Venturing out into the big sprawling city of Accra so far has been a great experience. We have been to the local 'spot' for a few drinks, and been introduced to the 'hip life' music and the 'Asonto' dance craze that is sweeping Ghana by storm (no I have not yet mastered this technique, but our new friend Katrina is working on making sure we have the moves before we leave here! Hmmm, we will see!). Today we went on our first tro' ride in a small, rickety, rusty...

The first few days here have been fantastic. I have learnt so much already about this country, the culture, the people of Ghana and what we can expect from our time here as volunteers. The VSO In Country Training is really thorough, and through that and our endless volunteer conversations we have covered all manner of things from cultural etiquette such as how to meet greet and make friends in Ghana, how to shake hands and do the strange clicking fingers thing, ...

Meeting the other volunteers at Heathrow airport was such a relief - there was lots of last minute chatting about what we brought, and what we didn't, what we are looking forward to and what we are totally nervous about, and of course how about how hard all the goodbyes have been. The flight was a bit rocky, with plenty of turbulance to keep our stomachs churning along the way... but and the views going over France, then Spain and North Africa at sunset were abso...

So this is where all the flapping about in preparation ends, and the journey begins... my dad took a photo of me at the airport with all my bags, simply to proove that I can actually carry them all! Saying goodbye to my gorgeous little nephew was the hardest part of this whole experience so far... sitting on the kitchen work top in his dressing gown this morning, he simply had two questions for me... "Aunty Emma...", "yes darling...?" "how will you know what the...

My first blog entry marking my 30th birthday, yippeee! Today I am absolutely FULL of butterflies and anticipation for my forthcoming adventure...!! What a great way to end one decade and start another :). The last couple of months have been an absolute whirlwind of sorting out my life, organising all manner of things for this trip, leaving work, shopping for the millions of items I am convinced I will need (my god did I need a PA, and a personal shopper too woul...