Hello everyone Happy Late Holidays to everyone. Hope Christmas was good and everyone partied hard on new years!
For Christmas Joe and I decided to stay with the family. So we went to our hosts hometown saw where he grew up, and met the rest of the family. It was nice wasn't much of a christmas spirit but it was a good couple days. There were a couple of mini stick games played in the compound and everyone even the adults had fun playing with them. Christmas dinner was much different from was we are used to. First of all I'd say our meat was pretty fresh. That morning around 11:00 the goat was slaughtered and was being cooked by 3:00. We all ate of the floor, we ate rice balls with groundnut soup which is the best thing in the world. We shared a plate between two or three of us EATING WITH OUR HANDS! (which i have come very good at doing). It was alot of fun being with the family but we parted ways to meet with our friends on boxing day.
After a VERY long and VERY painful ride we finally ended up in Mole. ( when i say long i mean 14 hours). But man was it worth it. The hotel has a pool and the pool is overlooking 2 huge watering holes that are down this cliff. There is a viewing area where you can sit and just look to the horizon and watch the animals. Animals that were seen and seen often included antelope,warthog(PUMBA!),crocodiles,many kinds of exotic birds,ELEPHANTS and various types of monkeys. The baboons in particular were not shy or scared there would be an incident or two a day where a baboon would come to the pool deck and cause havoc. On seperate occasions one stole a little girls fanta from here, and then another stole a ketchup bottle. it was so funny watching the baboon try to get the ketchup out.
We did various activities like going on safari walks which lasted up to a couple of hours. We also went on an over night camp IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AFRICAN PLAINS!! it was an awsome experience, we had to hike 2 and a half hours to the place. However i will say it was the coldest and most uncomfortable sleep ive ever had. we had tents but that was it we used our backpacks as pillows, but it was very fun. And yes it is true its gets VERY cold! in the African desert at night.
News years day an elephant was spotted near one of the watering holes so we hired a guide and he took us down to see the elephant and take pictures of it and stuff. I was in heaven it was so cool! we must have been about 50 feet away. FROM A WILD ELEPHANT! it was amazing and something i will remember for the rest of my life. Hope everyones holidays went smoothly and as planned.
Later Days.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Sacred Heart Computer Lab.
I would like to take this time and thank all the people and all the groups who donated various sums of money to our computer lab project. It means the world to me to have this project completed. With your help and along with help from the U.K we were able to raise around $2,500 to start and complete the job with an incredible $1,600 coming from Nelson. The total exceeded my expectations tremendously as we were able to buy 6 computers and a printer with that money. I think i can speak on the schools behalf and say thank you for them aswell.
We got back from Accra late at night so we installed the computer early the next morning before school. The faces not only on the children but on the teachers was priceless and those faces reminded me why we were doing this. The children cannot stop talkin about the room and always hang around it. We are having a grand opening of the room on December 19th. At the opening the chief of the Town will come and commission the room, so that will be a fun and exciting opportunity. Computer classes will begin right away when school resumes on January 5th. Once again Thank you to everyone who contributed and i can assure you that your money went to a very, very good cause.
We got back from Accra late at night so we installed the computer early the next morning before school. The faces not only on the children but on the teachers was priceless and those faces reminded me why we were doing this. The children cannot stop talkin about the room and always hang around it. We are having a grand opening of the room on December 19th. At the opening the chief of the Town will come and commission the room, so that will be a fun and exciting opportunity. Computer classes will begin right away when school resumes on January 5th. Once again Thank you to everyone who contributed and i can assure you that your money went to a very, very good cause.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Little Taste Of Paradise.
During the week can get very tiring as we usually are quite busy between teaching, playing with the kids, coaching football and doing lesson plans during the nights. So when the week is over we like to sometimes just get away and relax.......and Boy do we know how to relax. This past weekend we stayed at a resort called Hideout Lodge and man was it beautiful. just relaxing on the beach sippin pina colodas sitting in a hammock looking straight at the ocean. Also i tried fresh caught that morning red snapper and baracuda. Joe also had fresh caught that morning lobster as well. YUM!!!!!! This is the place we are going to spend christmas at. Near there they offer body board rentals, surfing lesson and i read somewhere we can go fishing, in The atlantic ocean! in gonna hit that up. Kev i know your jelous!! and i will think of you when i bring in the 15ft shark,haha. here is the website www.hideoutlodge.com and you can see how bad we suffer.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
New Loves Found In Ghana!!!!
1) Red Red (fried platane and beans the most delicious thing in the world)
2) Hard Boiled Eggs ( yeah i dunno all of a sudden cant go a day without eating one, especially with the yummy spicy pepper sauce they put on it)
3) Stone Beer (why it is not sold in Canada is beyond me, this is the best beer ive ever tried)
4) Getting up in the mornings ( i dont know if i like it but i usually get up between 5 and 6 depending on the day)
4) Plantane Crisps (OMG!!!!!!!!)
5) Air Conditioning (Its really amazing its a machine that puts cold air into a room!!)
6)Seshi Water (Drinking water will never be the same again, i dunno if i can go back to a cup)
2) Hard Boiled Eggs ( yeah i dunno all of a sudden cant go a day without eating one, especially with the yummy spicy pepper sauce they put on it)
3) Stone Beer (why it is not sold in Canada is beyond me, this is the best beer ive ever tried)
4) Getting up in the mornings ( i dont know if i like it but i usually get up between 5 and 6 depending on the day)
4) Plantane Crisps (OMG!!!!!!!!)
5) Air Conditioning (Its really amazing its a machine that puts cold air into a room!!)
6)Seshi Water (Drinking water will never be the same again, i dunno if i can go back to a cup)
Saturday, October 18, 2008
AKWAABA (welcome) TO GHANA!
Hello Everyone!! i am terribly sorry i havent written sooner ive just been so busy i havent been able to sit down at a computer for a long period.
Well as winter is approaching in Canada the weather is only getting hotter here! poor me (suckers) lol. This country is very beautiful outside of the big cities all you can see is just green lush forest for miles and miles it is a site to see.
So ACCRA!!! what a city, thats where we stayed for the first week for our orientation and it is by far the busiest and biggest city ive ever been in. Everyone goes off saying how the trving in Vancouver is crazy well they would get eaten alive with the driving not just in Accra but in Ghana. the rule of the road in ghana are: 1) there arent any rules 2) make sure your horn works. cause if your horn doesnt work then your hoooped!!I think my time here ive only seen maybe 1 or 2 sets of traffic lights, so what does that tell you? While we were in Accra we were taking teaching courses at a universtiy, supirisingly a nice university at that. Accra for me is much to busy and much to big, when we left it took us nearly 2.5 hours to leave the city!!! the one big plus in Accra if you want to go shooping all you have to do is go for a drive, you dont even need to get out of your vehicle to purchase anyting!! when your car or tro tro (hippy van type thing) stops your vehicle is surrounded by people trying to sell you stuff and it is anything for food to calculators to footballs to clothes, and of course me being white for some reason you get extra special attention.
Joe and I live in a town called Akim Achiase, its a beautiful little town in the eastern region about and hour and a half from the coast. We live with our headmaster who is the nicest man in the world i could not have asked for a better host. where we live there is no running water and the power tends to go out about once a day. for showering we used a bucket and we have a very nice pit to use for going to the bathroom. we must collect water since there is no water pumped to the house, but its not far its only about a 5-10 min walk. However it rains everynight pretty much so the rain usually fills up our barrol. our room is not big at all but we manage, we also have to share our room, With the bugs!!! there have been a couple nights when ive been woken up to a small mamal (cockroach) in my bed!!!!! i think its up in double digits not how many cockroaches ive killed. haha. outside of our room is a beautiful view of a rainforest valley it is a very nice sight to wake up to. Meals here are absolutly delicious so someone please tell nona that i have been eating well! haha. except for breakfast i hate breakfast!! its just bread that im sick of, and about a pound of this butter stuff that on the label says 70% fat. our meals though are not in a wide veriety, we have rice and least once a day if not twice.
Ok my school which is called Sacred Heart Complex, its a great school there is about 160 kids who are enrolled, i teach primary 4,5,6 and jhs 1. I am also the jhs football coach. Teaching is a lot easier than I thought it would be and it is alot of fun. for football we train almost everyday and i always play with the boys, even though they are much much! better than i, i have alot of fun and they like it when i play.
We have had 2 get away weekend so far. One just to cape coast which is a very beautfiful town right on the ocean. and the other we just had last weekend we went to a place called Kakum national Park. There we went on a canopy walk which was amazing, we walked on these bridges conecting from tree to tree about 30 meters above the ground. It was amazing!! except we did not see any wildlife which was a bummer.
my Twi is comming along as my host family and my students teach me something new everyday. My name in twi is Kwame becuase i was born on a saturday. Also my other name in "obruni" which means white man. It is very wierd here but when people see us the stop what were doing and watch us.Alot of the people here in ghana have never seen a whiteman before. Id like to say you get used to it but you really dont. so people will shout obruni obruni! and we would just shout obibini back at them which mean blackman and they think it is the funniest thing.
Its crazy to think ive been here a month already and i only have just under 4 more to go. Its crazy cause ive only been teaching for a couple weeks but im already thinking how hard it is when i have to say goodbye to them and the staff. This is an amazing country and i highly recomend EVERYONE! to come here sometime. the country is beautiful and Ghanaians are the nicest people in the world. well i think thats all for now miss everyone back at home...later days
jared
Well as winter is approaching in Canada the weather is only getting hotter here! poor me (suckers) lol. This country is very beautiful outside of the big cities all you can see is just green lush forest for miles and miles it is a site to see.
So ACCRA!!! what a city, thats where we stayed for the first week for our orientation and it is by far the busiest and biggest city ive ever been in. Everyone goes off saying how the trving in Vancouver is crazy well they would get eaten alive with the driving not just in Accra but in Ghana. the rule of the road in ghana are: 1) there arent any rules 2) make sure your horn works. cause if your horn doesnt work then your hoooped!!I think my time here ive only seen maybe 1 or 2 sets of traffic lights, so what does that tell you? While we were in Accra we were taking teaching courses at a universtiy, supirisingly a nice university at that. Accra for me is much to busy and much to big, when we left it took us nearly 2.5 hours to leave the city!!! the one big plus in Accra if you want to go shooping all you have to do is go for a drive, you dont even need to get out of your vehicle to purchase anyting!! when your car or tro tro (hippy van type thing) stops your vehicle is surrounded by people trying to sell you stuff and it is anything for food to calculators to footballs to clothes, and of course me being white for some reason you get extra special attention.
Joe and I live in a town called Akim Achiase, its a beautiful little town in the eastern region about and hour and a half from the coast. We live with our headmaster who is the nicest man in the world i could not have asked for a better host. where we live there is no running water and the power tends to go out about once a day. for showering we used a bucket and we have a very nice pit to use for going to the bathroom. we must collect water since there is no water pumped to the house, but its not far its only about a 5-10 min walk. However it rains everynight pretty much so the rain usually fills up our barrol. our room is not big at all but we manage, we also have to share our room, With the bugs!!! there have been a couple nights when ive been woken up to a small mamal (cockroach) in my bed!!!!! i think its up in double digits not how many cockroaches ive killed. haha. outside of our room is a beautiful view of a rainforest valley it is a very nice sight to wake up to. Meals here are absolutly delicious so someone please tell nona that i have been eating well! haha. except for breakfast i hate breakfast!! its just bread that im sick of, and about a pound of this butter stuff that on the label says 70% fat. our meals though are not in a wide veriety, we have rice and least once a day if not twice.
Ok my school which is called Sacred Heart Complex, its a great school there is about 160 kids who are enrolled, i teach primary 4,5,6 and jhs 1. I am also the jhs football coach. Teaching is a lot easier than I thought it would be and it is alot of fun. for football we train almost everyday and i always play with the boys, even though they are much much! better than i, i have alot of fun and they like it when i play.
We have had 2 get away weekend so far. One just to cape coast which is a very beautfiful town right on the ocean. and the other we just had last weekend we went to a place called Kakum national Park. There we went on a canopy walk which was amazing, we walked on these bridges conecting from tree to tree about 30 meters above the ground. It was amazing!! except we did not see any wildlife which was a bummer.
my Twi is comming along as my host family and my students teach me something new everyday. My name in twi is Kwame becuase i was born on a saturday. Also my other name in "obruni" which means white man. It is very wierd here but when people see us the stop what were doing and watch us.Alot of the people here in ghana have never seen a whiteman before. Id like to say you get used to it but you really dont. so people will shout obruni obruni! and we would just shout obibini back at them which mean blackman and they think it is the funniest thing.
Its crazy to think ive been here a month already and i only have just under 4 more to go. Its crazy cause ive only been teaching for a couple weeks but im already thinking how hard it is when i have to say goodbye to them and the staff. This is an amazing country and i highly recomend EVERYONE! to come here sometime. the country is beautiful and Ghanaians are the nicest people in the world. well i think thats all for now miss everyone back at home...later days
jared
Saturday, September 6, 2008
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