Hello!!

Another busy and exciting week in Ghana and yet another blog with many typos and spelling errors!! All is well and have really enjoyed a relatively stress-free week. The children have been working hard for me this week producing work for me to bring back to England to show the children in my new school. The work isn't anything particularly revolutionary but gives a flavor of the type of life the ghanian children have activities they doat the weekends and the food they like to eat. I varied it a little bit from class to class depending on the range of attainment in each class. It al;so gave me a huge insight into the range of ages in each class I hadn't reaised that in my 'top' c;ass I was teaching children as young as 6 to 11. I did askabout the groupings and they assured me it was on age and sometimes/rarelychild would be kept behind but im not so sure about this now. The teachers took the work the children were producing very seriously and I was upset with the amount of beatings the children received during my lessons. The teachers are schocked that I don't agree with the cain or hitting the children they don't understand how else they wll learn to behave or write neatly. Some who clearly have learing difficulties are beaten too and this is very hard to deal with, I've taken to supporting these one to one even if the teachers do laugh at me!! I also reward these children heavily with stars and pencils to encourage them to keep going as they are so used to being beaten they just don't bother trying because their efforts are usually not enough to avoid a slap round the head and a 'are you stupid' comment. But despite the difficulties I have some lovely drawings and written work that I can use with my children when I am home.

On Thursday I joinee medical outreach again so that I ight see another school. I was lucky enough that on this particular day the group were treating children at a school. The medical side although interesting was not really my primary concern I just wanted to see more child centrered encironments. The school was in an extremely poor area and the classrooms were just shacks of wood that were badly held together and didn't look very stable at all. The children were as happy as any I've seen though, very excited by the obruni's and the prospect of having wounds and ring worm treated!! One boy who was treated was suffering from a very servre wound its was about 2 inches wide and one inch long and very very deep. The boy removed his sock and the medical volunteer pulled out a huge ball of cotton wool from the wound- it was at this point I realsie teaching was most definitely the right choice rather than medical!! The boys wound was treated and teacher's were very concnereed by the state of the boys ankle, volunteers explained the seriousness of the injury and the need to take him to hospital. One volunteer spoke to me after treating the boy explaining that he was concenered how badly the wound was healing given how old it was and the little reaction the boy gave when it was treated. He suspected that the boy possible had aids which was a bold reminder of the health conditions here were I often forget in day to day life and working my school ut the medical volunteers are too aware off. They are mostly shocked my people's reactions when they are told they have aids- only a few are distraught as only a few are educated in the disease. It gives a real example of what needs to be done, the volunteers are keen to educate the patients to avoid these situations but its such a massive task!!

This weekend I spent north of Kumasi. My friend Callie and I visited bouyem bat caves. It was quite a journey to reach on various means of transport and road conditions. The caves are home to two colonies of fruit bats, in one cave a smaller variety and in the second a larger. We had an excellent guided tour of the area and trek to the caves. We were taken by taxi to the next village and then hiked through the village into the bush/rainforest through the commune farmlands. The trek it's self was very intresteding full of wildlife and different types of vegetation. The guide was very informative pointing out the different crops and plants- ones which we regularly eat such as yam and cocoa. He picked one cocoa fruit an opened it to show us what it was like inside he explained the process that occurs o turn into into cocoa beans and then chocolate, he was very proud that these gre in his country. We entered the first cave which was home to a very small waterfall which was quite a strange site as there is no sign of water on the surface, he explained how it was used for ancient tribal people who were basnished from their villages. The next caves we visited was home to the smaller fruit bats, the guide said a prayer infront of a sacred rock and poured schanaps over it. He explained that this was to rememeber the tribal men who were forced to live ehre and the discoveries they made of the caves and rock formations. We walked into the bat caves which were very low and we had to crouch as we walkedinto them the bat poo becoming denser beneath our feet. The bats called to each other and some were hanging from the ceiling while other flew around out heads. I think the noise was more spectaluar than seeing the bats themselves. In the final caves we had to crawl through very tight passages and through even more poo (as the bats were larger) into this 'room' were hundreds of bats roosted and were flying around us. It was quite costraphobic crawling through the tiny gaps in the rocks ( I wouldn't like to have been any larger!) hese bats were much more exciting to watch they were enourmous and flying around such a small space but a very high one, some bats darted over our heads out of the opening into the cave that was above us. We exitied through this opening ( a different one to the on we arrive through). We had to climb avery rickety ladder upto the ground where we then had to climb up the roots of a tree that were exposed and use the vines as handles! Iparticularly enjoyed this bu not sure callie was as convinced in her not very strdy shoes!! We reachered the top of the ground and entered a sort of crater between the rocks that was full of vegetation and more bats!! Huge bats just flying in the open space. Photographing the bats is near impossible but I gave it my best go! I think I needed 'rapid quick fire' mode (haha! A technical term of course). To reach the top of the rocks we had to climb up more roots that were stretching over the rocks and again using the vines that were hanging down. Iwas so pleased by my achievements of reaching the top single handed that I forgot to look what was above my head and smacked straight into a very large branch!! I was in shock and the ghanian guide's response was 'im sorry!' hehe still suffering a bit of a headache but it wouldn't have been an nim adventure if I hadn't had a mishap! I was particularly displeased as I had already had a flight with a taxi door in the face earlier that day so was feeling particularly wounded by the time we left the at caves!!

We travelled further north after the caves to fiema boabeng monkey sanctuary. The monkey sanctuary is set ebttween two villages, fiema and boabeng. Both villages view the monkeys as sacred, it is illegal to kill them in this sanctuary. The guesthouse was basic but had all we needed and right next to the monkey forest. After trying to get some sleep the next morning we were taken on a tour into the forest. The guide explained how sacred the monkeys were and the two different tales that explain their importance. One story is that boabeng village was founded by a brong warrior who saw two mona monkys and two blavk and white colobus monkeys guarding a piece of white calico. Seeing this is conculted his god, dawaroh and was told that the monkeys would bring him good fortune. The other story is that Daworoh married abodwo, the parton saint of Ashanti- founded fiema and that the monkeys were their offspring. Another tradition is that a former chief who has he ability to turn people into monkeys and back at wil something that was usefull in battle died before he was able to turn everyone abck again into human form. This version would suggest that the colobus monekeys are men and the monas are women. Im not sure about the last interpretation as the colobus monkeys are the shy ones who stay hidden in the trees while the monas will come very close and take food from your hands. My experience of ghanian men is not that they are shy retiring types!! The monkeys themselves were everywhere, we were able to feed them banas, they would literally jump up and grab it from your hands, they were good at catching too (when on the ground- a few feel out of their trees int heit attempts) the monkeys seem a bit of a pest in the villages. We saw them climbing into the hosues and stealing food from the kitchens. They sit on the roof of the houses and eat what they have found. The villagers say they do not mind and truly regard them as sacred. We visited the monkey grave yard as the guide explained all monkeys come to the village to die and as tradition suggests they might be human they are placed in coffins and given a funeral. Some monkeys were buried next to human priests and key figures. One man buried there was 120 when he died!!

After our tour of the forest we ventured back to Kumasi which was more challnegin that we had realized. We had to wait in the village for an hour and a half before an empty taxi drove past and even then a villager had forced the driver to empty the few passengers he had so that he could take us back to the town!! The village we were waiting in was very poor, we waited outside a shop where the shop keeper very kindly gave us seats to sit on but was dealing with her porrly child who appeared to have malaria from her glazed expression and constant crying . the villagers didn't have much and didn't seem to be doing much other than the few ladies who were carrying water and organizing the shops frontages. Most of the en were just sat asleep or staring at us for the whole time. Im not sure if that was a typical day? A lot of the villages I have visited seem to be very quiet apart form the women and children who are busy. After our taxi ride it was just another three taxi rides and three hour tro before we were home! A bumpy ride but definitely a well worth trip!!

Heading into the last few days of my time in ghana, feeling very settled and use to the palace and culture now. I feel read to leave though as I know what exciting adventures I have ahead of me. Im sure given the opportunity I would have stayed longer as it has taken so long to settle into the culture and the workings of the school, but I am looking forward to the last few days of school playing games and taking pictures :)