Festive Season :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! I've had a really good past few days, enjoying Christmas on camp and just returning from a night away at the beach.

My Christmas eve was spent popping popcorn and getting things ready for a kids party the next day. In the evening we all sat outside under a full moon and clear African sky, surrounded by candles and jamming with a guitar and african drums (okay so I didn't do any jamming, my lack of musical ability and all!).

 

Christmas day we put on some cheesy christmas music, blew up countless balloons and had a dance party with a bunch of kids that live around us. All the kids got sunglasses for Christmas, its really funny seeing them all stroll through camp with their glasses, trendy denim jackets and 'Christmas hair' (cool braids or beads etc). Defintely a Christmas to remember!!

On Boxing Day the others had organised a soccer and kickball tournament just by our house and the rubbish dump. They had heaps of kids and everyone had a good time, I saw the photos but wasn't feeling well so napped all day on a mattress outside our house. The kids here are the cutest, when I said I wasn't well they all apologise (as they do when I tell them the sun gave me the freckles on my arm they are so intrigued by!) The little boys especially come over and like to 'neaten' me up, namely put the wisps of sweat hair that are always stuck to my face back behind my ears. 

Thursday and Friday (today) I spent with three of the other IVs at Winneba, a beautiful quiet beach about 30 mins away. The beach stretches on forever, lined by the tallest palm trees and covered in gorgeous shells. We collected a bunch to bring home for the girls to make necklaces out of, talked to a newly wed couple from Burkina Faso and learnt swear words in arabic (thanks to the Egyptian member of our little travelling quartet). The pineapple juice was AMAZING, a rip off here (at $1 per big mug!) but freshly made and to die for. Seriously, it was incredible, beyond incredible even! 

Two IVs are leaving in the next few days sowe'll see them off and New Years plans include a trip into Accra and probably some bar hopping :) Six new vollies will arrive in the next few days, including four aussies (yay! i've been as patriotic as i can on my own, singing our anthem one morning and hanging an aussie flag above my bed, but itll be good to have some others to celebrate Australia Day with!) 

Thats about it from me, I'm off to buy some dinner and sort out cool sea shells :) Love to you all!

Week Three update :)

hi guys,

thought another quick blog entry was in order! its saturday afternoon
and ive just spent the morning with a family of girls who live just
behind us, they have a farm a little while off camp so we went and
visited it. I helped pick peanuts and waved a machete around a bit, no
luck in cutting anything though, i could barely lift it yet alone hit
anything hard enough. one of the girls found us some coconut though,
cut it open and we drank fresh coconut 'juice' haha. mmmm delicious!

im doing really well here in ghana. the first few weeks were full of
frustrations, i think i'll wait til i get home to expand on why - lets
just say the organisation i am working with has some....issues...

But after getting over that (constant process) we are all getting
involved with different things and meeting a lot of amazing people.
i'll try and recap on the week thats been..

sunday morning i did some traditional african cooking with a friend
and her family. after seeing the meat at the market, then cooking with
it, found it a little hard to stomach but it turned out pretty good -
and got a lot of laughs from everyone else watching. also went to
church...again, a little hard to stomach but an experience to
remember! man the women look stunning when they dress up! sunday night
is party night on camp, we all went to this bar across the road, TC's,
crazy crazy place.

during the week i spent my mornings with the hiv aids team, doing
community outreach. this week i got to actually do some of the talking
- a sight to see i must say - i had the honour of doing the speel on
prevention, focusing mainly on condom use. and yes, there is a
demonstration and everything, im becoming somewhat of the condom queen
:-p

we all come home for lunch and lounge around the middle of hte day
because it really is too hot to do anything. the food has been
fantastic - the only time ive felt kinda sick was this morning - some
of us went to accra to the western supermarket and ate way too much
chocolate and cheese last night. but it had to be done as we have no
way of storing food, and couldnt let it all go to waste!

in the afternoons ive been in meetings, hanging out with families or
heaps of kids at our house. there are constantly eyes peeking in, you
feel like you are in a zoo. kids always stand at the door calling
'laura, please come, i beg you' its usually cute, but also crazy
irritating at times. we met with a few other iv's one afternoon this
week - on a camp of about 40,000 people, there are 12 or so white
people, total minority.

oh and i also spent the most painful three hours of my life working
with a friend dave on a logo for a tutoring group a few of us and some
local youth are putting together. its a very very basic logo that
could take 5 minutes to whip up on the right program, but we had to
use paint and publisher and it just wouldnt work out for us. you begin
to see how hard it is to do so much stuff on camp just because the
most basic things arent accessible. my friend allison has had to type
up the same school tests three times over because you cant save to the
computers and then after printing one test for photo copying the
photocopier was going ot be too expensive and the power keeps cutting
out.

went into accra on friday, tried to get some money out but was
unsuccessful. we stocked up for christmas (we are all staying on camp,
might travel afterwards). traffic is ridiculous coming in and out of
town and at one time we were on this bus with 80 people - insane!
coming home we had a bag stolen by this shady guy who was almost
climbing htrough the window of our taxi - he only ended up grabbing a
bag with candy in it so it wasnt too sad for us, we just feel very
outraged. our driver was amazing though, organised our next ride and
was so upset about it and so kind to us. the ghanaians are beautiful
people, as are the liberians :)

i was writing to someone about camp and explained it as a community
under a magnifying glass, or microscope. its really like any community
around the world, but with an amazing array of issues that seem so
much more visible than other places - refugee issues, poverty, teen
prostitution and pregnancies, aids, former child soldiers, gossip,
bickering, family break down, child abuse, alcoholism, divorce etc
etc. the camp is divided into zones (we live in zone ten) and our next
door neighbour is the zone leader. a couple of times this week there
have been heated discussions on our front step, literally, over a
bunch of things, resulting in lots of shouting and noise (usually
before 6am as well haha). obviously there is a lot of frustration
within camp, and so much that goes on that we dont even have a clue
about. but then there is a lot of positive things about the community
and im really having a good time getting to know some people and learn
more about what it means to be a refugee for the past 15 or so years.

not sure if ill post anything before christmas - if not hope you all
have a brilliant christmas! we are planning some games and food for
some of the kids here, and might try and cook something if we get
really inspired :) will be missing seafood and BBQs and my mum's
wombok salad, but pretty excited to see how christmas goes liberian
style :)

love to all! laura xx

Two weeks since I first made it to camp - feels like a year ago!

We have power back! The camp has not had current for the past few months, though different places have had generators (which are expensive and break down and require endless amounts of fuel). Unfortunately our house is still powerless, but they are fixing a wire tonight so hopefully soon. Living by candle light has actually been fun, we all want to keep candles for light, but are desperate for current to use fans...man this place is hot. And our house especially, little ventilation and at the bottom of a hill. 

My dear friend Celyne cut my hair the other day, well finished off a hair cut we started last week. Its hilarious, washing hair is kinda hard with no light and only a bucket,so I've only washed my hair three times since being here (gross I know!) but it hasnt turned totally funky yet, just wavvy/curly. So I know sport a lovely shoulder length cut..sooo much better in the heat! I actually washed it again today, but then there is a new water thing near our place, so i went with some ghanaian girls who live behindus to collect water and carried it back on my head true african style, so it has bits of dirt in it hehe.

 

I dont think I've mentioned my housemates/fellow IVs..there are six of us,myself, three canadians (one guy two girls), an egyptian girl and a girl from holland. Im the youngest, they all call me aussie (but pronounced au-ssie, rather than aus-sie...if that makes sense haha) and pay me out for how I say tuna and tuba and tube (seriously though, they have the pronunciation wrong, cause we all say tuesday the same :-) we are the only ivs that live on camp, but there is another org PCO that has ivs too, one guys is from UQ haha such a small world. 
 

We live about 100m up from this foresty place, i havent been down because the kids tell me i'll get beaten, but we've figured out its where everyone goes to get high, every morning a bunch walk by, back a few hours later looking a little too happy haha

 

A couple of us IVs had a meeting with a bunch of guys yesterday, they are all former child soldiers and keen to break away from this current org they are with, which is for former child soldiers and war affected youth. its was pretty interesting to attend, everyone is so well spoken, lots of enthusiasm and big visions but we'll see what comes from it :) im keen maybe to write a paper on them, get their story out, not so much of the war, but living as a former child soldier afterwards...its been 15 or so years for many of them now, and they are still stigmatised within the community.

 

Didn't go away this weekend, so going to dinner at a guys place tonight and his sister is going to teach me some cooking :) heading off to the aog church here tomorrow with one of hte team members from the hiv/aids dept. I dont know if ive mentioned it, but there are definite perks being hte only christian among the ivs, i dont have to sit through hour long conversations as the liberians try and convert them :) gold to watch them though!

 

cutting down my internet time heaps, want to make the most of the experience rather than spend too much time writing about it :) but love getting emails if you have the time to send one through :)

Morning Sunshine!

I woke today at what i think was just before 4am to the loudest loudest loud speaker blasting out Amazing Grace about 20 times in a row. Followed by an over excited preacher preaching the gospel even before the roosters got up. Next we had Celine Dion's greatest hits, then the roosters made their morning announcements, then we were blessed with music by the likes of Rhianna.  Interesting way to start the morning, I must say :)

the kids here..

the kids here are liberian, sierre leonian or from the ivory coast. the kids here don't watch tv. the kids here know all the latest hip hop hits. the kids here wear 'slippers' not flip flops. the kids here are friendly. the kids here are noisy. the kids here have the best teeth. the kids here lie and manipulate. the kids here sing and dance like nothing here. the kids here prostitute themselves. the kids here are not home. the kids here love to learn. the kids here are amazing. the kids here ask for you incessantly. the kids here are very polite. the kids here are also rude. the kids here need money. the kids here are pawns. the kids here run free. the kids here make jewellry. the kids here parent their younger siblings. the kids here carry things on their head. the kids here want everyone to go to church. the kids here get excited about the beach. the kids here are incredibly intelligent. the kids here are your shadow. the kids here are kids.

and the first week has flown by..

So when we first arrived, we met Dave, an English IV (int vollie) who
was here the last few months, but was heading home when we arrived. I
asked him for any parting thoughts, any words of wisdom. He went on
about the camp for a bit, then finally, and quite emphatically stated
'Don't trust the Rastafurians'. So, of course, who did we spend most
of Saturday with? A group of crazy Rastas.

Let me back up a bit. I'll work backwards from now, filling you in on
my week. But over the weekend we headed into Accra (capital). Friday
was a national holiday, Farmers Day, so we left about lunch time. The
tro tro ride included our first tro tro accident, a bump to the front
of the bus, with no one hurt but the two drivers, and only because
they both jumped out of their trotro and tried to rip into each other
:)

First stop was the only bank that takes mastercard, but of course it
was closed due to the holiday...even when it opens I'm not sure if
they'll accept my bank card..so Dad expect an email soon! Saturday
night we ate out, food is crazy cheap, so are drinks - I'm not the
expert, but apparently you can buy almost four smirnoff ices for less
than the price of one back home haha. We watched some African guys
dance for a bit, got hit on by some others and had a late night out
(read: we didn't get to bed til 11pm haha). Saturday we hit the
markets, first the general markets where they sell stuff Ghanaians
would want (just imagine any typical third world market, lots of meat
and strange strange things). There were rows and rows of stacked
material, so I bought some to get made into a skirt. of course, you
can't just buy what you want, you have to buy all of it, so now I have
six metres haha, but will bring some home and attempt to make cushion
covers or something.


Then we met the Rastas :) There is another big market called the Arts
centre, which is all the African stuff tourists would buy. A bunch of
the guys took us to their drum stall and did an african drum welcome,
very cool, and then escorted us around the market. Of course we didn't
trust them with anything, though they ended up being a big help in
bargaining and getting through the rows of shops! I need to check out
Aussie customs rules, cause i have a feeling i might not get a few
things back in...but we'll see :)

We are back at camp and getting ready for next week. I've joined the
HIV/AIDS department, I thought I'd rather spend time there then teach,
especially with holidays just around the corner. the plan is to maybe
teach in my last month here. The department has four members -
Victoria, Beatrice, Abendigo and Ta-ta. On Monday mornings they do
community outreach, Tues to Thurs mornings they do schools outreach
and Friday morning is a meeting day. In the afternoons they do the
Care and Support program, which is working with HIV/AIDS infected
individuals, providing support in a whole bunch of ways. This week was
World Aids Day week, so the Care and Support program didnt seem to be
running as they were working on that.

So far I've just gone around with them and seen what they do,
hopefully though I'll actually be running parts of it soon enough. I
did work on a proposal for them though, which is something I would
like to do more of. Currently they are so underfunded they only
support 5 clients with HIV/AIDS, but if they can get funding htey'd
like to add an extra 15. The stories of the clients are insane, the
burden of being both a refugee and a Person Living With Hiv AIDS
(PLWHA) is huge and they have all been rejected by family and many
friends.

I feel, and the others do too, that we've barely done anything all
week. It's becoming clearer that if you dont take the initiative, you
aren't going to be chased up or anything. Which in a sense is good -
the organisation, Children Better Way (CBW), needs to be sustainable
without relying on IVs. Also means that you can really do what you
want and if you figure out a new way of doing things or improving, you
can work with the team so that once you leave all your knowledge
doesnt go too. As things stand, I feel that I'm getting a better idea
of how the organisation and the camp works, but still unsure on what
my role can be... and thats okay, I've still got three months left!

My house is a very very .... nice? house..

So i thought i would try and describe the camp but its going to take much longer than a single post to even begin to paint a picture of this craazzy quirky place known as Buduburam Refugee Camp (pronounced buudha-boo-ram with emphasise on the boo). so instead I'll start with my house. and what a funny little place it is.

 

There is one main room with a table and chairs, a small kitchen, four bedrooms and a bathroom area. Of course i use each term very loosely! its concrete wth a corrugated iron roof, tiny windows with screen and metal bars and is the hottest place on camp, possibly in the whole world. the outside is painted a lovely blue and white, and inside is yellow. everything is pretty filthy (side note...akon's lonely has been playing for hte last 30 mins in this internet cafe!)

 

There are a few things i like about the house, a few I don't :) The things I like - its secure and safe and keeps the rain off (thuogh it was no good this afternoon as we were all outside without a key and the wind blew the door shut and we were locked out for two hours in the most unbelievable downpour I've ever been in, even crazier than singapore!) The challenging aspects are certainly more abundant, but hey, part of the experience! We have mice (population unknown, we pretend there are three, Mickey, Minnie and Mighty, and talk to them as they make their presence known). We also have no power and no running water. Everything is a bit grimy, though we did our best at cleaning when we arrived. Iris, my room mate from holland, and I are both here for three months so we are planning to decorate - some crepe paper sheets hung between the roof rafters and we both have christmas stockings. in fact today we went all 'martha stewart', as the US/Canadian kids call it, and made the most awesome Christmas chandelier you've ever seen. A plate suspended from the ceiling with rope, four candles stuck in little containers of sand sitting on top and red tinsel and green foliage to decorate. Seriously, its pretty exciting :-P And we only almost caught the house on fire twice in the process - quite an achievement i do say!

 

No one but IVs (international vollies) are allowed in, which doesn't stop kids banging at the door and windows all day. At the moment its fun to go out and chat, though im sure at times the novelty will definitely wear off! The shower is....interesting...just a small room with a big bucket of water and a little dipper bucket to use to pour it over yourself. the toilet is western style but does not flush...and you can't put toilet paper in it, a fact i constantly forget! the floor is hilarous, concrete with bits of broken tiles placed throughout, all covered in little piles of wax where candles have been placed.

 

all in all though, its a gazillion times better than many of the other houses and we are totally lucky to have it :)

love you guys xx

And now in Ghana

So I've finally arrived and made it safely to Buduburam...also known as Little Liberia. I'm going to do a super quick run down of whats happened in the last three days...here goes!

 

Arrived in Accra just after lunch time and waited with another aussie vollie girl who is also from brisbane but working with another group. We spent about an hour waiting, and got our photo taken with every single child at the airport - no small feat when there was a school group from Togo with about 100 kids haha.

 

The trip from Accra to camp should take about 1 hr but lasted about 4 when they dropped me off, the traffic was ridiculous! I have never been in so many near accidents..today we were on a trotro (mini bus) that fitted between two parked cars with no more that an inch spare space each side!

 

I will tell you more about hte camp after our orientation (next two days) but we actually left camp on saturday morning (about 9am, a good four hours after most of us got up!) and headed off to Kokobrite (pronounced coco-bee-tee), a nearby coastal town with a beautiful beach! We spent the night there, enjoying the beach in the afternoon, then dinner at the local italian place,then off to 'Big Millys' for Reggae night - lots of fun! Very relaxing weekend and good to start getting used to the heat. Its well into hte 30s, the humidity is crazy and you just dont stop sweating. And that is not an exaggeration, it drips off you like nothing else! I'm finding it okay but the others who have just come from a northern hemisphere autumn are taking awhile to get used to it!

 

Travel here is done by taxi and trotro, which is all ridiculously cheap even at the prices they tell us tourists. A trotro is just like a normal minivan, only it seats about 24 people and a guy stands up the front, or on someones lap, and takes money off each passenger as they get on. The locals, especially the women are great at cursing the money man when he tries to overcharge us -they always let us know what a fair amount to pay is. Which brings me to the money.

 

I had to change everything into US dollars, and then into Ghanaian currency. They work with two different currencies though, where one US dollar is close to either 1 ghanaian cedi, or 10,000 cedis. Its dreadfully confusing, espeically when i try and work back into aussie dllars. however, things like a taxi fare is no more than 50 cents, and a room at a decent beach resort is about $10 per night! fantastic :)

 

talk to you all later, much love!

 

oh and yes, bout 45,000 on camp, i'll explain more about it another time!