A new home, a new chapter. Since moving to Zebilla there have been up's and downs, highs and lows in my experience as a VSO volunteer. So far it's been one long story of movement and change, constant flux and everything new; the ground has not stayed still underneath my feet, or my feet have barely touched the ground, whichever way you look at it!

I have to say it has been truly amazing, but at times very challenging, and I am looking forward now to a new chapter. Goodbye settling in phase, hello daily life living and volunteering in Ghana!

I have now moved into the other VSO house here in Zebilla, the house where John and Bev have been living, and where they will soon leave from to sadly go back to Canada. They have been my best friends since I arrived here; they helped me to carefully navigate the overwhelming settling in period in Zebilla, taught me how to cook decent meals and make candied peanuts (!), helped me to master the moto on Zebillian rocky roads, helped me to understand some of the cultural complexities here in the Upper East, and made me warming cups of tea and biscuits if ever it all got a bit much! We have had some lovely experiences together and have shared some really special moments (7 hours standing on a bus to Wa...), and I honestly will miss them like crazy when they go!

The house is fantastic, a bigger house than the last one, with three lovely bedrooms, a huge living room, nice cool tiled floors, big kitchen with tonnes of things in it including an oven and big fridge (equip with essential quirky fridge magnets that make me smile), and nice big breezeway where we can sit to enjoy a bit of a breeze if ever one decides to pass by. It's a rare but pleasurable moment when it does!

I was going to say I'll miss the animals and farmyard feel of the last house, but to be honest there are enough noisy pigs and piglets, goats and their kids, donkeys, birds and guinea-fowl here to more than make up for it!

The house has a lovely friendly welcoming vibe, and we are currently trying to figure out how to welcome and cater for all the many people who want to come to John and Bev's leaving party next week! They wanted something low-key, but considering the number of friends they have made here, that's going to be pretty tricky! I am slightly worried about how lonely this place might be after they've gone, but it's important to take things one step at a time here so I won't worry about that for now, one thing I have learnt here is that you never know what is around the corner!

The house is literally a stones-throw from my office, which is fantastic, especially as I am realising now how full-on volunteering there will most likely be. The last couple of weeks my role has really stepped up, and I am really excited about the prospect of what I will be doing. I have spent plenty of time with the manager now, and we held a meeting with all stakeholders to discuss my objectives so I am all set to get started, which is fantastic!

This week I supported a colleague to run a 4-day HIV-AIDS clinic for 120 children and 12 teachers, it was intense but a fantastic experience and I loved it. The children were aged between 12 and about 18, from 12 different schools in the area, and are all part of HIV-AIDS clubs in their schools. I was seriously impressed by their commitment to learning (they would sit through 4-hour presentations from some of the speakers, on fairly technical topics, and still be full of energy and questions and curiosity at the end. At home after eve half an hour it's hard to keep the attention of 30 kids never mind over 100! It was really nice to get to know some of the teachers too, especially as these will be the schools I will be working with. They all seemed fairly committed and motivated, especially seeing as they were here during Easter break when they are not being paid any salary, and when they inevitably have their own families and business to look after. The children all knew songs about HIV AIDS, which I found really moving, and they did drama's at the end of the week, some of which were hilarious. Most of the kids here are definitely not shy; singing, performing and dancing just comes naturally to them!

So it's been a pretty exhausting week, but a good one. I took the day off to go shopping on Friday (sounds just like at home haha) as John and Bev were on souvenir missions before they leave, and I got to sample the Bolga market for a change.

Movie night came as standard which was lovely, and it's now Sunday afternoon on quite a relaxing weekend :). Yesterday we went out on a couple of trips on the motorbikes, which was great practise for me seeing as I only just got the bike and it's been so long since moto-training! In the morning we went up towards Togo, and stopped at the beautiful White Volta River, and in the late afternoon we went to watch the sunset by the hills near Burkina.

I feel so lucky to be here, it's beautiful!

With love from Ghana

Em xx

P.s. Temp is 45 degrees (111F) boiling again, and I am just MELTING!!!!!!!!!

Photo: I will upload some pictures of my house soon, until then here is a picture of some ripe and juicy mangoes! We are in the middle of mango season here so I am making the most of yummy mangos everyday, I love them :)