Still Alive!
I haven't written anything on here for weeks! errrrm...not sure where to start or where I left off really. I guess I had better post the update on Ghana on here and get that done with :-)
SUNDAY
We set off at 5am from the Central Hall in Grimsby and arrived at Gatwick safe and sound and covered in snow about 10am on Sunday morning, to find out that, as we had expected, flights had been delayed and/or cancelled!
GREAT!
So we sat around for ages after checking in, there were loads of people who were also waiting, myself and Joe went to get a book from the shop as we expected to be there for some time and our computer update on our flight was just telling us to wait for information, no information about which gate to go to yet. All of a sudden as I was coming back from the shop before Joe had paid for his book, the screen had changed and they were about to close gate 12 for our flight! We were missing two of the girls who had gone for food, and Joe had disappeared from the book shop, then we lost Scott, luckily there was a queue at gate 12 and we managed to stall until we had tracked everyone down. Anyway, all of the rush was for nothing as we just sat in the departure lounge for ages as more and more people arrived later!
The plane journey was fun, if a little small but the seats were comfy and we landed in Tripolli just in time to catch our connecting flight. However, the whole journey was well behind and we knew we would be arriving late to Accra, even with putting the clocks back, there was no way of contacting Tim Folkwei as we could not use our mobile phones. We finally arrived and finished all of the baggage collection and paperwork by about 11.15pm.
as we staggered outside and heard someone shouting 'Scott!'. Tim had recognised us by (the colour of our skin!) and also - Scotts beard! There was a bit of a issue when we got into the minibus as some men wanted paying for allowing Tim to park there. The whole thing was a bit strange and we just wanted to get to the hotel - which is not exactly 4* accomodation, bed sheets for curtains and the absolute basics - meaning a bucket in a bath to use as a shower! We all went to bed feeling very deflated, this was very surreal.
MONDAY
OK, waking up to the palm trees outside and beans on toast with omlette for breakfast puts the hotel in a completely different light! It's funny how things have changed after a good night sleep. Tim says he will bring his group at 8am.
At 9am-ish (this is 'Ghana time!') they all arrive and perform a wonderful welcoming ceremony on the front patio/bar area of the hotel. Complete with djembes, other african drums and african singing, the whole experience left us speechless. Tim made a huge speech, welcoming us as part of their family for the next two weeks, we introduced ourselves and talked about what we all did.
Then we saw them dance. WOW - ok so they are professional dancers but WOW. It's obvious that we are not up to their standard, but we soon start to rise to the challenge and I think they are pleased with our progress.
We also got the minibus into one of the market places, this was insane as there were people everywhere, the roads are completely crazy - people just drive! They use horns to communicate what they want to do, no indicators, they just cut in front of each other and there are so many traffic jams allof the time - people with baskets of goods are all over the road trying to sell you things through the windows, but they are not pushy.
We went looking for some fabric so that we could make some puppets and some costumes, Tim and Derek (the choreographer), supervise any of our purchases. This is because 'whites' get charged more unless our guides tell the vender to give us discount, so they look after us every step of the way and make sure we are charged the proper amount for things. The people are so friendly, unbelievably so and this is not because they are trying to sell things to us! We are very interesting to them as we are the only white faces for miles around, we get stared at a LOT! Terri is particularly popular, especially with the bigger ladies - 'Big Mama!' they all cry and gather around her to chat.
The children look at us and point 'Obroni!', which means 'whiteman!' in Twi, one of the 40 languages spoken in Ghana. The minibus experience is amazing, just like you see on TV and films, you get to see so much of Africa as you travel around.
When we got back to the hotel, we rehearsed again in the large courtyard with the company. It started to rain but we carried on, sheltered partly by a large tree. So we are rolling around in puddles and jumping through the heavy, hot rain thats falling around us and it is AMAZING for the whole group, no one wanted to stop, it was a fantastic experience. I fell that I may use those words quite a lot. We get a handshake and a hug from each member of 'TimAfrik' as they leave us for the evening to have dinner and go to bed.
TUESDAY
This was a full day of rehearsals, we have to work hard to keep up with them. The dancers consist of Derek who is leading as the choreographer. He is a very good looking guy and an amazing dancer. The rest of incredibly fit young men and one girl.
We started to create pieces together followed by a dance by the 'blacks', then a dance by the 'whites' - as they describe it. Then we come together at the end in unity once more.
They don't have much money or food, but when they have bread they share it with us and always offer us whatever they have.
Anyway, we pulled the pieces together really well and felt a little better that we could do the performed well enough.
WEDNESDAY
We had a trip to the Botanic gardens today, after two hours of dancing from 7am (or 8am in Ghana Time). It was 50 pesewas to enter if you were local and 20,000 cedi if you are foreign but I think Tim negotiated a good deal for us. You get fined 25 cedis if you are caught with a camera! But Derek spoke to someone later who gave us permission.
There was a large helicopter in the park at the gardens and so everyone was all around it, it had crash landed there years ago and is now something to be explored or played on! In England, it would have been incinerated straight away - health and safety!
We climbed up and down a mountain basically, in the jungle in the gardens. Tiring but really worth it to see the wildlife and bond more with our hosts.
Later on we sat in the gardens just before we were about to leave and we had a language lesson in 'Twi' using a sheet of paper which had been pinned to a tree with a knife by Tim. We are getting quite good now and I am hoping we can learn some more soon.
We had an early night after chicken dinner.
THURSDAY
Today we began by rehearsing the piece, we timed it as well, we still don't have our costumes by Tim and Scott have been making arrangements for posters and advertisement.
After rehearsals, Tim took us to visit the slums where he volunteers, teaching the children. He sponsors two of the young boys so that they can have an education and he wanted us to meet them. We took bags and bags of sweets, bread, paper and pencils for them all, as well as Gin and wine as presents for Tims family.
So, a bit about the slums! This was the part we were dreading the most, we knew it would be difficult and we loaded ourselves up with BAGS of sweets, pencils etc. It was important for us to visit this place. We met three young teenage boys who Tim sponsors so that they can have an education, they were shy but pleased with the pens and paper we gave them. The area is very difficult, I made sure we avoided the open sewers and took lots of alcohol clenser with me which i sprayed on various small hands in our group to stop germs. We had to walk over a large bridge over one of the large rivers which doubled as a sewage and litter ground. The smell was intense and will live inside me for some time - it has made it difficult for me to eat because of the memory but luckily no others in the group have been affected by it. It is hard to understand how these families survive in such heat, mess and the stench that surrounds them. They live in very small huts and the ground is rubble, severl people will live in one hut - by hut I mean incredibly small shed. There are small naked children running about as they don't have money for clothes and some of the women were washing outside but covered their dignity as we walked past. We handed out sweets to any children we saw, many were scared of us and we had to teach them how to open wrappers to get at the food, some just ate the wrappers too.
We ended up with a gang of children following us once they realised we had food. There is no clean water in this area or the villages. The government send tankers in with 'fresh' water regularly, but the families have to pay to get their share, if they cannot pay then they do not get water.
We met Tims first teacher, Mr Jabee who is in a wheelchair and now very old, runs the only school in the slums, although the children there are classes as the lucky ones because they get the chance to learn. They pretty much learn in the street where the outdoor classes have been set up. We handed out sweets and they were very gracious to begin with but then they got excited about what they were given and wanted more. I asked to see a one of the girls work, they were learning about English, Math and Ghanain history - suddenly they all wanted to show me their work. We had photos and filmed a lot of this experience. Terri - 'Big Mamma' was completely surrounded by a lot of small girls and they all wanted to give us kisses.
It was lovely, there are some positive and productive things happening there and most people are actually very cheerful and pleasant. Incredible considering what they are surrounded by. We also visited two other schools in the villages and handed out treats. Abbi was very popular among the kids, many were asking us to take them home with us, some asked us to bring them shoes. We left one school with a teacher demanding sponsorship from us 'rich europeans'.
We went to Tims dads house (Francis Folkwei), which was a new development called Queen City - a slightly richer area with very nicely dressed people, although they still just have holes for toilets. We met the community chairmen and some of the well to do neighbours and we all sat and talked under canopes while poorer people stood around the outside, they had been given permission to listen. There is an important heirarchy within communities. Many of the poorer people were frightened when we wanted to take pictures until the chairman gave them permission to appear in them. The guys from TimAfrik got the drums out and we started to perform a traditional African dance we had been learning, it was fun as the sun started to set and everyone was having a good time.
FRIDAY
Today we are auditioning for Africa TV. We worked hard all morning and Derek the choreographer kept making us run through things as he wanted things to be perfect. We arrived at the TV station which was very posh compared to its surroundings. There are large security gates which you have to be accepted through first and the building is full of African art and sculptures.
We got to rehease in the studio before the audition but not for very long. The stage was fairly small as it is usually for presenters and solo artists. We changed a few bits last minute. Then the directors came along to see what we had. They made us run it twice and said it was not bad. Things were slightly tense and then they offered us 6 minutes live on Saturday night on their show, Soundz Splash.
Mission accomplished! I told Tim that we should have the night off and re-work the piece to fit 6 minutes tomorrow, he agreed and told Derek.
SATURDAY
After a thorough rehearsal, serious timing a wash and new costumes (which were not particularly flattering) we were ready to go.
We arrived at the TV studio and shown to one of the many dressing rooms. Myself and Terri informed the boys that they had to leave the room so the girls could change - they left reluctantly - there is only so much of African culture which we can adapt to! Then we just had to wait. Abbi and Vicky failed to beat the TimAfrik boys at arm wrestling, but Tom won several rounds!
The show itself went amazingly well, people were cheering and clapping, really supporting us and to be honest it was the best one we had performed. Everyone stepped their game up and just had a good time. Then it was over so quickly.
We went to get changed and then came to sit in the live audience to watch the rest of the night. There was a comedian - we were the subjects of a racist joke. Something about the whites taking everything and now we are trying to take the stage and then he made a joke about one of our group dancing badly. I felt slightly uncomfortable about this as I believe racisim is racisim regardless of colour or nationality. However all the youth members were howling with laughter that they had been mentioned, they looked at the funny side of this. When we went to collect our bags, we had two members of the TV studio come to apologise for the remarks, they did not know he would say those things and were sorry for any offense caused. This was all very strange! Well, we are a novelty to most people here!
Atferwards we went to the Ocean bar to celebrate, we were the only ones there so naturally the group took over the dance floor and just had a good time. The boys from TimAfrik wanted everyone to go to a club but I put my foot down, this restaurant was the comprimise - safe and friendly! Lots of photos were taken and we told TimAfrik we would have a lie in and start rehearsals later the following day.
SUNDAY
We had told TimAfrik that we would start rehearsals fairly late on due to being up late on Saturday night. It is quite different compared to our rehearsals - mainly because they run on Ghana time. So when we said 1pm, they turn up at 3pm onwards in dribs and drabs! Luckily we have the initiative to start rehearsing without them and we go over quite a bit even as they are still arriving. I had promised Abbi, Gem and Tom that we would visit the internet cafe. We were given ten minutes after rehearsing with Kasim and Morrison, two of the dancers who were punctual. Derek arrived and did nothing, we have now figured him out - he likes how professional he appears to others and enjoys strutting about while others work. This is fine when he is working with other professionals who have lots of time on their hands but it gets slightly annoying when we have been sat around waiting to get something done. Aftr an hour (not ten minutes) I was more annoyed that we could have gone to the internet cafe in that time!
So, after a brief rant I decided to collect a group of youth members and went to tell Derek that we were going to the Internet and would be back in half hour (ghana time! = 1 hour) I also reminded him that we had been rehearsing in the morning. He was actually fine with it and I didn't need to exert my authority over him!
It's nice that we have access to the rest of the world through this as we do feel very far away from familierarity. Abbi is trying to e mail her mum through her own e mail address, so if you get this Abbis mum, please can you reply to her message if possible! :-)
We did an intensive rehearsal as it got dark, the whole performance had been completely changed from Saturdays TV show, it went fairly well, but everyone was tired.
MONDAY
More rehearsals, although now that we are fitting in well in the city and feel more comfortable, Fusion leaders are definitely taking more control in starting and stopping rehearsals - we feel its about time they adapted to us, just a little bit!
We got showered and changed and headed off to the Goeth Institute to perform, a very posh and large building, very white! This is an outdoor performance and we have included a section where the 'blacks' meet the 'whites' for the very first time, at first they are afraid but gradually they realise they can work together etc. Abbi and Vicky both have solo sections and they got given slightly different costumes. We have also created a short puppetry, dance piece at the demand of Derek. I start the performance with some improvisation with my marionette puppet, it seemed to go ok, phew! Our pupperty piece goes fairly well but needs more work.
Well, the main part of the show, now the dancing is exceptional, especially from TimAfrik. But the new guy who is doing the music gets the whole thing wrong, and his CD player does not work very well! The parts with live music are fine but we take cues from some of the recorded music, especially our Muse dance. So we are stood there trying to keep it going, Joe has to start improvising on the keyboard playing Muse for us to dance to as best he can but it helps and we all pull together and teamwork saves the day. The last dance goes well and its a lot of fun.
We then have to have a quick chat to Tim and explain that we are not happy with how much the schedule has changed and explain some more of our culture, he wanted us to start visiting families of all the dancers but we know that the group need some time to relax and have fun and do things that we want to do.
TUESDAY
Today was brilliant, we walked through Accra and saw a lot of the city close up which was very different from being in the minibus. We went to the beach where everyone got the chance to jump over waves, play football and sunbathe, after two hours we felt that the sun was too hot to keep everyone out in the open so we had some pineapple in the shade and then set off to the Arts market. This was a brilliant experience, Kassim and Sanusi kept an eye on us we walked around the stall, making sure we were no ripped off by any of the sellers and we all got some very nice things to bring home. All of the stalls were small huts not far from the beach and there were so many people carving masks, drums, jewellery and other unusual items. They were all very friendly and one man asked which part of England we were from. Scott told him 'London' as it is usually easier, he said 'oh, I've only been to Lincolnshire!'.
We had a stop at a lovely cafe/restaurant and drank all of the fizzy drinks from cold glass bottles (oh and cans still have the OLD ring pull on over here) Then we went shopping in the fabric market and saw some wonderful clothes and materials and hats. Abbi bartered with everyone and got loads of things for cheap - she can get away with anything! We came back for drinks and have found a fast food place which serves pizza, so we are heading there in 5 minutes. Nearly everywhere here just serves Chicken - but you do get the option of have rice OR chips with it!
Wednesday
We got to the British Council ready for rehearsals and were having a look around the auditorium, which was nice. This was to be our Grand Performance! The stage was quite small, and carpeted and so I wasn't overly confident about the quality we would produce. The auditorium was surrounded by large glass windows, which doubled up as doors in most cases. Most of Ghana has buildings which involve the exterior in the rooms due to it being so hot, not many places have closed rooms.
So we had been bringing in the instruments through the glass door at the side and then all went to pose for a photo on the stage under the British Council Logo.
Someone from the British Council must have closed the window/door during this time.
Kassim realised that Derrik was not in the picture and so he rushed to get him..CRASHED straight through the window/door thinking it was still open.
It was awful. We just stood and watched him run right through - we all thought it was an open door - especially as it was one of the only windows without a logo on the glass. Most of us froze to the spot as he lay there in the middle of all this glass, Scott, Terri and others rushed over immedaitely to help him.
As he sat up we could clearly see blood spilling from his forehead, they soon washed this through and put pressure on it, he was rushed to hospital.
Everyone sat around for some time and Derrik made no effort to get people rehearsing or take their minds off what just happened. So myself and Terri decided we should occupy everyone and start practicing on the stage.
We did what we could, we felt that a lot of the day had been wasted as Derrik kept disappearing and did not seem to see the importance of running through the piece or even the cues so we would know when and where to enter and exit from! We did our best to sort this ourselves.
The show went quite well, although we did not have a very large audience. Derrik disappeared at the beginning of the show to get Martha some food, even though we had shared biscuits and snacks with her earlier. Tim-Afrik like to think they are very professional, but they dont seem to realise the importance of keeping to a schedule or backstage etiquette - especially when an audience are in.
I convinced Tim to start the show without Derrik, we would do our puppetry and if necessary, have an interval if he still wasn't back.
Luckily he arrived in time, but the whole show started 45 minutes late.
Tim-Afrik were also a nightmare backstage, our group are never silent but they NEVER cause a racket the way these guys did. Many of our younger girls kept telling the African boys to be quiet during the show. How do they not realise that this kind of thing is important?!
We found ourselves wishing it was over, they even stopped us from going on stage at one point when we were actually supposed to go on! It made us look bad.
Later on, we all met up outside our hotel bar. The guys from Tim-Afrik were a little off with us as we had stopped paying for EVERYTHING and I think they had also expected us to jump in and offer to pay for the broken window if necessary. We did a little speech for them and said that as it was our final performance we wanted to give them a gift, instead of giving them it on the final day. We presented them with the keyboard to keep - they leapt about and whooped and had their pictures taken with it.
It was lovely to see them so happy, but we wondered how long this would last before they expected something else from us? We all had some drinks and eventually disappeared to bed.
THURSDAY
Today was pretty nice, we had made it clear to Tim that we could not afford the minibus every day and that we wanted to go to the National Park on Friday as we had missed a lot of the trips that he had promised us. I also mentioned to him again that it was not fair to expect us to visit every family of Tim-Afriks members, although we were happy to send them gifts.
So Fusion split into two groups today. A group of us travelled out to the Arts Market again where we wanted to have a go at haggling for ourselves and the other group went for a walk to see what they would find.
We bumped into Kassim on the way, completely by accident! We were proud we had remembered the way and must have looked very confident. It was strange seeing someone we knew suddenly walk into sight. Kassim came with us and it was nice, we also met up with Sani. These guys are brilliant and never expect anything from us, they buy their own drinks and are so helpful.
The other group had Morrison with them who turned up when we had left, he helped them find their way to have their hair braided and pick up some little presents.
We taught Kassim a schoolyard trick with some folded paper, he loved it and kept the game with him in his bag. While we were in the Arts Markets, a huge sandstorm erupted outside and sand swept through the indoor market where we had managed to hide. It was intense. Once it was over we saw so many shop keepers creeping out to take their stock back outside or wiping down their items which were now covered in dirt!
Everyone wanted to go out to the Ocean Bar but rain had come and it was quite bad so Kassim advised us to go another time. We had a vote and the majority ruled to go on Friday night, mainly because we wanted to be up early for the National Park in the morning. Some weren't happy with the result but at least it was a fair vote.
FRIDAY
Today we all piled into a minibus to go visit the National Park, where the rope bridges are! The two hour drive which Tim had promised turned out to be a 3 hour drive.
It was great to see more of Africa but I could feel that the whole group were getting tired by this point, it had been a long two weeks for them in a completely different country.
We finally arrived at the park and everyone got their tickets to go on the bridges. Myself and Terri stayed behind because she has high blood pressure and I have a small fear of heights, plus I wanted to keep her company as I didn't know how long everyone would be.
So, while most of my youth theatre were suspended 100 foot above the trees on 7 long rope bridges, we sat and drank pineapple juice.
They appeared to have enjoyed the experience as they all tumbled back into the main area, I think I would have gone if I had been 100% confident that no one would have swung the bridges. Vicky had swung the bridges - I would have screamed. We bought some things from the incredibly expensive gift shop and then headed back pretty quickly!
On the way we stopped at Derriks house (after I had told Tim that we were not going to visit anymore families, this was ignored and I was not happy but what can you do?) We swung my Marthas, were she was told we weren't coming. We felt bad but Tim had obviously been making promises to them knowing full well what I had told him a few days before, he thought he could get away with it but I wanted to make sure our kids went to the Ocean Bar as I had promised them.
It was nice to meet Derriks family, we had a bit of a dance and drank pop and then ended up at Kassims! We drank more pop and Kassim ushered us all away pretty quickly, knowing that we had to be gone. We found out that ALL families had been waiting for us since 8am, Tim had made so many promises without consulting us, we felt bad as we had tried to make things clear ages ago.
We finally got to the Ocean Bar and it was pouring with rain. But I had made a promise, so off we went. Luckily they did have an inside area where we sat and ate food until the weather improved. Then all the gang ended up on the dancefloor once again! It was a pretty good night and we met some wonderful people this time.
Abbi really wanted to give Sani some cards as he had picked up on card games really well. I happened to have a pack on me and pushed them into her hands as he came over. She gave him the present and he was so delighted. They sat and played cards for some time together, now he can teach his friends.
SATURDAY
We asked Tim-Afrik to take us to a place where the group could go swimming safely. So we all piled into taxis and ended up at the Shang-rila Hotel. It was very posh and had an amazing pool where people could pay to use it for the day even if they werent staying at the hotel itself.
The pool was huge and had a bar in it! Everyone got into swimming costumes and sun cream and dived in. It was lovely but the sun was so hot and shade was required at regular intervals for a lot of people.
The day was pretty relaxed! We headed home and the group agreed they would like to come back tomorrow before the flight home!
SUNDAY
Our last day! We had all of our bags packed with mixed feelings. We could not stay around the hotel really but they did allow us to lock our suitcases up in their storage so we could come back later, our flight wasn't until 11.30pm so we had to amuse ourselves for a while longer.
We all headed back to our lovely swimming pool. Spent hours there! Had a lovely time at the pool bar and swam a lot as well as sunbathing. We taught Sani how to swim, not many African people can swim, he did very well and manage to get across the pool on his own.
Everyone got out between 2.30pm-3pm and we headed into the posh hotel where they had a chinese restaurant. The plan was that the group would spend their remaining Cedi on a chinese meal. We explained delicately that Tim-Afrik members were welcome to join us but everyone was paying for their own food and drink. Sani joined us, so did Sarah.
The food was lovely, we had a private room as we were a large group, with a spinning table. Everyone kept putting their cameras onto the table and switching to video mode as it spun past everyones faces - it looked great!
People said what their favourite parts of the holiday were. Sani said he was thrilled to be included in our Chinese meal and was gushing with happiness.
We headed back to the hotel where all of Tim-Afrik had gathered to say goodbye. It was actually quite emotional. I noticed that Tim and Derrik were a little off, I still think they don't quite understand that we cannot afford to pay for everything for everyone all the time. This put a little dampner on things.
There were some tears and we headed off to the airport, a member of Tim-Afrik came in each taxi to make sure we were ok.
Final goodbyes and then we all had to pile into the airport, they weren't allowed to come in with us. We had to wait for several hours after check in, but this was broken up by moving from room to room. Several people spent their last cedi on the duty free shop and soon we were boarding the plane.
We had a stop in Trippoli for some time. Everyone was really tired and had not slept well on the plane over night. Trippoli is not particularly nice, well the airport isn't. We felt very sectioned off from the Arab and African people and were made to wait while these people were allowed ahead of us - this was possibly heightened by paranoia from lack of sleep!
It was great to be on the final flight home and soon we were back at Gatwick!
Many slept on the way home on the minibus, some were reminiscing already and everyone was looking forward to seeing families! We got in a little bit late, we said goodbye after an amazing experience and headed home...to bed!