Category Archives: Ghana

On Christmas Day the 25th of December SYDD celebrated together with the students at Edwenase Rehabilitation Centre. We had brought rice, chicken, oil, drinks and biscuits two days earlier and on the same day as the party took place we had made a provision for music (DJ), chairs and tents. We arrived around 11 am and some of the students were already dancing and enjoying the music. They were all served our drinks and biscuits after a couple of hours of dancing, when they started to sweat and became tired. Several of the students were very happy with our contributions and presence and they told me; “I’m very happy today! God bless you!”. After dancing together with the students, then we walked inside to have lunch together with everyone including the Regional Director of the Social Welfare Department. He was very happy that we had made this possible and we left the celebration party around 3 pm, when everybody was still enjoying.

On the same day, Christmas Day, Mumin turned 3 years old and because of that there was a birthday party held for him including music, dance and food. He only received a few couple of gifts, 2 or 3, so I’m very grateful and glad that my mother had sent him a book in English about Pippi Longstocking. I read it to him and he commented my reading and describing by agreeing “yes, yes, yes”. Mumin eats more than anyone I know, and I’m talking about all age groups. During his birthday party, wherever I saw him he was either having a drink or food in his mouth. Hehe. It was a nice birthday party with lots of chaos.

On Boxing Day, 26th of December, we received a call that GBC (Ghana Broadcasting Corporation) was going to talk about the NGO (Solidarity for Youth and Disabled Development) I’m working for in their 1 pm news (and at 8 pm). GBC covers the whole of Ghana (with a population of approximately 20 million people) and everyone throughout the nation can hear the same news. The news reporter talked about what we did at the Edwenase Rehabilitation Centre on Christmas Day and also the fields we are working in and the importance for other NGOs to focus on not just HIV, because there are other groups of people as well who are in great need of help and support. It was nice to hear my name on the radio too in the news; “Project Supervisor Mr Per Erik Torkelson”.

Today the Islamic holiday, Eid il Adel, has started and it will continue for 3-4 days. The Muslims celebrate it by sacrificing (killing) animals, e.g. cows and sheep, and then eating the meat.

Gott Nytt År!

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Last week I received my first Christmas gifts, and the package was sent by my mother. I won’t open it until Christmas Eve. I also received a Christmas card from my aunt.

On Thursday (14 Dec), I went to the STC bus station in Adum to see off my German friends who left Kumasi that day. I have great memories when I think of them. From the first time I met them in the Pink Hostel in Accra two months ago, until they left Kumasi last week. I will remember Crash by being extremely happy and talking about everything after visiting Baze one night in Accra, I will remember Maria by telling me about her true love; Croatia (sorry Crash) and I will never forget Tamara in the waterslide in Cape Coast: “Ready? The heavy person!” (with an English accent just like Arnold Schwarznegger) and the stories goes on. I will see you in Stuttgart one day.

Last week’s work: we attended an HIV-meeting in Adum, I taught two days at the evening classes, updated documents and records, interviewed orphans. But the most special and emotional assignment last week, without any doubt, was our visit to the Edwenase Rehabiliation Centre, where we interviewed 12 disabled youths. We came to the rehabilitation centre and received a list with names of 13 youths (the worst cases), which we all interviewed during three hours. The first person we interviewed was a 14 year old boy, who told us that his biggest problem is that he wants to live with his uncle, but that he’s not allowed (because of legal reasons). The boy started crying at the end of the interview and it made me sad seeing him cry. The next person we interviewed was an 18 year old girl and she began to tell us about that her daily life in general is very tough; that she can’t afford daily life basic things, doesn’t have money to buy materials so that she can produce in school and that her footwear has been spoiled since a long time. When I heard all these things and she sat in her wheelchair and started to cry, then it was very difficult for me to hold back my tears. I had to look away and I tried to write what she was telling us, while Mr Abu embraced her to show concern and care. I saw that Mr Abu also started getting tears when she told us about her life situation. Another boy we interviewed was a 21 year old one, whose father died last year. His father had big debts and when he died then those debts were inherited by the rest of the family, and as they were in a tough financial situation, they couldn’t pay it all off and we found out that this boy’s family was evicted from their apartment recently. When I heard one sad story after another, it reminded me that some people just don’t know how lucky they are. But one of the worst cases that day was a 29 year old man who was completely blind and walked around with a cane and had problems walking too. He was laughing continuously (he was mentally challenged in some way). We found out that his mother was dead since a long time and that he sometimes stays with the stepmother when they vacate from the rehabilitation centre. The centre manager at the rehabilitation centre told us that the 29 year old man’s real father lives in Germany and he was visiting Kumasi two weeks ago, but the father refused to visit his blind son at the rehabilitation centre. We were also told that all the brothers of the 29 year old man have been put in schools by the father, but the father has refused to put his blind son in a school for blind people. I sighed when I heard this and it was an emotional rollercoaster inside of me. Mr Abu got very angry when he heard about the father and as for me, I was even more sad when I heard that this 29 year old man only had one visit in 6 months (and it was the stepsister). When everybody else has gone home for vacation, this 29 year old man has been left at the rehabilitation centre for three consecutive times, because no one wants to come and pick him. Another boy who we interviewed told us that his “only” problem is the loneliness that he feels; when he’s at home with the family then they never let him participate in any activities. He even told us whenever they go to church, he has to remind his family that he wants to come along, but the answer they give him is that “it’s too difficult to find transportation for you”. Oh, oh, oh! When I heard this, it almost became too much to handle for me emotionally. It was really emotionally pressuring listening and meeting these people, hearing about their lives and looking at which situations they are in; physically disabled, mentally challenged, poor, neglected (sometimes fully) by their own families, never receive visits etc. Once again I and Mr Abu told each other that; “there are so many people who don’t know anything about how lucky they are, being healthy and having someone who cares about them”. This day was definitely the biggest challenge since I arrived to Kumasi, Ghana.

This week at work: it has been mostly office work and at the evening classes we have had maths exam and yesterday we had English examination, and I was very happy when the men took the maths exam, because they felt very confident. Tonight we are going to give back their results and it is the last lesson for a couple of weeks, then we are giving the men and women vacation and we start again in January. It will be nice with a break for us too, because we have other things to focus on.

Today I haven’t been feeling well at all, so I have tried to rest and take it easy in Dote and Adukrom.

God Jul!

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Work last week; on Monday (4th Dec) we attended a meeting at Okomfo Anokye Hospital (biggest hospital in Kumasi) where they wanted to know about our NGO and what kind of work we do with HIV-infected people. Last week I also interviewed several male and female orphans about food, accommodation, education, future work plans, problems and needs. I got very emotional when one of the boys, 17 years old, told me: “I have one problem; I don’t have anyone who takes care of me. When all the other orphans go to their extended families and relatives, then I don’t have anyone to go to. Instead I always go and work in a village on weekends”. His story made me sad, because he spoke straight from his heart. There was also a girl who made me sad last week, when I was interviewing her at Nuriya Islamic School and asked her: “Where do you live? How many people do you live with?”, then her answer was: “I live in Zongo, it’s only me where I live”. I saw that it was hard for her to tell me, because the tears started coming when she answered my question. Zongo is what they call the area where the poor Islamic people live. Both these orphans reminded me once again that you can buy almost everything, but you can never buy the most important things in life. Last week’s work also included me buying 8 dozens (96) of bowls, cups, plates and spoons which were intended for the orphans. When we visited the Head at Nuriya Islamic School and told him about it, then he was very appreciative that we try to help some of his most needy students. The past Friday (8 Dec) Mr Abu and I wrote individual numbers and “SYDD” on 73 cups, plates, bowls and spoons which we distributed the following day. We worked for about 3 hours on Saturday, distributing the items I had bought plus food (rice, sugar, oil etc.).

The past Saturday I followed with some friends (five volunteers) out to the village where they live, Esase, which is between 30-60 minutes drive with tro-tro from Kumasi depending on the traffic. They had a very nice house for themselves and the environment was very relaxed and quiet compared to my life in Kumasi. It was nice to get away for a night, even if it was short, because otherwise I’m more or less caught up in my work everyday. My friends’ house of their own includes nice rooms with toilets and showers, something which is very different from my accommodation. The following day, two days ago, we had breakfast at 06:30, which was way too early for me. I’m not used to get up that early, because most of the days my work ends late. On Sunday they showed me their workplace, the school and dorm, before we headed off to the Miklin Hotel in Kumasi, where we relaxed, swam in the swimming pool and had lunch. It’s nice to do things like this, but I need a longer vacation, because it is work from Monday-Saturday and on Sundays you think and discuss about what’s going to happen the coming week.

The night between Sunday-Monday, I experienced the hottest night in my bedroom so far; it was 28 degrees Celsius in the room. It was difficult to fall asleep, and around 03 am there was a rooster who had gone almost mad, constantly making noise, so when I went to the toilet I also looked for a stone and threw it at the rooster. Their noise is making me crazy, especially when it continues for 20 minutes.

I treated myself with four audio CDs and one VCD last week; T.O.K. “Shake Ur Bam Bam”, Lucky Dube “Respect”, P-Square “Da Remix (Bizzy Body II)”, C-Zar “Araba Lawson” and P-Square “Tempted 2 Watch: Da Videos II”. I play the P-Square “Da Remix (Bizzy Body II)” CD a lot, they are from Nigeria and sing in English. I saw one of their videos on TV; “Temptation” ft. Alaye. It’s a great song! I play it over and over. All the CDs and the VCD cost 15 000 Cedis each (around 12 SEK), except for the C-Zar album. There is one song on the C-Zar album which is really good; it’s called “Araba Lawson”.

I received my first postcard in Ghana last week, and it was from my grandparents. It was really nice to get regular mail.

Yesterday I went to Nuriya Islamic School and started interviewing orphans, but I started feeling extremely weak during interviewing, so I had to rest from noon until bedtime. I had real pains in my stomach. Today I’m feeling better, but I’m still not 100%.

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Last Friday I and Issah were in a drop-in on our way between Dote and Adukrom, and there was another car coming against us driving in our lane (right hand side) in Tinpom. The reason why were 15-20 cows walking in the road, but when he passed us the man in the other car got really angry at our taxi driver and started shouting at him. I told our taxi driver, who was a boy around 20-21 years old; “don’t mind him, he’s wrong, in Ghana you are supposed to drive on the right hand side of the road”. When we reached Sawaba about 3-4 minutes later, the angry man had turned around his car and he came back and pulled to the side just in front of our taxi, walked out of his car and punched our taxi driver right in the face through the window. There were several men gathering around trying to calm people down, I walked out of the car and told the man and a couple of the others standing around that; “this man is all wrong, in Ghana we drive on the right hand side”. The angry man didn’t say anything, he just left in a hurry after the punch. What an idiot! I told our taxi driver, who was hurt on his cheek and started to cry a little; “don’t care about him, he’s an idiot, he’s all wrong”. I wish I had this on video.

The same day as the taxi fight incident, I booked a room at Guestline Lodge in Adum (Kumasi), because I was leaving for Cape Coast the following day and the Guestline Lodge is located next to the STC bus station. The room I stayed in was fine, but I had a problem, I couldn’t sleep for more than maybe 30 minutes that night. I had sprayed the room with insect killer too much so I could hardly breathe; not very smart of me (I know some of you will laugh when you read this). The STC bus left for Cape Coast very early, around 04:00, last Saturday morning. I was invited by some other volunteers (from Germany, USA and Switzerland) I know to come along with them, so we were six including me that travelled to Cape Coast that morning. I tried to sleep on the bus, but it was really hard to get some sleep. The bus took less than 4 hours and we arrived before 08:00 to Cape Coast. We checked in at a place called Samoo’s Guesthouse. The place was fine and I shared room with the same German volunteer I shared room with in Accra when I arrived to Ghana. That day we visited the Cape Coast Castle (a former slave castle) and we had very nice tour guide who showed us around and guided us. I learned that where the Cape Coast Castle stands is on the site of the Swedish Fort Carolusbourg, which was built from wood in 1653. It was really interesting to visit the castle and I enjoyed the tour very much. We left the castle before noon and headed towards a place called Elmina Beach Resort and there we spent almost the whole day; we had lunch, socialized, relaxed and swam in the pools. I truly appreciated the beach resort and the lovely breeze coming from the ocean, it really felt like we where on vacation, which was much needed when you usually work 6 days a week. That evening we had to wait for 1 h 30 min before we received our dinner and when we finally got it, then it was cold. Frustrating? Yes!

The following day, Sunday (26 Nov), four of the volunteers including myself went to Kakum National Park which is a rainforest roughly 33 km from Cape Coast. After arriving to Kakum NP, then we started off by having a guided tour just the four of us for about an hour, which was real nice and quiet. We didn’t see many animals, but I didn’t care about that, I just enjoyed the rainforest. The humidity in the rainforest made me sweat like a waterfall. When the hiking tour was over, then we continued on to the canopy walk, and that was a great and special feeling to stand between trees looking out into the rainforest. The canopy walk was approximately 350 meters long and about 45 meters above the ground. We left Kakum NP and took a drop-in to Elmina Beach Resort, where the other two volunteers already were. I loved it that we came back to the Beach Resort that day, because of the relaxed mood and the nice breeze from the ocean. It was something very different from my hometown Kumasi and the daily life I have there, so that’s why I appreciated it very much. In the evening we all had a real nice time with dinner on the roof of our guesthouse and I taught the others some Swedish.

On Monday morning I and an American volunteer went to the Elmina Castle, the others decided to skip it, but I definitely wanted to see it because I don’t know if I will be back in the Cape Coast area again. Although Elmina Castle was nice to see, the Cape Coast Castle was definitely a more interesting and nicer place to visit. I and the American volunteer walked around Elmina Castle for about 20 minutes before we got in a drop-in to enjoy the breakfast buffet at the Elmina Beach Resort. After breakfast and getting back to Cape Coast, then we all headed towards the STC bus station to buy tickets, but the buses back to Kumasi were already full. Instead we had to go to the tro-tro station and after awhile we got tickets in a Mercedes-Benz tro-tro, which was quite nice. I was quick and chose the front seat next to the driver, because I didn’t want to sit tight with 15 other people in the back. The drive took less than 4 hours and I talked to a real nice man from Kumasi during the ride. The landscape between Cape Coast and Kumasi was very nice. When I got back to Kumasi I really felt like I had been on a vacation and I missed it, because I was experiencing a truly great time in Cape Coast.

Work this week; I had Monday off because of my Cape Coast trip, but other then that it has been very busy days with various assignments. I and Mr Abu have realized that we need to be with the orphans (boys and girls) more and interview them more frequently to engage ourselves in their lives. So, this week I haven’t had time to teach the men or women in the evening down in Aboabo, instead I have met boys and girls (orphans). Tuesday evening we had a meeting with the orphan boys next to the mosque and they are all great. I stood up and asked: “what is my name?” and 50 orphans answered simultaneously: “Mr Erik!”. The day after, Wednesday, Mr Abu and I visited Nuriya Islamic School (where most of the orphans I know go to school) and we met the head there and discussed the needy students’ problems. The head, Malam, was very thankful for the food that some of the children receive through SYDD (food delivery from OICI). He just got back from travelling to Saudi Arabia, and it’s a country I have been thinking of travelling to some day and I will absolutely try to get there. Two days ago we were also visiting Edwenase Rehabilitation Centre (a center for youths with physical disabilities) where Sarah, the girl I have talked about before, is schooling. It was amazing to see how happy she was when Mr Abu and I arrived, she ran towards us and shouted: “both my parents are here!”. It was really nice to see how happy she was just by our visit. It’s hard to imagine myself in her shoes with both her parents being dead since long time and her grandmother, the only sole caretaker, who died last year, so she is all alone and no one ever visits her. There were also two other girls at the centre, Lydia and Felicia, which also have tough situations with either no parents or parents who just don’t care about their children because of their physical disabilities. It’s very sad, but as I have told before, Ghanaians in general don’t care at all about people with physical disabilities. Today we held our SYDD monthly meeting with the orphans in Adukrom and we mainly discussed the importance of not being ignorant. As you can see, it’s been a great week at work.

Two days ago, when we got home to Adukrom after work, then Mr Abu and I ran into Baki, which is a neighbouring boy at the age of 6. He had an open nasty cut just above his right eyebrow which he had received during the day. I told Mr Abu that “it’s not good letting the cut be like this in this heat and with all the dust and dirt that the children are exposed to all the time”. So Mr Abu and I brought Baki with us to Mr Abu’s place and there we treated the cut. Mr Abu told me that the father has run away and the mother is not taking care of Baki. There are so many parents who aren’t concerned at all about their children’s health and hygiene. Everyday I meet so many children with dirty hands and I tell them: “you have to wash your hands before greeting”.

Yesterday, 1 December, it was Farmers’ Day (national holiday) and it was instituted in 1984 to thank the hardworking and often un-rewarding farmers for their efforts. There are lots of mixed feelings about this holiday, because some farmers say that they lose money because they can’t go to the market and sell their goods. I, myself, relaxed in the morning, but then I went to the office to work on the computer. As I have told before, there is always work.

Voltic water; I drink it all the time (1½ litre costs less than 4 SEK).

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We have changed our schedule for SYDD Non Formal Education, starting from this week, so we teach Monday-Thursday (20:00-21:15). Monday and Wednesday are English lessons; Tuesday and Wednesday are maths lessons. We made this decision based on that we can’t be everywhere the whole time and two hours five days a week was too much. Now we have Friday evenings off, which is nice, because other than that it is work all the time. I have to tell you one thing about the evening classes which I find funny, and that is the fact that the men always come up to me during class and kindly ask for permission to urinate; “sir, can I go and urinate?”. Hehe, I don’t know why but I laugh to myself when I here them saying it.

I bought one bag of rice (50 kg) and one bag of sugar (50 kg) at the beginning of the week, because SYDD is currently working with more than 200 orphans, street children and juveniles and as I have said before, the delivery of food which we received this month from OICI will not last long enough. The bag of rice and the bag of sugar cost me around $76. Since I have private interviews with orphans every week I get a much clearer picture what they are in need of and the number one priority is definitely food, because almost all of the orphans have to go and beg for food everyday from neighbours or people in their areas. Another problem the orphans have to deal with is mosquitoes, almost every boy living in the mosque in Adukrom tell me that “I don’t like living in the mosque, because there are too many mosquitoes”. There are no mosquito nets on the doors and windows and the boys don’t have any mosquito nets to sleep under. Two of the boys showed me their arms and skin and they both had hundreds of mosquito bites, so mosquito nets are a very high priority when we get any financial donations.

We visited Sarah, the disabled girl I talked about before, a couple of days ago and we brought her some food (oil, rice, sugar etc.) and we also bought her phone booth cards so that she can call us in case of an emergency. The day we came and visited her and brought the things, it really made her shine, so I was very pleased because her situation is very tough.

Two days ago I also bought a new suitcase, medium size, because if and when I will travel for a short period then I don’t want to travel around with the big Samsonite suitcase my mother bought at Costco (California, USA). That one is too big!

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I have lost my mobile phone (Sony Ericsson K800i)! It happened four days ago in a taxi, and I don’t know if it was someone sitting next to me who took it or if it fell out of my pocket. Anyway, it was very annoying, because you can’t work professionally without a mobile phone. Even if a mobile phone is a material thing and easily replaceable, it’s still irritating losing all phone numbers and information which I use everyday. I want to continue using the same Ghana number that I have, so I went to the Areeba regional office in Kumasi and blocked the chip. I went back the following day (15 Nov) to the Areeba office and bought a new chip and went into Adum and bought a new mobile phone; a Nokia 2600. It’s a very basic phone compared to the one I used to have, but I didn’t want to spend too much money on a phone. My new Nokia 2600 has a color screen (hehe, my brother will laugh reading this).

The same day I bought a new mobile phone, I also interviewed a disabled girl together with Mr Abu. After the interview we both definitely realised that material things are just material things. The interview contained me giving her (Sarah, 20) questions in English and Mr Abu translating them for her. She told us she’s attending a vocational rehabilitation center at the moment. Sarah has difficulties with walking properly and she is almost completely blind on one of her eyes and has trouble seeing with the other one. Both her parents are dead and she used to live with her grandmother, who was her sole caretaker, but the grandmother died last year, so now Sarah is living on her own. During the weekends it’s very difficult for her to get food, because she doesn’t have any money, so if she’s lucky she eats one meal a day (dinner) during weekends. I could see that Mr Abu almost fell into tears when she described that she has to wash other people’s clothes to be able to buy her own soap, before she can wash her own clothes and whenever she is sick there is never anyone asking her about how she is feeling. Mr Abu told me that the majority of Ghanaians look at a disabled person as she will be a burden to their life. I told Mr Abu when we left that Sarah is definitely the worst case I have interviewed since I got here and he agreed (he also told me about almost falling into tears when you listen to a person who doesn’t feel any happiness at all). I also said to Mr Abu that if you don’t feel for a person like Sarah, then you definitely don’t have a heart.

I, Paul, Mohammed and Issah (Mr Abu’s younger brothers, 27 and 19) visited a Chinese restaurant called Chopsticks last Sunday and afterwards we walked to Rose’s Guesthouse to watch Arsenal-Liverpool (3-0). We had a great time and that day the heat was really pressuring the body so we even slept at midday for awhile before we went for lunch.

I know my brother will laugh when he reads this; a guy in a chemist store in Kumasi told me: “hehe, you won’t find anyone selling sun block protection in Kumasi, because there are too few white people here”. But I have found a couple of places where they sell lotions with SPF 15 and SPF 45.

The past week at work has included office work, teaching men and women in the evenings, meetings with orphans, attending a graduation celebration for hairdresser students etc. There is usually work everyday, meaning even if it’s only 2 hours or so on a Saturday and the same thing on a Sunday, there might still be work. We try not to work on Sundays so that we can “forget” about work for at least one day a week. Work starts at different time everyday, but usually not before 10:00, because we have evening lessons and I never get home until after 22:00. I have said it before; I really enjoy my work and the different assignments all the time. Before I end, I would like to say something about the hairdresser students’ graduation that I and Mr Abu attended yesterday. The attendance was around 200-250 people and Mr Abu and I were invited by the Chief Executive of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly. He wanted us, SYDD, to give the students and the rest of the audience some common sense advice, so Mr Abu told me that I should hold the speech, I wasn’t prepared at all but I did well and I talked for roughly 5 minutes about the importance of having a good self-confidence being a Ghanaian, otherwise it could easily happen that you end up as a criminal, street child etc. I also talked about the importance of thinking about the environment and sanitation in Ghana, because the majority of the Ghanaian population just throws trash everywhere and there are practically no trash cans anywhere. I showed them an example of how most Ghanaians act by throwing a piece of paper on the ground, because that’s how they do no matter if it’s a piece of paper, food, batteries and so on. I told the audience that their way of not caring about sanitation will definitely affect the nature and it will affect their health and the future of their children. What needs to be changed is the mentality, it will take a long time, but it’s necessary for better future lives for Ghanaians.

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This past week we have had lights out at least once a day because of a fault at the electrical company. If the lights out is scheduled and you know when it will happen, then I can live with it, but when the lights go off sporadically without any pattern, then it’s very annoying. We haven’t had lights for a full 24 hours for a week now.

Last Sunday I, Paul, Sadat and Elizabeth went to Rose’s Guesthouse to watch West Ham-Arsenal (1-0) and Tottenham-Chelsea (2-1). Lots of Ghanaians cheer for Chelsea because of Michael Essien (he is Ghanaian). I like Rose’s Guesthouse, it’s nice to watch football there, eat nice food and play some pool once in awhile.

Since my last diary post SYDD has had their monthly meeting with the orphans and vulnerable children and at the meeting we discussed various topics e.g. the importance of going to school and I asked if anybody wanted to have a separate meeting with me and it turned out that more than 50 orphans wrote their name on the list. This morning I started meeting a couple of the orphans, asking them about; how they get food, how they live, their education and future plans. I interviewed 7 orphans and they gave me very different answers. Most of them said that they get food by begging from neighbours, people in the area, but some are lucky enough to be fed by a grandmother, sister etc. The majority of them don’t have any parents at all. When they told me about their future plans one boy told me he’s good at football, but doesn’t have a team to play for, two told me that they want to become soldiers to help their home country, one told me he wants to study science in Australia and so on. I really enjoyed interviewing them, but there are still many to interview, at least 70 orphans. When I was finished 7-8 boys added their names to my list. They also told me what they’re in need of; school books, sandals, clothes, some even said that they need food (which means it’s a very serious case).

I have really enjoyed the evening classes (SYDD Non Formal Education) this week; we have English on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and maths on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The women, who I and Issah teach, improve all the time, but there are still several who can’t write the alphabet. Many women complain about that the pace of the lessons is to fast and on Wednesday I got annoyed and shouted: “Now listen! The ones who don’t know the alphabet are the ones who always come late, and the ones who know it are the ones who show up first”. I got irritated because we can’t recap the alphabet all the time, you have to move forward and discuss new topics. But at the Wednesday lesson several understood the meaning of a verb, “something you do”, so when I started namedropping; “you walk, you talk, you drive, you eat, you sleep” then some of the women said “slap”, “cook”, “beat” and I made them laugh by giving them examples like: “you slap your husband”, “you cook for your husband” and “you beat your husband”. The majority of the women are Muslims so you can imagine how much they laughed when I told them those examples. On Thursday and yesterday I was assisting Gouma teaching the men and they are very different to teach, because they are not as quick as the women are. We taught maths on Thursday and yesterday we taught English and I assisted in pronouncing some words which were difficult for Gouma to pronounce. I truly enjoy the evening classes.

During the past week we have visited Nuriya Islamic School in Sepe Tinpom (area in Kumasi), which was interesting to see and also hear how they try to finance their school and the needy children. They receive some funding from Saudi Arabian individuals, but like a lot of organisations they always need money and basic things like clothes, pens, pencils, school books, footballs etc.

Two days ago (Thursday) SYDD finally received a food delivery from OICI (organisation funded by USAID) and we stored it in a storage room which we lend from a friend of Mr Abu. Unfortunately the food delivery was quite small, less than expected, so it will not last long enough for the almost 200 orphans and street children who are associated with SYDD.

Snap me! Since several children in Adukrom saw my digital camera I hear the phrase “snap me!” everyday, because they want me to snap a picture of them all the time. Even when some children see my mobile phone they tell me: “snap us!”. My brother was just like the children in Adukrom when he was young, but unfortunately he doesn’t say “snap me!” anymore. I don’t know why?

I have bought some new music too; I bought three CDs with the artists Ofori Amponsah, Reggie Zippy and Dada K.D. I really like Ofori Amponsah’s music, and I get great summer vibes when I hear the songs “Puduo”, “Broken Heart” and “Celebrity”.

One thing I don’t think I have told you about before is the fact that on several occasions the Ghanaians won’t let you carry your own things. For example, one day when I was walking together with Mr Abu and his youngest brother Issah, he kept insisting on carrying my backpack, he kept on saying: “no problem, don’t worry”. Another day when I bought a box of water and left the SYDD office, then Sheimawu (one of the girls who saws at the office) took the box and placed it on her head, so instead of me carrying my box of water then she carried it for about 1 km to the place where we got into a car (a shared taxi). The same day the taxi driver insisted on helping me with the box of water from the taxi to my room in Dote. Yesterday when we left the SYDD office and were walking to a meeting, then Muniratu (another girl who saws at the SYDD office) carried my backpack on her back. She wouldn’t let me carry my own backpack. As you can see lots of Ghanaians treat you very well.

Speaking of water, I drink water all the time, which is necessary to stand the heat and especially two days ago (Thursday) I was sweating like a waterfall all day. It was +32 degrees Celsius during daytime and since I’m in a tropical climate zone the heat was pressuring my body in the evening too. At 23:00 when I checked the temperature it was still +27 degrees Celsius.

Let me tell you a little about sugar here in Ghana, because the amount of sugar some people eat everyday is crazy. They start off in the morning adding several scoops of sugar into their cup of tea and the bread or biscuits they eat also got lots of sugar in it. So, I have told several friends and people they should decrease their daily intake dose of sugar, otherwise they will definitely get diabetes.

I will end by saying that I know that I’m much appreciated here, because on several occasions Mr Abu has told me “oh, I will miss you very much when you leave for Sweden”. Also Sala and Saliya (another 21 year old girl living next door in Adukrom) were laughing their ass off when I was showing them how Ghanaians dry themselves after visiting the WC (they use newspaper) and they both said: “oh, we will miss you very much when you leave”. I told Mr Abu that I haven’t been here in Kumasi for more then three weeks and you are already thinking about my departure in April. I have a great family here.

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