Farming with my host family

Moi and my host dad...

Me, Sam and kirsty were lucky enough to go to a rice farm. We were told that there wasn't a rice farm in the kasapin village, but after watching a rice cultivating video, i was really intrigued i asked my host dad and he took us to his friends farm...so much work goes into cultivating rice.

To think we can just go to our local Tesco's or sainsbury's to buy a bag of rice, we dont think what it entails to actually prepare the rice...

Rice grows in swampy waters, here are the rice shoots growing...


My host dad, moi and Kirsty drying out the cocoa seeds before it gets packed up to the middle men who he sells them to for peanuts then they send it to the manufacturers in Accra, the capital...


We were all allocated a host family, this meant every Thursday we would do everything they done. Mine, Kirsty's and Sam's host family was elder Isiah, he is the chief's elder brother. In African tradition there is what you call a chief and a queen of every village (very much like the Mayor of a town).

My host father was a coco farmer. It would take us an hour to walk to his farm and we would spend about two hours coco farming! Hard work but exhilarating to know how chocolate is born!

We also saw how plantains, bananas, yams, rice are farmed...

These are casava, similar to yams...

My amazing host dad on the left, that's his worker on his right...In their hands they are holding cocoa pods, chocolate at birth :-)


My host dads worker sharpening his cutless...

Building kasapins' community center build

Love this one! lol!
Moi mixing the cement, yep no machinery here, all done using manual labour!



Days on the work site, hard work as you can see:-) ...


Hi ho, hi ho, off to work we go...

The bricks you see in the pic, yep they were made by us, oh yeah!

When i say Kasa you say Pin...

My groups project was to build a community center which will consist of a library & post office once completed.

Teaching at schools was part of the program also. I was lucky enough to teach my own profession, art and design! This was difficult at times, but successful i will go into this later, but i believe pictures (in certain circumstances such as this one) describes words better, so take a peek of my time in KASAPIN in fabulous Africa...

Arriving in africa :-)

Warm, humid beautiful Africa! :-) We arrived in the airport and got greeted by a few of the volunteers from the last group. As there were two groups that went out to Ghana my group (village called Kasapin) and the other group (village called Tapamania) we both got onto the coach and went straight to Accra, the capital of Ghana where we would have an introductory week of our time in Ghana for the 10 weeks.

We discussed issues such as: Malaria, Aids, clinics, the project we will be doing out there and most importantly the customs and language 'Twi'

KASAPIN.

Hello guys,

So i am back from my epic travels from Ghana, apologies first and for most for not keeping you informed as often as i would have liked with whats been happening, but the Internet connection in Goaso (Bronf Ahafo region in Ghana) was pretty bad (which i have posted in my last blog) which in a way was amazing, i feel really and truly detoxed from the spiders web of the 21st century communication lol!

But what an amazing experience i have had, whenever i talk about Ghana and the Platform 2 project to my friends and family the best i can come up with is: AMAZING, EYE-OPENER, SOUL STRENGTHENING, HAPPY, FULL OF ENERGY, BRILLIANT... it was the best time of my life so far!:-) and i will give a break down what we have done for the 10 weeks we were out there!

Before i do so i want to say a big thank you to the PLATFORM2 people, for firstly allowing me to get chosen on such an amazing adventure, thank you to Department for International Development (DFID), Christian Aid and Bunac for allowing this fantastic opportunity to exist for young individuals like myself to be apart of and express what we have learnt, seen & experienced to others and increase our knowledge on development in developing countries such as Ghana:-)

So let me invite you to my wonderful time in Ghana (Kasapin) where i spent 10 magnificent weeks in a warm, hospitable community and with a group of 16 Brits (people i went out there with) who i can call my new found friends, miss you and love you guys, lets begin...

AFRICA

Hey guys so this is like the first time we have been able to get onto the internet...oh my gosh it feels amazing!! lol! I never thought i would miss technology so much lol!

Anyways, Ghana is going amazing! The peeps are amazing, the food is coolio...guys i have to make this quick but just to let you know everything is going well, the kids are so cute, the build is hard work and i start teaching on monday bring it on!

K guys peace out! x

Ghana here i come!!!

So not long now until i reach the home land :-) Very excited, i haven't been thinking about it too much as i have been so busy but now its sinking in wooh, I'm so excited, its hitting me hehe!

K guys, off to finish off bits and pieces so I'm set, I'm sure there will be something i have forgotten about lol!

Peace out!