Day 4
This morning we went to the palace in Dwabor and we met the ‘nana’ family. They welcomed us into their family and community and we gave them apple schnapps; it felt good being part of the community. When we came back to the area where we sleep, we were swarmed by little children. We played with them for ages but many of us felt ill so went to bed. Finally we got to spend some time with our buddies which was nice.
Josh
Day 5
Happy birthday Ernest! (Dougs buddy). This morning we had eggy bread for breakfast. We then began to set up for sports day. We did the KG children first which was very hectic as there were lots of them. After an amazing lunch of spring rolls, we held a sports day for the main school. After this 5 of the English boys played a football match against a Ghanaian team and they lost by quite a lot. The team they were playing was made up of just a bunch of 10 year olds!
Jodie
“ Today was a very happy day and all the students are very excited about the Weydon students being here. Aswell as the teachers, they all enjoyed today. I just want to say thank you about today and all the buddies are very happy about today and we give thanks to Carol” By Ernest
Day 6
Today was fantasic! The drums played at the call to prayer were brilliant! Some of the team actually enjoyed waking up at 4:30. We had pancakes for breakfast, absolutely delicious! The buddies came at 8:30 and we planted 19 trees on the hill. After the team had to entertain the KG kids. They read to them, played football and played many clapping games. At 12 we headed to Elmina castle, its 513 years old and used to hold slaves during the times of slavery. It was so interesting. We headed to the market after that and people bought presents for their family and their buddies. The journey home was a rave! Everyone was dancing, singing and laughing. We had tuna and tomato rice for dinner, another food triumph. We then set up another bonfire. Harvey had a lizard fall on his head when he was on the long drop! Hilarious, oh and I promised to say to Annalise, Sophie and Faharna. Missing you loads, and mum (Anne) and Hollie thank you for homesick packages, still unopened, thank you!
Bethany
Clement (beth’s buddy) says “The slaves were being raped by the governers, and first the owners of the castle were the portugise and they sold it to the british.”
Day 7
This morning we had to go to the well to fill up the water tank, we were all struggling to carry it up the hill. When there were children of about 5 year old carrying it on their heads. For breakfast we had eggy bread and porridge. Today’s project was the culture day which was organised by Sophie, Jodie and May li. We painted flags on big pieces of material using children’s hand prints which they enjoyed a lot. Some of us taught the children to do the Macarena whilst they taught us a range of their dances. Lunch was fried plantain and beans. We then had a cooking session with out buddies where we taught them how to bake scones and they cooked us mashed yams, salty fish and plantains. It was very different to what we were used to but we all tried a little bit. Also throughout the day some of us learnt how to make wristbands and weave belts out of clothing line string. Other activities were colouring in flags which we joined together to make a chain to hang in the classroom, and learning Fanti from the Ghanians. I thought today went really well because everyone had something to do and the children and buddies seemed to have a lot of fun. In the evening we went down to the school and watched films that the previous teams from last year had recorded and made, and awarded medals to the winners of the sports day. We’re really enjoying it here and can’t wait to tell you all about it when we get back!
May Li
Day 8
Today we had a bit of a lie in as we didn’t have breakfast until 7:30, which was an omelette sandwich. After that we all went to fetch water from the well then got ready to go to the cocoa farm. We left at 10am and walked through the village with some of the buddies. On the way we got given very fresh oranges or ‘greens’ which the buddies peeled with machetes. Once we got to the cocoa farm we tried the membrane from the cocoa seeds inside the cocoa pods. On the way back we crossed a ‘bridge’ of three bamboo poles and tried samples of sugar cane.
After lunch we went to the village to see the cocoa beans being dried which takes around 5 days depending on the weather. We saw cocoa that had dried more, it tasted very bitter! We came back to the school and had a bit of time to relax before dinner.
Issy
Day 9
Today was a pretty chilled day. After breakfast we had to do another well run. The team got split into different groups and visited different churches. We all had to donate some money towards each church. Each group ended up dancing and singing.
After church everyone had a few hours to relax and talk to our buddies. Doug’s buddy Ernest started to make people belts out of string. At 4:00 we all went in groups to visit our buddies houses. After that everyone relaxed and got ready for bed. Hi mum (Helen), don’t miss me too much!
Harvey