Hi all. I am back again! Will definately be up to dtae by the time I leave today.

Wednesday

Janet had taken a turn for the worse today and some of the other children were suffering from diarrhea, so Jenna, Jenny & the other German girl took them to a local hospital to get checked over. Before they went to hospital 5 huge bags of clothes were pulled out of the house mothers cupboard and they were clothed in new, clean outfits and given proper pampers nappies. I was so angry, how dare they keep all of the donations locked away only to use for 'special visits outside!' There own clothes smell and are rarely completely clean as they only ever handwash in Ghana!

While the others were at the hospital a man from the local catholic church came and brought lots of food donations. It was all a bit surreal, smiling for the camera. He blessed us for the work we were doing!

Jenna and the others came back armed with lots of medicine and some advice. Even the hospital tried to rip them off, they tried to charge 580 cedis (about 290 GBP). Jenna managed to point out how much it cost and got it down to 62 cedi (31 GBP). Jenna paid and we decide that we would split it later, although it turned out that the german girl paid for most of it as she had rasied some money back in Germany.

When it was time for medicine, I saw one of the most disturbing sights yet. One of the children; Hamidu apparantly doesn't like taking medicine, so they wedged him between their knees, held his nose and rammed it into his mouth, then held his mouth shut until he swallowed. What made it worse was that they then put his second dose of medicine in the milk bottle, surely they should have done it with all of the medicine... stupid!!! I didn't hold it together that day and burst into tears!

After the orphanage we felt pretty down. I walked Jenna to the place where she was going to get her hair braided and then spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on the internet. Her hair was supposed to take 2 hours, but when I went to get her she was no where near ready. So I had fun wandering around the Tamale market looking for all of the ingredients we needed for beef stew and apple crumble. I couldn't believe that the most expensive ingredient was the apples, they cost twice as much as the beef! I really enjoyed some time on my own. Jenna is great to be with, but I am missing 'me' time!

After the shopping Jenna still wasn't finished and it was 4:30, so we decided to split up. I went home to cook beef stew and apple crumble, while Jenna sat having her hair pulled about!

It is definately one of my weirdest cooking experiences! It took me ages to even work out how to turn the gas on! Then another 20 minutes trying to cut up the beef with a rather blunt knife. But I got through it and by the tim Fouzia cam back home, everything was cooking. Jenna finally got home at about 7ish. I think she was dissapointed with her hair as they had to use extra hair as her own hair was too fine. It just seems to hurt her and weihgt her down. She looks like a real hippie traveller now!

Fouzia and her sister both tried our english cooking. Fouzia like it, but I don't think that her sister was quite as impressed! It was the whole meal that Jenna has finished!

Thursday

Janet was still no better, so the 2 German girls took her and Fileira to another hospital that tested for malaria. They both tested positive and were given some more medicine. I really wouldn't be surprised if at least 5 others have malaria as well.

We put up the work that we did with the children to brighten up the place, sorted out our suitcases of toys and other bit and showed the other volunteers where they were, so that they could carry on after we left.

We were so happy to be leaving today, but were really upset to discover that we were not allowed to take the 5 children swimming on Friday that we had planned to. The Madame said it was something to do with the children being abandoned rather than orphans and that their parents wouldn't be happy. I think that's rubbish as they shouldn't have abandoned their children in the first opinion. They should be handing over all responsibility! We asked Kamal to speak to the Director of social services, which he did, but he wouldn't change his mind!

This afternoon we spent shopping, eating at sparkles and having our second and last drumming lesson. It was good fun and Jenna's hands weren't nearly as red this time!

Friday

Haven't done much today. As we said goodbye earlier we were not going to return to the orphanage.

I am feeling a bit unwell today, so am taking it easy. I shouldn't have had the salad yesterday!

Tonight we are going to watch some traditional dancing at Sparkles, with our host Fouzia and possibly our co-ordinator Kamal. Tomorrow we are going to Paga to see & sit on tame crocodiles (an early start 4am). Then at 6 am on Sunday we are flying back to Accra. We plan to chill out by the pool in Accra for our last 2 days and then fly back on Monday night.

I will probably update in Accra. Be home soon. xxx