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Jennifer's Trip
Entry number 2 for this week........
Just thought I'd email and let you know what it is 'generally' like here. I know most of my entries have been tales of mishaps, it isn't always like that here, not really....
One thing I can say is that it is very hot most of the time, and nearly impossible to sleep without the fan on. Another things is that all of the food is spicy, and if you ask a Ghanaian if something is spicy, if it has much 'peppe' in it, they will invariably say no. This means that nearly every single meal is accompanied by a big bottle of water. Breakfast for me is bread with peanut butter and black tea. Black tea because there is no fresh milk here and the milk they use is condensed so it is far to sweet for me. Why peanut butter? Well it is because the jam is an ant graveyard.
The water is cold, unless you shower in the afternoon or evening when it is arm because it has been heated in the tank by the sun during the course of the day. I don't mind having a cold shower I have kind of got used to it, it certainly wakes you up in the morning. There has been water and electricity pretty much constantly since the second week I was here. For most of the first week there was no electricity and therefore no water because you need a pump powered by electricity to get running water. (However as all you avid readers of my journal are aware, I wasn't quite so lucky with the old running water in my trip last weekend to Cape Coast!)
Everyone here is really friendly, the only rude Ghanaian I can remember at the moment was the delightful gentleman at Sammos Guest House. Everyone is only too willing to help, and
bargain with taxi drivers for us so that we get a fair price. Neverthless, when you order food anywhere it will take at least an hour to arrive, even if it just a sandwich. I think perhaps waiters are the exception to the rule.
Something for all you music lovers out there! Westlife and Celine are huge over here, nearly everywhere you go you here one of them. The kids in one of the other volunteers classes had to ask if Celine Dion was black or white, all very strange. God knows what they think about Westlife!
The currency here is the cedis (said 'seedy') and there are around 16,000 to the pound. Evrything is veru cheap- a big bag of water with about 50 litres of water is only about 50p. When I go away for the weekend I spend around 30pounds altogether, including accom and food and sightseeing. Not too bad! Any avaerage meal out costs around 3pounds including drinks. I think a lot of the people here think we are extravagant obrunis, because the money that we spend in an average weekend is a small fortune to them. A headteacher might earn around 90pounds a month, and a waiter might earn around 30pounds (if that). The whole money thing sometimes gets a bit awkward though. Michelle was asked by one of the teachers at her shcool, to buy him a ticket to London because it would take him 2 years to save up for it. He was deadly seriouc when he asked her and she had to try and say that it costs a lot for us to come here adn we needed tosave for a while to afford the trip herre. Luckily I haven't been put in that situation by anyone, but there's every chance it could happen. I think many Ghanaians think that all white people are very rich, and although compared to most of them we are, it is hard to explain that at home we (the volunteers) aren't at all.
The school I am in is a preschool, and my class is yhr 5 years old class. Education is compulsory at 6. As it is a private shcool (pretty much anyone can start a school here if they want to) they use any syllabus they like. The one used at Mummys Darl is one from the USA and very much influenced by religion. They problem I have with the syllabus is that a lot of the things aren't really relevant to the kids, for example the projects are on George Washington and the currency (dollars and dimes was one activity last week!). I have taken to just not really following it.
One of the funniest things here is that whenever you see another white person you are almost compelled to say hello, you have never seen the person in your life and you may not even speak the same language, but just because you have the same clour of skin you feel like you have to communicate with each other. All very strange.
I am very much enjoying reading your messages on the messageboard. Prior to coming here I was quite worried that I would be totally lost when it came to watching Neighbours again; so I thank you very much Andy I feel just like I have been watching as normal at 5.35 every weekday. The soaps here are awful. The most popular one is called the Promise and I have no idea where it is from but it is very badly dubbed - some character names are 'Amour' 'Eduardo' 'Mari-Amour', you get the idea. The things is though, I feel like I have to watch it-I have read far too many books in my time here and there is only so much I can write in my journal.
Oh well. Better go. I need to go and buy stuff for washing my clothes. I have never missed a washing machine in my life. I have a generla feeling that when I wash my clothes they aren't really getting that much cleaner, only smelling a bit better. When I throw the water away it is always a wierd brown/grey colour and there is usually a a rim of dirt on the inside of the bucket. Just thought I would share that little bit of info with you all!
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Jen x
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