This i think will be my last entry here, i get back on thursday. It's a shame i haven't made more, but clocking up the internet time has been pretty hard. It's been a long time since my last. The week around Christmas all sort of blurred into one, i was doing pretty similar things each day. I just sort of went out places and drank beer with Anderson. Christmas day and boxing day were distinguishable by the masquerade parade, a phenomenon of the fante region of ghana, it happens around christmas and easter mostly. There are many groups, 50-150 in size, mostly men (most women think it's too silly to participate in), who dress in custom-made multi-coloured clothing and a variety of masks, and parade up and down the streets of the town centre, dancing, accompanied by brass and drums. It was quite a spectacle, especially the small children that took part. On Christmas day, after church in the morning and seeing some of the dancers in town, I went to a number of bars and houses with Anderson. As you'd expect, christmas isn't celebrated here in the same way. Most people it seems go out and spend it with friends rather than stay in with family. And there isn't the same gluttony we have in the UK. After that i did some travelling around cape coast and Accra, seeing the main chunk of the mini tourist circuit there is here. After that it was back to school as normal, although there hasn't been so much for me to do so far in the new year. With my return home approaching, i was beginning to feel rather smug at escaping any sort of illness. Not surprising then that i was ill last week. I went to see the opening of Sekondi stadium the Sunday before last. Anderson just said "do you want to go see a game", I didn't know there was to be this ceremony, attended by the president. Almost 4 hours after i took my seat, more than 2 hours behind schedule (if you could even call it that), the game started, more interesting than the 'ceremony'. Similar in pace to premiership football, Ghanaians like their skill above all else. Any small trick got a big cheer, i thought it quite amusing that a defender could perform completely unnecessary trick to avoid a tackle, gain more time on the ball which he didn't need in the first place, and then hoof the ball back to the opposition and still get a big cheer. The game also dragged because of a epidemic of very painful injuries, which only seemed painful when on the pitch, clearing up as soon stretchered off it. Must have happened at least 10 times. It finished 2-1 to the home side, after the away team scored a perfectly good goal in the 85th disallowed, and the police had to come on to protect the ref from the entire team. Nice to see people are paying so much attention to how we do it England. Anyway, it was after the match, in the mad scramble to get away from the ground in the absence of streetlights and hiding in the shadow of a tro-tro, i put my foot into a random hole. It was only a tiny scrape, but i knew as soon as I saw it i wouldn't be able to stop it getting infected (it's the climate or something). A few days later i had some other fever-like symptoms, and I went to the doctor, thinking that maybe the infected cut was what was causing it. He didn't seem overly bothered about the cut, but despite my blood tests being negative, put me on a course of a malaria cure. My symptoms didn't even feel that severe either (although that can be the case if you're on a prophylaxis), and it goes to show how hard it can be to diagnose, given that you can still have it despite the blood tests being negative. He was being cautious, but the cure, despite making me feel lousy for 3 days, did seem to clear up the symptoms. So not so bad in the end then. There are much worse things i could have put my foot down, and much worse illness from which i could suffer. And so. I return on thursday, 2 weeks earlier than i originally booked for, feeling that 3 months a good amount of time, and the extra two weeks wouldn't add much to my work at the school, or my experience here either. I don't have much time to reflect on it all in this entry, so you'll have to speak to me when i'm home. There would be to much to say to summarise fully, and this blog has already been quite insufficient in documenting what its been like here. It seems things have been quite close to my expectations, and yet completely different at the same time. I'm looking forward to getting back, there is much i have been missing, but there will be things i miss from here when i'm home. It's been a great experience, and by living in a completely different culture, i've learnt a lot, both of the world at large, and more about our culture also. So i hope to see you soon.