The end is nigh!

Sadly our time in Cape Coast is drawing to an end …

We have enjoyed two bank holidays recently – useful time to catch up on jobs and shopping etc. One bank holiday was to celebrate a Muslim festival and the second was ‘Farmers Day’. We understand that in order to encourage people into farming, on ‘Farmers Day’ each year the government gives equipment and benefits to farmers in a different part of Ghana. This was the 25^th ‘Farmers Day’.

Last week we both attended a service of 4 lessons and carols at Cape Tech. It was stressed that we should all be present for a prompt start at 5pm. Needless to say when we arrived at 5pm there was no sign of anything starting in the near future (as you can see!). In hind sight, with our 7 months experience in Ghana we should have been able to predict it would not have started promptly!

The service finally started at 6.20pm! We were invited to sit at the front behind the principle and the clergy on the top table. Steve was part of the service as he did one of the readings. It was an enjoyable service including traditional Christmas carols and very lively Ghanaian worship songs which involved the students dancing in a procession around the hall waving their handkerchiefs.

It has been refreshing here that the meaning of Christmas hasn’t got lost in excessive commercialism! However, there has in fact been surprisingly little sign of Christmas at all.

We are struggling to accept that it’s nearly Christmas as the way we’ve spent the last few weeks has been so different to how we’d normally spend advent in the U.K.

Our last two weeks at UIC (University Interdenominational Church) were both special services and were held in the partly completed new church building. The existing building is much too small to seat the big congregation for each of the two Sunday morning services.

We enjoyed the ‘Children’s Day’ service which was led by the children and youth of the church, with singing, dancing and drama.

Our last service at UIC was the Thanksgiving service. This is an annual service for reflecting on the past year and celebrating the things for which we are grateful. It was helpful as a way for us to reflect on our time in Cape Coast and also good for us to consider the things that are important in our lives, having experienced something of the challenges faced by many people in and around Cape Coast.

It’s been a busy few weeks tying up loose ends at Cape Tech, the Eye Centre and with the Mothers Union project. We have also been trying to see everyone before we leave.

On Thursday we had an informal gathering of people who we have met whilst here, at a local ‘Spot’ (bar). We had no idea of how many people would come as it was an open invite but it seemed to work out very well and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

We were both presented with a gift of traditional clothing by Mr Lyhall, the principle of Cape Tech.

When the ‘gathering’ ended we were invited to a MU (Mother’s Union) meeting where there was a presentation for us and we were each given a Ghanaian outfit. You will be seeing us wearing quite a range of Ghanaian attire on our return ! People have been incredibly generous.

Steve’s Update

The last two weeks of term have been spent with the students taking end of term exams. Ironic really as the first year students had only actually started having lessons 2-3 weeks before. This made it a little tricky thinking of exam questions to ask them. I spent some of this time invigilating exams in the subject I had helped teach.

There was a closing ceremony just before the final exam (not after the final exam to make sure students would attend). At the closing ceremony I was called up to the front and was presented with a certificate of thanks from the staff and students of the school for my work there.

Vicky’s Update

I can’t say I enjoyed the experience of invigilating (well sitting at the front not knowing what was expected of me!) during the orthoptics exam.

However, we met the students socially last week to spend some time with them in a more relaxed atmosphere (!) and to say goodbye. They surprised us by presenting Steve (who had also got so know some of them through his help with the lectures) and I with a gift each and made individual thank you speeches.

It was a very jovial and fun evening, and a great opportunity to chat and to learn more about them.

So, as we move on …….

We feel sad to be leaving in many ways. We have met some fantastic and inspiring people here and made some special friendships.

As we’re sure you will have realised we have had so many great experiences throughout our time here and found aspects of the different ways of life very refreshing.

So it is with mixed emotions we now leave Ghana to return home for Christmas. We hope you forgive the lack of Christmas cards this year (due to the unpredictable postal service in Ghana) but we do wish you a very Happy Christmas and very best wishes for 2010.

Hope to see many of you very soon!

Journeying to the east

Sorry to sound unsympathetic to those of you shivering away in the chilly climes of the UK but it’s still getting hotter here in Cape Coast. In fact, a quick blast of cold UK air every now and then would be very welcome ! We are generally coping with the heat and humidity and are used to feeling hot and sticky most of the time.

We recently spent a few days travelling in the Eastern Region and Volta Region of Ghana. We stayed a couple of nights at Atimpoku at a beautiful location by the river Volta. It was really peaceful and there was a great view of the river and the Volta bridge.

We were very fortunate with the accommodation (we hadn’t been able to book in advance) as this particular place had just one room left (all the chalets were occupied). It was a bizarre room behind the reception, basically a bed in an office / study and we shared the staff shower and toilet outside (which was quite quirky!).

From Atimpoku we visited Akosombo – home of the Akosombo dam, a hydro-electric dam which produces electricity for most of Ghana and parts of neighbouring Togo and Benin. Apparently it generates 1020 Mega Watts of electricity, which we understand to be quite few light bulbs worth! It was a very interesting visit and brought memories of GCSE Geography lessons back to life.

We then travelled further north to the town of Hohoe, whose points of interest included a vulture colony (although disappointingly they weren’t singing ‘We’re your friends’ like in the Jungle Book !) and visited Wli (pronounced ‘Vlee’) falls. The scenery in the Volta region is much greener and much more hilly than the coastal area around Cape Coast – it was both interesting and refreshing to see a different ‘side’ of Ghana.

Update from Steve

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit a project in the Keea district where a charity called the Sabre Trust www.sabretrust.org are building a new Kindergarten school. The trust has partnered up with Davis Langdon, Arup, A-Kon (Ghana based quantity surveyors) and Atelier (Ghana based Architects) for this project. It is basically a prototype Kindergarten classroom which is designed and built using sustainable principles and resources wherever possible.

I also had the opportunity to take part in a ‘Staff vs students’ football match at Cape Tech (the teachers are playing in the yellow shirts). I lasted for about 20 minutes before being substituted. The younger forwards left me standing on a couple of occasions (I blame the heat!!! Or was it just that they were about half my age ?).

We have now (eventually) started teaching the new first year students and I am getting to put to use some of the

resources I developed over the summer and the early part of term. It is still

quite frustrating though as lessons are often abandoned at little or no notice (or so it seems – or it may be just a communication error) for other school activities like try outs for the athletics team, i

nter-house quizzes and ‘entertainment’.

On Fridays the building construction students continue to work on the Mothers Union counselling centre site. After the students’ hard work the ‘Mothers’ provide food such as Kenkey (ground maize soaked in water and made into a dough) and fried fish for them at the end of the day which the teachers distribute between themselves and the students.

Update from Vicky

I have now finished my lectures at UCC and the students are on study leave preparing for their end of semester exams. They say that they enjoyed the lectures, especially the practicals, despite the fact that the resources (e.g. bars for bar reading and dot cards for C.I.) were ‘home made’. Most things I had made out of ginger biscuit boxes, of which Steve and I had accumulated an alarming number !

Steve masterfully engineered a couple of mounts onto which we stuck loose prisms to create two prism bars (of sorts).

There have recently been some interesting cases at the eye-centre, including this 10 year old boy who had never had an eye examination before. He was found to be extremely long-sighted (+14DS) and visually impaired (even when wearing spectacles). He is one of a number of patients to have benefited from some magnifiers donated by Burrows Opticians. The others have included a 22 year old student with oculo-cutaneous albinism who was still in ‘basic’ (junior) school, having great difficulty with his schoolwork due to his visual impairment, and a nurse in his late thirties with end-stage glaucoma who was unable to read labels on prescriptions and medicines etc.

There's not much sign of Christmas here yet, although we imagine it's a different story where you are! It will be interesting to see how things change over the next few weeks.

Yes, we are still here !

Update from Steve

Well we are now 7 weeks (half way) into the first term of this academic year, yet there are still no lessons under way for the new intake of first year students. This is for a number of reasons, but seems (to me anyway) to be a real waste of valuable teaching time.

I used this as an opportunity to take a very informal Geography lesson, using the inflatable globe that we brought with us. I was at least able to explain that the United Kingdom and United States were not next door to each other which is what some students seemed to think ! We also did a ‘tour’ of the UK based on the location of premier league football stadiums. I think every Ghanaian has heard of Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford and some had even heard of Derby County (but not Pride Park!).

Last week the school hosted the APTI (Association of Principles of Technical Institutes) conference. The conference started with a very grand opening ceremony involving the school’s cadet core and regimental band parading and a performance by the cultural dance group.

For the last few weeks the 3rd year Building Construction students have been taking part in practical work at the Mothers Union site, a short bus ride from the school. The students really seem to enjoy the experience, although I’m not sure if this is just because of the bottle of pop and food they are given at the end of the day.

Hopefully by the next update teaching will be underway for the new first year students!


Update from Vicky

There has been quite a change in the eye centre as Dr Asante (the Ghanaian Ophthalmologist who has been visiting to carry out surgery each month) has become a full time member of staff here. It is excellent news for the eye centre, as the work load was too much for the existing resident ophthalmologist (who doesn’t do surgery) and the one Ophthalmic nurse. Dr Asante is full of ideas and enthusiasm and can hopefully help the eye centre with many of the difficulties it is facing.

Last week there was a special project at the eye centre, examining 130 school children from 23 different schools in Cape Coast. They had all been identified by their teachers as having a vision or eye related problem of some sort. I was involved in organising the project along with Gloria, who is a VSO volunteer working in Cape Coast with the Special Education Department of the Metropolitan Assembly (equivalent of our local council).
We involved some Optometry students from the local university in the project to help out, and who hopefully benefited from the experience and the opportunity to see some interesting cases.
It was a very hectic two days, particularly as the project ran alongside the normal clinic at the eye-centre, so trying to keep the two ‘processes’ separate was not easy and was somewhat chaotic at times !
The project posed various challenges and problems. Trying to source low cost lenses and frames was one such challenge for me. ‘Wheeling and dealing’ isn’t my forte at the best of times, yet alone when there are additional complications of language difficulties, cultural differences and the apparent perception that NGO funded projects carry unlimited funding !
However the project seems to have been worthwhile as we dispensed 26 pairs of spectacles and issued eye medication to 32 children (allergic / vernal conjunctivitis is particularly common in this area). Some of the children’s problems were pretty extreme ; we dispensed a couple of pairs of glasses for very high short-sightnedness (one was -15.00 DS with a -2.50 cyl !) and a number of pairs for high levels of long- sightedness.
It feels like the project was dealing with the ‘tip of the iceberg’, as the problem of lack of accessible eye care here is of serious concern.

General update
A few weeks ago we were invited to spend the weekend at the home of Benjamin, one of the teachers at Cape Tech. He lives in a small village called Asebu about 10-12km away from Cape Coast. We were really privileged to experience life in a Ghanaian family home and were made to feel very welcome. In Ghana the family unit includes the extended family and tends to be very large. Benjamin (in the stripey T shirt) lives with his wife and children, in a ‘complex’ with some of his siblings and many of their children too. Family relationships can be a little complicated as some men have children with more than one wife. Benjamin for example is one of ten boys and ten girls that his father had with two wives. It is Ghanaian culture to consider cousins as brothers or sisters and nieces and nephews as sons and daughters. For additional confusion Ghanaian can also refer to close friends as brothers and sisters so all in all it can be (and was!) very confusing.




On the Sunday we went to church with Benjamin and his brother. They attend the local Methodist Church in Asebu. We were invited to do a reading and we surprised the congregation by introducing and concluding it in Fante. Need less to say we read the actual bible passage in English. !







For Vicky’s birthday we spent an evening at the Cape Coast cinema. It is an interesting cinema because the auditorium is outdoors and the film was projected from a laptop computer and projector, relatively hi-tech AV equipment (on the white table on the picture) onto a huge white sheet. We covered ourselves in copious amounts of insect repellent and settled into the wooden pews ready for the ‘show’ to begin! Unfortunately, for the first hour this AV experience was either Audio or Visual but not the two together. We didn’t know what film was going to be shown and we couldn’t tell whether the film had started or if we were watching the trailers ! In the end the main feature was something like a Bollywood version of a Rocky film – perhaps not what Vicky would have chosen for a birthday treat but another interesting experience all the same.

To add to our recent cultural experiences we went to see a play at the local university. The actors were all lecturers from the department of theatre studies and put on a really good performance. As we were leaving at around 9:30pm we could see that some classes were still having lectures even at that time of night. We’ve also learnt that some lectures start at 7am or earlier. Not sure how many students in the UK would make it to a lecture at that time ….?

We have got a busy few weeks ahead but we are also hoping to have a few days away. It has been FAR too long since we’ve visited a coastal fort !

We hope that life in the UK is treating you all well.

Carnival Season!

At the beginning of September was the annual Cape Coast Festival (Afehye ; pronounced ‘a-fesh-ay’) so on the Saturday we headed into town to see the procession. We had asked a number of people what time the procession would start and the answers ranged from 9am – 4pm so we went around 9.30 am pretty confident that we wouldn’t have missed it! One thing we have learnt from experience here is to use a large ‘sample size’ when trying to find out information from people. The chances are, however many people you ask no two answers will be the same, but if a few are vaguely similar you are likely to be on the right lines!
Anyway, back to the Afehye festival (which incidentally passed through town around 1 ish). We had a good view of the passing procession from the ‘balcony’ of a shop on the main street, along with many other people, all trying to get a good view.
The procession consisted of many groups of people, some singing and dancing, various bands, and the many sub-chiefs of Cape Coast along with their entourages including their ‘Queen Mothers’, followed by the ‘top’ chief of Cape Coast. The chiefs travelled in Palanquins, each carried on the heads of 4 men, under giant decorative parasols. The streets were packed with crowds of people and there was a real atmosphere of excitement and celebration.
We made our way behind the procession to Jubilee Gardens (a sports ground by the castle) where the chiefs meet together with along with the Ghanaian president. As we understand it, this traditionally is the opportunity for the chiefs to tell the president of any difficulties in their communities and to see how he can help. We caught a glimpse of Ghana President Atta Mills as he arrived. We have to say security wasn’t nearly as tight as when President Obama visited.

Another interesting occasion recently was attending the celebration of the enstoolment of a new chief in the nearby town of Dukwe. We were invited and taken by Becky, a friend that we have made here, who is the sister -in-law of the new chief.
There were many people gathered at the family home and the new chief was sat outside in a yard / courtyard on a throne-like chair. He was wearing a traditional cloth worn like a toga, special sandals and a huge gold ring bearing a big gold symbol of his clan. Either side of him sat one of his elders and a row of guests, with many more guests seated nearby. When we arrived we followed the tradition of greeting all the other guests individually (where possible, although we didn’t manage everyone as there were so many people!) and greeted the chief himself before being seated, right next to the chief and his elders. No chance of blending into the background and observing from a distance!
The formalities of the enstoolment had taken place during the previous week so this was the celebratory social gathering, and people were just sitting or chatting. It was very interesting to chat to the chief (who interestingly is from Brooklyn, USA !) although he told us that he should only converse through his elders who were also his spokesmen (oops) and to speak to his elders (after we’d learnt this!) about traditions of chieftancy. Actually, that was only one of many social ‘faux pas’ we made that afternoon, but not having a clue what to expect or what was expected of us in such an unfamiliar situation (neither of us having been to many enstoolments of chiefs in our lifetimes !) we hoped people would understand our ignorance and not be offended by our errors.
Anyway, all of a sudden the chief got up and left and we were taken to meet one of the other chiefs who was at the celebration. Unfortunately it all happened so quickly we hadn’t had time to pluck up the courage to ask to take a picture but to be honest it didn’t feel appropriate. So forgive the lack of photo at this point !

Last week we took a few days off work to travel into the Western Region past Takoradi to small town called Beyin not far from the border with Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). It was interesting to see how the landscape and settlements gradually changed becoming more and more rural and poorer as we travelled further West.

Three different types of endangered turtles nest on the beach at Beyin. Ghana Wildlife Society run a turtle conservation programme at Beyin and offer guided walks on the beach to see the sea turtles nesting and baby turtles hatching and running for the sea (if you are lucky). We took our chances and signed up for a 4 a.m. night walk along the beach. We were not lucky however and only saw the tracks of a female turtle and the hole which she had made and laid her eggs in before returning to the sea. Our guide removed the eggs, counted and weighed them. There were 131 eggs ! Unfortunately we were told that typically only 1% survive to adulthood. The weight indicated that they were the eggs of ‘Olive Ridley’ turtles. Vicky is convinced this must be Cockney rhyming slang for something (anyone any ideas ?). The guide then made a new hole in a safer location of the beach and put a protective cover over the top. We then proceeded to have a 3 hour route march along the beach with no sighting of anything turtle related, just the occasional washed up flip-flop and a heck of a lot of sand !

From Beyin we took a canoe trip to the nearby village of Nzulezo, a village built on wooden stilts over a lagoon. It was a lovely canoe journey, harder work for Steve than Vicky as he was helping to paddle. We travelled through the Amansuri wetland, apparently the largest intact swamp forest in Ghana, passing through marshes and areas of jungle.

The Nzulezo people originally settled on the lagoon around 500 years ago when they were fleeing from Nigeria and a rival tribe during a war. Now around 500 people live in the village. There is no mains electricity, running water or health care facilities. It does, however, have a school, 3 churches and a bar ! In order to travel to the nearest town, the villagers have a one hour canoe journey.

Earlier in the year during the wet season (which we are told was a particularly wet one this year) there was severe flooding in the village and the water level was higher than the wooden walkways between people’s homes.

We found ourselves wondering why people continue to live in such a place with all it’s difficulties…..

On the way back to Cape Coast from Beyin we stayed at an Eco-Lodge a few kilometres outside of Busua. It was interesting to see the measures they had taken to make the place more environmentally friendly, including the pit latrines which you had to scatter two scoops of ash into (to stop any smells). Showering in the solar heated showers in the open air, in large dry stone wall cubicles was a weird experience, especially by moonlight, but strangely liberating !

Busua beach is a popular beach and surfing spot, so Steve hired a body board and hit the waves. There was also an interesting contemporary art project on the beach, with many ‘exhibits’ made of washed up items and general beach rubbish (more sandy flip-flops !).
There was also the opportunity for the kids hanging around the beach to take part and be creative, which is something that children do not often have the materials or opportunities to do here.



Update from Vicky
Despite my initial apprehension about lecturing Orthoptics at the uni, I have settled into it now. I still find it a challenge and there’s a lot of preparation to do each week, but I am enjoying it. I have quite a small class of 14 students ; they are very motivated and eager to learn.
There have been some comedy mix ups with which room we can use, invariably part way through the session another class turns up, expecting to use the same room. It’s not rare to have to pack up and find another venue part way through the lesson. In fact the second lecture I did, I ended up doing part of it outside because we couldn’t find a free room! Like many things here, it’s all about flexibility!

The eye-centre continues to be busy, especially in the weeks when the visiting surgeon is here. Last time he was here, one day he didn’t finish his surgeries until midnight. It was a seriously long day for him and also for the nurses who were assisting him (who incidentally were back at the eye-centre at 8 am the following morning to help run the post –op review clinic, ouch !).

Update from Steve
I am now back teaching at Cape Tech after the summer vacation. Schools in Ghana are not quite like the UK in that not all the students (or for that matter teachers!) appear on the first day school reopens.
The new first year students have not yet started, although I am told that they will be here sometime in the next couple of weeks to start their studies.

Over the vacation the school had a long awaited delivery of computers. These have now been set up and networked by the IT department. I have been asked to teach some of the teachers the basics of Autocad (the computer software I use all the time for work in the UK). This is proving interesting as some of the teachers have hardly any experience of even using a computer.

I am hoping this week that the 2nd and 3rd Building Construction students from the school will be starting practical work on the Mothers Union Counselling Centre and I have been spending some of my time preparing equipment and materials ready for them.

University Interdenominational Church

Hopefully you will be able to see a film clip of the church service that we went to.

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….