i'm now officially a grown up! (well, according to the numbers... yet to be
proven.)

I had an absolutely incredible weekend, one that i shall never forget. it
was not without trauma and event but that just adds to the memories!! the
place we'd arranged to stay at really was in the arse end of nowhere and
unheard of by apparently anyone! Eventually, after crossing 5 raging rivers
flowing rapidly accross the dirt tracks due to the recent excess rain in our
tro tro (minibus) with water coming in the windows as well as around the
doors! and about an hours walk through what might well have been the
setting of the film Jurassic Park guided by some teenagers from a local
tribe who were very helpful in piggy=backing us girls over the floods!
Anyway.. eventually we arrived in total 100% paradise. i've never been
anywhere so pretty in my life, even through the mist and cloud, we danced
and screamed on the beach for a fair while, partly sheer releif that we'd
finally arrived and the rest total joy at being somewhere so incredible!
Saturday we woke up to clear blue sky and the beach was even prettier, it
stayed clear and bright all day and we played on the beach and in the sea
just having a great time. the owners of the hotel found out that it was my
birthday and arranged a bonfire on the beach for us and some locals came
and played music, it was fantastic. i have never ever seen anything like
the stars we saw that night. we lay on the beach for hours just in awe of
it all. after seeing my birthday in with my head down the toilet as the
clock struck 12, getting up for sunrise over the beach was well worth it.
we went for a sunrise canoe ride up the river (8 of us) and saw a bright
yellow snake and a crocodile, but it was just amazing scenery (apologies
for repetitive adjectives, there just aren't the right words!). so quiet
and peaceful. the journey back to cape coast was traumatic to say the
least with various parts of our tro falling off at regular intervals,
breaking down in highly unsafe situations, and causing a few close calls.
eventually, 5 hours into our 2 hour journey we abandoned the tro altogether
for a taxis but the tro driver was not happy and there was a huge fight and
a bit of a hostage situation (luckily only Stef's guitar!) but we were all
to tired and fed up so it wasn't quite as amusing as it is in hindsight!
Anyway, my mood picked up when we got back to our house here and i was able
to have a shower (albeit cold water, but at least it wasn't salt water like
where we'd been) and we all went out for dinner at our local hangout. i
straightened my hair as a special birthday treat and had roast chicken,
chips and ketchup - an ideal birthday or what!?! Really missed my friends
and family but managed to speak to a few people.

Placement last week was much better also, Tracey and I ran a HIV/AIDS clinic
with over 150 patients and also got to know the staff in the treatment room
so did a lot of wound dressings.

2 more girls from my course in southampton arrived yesterday, so it's really
nice having some friendly faces and we're all getting on really well. All
the latest new people are going to Kakum this weekend, i may go again or
just have a quiet weekend.

I'm sure i had loads more to say but this is already pretty long. Thank you
for all the birthday messages, it's great to hear from people. I've asked
dad to post my old emails up on my blog site as i'm unable to access it
from here. There is also unfortunately no way that i can get photos on the
computer here, but i promise that i have some really good ones!

Lots of love to you all,