2 Weeks to Relax!

We left Sunyani a week ago with the rest of the Canadian team, and had two days with them in Cape Coast…on the coast of Ghana. After the rest of the team left Amanda and I found ourselves on our own again, but this time with no project to work on and no schedule to follow! What would we do with ourselves?! It did take us a couple days to settle into the fact that we really had nothing to do. Once that was accepted we quickly fell into the routine of sleeping in, reading books, napping, eating and then repeat the sequence! We did leave the place we were staying at to go into the town of Cape Coast to get to the internet and pick up some things we needed, and visit a new friend.

The group left on the Sunday, and on the Tuesday we went to a nearby town called Winneba to meet a little boy that is sponsored by a friend of Amanda’s in Red Deer. We had called ahead a few weeks before to arrange the visit with the organization that he is sponsored through. They met us at the bus stop and took us to the school that he goes to which is on the same grounds as a Church. As we arrived they explained to us that we were the first sponsors to visit this particular project site, and they were so excited for us to come that they had arranged a church service in our honour! As we walked into the church the people inside all started clapping and cheering! It was definitely more than we had expected, and was a little overwhelming! They had a short service about the gift of children, and then there were performances by some of the children…poems, bible verses, and dances. They were SO CUTE! After the service (which had included some dancing which we got to participate in!) they brought the little boy Kennedy, aged 7, and his family over to meet us.

He has two brothers and two sisters, and he is the youngest. We went back with the family to their house, which was quite dark and run down, and we gave them some gifts we had brought. The mother spoke about how having Kennedy sponsored had helped their family; by not having to pay his school fees and for his uniforms and shoes etc it enables the family to spend their money on other necessities. He also goes to a private school now, and she told of how when he was in the overcrowded public school he didn’t want to go. Each morning now, he is excited to go to school and always makes sure his mom has his uniform ready for him. They were very sweet and so thankful to us for coming to visit. The day was not at all what we had expected, but it was definitely a highlight of our stay here in Ghana.

From Cape Coast we moved farther west to an eco-lodge I had read about in our guide book called The Green Turtle Lodge. It is owned by a young English couple, but the daily running is all done by local people from a nearby village called Akwidaa (Aqui-day). The place runs off of solar power and has self-composting toilets and employs about 30 people from the village. They have also started a community fund which some of the profits of the lodge go to, as well each time someone from the lodge goes on a tour, part of the payment goes into the community fund. The fund is then determined how best to be spent by a community committee…they are in the process of paying to have power poles and lines put in to the village, which is a huge deal! The lodge was right on the beach, great food, cute huts…I didn’t wear shoes for the entire 6 days we were there! Good times!

We are now back in Cape Coast for a few days then we head into Accra for the weekend before we fly out on Monday eve! We are less than a week away from home, and I must admit I’m getting pretty excited about heading home!