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….

Steve’s update
I’ve been doing more teaching over the last few weeks, mainly because it’s been very wet and rainy which has meant that a few times teachers haven’t turned up for their lessons ! I’m getting more used to stepping in at last minute, and trying to teach ‘off the cuff’. Where possible I’ve been introducing resources to help the students learn and hopefully this will inspire some other teachers to do the same, rather than all the teaching being entirely ‘chalk and talk’.
Recently I was reminded of an ancient Chinese proverb ; ‘I hear I forget, I see I remember, I do and I understand’. I’m finding this a useful principle to work to.
For example, rather than teaching about scaffolding just on the board, I took in some drinking straws so the students could construct their own models.
I now dread the day I see an entire elevation of a building scaffolded with drinking straws !!

Some lunchtimes I have my lunch in a local ‘chop-shop’ (roadside canteen) with some of the students. Lunch consists of Banku (a local dish made from ground up maize) which looks a bit like mashed potato, Nkatse nkwan (peanut soup), Okra sauce (a spicy sauce made with ochra) and a piece of ‘nam’ (fish - thankfully always the tail end). Jamie Oliver would be very impressed with this pucker dish !
All this is served in a bowl and eaten with your fingers. At first I ended up looking like one of my nephews after spaghetti bolognaise! (but I am getting the hang of it now).

Vicky’s Update
The students are approaching the end of their summer placement at the eye-clinic now. When they first arrived, because they were inevitably slower at testing, there was often a very long queue of patients waiting for their eye-test (and we kept being told we needed to “hurry up” as some of the patients were complaining about the wait).
Perhaps this would be a good place to explain how the appointment system at the eye-centre works. Well, there isn’t one! Basically people just turn up at the eye-centre and join a queue for the registration process. They then queue to give their history and symptoms to a nurse and then queue to have their vision tested by another nurse before seeing a technician for the intra-ocular pressure check. They are then either sent to us for refraction (i.e. for the ‘glasses test’) or go straight into the queue to have the health of their eyes examined by the Ophthalmologist or Ophthalmic Nurse. All in all it can be a very lengthy process. Especially as the vast majority of people turn up early in the morning, so it’s not as if they are evenly spaced throughout the day.
Anyway, back to the long queues outside the refraction room….
Well, Steve put his practical skills to great use and made a new test chart surround so that we can slide in the spare letter chart and have 2 interchangeable test charts in the one room. Ingenious ! This means that two students can now be testing at the same time. This isn’t without problems but greatly reduces the queuing time for patients (and keeps more of the students occupied at any one time !).

A few weeks back, with approximately one minutes notice (notice a theme ?!) partway through a clinic I was told I was going out on an outreach clinic to Elmina and that the other staff that were going were waiting for me on the minibus. So I had to quickly grab some equipment, working out how it could be shared between myself and those carrying on the clinic at the eye-centre. For someone who likes to be organised, it wasn’t the best way to go about preparing for an outreach clinic. As Anne (who we are living with) reminds us, flexibility is what it’s all about in Ghana !
Anyway, it was a busy clinic as there had been a radio announcement in Elmina that we would be holding a clinic there, so we arrived to find a roomful of people waiting.
Fortunately two of the students came along too which was a great help for translating and helping Kofi (the driver!) take the vision measurements.
I was refracting in a huge, empty church hall, with the most limited of equipment.
I don’t think I have ever tested so many patients in such a short space of time.

There was recently a mid-week bank holiday as it was ‘Republic Day’ ; the anniversary of the day Ghana became a republic, 4 (we think, but don’t quote us on this !) years after it gained independence in 1957.
We spent the afternoon at the site of the Mother’s Union project, clearing vegetation from the site where the building work was started 10 years ago. It was the one hot sunny day that we’ve had in ages so it was hot and hard work, but you could really see a difference for everyones efforts! And the rake we bought was the best 3 Cedis (£1.50) that we have spent so far !

The other weekend we took a ‘tro-tro’ to visit the towns of Winneba and Apam to the East of Cape Coast. The towns are both based around small fishing communities

As it was a very hot day we decided to stop at a local bar for a drink and a much needed toilet stop. The bar owner indicated to us that there wasn’t a toilet at the bar but took us on a mystery tour to find one. This took us through the back streets past some extremely basic looking ‘lock-ups’/shacks which to our surprise appeared to be peoples homes.
At the point where we were expecting to be shown to a toilet similar to the one in the film Trainspotting, we arrived at the cleanest, shiniest, whitest, porcelain-tiled public convenience / bath house that we have ever come across! It was totally not what we expected to find in those surroundings. We paid a fee of 20 Peswar (approx 10p) to use the conveniences and were each escorted to our respective cubicles on the Ladies and Gents sides. We were even handed a towel so we could dry our hands after. We then returned to the bar (by a more conventional route !) to thank the owner and repay her for her trouble by buying a drink.

On our way back from Winneba we called in at Apam and walked to the fort to get a good view of the town and the fishing activity along the beach. We later decided to venture to the hub of the activity on the beach where young boys and teenagers were playing football while the men attended to their boats.

Steve was soon invited by a group of fishermen to help drag their boat back up the beach. It was deceptively heavy even for the 12 or so people helping. As the men haul the boat up the beach they sing a little song. As far as we could make out this went ‘Hello Hello HoH and everyone pulled or pushed (depending which end of the boat they were at !) on the Hoh. The song was also sung in alternating ‘verses’ between those pulling and those pushing. It was another memorable experience, which will hopefully last a lot longer than the blisters from the rope !

We had fun last week when we had an African Dance and Drumming lesson along with Anne. The beats were quite tricky to follow to dance to and even harder to drum ! There were a few bizarre dance movements (glad there’s no photographic evidence of that !) which initially we were a little self-conscious about as it was held in one of the most popular bars for tourists. Guess it made some unique entertainment for the onlookers anyway…..
For the drumming we learnt several rhythms and managed well when we were all playing the same rhythm together but at the end when we were each playing a different part it all went a little to pot.

For a few weeks we attended the University Interdenominational Church where there is a bible study session before the service. We feel very comfortable there because people are very friendly, the worship is lively and we find we can understand and relate to the teachings more than in some churches that we have been to.
At one or two of the other churches we’ve attended people like to pray out aloud (actually very loud), not just one person but the whole congregation, along with the worship leaders who also use a microphone. People seem to repeat prayers and chants over and over again, getting louder and louder until the noise feels almost unbearable. Compared to praying in silence as we are used to, we found this pretty distracting to us. Imagine trying to pray on the front row of a busy cattle market ! However, it is evidently a way of praying that suits a number of congregations here.

Last Sunday we attended a local Methodist church. We understood that it started at 9am and would be in English. It started at 9.30 and was (mainly) in Fante ! At least we were early rather than late ! It was the parade service of the churches uniformed organisations who processed down the road accompanied by a marching band. This reminded Steve of his time in the Boys Brigade in Matlock with regular church parades and marching drill sessions.
Despite not understanding much of the spoken word in the service, we could join in the traditional Methodist hymns and enjoy yet another different style of worship. As we have found in many churches here, the collection was taken at the front of church with really catchy chorus style music playing and all the congregation dances their way forwards from their seats to put in their offering. As people sing and dance their way along they look so joyful to be praising God in their giving.

Well, this has been a lengthy entry so we won’t go on any more for now.

Obama is coming to Cape Coast ! More on that next time ……..

Hello again !

Well, we’ve ventured out of Cape Coast a couple of times over the last few weeks, exploring further a field. A couple of weeks ago we travelled along the coast road to the twin cities of Takoradi and Sekondi in the Western region.
We caught a ‘Tro-tro’ (a small minibus) which took around 1 ½ hours.
Takoradi is a very busy place with a large market and industrial port. The most noteable feature that we discovered there was the old colonial railway station.

Sekondi in contrast is a small fishing town (rarely visited by tourists, we understand). We visited a small fort (Fort Orange) and had a guided tour by one of the family who now live in there. The fort now contains a solar powered lighthouse which we were able to climb up inside and have a great view of the surroundings and the nearby naval base.

The previous weekend we travelled to the 'Baobab Children’s Foundation' which is a project set up for children in the local area there who, for one reason or another, would otherwise not be able to attend school. In addition to schooling, the foundation provides training in various crafts and practical skills, and has a number of it’s own agricultural projects. There is also accommodation for around half of the 50 students there, whilst the other half are day students. The project was set up by a German lady who runs it along with a number of volunteers.

Steve was particularly interested in the environmentally sustainable projects which they have developed including landcrete bricks (mud bricks), solar panels generating power for the dormitories and the solar cookers.
The website if you want to see more about it is www.baobab-children-foundation.de

Last Sunday we went to see the Cape Coast football team (‘The Dwarves’) play at the
Local Cape Coast stadium. Ghanaians are absolutely mad about their football and all support English premiership teams (well either Man Utd. or Chelsea anyway).

The Dwarves were playing in a division one league match against a relatively local team from Winneba which we think are sponsored by Fianord (spelling?) a dutch team. It was a good game and the Dwarves won 2:0. It was a note-able occasion as it was the first football match that Vicky had ever been to !
The stand was totally packed with spectators, the only other women were there selling goods (snacks, water sachets etc) from containers on their heads. So all in all it was an interesting experience !

We are loving the ‘taking each day as it comes’ way of life, it’s so refreshing.

(However, it makes things more than a little tricky when you don't have chance to plan lessons!)

That’s not to say it’s all easy here! There are times of frustration when things don’t go quite as we hope and relatively simple tasks can become unbelievably complicated and time-consuming !
A classic example being getting our visas extended for the next 3 months. It was a saga to say the least (involving 3 trips to the immigration office, countless phone-calls, a lot of waiting around and a bit of a palava to get copies of the appropriate letters !).


Update from Steve
In the first year at Cape Tech all students have to take 5 core subjects ; English, Maths, Integrated Science, Social Studies and Information Communication Technology.

As one of the house activities they have quizzes in English, Maths and Science. This term it was time for the English quiz. I went along to the quiz dreading that I might be asked to verify an answer on a subject that I am not particularly confident in. However, I think most of the school actually forgot that they had a real English person in the school (strange really as I stick out like a sore thumb!). So I wasn’t called upon at all and just kept as low a profile as possible (sitting on the front row!)

This week I taught a Building Construction theory class to a group of second years. The subject of the lesson was brick and blockwork. As nice sticky red clay is a resource that the school is not short of (this is now the rainy season and we are up to our ankles in it!) we made a couple of moulds from some wood and the students got to get their hands a bit mucky moulding some clay bricks. We hope to fire these once they have dried out a bit more. Then we left the school and went to a nearby builders yard to see how blocks were being made.

Thank you to all those people who have offered to send packages of pencils, rubbers etc. out to the school. All of these things are actually easily available here in Cape Coast, so there’s probably a number of different reasons why not all the students have them (or at least bring them to lessons !). I am finding ways round this, but I need to be careful because there are difficult issues regarding the foreigner turning up and giving out equipment.

Update from Vicky
There are now 6 Optometry students on placement in the eye-centre over their summer vacation. I am enjoying working with them and am finding it really interesting chatting with them and learning from them about their life experiences.
For a change from ‘refracting’ (!) before the students started I spent some time with the visiting Ophthalmologist examining the patients who had had cataract surgery the previous day. The eyes looked quite a mess compared to those that I am used to seeing 4-6 weeks post-op!
Unfortunately the visual outcome for many patients wasn’t as good as it could have been because the equipment which is used to measure the axial length of the eye is broken, therefore the surgeon wasn’t able to calculate the exact power of the required lens implant. Hopefully it will be back in working order soon.

Sadly we found out the other day that the smallest one of the four puppies which we unofficially named ‘Anan’ (fourth born) has died. He seemed to be doing well despite being the smallest of the litter but we think the recent wet and cooler weather weakened him. The other three ‘Kor, Ebien and Ebiasa’ (guess what their names are in English?!) are all getting bigger and we regularly see them following Parkwasi (the ‘houseboy’ of the owners here) around the garden.

Well, that’s all for now. We’ll be back again for another update in a few weeks ….

Guess you’ll be enjoying the rainy season too in the UK now it’s Wimbledon time again!

Where is the time going ?

Wow, the weeks are really flying by, it only feels like a couple of days since our last ‘posting’ …!

So, what’s new ….?

Steve’s update :
I am starting to finding my feet more at ‘Cape Tech’ (Cape Coast Technical Institute) where I have started teaching lessons in ‘Design and Making’ and ‘Bench Fitting’.
This is a bit of a challenge as the school has very few resources and so most of the teaching (even some practical skills) end up being taught as theory on the board rather than practically. Many of the students have only a note book and pen (not even a pencil). This makes drawing diagrams etc in class tricky as two or three students end up taking it in turns to use a pencil.

Cape Tech is like a tertiary college (or what ever they call them now in the UK!). Generally students start between the age of 16-18 and are there for 3-4 years. However, in Ghana if a student fails a school year or can’t afford the tuition fees then they just re-sit the year or wait until they can afford to continue (or sadly drop out). This can mean that there are very mixed ages within classes and some students can appear to be older than their teachers!

Corporal punishment in schools is still very common here even for relatively minor issues such as having dirty finger nails or not knowing answers to teachers (sometimes rather baffling) questions. It felt incredibly uncomfortable seeing this although probably not nearly as much as the students being punished.

During the wet bank holiday Monday (some things never change!) I set up my ‘office’ in ‘Atlantic View’, the gazebo in the grounds of where we are staying. The strip of blue just visible in the photo just beyond the line of palm trees is the Atlantic Ocean.
I have started to get involved in a project for the local Mother’s Union who are planning to build a counselling centre for young mothers. This is one of the projects that Anne (the CMS volunteer that we are living with) has been working on. I have been looking at the costings for the project and trying to help move it forwards. The foundations were poured 8 years ago but there has been little physical progress since. Here in Ghana people don’t tend to build buildings from start to finish in one go, instead they build bit by bit as finances become available, sometimes over long periods of time.

The bank holiday rain was actually rather welcome

(for once!), as we were able to fill up our water containers for washing, which were getting a little low. We are now in the wet season here so we can expect many more tropical showers and storms over the next few months, and can enjoy some cooler days.

Vicky’s update
I am enjoying work at the Christian Eye Centre, especially since I have been involved ‘supervising’ some Optometry students (from the local university) that have started working there during their summer vacation.
Last week a small team of us from the Eye Centre carried out an ‘outreach’ clinic at a local radio station. Basically we took out equipment so we could test the eyes of the staff there. All was going well (despite pretty difficult testing conditions in a pitch black small room full of recording equipment) until, with no notice at all, I was taken off to another room with an Ophthalmic nurse and another member of staff to be interviewed in a radio broadcast !
Thankfully I didn’t say anything too ridiculous, neither did I get so nervous that I couldn’t speak, but afterwards felt that I could have answered the questions so much better than I did. Still, it was certainly an experience !


We have been to services at another two different churches, first the University Inter-denominational Church (at Cape Coast University which is very close to where we live) and last week at the Calvary Charismatic Centre. Both services were very lively with some familiar modern worship songs and worship bands and were attended by lots of students.

Just before we arrived in Cape Coast the guard dog at the house in the grounds of which we are staying, had four puppies. At first it looked like they may not all survive but much to our surprise even the weakest of them is now feeding well and looking much healthier. Unfortunately the mother was not in a good way and has had to be put down by the vet, now that the puppies have been weaned. Animals are not kept as ‘pets’ in quite the same way in Ghana. Man’s best friend is only his best friend whilst keeping a watch for intruders, and chickens and goats are kept purely as ingredients!

We’ve heard that Summer has arrived in the UK ! We trust that the BBQs are all out and that you are all enjoying the sun …..