Miss Molly had a dolly who was sick, sick, sick

My apologies again for not updating too regularly but I've been a bit sick and there hasn't been much to report on. I've had a really bad flu for the past week and took yesterday off placement and went to the doctors today.(Alisha joined me as she has also developed a nasty cough and she thought if it was going to turn into what I have that she should make sure it isn't anything serious, neither of us should have bothered in hindsight.) This you would think is a fairly straight forward process and you would therefore be wrong. We had to go to a doctor in Ho which is an hour and a half away since going to the Hohoe hospital requires a death wish and you'll more than likely come out worst off then before you went in there. We were assured that the doctors that we were going to was modern and westernised .... umm not quite. So after we arrive we sit in the open waiting room that has MANY people in it. There are of course, no appointments. So after maybe half an hour we get our temperature taken (administered under the arm) and our blood pressure taken, this of course is being done in the middle of the waiting area. So then we sit and wait for another 2 and a half hours before our names are called, 'MISSUS DOROTHY JAMIE' umm nice try but not quite right sport. So we then go and get to sit for another 30 minutes in a corridor outside the doctors office. So I go in and get asked the standard what's wrong questions. He then takes a torch tells me to stick my tongue out feels my sinuses and tells me he think I just have a virus but since I have a fever and swollen tonscils that I need a malaria test. Well that's ... hopeful. So I go to the 'laboratory' where I've convinced myself unless I see them unwrap the needle in front of my eyes there is no way I am having blood drawn in Africa, I'll just take my chances with the malaria. Turns out they just use a disposable plastic thing with a needle at the end to stick my thumb, which kinda hurt !! So we were told to sit outside again, which we did with a professional air of people who have sat in that waiting room before. The lab technician then came out and told me to follow him and gave my card to the Doctor and you guessed it told me to have a seat and wait. So I kinda start thinking that maybe I have malaria which would kinda suck especially since I spent so much bloody money on malaria tablets. Turns out the test was negative and just have a bad virus and can only take pain killers to deal with it so I'm hoping it will piss off soon since it's been a week already.

Alisha and I waiting for my malaria results

The doctors waiting room, just before we left so it was relatively empty, the table in front is where you go to get your temperature and blood pressure taken

This week we celebrated Chelsie's birthday by eating grasscutter, a large beaver like rodent, and going outside in our rainjackets since none of us had used them at all and well it was raining and the lightning was so pretty... You have to get creative when having fun in Ghana but it's fun all the same !!! Me eating a rodent... YUMMMM

Pretty sure the rain had stopped at this point but we refused to take our raincoats off

This weekend just gone we (Alisha & Lindsay) ended up going to happy kids to paint the benches and clean aka disinfect our classroom since at least 3 kids pee in there everyday just while we're there and this is the same room that the kids who live there have to sleep. Poor babies. So that went down a treat and the benches look so colourful although I'm sure there are parents cursing us since more than one kid had to touch the paint and then it got on their clothes and this is oil based paint in which we have to douse ourselves with turpentine to get the crap off our skin. We also had the arduous task of having to cook for ourselves which usually wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that there is no supermarket to get any supplies which is fine there was rice and chicken to cook. The utensils and cookware are ancient and not even level when you set them on the stove and everything takes twice as long to make. So we were cooking for us and a couple of staff members on Friday night. Dinner was meant to be ready at 6pm we finished cooking at around 7:30pm which meant all the staff had gone home hungry since we didn't have dinner ready in time. To be fair we only knew we were cooking at 5:45pm but still we felt a bit bad. BUT the end result was pretty good, stir fry chicken with rice and pineapple of course. Then laid around for the rest of the weekend feeling sorry for myself because I felt so rotten and I didn't even have good food or TV to distract me from feeling like crap and reading when you've had a major headache for days on end isn't very tempting. Alisha and Lindsay went to church on Sunday at 6:30am which I couldn't even imagine sitting through especially since it was catholic mass so it wasn't even a "Ghanaian church" experience but they already told our taxi driver Godwin that they would go with him. And Dela our transport coordinator went as well so they enjoyed it. Godwin is our taxi driver most days to happy kids since the CCS bus broke down about 5 weeks ago now and we have meant to get it back every week since then to no avail. Anyway we mainly communicate with Godwin through 'baaa baaa'ing. Jamee from New York started it and since then everyone now talks to Godwin that way which seems to amuse us all and him for that matter. We always try and get him to baa at us but he wont. This are the kind of things we have resorted to since there really isn't much else to do, although I'm not sure we would've have done it anyway. The reason for the constant "baaaa"ing is that there are goats and sheep EVERYWHERE. They are always walking down the middle of the main road minding their business. They actually belong to people which amazes me and they just let them roam around and apparently they know where their houses are so they always go back eventually like homing pigeons or something. Really random and the amount of times we've almost hit one of these creatures is a daily occurrence.

Lindsay and Alisha with our amazing home cooked meal

Painting at happy kids

Cynthia with her face in a bowl after she got soap in her eye and we were trying to help her get it out clearly we weren't acting fast enough

She then got revenge on the soap by rubbing it all over herself

Painted benches in pretty colours, well the only colours we had anyways and better than poo brown in my opinion

So the week before I also stayed back at home base which I actually don't mind it's kinda relaxing although makes for some boring blog posts =) BUT we did make banana pancakes from a pancake mixture we picked up in Accra. SO EXCITING!!!! I was the cook, I have no idea how that happened, and the pancakes didn't look very pretty mostly due to the fact that the pan wasn't non stick and we didn't want to use bucket loads of oil but they tasted very nice. And we listened to Banana pancakes by Jack Johnson so all in all an awesome weekend. We also got another batch of volunteers so they house is brimming at the moment. I don't really like it. You always miss out on food, you put your water bottle down to mark your place at the table while you get your food only for someone to look at it, move it and sit their ass down on YOUR seat and when you want to read on the couch there are always people sprawled out on them so you can't. I'm not sure if there aware of the fact that I'm the Queen mother around here and therfore they should all fall to their knees in my very presence. (The Queen Mother here is like the women elder of the village who is basically the boss).
Also staying back this weekend to go to happy kids and make them a swing which could be great or a disaster. But I figure they give them razors to eat with and machete's etc that a swing really can't be too bad, right?

Making banana pancakes, pretending it's the weekend

The delicious results !

Happy kids are happy as always. Still having absolutely no progress in teaching them the difference between the colours blue and green. We are only trying to teach them these two colours and when after showing them green then pointing to something green and asking what colour is it with them replying COLOUR YELLOW ... who they hell mentioned yellow there buddy?!?!?! So we've decided that all are kids are colour blind and it is no way our fault that we can't teach them colours. We also had to teach them outside on the broken down playground equipment since they were using our classroom to sew a canvas ... uhh thanks Elizabeth. You see Elizabeth also rents our plastic chair's and canvas' so that apparently take priority over the kids. But other than that it's been good, crazy as ever especially those days where they all decide that none of them will listen to us and that they want to kill each other, which on those days we usually just let them. One day I put four boys in time out since none of them would listen to me and they thought they were being funny by standing up when all I required of them was to sit down (they weren't laughing as I was lifting them out of the classroom) so after a few minutes I go back outside to tell them to come back in only to find that they were all MIA. I asked Alisha if she had seen my kids as she was taking the older kids that day but to no avail. HUH. Turned out they all had to go to the toilet at the same time ... whatever, they all behaved for the rest of the day since they knew teasher wasn't messing around. Teasher how they all call me or Yevu. Only a couple of them know my name but on Monday I got them all chanting my name which I'm sure they've forgotten by now which I don't mind coz it makes me laugh every time they say 'teasher'.OOOHHHH HAPPY KIDS. I only have just over 2 weeks left and I can't even imagine leaving them so I've decided not to think about it and hopefully I wont fall to pieces when the time comes. Arrrggghhhh. It's fine, i'll be fine I'll just work with denial.

Esenam, Me and Enyonam

Harriet doing her best 80's work out impression

My homeboy Caleb

Fafali!!!

Caleb sleeping in a classroom full of screaming kids, these kids can sleep anywhere i'm so jealous!

See you all soon, Love Jamie xoxo

Sorry Yo, Sorry for you

The above is my apologies for not updating this sooner. It is also a saying frequently heard in Ghana and a lot at happy kids. If you hurt yourself people will say sorry for you as a way of comforting/asking are you OK. At happy kids though you usually see one kid push another to the floor and then when they start crying look at them and say sorry yo, sorry for you. Ummmmm I don't think that entirely appropriate if your the one that inflicted the pain onto the fallen comrade. OH HAPPY KIDS

Anyways since last update there is now a house full of people instead of the pathetic 2 that we had for a week. There all from either Canada and USA. Everyone is pretty chilled and there are two other volunteers at happy kids, Alisha and Jamee. Jamee is in charge of the older kids and Alisha and I try our best to entertain the little ones, which is harder than it seems mostly because none of them speak English and when we try to get them to sit down and be quite they never listen to us so although on the most part they're pretty good kids when they want to play up it's absolute mayhem then Elizabeth (the lady in charge of happy kids) sticks her head round the corner and says 'quiet OOOKKKKK'in which the kids reply 'OOOKKK' and some order is restored, for a minute. It also doesn't help that there's no materials so were trying to get creative. We've made fans, hats, paper planes and Jamee's class did outline's of the kids and they coloured them in which was so funny to watch them all laying down being traced around, they thought it was the best thing ever. This Friday we're having a party at happy kids coz it's Jamee's last day and we're going to bring in a cake and play pin the tale on the donkey, bob for apples and more so I can't wait to see how that goes since they have no concept of parties at all.

Last weekend we went to Lake Volta which was the second time for me but we stayed at a pretty decent hotel by Ghana standards and every morning we woke up and had our breakfast while on a boat riding around Lake Volta... from experience I can see it's one of the few ways you should ever eat breakfast. A feeling of absolute contentment. We also went to the Cedi bead factory where you can see how all the beads here are made which was really interesting to see. It take's a lot of effort and it's all hand made it's ridiculous how cheap it is to buy them, so I bought a lot !!! On the Saturday we went to a 'club' which was an experience... I wasn't feeling too great as it was and then walking into the club we became the main attraction with the novelty wearing off after... well it was never a novelty but every time you tried to dance you had people surrounding you from every angle so I was quite happiest we were only there a couple of hours.

Lake Volta

Breakfast on the boat

(Lindsay, Emma, Libby & Dana)

After the club 'experience'

(Dana, Lindsay, Jamie, Alishia, Jamee, Mary, Emma)

Then this weekend we went down to cape coast which is about 6-8hrs away depending on traffic (about 8.5 to get down there, there was a lot of sitting in traffic but we did find a garage station that sold diet coke, ice cream and proper chocolate so we were all in heaven since these are rare commodities.) So we went to the hotel we had booked for and there was no room ... apparently we told them that we wanted to stay there Saturday. Sunday, Monday ... ummm no. So we all had to traipse to another hotel after almost 9 hours of driving which I was not impressed about but also not surprised in the least bit that it happened. So the next day we went back to the original hotel and I negotiated a good deal and we snuck one extra person in so we got our own back. Although not for the first time one of the hotel staff asked me to take them back to Australia. I'm not sure why they ask and waste their breath, do they honestly think that I'll turn around say OK here's my credit card grab yourself a plane ticket and I'll meet ya there. Same goes for the countless marriage proposals, one day I want to turn around and say OK and see what happens.


Anyway so on Saturday we went to the Kakum national park where we went on a canopy walk which is a walk 40metres off the ground consisting of some wooden planks and rope. Absolutely stunning! We then we to Elmina castle which is one of the oldest if not the oldest slave castle in the world. Walking in is a little annoying because you get mobbed by people wanting to sell you shit since it's so touristy. One guy asked for Alishia what her name was and she told him. So after we got out he gave her a shell with her name on it and a little message. Then asked her to 'donate' some money for his 'soccer school' which she did just to shut him up and get him to go away. Turns out this guy has robbed tourists yanked camera's from people's necks, bashed people up and robbed them and been in jail so in retrospect it was good that some money was exchanged. Back to the castle. It was beautiful which is ludicrous for all the atrocities that happened there. When you walk into the area's where the slaves were kept you can still feel the heaviness of the energy there. There was one room which was a punishment room if the slaves were misbehaving. They put as many slaves as needed to be punished into this small room and wouldn't open the door until everyone of them had died so you could be the last one alive with 5-10 dead bodies surrounding you until you yourself gave up and died. There was also the governor's balcony were he stood and made all the female slaves come out and he would pick out which one he wanted to rape. It's crazy to think there was a time where this behaviour was ever acceptable. Finally there was the door of no return where all the slaves were lead out of onto all the slave ships, no slave that ever went through that door stayed in Africa.

Kakum national park canopy walk

Canopy Walk

Elmina Castle

Elmina Castle

Punishment Room

Coconut grove beach (2nd hotel) @ Cape Coast

So after a heavy day we went back to the hotel which was on the beach and played in the waves until after it was dark. Although the beach isn't as nice as the ones back home it still did the trick. We then went to have dinner and decided we'd just have pancake's for dinner. They were finished ... In Ghana you need to pick a top 5 things that you would like to eat because in most cases the menu isn't actually what they have just a general idea. And when they don't have something they say it's finished giving the illusion that at some stage they had it, which usually isn't the case and if it is they finished serving it several months ago. Then on Sunday we laid around the pool, got tanned, went in the ocean and generally relaxed which again was lovely. So today is Monday and we in the van about an hour and a half away from home. We stopped at a shopping centre in Accra which was the weirdest experience. It was so western, the only place i've been to where you could forget for a second that you were in Ghana. Stocked up on some diet coke, got some pancake mix and ate pizza for lunch mmmmmmmm.

So plans for this week are our big party on Friday then some new volunteers are coming again. It's so strange the time of concept here is totally off. It feels like the new volunteers only just arrived but at the same time it feels like they've always been here .... really hard to explain.
Oh on a quick note we seem to be making a little progress at happy kids. We are going to start implementing some hygiene into it. Buckets to wash their hands, designated pee area's, not just on the dirt floor where the classroom is. Although I would love to try and get some order in the schooling aspect of it (and I think I'll go in with a translator,Elizabeth barely understands English, and do a few information sessions with Elizabeth) it will take months to start implementing anything that is sustainable but hopefully we can start it and other volunteers will be able to continue on with it. It just kind of baffles me why parents send their kids their because it's in essence a private school and there are public schools in Ghana which are much better equipped. It confuses me and seems ridiculous but so does a lot of things over here so I've been resigned to the ridiculousness found in most situations from transportation to education and medical care.

Caleb

Happy Kids in homemade hats, h, h, h.

Pirate Cynthia, known to gouge eyes, bite and even pinch friends and foes alike

Love Jamie xoxo

Photo's finally !

Ok here is a random collection of photo's in the last couple of weeks. Mostly of the kids a couple of my little vacation but in no particular order since it was a massive deal just to download them but I hope you enjoy.

My baby Cynthia sleeping

Harriet

Our taxi in a ditch notice the driver's t-shirt: "moving on up" not quite mate

You think it looks bad imagine the smell... the toilet at the Tamale tro tro station

Busted up tro tro that nearly exploded and collasped

Turkey and little deer in the 'zoo' at the hotel ???

Move over ranger Stacey!!!

Prince, Issac, Precious and I

Precious and I

Peter and Paul

Pee leg... thanks Cynthia

Paul with his massive bellybutton

Me painting at happy kids

Melodie with her pot bandana

Junior and I with a snotty nose and a grazed nose since he continually falls over and fails to put his hands down.

Junior after been given a texta, apparently he didn't like drawing on the paper as much as himself.

Junior crying which he usually does in the morning but for some reason is always in a fabulous mood in the afternoon's singing to me and everything.

Enyonam

Enyonam

Elikplim/Gollum/Vampire boy

Elephant at Mole National Park (Mol-ay)

Elephant at Mole giving him/herself a rock shower

Cynthia

Caleb

Caleb

Call me crocodile Dundee

Enyonam & Cynthia, they have a love hate relationship this is a rare moment where there not beating on each other

Caleb sleeping

Caleb

This is the wanted photo that will be circulated when I kidnap Caleb

Moda after a bath

Cynthia in a 'mood'

Love Jamie xoxo