Hey guys,
well i made it to Africa. it really was the trip from hell. i left my hotel (after saying goodbye to sabine and heidi) and headed to the airport at 9:30. My flight to Thailand left at 1:00 am and I was seated next to an extremely smelly man. I have my suspicions that he was related to Andrea, and if not he was at least definately Swiss. They were screening the worlds worst movie, which was about the \us soccer team, which helped me sleep. Ariving in Thai airport at 6 AM i was exhausted. However i had an 18 hour stopover and as i had to check out to retreive my baggage, i could not get a retiring room. So i headed up to the observation deck and slept on the floor in the corner for 6 hours. After a further 12 hours waiting I boarded my flight for Egypt, whilst wondering why i had flown from India to Thailand in the first place as it is the opposite direction i waanted to go. I arrived in Egypt after really strange flight. I was seated by a woman in full muslim dress with only a slit for her eyes, who screamed when i sat beside her and kept yelling out 'man' untill i was moved to another seat. I got to Cairo at 6 or so in the morn, and was given a room at a hotel courtesy of Egypt Air for my measly 10 hour stopover. now that is service. However when i was fast asleep in my hotel room the receptionist who spoke poor enlgish told me i had to go to the aiport because i 'emergency problem'. When i got to the airport the guy from EGypt Air had no idea what she was talking about. SO i spent 2 hours in my hotel room instead of 6. I must take my hat off to the egyptians though, Cairo airport is great. I had a massive aircraft for my flight to Ghana, which had very few people on board. I had 4 seats to myself, and they showed the aussie film 'danny deckchair'. I pretty sure it was the first time the plane had been flown, it still had that 'new-car' smell to it. The funniest thing was that when the plane landed in Ghana, all the africans on board burst in applause. Anyway, after about 3 days in transit, i was greated at the airport by eric and evelyn from 'help a school project'.
The town i am living in is called Akropong, and i am staying in a house with Ross, another aussie volunteer, 2 local workers, and Vera, the catering teacher at the school who spends all her time looking after us. Every meal is prepared for us, its great. On my second night i got pretty ill, the usual (runs and vomitting) and threw up halfway through dinner, however im pretty sure vera is used to white popele throwing up in her house.
"oberoni, oberoni, oberoni" This is the noise that echoes around the town as soon as i try and walk anywhere. it mean"white person" and is accompanied by little black faces peering out at us from buildings. This palce has real character. |I have to admit, it really is strange to be surrounded by so many black people, and not brown but really really black. But the main these people have got something special. One of the guys in my street (can't remember his name) tells me "Ghanan people have style and soul" and i think this is true in everything. The music, fashion, lifestyle, and the way they talk to each other. Its so different for me and so cool.
I always thought that the church seen in blues brothers, you know the one with james brown and the people doing backflips, i thought that was an exageration. Well, it turns out that that is pretty close to the truth for ghanan churches. I went to a wedding on Saturday, and was amazed. Firstly, african people can sing. And really sing. Secondly, African people can dance. ANd i mean really dance. At the wedding, and at church, everyone sings at the top of there voices and runs around the church dancing. Cummunion is a congo line. No, seriously, communion involves a congo line. It is insane.
Oh, and it must be said, the women here are beautiful. Very, very beautiful.
I have gone from being the biggest person in the district in Nepal, to being a weekling in Ghana. Some of the women have biceps bigger than my head. its true.
The school is great, i start taking lessons 2moro. I am teaching social studies 2 years 7 & 8 (in the aussie equivalent) and computers to the whole school. Yes, we have a computer lab, which might sound strange at home but is even stranger over here. The entire school is falling apart, but we have some computers. I think they must have been donated.
Anyway, things are great,
ill write more soon, ive already got sooooo many stories.
A big Happy Birthday to Patch for today. I cant beleive you are 18. I can still beat you up kiddo. Looking forward to going out for a ber soon matey.
RYan
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