The other weekend was spent in Ho again. Not that I did much though apart from meet up with Steve and a few friends and eat rice with what seemed to be like every meal. The sauces are still lush though so not really complaining. Everyone is surprised at how much chilli I like in my food. Yum Yum! I made pepper (chilli) sauce on Sunday to go with...you guessed it, rice. I think it turned out great, nobody complained anyway. Steve did have to tell me how to make it first mind but all in all a good first attempt. I enjoyed it anyway and nobody seemed to get ill from it. :-)
Sunday afternoon we visited the Sky + hotel for a drink. It's right on top of the hill overlooking Ho and you get a fab view. The taxi that took us had a bit of a prob getting up the hill and at one point I thought we'd have to get out and push. Luckily this wasn't necessary and it didn't take too long to reach our destination.
It was quiet to say the least. Not sure how busy it gets but on this occasion you could have heard a pin drop. It's not a particularly big hotel. Has a small pool which I could have just dived into if I'd had my bikini on or didn't worry about whether the water was clean enough and if I would get another dodgy stomach.
The others just seemed to want to take loads of photos of themselves (very common over here). One after another all the time and gets a bit weary after a while. One in this pose, one with this background, one with this garden ornament...most without them smiling and looking very serious. Makes me laugh but I do get to a point when I tell them that's enough, 'I'm bored’ and 'How many bloody facebook profile pics do you want!?'
While we were sat having a drink we could see the rain moving across the land in the distance and heading towards Ho. There were a few bets on whether it would reach us or not. When the wind started to blow we all agreed it was going to hit us soon, and we'd only just sat outside. So we waited until the last minute when we saw the rain hit the pool before we did a runner inside.
I felt lovely and cool as it rained but the others were a bit chilly, bless. God knows what they'd be like if thrown straight into one of our winters. Wrapped up in every single item of clothing, sat in front of a fire drinking ovaltine (or whiskey or both), not daring to go out in case of freezing to death. Basically the opposite to how I feel when I arrive over here.
The rain lasted about 30 mins in which time I discovered the hotel does PIZZA! (will have to visit again) and has some sort of Sky TV but don't think it's what we get back home. We watched the end of Meet Joe Black and lazed around until it stopped raining. Heading back to the taxi (the driver is a friend of everyone) more pictures, surprise, surprise, and a quick check to see if the car was in shape to make the journey back. It was mainly downhill so there weren't many worries. It continued to rain every now and then all night but it was still as hot as hell the next day. Think I could have fried an egg on one of the stones by the house.
School is going well I think, although the primary kids are a bit of a handful to say the least. I'm just not used to 30 odd six year olds fidgeting, whispering, running out to go to the loo and for some, basically not understanding a single word I say. lol. There was an incident yesterday when one of the boys pushed a girl against the wall where she hit her head. She was crying and he was just glaring at her. I only caught the end but rushed over to see if she was ok and try and find out what was going one. Didn't have much luck in that respect, only that he pushed her and held her against the wall. Either they didn't understand me or afraid to say what it was. The girl didn't want to go to the Headmistress and preferred to stay in the classroom; the boy it seems is a bit of a tear away. When the headmistress came in I told her what had happened, as by this point the girl was crying again saying the back of her head hurt. There wasn't much telling-off for the boy though, he just had to rub some ointment onto the girls head. Think I'm going to have to keep an eye on that one.
I'm typing this up whilst at the JHS. I had a Maths class earlier and nothing for the rest of the day. Well I'm bored! Listening to my iPod and did try and get online but the connection keeps cutting out. A shame as that would have relieved my boredom somewhat. Think a few of the others feel the same, one teacher was continually on her phone and now sleeping on the table, Mimi is looking after her baby and Sophia has disappeared somewhere and can't be found (think she does this quite often). Roll on 2:30! I need a drink...
I don't really miss anything when I'm over here but this time there are a few things I could list...my bed; pizza; proper cheese; my bed; decent red wine; my car (travelling by tro-tro is such a pain and time consuming thing over here); my bed; pie, chips and gravy; nice clothes and shoes (I'm living in Karrimor sandals and flip flops - height of fashion), proper Greek salad, my bed...I think there's a pattern forming here. If I was living in Accra I could prob pick up some nice wine, pizza and maybe cheese, who knows and if I was living over here for a year or so then I'd get a car. Apparently there is a shopping mall in Accra. I'm hoping to visit that soon and do a bit of shopping. :-)
Steve popped to Akrofu the other evening for a few hours. We sat in one of my usual drinking spots and tried to get online without much luck. Some of the kids were very curious of who the stranger was. I'm sure the gossip mongers are having a field day and word has spread all around the village that Sam has had a male visitor. While we were there it absolutely tipped down, but we had to make a dash for it after a while as it was getting late and Steve had to get a tro-tro back to Ho. This took about 30 mins while we sheltered near the roadside under some makeshift bus shelter type contraption, which reminded me of some of the bus and train shelters back home - absolutely useless in protecting you from the elements and make you wonder what idiot designed them (obviously no one who takes public transport).
There's a resident cricket type creature in my bedroom that keeps chattering all night, which wasn't too bad before, however now it's either reproduced or a friend has turned up and trying to annoy me in unison. The sheep must have had a good party the other night and needed a few days to recover, they are few and far between at the mo and the spiders are continuing to breed at an alarming rate. I’m half expecting to wake up one morning to find the house looking like something out of a 50s b-movie and completely cocooned in a spiders web.
Ttfn
Sam x
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Hot hot hot, primary school, Ho and Kpetoe
It's been awhile since my last post but the past few days I've been rushing to the loo, seems to be like all the time. The nurse in the village has given me two lots of antibiotics and a de-wormer (just in case). They laughed and couldn't believe the last time I took de-wormer was on my last visit. As well as my anti-malarials I currently feel like a walking pharmacy.
Last week I met a few more of Stephen's friends. Really nice people and Daniel is probably one of the friendliest, laid back people I've met. Although what he smokes may have something to do with this. Him and Nancy are brother and sister, living in their uncle's house. I think their dad died and mum lives elsewhere. Seems to be a happy house even if Nancy complains that she's cooking all the time and the lads should find themselves girlfriends/wives to do that for them and one of Daniel's friends continually tries to convince Nancy he's the one for her, but she's having none of it and neither is Daniel, being the protective brother. lol.
It's been bloody hot the past week. I've been constantly sweating and hoping that it'll rain. To my relief this has happened a few times so there has been some coolness for about an hour now and then. It's just started to rain again while I'm typing this up. Yay!
Some of the kids came round the other night and while dinner was being prepared there was a lot of dancing and singing. More by the fact that I was videoing them, so much 'playing up to the camera' was taking place. I would try and upload it to this blog but there is a short clip of me trying to dance bobobo. Definitely not for public viewing and may even scar people for life.
Old Soldier showed me some land that I can have if the other plot isn't suitable. It's very generous of him, however, it is right next to a cassava mill, so prob not as it's very noisey. The other plot just outside the village will be fine, although there is a small church right next to the land which could become annoying. I can see me turning my music up at times to drown out their shouting but I'm sure everything will be ok.
After showing me the land we had a few drinks in a local drinking spot and chatted about Ghana's oil production, slow development in the country, Accra's congestion and the time in Ghana when Rawlings took power and Old Soldier (being a soldier) was working 24/7 to keep the peace. Seems like there was a lot of smoking and drinking going on in the evenings.
Friday morning I took a maths class at the Primary School. I was shattered after. I've discovered that trying to teach six year olds maths when they have attention spans of fish is extremely difficult. Especially when the other classes were playing, watching me through the windows and running away when I went toward them - the teachers were having what seemed to be a very long meeting. However, it was fun and looking forward to the next round.
Stayed in Ho and Kpetoe last weekend. Nice to have a bit of a change of scenery and meet different people. Stephen's mum (Stella) and step-dad live in Kpetoe, where Stella runs a salon and he works at the District Assembly. Stephen's cousin Richmond also lives there and works for the District Assembly in the PR department. All very nice people who gave me a warm welcome and some rather delicious food.
There was a Miss Ghana Extra Plus on the tv which was quite amusing. Similar to the X-Factor style but for a beauty pageant. Large women auditioning by dancing, singing etc. some were even crying but not sure what that was all about and as usual the judges laughed a lot. I'm not watching much tv over here as the one in the room is still not working properly, so it's only when I'm visiting people who have them that I get a chance to watch the news or, as above, some reality tv show of all things. I don't really miss it as there didn't seem to be much on before I left. However, I'm sure I'll be catching up on a few of my fav programmes when I get back.
The past few days there have been a few shotgun blasts. The first time I heard it I did have a bit of a panic attack...'What the hell is that?', 'What's was going on?', 'Surely Ghana is still a safe country?'... However, no one else seemed phased and carried on with whatever they were doing. It seems to have something to do with the Yam Festival celebrations, along with loads of drumming which goes on all night as far as I can tell. So long as the gunfire is nowhere near me, I'm fine.
What sounded like the entire sheep population camped outside my window last night and decided to have a party and the more I look at chickens the wierder they seem to get, especially when they're running. Bizzare, they just don't look right. lol
Mr Spider seems to have heeded my nervous prodding and left my room or at least keeping out of sight and reach. The one with a leg missing is now in the bathroom breeding like nobody's business.
I'm having probs uploading photos so will add them soon.
Until the next time,
Sam x
It's been bloody hot the past week. I've been constantly sweating and hoping that it'll rain. To my relief this has happened a few times so there has been some coolness for about an hour now and then. It's just started to rain again while I'm typing this up. Yay!
Some of the kids came round the other night and while dinner was being prepared there was a lot of dancing and singing. More by the fact that I was videoing them, so much 'playing up to the camera' was taking place. I would try and upload it to this blog but there is a short clip of me trying to dance bobobo. Definitely not for public viewing and may even scar people for life.
Old Soldier showed me some land that I can have if the other plot isn't suitable. It's very generous of him, however, it is right next to a cassava mill, so prob not as it's very noisey. The other plot just outside the village will be fine, although there is a small church right next to the land which could become annoying. I can see me turning my music up at times to drown out their shouting but I'm sure everything will be ok.
After showing me the land we had a few drinks in a local drinking spot and chatted about Ghana's oil production, slow development in the country, Accra's congestion and the time in Ghana when Rawlings took power and Old Soldier (being a soldier) was working 24/7 to keep the peace. Seems like there was a lot of smoking and drinking going on in the evenings.
Friday morning I took a maths class at the Primary School. I was shattered after. I've discovered that trying to teach six year olds maths when they have attention spans of fish is extremely difficult. Especially when the other classes were playing, watching me through the windows and running away when I went toward them - the teachers were having what seemed to be a very long meeting. However, it was fun and looking forward to the next round.
Stayed in Ho and Kpetoe last weekend. Nice to have a bit of a change of scenery and meet different people. Stephen's mum (Stella) and step-dad live in Kpetoe, where Stella runs a salon and he works at the District Assembly. Stephen's cousin Richmond also lives there and works for the District Assembly in the PR department. All very nice people who gave me a warm welcome and some rather delicious food.
There was a Miss Ghana Extra Plus on the tv which was quite amusing. Similar to the X-Factor style but for a beauty pageant. Large women auditioning by dancing, singing etc. some were even crying but not sure what that was all about and as usual the judges laughed a lot. I'm not watching much tv over here as the one in the room is still not working properly, so it's only when I'm visiting people who have them that I get a chance to watch the news or, as above, some reality tv show of all things. I don't really miss it as there didn't seem to be much on before I left. However, I'm sure I'll be catching up on a few of my fav programmes when I get back.
The past few days there have been a few shotgun blasts. The first time I heard it I did have a bit of a panic attack...'What the hell is that?', 'What's was going on?', 'Surely Ghana is still a safe country?'... However, no one else seemed phased and carried on with whatever they were doing. It seems to have something to do with the Yam Festival celebrations, along with loads of drumming which goes on all night as far as I can tell. So long as the gunfire is nowhere near me, I'm fine.
What sounded like the entire sheep population camped outside my window last night and decided to have a party and the more I look at chickens the wierder they seem to get, especially when they're running. Bizzare, they just don't look right. lol
Mr Spider seems to have heeded my nervous prodding and left my room or at least keeping out of sight and reach. The one with a leg missing is now in the bathroom breeding like nobody's business.
I'm having probs uploading photos so will add them soon.
Until the next time,
Sam x
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