelts and cracked windows was quite normal actually this one was an unsually good one and they would always have music blaring something like the artist Shaggy singing or some kind of Reggae music ,loved it !!.Then usually a policeman would wave us down and collect his money in some form of a bribe from the driver ,ther were road blocks everywhere we went apparently this is what they had to do to make up their wages ,they had no income from the police only a house .
Tonight all the volunteers decided to go out for a meal in a nearby village called OBO just a taxi ride away , we jumped in a taxi to have something to eat, drink ,dance and just let our hair down :) Some of the volunteers from the Chief`s Palace house where i was staying in Atbie ,making our way to catch a taxi :)
When we arrived at PointRoyal in OBO village some of the local children showed Jack and i how to dance the Ghana way :)
Thes boys really knew how to dance like so many Ghana men ,woman and children.they loved dancing and moving their bodies :)


Unlike me !!...........
After we were well fed and watered we went back to the house some hanging out of the boot of the taxi which like i said is quite normal even in the rain ,it usually rained at night in Ghana which was a blessing or we would have no water in our tank to have a wash in the morning !

Thursday, 4 August 2011

FIRST DAY TEACHING AT BEPONG PRESBIE PRIMARY SCHOOL

TUESDAY 12TH JULY 2011,

We were all called out of our rooms in the volunteer house this morning due to a fire ( caused by a young volunteer who put butter in the oven to melt and left it there ,i thought the place was going to go up in flames ,black smoke everywhere but the people living there seemed to get it under control,thankgod!)
It all went downhill from then on ,the housekeeper was so fed up with some of the volunteers not washing their dishes and attitude she just didn`t bother turning up,so we all cooked our own meals and it didn`t work very well with so many sharing one kitchen :( !
Anyway after the drama this was my first day of teaching the children and i couldn`t wait to watch the children`s face`s working with all the arts and crafts i brought them from my wonderful friends ,Maurice,Tom,Gina,Annastacia and Judith who donated money and arts and crafts for me to take on my trip ,these donations made all the difference to me and the children and i couldn`t of done what i did without their help !!
I also started the class with a warm up song "If your happy and you know it clap your hands"!!! :)I practised this in work and at home to get me in the swing of things and watched endless other videos of nursery ryhmes on youtube to jog my memory from when my children were young !! :) Writing the words on the blackboard paid off and they sang nice and loud including me !!
Below is a video of me singing with the children !:)







Today we made some fabulous faces with paper plates and paints and they absolutely loved glitter paints!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There was complete silence in the class because the children were happily engrossed in what they were doing ,then hildren from other classrooms without volunteers looked through the open shutters along the wall watching and wishing they were in our class .

The teacher was so excited and loved what she was watching the children do with the arts and crafts and brought in other teachers and the headteacher to take a look who they kept thanking me and my other volunteer friend Sandra :)
Here is a video below ,the teacher is filming us and you can hear her shouting at the children ..........



Felt shattered when i arrived back at the volunteer house ,voluteers were arriving and leaving all the time .

We had a meal cooked for us by Rose the housekeeper which was Black eyed peas and plantin and very nice :)

BEPONG PRESBIE PRIMARY SCHOOL

MONDAY 11TH JULY 2011


This was the first day at the school when i mainly observed.............


The children would bring their books for me to mark :)Take note the naughtiest boy in the class standing on the right .................................it wasn`t long before i was teaching the children on my own with the help of another volunteer Sandra .

Breaktime was complete madness ,i had them running between cones and playing ball games !!!A barbeque was organised at the volunteer House and i spent the evening getting to know other volunteers :)

Lots more volunteers at the house .........................

TAFO WATERFALL

SUNDAY 10TH JULY GHANA 2011 ,

TODAY WE VISITED TAFO WATERFALL THIS IS WHERE WE COULD HAVE A NATURAL POWER SHOWER!!!!:))








Me and two other volunteers Sarah and Natalie :)

Voluntary work in Ghana 2011

Saturday 9th July ,

Woke up to the realisation i was in Africa ,lots of people outside house making a noise setting up their shops .
Had my first bucket shower in Ghana,WHICH MEANT YOU HAD TO FILL A BUCKET WITH RAIN WATER FROM A WATER TANK OUTSIDE ,CARRY IT IN AND BASICALLY WASH YOURSELF WITH IT ,IF YOU WANTED HOT WATER YOU HAD TO BOIL IT ON TOP OF THE OVEN ,then i was greeted by a cooked breakfast by the housekeeper Rose ,omelette and fried bread and a cup of tea. We were then taken for a drive around the area to get us used to where we could buy food and purchase Ghana MTN simm cards for our phones .




People are very friendly and looking at us because we are white and calling us Obruni ,which means tourist or white person .Music blares everywhere from shops and cars and locals dance and smile all day long!

LAKE VOLTA ...........................

We travelled to Lake Volta in the afternoon where very poor people live and then took a boat out into the largest man made lake .......................

where i jumped over board for a swim to cool off but found it difficult to get back into the boat !!!!!! HELP!!!








http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DKfxd660KMMe


enjoying a sing song with the children " Head Shoulder ,Knees and Toes ,Knees and Toes !!!"