Nineth update
Did you manage to get through last update? I hope so. Anyway, this one - I promise - will be shorter.

I have left Akonfudi and won't be back the next four weeks or so. Ben flew back to England Tuesday the 22nd but the Danish people I know here in Ghana won't fly home until the 31st January - after I leave for Tanzania.

Programme no. 2
As mentioned in last blog post, I held a speech at the programme on the 11th December. OCEP Ghana director, Bala, attended the programme, and apparently he liked my speech very much - he phoned me some days after, telling me how impressed he was (it wasn't even anything special…), and that he would like me to come with him the day after (Friday the 18th December) to a programme at another small private school in a rural area, where he wanted me to hold a similar speech. First I turned it down because I wanted to be a Kama Kids School the last day before Christmas, but he managed to talk me into coming with him.

We arrived in the village at around 9.30am, where the programme should have begun at 9am, but it hadn't at all begun yet. We waited for some time and then got a ride to the nearby home of the proprietor of the school where we had a small breakfast and waited until the programme began. The waiting turned out to be long… Remember I in last blog post wrote that two hours delay was quite a long delay? Well, try THREE hours! The programme didn't begin until 12 noon! And it took sooooo long! It didn't finish until 4pm! And it was in Twi all the way through - imagine how bored I was… Prayers took ages, the school choir was singing completely false (it was quite hilarious, actually), fake clapping came out of the loud speakers, and so many donations were made.
The donation tradition they have in Ghana is really tasteless, I think. At ANY occasion donations are expected - at programmes like these (where I, however, find it more okay as the money goes to the school), at weddings, engagement parties, and even funerals. One thing is to give donations, another thing is to shout in the microphone: 100 Ghana Cedis, 100 Ghana Cedis!, and then finally the most wealthy person stands up, walks to the middle of the programme so everybody can see him, and donate the money. Then the microphone is turned on again: 50 Ghana Cedis, 50 Ghana Cedis…", and he just keeps on going until somebody stands up so everybody can see the wealthy person who then donates the money. This continues all the way down to one cedi! 100 to 50 to 20 to 10 to 7 to 5 to 3 to 2 to 1 cedi - imagine how long it takes! And it doesn't stop here: when the children are performing, you donate; when award presents are to be given to the children there are maybe 10 layers of fabrics on top of the presents, and before you get to the presents each fabric needs to be taken off separately which you are allowed to when donating 1 cedi, so the man with the microphone again starts yelling: One cedi, one cedi, one cedi! …".

Anyway, after 3 hours waiting and 4 hours sitting still, understanding nothing, and doing nothing (except sweating..) it finally finished. By this time I had managed to get a newspaper to read in :) It is amazing that small children manage to sit still for such a long time. Ghanaians surely have patience! - and don't value time… BUT they were very satisfied with my contribution and thanked me for, quotation: wasting my time and coming all the way from Foso, and also served lunch for us. So it was alright. And Bala was very happy about me attending - he (opposite Ghanaians in general) really knows how to show gratitude, also about me volunteering in Ghana in general, which is nice. When spending a lot of time, money and energy on helping somebody it is a human need, I think, to be shown that it is appreciated. Bala and Dacosta are luckily good at this.

I hope my speech about importance of education, importance of parents supporting and encouraging their children about going to school, and about time and planning made an impact on the people in the village. I find it a bit weird, me standing there being white and telling them right from wrong, but Bala says that it makes a difference when a white person says it, being a role model and rememberable (the obruni from Europe), and if that is true I am more than happy to do these speeches. Education is so damn important and in the rural areas where all the parents are farmers most of them have no clue about how good an investment educating the children is. They must be told that educating their children is spending money on knowledge to the children which will never be taken away from them, compared to spending money on farming land which they will lose as soon as the father dies, or on donations tochurches and at different occasions, funerals in particular, where they also spend money on new dresses and transport etc. It all adds up and it seems so logic for us, but the Ghanaians need to have it told - several times and by people who can be their role models, people they remember and refer to.

Hand washing…
… is horrible! Normally I get help from two school pupils, but before leaving for Accra, the school was closed for Christmas break…… Damn. Result: Auch! My fingers were totally dissolved - so much that I got open cuts on them! And this was even a smaller wash which, however, took 1½ hour to get through being only one… I'm glad I normally have help! :) Hand washing bathing towels is quite a hard job - I will surely appreciate the washing machine a lot more when I get home.

Christmas in Accra
went well. I arrived in Accra on Tuesday the 22nd where I met up with Patricia from Denmark in the house where we were going to spend Christmas. The house is awesome! Jeanette, another Danish girl, works - as a part of her studies - at the Danish Embassy in Accra and she was lucky to borrow the house of a Danish woman at the Embassy while this woman and her family travelled to Denmark for the Christmas Holidays. Jeanette being lucky gave luck to the rest of us Danes as we were allowed to spend Christmas Eve in the house and stay their using all the facilities. And the facilities are plenty my standards taken in consideration(!): air-condition, washing machine, big well equipped kitchen, three bathrooms, dining table, living room with nice couches, a TV and hundreds of dvd's to watch, and hot water for showering and doing the dishes. So so nice! Especially in this Christmas season where you long for home it is really nice to be able to stay in a Danish-like house where life is more like at home. We have been cooking and relaxing watching films, so we have had/are having a good time, although all of us miss home.
Christmas is family time so we all wanted to be at home Christmas Eve. We, however, managed to have a nice Christmas time with each other - especially since we watched the traditional Christmas Show (Jesper Faarekylling) on dvd, had a present each, and most importantly: cooked Danish Christmas food. We had some ingredients imported from Denmark by Pernille's family who are visiting her here in Ghana during Christmas, and then we managed to buy the rest in the biggest Supermarket in Accra. The result was (this will be in Danish...): flaeskesteg, and, svesker, abrikoser, almindelige og brunede kartofler, roedkaal, hvidkaal, ris a la mande og konfekt - so the Danish Christmas reached Ghana in the end :) We also had Christmas tunes on the stereo and the Danish family who normally lives in the house has decorated it with some Christmas decorations.

By the way: the 23rd December was spent by the pool sunbathing and relaxing - no complaints about that :)

Today has been Internet day and after this Internet section I will head back to the Embassy house and join the rest of the Danes (we were seven of us spending Christmas Eve together, by the way) to pay a visit to the children's home where they are working. Then again it will be relaxing time with film watching, I think.

Tomorrow the 26th I will have an easy morning and then afterwards begin my travels around Ghana for real. First stop is Ada Foah (a beachside place) on Ghana's Eastcoast very close to the Togo border.

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I hope you had a pleasant Christmas Eve and can stand the cold weather - here the sun is shining and the temperature stays above 35 degrees Celsius…… :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Signe