Ghana 2007

Hi all, I thought I'd put the whole Maths degree thing to good use and give you all some stats I've been collecting over the last 5 or so months:

Number of time I've been called 'obruni' (foreigner): 1,548
Number of times I've been called 'Peter Crouch': 1,390
Number of taxi's travelled in (shared cabs go everywhere, and are really cheap): 627
Number of seatbelts worn: 0
Number of mosquito bites currently on my left elbow: 9
Number of words Deborah, one of the 'less able' students in KG2 can spell, after 5 months teaching: 1 (cat!)
Age of Theophilus, who can do long addition and subtraction, carry the one, write perfectly, and spell 5 letter words: 5
Nuumber of breeze blocks moulded: 508
Number of muscles gained: 0
Number of hours a day we have running water: 1. if we're lucky
Number of brown outs a week, on average: 3
Number of cedi's to the pound: 18,000
Highest denomination of note: 20,000 cedi's (although they are about to release the new currency, with 4 zero's chopped off)
Cost of a sachet of water: 400 cedi's
Cost of a Gulder (my Ghanaian beer of choice): 10,000 cedi's

Ok, so some of these might not be completely accurate, but hey. Its now less than 3 weeks until we're back in the UK, I can't believe how quickly time has gone here, the last few weeks are going to be really busy, sorting things out at the centre, and trying to sort myself out some kind of a life for when I get home.
Work at the centre has really come on this week, we've now got toilets and sinks plumbed in and the cess pit is virtually finished. The carpenter is starting to make shutters for the windows and doors, which apparently won't take long. So hopefully we will leave something resembling a school, which will be fantastic.

Its been raining alot more here recently, and when it rains. it rains. Everything turns to mud, and flip flops don't have the best grip it turns out, miraculously I haven't fallen over yet, or fallen in an open drain, but when I do the photos will be on here!

Freddie and Graham have gone travelling, so it'll be interesting to hear their stories when they get back, Sarah and I are really thinking about home now, most of our conversations involve some kind of food from home, we would both appreciate a Domino's pizza bringing to the airport please, they're better cold :) It's going to be really hard leaving, especially saying bye to the kids (not that they'll care!) but I am looking forward to luxuries such as: carpets; socks; drains with covers on; pavements; a bath (I dread to think what colour the water will be when I get out); music with guitars in; films; and the aforementioned cheddar cheese!

I will probably put one more entry on here before I get back, and there will be a few more pics on soon, when I get back to wonderful broadband I'll probably go crazy and put loads of photos on here!

See you all soon x 

Hi all. just a quick update this time, I need my weekends!
Since my last entry relatively little has happened I'm afraid (very unlike Ghana). The main news is that the Headmistress of Wesley Girls School has banned the football team from using their pitch because she said we didn't ask permission to use it for our seniors game, even though Sly spoke to the school chaplain and he said it was fine.
Its really not suprising that things move slowly here when so many people are obstructive, or just plain incompetent.
This is a big problem because there isn't another reasonable pitch in the whole village, we've tried going back to the school but with no luck. There are plans to build a pitch in the village which the Assembly Man is involved with, and we are trying our best to get things moving, but like most things in Ghana, its probably not going to happen very quickly.
I went to see the site with Freddie, Lawrence Sly and the Assembly Man the other day, its near our house, but it needs completely clearing, and levelling with a bulldozer. the land is hopefully being donated from the university, and we are waiting to hear from them.
If we get the go ahead, I'm envisaging a 'Challenge Annika' type workforce going to clear the site one weekend, which would be great, manpower wouldn't be a problem, but we'll have to see.

We only have 5 weeks left which is scary (Sarah and I have been here 21 weeks!) so I'm starting to think about all the things that need doing before we go, the centre is coming on really well. In the afternoons we've been lifting mud out of the cess pit which is hard, but its finished now so hopefully the masons will seal it next week, the work first started on the cess pit over a year ago. on and off, so it'll be great when its done.
The plumbers have also been working hard, and the carpenter is going to start making shutters for the windows and doors for the classrooms soon, so we're hoping by the time we leave the classrooms will be painted, with posters on the walls, and furniture  for the kids, which will look great.

Graham luckily hasn't had anything else stolen since last time, which is nice, and Freddie has completely settled back into life here like he never left!
Next weekend we're all going to a place called The Green Turtle with Laura and Francesca for Laura's birthday which should be fun, its a beach resort near Takoradi, and is apparently run by a British couple, rumour has it they do Bangers and Mash there! Emma's exams finish on Friday too, so its a double celebration.    

We've started doing quizzes at school with 3 kids from each class answering questions, KG2 (Sarah and my class) have come 1st and 2nd, we were so proud, sob!
The reading is getting pretty advanced now I'll have you know, we're onto 4 and 5 letter words, and we've started giving them spelling tests too.
This Friday Freddie and I are going to attempt games with the top 3 classes, which could be very interesting indeed, I will try and put photos on soon I promise.

Its starting to dawn on me now how close we are to going home, its really strange, teaching isn't getting any easier but I'm going to miss the kids a huge amount, the guys at the centre too, I am looking forward to a nice bit of cheddar cheese though :)

Sorry this entry has taken so long to turn up, I've been really busy since we got back from our travels.
A few days after we got back, Becky and Russ both flew back to the UK, Becky's leaving do was nice, she was given all sorts of interesting presents, including a dress from CEJOCEP, if you're reading this Becky, I hope you enjoyed your Big Mac, lots of people are missing you!

The day after we started teaching again, but Sarah still wasn't feeling well after getting what we thought was food poisoning (she had no energy, and some evenings she was shivering when it was really hot, which was very worrying) , so I took her to the hospital (I know what you're thinking, what a guy, I've now taken all 3 girls to hospital at some point), we waited for 4 hours to see a doctor who said she had to come back tomorrow for a blood test, because the lab was closed for the day, it was 1pm.
So the next day we came back for the test, and it was negative for Malaria and Typhoid, but nobody seemed fussed about finding out what was actually wrong with her. She was given some medication to take, but we went to a private hospital in the afternoon, we saw a doctor who looked about 120, and he said to keep taking the pills, it was only when I went on at him that he actually agreed to do some tests.
Poor Sarah had to do about 4 different tests, and eventually they said it was Rheumatic Fever, and gave her enough medicine to sink a ship.
I don't think it was that, but thankfully she got better a few days later, and is fine now.

The next week I went back to football training, and was greeted by the tragic news that Kwaata, the goalkeeper for the U15 team, had died in hospital the previous day, I was absolutely stunned, I didn't know him particularly well, and hadn't even realised he'd been ill, but he always came to training, and trained very hard, he was an example to the other boys. He was 15 years old.
I went to see his family twice in the week, the first time was later that day, all the women in the family were crying hysterically and throwing themselves on the ground, it was very hard to watch, and I felt like I shouldn't be there really. His father was still at the hospital, apparently the doctor had diagnosed malaria, then he complained of pains in his sides. I was later told it was some kind of fever that was genetic, Lawrence mentioned Jaundice, but I don't know enough about it, I'm sure if he was in a more developed country it would have been picked up and treated easily, it's such a waste.
I went back to the family and met his Father a few days later with Lawrence and Sly, he was being incredibly brave, I said how hard his son had trained, and how the other boys looked up to him, I hope it was some small comfort.
On Saturday I went to his burial ceremony, in Ghana these things are very loud and colourful, lots of people were gathered in the square in Kakumodo School, where he went, almost everyone was wearing red and black, the funeral colours, and drums were playing and whistles were being blown everywhere.
There was a small football game going on, with his coffin behind the goal, I went with the team, George the coach, and Lawrence and Sly, the team played in the next match, and everyone watched. After that his classmates prayed around his coffin, and a priest started singing and praying, people started dancing and running around it.
The coffin was then taken to the cemetery, and I went with the others to make some small donations to the families elders, to contribute towards the costs. Sly took along an enlarged photo of Kwaata with the rest of his team-mates before a match, and almost everyone looked at it, he looks really happy in the photo, it was a really nice touch.
Sadly for Ghanaians, tragic events like these happen too often.
I'm sorry if this paragraph sounds too blunt, but I really don't know how to write about something like this.

A week ago, Freddie and Graham arrived, Freddie has been here before and has settled back in quickly. Graham has had an eventful first few days, on Saturday night we went out, and he had his camera and his phone pick-pocketed in the space of half an hour, luckily they got the Police report quickly so he can claim on his insurance. He's also had his first few days teaching and is going to be an expert in dealing with Ghanaian kids in no time!

On Sunday we all played in a football match against Kakumodo village, which I had arranged with the help of Sly and George to welcome Freddie and Graham.
We had a minutes silence and a prayer at the start of the game for Kwaata.
I played for the first 40 minutes, and didn't completely disgrace myself, but was absolutely knackered after that, I haven't had enough time to train. Freddie played in goal and did well, and Graham played for half an hour after me. A TPA guy from Abura called Brad also played and did really well. The rest of our team was made up of Ghanaian friends and colleagues, as well as a few of George's friends. Unfortunately we lost 3-2, but it was a good game, and I think everyone had a good time. I will try and put some photos on soon.

Sarah told me that both of her parents are reading this now, so I feel a duty to put some more Sarah related news on here! We are now sharing the teaching of KG2, which is great, they are all coming on, we're doing spelling tests and lots of Maths, all the books we've been sent by people are a massive help. She's now stuck in a house with 3 boys, but she is more than holding her own, and is an annoyingly good poker player (blatantly beginners luck), the bottles tops we use for counters in Maths at school also make good poker chips!
The power is really bad at the moment, it's has been off here almost every night for the last 2 weeks, I really hope it doesn't do this for the next 2 months!

Anyway, I hope all is well at home, see you all soon.

Well we are now back in Cape Coast after our tour of Ghana, it was a fun 10 days, but really hard work, I think I'm too old to live out of a backpack now!
Just before we left Becky got an ankle infection, which meant she couldn't travel, and because she is off back to the UK soon, we couldn't really delay our travels too much, so she stayed at home for the first week, but came to meet us in Accra for the last few days, so it was ok in the end.
Sarah and I started off going to Jachie to see the other volunteers and their project, its near Kumasi, which is the 2nd biggest city in Ghana. I didn't get to see too much of the projects there, but the guys seem to be doing a good job. We met Paul and Kwame, two of the locals who work on the projects with them, and they seem really great, very friendly and easy to get on with, and hard-working.
We stayed a night in Jachie, during which time Thomas, a Dutch volunteer there got really sick so I took him to hospital with Laura, the jabs they gave him seemed to do the trick though, because the next evening we all went to the 'Vienna City Pub' in Kumasi, which was very surreal, it was just like a pub in the UK, and it was full of ex-pats, so I spent the evening playing pool and eating pork chops!

After Kumasi we went to a place called Techiman, to see a monkey sanctuary there, it was ok, but the next day was a nightmare as we spent 7 (yes seven) hours waiting for our tro-tro/bus to leave, it was unbelievable, I knew that you had to wait for the tro-tro to fill up sometimes before it left, but that was ridiculous. We went north to a place called Sawla, and arrived at 9pm, it was pitch black so we basically had to hire the only taxi-driver in the village to take us the rest of the way to Mole National Park, paying him an exorbitant amount in Ghanaian terms.
The dust in the north is very red, and the road to Mole was really bumpy, Sarah spent the whole journey with her window open, and so when we arrived at the Mole Motel where we were staying she was bright orange, she looked like the love child of Dale Winton and an oompa-loompa, I was slightly orange its true, but not too bad.
The whole day of travelling/waiting was completely worth it in the end though, because we woke up at 6 the next morning to do our walk around the park, and we had the most amazing view from our balcony, over a real African savannah, the Motel is on top a hill, and at the bottom are two huge watering holes. We had our walk, and saw an elephant, families of warthogs, antelope and a water buck, all really close up, our guide had a rifle, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work! At that point we were pretty happy because we'd heard we wouldn't see elephants at all because of the rains they'd had there, but then after we'd had breakfast, some girls spotted a big group of elephants heading towards the nearest watering hole, so I tagged along with a group going down then, and sat by the edge of the water for an hour as 15 elephants went in for a wash! It really made the whole trip for me, they were literally less than a stones throw away from us, there were crocs swimming around in there too, I wished that all of you guys could have been there to see it too :(
There is also a gang of baboons who patrol around the Motel, they're pretty clever, they know white tourists won't fire stones at them with catapults like the staff do, so they drink from the pool when they can, and scavenge for food on peoples balconies! I think they're really scary which Sarah thought was hilarious, until one jumped onto our balcony right next to us, and then suddenly she was hiding behind me, I'd love to say I did the manly thing and scared it off, but we just backed into our room and hid instead!

After Mole we got a bus at 4am and bumped our way for 4 hours to Tamale, the biggest city in the north of Ghana, we stayed there for a night, it was really interesting to see the north, there are lots of mosques around, and the language is different to Cape Coast, so the small amount of Fante we know (ok, Sarah knows alot more than me) was pretty much useless.
The next day we thought we'd treat ourselves transport wise and booked tickets on the early STC to Kumasi (kind of a Ghanaian National Express) we thought we'd be back in Kumasi in next to no time, in airconditioned luxury, but not quite!
We turned up at 5am, an hour before departure as requested, but the coach left on Ghanaian time, an hour late at 7, we then drove for 5 minutes to the STC depot outside of Tamale, and everyone had to get off for 2 hours while they fixed the coach! Only in Ghana. We finally arrived into Kumasi about 5pm, and promptly drove into a van infront of us in a queue of traffic, luckily we were only going slowly so we only waited about half an hour, by that point I had officially lost the will to live. Its fair to say I slept well that night.

We then went to Accra to meet Becky, whose ankle was much better, and we headed east to the Volta region, as I'm sure you all know, Lake Volta is the largest artificial lake in the world, its held back by the Akosombo dam, and produces power for Ghana and a few other countries, unfortunately the dam levels are too low at the moment, so we have lights out at least every other day, its not too bad until you have to try and sleep without a fan, then it gets annoying.
We stayed a night at a place called Atimpoku, which is really beautiful, the whole region is, at a nice resort called Aylo's Bay, but unfortunately Sarah had the shrimp there, and got food poisoning, which meant the last few days weren't very fun for her. Becky and I went to Akosombo briefly to see the dam, and then we all went north again to a village called Wli, which is home to the largest water fall in West Africa, it is stunning, its the polar opposite of all the hustle and hassle of Accra, and the best thing is, the water is really cold!
Its about 40 minutes walk into a nature reserve right on the border with Togo, so you really feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, we stayed at a lodge there for a few nights, and then spent a day travelling back to Cape Coast because Sarah had to get home.
We were going to spend a the last few nights on the beach somewhere between Accra and Cape Coast, but we can go there anytime, Sarah is feeling a bit perkier now, and eating again which is good!

It was great to see more of Ghana, but it's nice to be back in Cape Coast, and I'm looking forward to getting back to work, especially seeing the kids again (but that feeling will wear off after 5 minutes teaching!), Becky is heading back to the UK next week which will be sad, but the week after that Freddie (who's been out here before for 3 months) and Graham are coming to join us which will be cool. We've got about 2 months left, which will go pretty quickly, and there is still loads to do, so we'll be busy.

I've just re-read this entry, and I realise it involves 3 people getting quite ill over a matter of a few weeks, but try not to worry about me too much! I'm convinced I'll get malaria at some point, so keep reading this page to find out if I survive! (Only joking Mum, I'll only be ill for a day or two if I get it, honest)
I hope you're all well, and enjoying the weather there, last thing I heard it was snowing, and now its 25 degrees!?

PS - Thanks to Dave for putting the last entry on for me, its funny but I don't remember putting that last line on there! I'm not sure about financial rewards, but I'll definately buy you a pint, thanks for putting all the photos on too.

This blog entry isn't going to be quite as exciting as the last one I'm afraid, but it'll still be pretty damn good, so don't stop reading now!
Over the last few weeks, my football training sessions have really taken off, I didn't realise quite how much impact a guy turning up with a few footballs could have, but we've been regularly getting 100 boys from the village turn up and wanting to train, its been amazing, but it was quite overwhelming when I only had John to help me train, and 2 footballs!
Luckily, I also met a few English guys from Abura, the next village down a few weeks ago, called Walley and Dave, they're working in a school there, but have some free time in the afternoons, so they've agreed to help me out with it. I've also recruited Rex, a guy who works at the centre sometimes, and actually has a football coaching qualification, which is alot more than me!
So things have gone from being complete chaos to actually being kind of organised now, we've split the boys into U15's and U12's, they each have 2 sessions a week, 2 of which I run with Dave, Walley and John, and 2 with Rex and some other locals from the village, so it won't be long until we uncover the next Michael Essien, and when we do I'll definately want a cut of his wages.
I've also written some letters with photos to companies in the UK, asking if they'd like to donate any old kits/boots/coaching equipment, because we badly need some stuff, so if anyone has any bright ideas, feel free to email me!
On Sunday I went to see Asante Kotoko, one of the biggest football clubs in Ghana, it was scorching hot, I went with Charlie, Becky and some of the guys. The atmosphere was really good for a small stadium, lots of drumming and dancing, especially from a crazy guy dressed up as a witch doctor, who took a big interest in me, and tried to sell my one of his homemade cassettes, he's obviously a multi-talented guy, but I politely declined! Charlie and Becky left at half time, because of the heat, so for the second half I was officially the only white guy in the stadium.
Kotoko had lots of chances, but missed them all, and a penalty, and then in the last few minutes RTU (I'm sure you all know stands for Real Tamale United, but just incase you don't here you go) snatched a winner, so Kotoko lost 1-0 :( Not good for my first game watching my adopted Ghanaian team, oh well.

Anyway, I do have some non-football related news too, so here it is, school has been fine, I'm determined to get the kids in my class reading before I go, but its not easy when they don't have books at home to practice with, luckily Charlie bought a load of books for them to read in class, which are amazing, because they're actually quiet for 10 minutes! With the help of Sarah and Charlie I've got some of the brighter ones working out 'proper' sums in Maths, and even carrying the 1!
On Monday, we took the whole class back to our house for a little party as it was one of Charlie's last days, the kids all drank Fanta and had biscuits and lollies, and danced around to Robbie Williams and Michael Jackson (thanks for the balloons Mum), it was hilarious, they all had a great time, mostly because they were all on a sugar rush, but hey.

Yesterday morning Charlie left for Accra, and she flies home tonight, sob, she has been such a huge help in so many ways since we got here, so we're all going to miss her alot :(
She had a really fun last few days though, she got away without having a huge leaving do, involving half the village and the elders, and the dress she was given actually fit her really well, so she was very lucky!

Sarah is officially too lazy to write her own blog, apparently she is just linking people to this page, so I feel like I should put in a Sarah related paragraph just for her friends and family!
Since we arrived gin sales around the Cape Coast area have risen sharply, but when she's not trying to explain 'tonic water' to a barman, she does work really hard, and is really good at disciplining the kids! We're moulding breeze blocks in the afternoons now, which is hard work but we have a pretty good system set up, it is quite annoying though when we make a load, and come back the next day to find a goat has walked over some of them and broken them! As you can see, work problems here are slightly different to the UK.

We don't work all the time though, as much as we'd like you all to think this, at the weekends if we want a break we can go to a local tourist resort and pay to use their pool for the day, it costs about 2 quid, and is well worth it. Last weekend we went to a place called Coconut Grove, John Prescott stayed there a few weeks ago, luckily he'd gone by the time we went, I didn't really want to see Two Jags wondering around in Speedo's, scratching himself!

Anyway I have to go, this is the second time I've written this, I wrote it last night, and just as I was about to publish it, the power went out! Good old Ghana.
Next week is the 50th anniversary of Ghana's Independance, and we have a few days holiday, so tune in next time to find out what crazy shenanigans we get up to! Hugs and kisses.

Hey,
I have an action packed blog entry for all of you this  time, in the last 10 days I've been to a Ghanaian hospital, and the local police station twice so I'm hoping its going to read like a soap opera!
The sunday before last I went with Charlie to watch the Man Utd v Spurs game in a spot in town, Charlie had been having headaches for a few days, but didn't feel too bad, but we left early because she felt a bit sick, when we go home she was having hot and cold spells, and by 10'o'clock she knocked on my door asking me to go to the hospital with her.
So we hopped in a taxi, she knew where it was (from the time she fell in the cess pit!) luckily, the hospital was better than I expected, it wasn't partcularly hygienic though, the staff there seemed quite annoyed that they actually had to do something, and if they had to walk anywhere, did so incredibly slowly, but after about a half hour wait the nurse looked at Charlie, it was just in time because she'd started shaking, we knew it was malaria,  its really common over here, but its fine if you catch it early, she was hooked up to a drip, and I stayed the night with her there, the bed next to hers was free, and the room was a nice temperature, so I did get some sleep! In the morning, I was woken by a Ghanaian nurse tapping me on the foot and telling me to wait in the corridor, which is something you can't say everyday I guess, they changed her drip on to a new one, which she downed in about an hour, pretty good going I reckon, and we left after paying, the treatment cost about 15 quid, and we probably payed alot more than a local would.
Even though she hadn't been feeling great, it was quite scary how quickly she got really ill, since then she went to the Pharmacist we know in town, who gave her one of her magical injections, and she felt fine a day later!

Now for my visits to see the boys in blue (well, in black here), basically, my mp3 player went missing from my room, when my room was locked, and so was the flat, Ghana is normally really safe, and there is almost no crime, but a few weeks ago Charlie's CD walkman walked from her room too.
So as soon as this went missing, Lawrence, who is our boss at CEJOCEP came over to talk to our landlady, (who is really strange by all accounts), and because she has keys to all our rooms, we thought it must be something to do with her, we went to the police that evening, and I gave a statement, , which she was not happy about, but it did the trick, because the next morning, my mp3 player was on the side in my room! For a split second I thought I'd been a complete idiot, but the I saw it was really close to the window, and it was slightly open, so whoever pinched it had obviously done so through the window, there are bars on the inside, but it slides open easily, so they must have used something to grab it and pull it out.
So when it turned up I went back to the police station to let them know, I spoke to a very helpful Detective who came round to have a look at the house, I'm pretty sure that just because he came over to speak to some of the locals who live there will put off whoever did it from doing anything else. Lawrence and the landlady are very keen to catch the person though, and went to see a fetish priest at the shrine, they seriously believe that in 2 weeks whoever did it will come forward and confess, or 'bad things' will happen to them, so my next blog entry could be even more exciting!!

Apart from that excitement, I've started coaching local kids in the village football, as well as boys from CEJOCEP school, I made a form for them to fill out to register, made 60 copies, and these all went in the first training session! So many boys turned up, we've got about 80 signed up now, with 2 footballs, 2 coaches (me and John, a friend of mine who also teaches at CEJOCEP) and one pitch, which isn't ours, to entertain them, so its interesting, but they seem to enjoy it.

Hopefully this weekend we're going to see a big football game in town, with one of the biggest teams here, Asante Kotoko playing. They're playing in Cape Coast alot at the moment, because the stadiums in Accra and Kumasi are being renovated for next years African nations, it should be an amazing atmosphere, I'll try and get some photos to put on here sometime.
The President of Ghana, John Kuffour, also swept past the taxi we were in last week, because he was visiting the area, it was an amazing sight, it was a huge motorcade basically going down the middle of the road at about 70mph, and everyone else has to get out the way quick! I wasn't completely sure, but I looked at the tinted glass of his 4x4 as it went past, and I think he was waving at me, I can't be sure though :)

I hope all is well in the UK, and its not snowing too much!

Hi Dan fans,
This is my second attempt at writing this entry, I tried last night, but after I'd been typing for half an hour solid there was a power cut and I lost everything! Luckily I'd had the afternoon relaxing by a pool in a hotel nearby or I'd probably had just gone crazy.
Anyway, so much has happened since my last entry, Russ, Laura and Francesca have left for the other project near Kumasi, and Sarah, Becky and I started our work properly at CEJOCEP last Monday.
Our basic day is teaching between 8 and 2, then we do some work between 4 and 6, which at the moment is carrying big pans of earth from the cesspit digging on our heads (everything in Ghana is carried this way, TV's, sewing machines, the lot), I really enjoy the work, I think its quite therapeutic, the pit is almost finished, and I think afterwards plastering the walls is going to begin.
I was helping Charlie in her class KG2 (Kindergarden 2) last week, and this week I have basically taken it over from Charlie, but luckily I'm going to be helped out by Charlie (for the next 4 weeks, then she leaves), Sarah and Becky, it is so much easier having 2 people teaching, you can get alot more done, and it helps for things like Maths because the kids have such a range of abilities.
The ages are between 4 and 8, and most of the kids are pretty bright, we've been doing the 5 times table, 'What I want to do when I grow up' (which I can't answer, so I don't know how I expect them to!), and lots of other fun, high level stuff!
There are about 15-20 in the class normally, they have the best names, Theophilus, Van Dyke, Francis Kwasi Sam, Jocelyn to name a few, the biggest trouble maker is Tony, who btw is the spitting image of American comedian Gary Coleman (Google him, its uncanny).
I'm getting alot better at keeping them in line too, its not very easy when they know I won't cane them, whereas the Ghanaian teachers will, its a shame, but its part of the culture here.
Sarah and Charlie have been bravely battling with the nursery class, who are between 2 and 5, they're in school for 6 hours a day, which is too long really, most of them can't speak any English, and don't know their own names, but they're hoping to buy some toys for them next weekend to help them out a bit. Becky has been starting to teach some of the older kids French, which is the language in a few of the countries around Ghana, so thats useful.

I've also been taking some of the kids for football training, and we had our first game against a big local school last Friday, it was a huge event, loads of their school turned out to support and there was drumming and singing, after every goal there was a mass pitch invasion too! Our players were a bit imtimidated by it all bless them, so they immediately ignored their training, and ran around in a group aimlessly kicking the ball, so we lost 3-1, it was a really fun day, and we're going to have lots more games.
I've just come from some more football training actually, this time for kids from the community, most of them are between 9 and 15, so we're hoping to get them into teams and play some of the local villages too, they're pretty good, its good for them to have a focus, but we're trying to enforce a rule where they can only play if they go to school regularly, boring I know, but hey.

Outside of work, I've been to a few more spots around town, Milner left last week which was a shame and we're missing her conversations, and also her amazing haggling skills, sometimes I almost felt sorry for the taxi drivers trying to rip us off!
I'm still working on the photos, its seriously annoying, but the internet is so unreliable uploading photos it is almost impossible.
I hope you're all well, and its not snowing too hard :) It's now seriously hot here, and is gonna stay this way for a couple of months until the rainy season, if you wanna see how hot it is, its about the same as Accra, so have a look on the BBC site.
Cheerio, from a slightly sunburnt, and seriously mosquito bitten Dan.