The One Where We Arrive!

So we have arrived in Ghana! After, what has felt like the longest year ever, we are finally here! The travel went smoothly bar a panicked sprint through Gatwick after a ‘mistake’ on the board which said that our gate was closed. 

On the flight from Gatwick to Lisbon another Vol and I were sitting next to a Ghanaian woman named Matilda (or Fofoe if you wanted to use her African name). She had been living in London for the past 30 years after moving there to have a better life when she was only 20. She was heading back to manage the small school that she had set up the year earlier and would not be going back to London until at  least May. She was lovely! The three of us talked for the ENTIRE 3 hour flight about teaching, Ghana and her children whom she had to leave back in London for school. She told us some amazing stories such as not knowing that she was pregnant until she was five months along, how she had adopted her sister's, who sadly passed away, young son and how incredibly proud she was of her daughter who was the first to go to University and gained a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Oxford no less! We were explaining to her a bit about what we were doing and what Project Trust was all about and she decided right then and there that she wanted some PT Vols for her school. So we swapped details and we are going to help when we can down at her school in Achatci. 

Anyway right now I am sitting alone, while everyone else is with their parters, in a hotel room which I will be staying in for the next 5 days. Tomorrow we have orientation with Nana (our Rep in the country), the next day we are touring round Accra then on the Wednesday everyone but three of us is leaving to go to their projects. The reason that we are not leaving is that my partner Sian had some issues with her visa and is having to fly out of Thursday so the four of us based in Hohoe will be leaving on Friday to start teaching on Monday :/

First Impressions;

1. SO HOT. Its midnight on a ‘cold’ night according to Nana and I’m sweating buckets and know I won’t get much sleep because of the heat...
2. PEOPLE ARE SO NICE. There is a perception in Ghana that white people or ‘Obrini’s’ can’t take care of themselves so literally everyone is helping us carry our bags and get in and out of places. Ghanaians are also famed for being incredibly accommodating and friendly and we have definitely seen it already and we have only gone from the airport to the hotel!
3. GHANAIANS ARE CHEEKY. Because we are Obroni’s they are charging us double for things. E.g at the airport 4 guys helped us load the stuff in the van and we had to tip them and they were asking for $20 (US) which is crazy. Managed to get away with tipping them $10 with my newly found refusal and negotiation skills

Emotions at Current Time;

1. Tired
2. Exhausted
3. Lonely 
4. EXCITED!

Going to watch a wee bit of Frozen to cheer me up a bit before I crash.

The One With The Mug Tears

So with a little under two weeks until departure date I thought it might be quite nice if I wrote another blog post, since it has been six and a half months since the last one!

In August I traveled once again to the Isle of Coll for training. On training I met the Ghana Fam, who I will be spending A LOT of time with over the next year and are just amazing. More importantly I met Sian, my partner, who I will be living, working and occasionally fighting with. She's great and I can't wait to see what this year brings for us. On training we did some teaching which was so much fun and I was surprisingly OK at it. We also learnt more about the county, it's history, it's people and our projects.

My project is in Ve-Koloemu near Hohoe, which I know will mean nothing to you, but trust me it's a pretty cool place! The school is called St Michael's RC Basic High School and I will be teaching Form 1, 2 and 3 which is like 1st, 2nd and 3rd year. The only problem is that they have me teaching English which is ok, Maths which is meh, Science which I haven't studied since 4th year and ICT with no computers. I feel like some swotting up is in order then!

On a more relaxed note my fundraising is done and everything is paid off! This is just crazy. I never thought that I'd ever get to this point. As a reminder I had to fundraise £5,600 for PT and £1,500 for traveling ect. This is the most amount to money I have ever had to deal with and has been, what you could call, a learning experience. I just want to take a minute to thank everyone who was able to donate or help with my efforts. I like to make a special mention to my Mom. Without her I'd be sitting here pulling my hair out because I'd have been so disorganised. Mom, I PROMISE that I'll work so so so so hard in being more organised, tidy and on top of things.

People keep asking me if I'm nervous about going and leaving everything behind. Up until yesterday I have said "Noooo I'm definitely ready to go!". However yesterday I randomly chose a 'There's no place like home' mug and I burst out into tears. I then told Mom this story and burst into tears again. So maybe I'm not as ready as I thought...

I'm starting to pack now which is weird. How do you fit your whole life for a year in under 20kg? It'll be a challenge I guess.

Anyway I'll end this one here. I should have another one up the day before I leave or sometime around then :)

Abby x

Map of Ghana with Hohoe

Waterfall near Hohoe

Ghana Fam with Our Dave (Ghana Desk Officer (front))

The One Where Macaulay Culkin Appears....

Hello! 

As many of you know I am off to Ghana in August of this year and  honestly can't wait! A year away from home (sorry mom) in a completely new place (sorry Scotland) doing something that might actually be beneficial (sorry school) = bliss. It's going to be a year of extreme heat, hard work, new experiences and hopefully some cracking stories. 

In Ghana I will be volunteering in a school but I don't really know exactly what I will be doing. The Project Trust website says;

"The projects in Ghana are based in small rural communities in the Volta region. Volunteers work in a range of different schools within their communities, working with students from Kindergarten up to Junior High School age. As well as teaching English there is the opportunity to teach basic science, ICT and maths classes and endless opportunities to get involved in and set up extracurricular activities."

Now, you may be thinking "em Abby...what is Project Trust" well let me tell you dear friends. Project Trust is a charity that sends 300 young people overseas to partake in worthwhile volunteering projects. It is based on the Isle of Coll which makes for a very interesting journey getting there, but it is part of the adventure I guess. All in all PT frankly awesome! 

All this fun and adventure doesn't come cheap! By July I have to have raised £5,600 for PT and £1,700 for myself (for travel ect). This was my face when they told me how much I had to raise...

But it isn't actually that bad surprisingly. I've been writing to trusts and holding events and babysitting my butt off and as of 14/02/2014 I've raised £3325!!!!!!!

Any way that's just a bit about what I will be doing and how I feel about things and stuff...This blog is mostly for me to look back on and cringe at, but if you find it interesting then by all means read my inner thoughts and feelings.

Abby x