Nigel and Jenny Horrocks: post - VSO in Ghana

Continuing support for Women's Groups in Lawra District - Ghana, and for Orphans in Malawi

2010-02-24T15:15:00.017Z

We arrived back in North Wales, in the UK, on September 27th 2009 at lunchtime; at 7.30pm on the same day we found ourselves rehearsing for a Vaudeville (Music Hall) with Ruthin Musical Theatre. We joined in with all sorts of crazy musical/theatrical/farcical deeds for the Vaudeville, which was performed in our local village hall in Llanfair DC and succeeded in raising £7,500 for local and overseas charities. £1950 of this was earmarked for African developments with which we were both partially and significantly associated.

£650 went to the Open Arms Orphanage in Malawi and £1300 was earmarked for continuing our support to credit union development with Women's Groups in the Lawra District of Ghana.

£650 has already been transferred to Lawra through the continuing involvement of Eric , our good friend who helped us set up the first Credit Union in the Lawra District with the Song Taa Group in Tuori village. Eric's last report, sent to us by e mail, in addition to several Skype to mobile conversations from the UK (Eric gets a better mobile signal than we get at home!) triggered the first £650 donation. The second £650 donation has also been transferred ready for the next village group; having had satisfactory feedback from Eric.

So far the money has been used to significant effect; enabling local women to manage, allocate, collect and re-allocate the money according to the needs of the different 'women's enterprise groups' at the time of the year when it is most needed. The initial Tuori group has now gone through a full (annual) cycle and the interest payments received have now increased the communal 'pot' by a further 50 cedis!

A further £130 was also sent out for the Tuori credit Union by a dedicated group of women craft enthusiasts in Ruthin; they held an Open Day and the proceeds of the day were donated to Song Taa.

So Farewell to Ghana and then what?

2009-03-11T14:45:00.004Z

On Friday March 13^th we officially finished our placement as VSO’s with the Ghana Education Service in Lawra. For the next few months we will be travelling overland in our own vehicle, across Africa from West to East, with our friends Berwyn and Julia from Ruthin in north Wales. We will depart on the first leg of our journey on Wednesday March 18th.
We will record our journey on http://www.horrocksfamily.net/transafrica.htm

So it’s goodbye to Ghana and VSO, for now; we hope to be calling in on a number of VSO colleagues en route as we travel through , Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroun, Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi (to visit my brother Martin and Family), Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya (to re-visit our son Michael’s birthplace – O’Loitokitok) and then……?

Song-Taa (Self-help) Credit Union Evolves

2009-03-03T15:49:00.003Z

Today, Wed 25th February, Song-Taa met to discuss how to allocate the 1500 Ghana Cedis which now rests in their new bank account. It was agreed that 1200 GH₵ should be earmarked for allocation immediately and that 300GH₵ should be held in reserve. It was further agreed that 1200GH₵ should be allocated between January and March for Pottery making and Petty Trading for the first period, Pito Brewing and Petty Trading for the second period of April to August, and Grain Trading and Petty Trading for the final third period from September to December. This mainly follows the growing seasons. With the help of Eric Kaliebu from Ministry of Agriculture (MOFA), the group discussed and decided on a three month repayment period with an interest rate of 5 pesewas from each beneficiary, the money to be collected by the group representatives and paid to the Executive to be banked.
Much laughter and nodding of heads took place when it was suggested that the women should take great care of the money borrowed and not let it fall into the hands of ‘THE MEN’. They will surely do this.
Plans were put in place to keep a meeting attendance register as it was felt that once some people knew there was money to be handed out, they would arrive in the queue without any serious intention of putting the money to good use or even paying it back! Only those women seriously interested in benefiting their small businesses would be considered.
On Friday 27th Feb all the women in the village met, to inform them of the decisions taken by the executive committee and prepare the way for loan requests to be considered.

The Home Strait - though not quite straight home!

2009-02-04T08:58:00.004Z

Celebrating Australia Day in Nandom - didn't know there was one!

It is hard to imagine that in just over 7 weeks we will be concluding our direct involvement with VSO development work in Lawra – 2yrs has really flown by.
We are busily finishing off projects: Jenny, with Ruth (VSO), is completing a phase of ‘Phonics’ training for Primary School Teachers.
I am off to the Rural Bank today to help open the new bank account for the Song Taa, meaning self help, Tuouri Women’s Group (see last blog). They have now formalised their group and will soon begin inviting requests from village women and deliberating how much to loan, to whom, for what, for how long etc, etc.
We feel really pleased at this use of Ruthin Inner Wheel ‘s money, especially as we know that there are two extremely reliable and capable local Ghanaians, Eric and Denisia, who will continue to provide support. We intend to maintain this contact and continue to seek and provide financial support for this type of activity which directly affects the quality of life in villages, without wasting money on excessive salaries and spanking new 4 x 4 pick-up trucks, which seems to be the norm (not VSO) with the typical Aid Agency out here!

We are of course preparing ourselves and our vehicle for our Trans-Africa Safari
We will be accompanied by Berwyn and Julia from Ruthin, travelling through: Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroun, Gabon, Congo – Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi (to visit my brother Martin and his wife Miriam), Mozambique, Tanzania, and ‘possibly finally’ Kenya – to visit our son Michael’s birthplace at O’Loitokitok, on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. We aim to be back in the UK around Sept 1^st – but who knows? More later!

Ruthin Inner Wheel helps tackle poverty among Women in Lawra Ghana

2008-12-09T12:09:00.002Z

Through a generous donation of £900 Ruthin Inner Wheel is helping us to assist women in Tuori (our local village) to reduce the extent of their poverty by enabling villagers to generate more income. We are working to help groups of small traders to improve their businesses, hence their incomes, hence reduce poverty, through setting up a Credit Union. The CU will be administered by village representatives, they will consider applications for re-payable loans from women’s groups in the village; they cannot borrow again until they have repaid; the village reps vote to allocate the money to their priority projects. The fund is a revolving fund and stays intact as it is loaned and repaid. We have the help of a couple of brilliant Ghanaians who have done this in similar communities where the CUs are still thriving and the quality of life in those villages is gradually improving. It's the type of development that really could do with more financial support as it can make a real difference in very local communities.

Progress to date.
We met with the village Chief and Elders to share ideas and discuss village needs. The men were not too keen on our working solely with the women of the village; the women reassured them that a happier woman would benefit everybody! Agreement was granted to arrange a separate meeting with the women only.

We, Jenny, Nigel, Denisia (a villager who speaks very good English and is a volunteer at the Orphanage in Lawra) and Eric (a Credit Union expert from the local Ministry of Agriculture) met with the women on Monday December 8th, out in the open at 4.00pm. To our great surprise, almost 60 women participated; it also took a long time getting going as every arrival generated a welcome dance. Eventually, Jenny, with the help of her picture drawing skills, led a session to elicit the main activity groups the women were involved in which included: Pottery and Basket-making, Tomato growing and selling, Pito (local beer) brewing and selling, Kosi (local cakes), Shea Butter, Grain processing and general petty trading

6 different groups then gathered separately to elect three representatives to take part in a further meeting which will get down to the ‘nitty gritty’ of discussing the things which they most need, to enable them to improve their group’s activity.

It was sundown by now so we all gathered together again to reflect on what had been agreed; we breathed a huge sigh of relief as this was a very ‘high risk’ meeting which turned out well. We meet again in January, by which time the different groups will have discussed and agreed their priorities. We are so grateful to Denisia and Eric, without whom we would have been sunk, and to the women for their participation, warm welcome and brilliant humour. We could not take photographs at this stage as it could have upset the delicate dynamics of the meeting – maybe next time.

The Coal Pot Queen: Camping in Gbele Game Reserve

2008-11-24T16:05:00.005Z

This weekend we decided to test out our camping skills and to explore some of the practical issues which might arise when we begin our overland journey to Capetown in just over 4 months time. It was great fun camping, but freezing cold! However we are now quite re-assured that we can rely on our new tent and our ‘coal-pot’ (charcoal cooker) for any essential camping stops on our journey.

We took a trip to Gbele Game Reserve, about 120km East S.E. of Lawra along a very rough dirt road. Our home for the weekend was a new tent that our friends, Dave and Jan, brought out earlier in July

We were able to pitch in a good shady spot 6km into the reserve.

The Gbele Reserve is bisected by the river Kulpawn which is really good for bird watching; our camp site, which also hosts 3 luxury tents, was just a few hundred metres from the river. We were the sole occupants of the site; it was wonderfully peaceful with amazingly clear, starlit skies. When we signed the Reserve’s visitor’s book we observed that only three other visitors had signed in since we last visited 15 months ago. The reserve has huge potential and very friendly and helpful guides; but insufficient training prevents the guides from being able to identify even the commonest of birds (which is what tourists are keen to know) and a consequent lack of confidence prevents the guides from voluntarily imparting the vast amount of local knowledge that they have about the plants, trees, their various uses etc. So much potential, for both overseas and Ghanaian tourists!
After the night time cold at Gbele, when we got back to Lawra it was 35 deg Celsius (95 F) inside our house at 7.00pm!

Nothing Succeeds like Success - Given the Chance....

2008-11-09T15:08:00.008Z

Chris's home, Chris and brother, Jenny, Chris's father.
A particular success story is that our support for Chrysanthus, our neighbour's nephew from Dondomoteng (see photos above) is proving to be very worthwhile; his school exam results were very good and we are now supporting him with some extra studies, some accommodation and a bicycle to get around on in Wa - we sense a long-term investment coming on here! He is a very capable and decent young man, from a very poor family, he is the first one to even go to Secondary School. What we would like to do is to try and find some sponsorship so that he can progress to University, either here or in the UK - We are sure that he would acquit himself well and any sponsor could be sure of making a sound investment.

In general life is pretty good here, about 90 degrees inside our Teachers' Resource Centre, in Lawra (where we work) today, just a little different from the October snow in the UK. We have beeen working hard here but we have also made sure that we have travelled and explored Ghana and surrounding countries.
We are now entering a season called the Harmattan - it is very hot and windy during the day - coming from the Sahara desert - but quite cool at night, we even have to put a blanket on sometimes!
We have a few months (5) remaining in Lawra and we are beginning to wonder how we will cope with the luxury and prosperity of the UK.

Our way of life here is very different: at about 4.00 a.m. the call to prayer at our local mosque is the first thing to disturb our sleep, followed soon after by the many cockerels (they do not seem to be able to crow at the same time here!), then we hear the first villagers and school children pumping water at the borehole, then it's the school's wake up alarm (a piece of wood banging on a big metal bar), then it's the Guinea fowl, turkeys, goats, and cows that parade by and graze around the house sniffing, snorting and scrapping; then it's our neighbour's motorbike (about 6.00) as he goes off to the village shop, then it's Jenny showering pouring luke warm water over herself with a cup from our bucket of bore hole water - such luxury! Breakfast at 7.00 - work at 08.00; and we are supposed to be retired!
Amongst the things we will not miss will be the snakes (four around the house to date), scorpions, the myriad of flies in the evenings (inside - May to October) and the long dark nights - 6.00pm - 6.00-am every day throughout the year; but UK is a long time away yet as we intend to finish here on March 31st 2009 and then travel south, arriving back in the UK, probably at the beginning of September; more of that another time.

Jenny is having a very domesticated week this week; she works really hard at the TRC but she still made a date and walnut cake, a chocolate cake and some hummous this week - fantastic, a real treat. My contributions, over time, have been home made mango chutney, lime pickle and orange and lime marmalade. Enough for now, if we start talking about the food that we do and do not have we will be here all night.
Jenny and her VSO colleague, Ruth, are facing a bit of a quandry at present with the Kindergartens (KG) project they are involved with; the KG staff have not been paid for 10 months and have just embarked on strike action (wouldn't you? , they are paid only £6 per month!) - unfortunately this is just the time when vital training and investment is being put into action - a real dilemma. Onwards and upwards!

New baby delivered – and all is well!

2008-10-27T16:17:00.006Z

Quite unexpectedly, and after an 1800 km return dash to Accra with our TRC colleague, Rais, we are back in Lawra and all is well. We thought that our reproductive capabilities had come to an end but remarkably they have been restored (the wonders of modern science). Thanks to sponsorship from Ysgol Brynhyfryd in Ruthin, from our friends Dave and Jan, and some precious funds from the Teachers’ Resource Centre (TRC), birth was given to a new (re-conditioned) photocopier to replace the TRC’s, which packed up completely a few days ago. The photocopier is an essential facility (the only one) for the whole of the District’s 150+ schools and also generates precious income to fund essential purchases, such as stationery, toner, books etc.

In Accra, we also procured the means to enable the TRC to connect to the Internet and paid for 12 months subscription (our own money – for now) in advance. The Internet facility is very slow and will allow only limited use via one computer, but it is better than none! CD based Teach-Yourself curriculum resources from the UK and Encarta (encyclopaedia) would be some useful acquisitions to help overcome the Internet’s limited capability.

Teaching and Learning materials (TLM’s) are in such limited supply here, so in the short time remaining to us we are endeavouring to equip the TRC with the means to enable Teachers to search the Internet, find suitable teaching and learning materials, download them and then print and reproduce them ‘professionally’.

We need to acquire funding for more computers (a good reconditioned one can be purchased here for about £250) to enable us to: teach ICT skills to the District’s Teachers and to give students an experience of computers, which they cannot get in school. ICT is a compulsory part of the schools’ curriculum but there is neither electricity nor computers – thus the TRC has a critical role to play in ensuring acquisition of ICT skills for all.

Cunning, cameras, cops and consensus!

2008-10-08T19:59:00.002+01:00

Cunning, cameras, cops and consensus

This last few days and adjacent weekend has generated an unwanted but none the less interesting experience of Ghana’s (Lawra’s) local justice system in action. A former student of the local High School decided to pay us a visit and sadly, in our absence, tricked our ‘house help ‘to gain access for himself and remove a door key and our digital cameras. The theft was soon discovered, culprit apprehended and cameras retrieved through swift action by us and the Lawra ‘CID’.
Admission of guilt was eventually secured and the process of administering justice commenced. First port of call was the family ‘home’; I, CID inspector, mother, father, sisters, and uncle trying to agree on the appropriate action for the felony committed. Apart from returning the cameras, prime concerns were: the dishonour brought upon the family and the shame and embarrassment brought upon the local Lawra community. It was decided that the student would begin by spending the night in the local police cell in Lawra.

Further, very informal, discussions then took place, involving Jenny and I, parents of the student, local police officers and opinion leaders, as to the next steps, which were: that the boy/ family should pay for the renewal of our door lock (which was replaced within hours); we would withdraw our official complaint, and the student would be severely admonished and bailed subject to future good conduct.

The local Lawra community’s prime concern was for the dishonour that the boy had brought upon his family and the bad impression of Lawra that this rare and unusual incident might give to non Ghanaians. We made it clear that we had, so far, experienced an enjoyable and productive 18 months of living and working in Lawra; we have been made most welcome by everybody and the friendship, hospitality and honesty of the residents of Lawra District is second to none; that will be the opinion that we shall continue to give to our family, friends and colleagues.

There is no moral in this tale, all communities have similar ‘bad pennies’ (this one was an outsider from Wa) and Ruthin on a Saturday night certainly does make Lawra seem like paradise by comparison.
The ‘crime’ was dealt with by police and peers in the local community; whoever had an interest , or words of wisdom, came in and out of the police station at their leisure to give their view, whether they knew the boy or not.

The punishment was collectively agreed upon and customised to the student’s and family’s circumstances; it wasn’t driven by a fixed penalty for a particular crime, nor were the police driven by ‘targets’, nor were thousands of pounds spent on expensive lawyers.
An unfortunate incident – satisfactorily dealt with; so which is the sophisticated society?

Shock Horror! - We have just over 6 months remaining; so much to do…

2008-09-10T12:14:00.004+01:00

Yes - we will be finished here in Ghana by the end of March 2009; how time flies when you are enjoying yourself.

Work-wise
The new school term is here; Jenny and Ruth (our VSO colleague) are working with Lawra Education Service to develop ‘model Kindergartens’ , based on the successful Brutu Kindergarten pilot , in each of the 10 Lawra Districts, funded by generous donations from both the UK and predominantly (via Ruth) Galway in Ireland. The ‘model KG’s’ will be on a lesser scale to Brutu, involving provision of educational play equipment and ‘cluster training’ for KG staff in the effective use of the equipment. J & R will also be working hard to sustain the ‘Phonics for Reading’ project.

I will continue to support the Education Management Information Service with mundane matters such as processing: examination results and entries for 2009, the annual Schools’ Census data, and generally improving the District Education Office Staff’s ICT skills, amongst other things.

Our VSO colleague Helen has returned to UK and will be getting married to Suf in November – brilliant!

Domestically
We now have limited e mail access at home (small files - no photos!); but it’s great to communicate!
We have a super collection of ‘different’ music (soul, blues, folk, electronic etc!) thanks to Ruth’s brother;
We are experiencing incessant power cuts and frequent thunderstorms (only partially related);
Everywhere is as green as can be and the crops are flourishing;
We are in the ‘constant bombardment by flies in the house’ season – they disappear next month;
I have read more books and watched more Shakespeare (DVD) in our time here, than in the last ‘x’ years;
It’s the home made season: Mango chutney, Orange & Lime marmalade and Lime pickle so far;
Don’t miss telly one iota – hmm – maybe Premiership Football, Rugby, Tennis and….;
The Guardian Weekly has started to arrive again – thanks to Dave and Jan;
We even play scrabble by candle light, especially when the power is off!
We continue to miss our walking, singing, sport and especially the Graig Gang;
We still get on remarkably well with each other!

We now have new passports – we were running out of pages – which meant new photos. Nigel looks about 10 years younger and I look about 10 years older. (That’s because I’m working much harder than he is!!!!)

Bye for now!

News Bytes from Ghana

2008-08-17T17:41:00.004+01:00

NEWS BYTES FROM GHANA
July 19th saw the arrival of our friends Dave and Jan from the UK – so we were able to give our VSO work a break for 3 weeks.

The Parent Teachers Association of Brutu Kindergarten arranged a special event to celebrate the completion of the refurbishment of the Kindergarten classrooms, on Tuesday July 22nd 2008. Invited guests included Local Chiefs and Elders, the District Director of Education, VSO's who had been involved in supporting the project, as well as the schoolchildren and staff. Dave and Janet Bullock were the Guests of Honour representing the various donors from the UK; Ruth Heery (VSO and project support worker) represented the donors from Galway in Ireland.
Our VSO colleague Helen has completed her contract and has now returned, with her partner Suf, to work in the UK, she will not be replaced by VSO, and she will be greatly missed.

EN VACANCES IN BURKINA, MALI, AND CAPE COAST (GHANA)
We had a superb, and eventful, three week holiday with Dave and Jan:
Attended unique Ghanaian ceremonial events;
Experienced unpredictable, frustrating, dubious and expensive Ghanaian and Malian Visa problems;
Enjoyed the delights of Burkina’s cuisine and service (French legacy), outdoor eating and evening jazz in Ouagadougou’s Jardin d’Amitie;
Slept on the roof under the shooting stars in a Malian, Dogon cliff village, awakened by a dawn cacophony of competing cockerels, donkeys, sheep and goats;
Climbed up and tumbled down local cliffs and rocks (used for sacrificial ceremonies – we nearly had our own!), walked 3 km to the car and drove 20 km along incredibly rough tracks and through nigh impassable wadis to get to Mopti hospital –where Malian ‘hospitality’ and Cuban doctors expertly ensured our holiday could continue;
Delighted in the vitality and contrasts of Mopti, its: people, port, the Niger and Bani rivers; boat-life, islands, the tantalising boat journey to Timbuktu - that we didn’t take (hopefully this October/November we will – want to join us?);
Endured the aggravating, over attentive sales-pitch of the jewellery sellers on the ferry across to the ancient city of Djenne with its colossal mud and stick Mosque, and its ‘feet stick in the shit of the streets’ sanitation;Suffered the tedious ‘joined-up potholes road’ via San (Mali) to the Burkina Border;
Enjoyed the hospitality of the nuns at ‘L’Eau Vive’ in Bobo Dioulassou!, the sights and sounds of Old Bobo and in particular the really warm welcome and informative visit afforded to us by our Burkinabe hosts to their magnificent and ancient Mosque;
Really appreciated a few days of rest and recuperation in the peace and tranquillity of Lawra before heading for Cape Coast;
Appreciated the hospitality of VSO friends Dave and Gloria in Cape Coast, giving us a chance to experience a ‘resident’s’ view of the squalor of the living conditions in one of Ghana’s poorest townships, as well as the opportunity to appreciate the fortitude, industry and ingenuity of the dynamic fishing community that resides alongside the former slave fort of Cape Coast Castle.
Reflected on the injustices of Cape Coast Castle’s lamentable past whilst conducted on an illuminating and highly recommendable guided tour of the Castle.
Basked in the luxury of Anomabu Beach Hotel for 3 days whilst also visiting the Kakum National Park (moderately interesting and over hyped - to us), and Hans Cottage Botel to view the crocodiles and relax.
Dropped Dave and Jan off at the Airport in Accra, and that was our excellent break!

We’re really enjoying a week in Accra:

2008-07-16T10:57:00.006+01:00

Well it’s blog time again and it’s definitely getting harder to compose after 14 months in Ghana; all that was new, amazing and challenging to our European senses over a year ago is now the norm and just a part of everyday life.
We’re really enjoying a week in Accra!
We are staying with fellow VSO’s and enjoying the novelty of shops, bars, restaurants, running water, constant electricity and the friendship of the wider VSO network in and around Accra. Accra is changing rapidly, lots of new buildings, swanky shops, a huge shopping mall, more cars and generally much cleaner; it makes the north look even more neglected and poor.

We do update our Lawra Projects page quite frequently; this tracks the progress of funds, raised by family and friends, which we are applying to a small number of projects in Lawra. If you want to see some really good photographs of our travels in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mali, follow the link.

Brutu Kindergarten Project: The refurbishment of the kindergarten block will come to an official conclusion at the school on July 22nd when Dave and Jan Bullock will be ‘guests of honour’ representing all of the funders at a formal ‘thank you ceremony’. (Support and training for the Kindergarten staff will still continue). We are planning on supporting another Kindergarten, beginning with the fantastic £500 raised by the students at Ysgol Brynhyfryd in Ruthin.

We are taking a well earned break for the next three weeks; Dave and Jan arrive on July 19th when we will head up north to Lawra again and (subject to the rains) visit Burkina Faso and Mali, finishing up on the coast somewhere in Ghana.

One Year On

2008-05-25T18:56:00.002+01:00

We have now been in Ghana and the Upper West for a year
and are experiencing seasons for a second time. This last week the weather has, very thankfully for us, seen a change in temperature and although no one will definitely say the rains are here, we have had one good rain last week and it is generally overcast with some cool breezes blowing from time to time. Much more pleasant than the last 2/3 months of baking heat and sweaty nights! We are just thankful that we haven’t had as many power cuts as last year, although we are not getting away scot free. Electricity initially gets turned off if there are storms about as a precautionary measure.

On the work front, at the end of April/beginning of May we, (Helen, Ruth and I – all TSOs in the Lawra District) completed 6 workshops for Primary teachers on ‘Phonics’ and this last week, two two-day workshops focusing on pre-reading skills for Kindergarten teachers and attendants. These sessions are always very well attended – mainly because teachers are keen to learn (although they don’t always implement what they are encouraged to do, in the classroom) and partly because the system here is that they are paid a time and travel allowance for each day they attend. In reality this means that the KG teachers – most of whom have not been paid for months and when they do get paid it is about GH cedis 12 (equivalent to about £6.00 a month!!) , get between 1 & 2 GH Cedis just for turning up and participating each day. We can hardly advocate strike action or work to rule, but honestly, in the Upper West, there seems to be no other way for them to make their views and grievances heard. The pupils in Years 1 & 2 of the Senior High Schools (SHS) have not yet returned to their classes after the Easter break because the government have not paid the feeding allowance for them so the schools (boarding) cannot afford too buy food to feed them. They have missed at least 3 weeks so far this term and seem unlikely to return in the very near future. Demonstrations by the pupils and teachers are being planned in Wa next week but no-one holds out hope that it will do any good unless there is press coverage and the Upper West is such a long way from anywhere!!

On a much brighter note, although we missed a fabulous wedding in Rome (John & Judy, don’t forget to send pics!!!) , we did, this weekend, attend the wedding of a colleague in the GES., Methodius and his bride Scholastica. Along with two of our Ghanaian colleagues we were official GES representatives – everyone else was attending the funeral of the previous District Director of Education, and we opted for the wedding!! I wore my best Ghanaian outfit (red, white and blue!) and Nigel wore his smock. It was held in the local village Catholic Church and as the majority of the service was in Dagaabe, we didn’t understand a lot. However, the Parish priest who officiated had spent about 6 years in Canada, was a very nice chap and decided to translate his ‘homile’ into English just for our benefit and subjected the congregation to an extra 15 minutes of sermon on our account. Fortunately no one seemed to mind. It was a very jolly affair with a xylophone and drum band with tambourines and bell shakers accompanying the choir and lots of dancing positively encouraged, in the aisles. In all it lasted about 2 hours and on reflection, we got the better deal as funerals on the whole last for 2 days and you need a constitution of iron to withstand the vast quantities of pito, (the local brew, a bit like warm cider but made from millet seed ) you are plied with. I had my camera and so took a few small video clips, which I will put on a CD for the happy couple to view on someone’s video player. After the church service we were invited back to the bridegroom’s house for a light lunch (this is usually ‘light soup’ ) and drinks. Somehow we ended up being seated on a sort of platform with the bridal party and were rather treated like VIP’s shaking hands with the everyone including all the village Elders. It was a great experience. We arrived back home around 4.00 and promptly slept off the effects of the pito for a couple of hours then spent the evening just lounging around, reading and doing nothing much in particular.

Sunday lunch saw us down at the ‘Lover’s Inn‘ spot for a beer and a plate of goat meat. Vegetables are really getting scarce here. We can still get tomatoes and onions in the market as well as pumpkin leaves (leaves are yuk but the stems we use as celery for things like spag bol sauce etc.) locals make soup from okra and pumpkin leaves but we are not partial to “mucilaginous” soups (slimy) so I just use the stems and feed the leaves to the local goats!! So guess what, our next trip will be in a couple of week’s time (early June) to Burkina Faso– to Ouaga to search out some good veg and a bottle or two of wine and do some planning for a trip up the River Niger to Timbuktou in Mali. You can’t stay in West Africa for 2 years and not make the effort to go to the most famous named place in the world!!
Well, enough ramblings from me. An afternoon siesta is beckoning.

Lots of Work, Some Play and Plenty Hot Weather!

2008-04-30T11:45:00.004+01:00

Photo is on top of Ghana's Highest mountain but we were besieged by insects!

Lots of work, some play and very hot!
Busy with preparation and delivery of Phonics Workshops for Primary Teachers over the last 2 months so not much time to write. Plenty of thought and discussion involved in planning the workshops to include our G.E.S. colleagues in the facilitation of sessions – all very VSO and skill sharing. They would be proud.
After 8 one day workshops we thought we deserved a break and so planned a 10 day trip round the eastern regions of Ghana. Tamale (2 nights and a very bad haircut!) – Yendi – Bimbila – Nkwanta – Hohoe . We stayed in Hohoe for 2 nights and visited the lovely village of Laiti Wote at the foot of Mt Afadjato. Naturally being the highest mountain in Ghana we had to climb up it. Not very high 3,000ft but a great deal of sweat and effort was endured to reach the top. At the top we were plagued by some huge flies so had a quick picture taken amid grimaces and avoiding action (hence very bad photograph!!) Once back down – it only took 2 hrs up and down – we trekked through fairly dense forest (another 45 mins) to reach the Tagbo waterfall almost on the border with Togo. We had a local guide with us who was pretty knowledgeable about the place and the forest so it was very interesting finding edible fruits where the red nuts are coated in a sugary jelly and are used in sweet making, seeing the palm wine juice being collected (bit like rubber tapping) finding cocoa pods and the huge Kapok trees.
This part of Ghana has a much higher rainfall than the Upper West and is so lush and green with lots of flowering trees and shrubs, plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. We were most envious.
We motored on down through Ho but decided not to stay and carried on to the coast for a look at Keta ( (1 night) not as impressed as we hoped we would be) and Adafoah (1 night) (where the Volta joins the sea and is lovely )– stayed at the Manet Paradise Hotel which will definitely be getting a second visit from us when our friends Dave and Jan arrive in July. A bit of business in Accra (food shopping ) then we headed back up to the Akosombo Dam and found a gem of a place just on the river bank with chalets overlooking the Volta River and a small pontoon for evening drinks and chilling out, and it was very reasonably priced! (2 nights).

Last overnight stop was to be Kumasi for stocking up on fresh fruit and veg.
En route I managed to persuade Nigel to stop at the Cedi Bead Factory which was really interesting learning about the bead making process and, naturally ,buying just a few beads to send to Pippa!
The journey up to the North never gets any shorter and the roads don’t seem to improve much. Gradually we left the lush green south behind, the trees getting smaller, the grass shorter and the ground dustier. Welcome to the Upper West. No decent rain since November. The Sahara is definitely moving South!

Back to work and as schools have now closed for the holidays it’s particularly quiet, which is a blessing as pressure of work has been pretty heavy over the last 4 months.

This last weekend we took a trip to the Weichau Hippo Community Project near Wa, which was great. We had an evening trip out in a canoe on the river and spotted 8 hippos. Sleeping quarters were (by choice) on a platform 15 ft off the ground under a huge Kapok tree, on mattresses, under nets, under the stars. It was cool, in all senses of the word. Great stars, lovely breeze and a decent night’s sleep. The only drawback was a 15ft climb down a very steep ladder if you needed a wee in the night! Our supper of chicken curry and rice was prepared on a charcoal ‘coal pot’ and washed down with a couple of beers it was a great way to unwind. Another trip to find the hippos in the morning rounded off our short stay in good style. The Project has around 2000 visitors a year and any money made is put back into the community’s 17 villages by way of solar power lighting for houses, boreholes for water and materials for schools. The first decent project for tourists/local development that we have seen in the Upper West .

Catch up with Images of our Experiences and Projects

2008-03-15T16:33:00.002Z

Tiny amount of time left at the Internet Cafe: Briefly we are fine - follow these links to catch up.

Our latest experiences and travels can be witnessed on our Images of Ghana and Burkina Faso web photo album.

Progress on our various projects which colleagues and friends are sponsoring can be followed on our Update on Lawra Projects web pages

Musings from Lawra- nine months in to our placement: It’s a Paradox!

2008-02-15T23:16:00.004Z

It’s almost a month since we last had access to the Internet and this is now being sent from Bobo Dioulasso in Burkina Faso, where we are enjoying a long weekend in a hotel escaping work, cooking, and the incredibly busy life we lead - above are some photos of a family we are helping to improve their family home: a paradox!
Jan 24th - It’s been a long day so far; I’m currently sitting (I was 3 weeks ago) on our veranda surveying the scene, witnessing the daily paradoxes of life here and reflecting over the last few days. I am just sitting down with a wonderful glass of Faustino 1 red wine; paradox no 1 (henceforth paradox pdx-2, pdx-3 etc!): donated by a visitor from Ireland; at which point our neighbour’s daughter walks past with one container on her head and another in her hand on her way to pump water from the borehole (pdx-2). My glass rests on a wonky ‘chop table’ -the item off which Ghanaians eat their food, held together with nails; neither screws, nor mortice and tenons, cross-halvings or dovetail joints have found their way into the construction vocabulary of Lawra yet. A huge cheer has just gone up from the far side of the campus, which now, in the dry season, is like a barren moonscape; the students are avidly watching the African cup of nations in their ‘entertainment hall’ – I think Ghana just scored; we do not have a TV (pdx-3)

A ‘Dogs Dinner’ has taken on a completely new meaning since we came to Lawra – in fact I have just seen one walk past, or is it really a pet? It’s very difficult to tell here; anything that has legs constitutes a potential meal, as was brought home to us most surprisingly when we visited Bolgatanga in the Upper East of Ghana last week; there we encountered our first genuine ‘Dog Market’ where what one thought were really quite healthy looking pets, that you would see roaming around, were actually cutely contained in well constructed wicker baskets, being nurtured for sale as potential candidates for ‘sweet and sour dog’ or ‘mongrel moussaka’ (pdx-4).
Yes I am still sitting on the veranda, an egret has just popped by to say hello, a few cows have just meandered by and the local Imam is just winding up with his regular call to prayer – it can be a bit of a pain – especially at 04.00 am! I do not quite see why the Muslim religion has to be quite so intrusive into the lives of everyone who lives within a couple of kilometres of a mosque! Lawra District is predominantly Christian, Animist and Muslim in that order, yet it is the few Muslims whose presence is most heard! (pdx-5). It is now dusk and the main reason that I am still sitting here on this glorious barmy evening is that it is the dry season and the mosquitoes have virtually disappeared; there is no chance of doing this from April through to October. We have even stopped taking our Larium (anti-malaria) tablets until the rains begin again in April-a calculated risk but maybe better than going ‘gaga’ from overdosing on tablets!

Jenny is rattling her cage inside and I am reminded that she has been busy beavering away for most of the day sewing with her new fangled sewing machine that Pippa sent out from Ruthin: a fantastic asset Pippa – I can now go all day without even having to communicate with Jenny, she’s so busy sewing. So what have we made today darling? Well, some gizmos in which to keep maps, books, water bottles etc when travelling in the car, a dozen bean-bags (we’ve loads of beans here! – so we might as well put them into bags!) - Even the odd ‘has been’, I think it’s time I packed up. OK time to tackle that spaghetti bolognaise that I cooked earlier.

Bon soir – I can’t see the key-board now, from dusk to blackness in about 10 minutes at 18.00.
Feb 6th – we have now been in Ghana for nine months!It’s hot, hot, hot – Harmattan (wind and dust season) seems to be have come to a sudden end – 100 deg F inside today

A NEW YEAR MISSIVE

2008-01-17T19:02:00.000Z

A NEW YEAR MISSIVE: Warning - longish (for a blog), only for the really interested!

Refreshed and ready to ‘get stuck in’ again. We have just enjoyed a wonderful break in Capetown with our sons: David and Beth, Phil and Maike, Mike and Ali + Raif (grandson) and Safi (grand-daughter); we also had the added pleasure of the company of my senior brother Martin and Miriam and their son Kenneth, and my junior brother Pete – what a really great family gathering. Mike and family have since moved on to Malawi to take up residence in the capital city Lilongwe; Mike is to begin a new future as a partner in a small air charter company – Nyasa Air Taxi Ltd (or something similar!). What next, where and when will we meet, who will dare to visit us? - One would be guaranteed a truly memorable and enjoyable visit. We can cope with visitors around Easter, July/August, end of October and Xmas; our friends Dave and Jan from Northwich are planning a visit in July /August and we could probably cope with an additional couple.
Getting ‘into the swing of things again’ in Lawra in the Upper West of Ghana
It’s Sunday January 13th and we are enjoying a relaxing week-end at home after a pretty hectic first week back at work; Jenny’s busy sewing using the sewing machine sent out by Pippa (via Sam and Capetown) and we have just put the tops on the jars of ‘my’ lime and orange marmalade which I couldn’t resist making from local fruit, to go with Jenny’s superb home made bread. The bread nearly didn’t make it though; Jenny had put the yeast and flour out in the sun to accelerate fermentation but the sight of white nosed goats in our courtyard alerted us to their unwanted trespass, so the bread has a slight ‘goat spittle’ flavour to it!
This is a (temporarily) bountiful time of the year in the local market. We make good use of local produce; yesterday we bought pork (fresher than any you will get at home) and naturally reared, with some green peppers; so it’s sweet and sour pork tonight – even if it is a little disconcerting, one minute seeing the pig being transported to market on the back of a bike and then a few minutes later seeing it freshly slaughtered on the wooden bench in the market in front of you! We enjoyed ‘West African chicken’ with local groundnut paste, onions and tomatoes on Friday; we will put beans to soak overnight tonight, so it will be some sort of bean salad for lunch next week and probably a bean stew with plantain bananas one evening. We also bought yams which we use as a potato equivalent, so we’re likely to have yam chips and ‘fillet steak’ on another evening.
You’ll probably gather that we’re beginning to make ourselves at home by now, especially with ‘ipod’ podcasts downloaded from radio 4 that we obtained in Capetown –it’s so good to hear Kate Adie, Melvyn Bragg, the News Quiz, the Now Show, from our own Correspondent, Crossing Continents etc.

What about our VSO work you might say?
We have had such a busy week, Jenny: getting rid of a Harmattan*(see end) dust layer in the Teachers’ Resource Centre (TRC), working out how the newly purchased ‘play equipment’ can be brought into use and planning the next term’s work with colleagues; besides coping with a constant flow of requests for photocopying, typing etc. Me: getting a new Education Management Information System (EMIS) up and running, helping inexperienced (in I.T.) colleagues prepare the Ghana Education Service (GES) annual report for Lawra District, and next, preparing to support the Director and key assistant Directors of Education with the budget preparations and Strategic Plan for 2008-9. This probably all seems a bit far-removed from the images of poverty that you see in the media back home but our work is all to do with building the capacity of: local teachers to teach better, and of managers of the Education Service to manage better, which all has a longer-term benefit for children and the community as a whole – or does it?
However the toughness of life in this rural outpost is brought home to you on a daily basis: work colleagues report having spent Xmas and New Year attending funerals; people dying of typhoid, TB, and pneumonia, largely preventable diseases and a product of the poor diets, lack of water and sanitation and the absolute drudgery of life for most of the largely illiterate population in this area. An early morning visit to town at 6.00 am reveals a column of women and children carrying huge loads of timber on their heads ready for cooking the day’s meals, in between which are regular visits to the nearest borehole to pump water, the toil of carrying it back to the homestead, and then do all of the washing, cleaning, shopping etc!
An illustration of events conspiring against the poor is the fact that the re-opening of schools in this area has been postponed by a week as the government has yet to provide funds for the food that schools have to purchase to feed their students – not a problem in the big towns and cities.
We also find ourselves approached occasionally by children and adults asking for money, of which they are obviously in need, but we hold a firm line on not giving in to such requests, which are also made of local Ghanaians who seem to hold a similar line in not giving.

So life is really tough for locals here, employed or otherwise; most of what we take for granted is completely unattainable, even for our work colleagues – it is with sensitivity, care, some trepidation but enthusiasm that we re-commence our work and hope that our service will be valued by those whose lives we are hoping to improve in the longer-term.
Happy New Year to all of our friends, acquaintances and readers (r?)

Nigel and Jenny

*Harmattan is a strong dust-laden wind from the Sahara which blows for several weeks between November and February leaving heavy layers of dust in its wake, as well as creating a whole range of unpleasant dust associated ailments for those living here.

Stop Press - Just collected new Kindergarten Play Equipment

2008-01-06T22:02:00.000Z

Today we collected some fantastic 'Ghana made' play equipment for the Kindergarten Project that we are supporting at Brutu in the Lawra District. See for your self - we are so pleased and excited. The next step will be to train kindergarten staff in its use and then sort out storage facilities so that it can be used by the children as soon as possible...more later! We are off, from Accra, back up to Lawra at 5.00am tomorrow, Monday 7th January so must go now!

Capetown for Christmas

2008-01-06T11:20:00.000Z

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE
Just returned from a real family get together with our three sons, their partners and offspring and two of Nigel's brothers. Needless to say we had a brilliant time and managed to see Phil windsurfing for the first time in a long while.

We have just spent a couple of days in Accra purchasing equipment and materials for the Kindergarten project and are now refreshed, ready to start a new year in Lawra.

We will keep you posted on project developments as and when they happen - meanwhile progress can be viewed at :

http://www.horrocksfamily.net/Lawraprojects.htm

Lawra Project Funding Update

2007-12-16T17:22:00.000Z

Follow This link which displays a page we are using to try and explain what is happening to funds raised by our friends, colleagues and acquaintances.

A Visit to Chrisantus’s family home

2007-12-01T09:53:00.000Z

A Visit to Chrisantus’s family home and a night with a cockerel in our kitchen!
We are supporting an 18yr old Ghanaian boy, Chrisantus (red shirt in the photo)with his studies, by buying him books, clothes, paying medical fees etc; last weekend he invited us to visit his family home at Dondomoteng.
We first met his parents in Nandom town at the local Pito Bar (home brewed beer – some similarity to cider?); we then gave them, and half the village, a lift to Chris’s home where we met the 24 children of the extended family /community of 37 all of whom live in the mud constructed compound.
It was a visit with a difference: we sampled more peetou! and were shown around the amazingly designed compound of interlocking dwellings, grain-stores and kraals and were sharply reminded of the huge gulf in lifestyles between the rural poor and city rich citizens of Ghana, as well as the immense gap compared with our own lifestyle. After consulting Chris we took with us soap, salt and a large bag of oranges, as gifts for the family.
We were then humbled big-time when, as we were leaving, we were given quantities of soya beans, ground nuts, two pumpkins and to cap it all – a symbol of real respect for visitors - a live cockerel! All this from a family/community of 37 existing on subsistence farming. We posed for photos and vowed that we must do something, maybe you can help?, to assist them to improve the children’s life chances by finding ways of improving their: living conditions, clothing, access to electricity (solar panels + batteries) and enabling access to education.

Cocka doodle doo – I’m going to escape from you! – or nearly. So, it was home to Lawra with cockerel crowing, sensing its fate, in the back of Mitzi (our car). It’s 10.00pm so we can’t deal with it tonight – so we spend the night with a cockerel crowing away in the kitchen –he got his revenge by signalling dawn continuously until we finally surfaced to silence the blighter - but he was smart! Despite being hobbled he gave us, and our neighbour Madame Kubio, the run around for twenty minutes, escaping into the courtyard and then outside with us in hot pursuit; but we got him. Chrisanthus arrived, did the deed, it was plucked, cooked and eaten for supper as Chicken Casserole with locally produced ground nut sauce, onions and tomatoes – delicious. The real world is a bit uncomfortable for animal rights and vegetarian enthusiasts!

Visit to Burkina Faso: Bobo Dioulasso, Banfora and Sindou

2007-11-18T09:44:00.000Z

Click here to view slides of our recent trip to Burkina

2007-11-16T20:00:00.000Z

Cycling in the Clwydian hills will improve the lot of children at Brutu Kindergarten!

Some great news this week is that one of our friends at home , Dave Bullock, and his students at Frodsham High School has raised several hundred pounds to assist with our efforts to support the Kindergarten Schools in Lawra District. We are absolutely delighted and we shall certainly put it to good use – for toys, books, class-room improvements etc. Thanks for the sweat and toil on your bike around the hills of North Wales to raise this sum Dave; thanks go to you and all your friends who had their arms twisted to support you!! We will keep you posted, via the Blog, on the use of the funds - our next step will be to meet with the PTA and Rev Sr Justina, (who is the Assistant Director in charge of school supervision and who has a keen interest in this particular school) and work out their immediate priorities. They will be overjoyed.

Our VSO work with Lawra’s Education Service continues to evolve, with us both engaging in a range of sometimes quite unpredictable spheres of work; it is never boring! We keep the Teachers’ Resource Centre ticking over financially by doing photocopying, laminating and document binding with a constant stream of teachers wanting study leave forms, applying for study leave, going away and then not coming back to the Upper West - a constant ‘brain drain’. The Ghana Education Service, in the name of technological advancement has decreed that all 44 Junior High Schools should enter their examination students ‘ data online by December. The fact that none of the 44 schools in the Lawra District have electricity, computers or the Internet and only one teacher has his own computer wasn’t taken into consideration. So, over the next two weeks the TRC is helping the JHS Year 3 teachers to enter their pupils’ exam details onto a special database installed onto the four available computers at the TRC as well as going out to schools (with our own cameras) to take digital pictures of the students because schools don’t have cameras!!

Exploring at week-end helps to compensate for the limited scope for mid-week leisure activities. We have no hills, tennis courts, swimming pools, Operatic Society or the like, no TV, nowhere to go out for a meal, no cinema etc.. but there is an abundance of local bars if you want to drink yourself into a stupor at the end of the working day. We have decided that weekends are definitely to be used and enjoyed and so we are off to Burkina Faso again, this time to Bobo Dioulasso , to explore. We believe it is much greener and fertile than around the capital of Ouagadougu and that there are hills, waterfalls and escarpments to the South heading towards Banfora and Sindou. We get by reasonably well with Nigel’s French.

On the home front, the garden beats us and Harmattan season is upon us!I have completely given up with the garden. We will now have no rain until March at the earliest and I can’t be bothered to lug water to a garden where everything gets eaten by crickets, grasshoppers and caterpillars. Also I feel guilty using water which has to be brought to our house on the head of a woman who has 7 children of her own and works incredibly hard just to make ends meet. The weather is getting hotter during the day and colder at night, from now until December; this last week it has been around 35 – 40 deg day and down to about 15 -18 deg night time.

What a country of contrasts this is.

Bye all

Update from Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mali

2007-11-16T19:41:00.000Z

Burkina Faso and Mali trip in October/November.
We have just had a great holiday with friends Berwyn and Julia who flew (from Nigeria) to Accra and then Kumasi. We spent a couple of nights here in Lawra and then headed for a couple of nights in Ouaga to try and sort out visas for both Burkina Faso and Mali. No visa forms available at Immigration in Ouaga, for B.F. so sort them out on your return from Mali, and get your Mali visa at the border! No problems. We crossed the Mali border with no problem but had strict instructions not to go further that the Bandiagara Escarpment – Dogon Country and definitely not to go as far as Mopti on the River Niger. We spent one very uncomfortable night in Bankass in a very run down ‘hotel’ with Nigel being violently sick. Fortunately he was better by morning. We acquired a very knowledgeable National Guide who spent the next three days guiding us round the escarpment villages, up to Mopti on the River Niger and then to Djenne, We took a short boat trip up the river at Mopti to an island fishing village – in all its working glory, if we’d had the time we could have carried on down-river for two days to Timbuktu – maybe next time! A fascinating visit marred only slightly by being besieged by small (and large) children all with their hands out asking for a ‘petite cadeau’ or an offer to have their picture taken for money. Thankfully our guide handled it well distributing the small change we had with us to very eager hands.
We visited Djenne home of the largest mud mosque in West Africa. Fascinating history, lovely buildings but pretty unpleasant environment (dirt and rubbish) although our accommodation was excellent. We then spent the last two nights in Ouaga prior to B & J flying home from Ouaga. It is worth going to Ouaga (5 hours away) just for the food and the Marina supermarket!
Bye for now.

Kobine Festival and helping with our Projects

2007-10-13T11:23:00.000+01:00

The Kobine Festival is a huge annual Festival in Lawra District. Kobine Festival Photos can be seen via this link.

See how Lawra District Kindergartens are in need of assistance by seeing these photograohs

Help with Projects and Ghana Photos

2007-09-23T13:39:00.000+01:00

Visit our Ghana Help pages at http://www.horrocksfamily.net/Ghanahelp.htm.
Visit our Ghana Photos pages at http://www.horrocksfamily.net/N&J%202006.htm

Flooding in Lawra

2007-09-23T13:30:00.001+01:00

Lawra Flooding –September 2007
Northern Ghana has been hit by severe flooding in the last few weeks; Lawra has suffered badly in those areas that are close to the Black Volta River, which flows just two kilometres west of Lawra town; by good fortune we are not affected. The photos taken in June show the normal bank to bank river width, whereas in the September photo the far bank is beyond view. The major impact here is that several farms and homes close to the river have been completely destroyed, in some cases along with the livestock whose kraals were hit during the night; fortunately there is no loss of human life but there are many homeless people, including one of our work colleagues Augustina. The impact in the Upper East Region is huge, with significant loss of life and the destruction of a number of key bridges rendering the already difficult transport routes nigh impossible. As often seems to be the case the poorest Regions continue to have suffering piled upon poverty, exacerbated by natural disasters. The District Assembly here in Lawra is trying to assist the homeless families but they have very limited resources; without external help the suffering is destined to continue for some considerable time.

A few Photos of our First 4 months

2007-09-07T11:28:00.000+01:00

We have posted a few photos on our Family Web site - follow this link to view:
http://www.horrocksfamily.net/index1.htm

Update on almost four months that have passed in a flash

2007-09-02T12:12:00.000+01:00

Update on almost four months that have passed in a flash
Fellow VSOs I have just been re-reading some of the messages our fellow VSOs have been sending from all over the world. Onome, certainly seems to be getting to grips with things in Beijing, making her mark and probably fluent in Mandarin by now, and Dorothy no doubt has Thai and Burmese tripping off her tongue. Ali, Clare, Carol and Kate – Is it Chichewa or does everyone speak English in the hospital in Malawi? It’s quite a challenge learning (or trying to learn) a new language. Nigel and I have been here three months and our Daagare is still very limited. Fortunately schools and daily business is conducted in English so we are slightly let off the hook. However, we frequently wish we knew more of the language so that we could communicate with the children from the local village who don’t go to school but look after the cattle and goats on the land around our house. (Even if it is occasionally just to ask them to disappear and stop peering through the windows at us as if we have two heads!!) We are gradually coming to a sort of understanding with them.

Working for the Ghana Education Service (GES) in the Lawra District OfficeWork is progressing well and we are beginning to settle into the relaxed way of things, just as VSO staff predicted. Work starts officially at 8.00am and most of the time we make it in for then. The local people are extremely friendly and very appreciative of any effort you make to speak their language. It is the custom to greet and so the journey to work in the mornings, often by bicycle is really cheery and a good way to start the day. The first thing we do in the morning is to go round the offices and ‘greet’ people. ‘Ansoma’ ‘Fo ga be sung’ meaning ‘Good Morning, How was your night’? Then you ask about the children and the wife and the farm and was there enough rain and how many funerals did you have to attend at the weekend? (that’s if it is Monday morning).You might sit a while under the Mango Tree which provides a wonderfully large shady canopy with a couple of benches placed beneath. Then you beg your leave of the people still sitting there and amble off to the office to see what the first task is. This was how our first two months of placement was conducted. It was very hot in May and June and so the relaxed way was essential. Easing our way in gently and ascertaining how we can be of most use and value to our colleaguesWe were encouraged to put our house in order first – not too much wrong with it at all, find our way round the local market and equally as important, get to know the local drinking spots – no problem. We got to know the office staff bit by bit and began to find small things that we could do to help. Nobody really said do this, or do that, we just asked around and did a bit here and there. Gradually we both, in our respective positions began to see how we could help and how our roles were evolving. I am working as a Teacher Support Officer in the local Teacher Resource Centre alongside another British VSO, Helen, also a TSO , building up the resources available. In September we are going out to a few of the local Primary Schools to introduce the teaching of reading through Phonics to Primary 1 and Primary 2 classes and have spent the last couple of weeks making lots of lovely flash cards and teaching aids from bits of card and local materials. Nigel is busy setting up computer systems and training some of the staff in IT skills. We are working with highly intelligent and well read staff whose knowledge of English grammar is exceptional and who are also great fun to be with. We couldn’t ask for a better working environment. Well, all except for the lack of access to the Internet, but we believe it is coming by the end of the year.
Our working environment is good, which is more than can be said for the majority of primary and Junior Secondary Schools. There is a great lack of resources, books, paper, pencils etc (as is the case in most developing countries) and very few of the schools has electricity, although there is a great push within the Education Service to encourage computer /IT literacy amongst its teachers. We have 6 computers in the TRC and organise drop-in sessions and computer lessons for those wanting them.
The paradox of the rainy season - Power on again – but the Rhythm of Life changes
Having previously been experiencing extensive power cuts due to the lack of water in the Akosombo Dam and thus the hydro electric power station being on limited output, Now, with the rains, we have less frequent power cuts but are in danger of crops rotting if we don’t get some more sunshine!
At present we are at the height of the rainy season and whereas we could once see our neighbour’s house and the school buildings, now we have a lush green wall of maize, tomatoes, okra, melons, chilli peppers and yam plants. At this time of the year the goats are all tethered in clusters so as not to eat the planted crops and they are supervised and shifted periodically by young children to chew the grass that grows in the patches of land that cannot be planted; the children consequently miss out on school – a real dilemma. We can get oranges, very occasionally bananas and if we travel 80 kms, the odd pineapple. We also miss the variety of fresh vegetables we have been used to - tomatoes, onions, okra and yams being the ones most readily available, with carrots and green beans a real luxury.The weather really affects the way of life and patterns of work: the heavy rains prevent many people from getting to and from work, there is no public transport and roads become impassable; also the day after the rains, if the sun shines, the office is half empty as people are working on their farms tending crops etc – wages are so low that people are absolutely dependent on what they grow for themselves.

These wheels (Mitzy’s) are made for rolling, and that’s just what they’ll do!
I hope many of you have been following our explorations of Ghana and Burkina Faso on earlier blogs, but for those who haven’t , we made a foray into BF with a couple of other volunteers and visited Ouagadougu for a long weekend. We have to say that this was only made possible by the fact that we were so fed up with the time wasted and the discomfort of journeys by tro-tro (local minibus) that we went out and bought a car. Nigel spent 2 weeks in Accra going through a very tedious and time consuming process of re-registering an ex Corps Diplomatic vehicle, a process he would not willingly go through again. He is a very patient man but this tried his patience to the limit,. However we have been rewarded with a super Mitsubishi Pajero 4 x 4 that has only done 28,000 km in 7 years, pottering about Accra from Embassy to home and back. We have had Mitzy for about 6 weeks and in that time have taken on her on a few minor adventures around the region, the first being up to Ouaga.

Getting out and about: Ougagdougu – Accra – Gbele - Mole
Thank goodness Nigel speaks a passable level of French otherwise we would have been really struggling to get across the border into Burkina Faso with all the forms and visas that had to be filled in. We had a Ghanaian with us and he didn’t speak any French at all. He was surprised at how isolated he felt as not a word of English seems to be spoken there. It is a country not unlike the Upper West and is only a different country by virtue of colonial imposed artificial boundaries. Road signs were good and there was even a peage on the main road into the capital. It is big and busy but better laid out than Accra and the traffic lights work so although there is heavy traffic it continues to flow.
Next after our flying visit to Ouaga was a trip to Accra for a VSO call back meeting. We managed to sneak two days at Cape Coast, by the sea before going off to the Capital on a work related shopping expedition for books and computers before our VSO meeting. Accra is a long way (14 hrs) from the Upper West whichever way you look at it but for Nigel it was a darn site better than his journey down by various tro –tro and bus to Accra to collect the vehicle and a much better way to see the countryside on the way up.
Last weekend we had a brief one day foray into the Gbele Resource Reserve about 2 hours East of Lawra. It was a very memorable trip for some of the wrong reasons. Nigel, with his adventurous spirit decided that just before we reached the entrance to the Reserve he would take a little detour following a sign that directed us to a luxury tented campsite. Check it out for future visits maybe, we thought and headed off down this dirt track. 200 yards further on we were stuck with 2 wheels axle deep in the mud. Not a pleasurable experience when you have to dig the mud out so that you can jack the car up and put logs underneath the wheels at the same time fending off an army of sweat bees and the tiniest mosquitoes with the biggest of bites. From the knees down we were covered in itchy bites that lasted for days. We even resorted to antihistamine tablets from the local chemist to combat the swelling and the itching. Thankfully they have almost gone. We eventually got the car out with the help of the Park Rangers and managed a short guided game walk in the reserve. Worth going back but definitely in the dry season only!!
Our next trip planned is to Mole National Park where there are elephants and a hotel with a swimming pool. What more can you want!

If any VSO is thinking of getting their own transport and is having doubts about the ethics (being a volunteer and all that), don’t think twice. It is definitely worth it and locals have little difficulty reconciling our relative wealth with their own circumstances; our colleagues have no difficulty appreciating, that after 40 yrs of working in the UK, we are able to afford, and should have our own wheels. It takes away all the frustration and you can enjoy and explore the country so much more. It even makes work seem better too.

I’m a Material Girl
Ghanaian women wear some very smart and colourful clothes. At every opportunity they encourage us to adopt the local dress so my wardrobe is gradually becoming more colourful and less western. It is so easy to buy the material from the market and have it made up to fit by one of the many local seamstresses – real made-to-measure stuff and it’s not very expensive either.
So all in all, we are enjoying our placement so far. There are times when I/we wonder what benefits we can bring, but every little helps and things seem to be improving all the time.
E mailing us
Because of Internet difficulties we can only use email centre.co.uk and have had to use the following as our email address.
nigel@horrocksfamily.net
If anyone has emailed us on nigelandjenny@horrocksfamily.net and we have not responded it is because at present we cannot access this address. Once Lawra gets Internet then we hope we can sort things out. So apologies but we haven’t forgotten you all.

Cape Coast and Accra

2007-09-02T11:52:00.000+01:00

Cape Coast and Accra
We have just returned from a week long trip down to the Coast and despite having a successful part-work, part-holiday visit, it’s good to be back in the Upper West.
After being in our placements for 2/3 months, VSO like to call new VSOs together for a briefing and to check out that all is going OK. We felt it opportune to combine this visit with a shopping trip for stuff for the Teacher Resource Centre (TRC) and a very brief look along the Coast west of Accra for possible coastal stays with friends and relatives who just might consider coming to visit us.

The Anamabo Beach Resort near Cape Coast had been recommended to us and after a very long drive (800 km) from Lawra, setting off at 6am, and stopping off at Obuasi, Ghana’s gold mining capital, getting lost in the town and circumnavigating it a couple of times, we finally arrived at the coast at 7pm and managed to secure accommodation, a self-contained bungalow set right on the beach under the palm trees! It contained the biggest bed I have ever seen, which would have fit at least 4 people, with room to spare! The dining/restaurant area was in a building on stilts with a lovely veranda over-looking the sea, very tastefully done and highly recommendable. The cost (including drinks and meals) was around £35 for two of us per night so didn’t break the bank.

We rather warmed to Cape Coast and spent some time exploring, taking in the Castle with an eerie and poignant guided tour of the slave dungeons. We even managed to find “Global Mamas”, a women’s cooperative which makes women’s and children’s clothes from Ghanaian batik cloth and is beginning to export them- through their website. They won a contract with C & A to supply dresses!

The beaches at Cape Coast and Anamabo (just a few kilometres east of Cape Coast) were crowded with colourful ‘pirogues’ – fishing boats made from huge carved out tree trunks which looked very unstable and incredibly heavy. The Sunday we were there coincided with the end of a week-long “Panafest” – a building of links with the worldwide Ghanaian diaspora and their resident local relatives, there were many American accents. It was also fervently religious with all the church members dressing in their finest white and black patterned materials, looking like one huge Welsh choir off to a concert; there was singing in all the outdoor drinking spots with loudspeakers to make sure that everyone was heard!

The north – south divide (as in other countries) was evident on the coast, with more begging than in Lawra; so many more tourists and wealthy people in the south. Unfortunately there is little employment in the Upper West and East regions other than farming and unlike the fertile south regions which get two crops a year, the upper regions only have one season. This means that after harvest here, the young people leave their home towns and go South in search of more seasonal jobs, and like London, the bright lights of Accra beckon.
We enjoyed two and a half days of exploring before we had to leave Anamabo and Cape Coast. In the line of duty we visited Cape Coast University and were overwhelmed by the vastness of the lush green University campus. Not a bad place to study!! Although the university book shop was somewhat disappointing.

We proceeded to Accra for a shopping spree and our VSO ‘call back’ meeting. Shopping sounds good but in fact it is a bit of a nightmare with the traffic; having a car is a mixed blessing, you can get about from shop to shop with your purchases but it takes you forever because the traffic is so congested. Still, in the end with a bit of give and take from everybody you eventually get where you want to go. With money donated by the Royal Netherlands Embassy we were able to buy 2 second hand computers (£100 each) a DVD player and lots of other ‘stuff’ for the TRC. We still need loads of help with funding small projects – Is there anyone out there reading this who is feeling philanthropic?

After a fairly positive VSO meeting we said goodbye to Accra early the following morning and broke our journey back up to the Upper West at Techiman, a pleasing little town which acts as the cross roads between the road to Bolgatanga on the Upper East Burkina Faso border and the road to Wa. Here we came across a quite reasonable hotel, ‘The Premier Palace’ and bedded down early for the night as we were to be off again at 6.30 the following morning. On our journey back we had a Ghanaian work colleague with us – Samuel, a very sociable and well educated chap who made the journey really interesting with his local knowledge, he even bargained for plantain bananas and picked out the best yams for us to buy so we didn’t pay “Nansala” prices!
All in all, a good trip but not to be done too often!!

Visit to Ouagadougu

2007-08-08T18:33:00.000+01:00

Viva la France en Afrique – especialement dans Ouagadougu!
We have just returned from our first exploration beyond Ghana’s borders and we feel as though we have just returned from France! A foursome of VSO’s, ourselves, Pete, and Helen with her Ghanaian boy-friend Souf, ventured forth into Burkina Faso for a long weekend; once across the Ghanaian border and into Burkina, if you could not speak French you were in big trouble, nobody could, or would, speak a word of English in the part of Burkina that we explored.

So, it was French road signs, kilometre distances counting down to your destination on the Route National and to our disbelief a péage charging for the use of the roads; add to that supermarchés, boulangeries, croissants, pain au chocolat, baguettes, proper coffee and French wine – what more could you want? We very definitely felt as though we were in a foreign country and three of our compatriots, including our Ghanaian friend, felt totally excluded through not being able to communicate in French; the place at which three of us stayed (the other two stayed with the Ghanaian Ambassador!) even hosted the Tour de Burkina Faso cycle race! Mais oui, c’est vrai!

Mais tous la meme c’était un trés bon repos!
Ougadougu is the capital city of Burkina and is very well laid out and organised and much more appealing than Ghana’s capital Accra, it is more clean and tidy, the traffic lights all work, the banking system is user friendly – plenty of ATMs that work for getting cash, and you can pay by Visa in the hotels.

The colonial legacy – good or bad, that is the question?
Burkina Faso and its people have much in common with Ghana; it is the colonial powers that put in place the wholly artificial and inappropriate borders and imposed alien languages. All in all for we Obruni (Ghanaian for foreigner), it is a salutary experience to see both the good and the downsides of colonialism – we have to leave it to the Ghanaians and Burkinans, who are both exceptionally friendly and hospitable people, to be the judges of the pros and cons of its consequences.

2007-07-08T14:13:00.000+01:00

Interesting people and places.
A fortunate consequence of my extended stay in Accra was an invitation to a party at the British High Commission; it was a really enjoyable evening and for a couple of hours I was able to share a dinner table and conversation with the British High Commissioner (BHC) and a couple of distinguished Ghanaians. The BHC was a really affable chap and we struck something of an accord as his parents came from Salford, my birth place, and he is also an avid Man Utd supporter. We talked about VSO and its role in Ghana + world affairs etc - as you do!
One of our co-diners was the West African representative on the Bill Gates Foundation's HIV/AIDS initiative for Africa. She (Juliette) is also developing a horticultural/environmental landscaping business and is desperately short of trained staff to enable expansion; I thought that the Welsh College of Horticulture + WDA/DEIN (Nick W + Julie M) might be able to help set up suitable training programmes, which do not exist here: any possibilities out there?
Interesting times, people and places

A crisis of conscience - but only briefly!

2007-07-05T15:42:00.000+01:00

I guess we are VSOs with a difference:
We have worked for 40 years and now retired with skills to share but we are still adventurous and want to travel. Owning a vehicle might raise a few eyebrows amongst VSO and 'development' purists, but as far as we are concerned it will only help us perform the jobs we are here to do better if our life outside work is enjoyable; work life balance applies here as well!
Two on a 125cc motorbike is not feasible for the distances, heat and terrain involved out here, so 4 wheels it is and we will subsidise ourselves from our pension. We will still be using our pushbikes to get us around and about the village and to the office and back. So only a very brief crisis of conscience!

Taxing times in Accra - with a potential dividend!

2007-07-05T14:51:00.000+01:00

This is probably not a good time to write this:
I have been in Accra for a week now trying to secure the purchase of a vehicle. The extreme difficulties of travel by tro tro and bus in and out of Lawra district (from Lawra to Accra: 3 buses, 800km and a total of 24 hours travelling, including overnight) led us to decide that if we ever want to get any friends or relatives out here to visit us, a vehicle is a must. So here I am hoping to pick up a Mitsubishi Pajero this afternoon, which I have purchased from an extremely helpful member of the staff of the German Embassy. Regrettably events have conspired against me as my transaction required me to be in Accra at a time when Ghana was introducing a new currency; all foreign currency transactions were effectively suspended for four days during the changeover. A good thing for Ghana, it all went very smoothly, I just happened to pitch up at the wrong time!
Thus I have been kicking my heels whilst the necessary transactions run their course; thus time for a little reflection I suppose.

Ghana is really good and people are exceptionally respectful of each other and of visitors; we (UK) can learn a lot from the generally hospitable disposition held by all of the Ghanaians we have met thus far; both rural and city-based. Life in the city echoes many of the facets of city life in the UK, lots of traffic and extremes of health and wealth, though the infrastructure, sanitation and under resourced services are markedly different. Similar issues of inadequate access to services in rural areas obtain, but these are accentuated many fold, especially with the lack of access to potable water, intermittent electricity supplies for the few that have electricity, and extremely poor roads, transport systems and poorly funded health and education services.

For us, in general, so far so good; the acquisition of a cooker with an oven, at last, should now expand our culinary capacity and a vehicle will enable us to explore Ghana as well as Burkina Faso and Mali in the near future. We will also be able to get to the Internet Cafe more easily and maintain better communications with the outside world.

That's it for now, time to go and get my number plate changed from (CD) Corps Diplomatique to the regular Ghanaian plate; with a bit of luck the next time we write up our blog will be by virtue of having been able to drive the 100km to the Internet Cafe instead of spending all day travelling by tro tro!

The Xylophone makers and musicians of Lawra District

2007-06-23T11:51:00.000+01:00

Lawra District is renowned for its xylophone makers and players; one such musician and xylophone maker lives just a few hundred metres from our house and we can hear him ‘tuning-up’ and practising most evenings. On our way back from our Burkina Faso border cycle trip we met this gentleman and his band who had been accompanying George’s 90 yr old mum’s funeral celebration the previous evening and into the following day!The xylophones have wooden ‘keys’ with carefully selected and shaped gourds fixed underneath providing the resonance chambers; the overall timbre is a very soft, mellow and round, xylophone type of sound which is better heard than described!

A Father’s Day bike ride to the Burkina Faso border – Sunday June 17th

2007-06-23T11:49:00.000+01:00

It’s hard to believe that we have been in Ghana for 5 weeks and that this was our first real ‘leisure’ day out. Last night we experienced a huge tropical thunderstorm with lots of thunder, lightning and rain so the air was clear and fresh and the day relatively cool. We set off on our bikes with a picnic comprising a bottle of water and a packet of Crawford’s shortbread biscuits. 5km of dirt track later we arrived at the Black Volta River which forms the colonial era imposed border between Ghana and Burkina Faso. We just missed the ‘ferry’ across the 30 m wide river to the French speaking ex-colony of Burkina Faso on the other side. Whilst at the ferry crossing we received a Skype call to our mobile from Safi and the Horrockses in Cornwall; it was such a good thing to happen, the mobile reception was excellent and we exchanged ‘Father’s day greetings etc – it was really quite surreal. Ghana is rapidly developing its mobile communications networks; telephone lines hardly exist in the Upper West Region where we live; we hope that it won’t be too long before we are able to get Internet access here in Lawra, maybe within 12 months?We returned home after a plethora of conversations with many Dagaaba (the local residents): working in the fields, relaxing by their villages, travelling to and from church, and with a group just winding down after a ‘funeral’ in Dykpe (just 1 km from the river); the deceased was the 90 yr old mother of George, a Guidance Counsellor at the local secondary school where we live. We were invited to meet George and the local ‘band’ gave us an impromptu performance on their Xylophones and drums, a very special privilege which we captured on camera. So, a very good ‘first day out’ rounded off with Guinness and Coke in the Evergreen Garden Bar, an avocado and orange lunch at home and a good home made beef curry for supper!

Our Journey to Market (Ngaree Daa)

2007-06-23T11:47:00.001+01:00

The local market is about 20 minutes away on foot and about 10 on the bike, subject to distractions en route. On this occasion we stopped to sample the equivalent of a savoury pancake; it was made from ground bean flour, fried in a ‘buttery’ substance similar to ghee, which is derived from the fruit of one of the local trees (a Shea tree). It was served topped with local peppery style spices and was very acceptable; with those we ate at home it was especially tasty with fresh chopped tomatoes as filler!

Our local Internet Cafe – 3 hours away!

2007-06-23T11:44:00.000+01:00

Our local Internet Cafe is here in Wa, a 3 hour nightmare ‘tro tro’ journey away. Tro tro = 20 people in a 12 seater minibus with bikes, chickens, maize, market produce etc bulging out from everywhere as well as piled high on the roof, not for the faint hearted! The big snag is that Ghana is experiencing huge power cuts meaning that we sometimes get to Wa and find that we cannot use the Internet because the power is off, usually 12 hours at a time. This is as a result of Burkina Faso building a new hydroelectric dam, which is taking away the water that Ghana needs for its huge Volta dam hydroelectricity scheme, built 25 years ago; the Volta dam is 4 ft below the level needed to operate all its generators and is running at just 50% capacity, a huge economic problem for the Ghanaian economy and thus for wee internet users like us!

Ordering furniture from the local IKEA.

2007-06-23T11:39:00.000+01:00

Our house has very little furniture so we have been negotiating with a local carpenter to supply us with a suitable bed, some dining chairs, and possibly a dining table. The furniture is being made to order by Augustine, a local carpenter, at quite competitive prices e.g. £30 for the bed! The furniture arrived by DHL (Damned Heavy Load!) express two wheel delivery, made to order, within the week – and very good it is too!

The Evergreen Garden Bar is our nearest Local

2007-06-08T15:30:00.000+01:00

The bar is half-way between home and work and serves a number of functions. It is a pleasant shady courtyard with a well and a mango tree at its centre; we along with many others, including, hens and goats, have already passed many a relaxing hour under the ‘local networking mango tree’. We share the courtyard with a steady flow of colleagues and local residents who park their bikes, motorcycles and bottoms, like us, to seek a shady spot during the heat of the day, accompanied by the occasional ‘tonic’ or Gulder beer as refreshment. A few roasted peanuts, grown 100 metres away, from the stall nearby and a few mangoes from the tree above us serve to make this a most agreeable meeting place. The short walk home, we are learning to navigate our way under the starlit Ghanaian sky, helps us to recover our senses in preparation for the long Ghanaian night. We have a feeling that a few tales could revolve around this bar over the next couple of years.

We have a Garden!!

2007-06-08T15:29:00.000+01:00

5.30pm Sunday 3rd June 2007-Well, not exactly a garden but a fenced in piece of land which we intend to develop as a vegetable plot. It was not what we intended so early on in our stay but it just happened. We had been discussing the possibility between ourselves and then mentioned it to Fatou, a senior student at the school who has been helping us out with water collection and a bit of housework/cleaning etc. At lunchtime, he and Nigel were just outside looking around for what might be a suitable spot. Around the house, the land is owned by the school but the local farmers use if to grow yams and graze their goats, cattle, hens and pigs. There seemed to be a patch of land fairly close to our house that was not being used. The next thing we knew was that Fatou had been across the fields to the local village and found out who used the land, asked if it was OK for us to use it, and within minutes there were the farmer and about 7 village men all raring to go putting up a fence (to keep out the goats and the headmaster’s pigs! Money was exchanged for fencing materials but no sum fixed for the, construction (There was a certain reluctance to put a cost on the work, but we decided to adopt the Ghanaian attitude of haggling later and go with the enthusiasm!) They had a job on tomorrow, so they insisted that they could do it today. Digging and pole collecting began, the area was measured out by stride and width between poles. With a degree of apprehension we watched as one man shinned up the trees just outside the house to cut down branches, but unlike Malawi, where the whole tree would have been cut down, only what was necessary was “pruned” so that the tree would continue to provide shade and vital wood for fuel etc.
Within 5 hours, our fence was built and a small patch of land duly designated as our “Garden”. Payment time came and the negotiation began. There was somewhat of a language barrier as the men only spoke Dagaare, Fatou spoke Waala, and we spoke neither. However, Madame Kubino a nurse at the local hospital, who lives in the house adjoining ours and who speaks both Dagaare and good English, and who had taken a great deal of interest in the proceedings, helped out with the negotiations and a price was settled; half of what they had first suggested but amicably agreed upon.
Our next task is to decide what is to be planted!

The Road to Wa – our Regional Capital

2007-06-08T15:19:00.000+01:00

Internet trials and tribulations
Having had one unsuccessful trip to Wa to the Internet cafe last Saturday and finding it was “Lights Out” – local term for a scheduled power cut – our hearts sank when we arrived this Saturday to the same situation. Fortunately, however, it was merely a fault and by 12.30pm all was working and we could at last make our first blog update and send emails home since our arrival in Lawra.
Nansara (white person) Shopping
Whilst waiting for the electricity to come back on we sat in “Mummy’s Kitchen”- a local cafe, having a drink when the skies turned black, the wind began to gust and it looked as if it was going to be a real downpour. Street Vendors quickly removed fabrics from their stalls and secured their goods. Sadly, for the local farmers, there was scant rain and all was back to normal as the clouds passed by. The temperature dropped significantly though which made for very pleasant conditions. We have found the Princess Store, a small lock-up shop which sells green beans, green peppers and carrots, so we can supplement our diet with these treats for a short while. I am sure that once the rains begin and things begin to grow we will eventually see them in the local markets. With our rucsack packed with fresh pineapple, avocado and CHEDDAR CHEESE! We headed off for the bus station to find the tro tro to take us back to Lawra. Just get-by taxis on a shoe string (tro tros)We were not impressed with the look of the vehicle, but what could we do, it was the only one going our way. We duly paid and then came the long wait for it to set off. Tro tros will only go when they have a full passenger list i.e. 17 passengers. It took 1 ½ hrs for the bus to fill! Once loaded we were then told we had to change to a different vehicle (fortunately the one we were transferring to looked in much better condition. So, All Change. Then, the engine wouldn’t start so we had to be pushed out of the bus station – backwards, to bump start the engine. Within 2 mins of setting off, the side-door of the minibus fell off!! With the driver’s lackey holding the door in place we set off for Lawra, making a quick stop at the Welders to have the door fixed and at last, after about 2½ hrs delay we were on our way back. No more incidents until about 10 kms from home when we ran out of diesel. There was a loud groan from all the passengers as we all thought we might have to walk!! However, the day was saved by the driver’s assistant who leapt on a borrowed bike, with a plastic jerry can and rode off to find some, further down the road. Miraculously, and to everyone’s delight he was back in about 10 mins complete with full jerry can. We arrived back in Lawra just as the sun was going down feeling that all in all, we had had quite a good day. It is amazing how quickly you adapt to the pace of life out here. Frustration counts for little, patience, a lot.

We have bikes.

2007-06-08T15:17:00.000+01:00

We are awaiting our “call back” to Tamale when we will receive our in-country motorbike training and hopefully our licences. In the meantime we have been offered push bikes from G E S. We took possession of these on Friday morning. VICTORY – nothing to do with success. That is the name of the Chinese -made 18 gear bikes. We tried them out around the GES compound and admit there was a cheer as I managed to get my leg over the cross bar (I really could have done with a Ladies bike at my age! ) and pedalled in a large circle without falling off. I haven’t ridden a bike for years, but you never forget, even if you are a bit wobbly at first.
We set off to town to explore but by the time we got there – only 5 mins away – both the back tyres on our bikes were flat. We found one of the many puncture repair guys who had set up shop under a tree in the middle of the day market. Both of the inner tubes had split, so we had to buy new inner tubes for them. Whilst the guys were repairing them, the parcel carrier on the back of Nigel’s had come apart, so we were taken off to the local welders to get that fixed. On the way there the chain on Nigel’s bike fell apart so he had to push the bike there and then back to the repair man who fixed the chain, sorted out my back brake which was catching, lowered the saddle, and raised Nigel’s saddle. OK, we thought we were sorted. We managed to cycle home but found that we weren’t able to change gear!! So Nigel did a bit of tinkering about in the afternoon to see if he could sort them. Well, it is fairly flat round here – who needs to change gear anyway!!! . As the evening approached and the weather got a little cooler we decided we would go out for a little explore. We had only gone 100 yds when the chain snapped on Nigel’s bike. Mission aborted.......
Perhaps we can exchange these super looking bikes for a local Phoenix non geared bike!! These bikes, as the name suggests rise from the dead again and again. Nothing sophisticated but purely basic, simple and repairable.

Journey's End-New Beginning

2007-06-02T14:06:00.000+01:00

Hi all, from Lawra in Ghana Upper West Region.
We left Accra in the VSO Landrover on Tuesday to stay overnight in Wa, the Upper West's Regional Capital and then to Lawra; on the way up here it definitely seemed as though there was no easy way back without your own 4WD - which we won't have! So we are on our own now and it will be local 'minibuses' complete with produce and commodities for the market that will be our means of transportation henceforth, so a certain amount of adapting is going to be necessary over the next 2 years; this is going to be quite different to the African experiences with which we are familiar!
On arrival our house was a 'bit' of a mess; really really thick dust everywhere and remnants from previous occupants that had laid untouched since December, not a pretty sight. Thus we are currently staying in the Lawra District Assembly Guest House until the house is habitable. It's bread and cheese and jam (from Accra) at the moment as we have no catering facilities in the Guest House, not too much of a problem for me as I am recovering from my first bout of stomach upset!

So it's little by little at the moment, we know that this is going to be quite some challenge, once we can get in to a place that we can call and set up as home we'll take stock and begin to figure out how we handle the next stage.

It would be useful to have mobile phone numbers of friends and acquaintances who wish to keep in touch (definiteley no obligation and we'll fully understand if you do not want yet more unsolicited texts); texting is our best means of communication as the nearest e mail is 3 hours away and last time we travelled to e mail we got there and the power was off for 12 hours so we came back rather miffed.

We have now moved and are gradually settling in to our rather large but basic house, water is carried from the borehole, no tel line- just mobiles (which work very well), Very green, lots of trees including Baobabs but no wildlife in Lawra. Due to get pushbikes soon until we get our motorbikes in 6 weeks time. Local people are brilliant ,as are our work colleagues to be - not started yet!

Appreciating and Acclimatising to Ghana

2007-05-21T19:29:00.000+01:00

Accra, a Capital City of contrasts
We are still in Accra but due to leave for Lawra tomorrow – sometime. How quickly one slips into the Ghanaian attitude to time. At present we are in the middle of a most refreshing rain storm. For the past hour and a half the heavens have opened and rain lashed down, settling the dust and clearing the air. It is blessedly cool and refreshing after our first week of high temperatures and even higher humidity and gives us a little time to reflect on our past week’s activities and experiences –and boy have they been varied!!

Our first week with VSO in Ghana has concentrated around meeting the VSO staff, local volunteers and gaining first- hand experience of shopping in the local area and markets, trying to find many of the things that we will need for our house in Lawra.
A visit to Makola market by ‘tro-tro’ is an experience that you never forget. It is a huge labyrinth of passages between open and covered stalls selling just about everything you could think of - beans and pulses, dried fish, pigs trotters , garden eggs!, plantain bananas, pot and pans, electrical goods, materials and second-hand clothes But to name a few. Sometimes it is best not to look down to the floor at what you are walking on or stepping over! Hygiene and sanitation are not at their best in the marketplaces. At the opposite end of the scale is Koala supermarket, just round the corner from our hotel on ‘Oxford Street’. There you can get just about anything European – We have succumbed and bought a box of Scots Porage Oats, and stocked up on spices to take with us to Lawra hopefully to enhance our cooking.
Cooking Ghanaian style
We had a very interesting cookery session with Comfort in the VSO office on Saturday morning. She introduced us to preparing and cooking yams, plantain bananas, bean stew and egg stew – all staples of the Ghanaian diet. Fried plantain banana is a particular favourite. The locals call it ‘red-red’ and it is delicious eaten with a black-eyed bean stew. Most of their cooking is done in loads of red palm oil. We will not go hungry. Needless to say regaining a waistline might be more difficult than we anticipated.
Travel by tro-tro is something that we will have to get used to. These are minibuses that travel around the cities and between villages and you get on and off wherever you can! The fares are set and once you know the cost they are a cheap and ‘interesting’ way of getting about. We have made one foray into the town this way. The driver’s assistant continually shouts out something vaguely resembling the destination you want and makes an appropriate gesture with his hand, like ‘circle’ and circles his hand in the air.
The FA Cup-Final with atmosphere!
On Saturday afternoon after our cookery session, we went off to Frankies, a local restaurant/bar on the busy high street, and watched the second half of the Man U -v- Chelsea match on their big screen. Ghanaians are mad about football, the place was packed and with a 50/50 mix of supporters there was a great atmosphere.
Our last bit of luxury
Yesterday, Sunday, along with Marieke, a Dutch volunteer, we decided to go in for a bit of luxury and took a taxi to the Labadi Beach Hotel, just east of Accra – to see how the other half live. It was really good to go for a cooling swim. The local beaches are quite polluted, especially those near to Accra and there is a very strong undertow which makes swimming locally pretty dangerous. We will have to explore further down the coast, near to Cape Coast when we next have some leave.
Sundays are special!
It was bliss to find that on Sundays the traffic is 75% less and travelling much easier. Taxis are still available and toot their horns all the time to attract customers or to tell other drivers to beware. They also drive fast when they manage to find a bit of open road – bit like Romans!! The majority of people go to church and all the ladies get dressed up in their finery - beautiful elegant Ghanaian clothes with headdresses and jewellery. It has made me determined to buy some local materials and have them made up for me, especially when we get to Lawra.
That’s all for now, we now await our 6.30 am start on Tuesday to commence our 14 hour drive north to Lawra, hopefully with an overnight stop, possibly at Wa.

First Steps in Ghana

2007-05-16T21:08:00.000+01:00

In the Heat of the Night
Kotoka Airport, Accra, Ghana - as the aeroplane doors opened a blast of hot humid air and heavy rain greeted us. We had at last arrived in Ghana in the rainy season. It felt as if we had had a bucket of hot water thrown over us. 8pm and it was hotter than any day in the UK. Bags were unloaded pretty quickly and we were soon outside the building searching for that comforting sign - VSO. Patience was there to collect us and take us to our accommodation for the next week, Comfort Villa Lodge, a reasonable downtown guest house in the OSU district of Accra. A good night's sleep was required and thankfully our rooms had both ceiling fans and airconditioning. What a luxury - as we were to find out the next day. Power cuts have been frequent over the last three days and without air con the full blast of the heat and humidity - 30 degrees C at 10 o'clock at night!! is pretty sweaty. Under the circumstances we have slept pretty well, with the ceiling fan whirring its way through the night.

All in all we are coping well and enjoying our first few days; we know a little more about our future home in Lawra which we understand to be a quite reasonable house, with some electricity and borehole supplied water - should keep Jenny fit fetching and carrying! (No chance). We also learnt our first few basic greetings in Dagaare, our local language when we get to Lawra.

D-Day minus One

2007-05-12T13:45:00.000+01:00

This is the final blog to be sent from home ground.
What a fortnight this has been. I must have climbed the height of Snowdon just going up and down the ladder to the loft, putting things away. Worse than moving house. You have actually got to find a secure home for all the possessions you have amassed over the years. But we did it and on Thursday finally moved out of our house and in with our long-suffering friends Trin and Cemlyn for the remaining few days. We seem to have packed and re-packed our bags on a daily basis finding things to remove and be replaced by fresh ones we want to take. We have now decided "enough is enough"!! both in terms of re-packing and baggage.

Tough times and a little TLC
Strange emotions have been occurring over the past week or so, probably because I have been getting so tired with everything that has had to be done. On Tuesday night, if asked, I would have declared that I wasn't going through with it, that I couldn't leave my family and friends. However, after a good night's sleep and a bit of Trin's (and Nigel's) TLC I was ready once more to face the challenge. There are still very mixed emotions within me. At the same time I am both excited and nervous about the unknown situations soon to face us and the million and one questions yet to be answered.

Penultimate Goodbye
Last night (Friday) we gathered with a few friends for a meal at the local pub, 'The Three Pigeons'.
The evening ended up with a farewell musical rendering to the Horrockses, words kindly penned by Hilary Clare - a four part harmony to the tune of G & S's "Hail Poetry" from 'The Pirates of Penzance'. We apologise to David and Beth for embarrasing them but you can't get a group of Amateur Operatics folk together and not sing at least one song (often out of tune due to the effects of alcohol!!)
We know that we have been fortunate to experience the company and camaraderie of a truly diverse group of friends who have sufficiently enjoyed, endured! and respected each other's whims and idiosynchrosies to enable us to have had some great times together; we hope to rendezvous with as many of you as possible in the non too distant future, in Ghana, or somewhere in Africa!

Final Check-out and Check-in
Most of our goodbyes have now been said. We have checked in with British Airways online and booked our seats to save time and hassle at the airport tomorrow morning. A 'Last Supper' at Judy & John's house tonight before departure day arrives. We fly out from Manchester to Heathrow at 10.00am, then on to Accra at 2.15pm, arriving in Ghana at around 8pm.

I do hope I shall be able to sleep tonight!!!

Our £1000 Fundraising Target Reached!

2007-04-29T10:54:00.000+01:00

After a generous donation of £250 from Ifor Williams Trailers Ltd we have finally reached our target of £1000.

Curry and Ceilidh: Kwaheri* and Fundraising

2007-04-29T10:05:00.000+01:00

That's what friends are for!

On Saturday April 28th we had a really enjoyable knees up at Llanfair Village Hall dancing to the Angels' Share Ceilidh Band and enjoying curries, conversation and camaraderie to its full. Thanks to everyone for mucking in with the cooking, preparation, washing up, clearing up and fund raising, and for making it a great evening.
You can view a photo album of the evening by clicking on this link: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Horrockses/280407CurryAndCeilidh

You can view the resulting donation to VSO of £500 at: http://www.justgiving.com/nigelandJenny

Well done everyone - what a great bunch of friends and acquaintances, keep in touch after we depart on Sunday May 13th.

* Kwaheri is the Swahili word for Goodbye

SKWID 2007 April 10 -14

2007-04-14T17:37:00.000+01:00

A Brilliant Team
We have just completed an intensive 5 day Health and Skills for Working In Development (SKWID)Programme at Harborne Hall in Birmingham; a tough but enjoyable and really useful course with a great crowd of people who are heading to Ghana, China, Namibia, Malawi, Nigeria, Gambia and Thailand. We hope to keep in touch. Jenny also stayed on for an additional days's training for Teacher Trainers.

Ali, Carol, O, Bernie, Tessa, Martina, Scott, Emma, Pete, Stuart, Dorothy, Claire, Nigel, Jenny, Beth, Serita, Kate.

Budding Hell's Angels!

2007-04-06T09:08:00.000+01:00

Motorcycle Training for Ghana

Well, much to my amazement we have now both joined the ranks of 'competent' bikers. I use that word advisedly as after the last four traumatic days I have managed to trash a couple of rows of traffic cones, dropped the bike on my leg, nearly run the instructor over, burst into tears countless times with frustration ~ (all this fortunately in the safety of a large car park training area) and eventually, successfully, clocked 190 miles of road biking around the glorious Shropshire and Worcestershire countryside in beautiful sunshine. I must point out that the above frustrations only apply to me, as Nigel had already had some biking experience (from a misspent youth I expect) and picked up the techniques with no problem at all. And I must thank our instructor, Trevor who had infinite patience thoughout the whole of what was to me both a terrifying and amazing experience.

You might be asking why have we suddenly gone totally insane and learned to ride motorbikes at our age - dedication to VSO. The CBT Certificate (Compulsory Basic Training for motorcycle riders) ~ we can't go to Ghana without them as motorbikes are the form of transport provided for us out there. We are both so pleased that this major hurdle is now over.

Biking is certainly not something I would initially have chosen to do, but then in life there are many challenges which seem impossible that you are pushed into and find that you actually can do them if you don't give up at the first hurdle.

Day 1: Initiation - Desperation

Car park - coned off and marked out with a road junction with white lines etc. First half of the morning/day - get to know the bike, safety checks, gears, clutch, throttle, Highway Code etc. Start bike and ride up and down. No problem except I can't turn the corner and go careering out of the coned area!! Ooops. Don't seem to be able to slow down, speed up without behaving like a kangaroo. This is not supposed to be happening.

End of day - Me - worried, frustrated, feeling sick - 'Nigel, do you mind going to Ghana without me!! I can't do this'

Day 2: Frustration - Palpitations

Still in the Car Park a.m. Petrified, still can't do a U turn, can't get from 1st into 2nd gear, demolish the cones (again) and make a complete hash of turning right out of a mock up junction. Need more practice (on everything)

p.m. this can't be right - we're going out of the gate and into the local housing estate. Follow Trevor round in a complete trance, doing all the right things (just) but only because he keeps telling me what to do. 4 times round the estate and we get back to the car park, still in one piece and feeling a little exhilarated that I'm back in one piece, confidence growing.

Day 3: Anticipation - Satisfaction

Arrive at the car park and no cones!! this means business. Off out onto the open road towards Ludlow. Cups of tea en route - now this is more like it. Arrived at our destination - not without minor hiccups on the way but nothing major.

3.00pm Arrive back at the training centre exhausted but feeling much more cheerful having done 90 miles in lovely countryside.

Day 4 - Exhilaration

Another glorious day out in the Shropshire/Worcestershire coutryside (confidence growing - actually reached 60 mph) exploring the Clee hills and as many back country lanes as possible with Trevor finding a few challenges for us like fording a river and vertically steep hills, both up and down!! Lunch on the top of the hills was just glorious.

After 4 days of intensive concentration I was pretty tired and glad when we got back to the training centre at Kidderminster and even more delighted when Trevor pronounced us competent enough to be signed off and ready for the Ghanaian dirt roads that we will no doubt encounter in the very near future.

Thanks Trevor and VSO, another skill under our belts that we never envisaged acquiring at the age of 59/60.

Flights are booked we're on way!

2007-04-06T09:03:00.000+01:00

It's confirmed, our flights are booked and we will be leaving Manchester for Accra at 10.00 on Sunday May 13th

It's a Good News Week !

2007-03-27T14:56:00.000+01:00

A Cornish Pastiche
It started with us celebrating my first day of a new phase in life (having finished paid employment on Friday March 23rd) by visiting Mike, Ali and Safi, in Cornwall; we also celebrated a new arrival into the world, grandchild number two, Raif, a strapping 11.5lbs boy - wow, poor Ali (mum)! A bit of grandparenting for the next couple of days and then we skidaddle off back to Ruthin and then on to our five days of motorbike training, beginning in Kidderminster and ending in Birmingham. More news when we become certified bikers!

Farewell and Fundraising Evening on April 28th

2007-03-21T20:00:00.000Z

Curry and Ceilidh in Llanfair Village Hall - Ruthin

As a way of both saying cheerio to our friends and of raising funds for VSO, we are planning a Curry and Ceilidh evening in our local village hall. Friends and acquaintances are invited to come along and enjoy some of the many different curries that some of our gastronomic friends are helping us to prepare (there will be vegge and non-spicy too!) why not come along and enjoy a good evening's dancing and merriment!

We'll be dining at 8.00, dancing 'til late and drinking - 'til we abate! (bring your own tipple - glasses provided!)

'The Angels' Share' have generously offered to lead the Ceilidh at a knock down VSO price!

There is a limited number of tickets @ £10 p.p. available from Nigel & Jenny (all proceeds to VSO) but you'll need to be sharp as demand is high - see you there!

Raffle prizes gratefully received and other fundraising wheezes for the night willingly entertained.

We are preparing to go to Ghana

2007-03-13T13:13:00.000Z

Destination Ghana
It has been confirmed that we are going to Ghana for 2 years on May 13th (predicted date - subject to flights). We are still going through the VSO processes but it looks as though my role (Nigel) will be to support the managers at the District Education Office in Lawra, working with staff to enable them to manage better; also to identify the continuing professional development needs and develop an appropriate CPD programme with Head teachers in the area . Jenny's role will be to support primary school teachers with Basic Skills and 'phonics' (a way of learning to read). Lawra is in the (Upper Western District of Ghana), right on the border with Burkina Faso, hot and tough, no hills!

On our bikes!
We have just fixed up our motorcycle training: April 2nd - 6th (5 days!). I aim to finish on March 23rd when we will visit my son and daughter in law in Cornwall for the birth of our second grandchild. We then have a further week's VSO training later in April on a 'Skills for Working in Development' programme in Birmingham.

We have a massive amount of preparation to do, thankfully Jenny finished work in December and is handling it all really well - there's no stopping her, she can't wait to go!

Training for Volunteering and Development

2007-02-02T10:01:00.000Z

Preparing for Volunteering - VSO training for beginners
Four days of intensive training at Harborne Hall in Birmingham, at the end of January, proved to be really useful in a number of respects.

We met a host of other volunteers who were at different stages: some had been on VSO and since returned as Trainers, others were in the final stages of preparing to leave for their placements and were busy arranging their 'motorcycle training' (Cambodia), others, such as ourselves were waiting to receive their first offer of a placement. A good diverse mix of people from all walks of life, ages, shapes and sizes!

A great team of tutors - a class act!
Background information and discussion on areas such as Development, The Cycle of Disadvantage, Debt Crisis, IMF and the World Bank, HIV and AIDS, were cleverly interspersed with role play and games which effectively and practically brought home the immense problems some countries face and the approach VSO takes within these countries ~ heavy stuff!! Well, it could have been had Nicky, Pamela and Emma, all returned volunteers with brilliant group work skills and an equally good sense of humour, not been our tutors for the weekend. They constantly illustrated the various sessions with real life anecdotes from their own and other volunteers' experiences abroad making us both laugh and think at the same time.

Cultural consciousness:
The second part of the weekend revolved around Personal Preparation to help cope with and settle into working in a different culure - all extremely interesting stuff. I just hope I can keep it in sight when I start to panic !!!

We wound down at the end of each day either in the Hall bar or round the corner at The Bell for a well earned drink. We have just a couple of words for our group tutor Nicky - Farah Fawcett Major!! We so nearly won the pub quiz ~ we should have listened to her!

Keeping in touch:
Having swopped email addresses within the group and pleas of 'Keep in touch, we want to know where you are going', we left on a high, feeling that we had the full support of VSO and Harborne Hall as an information and training centre which would fill in the gaps in our skills. For some, HH was beginning to feel like a second home, they were there so often, cramming in the last of their training before going overseas.

Let's hope that our next visit will see us with a country to go to and specific training goals to achieve.

Feeling in Limbo!

2007-01-19T15:34:00.000Z

Time goes by
Well time is marching on, Jenny finished work at the end of December, I'll continue to soldier on until the end of March. This is a very tricky phase, Jenny just doesn't know what to do with herself, she's had a quick blast at outstanding jobs in the house and she's feeling quite uncertain about what she will be doing on VSO and consequently is in a quandary about what to do to upskill/prepare herself.

Family affairs
We have now started to prepare ourselves for the reality of VSO, hoping that we can go in May and not September. We are getting sorted on house rental arrangements and trying to work out how we will manage our finances and affairs whilst we are away.

We had a wonderful fortnight in Capetown over Xmas with Philip and David (two of our sons) and with my brother and his family; I think our fabulous Capetown experience and the return to the short days and British weather has added to our current sense of frustration and impotence.

The die is cast - but when and where?
We know that the recruitment/matching process doesn't commence properly until February but having made the decision to proceed, having both committed ourselves to giving up our jobs, we just want to get on with it now. We are also keen to get on with some fundraising but we feel that we cannot begin to do that until we know where and when we are going.

VSO: Volunteers and Development Training
We have a VSO training programme (4 days) coming up next week; maybe that will give us the lift we need. It looks like a pretty intensive four days and I am sure that it will re-fix our minds on our intentions and help us to make good use of the period until February when potential placements become available.

Preparations begin with a vengeance

2006-11-19T15:45:00.000Z

On the VSO front:
We are now officially destined to be volunteers overseas, but that's only the beginning. Last weekend we spent hours obtaining additional passport photos, copies of passports, filling in CV's, personal profiles, competency checklists, personal preference details etc; all to enhance and trigger the process of matching us, with our skills, to the needs of host countries.
We have also booked in on an essential Personal Preparation Programme for four days in January to help us to gain a better understanding of development issues, meet others who have been on VSO and generally sensitise us to the do's and don'ts of volunteering overseas. We are also due to begin extended discussions with our Placement Adviser who will help steer us through the various options until we eventually agree a placement.

On the domestic front:
Preparations begin so what do we do? we start doing all of the the things in the house that we have been promising to do for ourselves for years, just so that we can leave it in good condition for someone else to live in! The lights and flooring in the loft that we have always wanted, probably a new stair carpet, even a new loo seat, which is really taking things a bit too far.
We have also started the inevitable check list of arrangements that will have to be sorted both before we go and taken care of whilst we are away it's amazing how much there is. What do we do with the cars, the furniture etc?

Finishing work and going on holiday:
Most important Jenny finishes work at Ifor Williams Trailers after 5yrs so though we have a diminution in income to look forward to we have the added bonus of Jenny being available to help organise things to smooth our eventual departure. We are also having a treat; we have arranged to meet up with my brother Martin and family and two of our sons and friends in Capetown over Christmas, a special celebration before the dawn of a new era.

It's Good News Week - accepted as Volunteers

2006-11-06T12:41:00.000Z

Great news, we received confirmation from VSO, on Saturday November 4th, that they would like us to become volunteers overseas. We received the 'volunteers pack' and promptly exchanged our bedtime reading for something much more serious; as Jenny said, it's almost like preparing to die! There is so much to do in the way of arranging one's affairs to operate whilst you are abroad, it's definiteley not for the faint hearted. So at least it's one of many more milestones passed. It's now down to finding out when we can go on the compulsory 'Personal Preparation' training events and to liaising with our VSO link officers to begin to discuss possible placements.

So why are we volunteering?

2006-11-02T19:31:00.000Z

Second thoughts? - just for a milli-second only!
Two days to go before VSO let us know if they will accept us as volunteers. It's only 5 days since our VSO assessment but it's long enough to make you think again and ask yourself, what are you doing and why are you doing it? The questioning phase lasted only until I went to the hospital today. I was successfully treated for early stage prostate cancer three and a half years ago; today was a routine check and all is well. However, when I saw some of the other patients in the waiting room, grey, gaunt, but bravely cheerful I knew just why we were volunteering. You are only here once - make the most of it!

Getting all philosophical!
I'm not a religious person, and I really respect people who have made the leap of faith to believe; but ever since my first years in school I have questioned the existence of a God. I have generally been disposed to scientific explanations of how we came to be who we are and Charles Darwin, and of all people Bill Bryson, in his brilliant 'a Short History of Nearly Everything' have enabled me to happily come to terms with the fact that my atoms will one day be dispersed into who knows what and at some stage in the future will re-combine with other atoms to create who knows what again! I can only hope that 'it' is another me because I (we) have really enjoyed life thus far; but I don't mind if it's a worm, an elephant, or a rock; this part of existence has been fantastic on its own and I am very grateful!
At this stage I am comfortable with not having a clue as to how the whole shebang came into existence and I am happy to remain as excited and curious as anybody else to receive an explanation, but I think we will be still searching by the time I 'pop off', so here's to the future, for now!
So my brief hospital reminder of how valuable life is, served to reinforce how important it is to me to make the most of what we have whilst we have it.

I am not a material (girl) man and I don't do:
...cars, clothes, swimming (because Jenny is better than me!) and material things generally;

But I do do: the great outdoors, good tennis, mountain tops, trying to sing tenor in the chorus of our local Operatic Society, good friends - they know who they are! (Jenny being my best), three great sons, travel (especially Africa), and social justice within the context of equal opportunity. Which basically accounts for why volunteering overseas is our chosen next pathway. Compared with some other countries people in the UK have all the opportunity that they need, to get on and lead a decent life; not so in much of the developing world and we know, from our several vists to Malawi, that we have skills, experience, and a certain degree of humility and humanity that might enable us to make a difference to the lives of others, should we be invited to volunteer. Phew - that was hard work but I felt that I wanted to say it!

Making the Decision to go on VSO

2006-10-31T16:43:00.000Z

At 58 (Jenny) and 60 (me - Nigel), a window of opportunity has appeared in our lives; we no longer have dependent parents, our three sons are independent and are of an international and adventurous disposition, and we have the vigour, verve and curiousity to step out into the unknown to see where this next episode in our lives will take us.

We looked up the VSO web site, registered online as potential volunteers, submitted our applications, and after some initial communications we were accepted into the VSO recruitment process.