So, last weekend me and my volunteer friends (all 17 of us!) went to a Monkey Sanctuary north of Tamale which was absolutely amazing and beautiful and there were monkeys jumping out at us from everywhere and taking the bananas we gave them and the jungle we were in was awesome!!

I've written a few letters to people but for some reason the post office doesnt open on saturdays which is a shame...

Anyway, a bit more about the orphanage.. There are 18 babies between the ages of 3 months and 2 years that we take care of.. There are about 5 Ghanaian staff and 4 volunteers (1 from Sweden, 1 from Holland) but it's not like we're all with the babies at the same time, as there is clothes and dypers to be washed (we use material wrapped up in plastic which isn't really that great as it can give the babies rashes, but pampers are sometimes used), food to be made, floors to be cleaned, a Grandma to wash... Funny story from this week that Cressida went through: The dear old mother of the director of the orphanage who is ancient and can't really walk was being helped by Cressida through the door of the baby room into the corridor. The door proceeded to smack closed into a baby's face whilst other babies were crawling out so Cressida picked one up, so she had a Bertha (if the photo works she's sitting on my lap!) in one arm and Granny in another. Grandma then wees herself shamelessly while the door to the hall where all the older babies and todlers are opens and more babies escape, making their way to the kitchen to cause havoc whilst Cressida can only stand there helplessly. Meanwhile I'm the baby room happily cuddling Maggie who had the door to face!

I think I already have favourite babies which is probably naughty of me. Martin and Martina are 9 month old twins with the most amazing smiles and its so easy to keep them happy! Quite a highlight of my week to be introducing them to mashed banana mixed with baby porridge, there faces were so funny! Another highlight of my week was, after a miserable, exhausting day, no drinking water in the house and only mouldy bread in the fridge, me and Cressida were walking through Anwiankwanta to get a trotro back home when loads of happy children appeared out of nowhere, all of them excited to see the obruni. Cressida started taking photos of them which they loved and they screamed when they saw their pictures! Really cheered me up to have all these happy children around me (that didn't need their nappies changing!) :)

A couple of days ago it was Bertha's birthday, she turned one year old! Birthdays aren't really celebrated at all in Ghana so it wasn't a big deal but I was still made happy to get her screaming with laughter! When we first arrived, all she did was sit by herself sucking her thumb so I think she's come out of her shell a bit! Georgina, who is one of the todlers, is a proper character. We've agreed that it's her name we shout the most during the day! She's a very clever and observant girl, and can sometimes be very caring to the babies, but other times she's mean, clingy, jealous when you give others attention, likes to have the best toys and is usually in charge of any escape attempts from the hall they're supposed to stay in all day (which is a terrible shame but if they go outside there's nothing to stop them from going in the road... they do have outside time, it just has to be heavily supervised and it may only happen once every two or three days...).

Things have been a bit strange at home. Josephine has managed to get her hair braided in two different styles in the space of one week but she hasn't bought any drinking water (which she is supposed to provide for us) so we had to buy it ourselves, and there's only mouldy bread in the fridge which is still edible I'm pleased to say! Very different priorities in this country, for example, the Tv and radio are on all the time but you have to go out side to use the hole-in-the-ground toilet. I think as Emmanuel (Josephine's boyfriend) has been here this week, there's been a bit of a dark cloud over the house so now that he's gone hopefully things will go back to being a bit easier.

This blog entry is a bit of a shambles and doesn't flow very well... but I have too much to write and not enough time and photos still wont upload so that might have to wait til I get home in 6, 7 weeks time!

I miss all my family so so much xxxx