Sunday 8 July 2012

Day 7- Kakun National Park and Elmina Castle
5am…This was the time we needed to be up today. Everyone managed it…except Jon!! Yet again Jon managed to come up with another excuse to justify why he was 25 minutes late! We set off for the national park, a 4 hour journey! The issues with money continued as the ATM machines only allow 800 cedi’s per day for each person. With all the bills needing to be paid (£6,000) the pressure was on. Luckily, Mr Street and the rest of the staff helped out by lending their bank accounts and we avoided the bailiffs.
The journey to the national park was one for the books. The driver, aka, Schumacher, decided to over take on blind corners, hit the vans top speed and swerve to avoid pot holes…all at the same time! Luckily we got there in one piece and set about ascending the jungle where the tree top bridge walk started. This walk was rated as the 7th scariest bridge in the world. ‘How did they judge that?’ asked Mr. Street. This was soon confirmed. The bridges were 80m above the jungle floor and were made of rope, some old metal ladders and netting. A few of the boys ‘melted’ due to the persistent ‘wobbling’ by Jon. It was a great experience, one which we had been looking forward to all week.








From here we headed to Elmina Castle.

This was taken over by the English in 1882 and used to trade slaves all around the world. The boys got to see, first hand, the cells used to house the slaves as they waited for transportation. The most memorable moment came when the guide showed us the ‘door of no return’. This was where the slaves were sent when they were ready for shipping. Quite a poignant moment for the boys. The castle was great to see but we are all glad its usage is long gone.
The trip to Accra was quick and showed off the street markets of Ghana. Arriving back at Yiri lodge was quite exciting with the whole tour party having grown very fond off it. Our last evening allowed us to reflect on the trip. Part of this meant handing over a final present to Amazuloh and him giving us gifts to thank us for our help.






So tomorrow we are flying back home leaving at 10am local time. The only thing left to say is thank you to everyone involved; Kevin Reading, Rhys McDonnell, Harry Hartnett, Dieter Kerschbaumer, David Lanaway, John McCarthy, James McDonald, Raymon Hunte, Sean Turner, Stephen Malik, Alex Dean, Joe Mendonca and of course big Ben Dombrandt. And also our staff Tom Street, Krys Juszczyk, Saira Malik and Mr Andrew Dean.
Finally thank you all for following and supporting us during our time here in Ghana.





Friday 6 July 2012

Day 7 - Korforidua school

Today we set off to Korforidua school. On the way we went for a bit of souvenir shopping where Rhys and Ray showed off their bartering skills, getting their bongos down to 10 Cedis when Lanaway got his for 15! On arriving at the school we were greeted by the Headteacher (Walter) who took us into The Cooperative House which had been funded by the Co-op in Manchester who had donated £5k to help build it. It was the first time that we were able to use flushing toilets outside of the hotel (a big change for the boys who were used to peeing against walls). Walter went through a presentation on a laptop about the school. It was so clear to see how involved the school was with fairtrade and comic relief with lots of pictures and displays. We were then taken outside for our surprise that Walter had organised.


We got to watch a group of students dancing to lots of different Ghanaian music.  The dance was amazing, the students put on such a good performance and just when we thought it had finished lots of us were dragged up to have a go too. In no time everyone was dancing, Kevin was spotted busting out some moves, displaying his tekkers with Azonto dancing! We all had so much fun and the kids were thrilled to see us attempting to dance. See link below for a few laughs!


Along with a few suitcases full of stationary the school had asked for some football kit. With the headteacher being a huge Chelsea fan and the kids loving Michael Essien we had kitted them out with some Chelsea blue football kit. The boys were so happy in their new kit and looked absolutely amazing!


We then were able to put our John Fisher mark at the school as Mr Dean planted a cocoa plant in our memory. This was alongside 4 other plants, one being from Sophi Tranchel managing director of Divine Chocolate, one of which was a group from Estonia and a couple of others. We were the biggest group that had visited the school to date. 


Shortly after this the boys played a football match against the U15s for the school who are the currently the regional champions. After Harry headed the ball in scoring a goal putting us in the lead, Mr Street then told the boys to “let them play” and that’s when the boys sat back in traditional English fashion, allowing them to score an equaliser, and eventually losing on penalties. Dombrandt took the first penalty, woeful effort. Stick to cricket. In fact all of our penalty takers missed except Ray, even Sean who seemed to release a fair bit of anger out on the ball, smashing it right at their keeper! The game ended; JFS 1-2 Korforidua school.

With the boys absolutely exhausted, hot and sweaty we headed in to have some lunch. At first the boys were a little disappointed (especially John) that there was no special tomatoe sauce but soon they discovered there was beef stew and it was soon polished off. Sean surprise surprise had a little bit more rice, with some more rice on the side.


After lunch we donated all of the items we had brought with us. We were also given an ornamental plaque inscribed with the schools name. It was so sad leaving the school, everyone had been so welcoming and sadly we realised that it was our last day working in schools in Ghana. In the evening we headed to a pizza parlour where we said good bye to Erica and Vincent who had helped and supported us during our trip, we miss you already! The boys also said their thanks to the staff with Miss Malik receiving an engraved pen and Mr Dean a new pair of personalised rugby boots.








Thursday 5 July 2012

Day 6 - Akomadan Schhol (substitute for Bayerebon no3)

This morning seemed like bliss as we seemed to get a bit more of a lie in that we felt we deserved. After a standard breakfast Mr Dean explained to us that due to the same problem with roads as yesterday, we wouldn't be able to visit the school that we had planned to. Fortunately, two teachers and three students were able to come to us and accompany us to a different school that the wonderful Erica was able to organise.

This is a different school that has been set up for the children of Divine Chocolate cocoa farmers and we were very lucky that they were happy to host us at very short notice. As we drove into the school we seemed to stir up excitement as students lost focus and ran to the windows to see visitors arriving. Before even having a chance to get all of our bags out of the vans, students came with chairs for all of us that we arranged in a circle so we could all individually introduce ourselves.



We split ourselves into groups, some showing students how to use the video cameras, others taking promotional photos for the NEW DUBBLE BARS that will be used in their advertising campaigns. The rest of us were left to entertain the students during their lunch break.
Kevin, Raymon, Harry and Dombrandt did an excellent job of teaching a large group of the children how to use the camera and computer equipment that we donated. They were very clear with their explanations and made sure that the kids were able to demonstrate all the skills that they were being taught before moving on. The children were so excited and eager to volunteer to help with the demonstrations!!
Stephen, our designated photographer, along with Miss Malik, Dieter, James, John, Rhys and David were given the task of taking all the promotional photographs for the NEW DUBBLE BARS. Divine Chocolate had sketched some basic diagrams for us to use. Miss Malik made an amazing director, organising all of her models while Stephen turned out to be like a professional photographer. We used a mixture of our boys and the local school children holding our giant Dubble Bars.
Mr Street, Alex and Mendonca had a competition to see how many kids they could dead lift. Surprise surprise, Mr Street managed 17 kids…must be those huge biceps.



Lunch was another fantastic meal with the same lush tomato sauce that so many of has had fallen in love with the day before. Sean managed to eat a bit of rice with a side of rice. After lunch we presented the school with the gifts that we had brought over which consisted of stationary and books. The headmaster thanked us all individually. Harry and David seemed to be whispering sweet nothings into Davids ears and had to be refocused to the task at hand.



As we headed off, the kids crowded outside the vans which pulled on the heart strings which made Mr Street shed a tear or two.



After returning to the hotel and freshening up, we set off to what could be the best meal of the trip. We went to the restaurant at the poshest hotel in the area. Mr Dean had to share his clothes Streety and John who for some reason thought it was a good idea to leave their best clothes in Accra. There was a lot of love around the table between Kevin & John (holding hands to the toilet together) and Alex & Joe (in their snuggles at the table)…BFFs. The meal was amazing with the highlight being the tomato soup with Dombrandt having 4 servings and Rhys nailing it with 5!!


Ben didnt disappoint and in his “Dombrandt way” had Ray and Kevin in stitches as he entered the room saying “This is my favourite shirt, This is my favourite shirt, This is my favourite shirt”….SAY WHHHHAAATTT!!!! 












Wednesday 4 July 2012

Day 5 - Kuapa Kokoo Cocoa Farm

Today was another early start unfortunately it started with some dreaded news, three of our group ended up with sickness during the night. So, leaving them in the care of Mr Street, the rest of us set off on our trip to one of Divine Chocolate's Cocoa farms.The rain was falling as we left but in no way did it reduce the heat and humidity. The journey was set to be around 2 hours and it was filled with our usual array of banter and sleep. As you would assume with what was described as a jungle, we had to leave the main roads and hit the rural paths in order to get there. The floor was flooded in places from the morning rain and made the mud very slushy as one of our drivers soon found out as his vehicle squirmed as he tried to accelerate up a hill. The path ahead seemed too waterlogged and slippery for us to push on so unfortunately we were unable to go to the cocoa farm that we had first planned. Thankfully our trusty guide Erica was on hand and was able to organise for us to visit another cocoa farm that was very close to where we were. So finally we arrived at the village where we were introduced to several cocoa farmers.


Erica with one of the younger cocoa farmers known as Francis then walked us through the village and into the bush to where all of their cocoa plantations were. Its towards the end of the harvesting season for cocoa but there was enough left for us to easily find some and be shown how it is processed. One of the resident farmers took a pod and skilfully hacked it open with his knife and showed us the white cocoa inside. It was offered around to us and was quickly taken by those craving the taste of chocolate only to find that it had a very fruity taste with a very muffled It doesnt taste like chocolate from Miss Juszczyk. And, after being told it was going to be bitter, Miss Malik bit into the cocoa to discover that it was indeed bitter. It was explained to us that the cocoa would be sealed between leaves of the banana tree and left to ferment before they were dried out and eventually sold.





















Upon returning to the village we were shown where the cocoa is stored where Erica gave us a little background into the selling to the cocoa. We were shocked to learn that only 200 Cedis (around £80) for 62.5kg of cocoa beans. All of the local kids were clearly inquisitive to see what these strange people were doing in their village but kept a cautious distance.





Lunch followed and was arguably the best meal so far consisting of rice, chicken, roasted plantain, a traditional bean dish and the best tomato sauce that you will ever taste.

Some people (Dombrandt) were uneasy at the amount of people watching us eat lunch but most of us were too hungry to notice.




We had a quick photo session with the local children and farmers after lunch to promote NEW DOUBLE BARS with our giant advertising bars. We then said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel. It was a relief to see that our sick comrades were feeling better. The rest of the afternoon was relaxed with a few of us hitting the pool to cool off.

We had dinner at the hotel and called it an early night to make the most of our last few days however after the busy day some of us resorted to a bit of relaxation at the bar! Haha LOL 

Tuesday 3 July 2012

Day 4 - First Day in Kumasi and Pool Party!!!


Today was a very early start. Especially early for the few that set their alarm on English time causing them to wake up an hour earlier than needed and waking up others! This caused tiredness and grumpiness even amongst the teachers. We then headed to the Airport expecting an old propeller plane to await us to take us to Kumasi. To our surprise we were greeted with a jet plane for our short 45 minute flight.
As we walked off the plane at Kumasi we were greeted by a school who waved us off the plane. When arriving at Kumasi we had a short drive to our new hotel, the Rees Hotel! 



Here in Kumasi it is very different, from the way the place is laid out and how busy it is. Here it seems much more compact whereas in Accra everything seemed very spread out in the areas we were in. Accra also came across as worse off than Kumasi by looking at the cars and buildings. When arriving at the hotel there is a noticeable difference in the quality of the hotels simply by looking at them. With the quality of the rooms it was a dramatic improve from moving from the bare basic rooms to a luxury room with hot water at our fingertips.  For some reason Dieter amd Dombrandt ended up with the largest room in the hotel…they must have taken one look at Dieter and thought he needed a kingsize bed all to himself. 




Also at the new Rees Hotel we now have a swimming pool which is suitable to use. As we arrived the first thing all the boys wanted to do was get straight into the pool. This they done and made a lot of noise about it while playing many games with a rugby ball starting with water polo. After all going into the pool we all went for lunch at the hotel restaurant. We arrived there at 1:30 and the first food was not served until 2:30 with the last being at 3:00. After the lunch we all had time to relax as this our day off, as this was a public holiday in Ghana at our hotel a pool party was going on.

Many of us got involved and had a great time in the pool with all of the locals, all having a great time. After the pool party we all decided it would be time for dinner so we all got ready and headed back to the hotel restaurant. Not learning from out mistakes we then sat in and ordered again having to wait another hour at least for our food.

Monday 2 July 2012

Day 3 - Museum, market, beach day


Today we visited the museum for the memorial of the late president of Ghana Kwame Nkrumah.  The grounds were beautiful, with fountains and statues and lots of people were having their wedding photos as Sunday is a popular day to get married in Ghana.   We were so lucky to have been able to get so close to all the pictures and memorabilia and had a tour guide who taught us all about Ghana’s fight for independence. Kevin and John were specially selected to feature in one wedding photo by a very proud groom. Coincidentally it happened to be the anniversary of the declaration of independence and it felt special to be there on an important day!
We then headed off to do a bit of shopping in a nearby market place.  It was so overwhelming, with traders surrounding us showing all their beautiful goods before we were even able to get off the mini bus.  Harry bought a traditional African shirt whilst Sean and Rhys took advantage of the jewellery stalls…Sean’s haggling skills were not up to much!  Mr Street, Miss Juszczyk, James and Stephen all bought some beautiful paintings from an artist on the beach.
Next stop was the beach.  Due to the bank holiday weekend the beach was packed full of people.  There was such a party atmosphere with lots of music, stalls of food and people dancing around!  We saw this as a perfect opportunity to throw a rugby ball around and before we knew it we were playing duck duck goose and touch rugby with some friends we made on the beach.  Many of the boys had a paddle in the sea and with strict instructions not to swim in the sea, it was very funny to see Dieter trying to wash himself in ankle deep water! Everyone got heavily involved including clinical finishing from the Dombrandt himself.  









We got the rugby ball out and played around for a bit, with Amazulu and the BIG body guard (aka The Tank), which was very amusing, especially seeing David run away from The Tank and getting munched! Also when Ray decided to ‘liberate’ the entire beach by becoming the first person to (accidently) remove some clothing…


In the evening we had a real treat, we were so disappointed to miss out on another night of chicken and chips. However, we made up for this with a brilliant Chinese! The staff table decided to alter the mystery fish dish for a chicken sweet and sour. However, the boys did not and were taken aback when a shark was brought out and placed in the middle of the table. Went down well!


We are now off to Kumasi to start the second leg of the journey. There we will be visiting the cocoa farmers and Kuapa Kokoo community to get an understanding of the process a chocolate bar takes.
We also found out today that we didn’t win the Margarat Demidecka award for the second year running, BUT…We did get a specially invented award which gives us ‘special commendation’ for our work!! An award and some freebies are on their way! Very excited!! COME ON FAIRTRADE!!! Woop woop…


Sunday 1 July 2012

Day 2 - Friendly game and fun with Dombrandt!!


We finally got our late rise today, with everyone refreshed and ready for our trip to meet Accra’s finest rugby players.   We headed over to their rugby pitch for a friendly game of touch against the Accra Warriors and Cosmos Buccaneers.  To get warmed up the boys threw the ball around and it wasn’t long before some of the kids in the area started to come over to see what was happening.  As the boys warmed up the teachers found time to play some rugby games with the local kids that seemed to be coming from all around the pitch!  The kids were so excited to play with a rugby ball and the teachers were having fun too.

Mr Street initiated a game which involved 20 seconds of on the spot spinning and then kicking a rugby ball.  Sean was the first one to give it a try, he did a good kick but only managed 10 seconds of spinning.  Raymon was up next who literally couldn’t spin on the spot and ended up metres away from the ball, when kicking it missed it several times and fell to the ground. Dombrandt gave it a go saying “I definetley won’t fall” BUT he fell straight on the spot even before attempting to kick the ball! Three more tried to overcome the spinning but no one could do it this included Mr Street, a few more boys and some of the Accra warriors trying it soon everyone was literally crying with laughter.  Click the video links below for a LOOK (there will be a delay so be patient, its worth the wait!!)!!!
Dieter:
Dombradt:
Alex:



We were totally amazed at the crowd that appeared to watch the game on the abnormal pitch, bumps and lumps and patches of grass all over – all that aside we continued to play without hesitation.   The teams were mixed up so we got to play alongside Accra’s team which was absolutely amazing. It was probably best we were mixed in with them as the Accra boys had blinding pace and even better fitness – not even breaking a sweat. Once the game was in full swing tries starting flying in with some immense playing from the boys, including a try by James where anyone would have thought he was one of the Accra Warriors with his pace as he sprinted the length of the pitch. There were skills from the one and only Dombrandt with his safe and gracious passing abilities. At the end when the great game had finished we all came together and witnessed the yet more chanting and our favourite ‘if I was to marry’ song in the true Accra Warrior’s style. All in all it was an amazing day, we were shown a faster way of playing our normal slow English game. Another experience to add to the list!

In the evening we set off to Osu for our dinner!  After driving past a few different restaurants we were taken aback by the enormous KFC we passed, 3 storeys tall….surely we couldn’t resist a trip to the very traditional food of Ghana……chicken and chips!!!  After a decicious meal, we headed home….but not without some light entertainment.  With a sing along started by Dieter some old classics came out including Britney Spears “Hit me one more time”!




Lastnight, things got freaky!....Dieter came out of the bathroom after getting ready for bed…. The lights were off, but there was someone standing in the room, staring, Dieter thought this was it, the end of his life but no it was Dombrandt.  De ja vu of yesterday morning when Dombrandt was found at the foot of a bed, staring. What’s next in the Dombrandt saga!!!