DAY 1
We landed at Accra at 9pm on Saturday 7th July after several hours of travelling. We all felt the heat when we stepped off the plane; it was really hot and humid. We then waited for Soli and William who drove us to the guesthouse in Accra. Although it was dark there were lots of lights and people. Shortly after we arrived at our guesthouse and were quickly assigned our rooms. Our reactions were that we found them better than expected. Soon we settled down to sleep after a long day.
DAY 2
We were woken up early in the morning by Sam and a cockerel and got dressed ready for our drive to Bantuma. We loaded up our bus and set off. Along the journey it was very green and alive with busy market hawkers. We stopped off along the way to have breakfast, which was sausages, eggs and bread. We all got a chance to experience “Milo’ which is basically hot chocolate but malty. After this we resumed our trip to Bantuma. During our journey we decided our roles for the week. The cooking team are Shona, Ella and Georgie. The wash team are Charlotte, Siobhan and Amber. Most importantly, Victoria is head of house. On the way we stopped off at a market and the shopping team bought some fruit and beg for the upcoming day. It was quite cheap as the conversion rate is about 2.9 cedi to a pound. After about 30 mins we arrived at our guest lodge which is only a 5 minute walk to the school. As soon as we got off, lots of children came rushing towards us and called us “Bruni” which means white person. We then were shown to our rooms, however there were double beds, so we had to borrow double nets from each other. The cook team then prepared lunch and after we went on a short walk to the market. We bought plantain, green oranges and eggs. We then went back to the guesthouse and many of us ha a shower. We had our first taste of a Ghanaian dish, which was called red red in a tomato sauce with fried plantain. It was absolutely delicious! We then had pudding and had a short visit from the Bantuma Headmaster and got ready for bed.
DAY 3
The night was very interesting and there were many noises coming from outside. We had breakfast prepared and cooked by the cook team which was eggy bread and mango. We got dressed in our maxi dresses and were going to have our official welcome from the school. They put up a gazebo for us and the celebrations commenced. We got matched with our buddies which was very exciting. They were all so helpful. Susannah and Mrs Jenkin did a speech on behalf of our school. After we went back and got dressed in our working clothes and started sanding desks. Meanwhile, the shopping team went off to buy some more fruit and veg and then met back up. We went back to have lunch cooked by the amazing cook team (sandwiches). Shortly after we went back to the school and carried on sanding and varnishing desks. Once done we had buddy time and we went to the beach. There were lots of animals roaming around the beach and we had to dodge the poo. We came back, played for a bit. We attracted a lot of attention. We had dinner, which had mixed reactions but the fruit was delicious. It was getting quite dark so we all got ready to sleep ready for a busy day tomorrow.
DAY 4
We had eggy bread for breakfast again this morning. Just before we were about to leave for school, our buddies arrived with buckets of water on their heads, which we were very grateful for. This morning’s project work was varnishing and sanding the desks again and it was very hot working in the sun.
The shopping team went to Cape Coast market today, which was much bigger than the market in Elmina. It was a very nice journey in the taxi along the coast.
The cook team had prepared pasta for lunch. We then went back to the school, finished varnishing the desks and cleared out the room, which will become the partnership office – it was very dusty.
After the project work our buddies came back to the guesthouse where we played Frisbee. They also taught us how to dance Ghanaian style and we taught them the Macarena.
Dinner was rice, beans and popcorn, which we all really enjoyed.