We are racing through April at an alarming rate.
Even the local Ghanaians are complaining of the heat. ‘We are suffering‘ is the usual turn of phrase. Inside at the house and at work it is often in the 40s and I dare not put the thermometer in the full sun. I haven’t looked to see what the temperature is today but I am longing for the rains to start and for it to get a bit cooler. I think we have a few more weeks of this heat to get through first though we did have a are sometimes a sign of rain to come and coat everything with a thick layer of dirt. They inevitably happen the day after I have swept and mopped my room!
Every so often we run out of water and have to arrange for buckets to be filled at the borehole and carried to the house. We then hope the water will flow soon to fill our polytank so we can have , and flush the toilet.
Our real dread however is lights off during the night. It is unbearably hot trying to sleep without a ceiling fan at the moment. However, every cloud has a silver lining and having no power does mean that the endless and highly amplified singing with keyboard and drums accompanying that booms out from the local church is muted or even silenced.
Over the Easter weekend a group of us went to Mole National Park to see the elephants. We also saw warthogs, monkeys, baboons, several different types of antelope, crocodiles and lots of birds. The dry season is best for seeing elephants as the only water is in watering holes close to the hotel so that’s where they go on a regular basis. The swimming pool was a great attraction too and we spent lots of time cooling off in there. We also passed through Larabanga where there is a very old mud mosque.
April seems to be the time for piglets to be born and they are everywhere at the moment. I’m worried that I may squash one with my moto but they seem to quickly learn to keep out of the way. The tiny ones are really hard to see if they are lying down in the sand.
Time to head to the local spot for a drink!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Time is flying by and I am having a bit of a blitz this weekend on catching up with the blog as I have got rather behind.
Feb 14th was Valentine’s Day, Maths Day and National Chocolate Day all in one. By then I had no chocolate left from the various parcels I was sent at Christmas.
When I got back from my travels after the New Year other European volunteers said I looked well. Ghanaian colleagues at work said that Africa wasn’t suiting me - I was thinner and browner. Different perceptions! I have lost a few kilos but not a lot and am certainly not in any danger of fading away.
It was a bit daunting getting back on the moto after a break. If I am going far afield I usually go with someone else as there are no maps and I don’t know where any of the schools are. However if you set off in the right general direction you can usually ask someone for directions. People are really helpful and I never feel at all unsafe. I have now found out that I can pick the moto up from the ground even though it’s really heavy - I managed to drop it when I ground to a halt in deep sand. You need to keep your revs up in sand but the back wheel tends to wobble around and I chickened out and got stuck. I constantly have a few impressive bruises on my right leg as every so often I hit my shin on the pegs as I move the moto in and out of the house but am otherwise still in one piece as yet.
In March I braved the 16 hr bus journey south and visited Accra for a few days, travelling with a couple of other Upper East volunteers to attend some VSO workshops. Socially it was good to catch up with other volunteers who were in Accra for various reasons or live there and to eat out. Like any other capital city Accra has lots of expats living there and other high earners so there is a good choice of international cuisine available at a price. So for a few days we paid almost UK type prices and enjoyed real mozzarella and parmesan on pizza, South African wine, butter, ice-cream, chips and bacon. I also bought some chocolate and a few other goodies to bring north. I couldn’t afford to be there for long! It was a bit cooler in Accra and I got some really good sleep in the hotel as there was air con. It was lovely to have cool air in the room and snuggle under a cover.
It was time to say farewell to both my housemates, firstly Iona and then Andrea, in February & March as they reached the end of their placements and returned home. So there were several parties and ‘sittings’ to say goodbye and then it was hello to new faces as replacement volunteers arrived. It was strange to suddenly be senior volunteer in Zebilla!
Feb 14th was Valentine’s Day, Maths Day and National Chocolate Day all in one. By then I had no chocolate left from the various parcels I was sent at Christmas.
When I got back from my travels after the New Year other European volunteers said I looked well. Ghanaian colleagues at work said that Africa wasn’t suiting me - I was thinner and browner. Different perceptions! I have lost a few kilos but not a lot and am certainly not in any danger of fading away.
It was a bit daunting getting back on the moto after a break. If I am going far afield I usually go with someone else as there are no maps and I don’t know where any of the schools are. However if you set off in the right general direction you can usually ask someone for directions. People are really helpful and I never feel at all unsafe. I have now found out that I can pick the moto up from the ground even though it’s really heavy - I managed to drop it when I ground to a halt in deep sand. You need to keep your revs up in sand but the back wheel tends to wobble around and I chickened out and got stuck. I constantly have a few impressive bruises on my right leg as every so often I hit my shin on the pegs as I move the moto in and out of the house but am otherwise still in one piece as yet.
In March I braved the 16 hr bus journey south and visited Accra for a few days, travelling with a couple of other Upper East volunteers to attend some VSO workshops. Socially it was good to catch up with other volunteers who were in Accra for various reasons or live there and to eat out. Like any other capital city Accra has lots of expats living there and other high earners so there is a good choice of international cuisine available at a price. So for a few days we paid almost UK type prices and enjoyed real mozzarella and parmesan on pizza, South African wine, butter, ice-cream, chips and bacon. I also bought some chocolate and a few other goodies to bring north. I couldn’t afford to be there for long! It was a bit cooler in Accra and I got some really good sleep in the hotel as there was air con. It was lovely to have cool air in the room and snuggle under a cover.
It was time to say farewell to both my housemates, firstly Iona and then Andrea, in February & March as they reached the end of their placements and returned home. So there were several parties and ‘sittings’ to say goodbye and then it was hello to new faces as replacement volunteers arrived. It was strange to suddenly be senior volunteer in Zebilla!
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