Chapter 51...The weekend with funerals to greet, books to be read, motos to be ridden and food to be fed!

Without trying to make everyone back home jealous, I have had yet another phenomenal weekend in Ghana and also managed to regain my feeling of peace and calm, which I am so thankful for! My stress over 'life changing decisions' is far behind me, after some amazing chats over the weekend in which clarity, faith and anticipation were found!

My 'hard' work last week was rewarded with a half day on Friday when I raced my moto to Diplomatt for lunch with the EWB. We chopped shredded chicken with rice and salad while sweating in the humid afternoon sun and catching up on life since we last saw each other. After the EWB's 3:10am start that morning to travel to Bolga from Wa we decided to head back to Kumbosgo to chill under the fan, cook pizza and chips for dinner and catch a blissful early night!

Saturday morning was spent contently perched on the edge of a patio chair, drinking tea in my hoodie, reading my book and soaking up the rare greyness of an overcast Ghanaian sky. As I sat looking up at the fast moving clouds I wondered whether those clouds had also drifted over all the people out there in the World who I love very dearly and miss even more! The EWB, after a well earned lie-in, came to join me in my intermittent book reading and day-dreaming on the front porch before we decided at 11am to start the day with an egg 'n' bread breakfast...

We then had to greet the funeral of Janet's brother, Janet being the woman who runs the local shop that I frequent at least once a day! The funeral service was most interesting and extremely different to traditional Western funerals. There was singing and dancing, speeches, prayers, money giving and the body in a windowed coffin in the middle of it all! Rachel, Hannah, the EWB and I then got invited/asked/ordered to go to Janet's house to chop meat. We chomped chicken meat and sank alvaros while sweating buckets in the small, very green room we found ourselves sat in. 

 The EWB and I then hopped on my moto for a road trip to Bongo, which is found 15km out of Bolga. As we rode into the 'village/town' my heart started racing slightly at the sight of rocks, greenery and views spanning into the distance! We rode through part of Bongo, which is around the same size as Zebilla and Lawra with the usual Ghanaian offerings of bike repair shops, spots, chop bars, shops, seamstresses etc. As we rode out of Bongo we saw on the right hand side a small dam and lake, which were just too tempting in the beaming afternoon sun to pass by! I rode the moto up to the water through small paths created in the surrounding farmland and we found some rocks to perch on under some small shade! 

We watched local women clean clothes as children splashed around in the cooling water screaming with delight as their body temperatures plummeted! To say we were chilled (but still sweating) is an understatement, but unfortunately this moment was crushed when a shouting man came rushing to the waterfront brandishing a stick and throwing stones at the children! It became apparent that he was father to two of the boys, aged around eight and ten, and he was most angry that the boys were having fun with their friends in the water, when he clearly wanted them to be elsewhere! On some occassions when I have witnessed a child being beaten with a stick, as I did that day, the person inflicting the pain has calmed down their behaviour or even stopped when spotting me watching them! I do not know the reason for this - shame, embarrassment, respect - but this man did not care at all that his actions were being witnessed by the two of us and he continued to chase the crying boys away from the water and in the direction of home! As you can imagine, witnessing something like that provoked a conversation on physical punishment and interrupting Ghanaians who are caning which sparked some interesting thoughts, especially how 'normal' it is becoming to witness children in Ghana being caned, smacked and physically punished and how frequently I am witnessing children themselves doing the same to their peers!

So as the sun came down we headed for home, with a quick stop for a beer and meat at 'Feel at Home.' We walked through the front door just as Rachel and Hannah were serving up a magnificent vegetable curry with rice and naan bread - yummy! Our spontaneous  Saturday night dinner party was much fun with Ellie having travelled in from Zebilla for the weekend and lots of talk of home! The EWB and I prepared a mango and Fan Ice (vanilla ice cream) dessert, which we served in a big silver bowl with seven spoons sticking out from the melting ice cream (no my 'cooking' skills have not improved)!

Sunday started brilliantly with a porridge, cinammon and honey french toast breakfast (courtesy once again of Rachel and Hannah), which was such a treat, but meant it was then the EWB and I's turn to cook dinner that night! So in the afternoon we strolled the short distance to 'Feel at Home' for a refreshing couple of drinks and some super hot, eye-watering meat kebabs! We purchased the things we needed to make bean burgers, then I found myself in charge in the kitchen with beans and rice on the boil, onions and garlic chopped and oil in the pan frying! The burgers went down well with some small suggestions for next time!

The end of the weekend was spent with a very fun Skype call to Canada and the usual 5am Monday morning moto ride to the Metro Mass station when it came time to say goodbye to the EWB for another week! I feel like I woke at 07:30 with my mojo back after a stressed out dip last weekend, which just goes to show the power of communication, time well spent and just calming down and ordering those racing thoughts in your mind! With lots to look forward to over the next month, including another two week holiday with Abbie, there really is only one thing I am dying to happen/hear about/find out about in the near future...

Chapter 50...The four month Ghanaversary!

As we all know the 'once upon a time' part of Hannahs volunteer story lets just skip right to the current chapter...

Hannah has been living in Ghana for four months now and month four was  definitely the most unexpectedly eventful so far! Hannah's life did a pretty good job of throwing her off the path she thought she was firmly set on and re-routed her to one that is full of uncertainty and unknowns, but with that adventure and excitement! Hannah started month four in a very tranquil, calm, peaceful place and ended it confused, stressed and unsure...but she definitely wouldn't change any of that for the World! 

One month ago Hannah could be found perfectly happy spending a weekend cleaning the house, reading books, listening to music, drinking tea on the veranda and soaking in everything that her surroundings had to offer her. Her mind, for the first time in a very long time, felt de-cluttered! There were no thoughts and questions to do with her past or her future, she was content for the first time ever to just live a quiet life of routine in the here and now for however long that may last...

But in true Hannah style life had other ideas (maybe because it knows that peaceful, chilled and calm are not things that happen often to Hannah) that she did not see coming at all...a Canadian whirlwind entered her life and took everything she thought she knew, spun it around then plonked it back down again all jumbled up! At first Hannah's tranquil head space was fine with this, because with it came new-ness, excitement and wonder! But then the whirlwind turned into more of a tornado and her tranquil head space became disjointed, panicked and confused! 

Hannah suddenly had to think about her past and her future,  two things she had  completely given up spending time thinking about, she had to contemplate what she wanted from the next few years of her life as well as what she wanted in the here and now! Hannah was one turmoiled being as questions were being asked but her mind would give no straight-forward answers! She came to the conclusion that the Universe should answer the questions for her so Hannah finally found some space and time on the morning of her four month Ghanaversary to gather her thoughts and put her ideas for her life out there! Now she will just have to wait for the time when all those burning questions about the path her future will take are somehow answered...

In the meantime Hannah will try to find again that peaceful place she was at one month ago, but also enjoy and incorporate into that  the different type of calm and happiness that this new Canadian whirlwind brings to her life! And Hannah can do this quite easily because she trusts whole-heartedly that the right decision will be made in the end, as just like in the fairytales she read as a little girl, Hannah hopes that this long drawn-out version of her volunteer story will end with a 'happily ever after...'

Chapter 49...The weekend livin' it up in Lawra!

Lawra is the current home of a small town girl from Iowa who left Chicago four months ago to find herself a small town girl in Lawra, Upper West Ghana. Lawra has a population of 10,000, approximately one-fifth, one-sixth or one-seventh (depending on your source) of that of Bolga, making it a pretty small town in comparison! Lawra is infamous for it's musical instrument production, particularly the xylophone. Lawra town has a small market, bike repair 'shop,' seamstresses, spots, a Total garage, barbers, primary and secondary schools and on the edge of town is 'Lawsec' the secondary boarding school where this small town girl lives among 1,800 teenage boys and girls. Lawra is located on the very edge of Ghana bordering Burkina Faso. 

My long weekend livin' it up in Lawra started on Friday morning when Anthony and I piled his car high with our bags, a computer, Alomo Bitter, water and bread to start our road trip from Bolga to the Upper West. We filled the car with 50 Cedis of petrol and spent the next five hours trying to avoid the potholes of the newly improved Bolga to Wa road! 

After a short break in Tumu to stretch our legs we arrived in Eremon (15 minutes drive from Lawra) just in time for lunch - meat and kosay - fried beans. We/I decided that I should drive the last part of the journey to Abbie's house in Lawra after Anthony had (out of respect and courtesy) enjoyed a few calabashes of pito and alomo bitter whiskey! My first driving experience in Ghana faired well despite Anthony's cries for me to 'watch out' as I dipped the car into yet another pothole and to 'stay on the road' as I swerved to miss something! Personally I think his vision had been slightly blurred by all the alcohol and my driving was perfectly fine!

So my weekend livin' it up in Lawra consisted of...

• Food, food and more food - vegetable pasta, quiche, pizza, peanut butter and choc cookies (twice), mangoes and bread smothered with groundnut paste and jelly (jam for all those English readers out there)!

Tomato and alefu quiche - yummy even with burnt bits!

Tomato and alefu pizza - delicious!

• Bike rides into Lawra, visits to the market, bike repair shop, seamstress and spots.

The small market in Lawra, the main one is held elsewhere!

• A moto ride to the mushroom rocks, which turned out to be one mushroom rock surrounded by lots of other rather ordinary looking rocks!

THE mushroom rock! Not quite sure what pose I'm trying to pull off here!

And so as I enter my fifth month in Ghana I can say that it has truly been another brilliant weekend (topped off by a car ride home with 4 Ghanaians squashed in the back, a goat and two chickens) and I'm very much looking forward to the next one already...

Chapter 48...The 'life changing decisions!'

How cliche to start with this quote, but it really does sum up perfectly what my thinking is at the moment...

"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!"

One thing I have come to love most about life in the past couple of years is how it can seem so sorted and together one minute then so distorted and chaotic the next! The reasons for this are endless - work, love, family, the future - but the majority of them involve what we look at to be a 'life changing decision' that we must get right or the consequences will be tragic! Is it really the case that when we come to a crossroads in life, if we take one path and not the other then the regrets we may live with will eat away at us until we take our last breath of life?! I don't think so, because we can only ever be on one path at any one time and the reasons we used to rationalise our choice for that path were strong and full of confidence when we made the decision, making that path the right choice at that time!

I have battled with myself endlessly about some of the 'life changing decisions' I have made, but each and every one of them were the right ones because they have led me to be the risk-taking person that I like to think I am now! 'Life changing decisions' are put in our way at sometimes the most inconvenient of times, but we can only ever follow our gut instinct on them then never look back, which is easier said than done...I found myself looking back recently on some of my 'life changing decisions' and pondering the 'what ifs!' When I let my mind wander down the alternative path of my life I realised that was a path I would never have wanted to take anyway! Even though at the time I felt I was making such an important decision and I was weighing up every option, now it seems like all my decisions were so obvious to come to, because every one of them feels so right and I followed my gut instinct and my heart (even though I didn't know this at the time) on each of them! I have managed (for the time being anyway and I am fully aware that this could change in an instant) to stop searching for more and to stop questioning how I fit into societies plans for people, and I am slowly building up the confidence in myself and my decision making to take the time out to think about all angles and consequences, but to then run down the path that I have chosen with my heart wide open!

A lot of people do not understand my decision to live my life as chapters - Ghana being the one I am in right now, but it works for me and it means I am extremely excited already as to what the next chapter of my life will be post Ghana...!  This week I found myself describing my future as a blank canvas, because there are an endless number of places I can go and things I can do after Ghana and at some point something will happen to help me make my decision for the next chapter, however long that will be! Obviously I have a rough idea of what I would like from the next few years and then more generally from my life as a whole, but I am more than happy to be led through the next chapter by whatever force wants to lead me - work, love, family, the future!

Recently a new indirect 'life changing decision' has come my way and it has made me consider all of the people in my life who I would turn to for advise on it! I know exactly what the majority of you would say (much of it justified) and I know exactly what I would say to any of you in  my situation...that there is no one right way to live this thing called life! Each person has to base their decisions on the knowledge, information, thoughts and feelings they have at the time and once that decision is made they need to remove all potential for regrets and enjoy the path - good and bad parts - that they find themself on! There is no such thing as entrapment, we are all free to change our path in an instant if we decide it is not the one we want to be on, we just need to have the courage to go against the grain and live life for the here and now! So there should be nothing stopping us from following our heart, head and gut combined and jumping at the chance to make 'life changing decisions' then revelling in the initial unknown that comes with it! After all we are all here for such a short snippet of time when you consider what has come before and what will come after so we have to make that snippet of time the happiest, most courageous, most fulfilling that we can...!

Chapter 47...The weekend with homes to paint, feasts to cook, spots to visit and watchmen to cane!

What a weekend! This one started at 19:30 on Friday evening when a few of us vols plus the EWB headed to 'Feel at Home' spot for after work drinks! We sat under the stars in the pitch black chopping on guinea fowl and mixing our drinks!

After three hours sleep Friday night, Saturday needed to be a chilled one and what better way to start it than sat on the sofa wearing my hoodie with a fried egg sandwich and a hot chocolate while watching the rain fall! 

Laylo playing nice for once!

By lunchtime the rain had stopped and we decided it was time to 'start' the day so a trip to the market was in order. After rushing around the market in the scorching hot midday sun we popped into 'Good Taste' for a red red lunch then hopped on the moto to head for home! A DVD evening with pesto pasta dinner was the perfect way to end the day!

Yesterday started at 8am with a convoy moto trip to Sirigu Baby's Home  where a few of us vols decided to pitch in and help decorate some of the baby's rooms. The babies in the home all have no mothers, as they died during or just after giving birth. They are taken into the baby's home, where they are cared for with the help of a family member - grandmother or aunt, until they reach the age of three when they are then re-entered into their family home. 

The EWB and I were given 'Mr Tickle' to paint! 

Prosper helping me with the painting of Mr Tickle!

The painting was already there on the wall so all we had to do really was touch up the colours! Somehow though with the help of Prosper I managed to smudge most of my side of 'Mr Tickle' and lose the competition for best paint job!

After such a busy morning, the afternoon and evening consisted of listening to music, deep and meaningful conversations, sheep kebabs, Star and alvaro at 'Feel at Home' and tomato and alefu risotto! And what better way to end the weekend than with a 5am orange and pink sunrise moto ride this morning to drop the EWB at the tro park!