Volunteering in Ghana - Day three and Johnny's observations

Day 3

It was an eventful evening to say the least. Me, Glenn and Kwame were locked out of the room by two of the orphans, Dolce and Cornelius. They straight up outsmarted us, playing a joke but falling asleep. The worst thing about it was that I made a joke about it happening and didn't have the sense to get the keys out of the room. Kwame and Kinza went around the outside of the house to flash a torch into the room. The windows are like mesh with slats of glass. As we were knocking the door like police at a crack den bust, we heard Kwame shouting from outside into the lounge. I walked in there to see him shining a light in there. I told him he had the wrong room and the boys were in the room next door. He went next door...but to the wrong next door, the next door being the girls room. Eventually ending up at the right room and waking them up. It took about 20 minutes before we could get into our room to sleep.

We spent all day playing, reading to, and looking after the kids. I found out that a group of orphans is like a swarm of locusts - nothing is left after they pass through. Instead of stomachs they have bottomless pits. They can eat and eat and then out come the puppy dog eyes like they haven't been eating. Do not be fooled by those adverts you see on tv!

I also found that Kwame is an awesome artist and he has been sketching in my diary for me. I will try and scan some of his works for you to see. But you can check out some of his paintings here.

The only time we left the village today was to go to the market in a borrowed car from Emile, the builder. The local kids will often come up to you and demand money. A small kid no bigger than my knees said " You give me 1,000" which in the old money is about 10 peswas which is about 2p. Still, I didn't like his attitude. So I replied "No, you give me, 1,000" and so it went on in a loop until finally he left. On the way to the market we hit a pothole pretty hard and one of the hubcaps went flying, We don't know if Emile ever knew about it. He probably does now.

Johnny's Observations

1) The water is undrinkable and the sewerage is poor, but every man an their dog seems to have a mobile phone with internet access.

2) When riding in a Tro Tro - if your head is not hurting from the drivers inability to not beep the horn every 5 seconds, it will be hurting from the amount of times you smack it against the side of the van.

3) They bloody love a plastic bag. Everything comes in one. It wouldn't surprise me if the hospitals put the newborn babies in them (with air holes of course) so the parents can carry them home.