Hi - It’s us again!
We really can’t believe that it’s been 4 months since we left the UK. So much seems to have happened, despite it only feeling like yesterday that we left !

Since we last updated you, Anne (who we shared the bungalow with) has returned home to the UK. Anne was a volunteer with CMS (Christian Missionary Society) and was here for about a year helping the Anglican Diocese with their project development work.
When we first arrived in Cape Coast, Anne was a great help to us in explaining how things worked here, where to find places etc. which really helped us settle in.
We enjoyed having some really good conversations with Anne during the time she was here, especially about faith issues, and we learnt a lot from her.

At the beginning of August we were visited by Leah, a UK photo-journalist from USPG (the church based organisation that our placement was arranged through). Leah was filming / photographing in Ghana for USPG’s lent resources. She also filmed us at our places of work and interviewed us about our EEP (Experience exchange programme) experiences so far. I (Steve) spent a couple of days with Leah helping her with all the equipment she needed to carry with her and chatting with the crowd of inquisitive locals which often gathered whilst she filmed.

A few weeks ago our friend Helen came to visit. We travelled up to Accra (the capital) to meet her. The journey to Accra itself was very interesting as there was a catalogue of misunderstandings all along the way !
However, a highlight of the journey was that soon after leaving Cape Coast on the bus, a passenger towards the front of the bus stood up and announced that we should pray together for a safe journey. He went on to pray aloud whilst the other passengers bowed their heads before joining in with a hearty ‘Amen’ at the end.
It was very unexpected (to us) but a great experience to be part of.
Not sure what the response would be if we did the same on the Mickleover buses ?!

Whilst in Accra we took the opportunity to see a bit more of the city, as we didn’t see much at all when we first arrived in Ghana.
We walked through the area called James Town situated between the main city and the coast where there is (guess what ?!) another fort and lighthouse. It was an interesting area to walk through, a busy community with many people and children out and about on the streets, like so many of the urban areas here.

We also visited the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park. Dr Kwame Nkrumah was the Gold Coast’s first African Prime Minister and a leading figure in Ghana’s struggle for independence. There was a small museum (which was closing just as we arrived, although the gatekeeper who was more than happy to take our entrance fee didn’t mention this !) with many pictures of Nkrumah throughout his life.
It was nice to spend a short time in the small park as it felt like a haven of tranquillity within the noisy, crowded, hectic, polluted, mayhem of the city.

Further down the road from Nkrumah Memorial Park we passed Independence Square (otherwise known as Black Star Square). It is a huge empty concrete parade ground centring on Independence Arch. Sadly, what first sprung to mind when saw it (as others have commented) was the likeness to Maccy D’s golden arches !

We had a great week with Helen, and enjoyed taking her around Cape Coast and the local sights and giving her a flavour of our life here. You can see the view we had of part of Cape Coast from Fort William (which is an old lookout post near the castle which used to be used for signalling, but is now a lighthouse).
Helen also came along to experience a Ghanaian church service at the Uni Interdenominational Church (U.I.C.). Like so many things here, we find it so difficult to fully describe in words (even with the help of the odd few photos) the experiences we are having. But so hopefully Helen’s video clip of the service at U.I.C. will give you more of a feel for the liveliness and joyfulness of the worship.

In the couple of days before Helen returned to the UK we ventured North of Accra into the Eastern region to a town called Koforidua, from where we could visit Boti Falls (twin waterfalls). We were taken on a walking tour of the area around the falls, which also took us to Umbrella rock (which gave a great view of the surrounding area) and the ‘Miracle Palm’ which was unusual in that the trunk divided into 3 separate trees.
The journeying went well, with the exception of the Tro-tro breaking down part way to Kofuridua, but fortunately it was a very convenient place for it to happen as it was a main road in an urban area. The driver hadn’t disappeared for very long before he returned with a mechanic. We added ‘RAC’ to the mental list of things about UK life that we so much take for granted. It wasn’t much later before the fault was fixed and we had all squeezed back in to our seats for the rest of the journey.

Update from Steve
It is now the summer vacation so I am keeping myself occupied preparing lessons and resources for next term. I am enjoying trying to introduce more practical elements into my lessons, as most lessons tend to be taught purely as theory.

As think I’ve mentioned before, I’ve got involved with the building of a new counselling centre for the Mothers Union in Cape Coast (this was one of the projects that Anne was working on during her time in Cape Coast). It will be a counselling and vocational training centre for teenage mothers in this area. Last week we started preparing for the next stage of building work. It has been a long time since the last stage of the work was carried out (digging and casting the foundations) so much of the soil dug out to form the foundation trenches had fallen back in and needed to be removed.

To help with this the Mothers Union enlisted the help of the local prison, who provided a guard and 4 prisoners to carry out the work. I now see why they call it hard labour ! The men started work just after 8:00am and continued until 3:00pm (probably the hottest part of the day) with only a short break for something to eat. However, the work they did was fantastic and has really helped to move things forwards.
We plan to use students from Cape Tech that are studying Building Construction to help with the work on site. This should help to give the students valuable practical experience and also keep the labour costs down for the Mothers Union.

Update from Vicky
A few weeks ago a visiting team of Americans spent the week in the Eye-Centre. They were two surgeons (who between them carried out around 80 surgeries - mainly cataract plus a few cases of pterygia) and an Optometrist.
They brought some donated equipment with them, which is great as we now have a phoropter head in the refraction room and the eye-centre now has a retinoscope.

I’ve just about got used to life at the eye-clinic without the Optometry students since their course has restarted after the vacation. However, I have now become involved at the university helping out with the 4th Years ‘Orthoptics’ module (Optometry is a 6 year course here). The uni has a shortage of Optometry lecturers and there is currently no-one to teach Orthoptics. So, on the understanding that anything would (hopefully !) be better than nothing, I somehow ended up agreeing to lecture Orthoptics!
I’m finding it a challenge, and I have been terrible company for Steve (as I am permanently on the lap-top preparing for the next lecture) but I would actually have to admit to almost enjoying it a little !

So that’s us pretty much up to date we think.
Thanks for following our progress ….
Hope you are enjoying the latter part of the UK Summer … we’ve heard you did have some sun after all ?!

Hello again.
Sorry it’s been so long since the last update…..

Well the big news since the last time we wrote is that President Barack Obama (he’s the new guy in the USA for anyone who knows even less about politics than us!) came to Cape Coast a few weeks ago.

Cape Coast had been buzzing for about a month before the visit and everyone was very excited that the new president would be coming to visit Cape Coast Castle. T-shirts and shirts were printed with his picture on them (alongside the Ghana president). There was also a special celebratory fabric printed with Obama’s picture on it ! Many people were wearing outfits made of it on the day. US and Ghana flags were being sold along with other Obama merchandise and some of the street sellers were even selling ‘Obama’ biscuits ! The castle was painted and generally everywhere was given a spruce up.

We heard on the grape vine that Mr Obama was going to be landing by helicopter in the Dwarves football stadium at 11:00am so we made sure we were there just in time. We were more interested in seeing how excited the local Ghanaians were and experiencing the atmosphere than actually seeing Mr Obama himself (sorry Barack !).

Just in case some of you haven't realized you can click on the pictures opposite to see them a bit bigger. (Sorry the American spelling is especially for Mr Obama).

At 3:00pm (after a long, hot 4 hours of waiting) two huge military helicopters turned up followed shortly afterwards by two more ‘executive’ helicopters, presumably with the man himself in one of them.
During this time one of the trees behind us that many people (several people too many!) were using as a vantage point, made a rather loud cracking sound as the branches broke off and several people made their way rather quickly and unexpectedly back down to ground level.

Shortly after this, a procession of large black 4x4 vehicles with blacked out windows emerged from the football ground and drove away at speed towards the castle.
Sadly no one actually got to see the man himself, at least not from where we were.
The build up of the atmosphere of anticipation was quite something though, and there was so much excitement and cheering when the helicopters finally arrived. Huge crowds had gathered all around the stadium and all along the 2 mile stretch of road to the castle as well as all around the castle. In fact people were standing on roof tops, shelters, church verandas (in fact anywhere high up) to get a view.

All in all, the US President was in Ghana for just under 24 hours and in Cape Coast for less than 3 hours. We’re not sure what this visit will mean for Ghana in the future but we hope it’s worth all the carbon!

Last weekend we headed north out of Cape Coast to Kumasi (the second largest city in Ghana) 4 hours North of Cape Coast. We had wanted to have a weekend away to visit Kusami for a while, but whenever we were free to go the road to that area was flooded. We travelled up to Kumasi, by bus on a variety of new tarmac roads, old tarmac roads, tarmac roads with pot holes, dirt roads with pot holes and just pot holes. Signs of the recent flooding were clear to see.

Kumasi is a very bustling hectic city centred on a huge open air market said to be the biggest in West Africa. As soon as we stepped off the bus it felt like we had been living in some sleepy back water for the last 3 months and now we were in the big city.

We started our Kumasi experience by visiting The Cultural Centre where there is a small interesting museum of historical artefacts. Kumasi is the capital of the ancient Ashanti region and there is a lot of history and several famous legends centred on the area.
We also visited the King’s palace where the Ashanti King still lives. It was nice to see an old building beautifully preserved. Sorry but pictures in the palace were not allowed!

Whilst in Kumasi we met up with our friend Morgan, a student dispensing optician who had been on placement at the eye centre when Vicky first started. Morgan showed us round some more of the sights of Kumasi and took us into the heart of the Kejetia market (which was an experience and a half !) and on a taxi tour of the University campus where he has just finished studying.

Morgan (in the red T-shirt in the foreground) also took us to an ‘optical shop’ within the market which operates from the most compact premises we have ever seen. It’s a dispensing practice only, which is fortunate as to get the standard 6m testing distance the patient would have to sit on the market stall opposite!

We also saw some interesting building practices whilst walking round the city. The men in the picture were moving all the stone up to the first floor. The man at the bottom would throw a head pan full of stone to the first guy on the ladder who would lift it on to his head ready for the second man up to lift it off and place it on his own head and so on. We did pass by again later in the weekend and it was surprising how much progress they had made.

I (Steve !) have now finished at Cape Tech for the summer vacation. Term ended with exams (which we are still to hear the results of) and the usual end of term assembly. As you can see from the photo, like many school assemblies I’ve been to in the past, some of the students were happier to be there than others !

But the school band did their best to liven things up and make it another memorable occasion.

We’ve heard the UK Summer has been a ‘wash out’. Oh dear.
It’s reaching the end of the rainy season here, so lets hope your weather follows the same pattern….