Thursday, June 30, 2011
Hospital Days
Riley and Raegan have found a hospital in Cape Coast that can use their assistance. Yesterday Raegan spent her time recording blood pressure, weight and temperature but will learn how to dress wounds tomorrow. She said some of the wounds have worms in them - a little unpleasant. She has been pee'd on multiple times and has asked us to try to bring small diapers as well as a good supply of bandaids!
Friday, June 24, 2011
A New Home for A Few Weeks
Riley and Raegan are now living in Cape Coast, near the ocean and renting a room from a young dad who lost his wife a few years ago. He has three young boys who are calling Raegan 'mom' already! The boys attend school during the day while their father drives taxi. Riley has been doing some construction work as well as teaching at the school for a time each day. They are enjoying being 'on their own' and discovering all that Cape Coast has to offer. They have met up with several other volunteers in Cape Coast who have shared their own 'tips and tricks' which has has been really helpful to them. Time is flying by!
Passport Panic
Thank you's and apologies to those who have run into me in the last few days and had to endure my pitiful tale of passport panic. Our passports were sent to Ottawa on June 10th to be stamped with a Ghana visa and got 'stuck' in an Ottawa post office. We were sure the postal workers would be forced to go back to work and let a few days click by. Meanwhile I called our travel insurance and found out that our flights would not be covered should we end up without passports on our departure day. We would simply be out several thousand dollars and no trip to Ghana. So I panicked and headed for Calgary yesterday to apply for three new passports and re-do all of our visa documentation to the tune of about $900 - but that is better than losing the whole trip. What a stress! I will pick up our passports in Calgary, Tuesday, Fed-ex them to Ottawa and pray like the dickens they are back to us in time. If anyone has any experience with couriers...the fastest, the best, the most reliable please pass on the info to me! I will be couriering the new documents from Calgary on Tuesday...
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Wedded Bliss
Raegan and Riley have arrived safely in Cape Coast and have met some wonderful people. They are now on their own and learning the ropes of how to negotiate and make sure they stretch their hard-earned pennies!
Yesterday's haggling went something like this:
Riley: How much for a ride?
Taxi driver: 10 cd
Raegan: no 7 cd
Taxi driver: 10
Riley: how about 8?
Raegan: no 7
Taxi Driver: You just get in. Listen to your husband! Get in! 8.
The Wal Mart wedding bands purchased the night before flying to Ghana have twice now come in quite handy!
Yesterday's haggling went something like this:
Riley: How much for a ride?
Taxi driver: 10 cd
Raegan: no 7 cd
Taxi driver: 10
Riley: how about 8?
Raegan: no 7
Taxi Driver: You just get in. Listen to your husband! Get in! 8.
The Wal Mart wedding bands purchased the night before flying to Ghana have twice now come in quite handy!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
So Much for a Shower!
So Raegan just sent an update on the long awaited hot shower. She stepped in and got shocked! The water just kept shocking her - like little electrical shocks so she hopped out and had herself a traditional bucket shower after all - minus the bugs and cold water. She has since learned that wearing flip flops in the shower can alleviate this problem...Riley is too chicken to even give it a try and is opting out of experimenting!
Fries!
Riley and Raegan have completed their one-month committment with DIVOG in the village of Biapka. They are now enroute to Cape Coast where they will be 'on their own' and hoping to find lots of volunteer opportunities. They have been given several leads and names and phone numbers so hopefully all will go well. They have just arrived in Accra and I am worried about Raegan saying she is 'feeling like she is in Calgary...in a modern mall!'.... shopping was not on the list of things to accomplish on this African Adventure! Hold back Raegan!
Hi!! This hotel is so nice...it has A/C!! Ry and I made a video of it. I'm in a Mac store right now on a Mac computer in a MALL! I just bought an hours worth of internet time... it so nice here ... we feel like we are in Calgary...Accra is a very modern city! There are so many white people around us which feels so weird after being the only ones for a month in the village. We are gonna go eat some Canadian food!!! FRIES!!! yummm!!! Hope all is good there and that dad has a good Father's Day tommorow! :) Tomorrow we will chill and take a bus to Cape Coast. I miss the kids at the Biakpa village already. ) : Take care, have a good day love ya all!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The Name Game
I told Riley we had watched the video he made a million times and all the children look the same - how do they tell them apart? This was his reply...
It's really hard to tell them apart. It seems like there are only 5 or 6 different
kids. I feel like every kid looks like one of 5 people, so in
different villages we always think we see kids from other villages.
We can only tell the ones we get to know well. Some have normal names
and some people have 2 names, one being a Christian name
that is usually easier to pronounce.
Some names that I can remember now are: Prospa, Promise, Charity,
Coocoo, Bright and one of the teacher's names is Jerekuma but everyone
calls him Issac. ?
It's really hard to tell them apart. It seems like there are only 5 or 6 different
kids. I feel like every kid looks like one of 5 people, so in
different villages we always think we see kids from other villages.
We can only tell the ones we get to know well. Some have normal names
and some people have 2 names, one being a Christian name
that is usually easier to pronounce.
Some names that I can remember now are: Prospa, Promise, Charity,
Coocoo, Bright and one of the teacher's names is Jerekuma but everyone
calls him Issac. ?
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Johnny the Stud
>> I got a dress made today for 7 cedis!! :) It's cute and I styled it myself... a lady from the village made it for me!
>>
>> The "wedding" band we bought at Walmart is coming in handy....at the waterfall I used it when I was with Shena. We didnt have a coordinator with us that day and some guys wouldn't leave us alone so I popped the ring on and bam! ..Didn't see them again!
>>
>> Discipline at the school..can't believe it.. they use a cane..its like a bamboo stick! The teachers told me i have to use it! I just can't hit kids! They tell me that is the way kids learn here as they are not eager to learn like they are in Canada! If they come to school without a uniform they are sometimes punished with the cane. The uniforms are government mandated.
>>
>> I don't know where the garbage goes the kids usually take it somewhere. We had another garbage incident tongiht . I brought out a bag of garbage and no kids were around but later I came out and every granola/protein bar wrapper was licked right clean!!
>>
>> - Johnny (a boy in my class) came to play soccer with us the other day..I laughed so hard when I saw him coming. Johnny is a little stud! He is about 9 yrs old. He shows up with some cool looking sweat pant capris and his boxers showing (you know, the way guys try and look cool) no shirt ... showing off his lil abs ... and here comes my favorite part - he had head phones in his ears and tucked the end in his shorts.. no mp3 connected!! Just the head phones!! He was dancing like there was music playing!
>>
>> The kids are crazy! Like herds of cows!! I started off with 3 today to go for a walk and ended up with at least 20 after a 5 min walk! They fight so they can hold your hand - slap other people's hands off mine so they can hold mine and if i pick up a kid even like a 2 yr old..an 8 yr old will slap her away and tell her to get down so they can be carried!
>>
>> Oh and the invisible bugs!! When we first got here (Biapka) we were told there are invisible bugs that come out around 4 in the morning and 6 at night. They are harmless, not dangerous at all - they are tiny and invisible and they leave red dots - last night I got a ton! They are so itchy. Riley had them last week real bad when he was sick but his were not itchy. He at least had 200 - they were everywhere - looked like he had the chicken pox!
>>
>> When you walk down the streets, to school, anywhere - we stop to say hi and greet people and they will ask you for something... your shirt, shorts, shoes..watever! Yesterday a girl in a shop said, "Can i have your shorts?" I said, "Sure!" she said, "ok" - then we said bye!! haha happens all the time same thing today when I was walkin with the kids a lady asked if she could have my lululemon hoodie when I leave! Maybe not..I'll have to ponder that one.
>>
>> Africans favorite food is bankoo - (I know that is spelled wrong) and foo foo! They always ask, "Hhow long have you been here in Ghana?" to see if we are ready to try it! I dont mind it. They beat casava powder with a stick and it looks like bread dough but does not taste like bread dough. We eat alot of rice and pasta and fruit..they are so generous to Riley and I because we are Canadians!
>>
>> Poured so hard today! Ry says it's good so all the poo and pee will be washed away! lol Took an extra half hour to get home from school today because of all the rain!
>
>> Ry had his laptop with him to teach the kids how to use one! They all learn about the computer - they know microsoft word and love the bold italic options..Riley thinks they get paper keyboards to practice typing! The kids love seeing the computer!!
>
>> We will stay here in Biapka till Saturday. Ry and I are trying to think of some fun ideas for tommorow. We have planned 'olympics' for the kids if the rain stops.
>
>>
>> The "wedding" band we bought at Walmart is coming in handy....at the waterfall I used it when I was with Shena. We didnt have a coordinator with us that day and some guys wouldn't leave us alone so I popped the ring on and bam! ..Didn't see them again!
>>
>> Discipline at the school..can't believe it.. they use a cane..its like a bamboo stick! The teachers told me i have to use it! I just can't hit kids! They tell me that is the way kids learn here as they are not eager to learn like they are in Canada! If they come to school without a uniform they are sometimes punished with the cane. The uniforms are government mandated.
>>
>> I don't know where the garbage goes the kids usually take it somewhere. We had another garbage incident tongiht . I brought out a bag of garbage and no kids were around but later I came out and every granola/protein bar wrapper was licked right clean!!
>>
>> - Johnny (a boy in my class) came to play soccer with us the other day..I laughed so hard when I saw him coming. Johnny is a little stud! He is about 9 yrs old. He shows up with some cool looking sweat pant capris and his boxers showing (you know, the way guys try and look cool) no shirt ... showing off his lil abs ... and here comes my favorite part - he had head phones in his ears and tucked the end in his shorts.. no mp3 connected!! Just the head phones!! He was dancing like there was music playing!
>>
>> The kids are crazy! Like herds of cows!! I started off with 3 today to go for a walk and ended up with at least 20 after a 5 min walk! They fight so they can hold your hand - slap other people's hands off mine so they can hold mine and if i pick up a kid even like a 2 yr old..an 8 yr old will slap her away and tell her to get down so they can be carried!
>>
>> Oh and the invisible bugs!! When we first got here (Biapka) we were told there are invisible bugs that come out around 4 in the morning and 6 at night. They are harmless, not dangerous at all - they are tiny and invisible and they leave red dots - last night I got a ton! They are so itchy. Riley had them last week real bad when he was sick but his were not itchy. He at least had 200 - they were everywhere - looked like he had the chicken pox!
>>
>> When you walk down the streets, to school, anywhere - we stop to say hi and greet people and they will ask you for something... your shirt, shorts, shoes..watever! Yesterday a girl in a shop said, "Can i have your shorts?" I said, "Sure!" she said, "ok" - then we said bye!! haha happens all the time same thing today when I was walkin with the kids a lady asked if she could have my lululemon hoodie when I leave! Maybe not..I'll have to ponder that one.
>>
>> Africans favorite food is bankoo - (I know that is spelled wrong) and foo foo! They always ask, "Hhow long have you been here in Ghana?" to see if we are ready to try it! I dont mind it. They beat casava powder with a stick and it looks like bread dough but does not taste like bread dough. We eat alot of rice and pasta and fruit..they are so generous to Riley and I because we are Canadians!
>>
>> Poured so hard today! Ry says it's good so all the poo and pee will be washed away! lol Took an extra half hour to get home from school today because of all the rain!
>
>> Ry had his laptop with him to teach the kids how to use one! They all learn about the computer - they know microsoft word and love the bold italic options..Riley thinks they get paper keyboards to practice typing! The kids love seeing the computer!!
>
>> We will stay here in Biapka till Saturday. Ry and I are trying to think of some fun ideas for tommorow. We have planned 'olympics' for the kids if the rain stops.
>
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
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