2 weeks in Ghana have gone pretty quickly. What seemed like a big challenge at the start is starting to seem like not enough time. We picked up some newbies at the airport last weekend, who will be working on our urban teaching and orphanage placements and our community building and teaching project.

On Tuesday we all got together in the community of Kodzobe to celebrate crew leader, Gideon's, birthday. After working hard in the morning we met up after lunch for the first task of the day, preparing dinner for that evening. Adam stepped up to kill the chicken, which he handled very calmly. Next on the agenda was to collect beverages for the evening, so we went on a tour to see how palm wine is made. I don't think any of us have ever had to work so hard for a glass of wine, and came back with multiple scrapes and feeling a little hot and out of breath from the heating and cooling process. As a reward we got to sample some of the wine…handed to us in a large bowl full of 'nature'… it's customary to finish the bowl, so it was bottoms up, bugs and all!

We were invited to visit the chief later that day, to introduce ourselves and ask permission for our small party that evening to celebrate Gideon's birthday. This was a great experience and the chief presented Gideon with a bottle of wine from his travels, which we could enjoy later at the party. All feeling very privileged and welcome, we headed back to our house to decorate and organise music for the evening's festivities. All of the children in the community, gathered round and watched, and we all started the singing and dancing.

For dinner we enjoyed Fufu with chicken, which I really love but which some found a little too hot for their taste and were appreciative of the water bags cook, En, handed round. Like our experience at church, everyone was expected to stand up and make speeches. Everyone was making very long, effortless and heartfelt speeches and as we were all unprepared, you could see everyone frantically searching their brain, trying to figure out what they could say when it came round to them. Afterwards, we were told that the birthday ceremony had ended but we were invited to stay and continue to drink and dance. The chief and the elders left, and the evening got progressively more raucous, with apateshi flowing and dance requests coming from every direction. The children were all allowed to stay up and join in with our celebrations too, and it felt like a huge family gathering. We ended the night in the little bar…a hut round the back of the house…having an apateshi night cap and Adam competing in an arm wrestle with one of the local workers, no offence to Adam, but I think we all knew what the outcome of this match would be!

Despite the late partying, it was great to see everyone up early the next morning with bright eyes and bushy tails, ready to start work. It was a great night and a perfect way to introduce our new volunteers to Ghanaian culture.