I thought this was funny and clever and thought I might add it here, rather than spam everyone.
Hope you enjoy, J.
1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you
realize it was your money to start with.
2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people, that stops
bright ideas from penetrating. The Bozone layer, unfortunately, shows
little sign of breaking down in the near future.
4. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the
subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
5. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
6. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person
who doesn't get it.
7. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
8. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
9. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
10. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these
really bad vibes, right? And then like, the Earth explodes and it's
like, a serious bummer.
11. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day
consuming only things that are good for you.
12. Glibido: All talk and no action
13. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when
they come at you rapidly.
14. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after
you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
15. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your
bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
16. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in
the fruit you're eating.
And, the pick of the lot...
17. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
Sunday, 10 August 2008
Friday, 9 May 2008
Ghana Blog - Part 3
We had a very busy day on our 3rd day in Ghana. We got up at 5am and drove straight to Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary. Just as we entered the town we saw some monkeys come down and sat on a big log near the road. We stopped right away and got out the cameras :)
The place is very special, no cages, just welcome arms to the monkeys, of course they come for food, but they have been looked after by the tribes for many many years and are central to the lifestyle of the town. Well worth a visit if you ever go to Ghana, and they have some quite good accommodation too if you wanted to stay there. Do go early because the monkeys come down to town early, and we met many people that went later in the day and saw none at all!
We mostly saw the small monkeys, and feeding them was pretty cool, though I did not listen to our guide and didn't hold onto the banana tight enough, and the monkey just took the whole thing! :( It was fun though... just watching them, they are incredibly human!
Before we left the village we were taken to the main office and asked for a donation. The fee had been paid by village volunteers as part of our "holiday pack" but we decided to give them $30 toward the eduction needs at the local school. They were very grateful, and happy that we had enjoyed our time there.
After a walk in the forest we started on our way to Wli falls, the tallest waterfalls in Ghana, close the border with Togo. On the way Kodjo pointed out a Cocoa plantation, and knowing that I was a chocolate fan, we pulled over to get a closer look. As it happened the owner was there harvesting and gave us one, opened it up and we tried the raw beans! cool :) and he also showed us a Cola bean, I had no idea that cola flavour comes from a bean...
Another hour in the car and we were at the start of the falls walk. It was a nice track up to the falls, pretty easy going, and we saw many butterflies and spiders. The falls themselves wiere beautiful, I have always liked waterfalls and this one was pretty special. We hung out there for a while, would have loved a swim but we had been advised that swimming can be pretty dangerous because of parasites in the water, that can make you ill for many years.
We walked back, had lunch in a nearby hotel, and then made our way to an Ostrich farm. It wasn't that exciting to me really, but it was kinda fun.
Once we were back at the orphanage we could spend some time with the kids, so I went and got my guitar and we tried to play a few tunes. It was quite fun, but we realised that they didn't speak much English and certainly needed some discipline!!!
We didn't have a big one because we knew that we would have to get up early for church. I think Ewelina was shocked that I would even go, I am a devout Atheist, not a fan of religion AT ALL, but all the kids were going and the people there are very religious, so I thought it would be worth a visit.
This video end with us singing in the kids bedroom :)
Hope you will join us for the next Xmas vid!
The place is very special, no cages, just welcome arms to the monkeys, of course they come for food, but they have been looked after by the tribes for many many years and are central to the lifestyle of the town. Well worth a visit if you ever go to Ghana, and they have some quite good accommodation too if you wanted to stay there. Do go early because the monkeys come down to town early, and we met many people that went later in the day and saw none at all!
We mostly saw the small monkeys, and feeding them was pretty cool, though I did not listen to our guide and didn't hold onto the banana tight enough, and the monkey just took the whole thing! :( It was fun though... just watching them, they are incredibly human!
Before we left the village we were taken to the main office and asked for a donation. The fee had been paid by village volunteers as part of our "holiday pack" but we decided to give them $30 toward the eduction needs at the local school. They were very grateful, and happy that we had enjoyed our time there.
After a walk in the forest we started on our way to Wli falls, the tallest waterfalls in Ghana, close the border with Togo. On the way Kodjo pointed out a Cocoa plantation, and knowing that I was a chocolate fan, we pulled over to get a closer look. As it happened the owner was there harvesting and gave us one, opened it up and we tried the raw beans! cool :) and he also showed us a Cola bean, I had no idea that cola flavour comes from a bean...
Another hour in the car and we were at the start of the falls walk. It was a nice track up to the falls, pretty easy going, and we saw many butterflies and spiders. The falls themselves wiere beautiful, I have always liked waterfalls and this one was pretty special. We hung out there for a while, would have loved a swim but we had been advised that swimming can be pretty dangerous because of parasites in the water, that can make you ill for many years.
We walked back, had lunch in a nearby hotel, and then made our way to an Ostrich farm. It wasn't that exciting to me really, but it was kinda fun.
Once we were back at the orphanage we could spend some time with the kids, so I went and got my guitar and we tried to play a few tunes. It was quite fun, but we realised that they didn't speak much English and certainly needed some discipline!!!
We didn't have a big one because we knew that we would have to get up early for church. I think Ewelina was shocked that I would even go, I am a devout Atheist, not a fan of religion AT ALL, but all the kids were going and the people there are very religious, so I thought it would be worth a visit.
This video end with us singing in the kids bedroom :)
Hope you will join us for the next Xmas vid!
Ghana Blog - Part 2
This next vid clip takes us from Akosombo to Kpando, a quick look at our room at the orphanage and then onto our first day trip to Lake Volta...
Arrival at Kpando
I remember very clearly driving into this pretty busy stretch of town, people everywhere and tro-tro's all over the place like wasps! We turned off the main tarmac road onto a dirt road that was REALLY rough, I was surprised that a sedan car (not a 4x4) could make it, but as we discovered later, there are far far worse roads around! We traveled maybe a mile up the road and then turned off between two mud huts onto a smaller dirt road. There were houses on either side of this little road until we came to a big white house, with a 6 foot fence and we were told this was going to be our home for the next 3 weeks.
As soon as we arrived a big iron gate opened and a bunch of excited kids came rushing out, looking into the car to see their new friends. We got into the compound (the large fence surrounded the house and garden) and were introduced to Mama Esi and the kids. Before we even made it out of the car the kids had taken our bags up to our room. After brief introductions we were shown up to our room.
The room was a lot better than we were expecting, we had a light, electricity and even a bathroom down the hall, with a proper toilet and a shower (that worked only when there was running water, which was about a third of our stay).
We settled into our room, sorted out our things and then went down to meet the kids. Wisdom, the eldest boy, had a huge cut in his shin, down to the bone - in the west it would have been straight to hospital, but he did not seem very bothered. It was a few days old and did not look too clean so I went upstairs and got the medical kit and cleaned and dressed the cut.
Come 6pm and it mosquito o'clock and time to get the long sleeve shirt, long pants and repellent on. It was very hot and the deet we sprayed on made our skin burn, so it was quite uncomfortable, though not as uncomfortable as getting malaria would have been!
We then had our first dinner or fried chicken and rice with tomato sauce, our staple diet while we were there, although we did try most of the local foods too. We talked a little with the kids and tried to remember everyones names, something I have always been a bit shit at...
Holiday already???
We planned for two holiday breaks, each one two days, to go and see other parts of Ghana. We were not happy at the time that we had our first trip away before we even had time to hang with the kids, but in hindsight it was a good thing to get acclimatised to the culture in less demanding circumstances. Our guides was Edward (Kodjo) and our driver was Fu Fu. Both became good friends and it was their knowledge, company and friendship that helped make the trips so much fun.
So after dinner we were taken to a hotel, half way to Akosombo, where we would be doing a tour of the Volta dam and lake. The next day would be the Tofi Atome monkey sanctuary, which will be in the next video and blog.
The Hotel was very comfortable, possibly too comfortable, because to get to it we had to drive through a very poor village (all mud huts) that had no running water, we saw many people in the morning carrying buckets of water on their heads from a not very clean looking river. It really was quite disturbing to see poverty and luxury so close to one another, but I guess it happens eveywhere in the world...
Tro-Tro's
I had better explain what a Tro-tro is too - as I mention it a few times in the video... A tro-tro is the main form of public transport in Ghana. They are a people carrier like vehicle, a 8 seater van or bigger, that is privately owned and drives a set route, picking up passengers at the tro-tro stations in the towns and also along the road. They are very often run down and held together with bits of string and gaffa tape!! They fit in as many people as possible, so they are usually rammed, you might get 10-12 people in a van made for 8! Sometimes with chickens in with you, and sometimes goats would get tied to the roof (more on that later). They are pretty dangerous too - especially at night. Most of the roads are very bumpy and so cars dart all over the roads to avoid the pot holes. And in a fast cramped car in the dark it is scary, we only did it once. Many of the local people we knew there would not travel in them at all. We took a taxi most of the time, and in Ghana it is common to use "shared taxi" which I will explain later.
Lake Volta and Dodi Island
The lake was very pretty though there was a mist over it the whole time so it was not great for photos or filming. The ferry boat - The Dodi Princess - took us to Dodi Island, where we encountered our first mass begging, it was VERY strange. As the boat docked at the shore and people got off, maybe 50 or so kids cam running up and would grab your hand and hold on to be your "guide" on the island and then expect some money. I found it pretty shocking and was not sure how to tell them to go away, if I should give them some money, or what to do. Edward solved the problem by coming and shouting at them in Twi (the most commonly understood language in Ghana it seems) and they fled, for a while.
We walked over the island where there were many groups of people busking, some with instruments, some just standing there dancing with a pot in front of them with no music! This was more a sophisticated begging than busking, but it worked. These people needed money to survive and this is all they could do to try and get some money from the tourists. I gave most of them some money (a few dollars each) but I gave none to the beggars. I figure they have to learn to do something to get money than just ask for it, a value I held for most of the trip.
The boat then took us back to Akosombo with a live band plying downstairs and a great bbq on the top deck with beautiful Talapia fish and rice, which went down a treat with some Ghanaian beer! :)
This installment video ends with our trip back to the hotel, you can see the change from mud huts to fancy hotel pretty clearly! We ate dinner at the hotel nd had an early night - the next day we had to be up at 5am because what we were going to see next only comes out early in the morning!
Arrival at Kpando
I remember very clearly driving into this pretty busy stretch of town, people everywhere and tro-tro's all over the place like wasps! We turned off the main tarmac road onto a dirt road that was REALLY rough, I was surprised that a sedan car (not a 4x4) could make it, but as we discovered later, there are far far worse roads around! We traveled maybe a mile up the road and then turned off between two mud huts onto a smaller dirt road. There were houses on either side of this little road until we came to a big white house, with a 6 foot fence and we were told this was going to be our home for the next 3 weeks.
As soon as we arrived a big iron gate opened and a bunch of excited kids came rushing out, looking into the car to see their new friends. We got into the compound (the large fence surrounded the house and garden) and were introduced to Mama Esi and the kids. Before we even made it out of the car the kids had taken our bags up to our room. After brief introductions we were shown up to our room.
The room was a lot better than we were expecting, we had a light, electricity and even a bathroom down the hall, with a proper toilet and a shower (that worked only when there was running water, which was about a third of our stay).
We settled into our room, sorted out our things and then went down to meet the kids. Wisdom, the eldest boy, had a huge cut in his shin, down to the bone - in the west it would have been straight to hospital, but he did not seem very bothered. It was a few days old and did not look too clean so I went upstairs and got the medical kit and cleaned and dressed the cut.
Come 6pm and it mosquito o'clock and time to get the long sleeve shirt, long pants and repellent on. It was very hot and the deet we sprayed on made our skin burn, so it was quite uncomfortable, though not as uncomfortable as getting malaria would have been!
We then had our first dinner or fried chicken and rice with tomato sauce, our staple diet while we were there, although we did try most of the local foods too. We talked a little with the kids and tried to remember everyones names, something I have always been a bit shit at...
Holiday already???
We planned for two holiday breaks, each one two days, to go and see other parts of Ghana. We were not happy at the time that we had our first trip away before we even had time to hang with the kids, but in hindsight it was a good thing to get acclimatised to the culture in less demanding circumstances. Our guides was Edward (Kodjo) and our driver was Fu Fu. Both became good friends and it was their knowledge, company and friendship that helped make the trips so much fun.
So after dinner we were taken to a hotel, half way to Akosombo, where we would be doing a tour of the Volta dam and lake. The next day would be the Tofi Atome monkey sanctuary, which will be in the next video and blog.
The Hotel was very comfortable, possibly too comfortable, because to get to it we had to drive through a very poor village (all mud huts) that had no running water, we saw many people in the morning carrying buckets of water on their heads from a not very clean looking river. It really was quite disturbing to see poverty and luxury so close to one another, but I guess it happens eveywhere in the world...
Tro-Tro's
I had better explain what a Tro-tro is too - as I mention it a few times in the video... A tro-tro is the main form of public transport in Ghana. They are a people carrier like vehicle, a 8 seater van or bigger, that is privately owned and drives a set route, picking up passengers at the tro-tro stations in the towns and also along the road. They are very often run down and held together with bits of string and gaffa tape!! They fit in as many people as possible, so they are usually rammed, you might get 10-12 people in a van made for 8! Sometimes with chickens in with you, and sometimes goats would get tied to the roof (more on that later). They are pretty dangerous too - especially at night. Most of the roads are very bumpy and so cars dart all over the roads to avoid the pot holes. And in a fast cramped car in the dark it is scary, we only did it once. Many of the local people we knew there would not travel in them at all. We took a taxi most of the time, and in Ghana it is common to use "shared taxi" which I will explain later.
Lake Volta and Dodi Island
The lake was very pretty though there was a mist over it the whole time so it was not great for photos or filming. The ferry boat - The Dodi Princess - took us to Dodi Island, where we encountered our first mass begging, it was VERY strange. As the boat docked at the shore and people got off, maybe 50 or so kids cam running up and would grab your hand and hold on to be your "guide" on the island and then expect some money. I found it pretty shocking and was not sure how to tell them to go away, if I should give them some money, or what to do. Edward solved the problem by coming and shouting at them in Twi (the most commonly understood language in Ghana it seems) and they fled, for a while.
We walked over the island where there were many groups of people busking, some with instruments, some just standing there dancing with a pot in front of them with no music! This was more a sophisticated begging than busking, but it worked. These people needed money to survive and this is all they could do to try and get some money from the tourists. I gave most of them some money (a few dollars each) but I gave none to the beggars. I figure they have to learn to do something to get money than just ask for it, a value I held for most of the trip.
The boat then took us back to Akosombo with a live band plying downstairs and a great bbq on the top deck with beautiful Talapia fish and rice, which went down a treat with some Ghanaian beer! :)
This installment video ends with our trip back to the hotel, you can see the change from mud huts to fancy hotel pretty clearly! We ate dinner at the hotel nd had an early night - the next day we had to be up at 5am because what we were going to see next only comes out early in the morning!
Thursday, 8 May 2008
Ghana Blog - Part 1
Hi, and welcome to my blog about my trip to Ghana in December of 2007 until mid January 2008.
These will be accompanied by YouTube videos, if a picture paints a thousand words, do videos paint books???
In this first installment you see me in London trying to prepare. Man it was a hard few weeks, as well as preparing for my first trip to a developing country, I had just found out that I had to move out from my flat and my studio. My life all had to be boxed up and taken to a storage unit. Added to that, my girlfriend, Ewelina, was moving to New York a week after we got back from Ghana, so she also had to pack her life away! It was a crazy time.
I had raised quite a bit of money (about £2000, $4000) from the generous donation from the good viewers of justinguitar.com and from many of my friends and private students that gave us things to take.
We were up packing until 3am the morning before we left - so the alarm at 5am was not very welcome.
Once we were at Gatwick Airport, we found out there were problems with the plane, and so we were at the airport from 8am and did not take off until about 6pm... that was a horrible long and boring day.
The flight was uneventful, but I was impressed with the welcome that we got from any Ghanian that we met, all enthusiastic to tell us about their culture and places that we should visit.
The most interesting to me was the use of your right hand to eat, or to pass anything to an elder. It was considered very disrespectful to pass anything to anyone with your left hand. It comes from the idea that your left hand is used for any dirty activities, like cleaning yourself after visiting the toilet, so it is dirty and you would never use it for eating. Most of the Ghanaians that ate with their hands while we were there, ate with the right hand, with their left hands in their lap! Although of course many ate with knife and fork too of course.
Well we arrived very late and were met at the airport by Gunadiish, the Village Volunteer coordinator, who suggested that we make our way straight to the village we would be working in (Kpando). We were exhausted and had heard that it is not safe to travel at night (which it is not - don't do it!) So we stayed our first night under the mosquito nets at Gunadiish's house in Dansoman Estate, a suburb of Accra.
In the morning we got up and got some local money, had some great Ghana break for breakfast and then set off for Kpando.
Accra was a lot busier than I had expected, a real New York busy vibe all round the place. Street traders shouting, cars and trucks everywhere. Once we were out of the main part of the city we passed through small villages with mud huts and through more affluent (relatively) areas where there were some nice houses. It was a shock the first time that we saw a village of mud houses with thatched roofs. The majority of town had brick built buildings too, but many of the dwellings were just made of mud bricks with thatched roofs. There was often no paving or concrete floors and it was strange to see people sweeping the dirt! They of course were cleaning away leaves and rubbish, but the first time I saw it I thought it a little strange!
It was the first time I had ever seen anything like this and I was quite shocked. Some of the poor areas were shanty towns that you only see on the news, it is is quite a slap in the face to see it for real. It was exciting, as we had no idea what to expect, we didn't know if we would have electricity, running water, if we would be in a mud hut... no idea at all :)
The open sewers were quite a shock, something common to most towns we visited. Basically, beside many main streets was a 2-3' gutter where all waste water went! The powerful odor is something that stays with you, it really turned our stomachs, but really it is nothing, and something we got used to, but the first sniff, whooh...
The first vid stops about half way, as we cross the Volta river at Akosombo, so I will leave you with the video to enjoy :)
I had not figured out how to do overdubs on this first vid, so there is not a lot explained, but I have got it going now for the later vids!!!
These will be accompanied by YouTube videos, if a picture paints a thousand words, do videos paint books???
In this first installment you see me in London trying to prepare. Man it was a hard few weeks, as well as preparing for my first trip to a developing country, I had just found out that I had to move out from my flat and my studio. My life all had to be boxed up and taken to a storage unit. Added to that, my girlfriend, Ewelina, was moving to New York a week after we got back from Ghana, so she also had to pack her life away! It was a crazy time.
I had raised quite a bit of money (about £2000, $4000) from the generous donation from the good viewers of justinguitar.com and from many of my friends and private students that gave us things to take.
We were up packing until 3am the morning before we left - so the alarm at 5am was not very welcome.
Once we were at Gatwick Airport, we found out there were problems with the plane, and so we were at the airport from 8am and did not take off until about 6pm... that was a horrible long and boring day.
The flight was uneventful, but I was impressed with the welcome that we got from any Ghanian that we met, all enthusiastic to tell us about their culture and places that we should visit.
The most interesting to me was the use of your right hand to eat, or to pass anything to an elder. It was considered very disrespectful to pass anything to anyone with your left hand. It comes from the idea that your left hand is used for any dirty activities, like cleaning yourself after visiting the toilet, so it is dirty and you would never use it for eating. Most of the Ghanaians that ate with their hands while we were there, ate with the right hand, with their left hands in their lap! Although of course many ate with knife and fork too of course.
Well we arrived very late and were met at the airport by Gunadiish, the Village Volunteer coordinator, who suggested that we make our way straight to the village we would be working in (Kpando). We were exhausted and had heard that it is not safe to travel at night (which it is not - don't do it!) So we stayed our first night under the mosquito nets at Gunadiish's house in Dansoman Estate, a suburb of Accra.
In the morning we got up and got some local money, had some great Ghana break for breakfast and then set off for Kpando.
Accra was a lot busier than I had expected, a real New York busy vibe all round the place. Street traders shouting, cars and trucks everywhere. Once we were out of the main part of the city we passed through small villages with mud huts and through more affluent (relatively) areas where there were some nice houses. It was a shock the first time that we saw a village of mud houses with thatched roofs. The majority of town had brick built buildings too, but many of the dwellings were just made of mud bricks with thatched roofs. There was often no paving or concrete floors and it was strange to see people sweeping the dirt! They of course were cleaning away leaves and rubbish, but the first time I saw it I thought it a little strange!
It was the first time I had ever seen anything like this and I was quite shocked. Some of the poor areas were shanty towns that you only see on the news, it is is quite a slap in the face to see it for real. It was exciting, as we had no idea what to expect, we didn't know if we would have electricity, running water, if we would be in a mud hut... no idea at all :)
The open sewers were quite a shock, something common to most towns we visited. Basically, beside many main streets was a 2-3' gutter where all waste water went! The powerful odor is something that stays with you, it really turned our stomachs, but really it is nothing, and something we got used to, but the first sniff, whooh...
The first vid stops about half way, as we cross the Volta river at Akosombo, so I will leave you with the video to enjoy :)
I had not figured out how to do overdubs on this first vid, so there is not a lot explained, but I have got it going now for the later vids!!!
New Blog area :) Ghana Blog about to start...
So I have been meaning to put up a blog for ages, and it seems that this is a popular format so i am going to give it a go :)
I am going to start with news about my trip to Ghana in 2007/08, am in the middle of editing the videos now, and plan to make the vids and do the blog at the same time :) It is only 5 months late... sorry for the delay, but as most of you know I have been pretty busy updating my tuition web site...
Watching and editing the video is bringing back very strong memories, we had a really great time and I really miss the kids in the Orphanage, I really want to try and make it back there again sometime this year if I can, be interesting to see if we made much of a difference or not!
Well I hope you find my random ranting at least vaguely interesting, and thanks for watching/reading.
Take care, J
I am going to start with news about my trip to Ghana in 2007/08, am in the middle of editing the videos now, and plan to make the vids and do the blog at the same time :) It is only 5 months late... sorry for the delay, but as most of you know I have been pretty busy updating my tuition web site...
Watching and editing the video is bringing back very strong memories, we had a really great time and I really miss the kids in the Orphanage, I really want to try and make it back there again sometime this year if I can, be interesting to see if we made much of a difference or not!
Well I hope you find my random ranting at least vaguely interesting, and thanks for watching/reading.
Take care, J
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