If you never try, you'll never know

Awkwaba dear people who read this blog <3

It has been longer than a month since I have arrived in Ghana so I thought that maybe a new story would be nice.

- I actually wrote this story 1-2 weeks ago but didn’t have time to upload it. I also wrote another story today which I will upload later this week. 2 in one week. You will have enough to read haha!

A lot has happened in the 3 weeks after my last story, and it feels like I have been here a lot longer than only a month, in a good way!

We’ve been doing some trips on the weekends, which are a lot of fun; because I have to admit it can get a little bit too much being in this house with so many people. The first weekend we went to Big Millie’s backyard. It is a place run by a English woman. It’s very lovely, on the beach, with nice huts to sleep in, a nice bar, and a lot of obruni’s. (White people) The waves are really high and strong in the sea here, so it’s a lot of fun to swim there, although you have to be careful. One of the volunteers here has a water camera so she has a lot of funny pictures and videos of us haha! It was a really great weekend, I shared a room with Kevin, August and Ellie, and it was the only night here in Ghana that I have slept well.

In our room here, at the volunteer house it’s awfully hot, so most night I sleep for a couple hours but then I wake up bading in my own sweat and I just give up. So you can imagine how good it felt being able to sleep with a blanket on and not sweating a whole bucket. Also they had really good vegetarian food at the place because there are a lot of rasta’s there, and they are all into the love, peace and weed thing so they don’t eat meat.

The weekend after we went to a beautiful place called Ada Foah. It was on the eastern side of Ghana where there is a beautiful river, called the Volta River. It’s also very green there and so peaceful, which was a nice change from the dirt and cars everywhere in Accra, where I’m staying. It was quite the adventure to get to Ada Foah btw. We were with 9 so took 3 taxi’s and since Kevin and me had to go to an ATM first we took a taxi on our own. We were going to meet up at Temma town, where we would take a tro-tro to Ada Foah. (It’s a 90 minute drive and we only paid 6 cedi’s which is about 1,50 euro!!) Our taxi driver was very nice, and therefore I tipped him 5 cedi’s, although I have to stop tipping nice people because there are a lot of nice people here in Ghana.. But me and Kevin arrived safely and on time at the place where we had to be, but sadly there was no sight of the other people. Kevin being quite a stressfreak when something goes wrong and who needs to know when and how everything is going was freaking out. So it was up to me to get a trotro and find the other people. It is pretty common here to trick the white people so it’s hard to trust people. We found a trotro though and we decided to just go for it, and see where it would take us, or I decided that, Kevin was still freaking out. Luckily we found the others over at another station where our tro tro stopped. Then we continued to Ada Foah. It was the scariest ride of my life, Kevin and me sat in the front. We were driving on a 2 way rode, but our tro tro was driving so fast and passing other cars, but not really paying attention to the cars coming from the other side, so we had a lot of nearly full frontal crashes. Never sitting in the front again!! We had to take a boat to get to the island where we were staying and it was absolutely beautiful. There was tree huts all over the beach, palm trees, the beach on one side and the volta river on the other, hammocks and a lovely bar. The first day that we were there we took a boat trip around the islands, first we went to a crocodile island, which we all thought would have a lot of crocodiles swimming around but it turned out to be 6 crocodiles surrounded with stone walls so we could look down on them but they were kept there, so it was actually really sad.. Later on we went to the rum island, and saw how they produced their own rum there. People from all over the world buy their rum so it was very interesting. We all got 2 shots as well, one called fire and the other one was supposed to be milder but they both burned like fire to me :( Stacey, Elin and me bougt a 1,5 l bottle for 15 cedi, which is about 4 euros. Quite a good price if you ask me! On the way back we went to the place where the Volta river meets the sea, it was really cool to see! I almost fell out a couple times as well, so when we were almost back to our place I decided to just let myself fall out of the boat together with Kevin and Samantha. It was hilarious, because no one else knew, so they thought I had really fallen in. (they have figured out that I am quite clumsy)

The next day we just relaxed at the river side, a lot less waves and nicer water. There a quite a few rich Lebanese guys here in Ghana, and so when they came with their jet ski’s we of course asked if we could come for a ride. Stacey and August went first together with a guy, but half way through they all tipped over. Later I went with another guy, and he even let me drive! It was really fun, although a bit awkward when I had to climb under his hairy leg and kinda got stuck there because he couldn’t really lift up his leg very high. Everything there was really amazing and we had a great time. The only negative point was the service, we ordered our food hours before, which is common here in Ghana but the food would still be late, or messed up. We ordered breakfast in the evening for 9 o’clock and some of us would still be waiting at 12 o’clock. And also there was sand everywhere, so very itchy when you were all sweaty and trying to sleep with that much sand in your bed. But overall it was very nice!

Also a lot of new people have arrived, especially a lot of Germans. So now I am sharing a room with 2 Australian boys, Adam and Alex and Kevin and Ellie of course. It is a lot of fun! I am actually happy about sharing a room with 3 boys, because they don’t have a lot of stuff, which is good, because I do and I have the closet and 1/3 of the floor covered with my stuff. Oeps!

I’ve been in Ghana for 5 weeks now, and it feels like I have been here so much longer. In a good way of course! But then it also feels like time has flown by, if that makes any sense. I’ve felt so comfortable here from the start, and it is amazing how fast you become close with the other volunteers. We are with each other so much, and honestly talk about everything. I had diarrhea for almost 4 weeks, with a lot of the other volunteers so when we finally had solid poop we all danced together. That’s how it goes around here haha. Sorry for my gross story. It actually surprises me a lot how fast I got used to everything. I don’t scream when I see cockroaches or spiders in the kitchen or my bed or when a mouse passes me when I need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. (Okay maybe not as loud as before) I am used to buying 3 mangos for only 25 eurocent. Or squeezing 8 people into one taxi. Being dirty all the time, and greeting everyone I cross in the morning.And getting marriage proposals from guys here, just so they can get a visa to a Western country. You could say I am quite integrated already haha :)

Last but not least, my beautiful kids!! Things are still the same at the orphanage. I love the kids more and more each day, I honestly did not know it was possible to love someone this much. I cry every time I think about leaving them. They still need a lot of help as well, and things have to change in the place where they are staying because it’s not very homey. Therefore I came up with an idea. I wrote it on Facebook, so I will post it here as well.

- As some of you may know I am in Ghana to volunteer right now A few weeks before I came here, my organization took on another orphanage because they could not afford their place anymore. We bought them a new house and got everything ready (they love it)!! Sadly, there is still a lot left to do. They don't have enough water or food, and sleep on the floor, but they are still the happiest kids you'll ever meet I often buy them water or fruit but I would love to give them more! Therefore I wanted to ask you guys for a favor. I am trying to raise money, so I can buy them mattresses, fans, medicine, insurance and food/water. I hope some of you might want to donate a small amount. With only 1 euro I can buy them 25 liters of water, so every cent is so welcome! If you are interested or want more information you can just send me a message on here! Thank you!

If you are interested in helping me out you can comment below or sent me an email ronjaelisabet@hotmail.com <3

Well this was it, I am sorry if it’s all a little bit confusing and all over the place. There is just so much that I want to tell and write, so it’s hard to write a good story. Hope you all enjoy the reading, and I promise there will be another one soon. I will try to upload the pictures on here as well, as a lot of you who read this can’t see the pictures on my facebook.

Much love
Afua, (My name in Ghanaian)