Day 8
Today was culture day. Bantuma school was packed with loads of people and a PA system. We started off by singing several traditional English songs including ‘Oranges and Lemons’ and our National Anthem. We also performed some Irish dance. We finished off doing the hokey-cokey with about 100 people!
Next, Gifty, a teacher at Bantuma, prepared several traditional dishes for us to try including banku, yam, crab and okra stew and meat in sauce. After lunch, we were shown different types of traditional Ghanaian dancing. Georgie, Jenika and Siobhan were pulled up on stage to try and imitate the dances – very amusing. It wasn’t long before everyone was up and having a go – luckily our buddies were able to show us how it’s done!
Day 9
Today we went to church with our buddies. The service was a lot louder than we were used to, with lots of singing and dancing. After church, we walked down to Stumble Inn a beach lodge and enjoyed splashing in the sea and running showers for the first time in days! Dinner was Jollof rice – delicious!
Day 10
In the morning we held a planning session for the teenage pregnancy awareness workshop the next day. We discussed the issue with our buddies and found out some really interesting insights. We also shared information about the issue in the UK. In the afternoon we went for a long walk to market which was really hot and busy.
Day 15 – by Nicky and Frances
Being in Bantuma has been an amazing experience – we have been living in the heart of the village, surrounded by families cooking, cockerels, piglets and goats and have been woken up every day at around 4am by the community radio! We have been swamped by small children chanting ‘Obruni, how are you, I am fine, thankyou!’ with no pause for us to reply!
Sports day was a highlight this week. The girls and their buddies were phenomenal and managed to keep 100 kindergarten children entertained all morning.
It has been a humbling experience for all of us to see how hard children work in their families; the buddies have been so kind and welcoming and hopefully will be able to keep in touch with our girls.
Yesterday night we experienced Ghanaian cinema. Hidden between houses, we took our seats beneath a corrugated iron roof to watch a grainy version of ‘Father Timothy’ without subtitles. The plot was quite slow so we swapped to watching trailers of dodgy action films! At least two people walked through the cinema aisle with buckets and towels on their way to and from the community shower whilst we were watching!
We made our way back along the main road past stalls selling plastic funnels, maize, fabric, charcoal, sugar cane and laughing cow cheese. Loving every second of it!