Saason's Greetings and Best wishes for the New Year!!

Here's wishing you all the best of the festive season.

We will be in Ho for Christmas probably listening to a Togolese band at Chances Hotel. Christmas dinner this year is different as Michael does not have the ingredients to cook his usual sumptuous Christmas dinner.

We travel to Mali via Burkina Faso on the 27th for four weeks and will be at the Desert Festival and hope that the Touaregs don't have too many problems at the time.

Love from Michael and Kiran

Things people carry on their heads (part 2)

It is so natural for Ghanaians to carry things on their heads that when John insisted on taking Michael's rucksack from him, he was not expecting John to carry it on his head! As you can see John was most comfortable with it - who wants aching shoulders??

I am sure one of us will come back to this theme when we have anything interesting to share with you.

Things people carry on their heads (part 1)

The photographs speak for themselves so ........ However, I do want to say that the one I missed is the one that would have said so much. So just imagine it. A motorbike taxi carrying two women behind the driver. Both women were carrying things on their heads and the one at the back had a huge bag of yams. This was on a road that had so many potholes that even VOLPHIG's tro tro was struggling. I just did not manage to get the camera out in time and regret it.

Apologies for the silence from us in November

Well, what can I say??? Some of you already know that I was in London for medical check as VSO said they would prefer any diagnosis to be made in the UK as they did not think that the diagnostic services (the technical side - i.e the machines) were very good.

I was meant to be there for two weeks - that is what I thought - instead ended up staying for 4 weeks. Entirely due to the slowness of the NHS - and of course because they did not think I had anything seriously wrong with me. This is how it turned out in the end - a clean bill of health for me. So great news. Michael spent 4 weeks worrying about me while I spent time with mum, Mukund and Anil over Diwali. I tried so hard not to tell Michael about all the food mum had been cooking over Diwali and this time with my support. I cannot remember the last time I had been able to do that with her. On the days I was not rushing to appointments in Croydon, I met a few friends and family which was great. On Diwali day it snowed!! So the drastic change in the temperatures was a shock to the system.

Sally and Liz (friends/colleagues) from a learning set for Chief Executives, visited us for two weeks. They arrived a day before me and spent two days in Accra. Michael had also just returned from Tamale where he was training/facilitating for VSO. We planned to travel to Ho together the day after I arrived. Unfortunately, my bags did not arrive with the flight so we had to wait another day in Accra. The two of us rested while Sally/Liz went to the coast and then to a football match. Their main purpose of coming over was to support the teachers in the Special Needs classes, in a main stream school in Ho, to be more creative with lesson planning. They worked really hard at it and I think they enjoyed it as did the students and trainee teachers.

Before we knew it, December is upon us. The weather is getting hotter and everyone says the harmattan will be here soon - the hot winds from the desert. It brings a lot of dust so much so that the hills around Ho are not visible! People suffer from sore throats and nose bleeds, not something to look forward to! As I write this blog from an internet cafe, there is huge storm outside. All our clothes will be soaked!

So life is back to normal. My calendar for December is full - and I am travelling a lot so will be really knackered but I am sure that it will be fun. While I was in the UK, VOLPHIG heard the good news - it had received funding for a UN bid that I had supported Francis to write. Some of the travelling will be to set up the project in North Volta Region. Michael will be busy assessing potential partners for an international donor so he will be travelling to different places.