Rainforests, Obama and a lot of beach action...

Hi everybody! Apologies for being rather slack with my blog, it's been a very hectic week so haven't had a chance to write up the latest installment of my adventures! Hope it's worth the wait and I promise I won't be this bad at keeping you updated again!

Thursday 9th July
If you look back to my last entry, you will remember that Allan- I have since found out his name has 2 'l's- and I had agreed to get on with doing some actual work and avoid the contentious issues of basically anything that concerned the West and Africa. When Allan greeted me with a warm 'good morning', I was hopeful it would be an interesting and enjoyable day. Well, it was certainly the former, but definitely not the latter! I knew things weren't going to be smooth within about ten minutes of entering the office. Allan had been talking to some men, and went they left informed me that they were discussing how "Gordon Brown should come to Ghana and pay for what Britain is done." Great. Determined not to rise to the bait, I smiled politely and went back to scouring the day's news. I was told a car would soon be coming to take us to see the Vice President of Ghana. After sitting with nothing to do for an hour, Allan announced he was off to send a story. As yesterday when he did this he was gone for well over an hour, today I asked to come to, pointing out that this meant I would be with him if the car came. After sending the story, Allan informed me that the car had come but had driven off again. I asked when the car would be coming back. "Oh it won't, we will just get a press release or something. The Vice President is coming to Cape Coast anyway in a few hours, so you might aswell just wander around town for a couple of hours." We exchanged numbers, and Allan agreed to ring me when I needed to come back to the office. Four hours later I had heard nothing, and was running out of things to do in town, so I decided to ring Allan to find out what was going on. His response- "Come now and do story." Then he hung up. When I arrived back at the office he informed me that he had called me to say the Vice President was here. I pointed out that I had actually rung him and he had not tried to call me, but this detail was lost on Allan.
Knowing nothing other than the Vice President was the guy in the denim shirt, I wondered what the hell was going on. We were ushered on to a bus, and driven to Cape Coast Castle. It turned out that the VP was being given a tour of Cape Coast Castle, which Britain had built to house slaves before they were shipped off, in anticipation of Barack Obama's visit at the weekend. Obama would be given a tour of the castle and then be unveiling a plaque, so the VP was getting a preview of the plaque and getting the same tour that Obama would experience on Saturday. As I followed the VP around, I realised I had no paper, so had to use my hand as a makeshift notepad. Fortunately just as I was at the point where I needed to overflow onto my arm another journalist took pity on me and offered me some of his paper! I won't bore you all with the details of the tour, but all you need to know is that I saw the horrible conditions in which slaves had been kept. After leaving the castle, Allan- who had disappeared during the tour- reappeared with the words "So you saw what the British did to the slaves then?"
Back at the office, I was all set to write my story. I had seen how genuinely shocked the VP had been by how the slaves had been treated, had been next to the VP throughout the tour, and was the only person to see what he had written in the comments book, so thought I could potentially write quite a good story. Allan thought otherwise. He presented me with a half written story about Obama and told me to write my observations about the VP's tour in the middle of it. I asked if I could do mine as a separate story as I thought that the Vice President's tour wasn't just about Obama but also his own personal reaction to the tour. And if it was story maybe he could credit it to me rather than himself? This idea was not well received. For about ten minutes Allan ranted and raved at me in a fairly incoherent and excessively agressive manner before standing up, announcing "I cannot work with you!" and storming out. Onto placement number three methinks...

Friday 10th July
Today, in summary, was pretty crap. I spent approximately three hours explaining what had happened the previous day to various members of the Global Volunteer Project team. It took a few tears to convince them that I was most definitely not going to be forced back to Allan! For most of the day I had no idea what was happening, but there was talk of relocating to the Daily Guide- which happens to have its office next door to Allan. I managed to forget this detail as I was distracted by the thought that I am off to the rainforest this evening! We arrived at the Rainforest Lodge by Kakum National Park in the early evening, but it was too late to get food from the restaurant. We stumble along a pitch black road- apparently we can find food five minutes along- and come across a rather random little town. There are small shops which sell lollypops but not actual food, with the exception of some cremated fish. We go to bed hungry.

Saturday 11th July
The day started for us at 4.45am when our alarms went off, with groans and dazed expressions all round. We would be having a guided walk around the rainforest, including a canopy walk, at 5.30 am. The rainforest walk was pretty amazing, and our guide was a rather wise man who seemed to know everything there was to know about trees. Whilst looking at trees for two hours might seem a little dull, the canopy walk halfway through turned what would be a fairly pretty walk in to an adventure. The canopy walk consisted of six rope bridges 100ft above the ground, with viewing platforms from high in the trees. Needless to say the views were spectacular. Back on the walk, we were carefully and quietly tracking the call of a monkey when my phone rang. It was Sarah from the Daily Guide, telling me to be at the office for 11am to cover President Obama's visit to Cape Coast that afternoon. Whilst I was pleased to know what I was doing at last, my Nokia ring tone failed to attract the monkey we had been tracking.
Whilst our visit to Kakum National Park- ringing phones aside- had been a peaceful and relaxing affair, our journey home was nothing short of petrifying. Taxi drivers out here are pretty crazy anyway but our taxi driver back to Cape Coast was the craziest of the lot. I had tried to ignore the erratic driving and speeding by burying my head in a book, but halfway through the journey was distracted by a bump and screams from my friends in the back seat. As I turned to look behind me, a dog was lying motionless in the road with its legs in the air whilst the taxi driver laughed hysterically. We were all relieved to make it back to Cape Coast in one piece.
Once we were home I quickly dumped my stuff, got changed and headed into town, where Obama mania was at its peak. Everywhere you looked there were stalls selling Obama merchandise and people dressed head to toe in Obama cloth. When I get back I will add pictures, but basically it's cloth emblazoned with massive pictures of Obama's head and is pretty terrifying!
I was meeting Sarah at the office at 11am. At 10.55, I went to the office and it was locked. I tried calling her but her phone was switched off, so at 11.15 I went to where crowds were gathered in an attempt to find her. After trying to call her every 10 minutes, at 12.20 she rang me to say she was on the way to the office- apparently explanations are not required in Ghana. After reading a book whilst Sarah wrote a story- I wasn't being lazy, there was just absolutely nothing to do- Sarah went to go to the press area. I didn't have a press pass, but thought might be allowed in anyway. The guard also seemed to cave and looked willing to let me go through, but Sarah quickly intercepted with "no she is not coming with me, she is doing another story." Thanks for that! So I was sent off to take pictures and mingle with the crowds, chatting to people about their thoughts on the visit and generally soaking up the atmosphere. At first I felt a bit of an idiot asking to take pictures of people dressed head to toe in Obama cloth, then realised that they were the ones covered in pictures of someone's face and so got over any embarrassment. After a while I was actually glad I wasn't in the press area, as the atmosphere around Cape Coast was amazing. Everyone was so excited about the prospect of seeing Obama that it is difficult to put it into words- they view him here as an almost God-like figure. One person actually called him the Messiah! People did everything they could to try and catch a glimpse of the President. By the roads which Obama was due to pass, people clamboured up trees and climbed on top of vans to get a better view, and there was even a fire engine with thirty people stood on top. I wandered off to a different part of the Obama route to meet Harriet and Joe, and managed to get a surprisingly good view of the road considering it was now about 4pm and some people had been stood there since 10am. Whilst I was chatting to Joe and Harriet, a small girl came up to us and insisted I take her photo and then decided to stay with us. After nearly an hour of waiting, we were beginning to doubt whether Obama was actually going to pass this way at all. When a van filled with official-looking white people- whom I presumed to be Americans on the basis they were all wearing ridiculous sunglasses- drove away Harriet and Joe decided that Obama was not coming and left to go home. I thought the fact they were driving off might mean that Obama's arrival was imminent, plus I had nothing better to do so thought I might as well stay. Approximately three minutes after Joe and Harriet had left, motorbikes started driving past, followed by a massive black car with Ghanaian and American flags on, followed by the one and only Beast! Out of the window Barack himself was waving to the crowds as he passed, and must admit I did get a little bit caught up in the hysteria. Having found it the extreme excitement of everyone in Ghana somewhat hilarious, I did actually get a little bit choked up when it dawned on me that I had just seen the first African-American President of the most powerful country in the world. Then I felt a little bit ashamed that I hadn't been this excited when I had seen the Queen a couple of years ago. After Obama drove past crowds rushed on to the roads which had previously been blocked off, and I went with them. I looked to my side to see the girl who had asked me to take her picture earlier laughing hysterically and clutching her nose. When I asked what was so funny she pointed and said two words- "big nose." Great, in five minutes I haev gone from seeing one of the most famous people in the world to having my self esteem shattered by a six year old girl. This girl then decided to follow me across town, for reasons known only to herself. Outside Cape Coast Castle, I took a couple of pictures and then got chatting to Charles, a 35 year old businessman who had been in the Castle when Obama was having his tour. This would be good for my story I thought. So after chatting for a while about the visit, Charles went on to ask me how I was enjoying Ghana, had I tried much African food, etc etc. The random girl was still at my side. I told Charles I had to head back to the office, so went to walk away, but Charles and the girl followed. After chatting further, Charles seemed quite nice but when he asked for my number I politely told him I had a boyfriend. I don't, but thought this was easier than telling him that in Britain it is a bit creepy for a 20 year old to go out with a 35 year man she met on holiday. He did not seem phased by this, and pointed out he meant only to be friendly, and that I should experience a bit of Ghanaian culture while I was here. I tried to think of a good reason to not give him my number, but as I had my phone in my hand inevitably he took it and rang his phone with it. Eventually I made it to the office and I was finally free of Charles and the girl who had now been following me for approximately an hour.
I was pretty knackered when I got home in the evening, having been up since 4.45, but tonight was beach party night so I snapped out of it. A fun, chilled out evening at the beach was the perfect way to end an amazing day.

Sunday 12th July
We had all stayed overnight at the beach, and in the morning were treated to the most amazing breakfast ever. It was only the standard hotel cooked breakfast choices but after existing on a diet of Rice Krispies for over a week it was a welcome change. We then went home, got our stuff and came back to the beach to enjoy the sun. In the evening we were visited by Lydia, a lady that makes clothes. We gave her a mountain of designs and fabrics, chilled out in the house then went to bed!

Monday 13th July
My first proper day at the Daily Guide was possibly one of the most boring days of my life. I was in a bad mood as was feeling pretty sick when I dragged myself out of bed, so was hoping I might have something to take my mind off the urge to vomit. With absolutely nothing to do- I asked for work several times but was met with a blank look- I went back to reading A Clockwork Orange. After what seemed like an age I was finally allowed to write up my story from Saturday. I can't remember how long it took exactly, but I spent a long time carefully wording my analysis of Barack Obama's visit from the perspective of ordinary people, comparing the reactions of traders, foreigners and rich and poor alike. I then watched as Sarah deleted it all with the words "this story is old now we need a new story," which irritated me somewhat as I had told her exactly what I was planning to write, then I had to watch as she took the precious few sentences she had not deleted and crafted them into gramatically incorrect English. After being sent to the internet cafe to send my massacred story, I was feeling more sick so decided to exaggerate my illness so I could go home and go to the beach. Unfortunately this backfired as the moment I arrived the sun went in and never re-emerged. My annoyance was relieved somewhat by the return of fabric lady with a pair of the most amazing trousers ever for me, then in the evening I was off out.

Tuesday 14th July
Unfortunately, on Monday evening I learnt that you shouldn't drink a lot of gin when you feel a bit rough to start with. Feeling like death, I decided to call in sick to the newspaper. I then recovered enough to go in to town and get more fabric then head to the beach. When I arrived home, I found out that the next day I would be based at the TV station in the morning from 8am onwards to research stories then would write them up at the newspaper in the afternoon. Sounds good to me!

Wednesday 15th July
At 7.30, I was washed, dressed and about to leave for work when Gladys, the house cook, came to tell me that Eric had called last night to say I didn't need to be in until 9. Bitter that I had lost out on an hour in bed and could now not get back to sleep, I just sat in bed for a bit listening to my ipod and muttering to myself about the inability of Ghanaians to effectively communicate information.
At 9am, I arrived at the TV station and sat around and did nothing for an hour. However this was actually rather pleasant as I got chatting to Barbara, Dutch journalist here for two months who I would be going out with to research stories. We were going to be making a series of short films to be shown on Coastal TV to encourage local people to visit the nearby tourist attractions which are normally frequented by western travellers. First up, Hans Cottage Botel. Hans Cottage is a hotel, restaurant and a lake full of crocodiles, which freely wander around. We were filming the traditional tour of Hans Cottage Botel, complete with crocodile filming. I was taken by the guide to stroke the crocodile, so soon Coastal TV viewers will be able to see the terror in my eyes as the guide takes my hand and edges it closer and closer to the crocodile's mouth. To recover I had three pancakes and four pieces of French toast in the restaurant. Back at the TV station, I had a great time helping edit the footage and whilst I had come here for print media, was actually rather enjoying this TV malarkey instead.
In the evening I went out again and promptly got a portion of chips at Oasis. After a fun evening I experienced a Ghanaian egg sandwich for the first time, then headed to bed.

Thursday 16th July
The first part of the morning was spent editing our mini-documentary on Hans Cottage Botel, of which I got to do the voiceover. It was pretty exciting although I realised I do actually hate the sound of my own voice, but the newsreader from the station said it was good so I was happy! Barbara and I then went off to film an ostrich farm, only to realise that the ostrich farm was just a few ostriches in a field, so struggled to string enough footage together to produce anything of interest. We then headed in to town to make a few enquiries about a potential story for tomorrow, and I predictably got some more fabric! I have since realised that I am spending more money on fabric than anything else, but in my defence four of those fabrics were for presents.
In the evening went out for Kaitlyn's last night, had another egg sandwich!

Ciao for now,

Daniella