Washington DC, USA - Part 1

Friday

On Good Friday we flew from London Heathrow to New York Newark airport for a week-long trip to the USA. We arrived at Newark at around midday local time and caught a train down to Washington DC. It was a bit of a mission actually getting from the airport to the train - we had to take the "Air Train" from our terminal to the airport train station and then we had to take a six minute train ride from the airport train station to Newark Penn Station, where we caught a proper train down to Washington DC.

Newark Penn Station was a scary place - we were possibly the only people in the whole station not high on something and we seriously feared we would be mugged. But we managed to escape unharmed and our train down to Washington DC was actually very comfortable and the ride was enjoyable. We passed through the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, getting glimpses of Philadelphia and Baltimore, before eventually hitting the District of Columbia. The journey took around 2.5 to 3 hours.

The Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1788, allowed for a seat of government, not to exceed 10 square miles, which would be ruled by Congress. This area was to be independent and not part of any state. After some debate about where this seat of government should be located, George Washington chose an area that incorporated land from both Maryland (in the north) and Virginia (in the south) and included the towns of Alexandria and Georgetown. It was to be known as the city of Washington and the District of Columbia (DC).

We arrived in Washington and made our way from the beautiful Union Station to the Quincy Hotel. Many of the streets in central Washington are conveniently named by number (vertical streets) and letter (horizontal streets). Our hotel was situated on L Street, between 18th and 19th streets. We got settled in there and got ourselves looking respectable and then headed out for some dinner. By the way, the Quincy Hotel was amazing and we would definitely recommend it. They had the most comfortable and enormous bed in the world!

Unfortunately it was a wet and chilly evening in Washington DC, but we braved the weather and made our way to the Old Ebbitt Grill, one of Washington's favourite eateries since 1856. It was a really fun place. We sat on stools at the bar and we were served by a waiter called Sean, who entertained us throughout the evening. We tried a couple of local beers and a Brooklyn Lager, which were very nice, and we shared some buffalo wings for a starter. Then Tim had a "Po Boy" fried oyster sandwich and Megan had a local delicacy of crab cakes. All of the food was amazing. We were pretty knackered after a 23-hour day, so after dinner we headed back to the hotel and crashed.

Saturday

We had heard that to do a tour of the US Capitol building, you had to get down there early and queue up for tickets. So we got cracking pretty early and, after a delicious breakfast at a cafe/bakery across the road from our hotel, we headed for Capitol Hill.

The US Capitol building is one of the world's best-known symbols of democracy. The centre of America's legislative process for over 200 years, its Neoclassical architecture reflects the democratic principles of ancient Greece and Rome. The cornerstone was laid by George Washington in 1793, and by 1800 the Capitol was occupied. The British burned it down in the War of 1812, but restoration began in 1815.

One wing houses the Senate Chamber, the opposite wing contains the House Chamber. The lower house of Congress, the House of Representatives, contains 435 members, who each represent a district and serve a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population in much the same way as New Zealand's constituent seats in Parliament, meaning that the densely populated states have more representatives than the sparsely populated states. However, in the upper house of Congress, the Senate, each state, regardless of population, has two senators, making a total of 100 senators, who each serve six-year terms.

The Rotunda was completed in 1865, is 55 metres high and its interior is beautifully decorated, and is capped off with The Apotheosis of Washington, a fresco by Constantino Brumidi. Sitting proudly on top of the dome is the 6-metre tall, 6,800kg bronze Statue of Freedom, which was added in 1863. Not only representing the legislative heart of Washington, the Capitol building also marks the precise centre of the city. The city's four quadrants radiate out from the middle of the dome of the building.

We managed to get down to the Capitol building visitor centre fairly early and we did not have to wait long before joining a tour of the building. The tour lasted around 45 minutes and was really interesting. Sadly, since it was a weekend, we were not able to see inside the Senate Chamber or the House Chamber, but we did visit the huge rotunda, which is decorated with statues of former presidents and other famous people.

In 1864 Congress invited each state to contribute two statues (which are often updated or exchanged over time) of prominent citizens to stand in the halls of the Capitol. It was a little odd that there were statues of presidents all through the Capitol building, since the tour guide emphasised the fact that presidents very rarely set foot inside the building once they take office, and only ever when invited by Congress to do so, as a symbolic gesture of the separation powers between Congress (legislature) and the President (executive).

After our tour of the Capitol building, we headed next door to visit the Library of Congress. Congress first established a reference library in 1800. When the Capitol was burned in 1812, Thomas Jefferson offered his own extensive collection as a replacement. In 1897, the Library of Congress moved to a new Italian Renaissance-style building, a marvel of art and architecture, with its paintings and mosaics and several exhibitions. The Library of Congress has the world's largest collection of books and materials.

We guided ourselves around the beautiful Library of Congress, visiting the Great Hall, with its grand staircases and bronze statues, the Main Reading Room, the stunning mosaic of Minerva, the display of the Gutenberg Bible, and the exhibitions on the Thomas Jefferson Library collection. It is a truly amazing building - see photos below.

We were getting pretty hungry so we decided to head down Pennsylvania Avenue and grab some lunch. We found a restaurant/bar called The Laughing Man. Tim had a BBQ pulled pork sandwich and a bottomless coke and Megan had vege burger. Good solid American food! The Laughing Man is just a stone's throw from the White House, so we rather excitedly headed there after lunch!

The White House is the official residence and principal work place of the President of the United States. The White House was built on Washington DC's Pennsylvania Avenue between 1792 and 1800. It has been the residence of every president since John Adams. During the War of 1812, the British burned the White House, destroying the interior. Reconstruction began almost immediately.

The White House has been expanded gradually over time, with the West Wing being added in 1901, followed by an expansion of the West Wing and the creation of the first Oval Office in 1909. In the 1920s and 1930s a new East Wing was constructed. By 1948, the house's load-bearing exterior walls and internal wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under President Harry Truman, the interior rooms were completely dismantled and a new internal load-bearing steel frame was constructed inside the walls. Once this work was completed, the interior rooms were rebuilt. Today, the White House is made up of six stories, including a two-storey basement.

We got a great view of the White House and took plenty of photos - see below. But we were eventually forced to leave by the incredibly annoying ranting of a weird guy with a megaphone. He was chanting a mixture of biblical references, well-known hip-hop lyrics and some other indecipherable jibber jabber - the price America pays for the freedom of speech...

A few blocks from the White House is the White House Visitor Centre, which contains interesting exhibits about the White House and its decor, the history of the White House, presidents and First Families who have resided there and a display of royal gifts. It also contains an excellent gift shop, where we purchased a great book on all of USA's 44 presidents.

The day had well and truly cleared from the grey and drizzly start and the afternoon was sunny and hot. We decided to take advantage of the nice weather and stay outdoors, so we caught the metro to the Arlington National Cemetery, which is south of the city centre and actually situated in the state of Virginia!

For 30 years, the Confederate General Robert E Lee lived at Arlington House. In 1861, he left his home to lead Virginia's armed forces, and the Union confiscated the estate for a military cemetery. By the end of the Civil War in 1865, 16,000 soldiers were interred in the newly consecrated Arlington National Cemetery. Since then, around another 250,000 veterans have joined them. Simple headstones mark the graves of soldiers who died in every major conflict from the Revolution to the present. The focus of the cemetery is the Tomb of the Unknowns, which honours the thousands who have died in battle but have no known resting place.

We slowly walked around the huge Arlington National Cemetery grounds, which were beautifully dotted with blossom trees in full bloom. Our first stop was the Grave of John F Kennedy. A flame lit by his wife, Jackie, on the day of his funeral in December 1963 burns here continually. Jackie and two of his children are buried alongside the former president. Excerpts of some of Kennedy's most famous speeches are etched into the surrounding walls.

Next we visited Arlington House, which sits on top of a steep hill in the middle of the cemetery, with amazing views over Washington DC. In front of the house is tomb of Pierre L'Enfant, the architect responsible for planning the city of Washington. From there we wandered across to the Memorial Amphitheatre, the setting for the annual services on Memorial Day. It has also hosted many state funerals.

Opposite the Memorial Amphitheatre are two memorials for the space shuttle tragedies. The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after lift-off in January 1986 and the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry in February 2003. Seven astronauts died in each disaster.

Our final spot at the cemetery was the Tomb of the Unknowns. We were fortunate enough to witness the changing of the guard at the tomb. The tomb contains four vaults, one each for World Wars I and II, the Vietnam War and the Korean War. Each vault held one unidentified soldier, until recently, when the Vietnam soldier was identified by DNA analysis and reburied in his home town.

After leaving Arlington, we caught the metro across to the Pentagon, although disappointingly, we emerged from the metro rather close to the fence surrounding the Pentagon, too close to actually get a good view of it. The Pentagon is the headquarters of the US Department of Defence. Its construction was completed in January 1943. It is the world's largest office building by floor area, with about 604,000 square metres. Approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees and another 3,000 non-defence support personnel work in the Pentagon. It has five sides, five floors above ground (plus two basement levels), and five ring corridors per floor with a total of 28.2 km of corridors.

We rested back at the hotel for a while before heading down to a tex-mex restaurant called Tortilla Coast, in the Capitol Hill area, for dinner. Apparently it was regularly frequented by George W Bush before he became president. The food was delicious, the servings were huge and the service was superb. After dinner we walked back past the Capitol building, which was beautifully lit up, to the metro and headed to the hotel to crash. It was another huge day and we were knackered.







Capitol
building












Inside
the dome












The
dome












Megs with
Ronald Reagan
statue


















George
Washington
















Capitol












Library of
Congress











Main
reading
room











White
House!





























Old Post
Office















Statue of
Benjamin
Franklin















Arlington
House











JFK's
eternal
flame












View
from
Arlington
Cemetery












Arlington
graves










Memorial
Amphi-
theatre












Space
Shuttle
memorial
















Tomb of
Unknown
Soldiers











Capitol
by night

Ceremony of the Keys - Tower of London

On Thursday 7 April, we crossed another item off our "Must Do Before Leaving London" list by attending the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. Such is the popularity of the Ceremony of the Keys that you must apply for tickets (in the old-fashioned writing of a letter way) more than two months in advance!

The Ceremony of the Keys is the traditional locking up of the Tower of London and has taken place on every single night, without fail, for over 700 years, making it one of the oldest traditions in the world. The importance of securing this fortress for the night is still very relevant because, although the Monarch no longer resides at this royal palace, the Crown Jewels and many other valuables still do.

We were greeted at the outer gates of the Tower of London at precisely 9.30pm and our large group was ushered through the main entrance of the Tower and down towards Traitor's Gate and the Bloody Tower, where it was explained to us the history and tradition of the ceremony and how the ceremony would unfold.

At exactly 9.53pm, the Chief Yeoman Warder, dressed in his dashing red Tudor Watch coat and carrying an old-fashioned lantern in one hand and some big jangly keys in his other hand, walked from his post next to the main gate along Water Lane towards where we were standing. He was met by the Military Escort, made up of four members of the Tower of London Guard (red coats, large black bear-skin hats and meaty machine guns). Together, the Chief Yeoman Warder, the Yeoman Warder 'Watchman' and the Military Escort walked back down to the main gates of the Tower, which they locked and secured. Upon their return down Water Lane, the party was halted by the sentry and challenged to identify themselves (all part of the ceremony):

Sentry: "Who comes there?"

Chief Yeoman Warder: "The keys."

Sentry: "Whose keys?"

Chief Yeoman Warder: "Queen Elizabeth's keys." (identifying the keys as being those of the current British Monarch).

Sentry: "Pass Queen Elizabeth's keys. All's well".

Following this, the party made its way through the Bloody Tower Archway into the fortress (followed by us) where they stopped at the bottom of the Broadwalk Steps, precisely as the clock struck 10.00pm. On the top of the stairs, under the command of their Officer, the Tower Guard presented arms and the Chief Yeoman Warder raised his hat, proclaiming "God preserve Queen Elizabeth!". All of the guards replied "Amen!".

The Chief Yeoman Warder then took the keys to the Queen's House within the Tower of London for safe-keeping, while the Last Post was sounded (as a mark of respect for all past and present servicemen of the Monarch).

As with many events of ceremony in the United Kingdom, it takes some significant outside influence to interrupt the Ceremony of the Keys. The one time when the ceremony was interrupted was during World War II, when there was an air raid on London, and a number of incendiary bombs fell on the old Victorian guardroom just as the Chief Yeoman Warder and the Military Escort were coming through the Bloody Tower Archway. The shock and the noise of the bombs falling blew over the Military Escort and the Chief Yeoman Warder, but they stood up, dusted themselves down, and carried on. The Tower holds a letter from the Officer of the Guard apologising to King George VI that the ceremony was late, along with a reply from the King which says that the Officer is not to be punished as the delay was due to enemy action. How understanding!

In case you were wondering how we got out of the fully locked and secured Tower of London once the ceremony was over, they craftily left the small doorway carved into the huge main gate open, for us to pass through.

We were not allowed to take any photos during the ceremony, but we have a couple of lovely photos of the Tower of London bathed in sunshine below, as well as some other lovely London shots!

Megs at
Tower of
London











Raaaaaaa!

















Pretty
Tower
Bridge












Bear at
Tower of
London











On Tower
Bridge
















The old
favourite













Tower of
London

Royal Albert Hall

On Thursday 31 March, we visited London's famous Royal Albert Hall for the first time, to see the Symphonic Rock 2011 concert, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Royal Albert Hall is one of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, recognisable all over the world. Since it was opened by Queen Victoria (and named after her deceased husband, Prince Albert) in 1871, the world's leading artists from every kind of performance genre have appeared on its stage. Each year it hosts more than 350 performances including classical concerts, rock and pop, ballet and opera, tennis, award ceremonies, school and community events, charity performances and lavish banquets.

The Royal Albert Hall is complemented by a memorial statue of Prince Albert in Kensington Gardens, which looks across at the Hall. The Hall is an almost circular shape, with an enormous glass and wrought-iron dome roof, and dozens of acoustic diffusing discs hanging from the ceiling. The inside of the Hall is beautiful. We sat in a small box/balcony on the second level (there are four levels of seating in total) and we had a fantastic view of the stage where the orchestra was set up as well as great views all around the inside of the Hall. The Hall has accommodated as many as 9,000 in the past, but due to modern safety regulations, it now has a capacity of around 5,550.

The Symphonic Rock 2011 concert was magnificent. It is over two hours of legendary rock anthems, chart hits and classic songs performed by the brilliant Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It includes hits from Bon Jovi, The Moody Blues, Queen, Eric Clapton, Meat Loaf, U2, Coldplay, Elbow, Led Zepplin and others, and was accompanied by a spectacular light show. The 2011 version of the concert also included a special tribute to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, in the form of four MJ favourites.

We both absolutely loved it - it was one of the best performances we have been to (and there have been some crackers!). We loved it so much we bought the 3-disc CD with all of the songs played at the concert and some more! See photos below of the Royal Albert Hall and the Prince Albert Monument.

Royal
Albert
Hall

Prince
Albert















Prince
Albert
Monument

Brighton

Brighton

On Saturday 26 March, we (finally) made it down to Brighton for a day trip. Brighton is one of the UK's most popular and famous tourist destinations. It became a destination for London day-trippers after the arrival of railway in 1841. Modern Brighton forms the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove, which has a population of around 156,000, so it was a lot larger than we expected!

We caught a train from London Bridge to Brighton, which took around an hour, and we arrived at the seaside town at about 11.30am. We headed straight to a cafe called "Bill's" that had been recommended to us and we had an amazing brunch. The food was delicious, the service was superb and the cafe was decorated with wall displays of all sorts of food that you could buy. Bill dabbles in a bit of everything, from jams and marmalades to lollies and Easter eggs!!

After lunch we enjoyed wandering the streets checking out quirky antique and second hand shops and street markets, while enjoying entertainment from various street performers. The highlight was a dog on a skateboard (see photo below). The dog not only rode on the skateboard (with two legs on the board), but also pushed itself along the road with its other two legs. It was awesome. Brighton is home to a lot of young, alternative people (there are two universities and a medical school), so the town has a very vibrant and exciting feel to it...and some interesting clothes and hairstyles.

We headed for the beach via some more shops and we were delighted to see the famous (and somewhat tacky) seaside and enormous Brighton Pier. The beach is covered with large stones rather than sand or pebbles - not ideal - but that's how they do it over here. Brighton Pier, however, is very fun. It must be around 200m long and it is covered with shops, food stalls, pubs and restaurants, a full-on "fun fair" / amusement park and an indoor games arcade.

We had a fantastic time playing in the games arcade. We didn't win any of the giant soft toys or other prizes, but we had a lot of fun. We walked right to the end of the pier and debated riding on the log fume (but didn't want to get wet) and the carousel, which had giant galloping roosters you could ride on (but were a bit shy). We did, however, place some bets on the mechanical horse races, got an ice cream and relaxed in the deck chairs looking off the side of the pier. It was a lovely warm day, until the wind got up late in the afternoon.

When it started to get chilly, we left the pier and headed to "The Lanes" - a collection of little alleyways full of boutique shops and upmarket restaurants and bars. We enjoyed having a poke around there for a while and then we headed to a pub called The Cricketer for a drink.

We briefly returned to Bill's Cafe to buy a huge chocolate rooster Easter egg (see photo below)! Then we headed to a cocktail bar that Megs had discovered, called The Medicine Chest. It was a really fun underground bar decorated as an old style pharmacy. It had old medicine bottles and sets of wooden drawers around the walls and the cocktails were delicious. We had a few drinks there and then we went for dinner at a traditional fish n chip restaurant called Bankers, before walking back to the train station and heading home to London.

We had a really fun and interesting day and we didn't even have time to visit Brighton's main draw card, the Royal Pavilion. So we may even return for a second visit!

Megs at
Bill's Cafe

Dog on
skate-
board!

Street
markets

Megs at
the pier












On the
pier












The stoney
beach












Ahhhh









































The Cricketer
pub

















Royal
Pavilion












Giant
chocolate
rooster!















Bear at
the pier

Ghana - Part 3

Sunday

We had a proper sleep-in on Sunday morning. We eventually got up around 9.45am. There was no electricity or running water, so we had bucket showers (we needed a shower!). When the water was on we made sure we filled up the two massive barrels with water so that when the water was off again, we would have a good water supply for bucket showers, washing, cooking etc.

Later in the morning, we went with Cathy and Gus to Chances Hotel to laze about by the swimming pool, but alas it was not open to the public (only hotel guests), so we went to the reliable old Freedom Hotel again to do the same thing there. It was a scorching hot day. When we arrived at Freedom Hotel, there was hardly anyone there, so we had the swimming pool almost to ourselves. We had a couple of dips in the pool and lay in the sun. We also had lunch at Freedom - Megan had chicken fried rice and Tim had vegetable curry with jollof rice - delicious.

After a couple of hours, it got too hot for Tim, so he headed back to the Mad House to cool off in the shade. The others stayed another hour or two at Freedom. There was a fair bit of sunburn going on by the end of the day! In the afternoon, Emily arrived back from Accra with our new Madventurer volunteer, Steph, a 19 year old girl from Indonesia / England. The power eventually came on again at about 3pm, so at least the ceiling fans cranked up and the fridge came on again.

We all went to White House for drinks and dinner to welcome Steph to the Mad House. It ended up being a massive night - we had quite a few beers and then the shots started...it was all downhill from there. Back at the Mad House, Steph emerged from her room with a big wooden stick, which she then broke on the ceiling fan in Emily's office...Emily was not amused. Cathy and Tim then had stick fights with the security guard - he taught us some techniques for "fighting enemies with a stick". It was hilarious. Tim thought it would be a good idea to drink the remaining white wine from the fridge - being rather cheap and nasty white wine, it turned out this was not a good idea...

Monday

Tim woke up feeling less than average. Thankfully Gideon called and said there was no building work to be done, as the masons needed to sort something out for the roof. The girls went to teach in the kindergarten, while Tim died a slow and painful death in the Mad House.

Monday was also Cathy's 23rd birthday - and she was very excited. Enyo, our cook, had baked her a birthday cake, and when the girls arrived back from the kindergarten at lunchtime, we soaked Cathy with two buckets of water - apparently this is a Ghanaian birthday tradition! Lunch was pasta and veges - it was really yum. In the afternoon, Megan, Tim and Steph added their hand prints to the wall of the Mad House. Unfortunately the paint did not wash off our hands very well! Later in the afternoon, the girls went off to the orphanage to play with the kids, while Tim went in to Ho and checked out a few more shops. Megan really enjoyed the orphanage, reading to the kids and colouring in with them.

In the evening we went in to Ho to a bar called "Talk of the Town" for some birthday drinks for Cathy. It was a much quieter night than the Sunday night had been! Megan and Tim stuck to soft drink and also declined the spicy Ghanaian sausage cooked on an open grill in the garden bar. Gideon and Wisdom joined us at the bar and Gideon entertained us with some bizarre stories / jokes - very random.

Tuesday

Tuesday began with a very different sort of average. Tim woke early and had two texts from friends saying that there had been a massive earthquake in Christchurch, that buildings had collapsed and that there had been a lot of deaths. Tim texted his family in Christchurch straight away and thankfully, they were all OK, but very shocked and distressed. It was hard being so far away and not having great access to news updates.

In the morning we went with Gus to the Ho Hospital for a tour. The hospital was very basic, but given the general state of things in Ghana it wasn't too bad. It was a little upsetting - the sick people just seemed to be left lying on beds without a lot of attention. Apparently a lot of the people in the hospital had malaria and some of them died from it.

After our hospital tour, we went to the building site and continued to remove and flatten the dirt pile in front of the toilet block. We also went with Gideon to buy some wood. Lunch back at the Mad House was red red and fried plantain - our favourite! Our afternoon trip to the cocoa plantation was cancelled again so we went to White House for french fries and fanta and then wandered around Ho, and got a couple of photos of Bear! Then we headed down to the Vodafone internet cafe to get some updates on the Christchurch earthquake.

As we left the internet cafe, there were dark black storm clouds rolling in. Late afternoon storms were fairly frequent during our time in Ghana. We got a taxi straight to the Mad House and we got home just in time. The wind really picked up and we got loads of lightning and thunder and eventually heavy rain for the rest of the evening. Dinner was OK - boiled yam and beef, tomato and herb sauce. There was the usual silly-buggers in the evening, including a lot of singing from the girls. We got a good night's sleep, as the storm meant that it was not too hot.

Wednesday

Wednesday was a bit different - we finally got to visit the cocoa plantation, in a village called Shia. Shia was about an hour's drive from Ho, mainly because the road was really bumpy and rough meaning that we had to drive very slowly. We were all loaded into Gideon's Land Rover, with Tim in the back, behind the seats.

The cocoa plantation we were going to visit was owned and run by a man named Justice (we love the names in Ghana!). Justice is well known by Gideon and the Madventurer crew. On arrival in Shia, we went to Justice's house. He showed us around a bit of his massive cocoa plantation, pointing out different types of cocoa trees, and the occasional tree affected by fungus (not good), as we went. Justice picked one of the cocoa pods off a tree and cut it open, showing us the cocoa beans inside and he explained how the beans are dried and roasted before being made into delicious chocolate. He even let us taste the cocoa beans - Emily was surprised that they tasted nothing like chocolate!

After the cocoa tour, we got a village tour. Justice took us through the little village to meet with the head chief! Shia was the village where John Lawler (the founder of Madventurer) first worked many years ago, and where he was made a chief to recognise the great work he had done for the village, so it has had links with Madventurer volunteers ever since. The head chief was very nice - he gave each of us a soft drink while he chatted away to us in his lounge. Then he walked with us down to the village school, to show us some of the buildings that John and previous Madventurers had helped to fund and build. At one point, when we were at the far end of the village, we could see the border with Togo, less than 100m away - so close to adding another country to the list!

We also met with the local parish priests and we saw the small hospital / health clinic. As we walked, we were spotted by a group of school children, who sprinted over to us and mobbed us! For some reason we were extremely popular. They even followed down the road for a while. Shia was a lovely little village - very quiet and the people were so welcoming and friendly to us. As we were about to leave, we got a great photo of three women walking towards us up the long dirt road, each carrying a huge basket of wood on their head (see photo below).

It was really interesting to see a cocoa plantation and we also thoroughly enjoyed our tour of Shia and meeting the head chief of the region. Back at the Mad House, we had chicken and chips for lunch and then headed to the building site at Sokode Gbogame. Unfortunately, the building materials we needed were not available, so we could not carry on with the project. Instead, Michael (one of the masons) took us for a walk around Sokode Gbogame, to show us some buildings with the same type of finish on the walls as we were going to put on our toilet block.

It was really fun wandering through the village. Needless to say, we soon had a band of happy children following us. Megan had brought some balloons with her and we each blew up a few balloons and gave them to the kids. We are pretty sure some of them had never seen a balloon before - they were super excited to get their hands on them and some of them got the fright of their lives when they squeezed their balloons too hard! There were loads of goats, sheep, chickens etc roaming about the village and we had running bets on anyone being able to catch a goat. Michael managed to grab hold of a baby lamb (see photo), which was pretty funny when its mother got angry with him!

Later in the afternoon, the girls went back to the orphanage to visit the kids there. Dinner at the Mad House was rice balls and steak. After dinner we all played Pictionary. Tim, Cathy and Steph were awesome and dominated Megs, Emily and Gus. Megs threatened to throw her toys out of the cot - it was all very funny. We heard that Arsenal beat Stoke 1-0 to close the gap in the premier league, but picked up two more injuries in the process...typical.

Thursday

There was no water on Thursday morning so no showers. We headed to the building site at around 8.30am and we spent the morning mixing cement or mortar to be applied to the outside of the walls, to give them a rough-cast finish. The masons had a hand held device that flicked the wet cement on to the wall - it was fun but we did get pretty messy. It was nice to have a change from hard physical work!

Tim won a five-way "rocks, scissors, paper" contest for the first shower once we got home, but when we arrived, the water was still off, so we had to settle for a bucket shower. Lunch was spaghetti and tomato sauce. After lunch we watched a bit of TV while some of the others had buckets showers and then we headed into Ho. We visited the internet cafe and changed some Great Britain Pounds into Ghanaian Cedis (which was a lot harder than it should have been).

Back at the Mad House we started sorting out things for packing and chilled out reading and doing a bit of sudoku! Dinner was rice with sausage in sauce, which was pretty good. In the evening, Megs joined the others on a trip into Ho for a few drinks and to try a traditional Ghanaian dish called "fufu". Tim was pretty tired and feeling worried about the Christchurch earthquake, so declined the fufu trip. He was pleased he did, as it turned out that it was "grasscutter fufu". Grasscutter is a large furry sort of rodent - like a giant rat - that is common on Ghanaian menus, as it is apparently quite easy to catch and provides a lot of meat. Apparently, it tasted smokey and had a leathery skin. Not cool.

Friday

Friday was our last day on the project and our last day in Ho! We woke extra early as we had to be down at the building site by 8am to ensure we had enough time to paint the building. There was still no water on - two whole days with no water - and our water barrels had run dry too. We kept our part of the deal by arriving at the building site around 8am, but there was no sign of Gideon. We waited around and played with the kids from the kindergarten. Eventually they went inside and we continued to wait...and wait... There were a few hangovers amongst the crew. Steph had a quiet spew in the bushes at one point. Not ideal. Gideon and Wisdom showed up just before 10am, claiming that the paint shop had opened late and then they didn't have the right paint. We were not impressed.

We mixed some paint and applied an undercoat on the outside wall facing the street and on the walls inside the cubicles. We followed the undercoat with two coats of a pale lemon coloured paint. Luckily, the paint was drying very quickly in the heat. Once the paint on the front wall had dried, we added a Madventurer logo and each painted our name on the wall. The building was almost complete - it just required the masons to come in and attach the doors to the cubicles. But our work was done.

It was a double dose of excitement when we got back to the Mad House. The water was back on, so we all had proper showers (much needed)! And it was red red for lunch! We all packed up our remaining things and Gideon took us down to the tro tro station in Ho. It was sad to be leaving the Mad House and Ho and to be saying goodbye to Gideon. It had been an excellent project to be involved in and we had had a very fun two weeks!

It was a very cramped and uncomfortable tro tro ride to Accra. Gus, Megan and Tim were all flying out of Accra on Saturday and Emily was flying back to England for a short break, so Cathy and Steph decided to join us in Accra for the weekend. The highlight of the tro tro ride was seeing two baboons sitting on the side of the road and also seeing a woman carrying two huge dead grasscutters by their tails - no doubt she was having fufu for dinner that night!

We arrived in Accra around 5pm and Megan and Tim caught a taxi to the Paloma Hotel, while the rest of the crew headed to the house they were staying at (a friend of Emily's). We were delighted to check in to the hotel - although it was just an average hotel room, it seemed incredibly luxurious! The running water and air conditioning was a treat! We had showers and got changed and met the others down at Champs Sports Bar, which is part of the Paloma Hotel complex and a Madventurer favourite.

The food was a treat too! We had chicken nibbles to share, then Tim had a chicken burger and chips while Megs had a BLT. It was a really fun night. We had a few drinks and really enjoyed Champs. But we were pretty tired, so we left the others to it and headed off to bed around 10.30pm. We must be getting old!

Saturday

After one of the finest sleeps either of us has ever had, we eventually got up and returned to Champs for breakfast - full English cooked breakfast and a milkshake! Ahhhhh. After checking out of the Paloma Hotel, we wandered the streets of Ghana's capital and we stumbled across an art shop called The Loom. It had some really good stuff and Megan found a painting that we both loved. It is an abstract painting of a crowd of African people, using both paint and small pieces of fabric. It is called "The People Still To Come" and it is by a local Ghanaian artist. So we bought that as another memento of Ghana.

From The Loom, we caught a taxi across the city to the Osu African Market. We found the taxi drivers in Accra a lot more sneaky than those in Ho, trying to rip us off whenever they could. We had a lovely walk around the Osu area, passing a bar (or a "spot" as they tend to call them in Ghana) called Millie Spot (see photo) and a taxi that had seen better days - its front left wheel was "dislocated"! The Osu African Market was amazing. We found some really cool souvenirs there, including a fridge magnet for Megan to keep her collection going!

It was incredibly hot outside and after the Osu African Market, we felt that we were done with checking out Accra, so we got a taxi back to the hotel and spent the afternoon in Champs - it had food, drinks, air conditioning, live sport and pool tables! Everything we needed for a relaxing afternoon. We did all of these things - we ate, drank, watched English football and Six Nations rugby, played some pool and then we were joined by Emily, Cathy and Steph in the evening, who had just seen Gus off to the airport.

Our flight left Accra at midnight and arrived in London around 6.30am on Sunday. We both managed to get a decent sleep on the flight, so the trip seemed to race by. If any blog readers are considering visiting West Africa or doing a volunteer programme, we would definitely recommend both Ghana and Madventurer - but regardless, just do it. It's an amazing part of the world, full of amazing people. We had a brilliant time are are so glad we did it.

Country Tally:
Megan: 45
Tim and Bear: 42







Building
site












Hard
work










Megs in
Shia














Shia












Kids in
Shia












They
loved us













Shia












The roof
is on!












Playing
in Sokode
Gbogame











Michael
lamb-
napping!

Coating
the walls

Football!

Play
time

Job done

Megs in
Accra

Accra

Millie
Spot -
a street-side
bar

Uh oh

Tim and
giraffe