Bad times, but the truth of what happens in developing countries such as Ghana!

Feces on in the cot in the clinic...

Pics from my phone. What the drip was hanging from...


After my 3rd week in Ghana, i caught Malaria, yep bad times, bad times. before you say anything, yes i had vaccinations, yes i was taking my tablets, yes i sprayed mosquito repellent on myself, yes i slept with a net on and yes i did cover up, but those damn mosquito's still found a way to feast on my blood!

Earlier in my blog i mentioned we had a intensive talk on malaria, how it affects so many individuals and how you can die from it, it is SERIOUS!!! I didn't think i would get it but the doctors in Ghana know what they are doing as it is such a common thing!

The symptoms vary from people to people, you can get diarrhea headaches or have vomiting. I was very lucky, i thought i drunk to much fizzy drink as my stomach was really bloated lol...nope it was malaria.

I was ill for about a week, it was horrible! What really made me upset was the fact that as a Brit, i was seen first, in a way i didn't mind cause i was feeling awful, but at the same time it is unjust if there were other people before me.

Whilst lying down on the hospital bed all i could think about was my family, and how lucky i am and how i really love the NHS right now!

I am telling you we are extremely lucky, it is all relative but nevertheless we are lucky! I couldn't hold my emotions anymore, i was sobbing my eyes out. I was lying down on a stained bed, feces in the cot beside me and a chicken was running around yep you heard right! It doesn't seem right huh?

But i wasn't crying for me cause i know i would be ok, i was crying for the people in the community and i was told by my supervisor Knox, this is the best clinic in the village! Its just not right! How can people live like this, they are human beings...

After a week i was fine, but i sure respected my health after that! Quite a few of us in the group fell ill which was expected, we are Westerners, never lived away from Europe for such a lengthy time, it was to be expected. But my group was amazing, we helped eachother out, looked out for one another and we had good support from our supervisors! :-)


Moi on a drip...

Bad times people, bad times!

The last days in Kasapin :-(

Me and Sam being made King and Queen of kasapin...Yesssssur! :-) Queen Nana Viviane Williams Agyobi IV

The ceremony was lovely, the elders of the village and the community were present...






The Kasapin crew...


We were all really sad to leave the village. It became part of our home, the community was now our family, it was really difficult but we were so happy that we had the opportunity to volunteer and become part of the community in kasapin, Ghana!

When i say KASA you say PIN....KASAPIN!!!!!!

Sanitation & construction

painting the welcoming sign...

Constructing the bins...



Moi meeting the Chief of the village...

The sign finished...

Our project in Kasapin was to build a community center and teach however, we all found it difficult to see rubbish around the streets. The sanitation was a major problem we later found out.

The villagers often burnt the rubbish which could be extremely harmful especially if plastic bags are burnt. Us as a collective decided to try and do something about this, we gathered money ourselves as a group and got the community (the entire village) to help. We approached the chief and discussed what we proposed to do, he got on board and we raised a whopping 60 cedis which is Ghana's currency. To put things into perspective, we earned 15 cedis every week, this amount can feed a family of 4 for a week so this was alot of money!

With this money we constructed wooded poles where the bins could sit into and bought 10 bins to put around the entire village.

We also constructed and designed a welcoming sign for the village which was 10 cedis

You would think this would be a simple process, but oh no, it was really difficult. Raising the money was hard, we had to educate the community as to why this is necessary, constructing the sign was tricky as we would wake up 6am to be at the work site for 7am, work until 11am the have lunch and then teach from 12-3:30pm, this with the heat and exhaustion was difficult indeed, but as a team we worked together! Love you Kasapin crew!:-)

Teaching

Teaching graphics...

My pupils haha! never thought i'll say that...


As you can see they are still using chalk and blackboards. The rooms are really cramped, this class room had 37 pupils. The chairs, tables were unsuitable with nails sticking out, and the desk legs falling apart. This is all they have got!

How are they suppose to concentrate? Us Brits have everything, desks, tables, pens, electronic interactive boards yet the pupils are not willing to learn why? it does make you think how ungrateful we are...

Ghana life!

Kwami on the loom weaving Kente cloth...He's 11 years old and does this job during the summer...

Kwaku aged 19, palming FuFu...


My beautiful host brother on his way back from school, JUNIOR!!!! What a cutie!

Moi doing my washing, couldn't resist to take my yellow Marigold gloves...

My group doing our drumming lesson...


The village of Kasapin...

Moi and my supervisor in Ghana, Pep...


The kids...


This little one is called Porcher, she is 7 years old. My host dad in the village adopted her as her family is extremely poor from another village. She wasn't able to attend school but now thanks to my host dad, Elder Isiah she now attends a comprehensive school in kasapin called LA.

Porcher helps around the house and does the everyday chores. She is a real, strong hero in my eyes, what 7 year old in the UK would do what she does in order to have an education? We are so very lucky! keep up the good work Porcher :-)

My host dad's worker. She is grinding corn meal in my host dad's factory...

The bright school kids of Kasapin...

Madame Dankwa (on the left). She is a midwife in kasapin, she owns her own clinic in the village. Here she is teaching us how to make soap...Really interesting....


Washing unit, this was our sink! old school dish washer...


No cookers here, charcoal fires and crook pots used to cook our dinners...

One of our cooks, Abigail...

My host dad's sister in law, she's 83 years old, still going strong, still working hard, still doing the chores, no retirement or pension scheme here...

Awww the beautiful kids...

Mine and kirsty's room for our time in Ghana, this was our home for nearly 3 months! Good times, good times!


kasapin's market...