With four days of work behind me I have made it to my first weekend in Ghana.

For the last few days on the community building project we were painting the inside and outside of the school in Saforo, coating the walls and then painting various pictures which supposedly have an 'educational' element. Today, however, we got into the heavy work of mixing cement for the front porch area of the school. This was exhausting, especially in the heat, but I really enjoyed it, mixing with shovels a couple of bags of concrete with some water, sand and small chipped rocks. We also made a blackboard from the mortar. On Monday we move to another school building closer to Akropong where we will be first plastering a classroom.

On Wednesday evening we went to the weekly quiz run at the Hills main office, just outside of Mamfe. More importantly, all the volunteers then headed to ‘Mama’s’, a spot bar where the ‘obruni’s hang out. Mama herself has little English but looks after everyone with ‘Star’ beers and strawberry gin. I suppose she is making a fortune – I have been told that the average daily wage in Ghana is about 2 Cedis (roughly 1 Euro). I spent about 10 Cedis in Mama’s on Wednesday night alone (given that I had 5 large beers for about 5 Euro, I am still doing ok out of it myself). When you leave you tell Mama what you have had to drink and then pay whatever random calculation she makes in her head. It is a great system. I think Mama is going to get to know me pretty well over the next few weeks.

There is a little blue wooden stall on the short walk from Abiriw to Akropong and a few old guys sit outside playing draughts everyday. I stopped to watch yesterday and one guy let me have a go on the beginner’s board. It was fun, and although the men do not speak very much English, they were welcoming. They are seriously fast and have an aggressive style when moving their pieces. I fear however, that I do not have a mathematical enough brain to compete for the Abiriw draughts title.

Some ‘Second’ Impressions:-

1. English is listed as the ‘official language’ of Ghana. This is blatantly horse sh*t. Very rarely do I hear people speaking English. Obviously when dealing with an ‘obruni’ it is attempted, but otherwise, Ghanaians engage each other in one of the forty-six local languages spoken. In Abiriw, the language spoken is Twi (pronounced something along the lines of ‘twvree’), which I understand is the most common of all the Ghanaian languages.

The English that people do use is usually in the form of a mantra and one spoken by only those who have been schooled. ‘Good Morning. How are you? I am also fine. Thankyou’. Sometimes they get it wrong and when you say ‘Hello’ to them in the street they reply ‘I am fine’. It seems to me that only the most educated people speak English to any sort of transactional level and there is a large proportion of children who don’t go to school at all due to either geographical or financial constraints or both. I am presuming that there will be more English spoken in Accra, although I had better start learning some Twi phrases soon.

2. Water - as it is the dry season here I have become acutely aware of how little water my host family has access to. For washing the dishes (oh the joys) and taking (cold) bucket showers you have to make sure you use only as much as is needed. We have a tank from which we take our water but it is nearly empty and I am wondering who is going to make the long walk to get more water. I saw a well in Akropong, but I sure as hell am not carrying water back from there.

Having said all of the above, I am also very lucky with where I am staying as I have listened to the stories from some of the volunteers who are living in Kwamoso – there, they have no electricity and some even more choice toilets than we have in Abiriw.

I am hoping to visit church tomorrow with my host mother’s daughter, Hannah, and tomorrow evening we will be in a nearby town, Mamfe, for the Miss Mamfe festival. I am going to Mama’s early to get in the mood. Mama, can I have a ‘Star’ please?