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Group1 Zina Blog3 / Ghana - Afadjato

So we have arrived in our village, called Gbledi Chebi. It’s a small village has one shop, one spot e.g. a drinking place and an omelet lady, a local woman who makes wicked omelets, they will become your best friend over here!!!!!!!!! It took us 6 hours to travel from Accra but that was cool. The bus was air conditioned which is a huge luxury over here! LOL! The community was very welcoming and the children are constantly excited to see us, we have fun hanging out with them every night!!!!!!!! I’ve fallen in love with ALL of them!!!!! And often enjoy dancing and playing the local clapping games with them too!

We had an official welcome from the community where we met some of the chiefs of the village, that was a cool experience to see how the whole community comes together to make decisions about their area, I think a work colleague of mine was right when he commented about how much cooperative working seems to be an essential part of life here in Africa, we could really learn something from that I think.

We are working in the next village from where we live called Gbledi Gbogame, at the Ghana Wildlife Society Community Project. I think it’s called the Afadjato and Augumasta Range? Our first project was to move a pile of rubble from one place into a ditch which was tough work, we sweated so much we didn’t think we’d make through the day….but we survived, even though we saw our first Scorpion…….welcome to Ghana eh?????? LOL! So far our group has made a stone path around the visitor centre, the aim is to beautify the space in front of the building and help control the water that collects from the rainfall. The visitor centre will be used for tourist administration before they embark on their journeys up to the top of Mount Afadjato. We’ve also transplanted grass from one of the nearby villages to a part of the park but the highlight of the week had to have been my birthday!!!!! I celebrated my 23rd birthday at the Wli Waterfalls, it was great! Soooo beautiful! Easily the best birthday I’ve had so far!!!!!!!! I even got to go in and touch the rocks at the back!!!!! I also got some earrings, 2 pairs and a bracelet that some of the group decided to get for me! Martin even made me a hand made card which was great! It was a really cool day and I do not think I’ll ever forget it.

Oh before I forget, we actually had two highlights in one week! Friday we actually got to climb Mount Afadjato, the highest mountain in Ghana and about 850 meters or 2900 feet to be exact. After that tho most of the group was not fit to work, how unfit are we!!!!!!!! Was a great experience though and I’m glad to have done it however I don’t know if I’ll ever do it again!!!!!!!!!!!

This weekend it was just us and the village children, was great though as the whole community came to our house for a drumming and dancing session. The whole group got a chance to experience traditional Volta Region style!!!!!!!! Buki in particular flourished at the local dance, which I also do not know how to spell Sorrryyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!

On the whole the group is getting on fantastically, we’ve got a great bunch of people here everyone seems to have adjusted to the heat, food, culture and language very well! Looking forward to next week as it will be the first of many weekend adventures, first stop Accra ……cannot wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope to be able to write to you all very soon but internet access here is very scarce and VERY SLOW!!!!!!!!!!

That’s all for now folks!!!!!!!
Bye!!!!!!!