Due South

I have just returned from a trip south for the Annual VSO Conference in Accra. I decided to make a little trip of it going a couple of days early to meet Line (Lina) and Rasmus the Danes who work for the IMCC NGO here in Tumu, and watch the World Cup final in a sports bar. It was expat central, still they had massive TV screens and great picture. They even had draft beer… oh the things I miss. (saying that I didn’t drink much draft beer at home so what am I talking about!)

Anyway back to the conference, it was held at a beach hotel just outside of Accra and was luxury all the way. Unfortunately the bar prices matched that luxury, so it was a trip out to the local spot to buy beer and gin (shhhh! don’t tell anyone) I felt like such as student!, but the VSO supplement doesn’t stretch that far.

There was a swimming pool, sunloungers and my favourite – a hot shower! Other luxuries included the coldest air-conditioning ever. We have all got so used to the climate that we kept asking to turn the aircon off. Unfortunately, I think it caused me to get a cold so I spent half the time sniffing, sneezing and streaming… generally feeling very sorry for myself.

The conference itself was interesting and pretty positive, a change to the other meetings I have been to, and VSO invited some guest speakers so we learnt more about corruption, Chieftaincy’s and Juju (witchcraft) so some fascinating topics. It was also great to meet nearly all the Volunteers in Ghana, there were about 40 people in all.

The conference finished on the Friday night so we all left the hotel on Saturday. Rather than returning directly to Tumu, I went for a detour to Ho, with Pete from Wa to visit Bobbie and Elaine, two volunteers who came out with us in February and to see where they live and what they are up to in their placements. Ho is the regional capital for the Volta Region. Its much hillier in the area and very, very green. Bobbie has made some lovely friends Hope and Tony. Tony runs a local spot (Phil’s Place – if you’re ever in the area!) and Hope works there. Hope looked after us whilst we were there, and he became our unofficial tour guide. we planned to go for a trip on lake Volta but found that the boat only ran on weekends, we found an over priced option at a hotel but decided against it. As we were looking at the lake to boys pulled up in a small canoe and asked if we wanted to go for a ride. Elaine, Pete and Hope went first and Bobbie and I said we would go when they returned. Well we watched them set off in the canoe, and thought that doesn’t look too comfortable or stable. We settled down to wait for their return, less than 10 minutes later we see them walking back towards us… the boat was less than water worthy, it took in lots of water, so they thought they should get out when the going was good. In the 10mins though they had quite an adventure and kept us laughing for quite a while, especially when Pete had to wring out his socks… the last canoe he had been on sank, so he seems to be a bit of a jinx on them.

On the Sunday evening of our trip Phil’s place was hosting a birthday party for a small boy. I asked how old the boy would be and whether they would have cake and balloons and cake. The response I was given was he was going to be 22!! – in Ghana men officially remain small boys until they are 40 – I think that is a very good observation.

Tumu in World Cup frenzy...

I won’t go on about the world cup as you all know the score! But I will say the atmosphere here in Ghana was magical… even in a small remote town like Tumu, World Cup fever was amazing. From the first game, losing to Italy they didn’t look at as a defeat but as a challenge, of course there was the usual blaming of players but still the party season had started. The students at my college must have watched every game shown, and there were a couple who kept my score sheet up to date, I only watched the England and Ghana games and kept up with the news from Bukari the Headmaster and the students. Now I am not just “Folie” but “Folie where are you from?”. My usual answer would be UK but now it’s England as we then have a football conversation. They couldn’t quite understand to start with why I have been supporting Ghana but towards the last games its total comradeship! Watching the matches was fun in it self! Except when GTV had no signal, or the signal was so bad you couldn’t make out the players in the snow storm, we would then watch the Burkina Faso channel; commentary is just not the same in French. Then we could have lights off at a crucial moment. Wa lost power for the last 60 minutes of the last England game, only to regain it just when we missed the final penalty!! – Pete was not happy…

The Ghana, USA game was a great one to watch. Bukari invited me to his house to watch. The first goal Ghana scored Bukari practically kissed the TV has was so excited, his children thought he had gone a bit mad. The commentators didn’t even hide the fact that they were going to be biased towards Ghana, and then the station played the Ghana world cup song each time they scored. After the game as I went home through town, there were people out on the streets waving flags, blowing whistles and dancing, - just like home!

Before the last Ghana game I had been having a conversation with Ali who I met through Brianne, about the world cup and the best place to watch a game. I had been to various places, but wanted to watch the next game in a busy place. He suggested St Augustine’s a local drinking spot with a TV!. He said he would organise the TV to be moved into the large area so we would be able to watch it more comfortably. In the end there were about 25 people watching the game, the atmosphere was something else. Because of the usual tin roof the room had a loud echo, and as the game progressed the noise and cheering in the room was so loud you would have thought you were in the stadium. Unfortunately the game didn’t bode so well for Ghana, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell, it didn’t matter – they had got to the last 16 and that was good enough for now – next time watch out!!

I didn’t think there were any bad feelings towards Brazil; being beaten the number one team is not a bad thing. However, when the Brazil v France game was on, there was the loudest cheer ever when France won.