Well here I am again :-) sorry it has taken quite so long internet access has been so unreliable and not very frequent either i have lost half of this blog twice already - 3rd time lucky eh? :-)

ok, well wednesday of this week will be a month since our trip began and good grief the 4 weeks have flownn by!!! i'll try and update on the goings on as much as possible without sending everyone to sleep! :-)

ok, well carrying on from the last blog we had Amy's 21st complete with condom balloons attattched to the fan and grandma dancing around the room :-) we then had a local drum group come to the house and perform until midnight with all the kids and adults teaching us to dance like a local it was an incredible night!! :-)

We've also discovered how to make charcoal and unfortunately have started to witness some of the unfairaties of our work place on the local community, that was to be expected though. . . .

work place - myself and joe discovered a dead scorpion and each cut of a pincer to bring home but they were infested with ants after a day or so ... so shant be bringing them :-(

OUr water situation has finally improved :-) we went from no water or electricity to have brown sludge which smelt of the local sewerage systems for a few hours then was just brown for a week or so but it's semi clear now which is fantastic as showering in that was most unpleasant! lol

Amy was diagnosed with malaraia on the 15th but has managed to recover fully :-) health wise besides natalies infected bite and my football foot and a few bike incidents all is well.... :-)

bike incidents.. lol, we've had some hilarious ones (watch out for the video we're going to produce) a few of us were able to blag a lift home in the back of a locals truck home from work leaving tom and deena to ride, tom went hurtling into the back of her bike and landed in a not so 'humble' plant with deena crash landing on top of him - his leg was in tatters after :-s but , again is healing fine :-)

Regards to le mountain, i've got it down to 22 minutes with mubz in a lightening storm :-) maybe not the best idea in the world but the view at the top after the storm was phenominal (yes i know thats spelt wrong :-p ) Adam and myself also decided to try the more vertical route up to surprise the tourists who had gone our usual route, it was quite amusing :-) Everyone in the group has now made it to the top atleast once which is brilliant! :-)

ok 18th October - easily one of the best days here we went to the Wli waterfall (highest one in ghana) it was breathtaking!!! we all got soaked walking towards it then went in to paddle amongst it - fantastic :-) there were so many bats too the entire wall surrounding the waterfall was smothered in them - quite a view (Abdul recorded it so keep tuned for that video too! :-) ) After that we went to the waterfall lodge - heaven. It's views are breathtaking and they have real grass and western food including icecream and pancakes :-) and real mash potato - i think everyone had atleast 3 courses we spent 3 hours + there :-D :-p regaining lost weight lol and returned again last sunday evening :-)

Everyone who wanted to teach in the group is now doing so, as a group we're teaching first aid once a week to primary and secondary schools but others are teching maths, science, english, dance, acting, and sword fighting :-) we're putting on a christmas production before we come home which should be amazing :-) the new church construction work is going to begin soon in our village and we're hoping to be able to lend a hand as apposed to weeding gravel areas :-s I think Tom and Abbey's drama lesson has proved most interesting the kids turn up with their catala's (machettees) and one child brought a monkey on a lead which sat on the desk for the duration of the lesson... lol can't quite imagine it in England.. :-)

Overral i think it's fair to say everyone here is loving it, we're all having different experiences, take this weekend, Joe,Amy,AbbeyDeena, Riyadh all went to accra sunbathing asnd partying, tom went to Kumasai and spent 18 hours travelling to get back due to catching the wrong bus 3 times and ending up back where he started :-s lol then had to walk for an hour when the rear axel of the taxi fell out and the driver attempted to put it back together with string lol! ONly in Africa :-), the rest of us had a nice relaxing weekend and spent saturday walking to the orphanage which was incredible!!! Albeit the Australian owner gave us a few pointers in terms of things to avoid (the hospital) and highlighted some of the corruption we hadn't really considered.

Carrying on about personal experiences, Neeru, Natalie, Adam, Riyadh, Mubz and Abdul have managed to learn poker overnight so what has been short games of blackjack has now turned into 4 hour long games of poker with the winner taking home matches! :-D

Abdul is doing a news piece on bee keeping in Ghana and is hoping to do something on the upcoming elections and Neeru and Natalie are doing a piece on womens roles in society as helped by DFID albeit we are supposed to have met them twice and in typical Ghanain style we are yet to see these women :-) will keep you updated as those come about.

I am currently in Accra with Neeru and Natalie who travelled with me for 7 hours to see my best friend ALicia and the other platform 2 group from Achaise who are flying home today :-( spent a nice evening with them yesterday though :-)

All in all it's been an incredible month and hopefully the next 6 weeks shall get better as were hoping to start doing physical construction either on the church or building a butterfly farm at the site project :-) not to mention trips to the volta lake (36 hour boat road across it :-) ) and a trip up north to see elephants in the wild :-)

Take care all, keep in touch :-) Check out the picture too :-) and bear in mind that was the first week - we've all darkened down a bit since :-p

Katie