N dinawo! (Ewe)

Good afternoon! (English)

First of all thank you for the lovely responses regarding my last blog! Sadly enough my internet is terrible, so I'm not able to respond to everyone personally.

The reason why my greeting was in Ewe instead of Twi is because I travelled to Missahoe Children's home in Kpando last Wednesday. This is east of Lake Volta. After a 6.5 hour drive I arrived in Kpando. During the ride I'd met one of the other volunteers and upon arrival I met the second other volunteer. Both of them are very nice and loving people and we quickly started having fun. I also had my first bucket shower that evening. This felt like a real accomplishment, but using one for the rest of my stay still doesn't really sound like a great thing...

Wednesday and Thursday I spent getting to know some of the children. Officially we have two days off per week, which is most often during the weekend, but as one of the volunteers met a local who wanted to show us around on Friday, we took Friday and Saturday off instead.

On Friday morning Bénee and his family picked the three of us up. We left over an hour later, so right on time here in Ghana. We reached the Wli waterfall after two hours of driving and walking. The waterfall was absolutely gorgeous! It was amazing to see that there were only a couple of people, although it is also a holiday here in Ghana. In Europe it is very common that such a beautiful sight turns into a tourist attraction. Here this was not the case and most people visiting were actually locals. After a couple of hours we left for a hotel in the mountains, which actually had a normal shower and toiletI! Then we had dinner with Bénee and his family. Our plan was to stay for the night and to walk to the highest point of Ghana which you can reach. From there you are able to see Togo, one of Ghana's neighbouring countries.

Sadly enough one of the other volunteers was feeling very sick, so we had to go back early. During the afternoon we went to the hospital. This was quite an interesting experience. It seemed as if she had/has malaria. We were first brought to the nearest hospital, which was actually a maternity hospital. She had to take a malaria test which came out positive. Because of this we were sent to Maraquat hospital. She was fainting and feeling very weak, so I had to register her quickly. Well, quickly is not something they get in Ghana. What they also didn't get was the fact that she is not a religous person. This is something very uncommon in Ghana and therefore hard to understand for most. According to the blood test taken at this hospital she does not have malaria. Nevertheless this is not 100% sure as she is taking anti-malaria pills which can cause inaccuracies in the test. She did get some antibiotics and vitamin supplements and she has improved a lot.

On Sunday and Monday I spent the whole day playing with the kids, whoes ages differ from 3 to 18 years old. This morning, Tuesday, we made two swings out of rope and old car tires. We hung them in the mango tree. It was really funny to see how the kids worked together to make the swings. The rest of the morning was spent playing with these. Right after lunch I left to go into town. I visited a seamstress who is making a shirt for me now. I hope that it is going to turn out great!

While writing this a little kid, who has probably never seen a white person, is staring at me. I'm currently in the hospital once more. This time for the other volunteer. She has been feeling sick for the past couple of days. Again a blood test was done, but once more it came out negative.

So we just came back from the doctor's consult and she is not pregnant. Yes they indeed checked that. The doctor was not so certain about the malaria results, so she will be treated for this just in case. I hope and think she will feel better soon.

This was everything for now and I hope I'll be able to tell you more if I again have proper internet. Thank you for reading!

Ps. Oh and if someone has a great suggestion on how to kill flees, please comment! Yesterday we found out that we have flees hiding in our beds. Although this wasn't a great discovery, this does explain the weird 'mosquito' bites we all have...

Pps. African pears are not pears