Malaria from anti-malaria workshop?!

I didn't put this post on last week because I thought it might freak my mum out a bit - and then I discovered that she hasn't even been reading my blogs because she didn't know how to log on!! Mum - get with the technology!

Anyway, last Wednesday I was invited to an anti-malaria workshop which I thought might be quite interesting. The invitation said "8am prompt. Please don't be late" so I got on my bike and rode up the hill to town, arriving at 8am. Of course, no-one was there, the building wasn't even open yet and in fact, even the organiser didn't arrive until 9.30!

Here's the bad part - while I was waiting around for everyone to arrive I got bitten by a mosquito!! Agh! Normally I'm fastidious about insect repellent and long clothing, but I thought "no we'll be inside so I won't need it" - not considering the late factor.

The incubation period for malaria is 7-10 days so I think I'm past the danger time. Phew. But how ironic would that have been - getting malaria at an anti-malaria workshop?!

Only two sleeps to go!

Only two more sleeps until we come back to Perth - oh and about 36 hours of travel and transit in between! Not looking forward to that part so much, but I'm really looking forward to getting home - its been a long time.

We've been watching the cricket test in Perth the last couple of days, and the weather is looking perfect for our return. Ah, looking forward to a swim at the beach, a nice cup of coffee, a run around the river, a bit of Christmas shopping... and of course catching up with family and friends!

Yay - see you all soon!

Rita's Family

Rita has been a shining light for us here in Konongo - apart from keeping our house nice and clean:-) She's always good fun and has a cheeky sense of humour, she's always on time (which believe me is a blessing around here) and no request is ever too hard. I've come to know her family well too, so we had them around to our house for a Christmas dinner last night. When I asked her mother what she would like to eat she replied "Cake, chicken and Malta (which is a non-alcoholic drink like Guinness) - fairly random requests!

So I cooked up a big feast (with Rita's help) - I thought I'd cooked up an enormous amount of food, but in true Ghanaian fashion they managed to eat it all! And they commented that I didn't eat very much - that's me, who usually eats more than any other girl I know! They have hearty appetites that's for sure (or its quite possible they hadn't eaten that day at all).

Rita's family is headed by her mother Mercy, who is a strong, little matriach (in yellow dress). Her first husband died, and her second husband (Rita's father) already had another wife! So its just her now and she has six children - two boys and four girls, who are all strong women too. Rita's older sister Olivia (in pink) and her three kids, and her younger sister Asha (in blue) and her baby Jacinta and son Jo are in the photos, and also Rita's son Kevin. We gave the kids some soccer balls and stockings filled with lollies, chips and party whistles - I wished they didn't have the whistles after about 10 minutes! But they enjoyed them....

I cooked a big cake too, with icing and Happy Christmas written on top - they'd never had a cake like that before so it was quite a novelty, and her mum asked if she could take the leftovers home with her. I think they liked it!!

Dirty Warren!

Poor old Warren - at the moment his Exploration group are doing a big drilling program, so he's out in the bush every day and comes home covered in mud! See his dirty dirty car, and boots covered in mud. However he sometimes forgets to take them off before he comes inside the house!

Then Rita - who carefully sweeps and mops the floor everyday - picks up his dirty boots, and marches out of the house again yelling "Mr Warren, you're killing me!" (At least its not me who gets blamed for being a nagging wife!).

Mercy Mission Christmas Party

I'm constantly amazed at some of the people with disabilities that I've met through our Mercy Mission visits. The other day we had a Christmas party for everyone, and I saw this guy push himself in a wheelchair backwards up a bumpy hill about 100m, with only one functional leg, to get to the party! And that's what he has to do everyday... (shouldn't have picked such a hilly town to live in!).

It was a fairly big logistical exercise organising food and drinks for 250 people. The hardest part was picking everyone up in a big school bus from 12 different villages, made all the harder by everyone having some kind of disability - no electric lifts for getting wheelchairs on and off the bus! We almost got it right - except we forgot about 30 people from one town, so we had to go back to visit them the next day!

I think they all had a good time, and appreciated having a fuss made of them. They really are such happy people given the circumstances. One boy with cerebral palsy whom I'd met before, came rushing/wobbling up to me on his crutches with a big smile on his face to shake my hand and say hello. Sweet.

Especially for James...

I've made an extra effort to put some extra blogs on this week because my little brother James complained that I wasn't blogging often enough - and he didn't have anything to read on the bus on his way to work each day! Well I'm sorry brother, I didn't realise you were such an avid follower of "Adventures".

Luckily I've got a few things to write about this week, as its coming up to Christmas and we've had some social events and fun things to do....

The Hoff

An update on Warren's hair growth - last time I blogged he had a nice mullet coming along. Well now its turned into the David Hasselhoff special! Especially when he's just washed it and it goes all fluffy and curly...

I think just a bit more growing and it will be good - but he's determined to go to his favourite "Dr Snippy's" for a haircut on our first day back in Perth!

Kente Cloth

This weekend we finally managed to visit the town of Bonwire which is famous around these parts for being the home of Kente cloth. Kente cloth is the traditional cloth of this Ashanti area, and in particular, it is the cloth the Ashanti king wears - and the weavers for his cloth are all in Bonwire. Now the Ashanti king is the most important of all the different tribes kings, so essentially is one of the most powerful men in Ghana. So Kente cloth is really the symbollic cloth of Ghana.

The cloth comes in lots of different colours and designs, and each one has a name and a meaning. For example, we bought some called "Family is unity" and another called "All hands are not the same" (I think that means everyone has their own special talents). The cloth is always used for traditional dress - so the women have it made into a cabba top and slit skirt, and the men wear it draped around their body and over their shoulders, so it is only sold in 6 or 12 yard lengths! Although I suspect we might be using it for table runners, wall hangings or pillow cases (don't tell anyone though!)

I had a try of weaving it also which was fun - see the look of concentration on my face! But I now understand why it takes such a long time to make - most pieces take about three months to finish. Hence, it isn't cheap to buy either (between $30 - 50 dollars per metre, depending upon the quality). And the people are therefore desperate to sell it too - I haven't been hassled so much to "buy buy buy" since I was in Bali last! Eventually we had to jump in the car and speed off down the road! Bye bye Bonwire!

Marketplace Acceptance

A strange thing happened today - I went to the markets this morning with Rita to buy fruit and vegetables, where I've been going every week or so since I've been here. There are hundreds of people at the markets selling things, but I've found my favourite places - like the lady who sells the best tomatoes, the woman opposite her sells onions, only one lady ever has carrots and another one usually has good apples and bananas.

I know that I usually pay "obruni" prices - ie the price is more expensive than local prices, but I figure it doesn't matter too much - its still reasonably cheap. Normally it costs me about $20 for fruit and veg for a week.

However today I bought tomatoes first, and they were really cheap. I thought maybe they were in season so were cheaper. Then the onions were also really cheap, then the next lady put some extra capsicums for free, and the lady selling limes gave me two bags instead of one.... By this stage I was wondering what was going on, and said to Rita "Everything is cheap today" and she said "Yes, they like you - so now you don't pay obruni prices".

Yay - I'm officially a black lady at the markets!

What a clever girl!

Look what baby Jacinta can do - she's learnt to sit up all by herself, and she's only just over four months old! (I'm actually not sure when babies usually sit, but I thought it was maybe 5-6 months?) Her mother has been sitting her up in the corner of a cardboard box for a few weeks now, and then last week she could just sit by herself and now sits for at least ten minutes at a time. What a quick learner (just like her namesake!)

Wigs and Weave-ons

I've been fascinated by this subject for some time now - the idea of artificial hair. Just about all the ladies here use artificial hair because their natural hair doesn't grow very well. At school all the children have their hair shaved short, so the women only begin to grow their hair when they've finished school. Their natural hair is very stiff and brittle, and not really curly - I'd describe it as tiny crimps! So it is definitely the fashion to use artificial hair.

At first I didn't realise this, until I noticed everyone's hair style changed every two or three weeks. And short to long overnight.... They use cornrow braids with artificial hair braided in, "weave ons" which are hair pieces that are stitched it to place, hair pieces like a big bun or ponytail, and wigs.

I've included some photos of Rita with her various hair styles - the first one are weave on braids she had when we first arrived. The photos with the fitball is her natural hair; the one with the green dress is a wig; the one in the pink dress is hair pieces that are stitched on; and the latest one is her new shaggy poodle look!

Six-hour church service!

Just to add to my cultural experiences, today I went to church here for the first time. Now I had been trying to avoid it because by all reports Sunday church goes for a LONG time. But Rita's mum asked me the other day because it was a special "Harvest" ceremony this week, and I couldn't say no to her!

So off I went to church at 9am - as per usual there was no-one there until almost 10 (I'm going to have to start adjusting my watch to Ghanaian time!) Then they started singing - first with the old ladies choir and organ, and then with a young music group complete with drum kit and bass guitar. They really know how to belt out a tune - everyone sings at the top of their voices, arms waving in the air or clapping and dancing. One old lady kept me particularly entertained, she was waving her arms like the chicken dance (which is actually an old traditional dance) and having a lovely time.

Things went a little downhill for me after that - there were bible readings and then an evangelical preacher who went on and on and on....for about two hours. Except not in English, so I didn't understand anything apart from the frequent "sweet Jesus" and "Alleluia, I say, Alleluia!"

Part way through Rita went outside to get some water and popcorn for her little nephew Jo, so we all sat in church eating popcorn! How strange!

At 12pm I asked Rita how much longer it would go for, and she said maybe 3 o'clock! I wasn't keen to stay for another three hours, so we quietly snuck out the back and went home! I think Rita was as pleased as I was to go home... Although we might be in trouble with her mum next time I see her!

Our First Ghanaian Wedding!

Apologies to all my avid blog readers out there - I haven't posted anything for at least a week or so! I didn't really have anything interesting to write about..... However now I do, because yesterday we went to our first Ghanaian wedding! Which was an interesting cultural experience.

The wedding was for a girl called Debora who is a housekeeper at one of the other houses here at the mine, and her husband Bright (whom we had never met before!). Actually we've only met Debora a few times as well - she also sells phone card credit - so I usually buy them from her. So it was nice of them to invite us along.

In true Ghanaian fashion, the ceremony started late - we arrived at 10am, and no-one was there! So by 11am finally the groom showed up (the bride doesn't come until later in the ceremony). There are some interesting old traditions, which are quite humorous at times.... a representative of the brides' family has to state their intentions for coming, and then all the family members and special guests introduces themselves formally (including us!). Then the groom's family presents their agreed gifts (like a dowry), which included wedding rings, a bible, a bottle of Schnapps liquer (always a favourite), fabric for the bride to make beautiful dresses, and some "big money" for the father of the bride.

The funniest part was when the bride was brought in and presented to the groom, and the pastor asked "Is this the correct woman?". Apparently they used to have a tradition of bringing in another lady instead (usually a really ugly one!) They have the usual exchange of rings, but interestingly there was no mention of love at all!

We then moved on to the reception (or "refreshments" as they call it), which was outside - thankfully with some tents set up. Warren and I were "special guests" at the high table, and Warren had to give a little speech which he wasn't expecting! There was lots of loud music and dancing which is always fun, but by 2.30pm we still hadn't had anything to eat or drink and I was really beginning to wilt in the hot weather! So eventually we excused ourselves, saying that Warren had to go back to work (which was half true!). Those celebrations can go on for a really long time....

Hopefully you can see in the picture my dress - its a traditional Ghanaian style dress called a "cabba and slit" - the cabba is the top, and slit is the skirt which usually has a slit in the side or back. It was given to me by Comfort (from Mercy Mission), and everyone was very impressed that I wore one! "Oh Madam Jessie you look so beautiful today!" I can't say it was the most comfortable thing though - its all lined and very fitted - the tighter the better! (I actually let the top out a bit after it was made because it was just too tight!)

Also notice Warren's nice African shirt, completed in true Aussie style - with double plugger thongs - his favourites from Esperance Bait and Tackle shop!

Damn you Voltic!

Voltic bottles - I'm really beginning to loathe you!

I hate having to open you every time I want a drink, or want to fill the kettle or wash my lettuce.

I hate having to go and get more bottles when I'm in the midle of something - like in the bathroom so I can clean my teeth, cooking in the kitchen; or having to plan ahead and take water with me wherever I go - in my handbag, in the car....

I hate having empty bottles strewn all over the house, and having to pick them up all the time and stack them back in the box again. (Its surprising how many bottles you actually consume in a day - about 20 on average).

Most of all I hate breaking the seal on the bottles - I don't know why that annoys me so much!

I just want to drink water out of the tap!!

The Lake of Bosoms?!

On the weekend we went to stay overnight at a lake about an hour away - Lake Bosomtwe. Warren thought he might like it because it had "bosom" in the name! Do men never get past the teenage boy stage?!!

Lake Bosomtwe was formed by a meteorite crashing into the earth millions of years ago so is almost perfectly round, and apparently is the freshest water in West Africa because it is only supplied by rainwater. Apparently you can swim in it and it doesn't have any germs like bilharzia, worms, leeches etc - personally I wouldn't risk it still!

We stayed at a hotel called Lake Bosomtwe Paradise Resort which was..... disappointing! Perhaps I shouldn't have had such high expectations, but it was really no more than 1 or 2 star standard. It had nice gardens at the lakeside, but there were so many midgies and bugs that we couldn't sit out there, so had to stay in our less than average room watching 1980's movies on the one channel we could get.

There were some positives to our stay however:

They made really good hot chips.

The soap in the bathroom was Lux - which reminded me of when we were kids, and mum would always buy the cheapest soap in the supermarket in bulk, but occasionally she would buy Lux (probably when it was on special!) and it was a big treat to use Lux soap! So the smell reminded me of that, and I thought we were getting our little bit of luxury with Lux soap. Funnily enough, Warren said his mum did exactly the same thing!

We bought a nice wood carving from a rastafarian artist in the town - who was drunk at 10.00 in the morning! But very entertaining.

The bed was enormous - it was two doubles joined together, so we didn't have to touch each other all night ;-)

Which brings me to yet another piece of roadside advertising - this time "Latex Foam Honeymoon Mattresses - your partner for life". Just beautiful...

Vodaphone Houses

Here's another example of funny roadside signage - along the highway you'll often see houses painted in the bright red colour of Vodaphone, with a big Vodaphone emblem written on the side. There is also canary yellow houses (see in the photo) for MTN which is another phone company, or even green and purple houses for Zain. There's one particular village in which just about every house is advertising a telephone company!

Mobile phones here are a massive business - everyone has at least one mobile, sometimes two or three, or you can get phones which you can put two different SIM cards in. People talk on their phones ALL THE TIME! Or call you at 11pm, or send text messages at 3am. Infuriating! So I think painting the houses is a clever little advertising ploy for the telephone companies - they probably pay the people a tiny amount to have their house painted, and they get very visible advertising all the way along the national highway. Everyone's happy!

Copy Cat Kate Middleton!

There was a lot of excitement on satellite TV today (BBC News, Skynews) with the news that Prince William and Kate Middleton announced their engagement. Lovely for them - as hyped up as it is, and as much as I'm not a monarchy-lover at all, you've got to love a royal wedding! And Kate Middleton is a very beautiful young lady. However what I wanted to comment on was her ring.....

Well maybe she's just a little bit more beautiful than me, and has perfectly manicured hands, and I suspect her ring cost just a smidgeon more than mine did.... But I still got my sapphire and diamond ring before she did, so I believe that I've started a worldwide trend, followed by none other than the future queen of England! (So Katie you can stop laughing at me for basing my choice of rings of Princess Diana's all those years ago!!)

Now for that wedding dress....

School Photo Chaos!

Remember when you used to have your school photos done and everyone would be lined up in straight lines from tallest to shortest, with your skirts to just the right length and shoes shining?

Well I thought I would take some photos of the kids at school, to show what their classrooms and uniforms look like. However when I took out my camera, there was almost a riot! All the kids came running towards me, then when the flash went off they went running away again screaming! I tried to ask them to sit back in their seats, but couldn't be heard over the noise! So I'd walk over to take a photo of one group and everyone else would pile on! It was very funny and obviously very exciting for them....

So these are my mischievous, excitable, noisy and very cute year 5 and 6 students.

Birthday Drumming and Dancing

On the weekend we invited some of our Ghanaian friends over for dinner for Warren's birthday. The girls - Rita, Latifa and Endurance cooked up a storm of kenkey (cornmeal balls) with fante fante sauce (fish and tomato), jollof rice and chicken, and hot pepper sauce.

The best part of our little party was that our friend Sandra gave Warren an African drum for his birthday. Its beautifully carved on the sides, and they took turns playing it while we all danced around the lounge room. It was really good fun! Although they all laughed hysterically at Warren and I trying to do African style dancing - I'm not so sure what was so funny about it? We thought we were doing a fairly good impersonation of them!

The funny thing is that African parties start and finish early - everyone came at 5pm and once everyone had eaten and done a bit of dancing, they all went home! So our party was finished by 8 o'clock at night! I'll try and put some video footage on here, but not sure if it will work or not....

Ghanaian Road Rules

Speaking of Warren (another mention Wozi!), he is currently in the process of getting his Ghanaian driver's licence which is a fairly long winded affair, as per usual. He won't be driving far, just around the minesite, but it will be much easier than having to wait for a car/driver to take him places. So he's been reading up on the "Ghana Highway Code" booklet...

Now the roads safety situation in Ghana is not cool. One might say that Road Safety is not top of their priority list. So this little passage in the booklet made us laugh - it really sums it up well:

"41. If a vehicle approaches on the wrong side of the road: the driver may be asleep, drowsy, inattentive, ill or drunk. Warn him with your horn and pull to the right as far as possible".

Huh!!! So its OK if you're driving while you're "inattentive, ill or drunk"?!

This one was also funny:

"45. Be careful near fruit bearing tree. Children are more interested in fruits than in traffic".

Crazy kids....

Happy Birthday Wozi!

Yesterday was Warren's 37th birthday - happy birthday old boy!

So I thought I'd devote a whole blog to him - he'll be stoked, he's always complaining I don't write enough about him!

Here's some photos of him - with baby Jacinta; trying to look seductive on the "Love Rug"; and the first published photos of his new mullet! He hasn't had a haircut for a while and its starting to curl up on the ends - looking very mullettish! He's so proud....

I was encouraging him to grow his hair longer, but I'm hoping it will pass the mullet stage soon?!

"I'm fine"

It's funny how after being here for a while we've begun to adopt Ghanaian manners of speech. This is how a typical greeting goes, and everyone replies in exactly the same way every single time!

Jacinta: How are you today?
Ghanaian: I'm fine. How are you? (the emphasis is on fine, with a long "i" sound).
J: I'm fine, thank you.
G: You're welcome (this is meant in the sense of "You are welcome here in this place").

And then you can start talking about other things. There is no variation like "Good thanks" or "Alright" - everyone is "fine" all the time.

Everyone speaks English to some degree, although some better than others. But the accent can sometimes be tricky. When Warren first arrived here he would have a translator for his daily work meetings - translating from English into... English!

Our other favourite word here is "delicious". They pronounce it like "del-i-si-yos", and the higher and longer the "i" sound is - the better they like the food!

Easi-Yo

This little contraption was our best purchase on our recent visit to London. Its a yoghurt maker - which is very handy in a place like Ghana. Since we've been here we haven't had any good yoghurt - there is a limited range to buy in Accra (four hours away), but its either dodgy local made yoghurt, or has been imported from France or England - who knows how long ago. Usually by the time we get it home, it has curdled and gone off! So we've been missing good yoghurt for breakfast.

I remembered that my mum used to have a yoghurt maker many years ago, and then when we were in London we spotted one just like it! Yay! So we bought it home with us, and its been a revelation! You buy sachets with milk powder with the active cultures, mix them with plain water in the small container, put it in the thermos with boiled water and then eight hours later you have fresh yoghurt! The good part is that we don't even need milk to make it, because the milk supply can be a bit variable too (fresh milk occasionally, or UHT).

It tastes good too - as good as any you would get in Australia. And you can get different flavours -natural, Greek, honey, vanilla or all sorts of fruit flavours. And I believe if you run out of the sachets you can keep a little bit of yoghurt from your previous batch, mix it with milk and it will make a new batch. Our intestines are very grateful! (I'm sure you didn't want to know that!!!!!)

Baby Sophia

So maybe this isn't a photo from Ghana - but it was such a cute photo I decided to put it in anyway! This is my little niece Sophia. What big eyes she has! and what big ears she has! Very cute.... I miss seeing her growing up, and I really hope she remembers me when we come home in December! I'm going to try carrying her "African Style" on my back, like baby Jacinta. Actually baby Jacinta who is only 3 months old is almost as big as Sophia who is 9 months old (baby Jacinta is 5.8kg and Sophia is only 6.5kg!) What's with that?! Must be good African breast milk...

Religious Signage in Accra

Way back when I started writing this blog I mentioned the overtly religious street signs in Accra proclaiming "God is Love Hairdressing" or "Christ the King Tyre Service" etc. Well I've finally managed to take some photos of a few signs - trying to be discrete whilst we were driving along so that I didn't offend anyone! So hopefully you can see "Christ Water Supply", "With God Furniture" and "Perseverance Art Printing" (with a very strange picture of a cat with a helmet on?).

I've also added some general photos of Accra so that you get an idea of what it looks like - everything is sold on the side of the road - tyres, lounge suites, clothing, fruit and vegetables - pretty much whatever you want really! Puts a slightly different spin on window shopping.