And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light 'Day', and the darkness he called 'Night'. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And so, on Saturday 25 July 2009 the sun rose just like it does every day. This time, however, there was a difference, as it was to be a scorching hot day. Well, God thinks about everything, hence our fundraising car wash was held at Level -3, GS Superstore in Naxxar. As you can imagine, being in Level -3 was a lot cooler than it would have been outside, so at least I didn't get to bake in the sun. Don't however for one minute think that I didn't feel the heat... washing some 89 cars, together with the rest of the group, is a hard task.
If you think about it, it is as hard as follows: we got dirty while the cars got clean, and if that wasn't bad enough, we got wet while the cars got dry. It was certainly a good day to be a car, and if I could choose what car to be, I'd probably be a... hmmmmm, good question. Now that I think about it I don't know what I'd be. For an occasion like today, I'd probably choose to be a van. No, better still, I'd choose to be a bus. First of all, I'd probably be unique in Europe, in that I'd be the only public transport vehicle (together with my fellow Maltese busses) to not meet just about each and every EU regulation on road safety and roadworthiness in general. Secondly, and more importantly, I'd be a pain in the you-know-where, as someone would have a hell of a job to wash and dry me. Do you think I'm an ******e? You bet :)
Anyway, apart from wanting to be a big, old, noisy, orange, rusty, filthy bus for the day, there are a few other things I could say about the day. It was a Saturday. It was hot. It was sunny outside. Many people went to the beach while I was sweating it out with the others. A number of people supported us by bringing over their cars to be washed. However I have to give a special mention to GS Superstore in Naxxar. The event as it took place was only made possible through the support of GS. For all the support and the sponsorhip as well, I really wish to thank them. The experience in Ghana is going to be a richer one, and GS should feel proud to have contributed (immensely) to this. Likewise, the other SPYS members who helped the 'Ghana group' get all those cars clean also deserve a big thank you for the help they gave us on the day. Again, washing all those cars without their help wouldn't have been possible. Who are SPYS? Visit the SPYS website to find out! Put simply, the Ghana experience has been made possible by SPYS, but I do ask you to visit the website for more details.
Did you realise that each paragraph is getting progressively longer? No? Tough luck if you are that oblivious to your surroundings... in fact, if that's the case then you may not even realise that I'm shifting topic to the actual Ghana trip. First things first, packing. Packing? Before even thinking about packing it was time to close off pending work, and then go and do some last minute shopping. Then to the actual packing... 45 minutes and I was done. Having already on a number of occasions packed my luggage for work experiences of 7 - 9 weeks each gave me enough experience to get through the packing in a jiffy. It didn't however mean that my day was to end before 03:45 but, eventually, even one of the longest days of recent years came to an end.
anything, except of course for their underwear).
Sunday followed a pattern that was extremely similar to the following: airport, flight, meal during flight, airport, flight, meal during flight, airport. You get the idea. Nearly 24 hours of travelling and airport connection time finally came to an end when we reached Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana. That was the first realisation that I was no longer in Europe. You just knew immediately that this place is different to the westernised world. This was quickly followed by a trip in a vanette to the Salesians house in Ashaiman. It was what you could call THE trip. Hot outside, dusty roads, people trying to sell just about anything on the side of the street (by anything I mean
Sunday followed a pattern that was extremely similar to the following: airport, flight, meal during flight, airport, flight, meal during flight, airport. You get the idea. Nearly 24 hours of travelling and airport connection time finally came to an end when we reached Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana. That was the first realisation that I was no longer in Europe. You just knew immediately that this place is different to the westernised world. This was quickly followed by a trip in a vanette to the Salesians house in Ashaiman. It was what you could call THE trip. Hot outside, dusty roads, people trying to sell just about anything on the side of the street (by anything I mean
For example... do you want pineapple? Water? Soft drinks? Car radios? Bread? Coconut? Crisps? Lions? You can get them all from the roadside. Except the lion, because that was in the van. It was of course me, talking of which, I plan to go to Sierra Leone on a diplomatic mission. My aim is to convince Sierra Leone to give up the Leone from their name, and give it to Ghana. 'Sierra' vs 'Sierra Leone'. They sound equally good to me. Now contrast that to 'Ghana' vs 'Leone Ghana'. I definitely prefer the second one. It sounds so cool. All that will be left is to convince the Ghanaians to add 'do' at the end, and my real mission will be complete :)
you say that? I guess not, which makes my experience even richer. Why was I in hospital? Those who know me know that my stomach is not exactly robust. Well, shall we just say that some Ghanaian food had a worse effect on me than green peppers tend to have. And that is saying something. So anyway, can you imagine what a fountain with a partially blocked pipe would look like? You know, it builds up pressure little by little, until a short burst of water comes out. That's what I was like, until the hospital took care of me. And just in case you were wondering, I didn't for one moment contemplate eating the ants that shared my hospital room, even though they are a good source of protein :)
So what about my experience in Ghana to date? Fantastic. Hospital was great too. I can now say that I've even experienced a Ghanaian hospital. Can
So what about my experience in Ghana to date? Fantastic. Hospital was great too. I can now say that I've even experienced a Ghanaian hospital. Can
Ok, this is where I say goodbye. I'm off to bed, and the blog I started writing 12 days ago (only for me not to finish it) has now finally come to an end. I hope you liked it, but if you didn't, then it is absolutely not my fault that you decided to continue reading all the way to the end. So now just lump it and don't complain. In fact, no complaints will be entertained, although if you want to give me a cash grant in return for writing, then please feel free to do so.
David
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