Tribe Ghana - Day 4: Sunday

Today we woke up all in good spirits!  We then accumulated in unison for breakfast where we were greeted by some soggy corn flakes. We had some scrumptious pineapple which we all enjoyed thoroughly. We then packed our lunches for ourselves and the Ghanaian youth leaders.
We then boarded the coach and went to the town where we are running the camp.  Upon our arrival we were greeted by warm, friendly faces running towards us.  Interacting with the local children was an amazing experience. 

We met the youth leaders from Ghana.  Even though there was a clear language barrier we made the most of getting to know one another.  We learnt their names, ages and managed to ask them questions about themselves, their traditions and their customs. We learnt that in one month, the festival of fire is coming up (bamboosh- which is fire in Dagbani).  This festival is about a former chief of Ghana who lost his son and all the sub chiefs and people of the tribes went to look for the son using fire and found him under a tree which is why they celebrate this occasion.  During this festival everyone comes together with lit wooden splints to sing songs and dance in celebration of finding the former chief’s son.

We then had a short journey with the Ghanaian youth leaders to the  Chief’s palace.  We sat on the floor and listened as the Chiefs speech was being translated to us and then had a group photo. 
We then went back to the camp and played a competitive hand tapping game before working together with the Ghanaian youth leaders to put the finishing touches to our programme.

After a busy day we boarded the coach for a bumpy and bendy journey back to our house for supper and to reflect upon our great day. 
As a special treat during dinner, a native came selling pineapples and coconuts and after watching in awe at how he cut them with his knife, we got to enjoy the delicious fruits.
We wrapped up a lovely day by listening to music, watching the sunset, munching on our pineapple and sipping the coconuts with our friends.
We headed to bed with a warm feeling inside and really pumped and motivated for tomorrow to meet the children on the camp. 


By Joel and Mia B.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tribe Ghana - Day 5: Tuesday

Today was our sports day and our second day of camp! The day began normally with a ruach session where all the kids got excited and split into their teams. Each group made a flag and a chant for their team – encouraging them to work together as a group and raise their competitive spirit. It was really important for us to make activities that were not only fun but also sustainable, in the sense that the Ghanaians would be able to replicate the activities once the camp ended. The first station was the relay races. Here, we used empty water sachets, which would usually have just been thrown on the floor. However, the aim of our camp was to have a sustainable impact that would remain prevalent in the future. Thus, we have been encouraging the children to put their water sachets in the bin, rather than throw them on the floor and the relay races showed that waste could be used to have fun. We were also taught a game by the Ghanaian leaders, called Ampe - a traditional game which ...
Read more

Tribe Ghana - Days 6 & 7

Image
Wednesday and Thursday were incredible days filled with so many memories. Wednesday morning started off early with ‘ environment day ’ . We played games, with the kids recycling and using the environment in a productive way.   Here in Ghana clean water is packaged in plastic sachets, with the empty sachets littering the streets. We collected the water sachets that we used  throughout the week and made jump ropes with them. The Ghanaian children taught us some fun jump rope games. Using empty water bottles that we filled with pebbles as skittles we taught them how to bowl. And then with the large number of empty plastic buckets the Ghanaians had a whole jamming session and we all got to dance. In the afternoon we took part in a special ‘Ghana day’, in which we learnt about Ghanaian festivals and the Ghanaian national anthem. Gemma and Jono then did a super quiz with us in the evening and then we chilled out in our usual diary groups all in preparation for...
Read more