Busy busy busy!

Hey everybody,

Oh my goodness, suddenly everything has gotten really busy around here – well Ghana style busy anyway! Just thought I’d give you a peek at what I’ve been doing with my students – I’ve been teaching them about improvising resources to help them to teach science so we made some and here are a few snaps of the process and the finished items. Enjoy!

Love Sam x

Wheelie bins hit Navrongo!

My goodness, the small town of Navrongo is going up in the world! I now have my very own wheelie bin – I almost feel like I’m back home. And at only five cedi a month to get it emptied twice a week – great value and good to know the waste is getting disposed of properly compared to just being burnt...

Actually it’s amazing how you can see small changes happening all of the time around here. A new shop, a new cable at the printing shop and a new internet café (which seems to work!) literally 50m from my house! Navrongo’s definitely going up in the world.

Hope you (and your wheelie bins!) are all well, S x

The contents of my fridge!

Yes! I do have a fridge and a freezer as well in fact. OK, so I had every intention of taking my camera to the staffroom and taking photos of the Ghanaian meals which I eat every lunchtime, but thus far I’ve forgotten to take it everyday… However, I will remember and will at some point post them on here and tell you all about them – get ready for the rice!

So, anyway – being the snap happy person that I’ve become lately (shock horror!) I ended up taking a picture of the contents of my fridge and it’s actually quite representative of what I eat outside of the staffroom.

- LOTS of water – I have a filter so I filter the water from the tap/borehole (depending if the water is running) and then put it into bottles ready for drinking. You’ll also see that there are bags of water, they have been either filtered or treated with chemicals and you can buy them everywhere and anywhere which is useful when it’s as hot as it is here!

- VEGETABLES – Lots to be found in Navrongo as it’s a fruit and vegetable market town (according to the guidebook) and often sellers come right up to the gate and knock on the door – talk about convenience food!

- LOTS of sauces (bought from Accra) - I basically end up eating a mixture of vegetables I just mentioned with either pasta or rice and a varying array of sauces to stop me from getting bored.

- JAM, marmalade, margarine (horrid stuff) and ground nut paste (like peanut butter, but local stuff so it’s in the plastic pot – if all else fails, I have a toaster (which a lot of people are quite envious of out here!) so that can come to the rescue. Although it’s madness, it’s says ‘99p’ on the label of the jam and then in the shops here it actually costs double the price as it’s imported!

- SHEPHERD’S PIE – yes, that’s what it is in the cooking tray! A very kind friend (JEN!) sent me out a whole package of mixes to make stuff so I’m working my way through them. Now, they don’t taste exactly the same as they would at home, but it’s pretty good and this year potatoes seem to be much easier to get hold of than last year. I also make a mean lasagna, you just need to go to Accra to get the sheet of pasta and the cheese sauce…

- EGG – I don’t end up buying that much meat out here because it doesn’t come nicely packaged like it does at Sainsburies back home and I can’t quite cope with preparing it, so eggs are a good source of protein. (Gosh I sound like a teacher!)

- ORANGES – cheap and cheerful fruit, but the pineapples and mangoes out here are to die for. Mangoes aren’t in season until maybe May, but when they are they are GORGEOUS!

So, there you go – the contents of my fridge, I’m certainly not starving by any stretch of the imagination!

Halloween

So, Halloween in the Upper East of Ghana = PARTY time. Some of the volunteers in Bolga have a really nice big house and they had a party – huzzar! But what Halloween party would be complete without pumpkins to carve out? However, pumpkins are not to be found anywhere… so next best option? Watermelons! Look at these monsters. Then the best costume award went to an American guy called Toby who’s working at one of the Senior Secondary Schools (in Sirigu actually) he had the bat wings made by one of the tailors/seamstresses in town – amazing!

Shop names/signs!

I’d forgotten about this when I came home, but they’ve made me laugh since I’ve got back. The reason why? Well have a read of a few of these and see what you think!

- Jesus loves you Stationers
- The Vatican(!)
- Lord remember me Salon
- The Lord’s my shepherd

My artistic talents!

Hello one and all,

So it’s Halloween – so how’d you spend such a day in Ghana?! Well a Halloween party for sure, but what about during the day?

Well in honesty I don’t know if there actually are any traditions but we had an interesting day that’s for sure. I think I’ve told most people about the Babies Home in Sirigu, in fact I think I wrote a blog about it a while back so if you want to know the ins and outs flick back a few months and you’ll find all the information. Anyway, we went out there today and spent the morning drawing all over the walls of their new classroom block which was financed by various donors in Ireland and Germany last year. However, the Sister in charge being the teacher that she is wanted to put the alphabet and numbers on the walls to help the children’s learning, but alas the posters would not stay up so we offered to come in and paint them on.

So today we spent a merry day drawing everything on in chalk and then next week the plan is to go and paint it all. Now, you’ll be glad to know that I wasn’t given any difficult drawing to do – I just about managed to bubble write the numbers 1-10, then draw various shapes and oh yeah I wrote the alphabet out – capitals and small letters. (The girls have obviously spotted my lack of artistic talent!) Oh yeah and I had the very important job of holding the poster of the map whilst Sarah drew – about my level me thinks.

Oh yes – for those of you who sponsored me to run the Nottingham half marathon on September 13th – yes I did complete it – 2 hours, 16 minutes and 33 seconds – woo hoo! Anyway, I am using some of that money to buy the paint/paint brushes/white spirit we will be using – once I know how much I’ve spent I’ll e-mail people and tell them that their money is gone and show them photos of the end product!

Right, enough waffle – I hope you enjoy the photos.

Much love, Sam x

I know a great little B & B in Navrongo town!

Right, just so you know you are all welcome to come and visit deepest darkest Navrongo – I have the perfect place to let you sleep! Having got myself a very nice new housemate it does mean that I no longer have a spare room, but that doesn’t matter – I can still accommodate you… Look at this monster! A fellow VSO was passing through the area and came to stay, so I did my very best impression of creating a den like we used to as children. Funnily enough his surname is Cashman – he and his wife Charlotte are the first Cashmans I’ve ever met who are not close relatives!

(P.S. I did try to give him my room whilst I stayed on the sofa but he wouldn’t let me, just before you start thinking I’m an awfully rude hostest!)