It’s been a busy few days but
good busy which has culminated in a Halloween party so I’ll summarise it mostly
in pictures.
One of the new vols, Janice from Zebilla is a SNO (special needs officer) and I
suggested I take her to some special needs schools we have in and around Bolga
as there are not any equivalents in Bawku West – her District. So Thursday brought about a trip to St
Charles special school here in Bolga. It’s
a pleasure to be able to share something working so well in the midst of lack
of funding resources, support, and community understanding and so on for these
children. It goes to show it CAN be
done. Mary Magdalene (yes, actually Mary
Magdalene!) the head teacher and one of her teachers, Mary Magdalene (one is
called Mary and the other Magdalene to avoid confusion) are inspiring. Such a pleasant feel about the place.
Later after Helen had taken Janice to visit
the school for the deaf we took Liz (a Kenyan volunteer) and her in-laws from
Holland to Mama Laadis as they had brought some clothes over they had
collected.
That day ended with me cooking
coq au vin from a packet sent from the UK, successfully on the stove top as I don’t have an
oven for Helen and Janice. The following day I had organised
the next TSO meeting for volunteers at my house. Although successful as they always seem to
be, it was however a public holiday in Ghana.
It was the Muslim festival of Eid which ends Ramadan and where Muslims
perform salah (or prayer). Redwana had kindly said she would cater for the
meeting even though she is Muslim. That
morning, whilst sorting out the final detail of food for the meeting I noticed a
cow had turned up in their compound. It
was to be sacrificed for the festival and used to provide halal meat, one third
of which was for the family, two thirds of which went to the local poor
people. I asked if we could observe, I
was just interested and they agreed, so we all traipsed over to the compound
when it was to be done. I have never
seen an animal killed for meat taking so long to die… awful. I thought it was
supposed to be humane. One saving grace
was that the cow seemed very, very calm despite the throat being cut...Skip the next few photos if you’re squeamish.
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| Amanda kissing Helen after the event which she didn't bat an eyelid at... |
The weekend finished on a high
with the annual Halloween party, held at my house. Like last year it was a
costumed party. In Ghana without the
sophisticated merchandising that goes with Halloween we had to get creative. And creative we were….I was really impressed
with some of the costumes...
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| A witch, a zombie, a half and half and the walking dead... |
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| one inspired and well delivered hunchback |
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| William Wlilberforce (deceased) turned up with his dyslexic weejee board! |
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| Fabulous Ghanaian effort for a western tradition which must seem very strange when they fear witches so much |
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| bat girl... make up by Helen! |
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| vampire from Transylvania... |
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| who wanted to suck the blood of every girl at the party... any excuse Ionut ; ) |
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| It's a worrying time playing dyslexic Weejee |
With James mums parcel of Peter
Jones Halloween paraphernalia…
water melon pumpkins…
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| By Helen... |
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| In the dark... |
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| By James (and the winner of the watermelon carving comp - knife was inspired!)... |
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| and in the dark. |
and my home made bean stew (‘red’
not ‘red red’) and rice and Heen's Halloween themed orange iced cupcakes…
It was a great party… even Alex
made a half hour appearance as My Little Devil…
That was after James had dressed
him up like a Halloween tree...You can see what he was happiest in!!!
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