Hellooo there. I have made attempts to sort out my crappy internet connection and am very happy to have the world at my fingertips once again! (…or at least once a week when Im at the Bolga office).

Things have been going well since I last blogged, both in terms of work and enjoying life in Ghana. Easter weekend, which seems so long ago already, was a lot of fun. It began with a moto-ride east and up to the border with Burkina Faso to a tiny place called Widnaba. The road there was definitely an adventure, swerving around potholes and navigating a twisty dirt track with patches of skiddy sand. We'd planned to stay but a lack of…well, pretty much anything, including drinking water in the scorching heat, meant we decided to saddle up and ride back to Bolga later that afternoon.

That evening I was the glorified wardrobe assistant for my boyfriend's video shoot at Soultrain, Bolga's one and only club! By the time the shoot was finished and packed up it was absolutely heaving inside - a true sweatbox.

The next day I attended a funeral for the senior brother of the lady at my local shop (where I am known as 'Frank's wife' - Frank being their one-year-old nephew who is almost always dressed in a tiny string vest like a little Ghanaian Rab C Nesbitt). Funerals are big events here in Ghana, the main part being like a three day festival of all-day and night music and dancing. It was amazing. There were groups of musicians moving around the site drumming and dancing, other groups of men doing a traditional war dance, whilst the 'widow's dance' in the main compound was incredible, energetic and competitive! There were groups of people / in-laws arriving throughout the day, dancing and singing their way across the field, settling in the shade and playing traditional music. Everyone was so welcoming and I was encouraged to squeeze in through the crowds to see two guys playing the kolog (hopefully the video will upload to my blog so you can see and hear for yourself). I also got my first taste of 'pito', the local millet beer, which is an acquired taste but I like it!

The bolga-based volunteers got together for lots of feasting and drinking of our own at a volunteer-house(as we do every now and again) and then for a picnic on the bank holiday at Veer Dam, where we became quite an attraction for a bunch of boys who entertained us with cartwheels, dancing and general showing off.

I am getting more experienced on my motorbike but my confidence comes and goes depending on when I've last fallen off! My legs are a permanent patchwork of bruises, scrapes and the odd mosquito bite (nice) which is all part of the general life here. I did have one particularly bad experience when I coach knocked me down as it overtook me on the highway and sent me sliding along the ground with sparks coming from the bike and leaving me bruised as a banana. Luckily, now I have been formerly introduced to the Ghana Education Service office in Tongo where I'll be based for most of the week, I have about a half hour ride to work down a very quiet dirt road through the country side. It's beautiful and aside from avoiding the dips and puddles from the rain it is a lot safer than riding through town.

Its not yet rainy season but we have been having some massive storms. The lightning is pretty incredible but the wind is just scary - I was having flash backs to the hurricane of '89 and worrying that the mango tree was going to come crashing through the house. However, the mangos are in season (!) and we have harvested a lot off the tree already - dee-licious. The rain that we have had in these storms has meant that the dry and dusty Upper East is now springing into life, looking a lot greener and our garden has been prepared for planting!

At work I've now had my joint introductory meeting (JIM) which is where a VSO programme manager, the partner organisation and key people I will be working with get together to discuss my objectives. It was an interesting process as it revealed that ideas of what community advocacy is and what I should be focussing on doing here is as broad as it is varied. Needless to say I have come away feeling more confused about my workplan than before, but it is an important step in building relationships and opening up discussion to gain buy-in to what I should aim to achieve over the next 9 months and how. I do know already that I will be doing some work to build the capacity of the coalition of School Management Committees at District level, to support them in guiding active community engagement at the school level and lobbying to meet the needs of schools in the district (needs as basic as more classrooms, trained teachers, textbooks, school record keeping, for teachers to actually turn up and be sober, etc). I will also hopefully start mapping children with disability - those in school and those who are kept hidden away at home - and developing more coordination between activities of various stakeholders and NGOs in the district. All of which could be complicated by the fact that it will be separating into two next month - Talensi and Nabdam - ahead of the elections later in the year!

But for today I'm having a restful day after a gruelling 18 hour coach ride back from Accra while my housemate is lying low at the other end of the house with another dose of malaria L

OK, I'll leave it there for now. Hope you're well and happy where you are and hope to hear your news too. Lots of love, Leela. X x x