Nottingham Emmanuel School in Ghana

We had a bit of a rocky start early on Friday morning, as some of us were sick; however, everyone is now back in top form so DO NOT WORRY!! The change in the environment has had an impact on everyone in different ways, but we knew that was inevitable. As the morning began, we all had some breakfast and made our way down to Elmina Castle with our buddies. The castle was the main place of slave trade in Elmina, amongst other commodities, such as salt and gold. We had a tour and found out lots of information about the castle and the story behind it. It was shocking and upsetting to see the conditions of the castle and dungeons as we learned about the people that were kept there and how they were treated. The journey on the way back from the castle was interesting to say the least. We went through a market which was packed with people and for the first time, we felt like a minority as people pressed against the busses from all sides. On the way back to Dutch Komenda, we had a quick visit to a Sabre primary school in order to try to find some inspiration for our projects and continued the journey back to Dutch Komenda. As some slept and recovered from the night, a group of us visited the beach. It was beautiful. After a splash around and rest under the coconut trees, we wandered back to the school. For the rest of the afternoon, we did some project work and finished painting the upper halves of the buildings white. After a busy, tiring day, we all fell asleep under the gorgeous stars and had our first night without any rain.

Saturday 9th July 2016
Today, we all woke up raring and ready to go. We spent the whole morning painting the bottom halves of the building green and varnishing the bamboo for the fence for the playground. The projects are coming on really nicely and everything is starting to take shape. We painted the buildings in the school colours of green and which made the buildings stand out and look sharp.
We’ve just finished a delicious lunch of fresh fish, caught from the sea less than 100 yards away, with freshly baked bread and salad, and we are now looking forward to a relaxing afternoon with Rasta-man and his drums before stories around a campfire under the stars tonight.

Sunday 10th July 2016:
Today we went to church, which was an exciting experience. We split into three groups and attended different churches within the community; some went to a Catholic Church, others a Pentecostal Church and the last group went to a Protestant Church. Following on from this we all went to the beach, which was amazing- Peaceful, breezy and warm. We played some football, sun bathed, went in the sea and dug up crabs from their dens. Yesterday evening, we had a good laugh together, as we danced and sang songs. Many people were celebrating when we were able to find out the results of Wimbledon and the Formula 1, and to finish off the day, Mr Skinner and Soloman (the village football coach) kindly organised for us to be able to watch the final of the Euros, which was enjoyed by all.
Monday 11th July 2016:
We had an early start today as we headed out to the rainforest with our buddies. We aimed to leave here between 7:30 and 8:00. However, in typical Ghanaian spirit we were late and left at 8:30, which pleased many of us as we were woken at 6:00am, and were quite happy to relax a little longer. Once we reached Kakum, the Rainforest, we started our ascent to The Canopy Walk, which wasn’t far but was very exhausting in the heat as we clambered up many steps. The Canopy Walk was thrilling. The walkway was made up of a ladder covered in wood that was held up by what appeared to only be rope! However, we were assured we were completely safe… When we finished the canopy walk we had some time to relax and have a good look around some shops and eat lunch. We all then jumped back into the buses and headed to the cocoa plantation where we were able to try fresh cocoa seeds that had been taken from a pod just cut from the tree. The cocoa seeds were very slimy and the flavour ‘tasted like mango’. We then continued our journey to Hans Cottage which stirred up a mixture of emotions as we were put in a position where we were less than three meters away from wild crocodiles; Mr Skinner was rather worried that he hadn’t done a risk assessment for a crocodile attack. Some Ghanaian teachers were crazy enough to touch the beasts, whilst Mr Skinner was adamant that we were ‘NOT TOUCHING THE CROCODILES!!!’. Tonight we have little planned, but we may end up playing a wide game or having a dance battle. We are all having an incredible time and today was the first day in a few where everyone was feeling well enough to fully embrace the activities, which lifted group moral massively.