Pictures from Ghana

The village Pai Katanga

Fruit tree by the school

Little boy in our courtyard

Dining hall under the sky - not perfect during the rainy season!

After class

Some children have never been told that they are loved
and that they possess great beauty

A young boy after school

Some of the shyer kids

Boys will be boys

Class

Playing games, Africans are fast!

Crowding in front of the camera

Main road going through the village

Distracted from the camera,  a rarity

Gathered for the football game and to have their picture taken

Sunset over Pai Katanga

There were many more pictures taken, but I can't post them all on here. I have a feeling there will be a lot more pictures taken during the next 2 years, and the thought of it puts a smile on my face (as if I wasn't already smiling)

All Love

Village Life in Ghana

So we just got back from our 2 weeks in Ghana, waiting for the connecting flight to the Canary Islands where we will enjoy the pleasures of a real bed, a hot shower and a nice breakfast before we join the ship. I'll try and make a quick summary of 2 extraordinary weeks.

We stayed in Pai Katanka, a village 6 hours outside of Accra, the capital of Ghana. We were constantly surrounded by goats, roosters and kids and silence was pretty much non-existant. It was rainy season and the landscape was beautiful, the village surrounded by green hills and lush vegetation (and our last night all the fire flies came out to dance for us).

The food was... interesting, but not bad. As usual I ate everything set before me, and ended up puking in a bucket last Thursday. They say I shouldn't have eaten the food handed to me by strangers, and probably shouldn't have let my water bottle being passed from mouth to mouth among the kids. How was i to know  ;)

The work we did was to build walls, dig trenches and filling up a foundation for a new school building. Some taught in the school and some helped out in the clinic. We met the chief of the village who came up with the elders to help us dig, quite a sight! We played football (soccer) against the locals and lost! Not sure we can use the goats grazing in the football field as an excuse... We also danced African style in the pouring rain, first time I've seen so much butt shaking in church - maybe something to introduce back home!

Most memorable were the kids and how they approached us wanting us to tell them stories and teach them songs. We were told by Chris, our local contact, that kids in the village are being brought up with insults, harshness and beatings, and it was hard to see so many adorable kids knowing that they were facing this daily. It made me want to hug them all and tell them how amazing and wonderful they were. Cause they were!

Tomorrow we'll be boarding the ship!

All Love

Africa Next

In a few minutes we'll be on the road to Dallas airport, making our way to Ghana. We're gonna be in a village in east Ghana, working with an organisation called Samaritan Strategy, adding walls to the village school building. We've got 2 weeks in Ghana before we join the ship in Tenerife. Until then, have a great time and see ya later!

All Love

God Grew Tired of Us

This week we watched a film called God Grew Tired of Us; a film about the lost boys of Sudan, around 25 000 young boys who were forced to flee Sudan to avoid being murdered during the civil war. When they eventually reached a refugee camp on the border of Kenya more than half of the boys had died from starvation, dehydration or animal attacks. After years in the camp some of the boys were allowed entrance to the USA, and in this film we can follow three of them and their transit into America, trying to adapt to the western culture. It's definitely worth watching.

To watch it in Youtube follow this link:
God Grew Tired of Us

All Love

Dirty Ear Business

So it's been 13 days since I caught an ear infection, the first antibiotic (Augmentin 875-125mg) didn't help and I've been started on another one (Clindamycin 150mg). I'm hoping Tracey will be able to look at my ears this afternoon to see if it's working at all, otherwise I'm in for trouble. We are flying to Ghana in less than a week and flying with already congested ears doesn't sound like a treat to me!

Having bunged up ears have made me realise how fantastic the body is. I can hear my own heartbeat and the sound of my own blood flowing through the arteries is so loud I sometimes find it hard to concentrate on what people are trying to say to me. I can hear every crack of the spine and every step creates a thumping echo in my head. If you'd put in earplugs and start talking, that's what I hear every time I open my mouth, just a bit more resounding. I'm slowly getting more used to it, the hardest thing is not being able to follow conversations very well. My team has been lovely though and have been patient enough to repeat every other sentence for me.

All Love

Gateway

This is the crazy group I'm hanging out with in Texas, heading for Africa in less than 2 weeks. It's a good thing I like them, cause I'll be spending the next two years around most of them  :)

All Love

Can't Hear Ya

Texas is a hot place, temperatures ranging between 30 and 40 degrees, usually closer to 40. Despite this I've managed to catch a cold, which has spread and caused an ear infection in both ears. I've been walking around with impaired hearing for 5 days now, feeling slightly isolated from the rest of the world. As stated by one of the other nurses here, I've done what any other good nurse would have done in my shoes - carried on and ignored the need to go to the doctor. Tracey, bless her soul, checked my ears for me and there's now antibiotics waiting to be picked up tomorrow. Having a multi-medical team isn't without benefits. Once we get to the ship our nice dentist Mark is going to fix my chipped tooth as well. (Seems I started falling apart since I entered the States!)

As an addition, some much appreciated mail arrived last week; so many of the girls have asked me where I got my new dress from, and it is with pride that I say my sister made it for me!

All Love