Internet woes...

Week 5

Things on the internet never run smoothly here!

The blog is in need of updating, but each web page can take 20 minutes to load or the whole thing can log you out when you have just written an entire essay. It's very frustrating, so please bear with me and ignore any dates on the blog - they are almost always inaccurate. (I miss broadband!)
Like everything else it's a learning curve or something!!!

Apart from the internet though -

This week has been great for muscle building! We have been moulding more blocks and sweating tremendously while digging the foundations for the toilet block.
It is quite gross the colour of the dust and sweat all mixed together!! Haha! I have big boots that fill with hunks of mud as well, so all my socks are brown coloured! Truly gross!

The children are getting used to us now. We have a class of 20 at the moment, (although more keep coming!)and just like any good nursery we've been encouraging the sing songs as often as possible.

The biggest characters so far have to be a 4 year old called Francis (who obviously watches his father's action films as he comes pegging across the dust doing karate kicks, and quite often gets the girls in headlocks) Joseph, who is 5 or 6 and makes the funniest faces when he doesn't know the answer to our question (said question being something like "where is 'B'?") and a very beautiful but very vaccant girl called Fatti.

The teaching is not physically hard, but it is so mentally demanding, and you spend so much of the lessons willing with all your might that they can just get from 1-10, that it is clear that I have wronged all my past teachers when I was a student myself!! (I was the one always talking at the back - now I know how annoying that can be - sorry!!)

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This weekend we went to went to a place called Busua on the west coast of Ghana, about 45 minutes from Takoradi by Tro-tro.
We met Matt and Debbi there for the first time since the induction course. It was a good time for catching up on the current projects and people we have been meeting.

Busua is breathtaking! I don't want to go on like the Ghana Tourist board or something, but this place had (unlike many) a completely pristine beach, water safe to swim in, and plenty of nice places to eat and drink. (We chose a French owned Restaurant in the evening, which to Caroline and Debbi's delight sold the much missed bottles of wine!) We spent a lovely relaxing saturday sunbathing, strolling and filling up on fresh Mango, Banana and Pineapple juice! Lovely!

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From the sounds of it, Matt and Debbi are not having the easiest of times in Bawdia though. I am hoping they will be able to explain more at a later date, but with the Power cutting out twice a day, and water running out (despite heavy rains) its making things a little unpleasant to say the least.

The children are between the ages of 11 and 17 in Matt and Debbi's classes, and the number of them who are unresponsive is making teaching a bit of a headache. Also things with the local welder have not gone exactly to plan, as he took it on himself to change the design they wanted and use up all their metal, creating the wrong shapes for the windows.

However all is not lost yet, and the good news about the computers for the Library are waiting in Accra to be brought by the lovely Charles to Bawdia, so the first stage will soon be complete. The Football is in full swing at the school too, and Debbi's girls are going to give Matt's boys a run for their money! Ha! Go on Debbi - show them how it's done!

(written by Lucie)