Wa Gwan!! Yes, somebody did actually say this to me last night and it wasn't Kate Varndall!! I think this will now be a short entry as the internet cafe is slightly annoying and I've nearly run out of time...!! Ok, where to start... well first off apologies for the lack of photogarphic evidence of my trip but apparently I sat on the wrong computer as it doesn't have a usb port btu the one next to me doesn't! I am here, honest! Ok let's start again... Ghana is amazing! I arrived on Saturday evening to a powercut in Accra the region where I was spending the night. The power source here is a water damn and as it hasn't rained here for a while the water is low. When this happens they have an electricity shortage so each region takes it in turns to have a 'lights out' day. Luckily there was another girl from the UK staying over night there too so I managed to find it quite funny getting changed in the dark and having a wash by torch light! On my own I'm not sure I would have seen the funny side.

Sod it, I've just extended my time by another hour as there is no way I can fit the last two days into about 2 minutes, bear with me it may take a while....

Where was I... oh yea the darkness. It was quite funny the fact that it was dark, especially as it gave me something to put in this journal!! The other girl was from Ireland and is staying in a different place to me but I think we will probably meet up at some point. Due to the powercut there wasn't a fan so it was SO hot I only managed to sleep for about 2 hours and was up at 5 to get the coach to Cape Coast where I am based. Can you believe it only costs 60,000 cedi's which is 3 english pounds to go a 3 hour journey by air conditioned coach!?!

Got to Cape Coast with Grant, who is one of the coordinators and dropped my bags off and then straight in to town! Talk about culture shock, it's fairly hustle and bustle and everyone looks at you because you're white. Very odd but you do get used to the fact that you're white, which is odd in itself as I've known I'm white for 22 years! Some of the kids are very sweet though and want to talk to you and touch your skin. Grant and I went for lunch at Cape Castle Restaurant which is really nice and overlooks the beach and Cape Coast Castle (funnily enough!) I had my first taste of Ghanaian food, jollof rice and chicken, very nice actually but WAY too many carbohydrates, guess I better get used to that!

I then met Anna who is my roomie, 24, from the States and really nice. I was also then introduced to the whole host of Mary's family which includes Mary herself, her two children (very cute!), her two brother, one sister and her Mum and Dad! It's really nice actually that they all live together.

We then had dinner - more rice! Hey fatty boom boom me thinks!!! Anna and I went out in the evening to meet the other volunteers, there are 16 of us in this area in total which is cool because except from Anna they are pretty much all from the UK. We went for drinks in a few 'spot bars' as they are called and then on to a hotel which was hosting some big Hip life (cross between high life which is really popular here and hip hop) artist. It was actually really good and there were a few people we went with who very much like watching Larry, Chudi and Vince in the hrb in the first year, lol Kat and Tash!! The best part of the whole evening was that I only spent .... wait for it.... 1 pound and 50 pence!!! Amazing! The ride home was quite funny also, I didn't realise you could fit 8 people in a five seater car but apparently you can...!

As you can imagine waking up this morning wasn't much fun after going to bed at 1.30 and only having 2 hours sleep Saturday night. The fun was then increased by the fact that there is a rooster which has it's cage about 2 foot (no exaggeration!) from our bedroom window and decided that as it was 5am it was time for everyone to get up!!! I wasn't impressed and am trying to think of ways to remove the Rooster - anybody got any?!?

Went to my placement, got shown around and have to go back tomorrow to start properly. I then thought I would venture out into town on my own for the first time... The taxi driver obviously saw me coming... he tried to charge me 75p instead of 25p! It's hilarious how you very quickly get used to what things cost but also how much 17,000 cedi's seems like a million pounds when in fact it is only 1! Then when you argue over 9,000 cedi's for a 10 minute taxi ride it seems like a lot of money but actually really isn't to our standards.

The whole vibe is different here like this afternoon I went to the beach and went to Cape Castle Restaurant again but on my own this time and I ended up randomly chatting to an Irish girl and a group of Ghanaian's. In the street people say hello and ask how you are, if this were at home people would think you had something wrong with you or would want to start a fight even if you look at them!!

So far, this looks to be a good choice! Not that you can actually see it as there aren't any pics, next time I promise! Peace out and thanks for all the messages on the message board and emails, keep them coming!! xx