Day 3 - Friday

Today was an early start as we had to be up at 5.30am in order to eat breakfast (pancakes & pineapple) before heading off to the National Rainforest. The trip provides a chance for the students to bring their local buddies on the trip as well which is a real treat as this will be their first ever visit. Whilst at the forest everyone will take part in the canopy walk which is 40m off the ground in order to try and spot some of the local wildlife.

Both sets of students really enjoyed the canopy walk but sadly didn't see much wildlife. 

However, after leaving the forest we were able to go to the 'Monkey Forest' which is a sanctuary for injured animals run by a larger than life Dutch man and his wife. At the sanctuary the students were able to see up close monkeys from the local area, snakes including the most venomous one in Africa and various other animals.

Currently the students are in the local slave fort which was built by the Dutch in the 1800's.

The next few days will be spent at Stumble Inn for some R&R including drum making and taking advantage of a swimming pool before some serious hard graft next week on the projects!

Day 2 - Thursday

Today was the first day of working on the projects in the village which was done in two separate groups. The initial project was to clear and level the ground ready for the installation of the new playground equipment at the kindergarten for the local children.

This was a very physical morning with digging, excavating and levelling the ground in hot/humid conditions. The local school children looked on as the first team of 12 TBSHS students set to work and put a great work shift in to dig out foundations, clear building blocks and excavate the ground of the existing concrete footings from the previous playground. The work was going very well until one of the students struck water which we were unsure whether this was a positive thing for the village in discovering a potential new well until further inspection discovered that he'd put his pick-axe through a water pipe! This caused a little panic amongst the villagers but was fascinating watching them mend the pipe using some makeshift equipment which proved far more successful than the plumbers that I've had visit my flat!

The students have spent lots of time playing with the local children various fun games and football. The children love having the TBSHS students in the village and everyone is incredibly friendly wanting to say hello, hold hands and feel the hair on our arms!

Planning has been taking place for the sports day, dance & drama event which will be taking place next Friday and is a whole community event where potentially the Minister for Education will be in attendance.

Tomorrow we will be going to the National forest to do the canopy tree walk and also visit the monkey sanctuary with the students buddies.

Day 1 - Wednesday

Following a long and hot journey we arrived at Bronyibma to be met by very excited school children. After a much needed drink and stretch of the legs we had a formal introduction from the school. There was music and dancing plus a few introductory speeches to welcome us and for everyone to learn names. The photo below is from the opening ceremony:

The students were all given welcome gifts as pictured below:

Then came the task of setting up our camp with the help of our Ghanian buddies from the school who were actually better than the TBSHS students at erecting the tents. The picture below shows out camp:

The group then had a walk through the local village to the kindergarten to have a look at the project area for tomorrow. This will be the first project for the students and is to build a playground for the children which requires us to clear the area and prepare it ready for the installation of the playground equipment. The picture below shows the area as it is before the work has started and hopefully in a later posting you will see the finished project:

Tonight we will be formally introduced to the village elders and the chief at his palace. This will involve a formal invitation from the village to allow us to conduct the project work on site with their blessing. Following that there will be a project briefing to outline the structure for tomorrow! Below is a photograph of our students with the village elders at the community centre which they're hoping we can develop...

Arrived at Heathrow

The first leg of the trip has been successfully completed as we sit in Heathrow waiting to board our flight. There's a mixture of excitement and intrigue as the students prepare to embark on a very different experience in Ghana but it will be a fantastic once in a lifetime experience!

The blog will be updated as often as possible but will be dependant on Internet connectivity!