Its now almost a week since we left Ghana - we flew to Dubai and had a couple of days there which was great for a debrief and unwind before heading back to Perth. We've passed through there many times but have never stopped over. Its an interesting place, and a world away from Ghana - so efficient and clean! I went skiing for the first time in my life - in Dubai, in the middle of a desert, in a shopping mall!! How bizarre -but it was awesome fun, I really enjoyed it and will have to go to a real ski resort one day. Another highlight was having dinner at Al Mahara restaurant at the Burj al Arab (that's the big sail shaped building that you always see in pictures of Dubai). It was completely opulent, (and expensive!) - there was an enormous aquarium in the middle of the restaurant so we could watch fish and sharks swimming around while we ate our degustation seafood menu! Ah the life!
So now we've arrived back in Perth, and have returned to our little green house - home sweet home. Unfortunately I haven't quite adjusted to the time zone, so I'm writing this email at 2 o'clock in the morning!! Heading east the jet-lag always makes me suffer for a week!
Ghana seems a world away now - its very easy to slip back into your old life and routine like the past year didn't even happen. But living in Ghana was a life changing experience in many ways. I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant and scared about going when we first discussed it (there were tears!), but I'm so glad that we bit the bullet and did it. It was a great life adventure, and I would do it again in a flash. In fact, I think I would be game to go anywhere in the world now if the opportunity arose. As long as you can always come home again at the end of it.... A year (or ten months for me) flies by so quickly, and life flies by so quickly too, that I really feel you have to embrace every new opportunity and experience that comes your way. We've been very lucky to have had this experience, and I'm very thankful for the time that we've had.
Our friends in Ghana are never too far from our thoughts - I keep wondering what Rita's up to without me there - she'll be pining I bet, but not for too long because she's a very happy person and she'll be joking again pretty soon! Can they use the internet without me? Well apparently someone has helped her out a bit because she sent me a message on Facebook yesterday saying she "misses me more than her mother's breast milk"!!!! Hilarious!!
I miss her a lot when I have to do the dishes too ;-) Hee hee!
I miss baby Jacinta - she's now eight months old, and is bigger than my niece Sophia who is almost 15 months. What a chubster! Hopefully I'll get to see some photos of her along the way. Its like having a World Vision sponsor child, but you know them personally and want to help them out however you can.
I miss having people wave to you as you walk along the road, and children yelling out "obruni hello!"
I even miss listening to our driver Alahassan's CD of 1980's power ballads (Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey anyone?) played over and over in the car!
That place gets under your skin..... Yes there's some good and bad things, but ultimately the people we met made our time in Konongo very special, and we'll think of then fondly for a long time to come.
So I think that's it from me for "Adventures in Ghana". Oh (collective sigh!) I think there will still be a few more photos to add (had to get a new laptop because I left mine behind, so once I get the photos transferred and sorted I'll put them on), so stay tuned for a little bit longer.... I think I'll quite miss writing a blog, I've enjoyed the process and it will be good to be able to look back in years to come and reminisce about our time in Ghana.
Maybe I'll have to start another blog?!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
A Summary
Thought I might write down a little summary of the good and the bad of our time in Ghana. Here's my top fives:
Good things:
1. Rita - without a doubt, she was the best thing of our time in Ghana. Yes I know she was our house cleaner, but she was far more than that to us. When we arrived she could hardly speak English and people would tease her "how are you going to speak to your white lady?" - but we developed our own funny way of speaking and now her English is much better. She was regular company for me every day, and was surprisingly perceptive. For someone who can't read and write she is also very savvy and business minded - she has about five jobs or ways of making money on the go. She's very funny and enjoys a joke - she and Warren had regular banter about who was "obo lobo" - who was fattest! She made us feel very welcome and part of her family, and we will miss her a lot. She tells me she's changed her name to Rita Downey - which is quite strange because that was my grandmother's name....
2. Baby Jacinta - its not every day that someone names their baby after you - let alone your whole name - Jacinta Downey!! I came to know baby Jacinta and her mother Asha (Rita's sister) very well - I spent many afternoons sitting outside their house under the mango tree, just having a chat and playing with baby J. When I was leaving they kept trying to get me to take her back to Australia with me! But that wouldn't be the right thing to do to take a baby from her family - maybe she can come to Australia to visit one day?
3. Volunteering at the school: I enjoyed being with the children so much - they are so cute with their shaved hair and big white smiles. They don't have very much in the way of material possessions or toys, but they make their own fun and games with simple things like plastic wrap from their food, layer upon layer to make a ball so they can play dodge or keepy-off, or they play soccer with a plastic drink bottle. The simple things in life.... They loved having me at the school, and every time I would arrive at the gate there would be calls of "Miss Jacinta, hello!" from hundreds of kid. In fact, the children were the ones who could all say my name correctly - mostly the adults called me "Madam Jessie" or "Cynthia".
4. Mercy Mission - is a non-profit charity run by a lady named Comfort Sey, and their focus is assisting people with disabilities, and running health promotion training such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis workshops in local communities. I accompanied Comfort on some visits to all the villages in the Mines concession area to make a register of all the people with disabilities. It was so interesting, but heartbreaking to see the disabilities and problems that some of these people have to contend with. I saw people with polio, club foot, amputations, head injuries, spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy and conditions I had never seen or heard of before! It was frustrating in a way because it was impossible to help each person individually when they needed so much and there was so little money to go around. However they were very excited to actually have people who paid them attention and wanted to listen to their issues and problems. The aim of Mercy Mission is to provide advocacy to local and national government groups for people with disabilities, assist with health insurance and they are just about to start some vocational training (such as handicrafts, cake baking, soap making etc) in conjunction with World Vision which will be great. Last Christmas we had a big Christmas party with about 300 people with disabilites (which was an interesting logistical exercise to provide that many disabled people with transport to one location) and it was a great succes. If you're interested, see www.mercymissionghana.org for more information.
5. My "long service leave" - well it wasn't technically long service leave (poor old physios don't get that!), but it was really good to have an extended period of time off work. I hadn't had more than just my annual leave for the past 13 years of being a physio and I had really started to feel a bit tired. And my hands were sore!! So the rest has done me a world of good, and I feel revitalised and ready to go again now.
Bad things:
Ghana is a third-world country and so there's some bad that goes with the good as well. It was definitely not all roses all the time!
1. The condition of the roads and traffic accidents: Thankfully we didn't have to travel on the roads very much - only a short two-minute drive from the minesite to town. But we did travel to Accra every few weeks, and the road is torture! It has been ripped up to be resurfaced, but I'm guessing it will take 10 years to finish, so in the meantime it so bumpy and dusty, and awful. Also there are major traffic accidents every few kilometres where trucks or buses have run off the road or collided, or cars run into trees - its scary to see! Unfortunately people involved in these accidents invariably die, or suffer from amputations, head injuries or spinal cord injuries because of lack of quality medical care. Its not pretty, and we're very thankful that we didn't experience any problems like that. Phew!
2. Malaria: thankfully I managed to avoid the mosquitoes (for the most part - see my blog post "Malaria from an anti-malaria workshop"), but Warren wasn't so lucky and had malaria twice while we were in Ghana. Unfortunately he had to work outside in jungly areas at times so had a higher risk. It was quite nasty, and unfortunately, while he recovered from the malaria, he's still suffering from "post-viral fatigue" which means he gets tired very quickly (he still has sleeps just about every afternoon), and still can't run - which is killing him! The local people get malaria all the time, and often it is not properly treated so it continues to recur. Thankfully they don't get the strain which kills you in Ghana, but it can still be fatal for the young, elderly or immune compromised. Its a big big problem in all of Africa and many other parts of the world, and it doesn't seem a solution is any closer at the moment.
3. Lateness, Inefficiency and Bribes: For someone who likes to always be on time, this drove me crazy! Everyone is late, all the time - and not just 10 minutes - its usually two hours or more! Everything is just generally inefficient too - for example, at the airport when we left, we counted 11 passport checks and 6 security and bag checks! Now I'm all for being thorough, but that's just inefficient!! What's more, you can bypass the security checks with bribes (which we never do) so why even have them? Last time, the guy in front of Warren paid the customs dude a bribe to not check his bag, and Warren made a fuss of it and told the guy off. Unfortunately the customs guy then decided that he would take everything single thing out of our suitcases in the middle of the airport so I had my undies on display for all to see!! (funny only in retrospect). You can try all you like to fight the system, but it will only get you frustrated, and is probably never going to change.
4. Dodgy electricity, water supply and internet: Really we were the lucky ones because we actually had electricity and running water, which many local people don't. So I shouldn't complain.... But I couldn't dry my hair properly because the hairdryer didn't get enough power!! And I lost count of how many emails I lost because the internet connection cut out before sending them. Small trials really.
5. Having nowhere to go at night: During the day I kept myself reasonably busy with going to school, Mercy Mission, the markets, visiting baby Jacinta, hanging out with Rita and the girls etc. But at night time there was nothing to do! There were no restaurants to go to, no take away to order - I got tired of cooking every single night. We could have gone to the club house for a drink, but that place was malaria city - so staying inside away from the mosquitoes won out over the gin and tonics! We didn't even have any DVD's to watch. So TV it was - I think we've now watched every episode of Top Gear, Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival, NCIS, Law and Order and Ninja Warrior. So bring on Domino's Pizza and Tuesday night steak night at the Rivervale!
Memorable Moments:
1. Baby Jacinta - as I was saying before, its not every day you have a baby named after you, so this was pretty exciting! She's such a cute thing too, and while she's going through a "I only want my mum" stage, she was still always happy to come to me too. Hopefully she'll live up to the high standards of the name!!!!
2. Market place acceptance - I wrote another blog post about this if you care to go back and read it. It was a good day when I went to the markets after six months, and suddenly all the food was cheaper! The ladies had obviously decided that I was alright, and I'd become one of the locals. I was pretty happy about that. It was always a bit interesting at the markets because many of the ladies didn't speak english, and they have also recently changed their currency from "old Cedis" to "new Cedis". I was used to the new currency, but people would usually tell you the prices in old currency so I'd have to do some quick calculations in my head. Thankfully Rita was usually with me to help out.
3. The kids cheering and dancing at school when we donated books and pencils. They were all lined up in perfectly straight lines in the hot sun at an assembly, and when the headmaster announced that we'd bought some new books they spontaneously started cheering and dancing around the place!! It gave me goosebumps that they were so excited.
4. Rita's birthday party: I don't think its the done thing to make a fuss of birthdays in Ghana - usually people don't have enough money to buy presents or extra food, but when it was Rita's birthday we cooked her dinner (her favourite Banku with okra stew!) and a cake, and I sewed her a new dress. She was SO stoked, and said it was the "best day of her life".
5. Dancing - the Ghanaian people love to play the drums, dance and sing, and it was great to see people let go with reckless abandon and dance their little hearts out and sing at the top of their voices! This happened at many functions that we went to - Warren's birthday party, a wedding, the Mercy Mission Christmas party, church services etc. Its really fun to participate in and the drum beat sucks you in - you can't help but dance!
Good things:
1. Rita - without a doubt, she was the best thing of our time in Ghana. Yes I know she was our house cleaner, but she was far more than that to us. When we arrived she could hardly speak English and people would tease her "how are you going to speak to your white lady?" - but we developed our own funny way of speaking and now her English is much better. She was regular company for me every day, and was surprisingly perceptive. For someone who can't read and write she is also very savvy and business minded - she has about five jobs or ways of making money on the go. She's very funny and enjoys a joke - she and Warren had regular banter about who was "obo lobo" - who was fattest! She made us feel very welcome and part of her family, and we will miss her a lot. She tells me she's changed her name to Rita Downey - which is quite strange because that was my grandmother's name....
2. Baby Jacinta - its not every day that someone names their baby after you - let alone your whole name - Jacinta Downey!! I came to know baby Jacinta and her mother Asha (Rita's sister) very well - I spent many afternoons sitting outside their house under the mango tree, just having a chat and playing with baby J. When I was leaving they kept trying to get me to take her back to Australia with me! But that wouldn't be the right thing to do to take a baby from her family - maybe she can come to Australia to visit one day?
3. Volunteering at the school: I enjoyed being with the children so much - they are so cute with their shaved hair and big white smiles. They don't have very much in the way of material possessions or toys, but they make their own fun and games with simple things like plastic wrap from their food, layer upon layer to make a ball so they can play dodge or keepy-off, or they play soccer with a plastic drink bottle. The simple things in life.... They loved having me at the school, and every time I would arrive at the gate there would be calls of "Miss Jacinta, hello!" from hundreds of kid. In fact, the children were the ones who could all say my name correctly - mostly the adults called me "Madam Jessie" or "Cynthia".
4. Mercy Mission - is a non-profit charity run by a lady named Comfort Sey, and their focus is assisting people with disabilities, and running health promotion training such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis workshops in local communities. I accompanied Comfort on some visits to all the villages in the Mines concession area to make a register of all the people with disabilities. It was so interesting, but heartbreaking to see the disabilities and problems that some of these people have to contend with. I saw people with polio, club foot, amputations, head injuries, spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy and conditions I had never seen or heard of before! It was frustrating in a way because it was impossible to help each person individually when they needed so much and there was so little money to go around. However they were very excited to actually have people who paid them attention and wanted to listen to their issues and problems. The aim of Mercy Mission is to provide advocacy to local and national government groups for people with disabilities, assist with health insurance and they are just about to start some vocational training (such as handicrafts, cake baking, soap making etc) in conjunction with World Vision which will be great. Last Christmas we had a big Christmas party with about 300 people with disabilites (which was an interesting logistical exercise to provide that many disabled people with transport to one location) and it was a great succes. If you're interested, see www.mercymissionghana.org for more information.
5. My "long service leave" - well it wasn't technically long service leave (poor old physios don't get that!), but it was really good to have an extended period of time off work. I hadn't had more than just my annual leave for the past 13 years of being a physio and I had really started to feel a bit tired. And my hands were sore!! So the rest has done me a world of good, and I feel revitalised and ready to go again now.
Bad things:
Ghana is a third-world country and so there's some bad that goes with the good as well. It was definitely not all roses all the time!
1. The condition of the roads and traffic accidents: Thankfully we didn't have to travel on the roads very much - only a short two-minute drive from the minesite to town. But we did travel to Accra every few weeks, and the road is torture! It has been ripped up to be resurfaced, but I'm guessing it will take 10 years to finish, so in the meantime it so bumpy and dusty, and awful. Also there are major traffic accidents every few kilometres where trucks or buses have run off the road or collided, or cars run into trees - its scary to see! Unfortunately people involved in these accidents invariably die, or suffer from amputations, head injuries or spinal cord injuries because of lack of quality medical care. Its not pretty, and we're very thankful that we didn't experience any problems like that. Phew!
2. Malaria: thankfully I managed to avoid the mosquitoes (for the most part - see my blog post "Malaria from an anti-malaria workshop"), but Warren wasn't so lucky and had malaria twice while we were in Ghana. Unfortunately he had to work outside in jungly areas at times so had a higher risk. It was quite nasty, and unfortunately, while he recovered from the malaria, he's still suffering from "post-viral fatigue" which means he gets tired very quickly (he still has sleeps just about every afternoon), and still can't run - which is killing him! The local people get malaria all the time, and often it is not properly treated so it continues to recur. Thankfully they don't get the strain which kills you in Ghana, but it can still be fatal for the young, elderly or immune compromised. Its a big big problem in all of Africa and many other parts of the world, and it doesn't seem a solution is any closer at the moment.
3. Lateness, Inefficiency and Bribes: For someone who likes to always be on time, this drove me crazy! Everyone is late, all the time - and not just 10 minutes - its usually two hours or more! Everything is just generally inefficient too - for example, at the airport when we left, we counted 11 passport checks and 6 security and bag checks! Now I'm all for being thorough, but that's just inefficient!! What's more, you can bypass the security checks with bribes (which we never do) so why even have them? Last time, the guy in front of Warren paid the customs dude a bribe to not check his bag, and Warren made a fuss of it and told the guy off. Unfortunately the customs guy then decided that he would take everything single thing out of our suitcases in the middle of the airport so I had my undies on display for all to see!! (funny only in retrospect). You can try all you like to fight the system, but it will only get you frustrated, and is probably never going to change.
4. Dodgy electricity, water supply and internet: Really we were the lucky ones because we actually had electricity and running water, which many local people don't. So I shouldn't complain.... But I couldn't dry my hair properly because the hairdryer didn't get enough power!! And I lost count of how many emails I lost because the internet connection cut out before sending them. Small trials really.
5. Having nowhere to go at night: During the day I kept myself reasonably busy with going to school, Mercy Mission, the markets, visiting baby Jacinta, hanging out with Rita and the girls etc. But at night time there was nothing to do! There were no restaurants to go to, no take away to order - I got tired of cooking every single night. We could have gone to the club house for a drink, but that place was malaria city - so staying inside away from the mosquitoes won out over the gin and tonics! We didn't even have any DVD's to watch. So TV it was - I think we've now watched every episode of Top Gear, Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival, NCIS, Law and Order and Ninja Warrior. So bring on Domino's Pizza and Tuesday night steak night at the Rivervale!
Memorable Moments:
1. Baby Jacinta - as I was saying before, its not every day you have a baby named after you, so this was pretty exciting! She's such a cute thing too, and while she's going through a "I only want my mum" stage, she was still always happy to come to me too. Hopefully she'll live up to the high standards of the name!!!!
2. Market place acceptance - I wrote another blog post about this if you care to go back and read it. It was a good day when I went to the markets after six months, and suddenly all the food was cheaper! The ladies had obviously decided that I was alright, and I'd become one of the locals. I was pretty happy about that. It was always a bit interesting at the markets because many of the ladies didn't speak english, and they have also recently changed their currency from "old Cedis" to "new Cedis". I was used to the new currency, but people would usually tell you the prices in old currency so I'd have to do some quick calculations in my head. Thankfully Rita was usually with me to help out.
3. The kids cheering and dancing at school when we donated books and pencils. They were all lined up in perfectly straight lines in the hot sun at an assembly, and when the headmaster announced that we'd bought some new books they spontaneously started cheering and dancing around the place!! It gave me goosebumps that they were so excited.
4. Rita's birthday party: I don't think its the done thing to make a fuss of birthdays in Ghana - usually people don't have enough money to buy presents or extra food, but when it was Rita's birthday we cooked her dinner (her favourite Banku with okra stew!) and a cake, and I sewed her a new dress. She was SO stoked, and said it was the "best day of her life".
5. Dancing - the Ghanaian people love to play the drums, dance and sing, and it was great to see people let go with reckless abandon and dance their little hearts out and sing at the top of their voices! This happened at many functions that we went to - Warren's birthday party, a wedding, the Mercy Mission Christmas party, church services etc. Its really fun to participate in and the drum beat sucks you in - you can't help but dance!
Funny Sayings
I wanted to write down some of the funny sayings from Ghana while I remembered them. Most people speak English, but to varying degrees and there are some funny little things make you laugh (on the inside!)
My favourite was "I want to urinate" - meaning "I need to go to the toilet". People are very matter of fact about it - no use trying to be discrete! In fact, quite often you'll see men (and occasionally even women) having a pee on the side of the road. There are little concrete public "toilets" dotted along the roadside saying "Urinate here". I can't say I ever ventured inside, so I don't know exactly what they were like!
"I'd like to take my leave please" - people will say this when they are at your house and want to go home. At first I felt like I was holding them hostage or something, and they wanted to get away from me! Our equivalent expression would be "I'd better get going" - which is probably equally weird.
"On the down" - means "on the bottom". At first I thought this was just Rita's funny version of English, but then I noticed that everyone says it. For example, baby Jacinta's mother would say "Jacinta has got a new tooth on the down" or Rita would say "I'll wear a t-shirt on the top and short knickers (that's shorts) on the down"
My all-time favourite saying would have to be "Madam your buttocks have come!" which I have written about in a previous blog. Usually it would be Latifa saying it to me - meaning that your clothes show off your hips and butt! I never thought that was a good thing, but in Ghana the bigger your butt the better!
And one last saying which Rita said last week when she was upset that we were leaving. She said "But everyone knows that I walk beside you". I thought it was a very sweet description of our friendship - because pretty much where-ever I would go in Konongo, Rita was there right beside me.
My favourite was "I want to urinate" - meaning "I need to go to the toilet". People are very matter of fact about it - no use trying to be discrete! In fact, quite often you'll see men (and occasionally even women) having a pee on the side of the road. There are little concrete public "toilets" dotted along the roadside saying "Urinate here". I can't say I ever ventured inside, so I don't know exactly what they were like!
"I'd like to take my leave please" - people will say this when they are at your house and want to go home. At first I felt like I was holding them hostage or something, and they wanted to get away from me! Our equivalent expression would be "I'd better get going" - which is probably equally weird.
"On the down" - means "on the bottom". At first I thought this was just Rita's funny version of English, but then I noticed that everyone says it. For example, baby Jacinta's mother would say "Jacinta has got a new tooth on the down" or Rita would say "I'll wear a t-shirt on the top and short knickers (that's shorts) on the down"
My all-time favourite saying would have to be "Madam your buttocks have come!" which I have written about in a previous blog. Usually it would be Latifa saying it to me - meaning that your clothes show off your hips and butt! I never thought that was a good thing, but in Ghana the bigger your butt the better!
And one last saying which Rita said last week when she was upset that we were leaving. She said "But everyone knows that I walk beside you". I thought it was a very sweet description of our friendship - because pretty much where-ever I would go in Konongo, Rita was there right beside me.
Our Last Day.....
I'm actually writing this blog back in Perth, because things got a bit busy there for a while and I didn't have time to blog it....
Our time in Ghana has just about come to an end - a bit sooner than we planned - we were supposed to be leaving next week, but Warren decided he needed a bit more time in Perth before starting his new job. So we've had to condense our good-byes into a short space of time - which is probably a good thing in some ways. Poor Rita has been moping around for days now - it might be best to put her out of her misery!!
So Tuesday was our last day in Konongo. I had a visit from Comfort for a bit, and discussed some ongoing plans for Mercy Mission. I also had a visit from some of the school teachers who bought a present which all the teachers and students had contributed to - so kind. They gave me an African style dress, some cow-hide shoes(not sure if they'll get through customs in Australia!?), a wooden wall plaque of Africa, a little bag and necklace. It was very nice of them.... I have quite a collection of African clothing now - that will be for a later post!
The rest of the day Rita, Latifa and I spent cooking food because we had invited Rita's family, Joseph and his family, and Latifa and Endurance for dinner - a last supper of sorts! We cooked jollof rice and chicken, bean stew and yams, spaghetti and meatballs (my "Australian" contribution!) and of course cake! As usual they ate everything in site! It was really nice to have our closest friends from our time here in Ghana together, although it was somewhat emotional!
As soon as I said we were leaving Rita started claiming my clothes - "can I have your 'jean skirt'(denim skirt)?". So I had sorted out all my clothes and distributed the majority of them amongst the girls - Rita and her sister Asha, Endurance and Latifa. I only came back with a half-packed suitcase! We also left our older laptop with them to share, so that they can email us and Facebook to stay in touch. Unfortunately Rita doesn't really know how to use the computer, or read or write for that matter, but hopefully someone will help her with it. I also loaded a heap of photos onto a small digital photo frame and gave it to Rita so she won't forget us!! Warren left a few pairs of running shoes behind, and in true Rita form she said she was going to "sell them" to make money - always the business woman!!
We left the next morning to drive to Accra with Alahassan (our usual driver). It was tough saying good-bye to everyone. Mostly I was quite controlled, but when I said good-bye to Rita I couldn't actually speak!! I was trying to but nothing came out! That little one made a big impression on us.....
So off we went, leaving behind Konongo - the town which had been our home for the past year.
The end of our Adventures in Ghana....
Our time in Ghana has just about come to an end - a bit sooner than we planned - we were supposed to be leaving next week, but Warren decided he needed a bit more time in Perth before starting his new job. So we've had to condense our good-byes into a short space of time - which is probably a good thing in some ways. Poor Rita has been moping around for days now - it might be best to put her out of her misery!!
So Tuesday was our last day in Konongo. I had a visit from Comfort for a bit, and discussed some ongoing plans for Mercy Mission. I also had a visit from some of the school teachers who bought a present which all the teachers and students had contributed to - so kind. They gave me an African style dress, some cow-hide shoes(not sure if they'll get through customs in Australia!?), a wooden wall plaque of Africa, a little bag and necklace. It was very nice of them.... I have quite a collection of African clothing now - that will be for a later post!
The rest of the day Rita, Latifa and I spent cooking food because we had invited Rita's family, Joseph and his family, and Latifa and Endurance for dinner - a last supper of sorts! We cooked jollof rice and chicken, bean stew and yams, spaghetti and meatballs (my "Australian" contribution!) and of course cake! As usual they ate everything in site! It was really nice to have our closest friends from our time here in Ghana together, although it was somewhat emotional!
As soon as I said we were leaving Rita started claiming my clothes - "can I have your 'jean skirt'(denim skirt)?". So I had sorted out all my clothes and distributed the majority of them amongst the girls - Rita and her sister Asha, Endurance and Latifa. I only came back with a half-packed suitcase! We also left our older laptop with them to share, so that they can email us and Facebook to stay in touch. Unfortunately Rita doesn't really know how to use the computer, or read or write for that matter, but hopefully someone will help her with it. I also loaded a heap of photos onto a small digital photo frame and gave it to Rita so she won't forget us!! Warren left a few pairs of running shoes behind, and in true Rita form she said she was going to "sell them" to make money - always the business woman!!
We left the next morning to drive to Accra with Alahassan (our usual driver). It was tough saying good-bye to everyone. Mostly I was quite controlled, but when I said good-bye to Rita I couldn't actually speak!! I was trying to but nothing came out! That little one made a big impression on us.....
So off we went, leaving behind Konongo - the town which had been our home for the past year.
The end of our Adventures in Ghana....
Owere Mines Primary School Donation
While I've been here in Ghana I've been volunteering at a local primary school - taking some library classes and helping out in their computer room. I usually go twice a week, and its really good fun - the kids are so cute and friendly, and they love having an "obruni" coming in to their class. The school is a public school, and therefore doesn't get much funding and their "library" was just a box of books which they had all read a million times. So I thought it would be nice to collect some books from Australia and take them to the school.
My sister very kindly arranged some books from the school library at St Augustine's Primary School in Rivervale. I also collected some other books from family and friends, and then carried them in batches (when luggage allowances permitted) back to Ghana. We finally collected four boxes of books and made our official donation to the school last week.
At the same time we also donated a box of pens, pencils, rulers, erasers etc which had been donated by Warren's mum, and her work - the Guild of St Richard which is a charity shop in Midland. The principal said he would love to use the stationary as prizes for good performance for the children.
On the day we donated the goods, we were accompanied by Janet who does Public Relations for Owere Mines and a local reporter from the radio station who then broadcast the news on the radio over the next few days. The school was happy that they got such good publicity.
In the afternoon, we had an assembly to show the children the donations and it was great feeling when all the children burst into spontaneous cheering and dancing. They were very happy!! Although when I had a class with them later, there were some funny cultural misunderstandings - the funniest of which was a girl who asked "Why is that koala bear wearing pants? Do they wear pants in Australia?!"
Photos to come (technical issues!)
My sister very kindly arranged some books from the school library at St Augustine's Primary School in Rivervale. I also collected some other books from family and friends, and then carried them in batches (when luggage allowances permitted) back to Ghana. We finally collected four boxes of books and made our official donation to the school last week.
At the same time we also donated a box of pens, pencils, rulers, erasers etc which had been donated by Warren's mum, and her work - the Guild of St Richard which is a charity shop in Midland. The principal said he would love to use the stationary as prizes for good performance for the children.
On the day we donated the goods, we were accompanied by Janet who does Public Relations for Owere Mines and a local reporter from the radio station who then broadcast the news on the radio over the next few days. The school was happy that they got such good publicity.
In the afternoon, we had an assembly to show the children the donations and it was great feeling when all the children burst into spontaneous cheering and dancing. They were very happy!! Although when I had a class with them later, there were some funny cultural misunderstandings - the funniest of which was a girl who asked "Why is that koala bear wearing pants? Do they wear pants in Australia?!"
Photos to come (technical issues!)
Friday, March 25, 2011
Banana Cake Business
On a brighter note from my last post, I've recently taught Rita how to make banana cakes - she enjoyed learning how to make them, and she would take them around to all the other workers here so they could try her cake. She was quite proud of herself!
Rita is always thinking of "new business" - that is, ways that she can make more money. So she's decided that selling banana cakes is going to be good business! Today she had two people ask her to make cakes for them, and they pay her 15 Cedis (about $10 Australian dollars) per cake!! It costs her about 5 Cedis to buy the ingredients so she's making 10 Cedis profit per cake - not bad I say!
Now she wants to learn more types of cakes to make so she can open a cake shop!
Rita is always thinking of "new business" - that is, ways that she can make more money. So she's decided that selling banana cakes is going to be good business! Today she had two people ask her to make cakes for them, and they pay her 15 Cedis (about $10 Australian dollars) per cake!! It costs her about 5 Cedis to buy the ingredients so she's making 10 Cedis profit per cake - not bad I say!
Now she wants to learn more types of cakes to make so she can open a cake shop!
Sad/Happy News
Well - it seems our time in Ghana is coming to an end - oh! Warren's contract finishes in early April so we had to decide what we were going to do next. He was sussing out other options, and was offered a very good job back in Perth. So after considering all our options, and for various different reasons, we decided it was time to go back to Perth. Which is good and bad....
We'll be happy to get back home and get settled in our little green house again. Believe it or not, I'll be happy to go back to work again!! Having an extended period of time off has been great, but the past few months I've been feeling the need to get out and do some work again - who would have thought! We'll also be happy to have our friends and family around regularly, because you can definitely feel a bit isolated here at times!
On the other hand, we really have enjoyed our time here. Its been a great life experience, and I would do it again in a flash! We've met lots of excellent local Ghanaian people, and have had an insight into their cultures and lifestyle. Its been an eye-opener at times, and we will never take our life and lifestyle for granted again.
So it will be sad to be leaving here in about two weeks time. I told Rita the other day that we were leaving, and she cried and then ran out of the house!! She's been miserable ever since.... Baby Jacinta's mother Asha (Rita's sister) also cried and hugged me repeatedly, and her mother apparently didn't eat for a whole day afterwards! Oh I felt terrible.... Their family has been very good to us, and has made us feel very welcome here.
So not looking forward to saying goodbye in a couple of weeks....
We'll be happy to get back home and get settled in our little green house again. Believe it or not, I'll be happy to go back to work again!! Having an extended period of time off has been great, but the past few months I've been feeling the need to get out and do some work again - who would have thought! We'll also be happy to have our friends and family around regularly, because you can definitely feel a bit isolated here at times!
On the other hand, we really have enjoyed our time here. Its been a great life experience, and I would do it again in a flash! We've met lots of excellent local Ghanaian people, and have had an insight into their cultures and lifestyle. Its been an eye-opener at times, and we will never take our life and lifestyle for granted again.
So it will be sad to be leaving here in about two weeks time. I told Rita the other day that we were leaving, and she cried and then ran out of the house!! She's been miserable ever since.... Baby Jacinta's mother Asha (Rita's sister) also cried and hugged me repeatedly, and her mother apparently didn't eat for a whole day afterwards! Oh I felt terrible.... Their family has been very good to us, and has made us feel very welcome here.
So not looking forward to saying goodbye in a couple of weeks....
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