File:My class in Ghana (14662707635).jpg

OK, obviously not a car, but I expect some of you might want to know more about what I did in my 3 months in Ghana from the end of March to the end of June. I was teaching in the EP (Evangelical Presbyterian) Primary School in the town of Frankadua (pop. approx. 3000) in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The school was extremely basic, with students learning from a old blackboard with chalk, whilst sitting on ancient desks which would've looked old fashioned when our grandparents were at school. The town itself was extremely poor, much more so than anything I've ever experienced before. Frankadua has no running water, so no taps, no showers, and no flushing toilets. At first it took me a while to adapt to, but after the first few weeks it was no problem. Bucket showers were the norm and the toilet consisted of a smelly hole with a seat.

The weather was extremely hot, constantly at about 32 centigrade, but with a lot of humidity on top of that. I can tell you sleeping in a small room with 5 other volunteers and a inefficient fan was not enjoyable.

Each morning I got up around 6:30-7 to have breakfast (normally consisted of strange bread) and went to school at around 7:30-8. All the children in Ghana have to buy a machete which they use most mornings to do the weeding-basically hacking away at the grass outside the school. As you can imagine, injuries were fairly common when you give 200 children sharp machetes to use. My class was P2- basically the second year of primary. As many children leave it until later to start school, or get left behind, the ages in my class ranged from 7 years old to 14. Their uniform is the green you can see on most students here- some still keep theirs from previous schools as they can't afford the £2 for a new one. All of these children here are very poor. In my area, the average wage for a teacher is around £8 a month(!) and for manual labourers (which most of these children's parents do) is considerably less.