Feeds

5499 items (5499 unread) in 66 feeds

• 20sAvVy (68 unread)
• Accra books and things Weblog (33 unread)
• Accra by Day & Night (185 unread)
• Accra Conscious Forever (97 unread)
• Accra Lady musings (28 unread)
• Adventures from the bedrooms of African women (61 unread)
• Altius Tendo (20 unread)
• ANTI-RHYTHM (424 unread)
• Ato Kwamena Dadzie Latest Blog Articles (173 unread)
• AWDF (53 unread)
• Baring Testament (26 unread)
• Boakyewaa Glover (43 unread)
• Border Crossings (48 unread)
• Christ for Creative People (9 unread)
• Circumspect (117 unread)
• Colleen's Ghanaian Adventure (42 unread)
• dotFAF.com (76 unread)
• Ethelcofie’s Thought-osphere (15 unread)
• Expression Poesy (49 unread)
• Expressions in Words (102 unread)
• From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS (35 unread)
• GHANA HYPE (109 unread)
• ghana photojournalist nana kofi acquah (32 unread)
• Holli's ramblings (131 unread)
• Home Sweet Home (29 unread)
• I HEART ACCRA (51 unread)
• ICTlog.net (12 unread)
• In My Eyes (132 unread)
• Kaleidoscope (8 unread)
• Life...and living it (70 unread)
• Like a naughty girl pulling her skirt up in public (87 unread)
• MAKOLA LAW (6 unread)
• Maya's earth (175 unread)
• Mobile Africa (70 unread)
• Moonlight expressions (20 unread)
• Musings: Ben Hinson's blog (34 unread)
• Mustaphamid.net (48 unread)
• my funny little frog (179 unread)
• My World (41 unread)
• Nana Kofi Acquah - Ghana Photographer (165 unread)
• novisi (99 unread)
• Nubian Cheetah (165 unread)
• Obroni Observations - An American Mom in Ghana (51 unread)
• Oluniyi David Ajao (184 unread)
• One Ghana, One Voice (173 unread)
• Perspectives (29 unread)
• Prince of Adovoria - The Voice of a Ghanaian Progressive (26 unread)
• Rain in Africa (213 unread)
• Ramblings of a Procrastinator in Accra (119 unread)
• Ramblings of an African Geek (14 unread)
• Rose among Thorns (95 unread)
• Sarpong Obed-ready to chew (96 unread)
• SavingGhana (27 unread)
• Tagoe Blogger (43 unread)
• The English version of it all (218 unread)
• tHe fLiRt FiLeS (99 unread)
• The Gamelian World (33 unread)
• The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana (114 unread)
• This is Ghana (114 unread)
• UNEXPECTED (14 unread)
• WEB4AFRICA.INFO (7 unread)
• Welcome to Inspirare.. (42 unread)
• WELCOME TO KUMASI, THE GARDEN CITY OF AFRICA (29 unread)
• Wherever I Lay My Hat... (101 unread)
• Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African (175 unread)
• Wo se Ekyir... (116 unread)

This is Ghana (100 unread)

• March 13, 2010
• 10:41

  A-Z of everything I wish I'd known about Ghana before I left home

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  To kick off a week of the best of This is Ghana posts for new visitors or anyone who missed out before, we start with the A-Z of Everything I wish I knew about Ghana before I left home! This post underpinned the extended section on Preparing to Go in our a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Ghana guide/a.br / br / div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5jJhUmlttI/AAAAAAAAAxo/BcSkJVlerxM/s1600-h/194070329_d680a6e650.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5jJhUmlttI/AAAAAAAAAxo/BcSkJVlerxM/s320/194070329_d680a6e650.jpg" //a/divLike your average trotro journey, this list kept growing and growing…and here it is. Copy, paste and take it with you. Send me a message if you have any questions.br / br / Akpetushie: Pronounced “Appehtooshie” is the local moonshine and could forgivably be confused for nail polish remover mixed with pure alcohol. Drink with caution. It will give you the best/worst hangover of your life.br / br / Books: There is one bookshop in Accra Mall which stocks an airport-style range, and a good second-hand bookshop in Cape Coast called Blackstar Bookshop near the castle (and next to the Baobab Café which, by the way, has great banana bread and supports a good local café. The German manager can be rather grumpy, though). My advice is to bring any books you really want to read and swap them when you’re finished! Aiden Hartley’s autobiographical The Zanzibar Chest is an “Africa” favourite. My copy, much read and swapped, is just hanging together by tape. The other is The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingslover—the scenes of local village life in the DRC (uncannily reminiscent of Ghana) are spot on. Chinua Achebe is an African great and perfect introduction to African writers. Things Fall Apart is a must-read classic. Of Ghanaian writers, Ama Atta Aidoo is worth reading.br / br / Birkenstocks: You can find original ones in Accra Mall for the usual price, second-hand ones all over the country for about 10-20 GCs, and rip-offs for about 10 GCs.br / br / Caning or “beating” students: Caning students is common practice at schools. Many Ghanaians still believe this is how you “correct” poorly performing students. I was not warned about this when I went to volunteer at a school and it was quite shocking. The caning was quite violent, not “soft”, as if teachers were acting out some kind of abuse they’d experienced themselves (which they probably had). If you protest against it, Christian teachers will invoke the Bible: “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” Worse still, parents might urge you to beat their children. If you want to oppose it, you have to remain strong. Ghanaians have virtually no knowledge of learning disabilities. Dyslexia is almost unheard of. Consequently, struggling children (much as they have been elsewhere) get beaten and verbally berated and made examples of for not being able to complete some task that requires reading and writing. The teachers have no idea that their violence doesn’t help. So, brace yourself for this if you plan to teach as a volunteer. There are a handful of schools where teachers don’t beat: the difference is startling. A teenage girl died recently after a beating at school which put the issue on the national radar for a few weeks. Opinions were roughly divided between for and against. I was very against. I shall write a separate post on my experience as well as potential strategies you could use at school to stop or reduce beating. Look for “caning” as a key word.br / br / Clothes (second-hand): Obruni wawu means “dead white man” and is used to describe the prolific second-hand clothing sold everywhere. There is a myth that no citizen of a developed country would wear the clothes of a dead person, so it’s dead obrunis’ clothes that are sent to be sold as second hand clothes—they couldn’t possibly be from the living. This, often very good quality, second-hand clothing is a bargain: T-shirts for 2-5 GCs, gypsy skirts for about 10 GCs and new jeans for 10 GCs. Trying them on over sticky bodies beside open sewers is another story…br / br / Condoms: Sexually transmitted diseases are rampant. While the rate of HIV/Aids is about 2.9% across the country, it’s much higher in urban areas. Use condoms. You can buy them in pharmacies, supermarkets and gas stations from 10 pesewas to a few Cedis.br / br / Drinking Water: You can buy “puuure watah!” just about anywhere for 5 pesewas—look for the blue ice boxes sitting all along the streets. Just how pure it is, however, is anyone’s guess. You can buy bottled water at shops everywhere too for about 50 p.br / br / English: It is the official language and is spoken almost everywhere, except in the most remote villages. And, while it’s the official language, it has its own idiosyncrasies. Written standards are pretty poor, even at university. If you’re coming to teach, anything related to literacy or the basics of grammar for the level you’re teaching would be helpful. Children love colourful story books. You can buy mass produced ones here or bring your favourites from home.br / br / Feminine Hygiene: Tampons/tampax are not widely available other than in supermarkets in Accra so bring your own. Pads are the norm and are available everywhere. Due to environmental conditions and some malaria medication, a few women suffer from longer or more painful than usual periods. Ensure that you’re prepared for this. Due to humidity and antibiotics, it’s not uncommon for women to suffer from yeast infections. Fortunately, treatments are available in pharmacies everywhere. Don’t be shy asking for personal items in shops or pharmacies—Ghanaians are not embarrassed by such things.br / br / Flip-flops/thongs: called “slippers” in Ghana. You can buy them everywhere for one GC or so. Still, having one good quality pair to support tired feet is worth it.br / br / Food: In a nutshell, the standard dishes are heavy on the carbs—yam, plantain, cassava, rice—and light on greens, if at all. There is usually pépé (chilies) in dishes, but you can avoid it. I have IBS and was super cautious of everything, but I have had less stomach troubles here than at home—possibly because most food is unprocessed; it’s a challenge to find “junk” food. I’ve eaten salad everywhere except off the street. Sunshine Salads in Osu (just ask anyone near Koala supermarket) or in Labone are heaven sent if you’re craving great salad. You can buy all the basic garden vegetables at most markets. Bean dishes are plentiful. It’s easy to be vegetarian or vegan—ask for soups without meat or stick to the non-meat dishes.br / br / Football: You know how Canadians are with ice hockey; Aussies/Indians/Pakistanis are with cricket; Kiwis with Rugby; and North Americans with basketball? That’s how Ghanaians are with football. Chelsea, Manchester and Liverpool are the teams of choice. Some also support Barcelona. Kids, especially boys, love anything football related as gifts. You can buy footballs and team paraphernalia on the streets everywhere.br / br / Friends: It’s easy to make friends with Ghanaians. However, quite a few Ghanaians I know could talk all four legs off every donkey on the African continent. So if you approach someone for a chat, make sure you have time to kill because Ghanaians almost always live up to their friendly reputation. And they always ask for your number. Be selective about handing out your number unless you don’t mind two a.m. phone calls. Ghanaians like to take advantage of free or hugely discounted calling rates and call each other at all hours of the night without a second thought, and you will certainly not be denied this honour.br / br / Fruits: Oranges (green in colour and the tastiest ever), pineapples, bananas and coconuts are abundant all year round, but coconuts and pineapples are grown in the south and trucked up north. Mangoes are bountiful in season too (now).br / br / Gifts: Aside from football and stationery mentioned elsewhere, people love colourful stickers. Also, several friends brought bubble liquid and blew bubbles to the delight of children and adults everywhere, and handed out bottles out to the kids. Old clothes: many Ghanaians value clothes you leave behind or clothes from home you no longer want. They’re good to give to family/friends when leaving.br / br / Greetings: (also see Language). Ghanaians will spend the first few minutes upon meeting asking after the other, then family, health and work, before getting down to the issue that they have come to discuss. No one ever responds in the negative and says they are not fine (or I am yet to hear it anyway), even if they’re clearly suffering. Ghanaians make the best of it, which keeps things moving and people smiling, no matter what. If you need to approach people to ask for help, it’s more appropriate to say, “hello, how are you?” and wait for a genuine response and then ask your question, rather than walking up and saying, “how do you get to…?!” without first acknowledging the person.br / br / Hair cuts: The last time a hairdresser cut my hair was early 2007 in an excellent tiny salon in Phnom Penh. I cut it myself now. I usually use nail clippers—I figure I can’t do too much damage that way. When I’m feeling brave I use sewing scissors. If you’re not ready to take that leap of faith, there is a woman at Labadi Beach Resort in Accra who cuts Caucasian hair. Ask for the “Madame”. If you have African hair—lucky. There are salons literally everywhere! Braiding is relatively inexpensive and costs about $5 for a head of braids. Extra if you want fake hair braided in! (Although I cut my own hair, I’ve never had it braided…pain!)br / br / Hospitals/clinics: It’s very hard to find quality medical treatment outside of Accra. In fact, it’s not easy to find it in Accra. You can get some kind of treatment in other cities, towns and villages, of course, but I’ve had many issues with doctors defaulting to malaria, no matter what you present, and just not caring. If you’re coming for more than three months, have all important check-ups before leaving. Cocoa Clinic in Accra was probably the most organized and reliable clinic I’ve been to. You still have to wait, of course.br / br / Jeans: Contrary to recommendations, jeans are OK in Ghana. They are nothing if not sturdy, comfy, and you can wear them for a week without washing…if you have to!br / br / Kokrobite Beach gets a special mention as it’s notorious for robberies. While Ghana is very safe overall, everyone I know who visited Kokrobite, bar one person, got mugged on the beach or their room was broken into—or it was attempted. Usually a group of young boys surround you on the beach and demand your backpack. Most people hand it over. So, if you go, don’t take anything you will mind giving up.br / br / Language: The official language is English, but most Ghanaians speak the language (or two or three or four) of their home area. Learning simple phrases in the local language of your area will create a connection with and respect among local people. Ghanaians place great stock in greetings, by the way, and it’s a safe bet to always greet everyone when entering a room or vehicle and always return a greeting, wherever you are.br / br / Laptops: It’s safe enough to bring one, but exercise caution. Don’t carry it around in a flashy laptop bag; use a backpack with a laptop compartment instead. Always unplug them when not in use to protect them from power surges. (See: Power.) Finally, the environment is harsh on laptops: salty and/or humid and/or dusty. Keep them covered when you’re not using them as they sometimes protest and just stop working.br / br / Malaria: It’s so common that it’s “like catching a cold,” as Ghanaians say. Unfortunately, this is true. It is common but avoidable. I recommend bringing mosquito spray to prevent bug bites and always sleep under a mosquito net. Certainly obtain one of the standard anti-malarial medications from your health provider before coming to Ghana and take it as directed. The various medications have their pros and cons and I know people that have gotten malaria on all the main ones (Larium, Doxy, Malarone, etc)—none of them are failsafe. If you run out while in Ghana, they are widely available in pharmacies everywhere and much less expensive than in your home country (although made in India or China—if you’re ok with that). If you fall ill (although it’s unlikely), please inform someone immediately. Malarial symptoms are any or all of: extreme fatigue, hot or cold fevers, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and dizziness. Virtually everyone I know who had it felt the extreme fatigue—a tiredness that you cannot imagine if you haven’t felt it before. Many had a sensation of feeling “sunburnt on the inside”—radiating heat even if you’ve been inside all day. You can have tests for malaria at clinics or laboratories which are common in major towns and cities for anywhere between 2-10 Cedis. Even if you have malaria, the tests can be faulty and come out negative. The lesson in this is that the tests are often wrong so if you are presenting the symptoms, please strongly insist on receiving treatment. The treatment is widely available and you can get it over the counter at pharmacies—ask the pharmacist. It is best to have it recommended from a doctor or specialist.br / br / Mapouka: Is both the name of the bottom shaking dance originating in The Ivory Coast now hugely popular in Ghana and the local version of rather alcoholic Irish cream. Not bad for a $2 bottle.br / br / Men: If you’re a woman, be prepared for lots of attention, especially if you’re on the curvy/large side. My favourite strategy for deflecting marriage proposals is the one guaranteed to get laughs: “Well, I already have seventeen husbands, but if you don’t mind being husband number eighteen, yes, I will marry you…” Men and women alike will shake with laughter. Warning: Using this in a moving vehicle where the driver may swerve into oncoming traffic as he shakes can be dangerous. Now, some men will actually agree to be husband number eighteen. To which I say: “Ok, but you have to wait for the first seventeen to die.” This invites more laughter. Sometimes I offer to give some of my husbands to other women in the vehicle which invites great guffaws. Ghanaians have a great sense of humour and find any excuse to laugh. Some men will just walk up to you on the street and propose. On one occasion a world-weary old man came up to me and said, “If I were to be a younger man, I would like to marry you…” He looked so sad! And, some will hassle you more than is comfortable, but not often. Just tell them you’re waiting for your “husband”. If they ask where your wedding ring is, say you left it at home. Most women I know used these tactics at some point and they work.br / br / Money: US dollars, Euros, Canadian and Australian dollars are easy to change at the numerous large and small exchanges dotted around the major cities. It’s reasonably safe to bring cash and keep it locked up somewhere in your room or in a safe, if you have one, and exchange it when you need it. You cannot use Mastercards. NO MASTERCARDS!! You can use Visa cards and withdraw cash at ATMs. Make sure you know your PIN. Now, do NOT use your credit card to pay for anything anywhere if you can help it. Indeed, there is no “plastic” culture here. Although you can use your credit cards at certain guest establishments, restaurants and retailers, I would try to avoid it. Credit card fraud is a huge problem. Someone may copy your card number and details if there is an imprint or record of the card left where you paid for the product or service. Traveller’s cheques are accepted although the rate is not as good as changing cash and banks can be very pompous about handling them. The easiest option is to bring cash and change it and/or a card you can withdraw with.br / br / Obruni: This has become synonymous with the idea of “foreigner”, and is shouted at you almost everywhere in the south of Ghana. It means “white person” and can understandably annoy African American or Asian visitors who get the Obruni treatment as much as any other foreigner. I had one British African friend with long gorgeous braids who was called “Rasta ‘Bruni!” She had a sense of humour about it—useful in Ghana. In Tamale and Bolga you’ll get called “Solomia”, in the Volta: “Yevu”, and in Bawku or Hausa speaking areas: “Nasara”. There is no ill intention behind this, Ghanaians are just pointing out the obvious as far as they’re concerned, not being rude or racist, as the same treatment might be perceived at “home”.br / br / Pens: School children value pens, pencils and notebooks very much. Instead of hauling them all the way from Australia, though, I could have bought them for a fraction of the cost in Ghana, which would have supported local traders and freed up space in my luggage. There are little stationery stalls everywhere.br / br / Petty Crime: While reports of bag snatching, mobile phone snatching and break-ins are on the increase, Ghana is still very safe. Basically, have your wits about you. Don’t leave your bags wide open. One thing that my former boss alerted me to was bag slashing in crowd situations. A thief might slash the bottom of your bag or its straps and grab the contents, so if you’re in crowds hold it tight. Pickpockets are common in crowded areas. Don’t be afraid to get physical if someone tries to pickpocket you.br / br / Pharmaceuticals: are readily available over the counter all over the country, again, for a fraction of the price you’d pay at home. A strip of 10 tabs of doxycycline is about one dollar. Cypro, general antibiotics, Immodium, and candidiassis treatments—tablet or creams—are widely available and inexpensive.br / br / Photographs: Ghanaians are fascinated by photos of you, your family, friends and home. If you’re staying with a family, they will love to see an album of photos from home. They will also love to show you theirs. People love to be “snapped”. If you have the means, giving people photos of themselves is a popular gift.br / br / Power: I’m not talking about the type mining companies like to wield around small African nations. I’m talking about the type that tends to cut out several times a day when you’re in the middle of something important. Here’s a tip: Unplug all electrical equipment when you’re not using it, or turn the power point off. A few weeks ago a surge hit the whole country. I awoke to the smell of burning rubber. The surge protector itself had blown up. Fortunately, it protected the electrical equipment. Countless times I’ve written a long email only to lose everything when the power cuts. Another tip: open Word or Notepad alongside the web browser, save in Word as you type, and then paste it into the browser. If the power cuts, it’s still there in Word or Notepad when it comes back on. Alternatively, I type it on a laptop at home, take it by pen drive to the café, paste and send it.br / br / Power plugs: The British type. You can buy multi-socket thingamajigs in towns and villages.br / br / Socks: You can buy socks cheaply on streets everywhere. Ghanaians do really like socks as gifts—or turn them into hand-puppets for kids at schools.br / br / Sunblock: You can buy it in Accra, but it’s probably easier to bring your own.br / br / Telephones: Mobile phones are everywhere, as are the "chips" (sim cards) you need to make calls. New basic mobiles cost anywhere from 30 GCs and up. Vodaphone and Nokia have deals going most of the time. Chips cost 1 GC (yes, one) for most networks. It costs about the same to call an overseas mobile as it does within Ghana, and most calls are cheaper late at night. You can text virtually anywhere in the world for as little as 5 pesewas.br / br / Time: Forget everything you know about time and “how things work”. Life in Ghana rocks to its own unpredictable rhythm and has its own way of working itself out—which can be exceedingly frustrating at times. I have occasionally felt as if I were participating in a chaos theory experiment with malaria and upset stomachs thrown in just for fun. Long waits for buses scheduled to leave hours earlier and slow responses to anything bureaucratic are normal. It’s life. It will teach you to go with the flow. If you need to learn patience and inner calm, just come to Ghana and buy a ticket for anything with a start time. There’s nothing you can do about it so my advice is to leave assumptions and presumptions at customs, and you’re more likely to enjoy one of the friendliest nations on earth.br / br / Toiletries: Face cleansing wipes are brilliant for not only removing dirt from your face, but for “washing” during water shortages. You can buy “obruni” shampoo at shops in Accra, Cape Coast, Kumasi and Bolga.br / br / Toilets: Well, I write a lot about toilets. If you had IBS, you would too. Overall, they are conspicuous by their absence in public settings. Metro TV recently stated that twenty-million Ghanaians live without access to modern toilets (they use drop toilets). Of those, three million have no access to any at all. There are twenty-three million Ghanaians. So much for the former government’s “Ghana at 50” pledge to build more “public places of convenience”. They were going to build toilets every fifty kilometers on the main roads. It’s more like every five hundred kms—if you’re lucky. Basically, don’t expect to find any at trotro stations—although there are a few. Fortunately, STC now has really nice toilets at all its stations (not long ago it was rather distressing). Most hotels have facilities that you can “borrow” if you have to—be nice to the reception people and pretend to be interested in a room.br / br / Transport: Ghana has one of the highest incidents of road accidents in the world. I can’t count the amount of times the vehicle I’ve ridden in has almost crashed. (Touch wood!) Trotros, the crowded minibuses, are the worst. However, it’s virtually impossible to avoid trotros and taxis if you plan to travel around, so take a few precautions. Try to travel during the day. Try only to take coaches like the STC (State Transport Company) or the Metro Mass Transit (the orange buses). If the driver is taking dangerous risks, Ghanaians will often shout at the driver. Don’t be afraid to shout out yourself or ask someone next to you to do so. In taxis I’ve often told the driver to slow down or not overtake into oncoming traffic.br / br / Vegetables: You can buy cabbage, carrots, eggplant/aubergine, lettuce, potatoes, avocadoes (called “pear”), tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, green beans, onion, ginger, garlic, and many other veggies besides, at markets all over Ghana, some only in season.br / br / Viruses: the IT type; Internet café PCs are riddled with them. Many cafes still do not use anti-virus or, if they do, they’re often not up to date. So, if you’re planning to stick a pen drive into a PC, you need protection. I recommend downloading a free antivirus programme before you leave home and store it on your pen drive. It sounds like overkill, but you only have to lose everything once to understand the value of having antivirus on hand that you can upload as needed. Internet connections are still quite slow, at least to download anti-virus, and power is so erratic that it often cuts out half-way through a download. So bring it with you.br / br / div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5jKlLoMOfI/AAAAAAAAAxw/_ch1rfZKFc4/s1600-h/Kakum+Ropeway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5jKlLoMOfI/AAAAAAAAAxw/_ch1rfZKFc4/s320/Kakum+Ropeway.jpg" //a/divVisas: You may receive a one year visa in your passport from the embassy in your country, but this is irrelevant in Ghana. At immigration you will get a 60 day visitor stamp no matter what your visa duration. You must extend your stay before the end of the 60 days by applying for an extension for the amount of time you need at an immigration office in a capital city. You need evidence of a return air ticket to do this, two passport photos, and I think it’s about $10 per month (although it may have increased to just under 20), and a sponsorship letter from an NGO or supporting org, if you wish to renew. Be nice to the immigration staff no matter what. You can get visa on arrival in Accra, but I know some people who were refused boarding on Delta in New York because they didn’t have a visa before they departed. I had no problem with Emirates. The process need not be as precarious as crossing Kakum ropeway bridges outside of Cape Coast.br / br / Vitamins: are also available everywhere. Those chewy orange vitamin C tablets sell for 20 pesewas a strip. You can get iron syrups over the counter which helps to build up strength after a bout of malaria.br / br / Volunteering: If you’re looking for a serious volunteering organisaiton, it’s best to plan before you leave. Idealist.org has an excellent database of projects. You can also go here. However, you can find projects when you arrive by word of mouth or online—but it’s kind of nice to have someone meet you when you arrive.br / br / Water: The water supply is erratic in many areas: on and off at will, it seems. Having some set aside in a bucket is always smart. Bucket baths are normal in regional areas where many people don’t have plumbing. In some places children have to carry water in buckets from a distance to fill up a larger reserve in the house where you’re staying so you can use it. Be mindful of that.br / br / Zip/pen/jump drive: Bringing a 1G drive is invaluable. Use it for storing or transferring photos, writing email in Word and uploading it at a café later. You can buy a 1G drive for about $10 in Ghana.br / br / If you have any brilliant tips of your own you would like to add, or corrections, or anything at all, please write a comment!br / br / Packing image above courtesy of a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/36-degrees/"Stuart Frisby at Flickr /a, a href="http://images.google.com.gh/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Ghana_footbridge2.jpgamp;imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ghana_footbridge2.jpgamp;usg=__B4ms6eI-6Vml-foJ6oggrHssdHg=amp;h=960amp;w=1280amp;sz=667amp;hl=enamp;start=39amp;um=1amp;itbs=1amp;tbnid=Tc6bCmLUYDLVMM:amp;tbnh=113amp;tbnw=150amp;prev=/images%3Fq%3Dghana%26start%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26imgtbs%3Dr%26as_rights%3D%28cc_publicdomain%257Ccc_attribute%257Ccc_sharealike%257Ccc_noncommercial%257Ccc_nonderived%29%26as_st%3Dy%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1"Kakum National Park/a image courtesy of a href="http://images.google.com.gh/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Ghana_footbridge2.jpgamp;imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ghana_footbridge2.jpgamp;usg=__B4ms6eI-6Vml-foJ6oggrHssdHg=amp;h=960amp;w=1280amp;sz=667amp;hl=enamp;start=39amp;um=1amp;itbs=1amp;tbnid=Tc6bCmLUYDLVMM:amp;tbnh=113amp;tbnw=150amp;prev=/images%3Fq%3Dghana%26start%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26imgtbs%3Dr%26as_rights%3D%28cc_publicdomain%257Ccc_attribute%257Ccc_sharealike%257Ccc_noncommercial%257Ccc_nonderived%29%26as_st%3Dy%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1"Wikimedia Commons/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-5505047498985610925?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=J_Z2PPb3doM:12eLHcUYf84:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=J_Z2PPb3doM:12eLHcUYf84:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=J_Z2PPb3doM:12eLHcUYf84:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=J_Z2PPb3doM:12eLHcUYf84:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/J_Z2PPb3doM" height="1" width="1"/
• March 12, 2010
• 14:39

  Facing an Arms Dealer in the Ivory Coast: Part II

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div style="text-align: left;"We posted Part II of the story of a href="http://www.g-lish.org/writing/arms-dealer-part-ii/%20"facing an arms dealer in the Ivory Coast/a today at g-lish. You can see it by clicking on the link.nbsp; br / br / a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Insiders-Guide-to-Ghana-Sampler.pdf"Download a free sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-3476596330867195490?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=AZbd2btsQyU:-eK__XS_uyw:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=AZbd2btsQyU:-eK__XS_uyw:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=AZbd2btsQyU:-eK__XS_uyw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=AZbd2btsQyU:-eK__XS_uyw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/AZbd2btsQyU" height="1" width="1"/
• March 11, 2010
• 9:00

  My town: Bolgatanga, Upper East Region, Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CSTATION3%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"/linko:smarttagtype name="country-region" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypelink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CSTATION3%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx" rel="themeData"/linklink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CSTATION3%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml" rel="colorSchemeMapping"/linkstyle !-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /style br / div class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Continuing the theme of places I've lived, I’ve pulled the photos I feel tell the story about life in Bolgatanga. What strikes me is the dust and the green—the difference between the dry and the wet season. I love Bolga during the wet but it tests you during the dry—now! o:p/o:p/span/divbr / div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5F-wpu6gHI/AAAAAAAAAuw/Uj5zQmhQGt0/s1600-h/Basket+Weaving+8-B.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5F-wpu6gHI/AAAAAAAAAuw/Uj5zQmhQGt0/s320/Basket+Weaving+8-B.JPG" //anbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br / /divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"nbsp;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5GAXVnZfeI/AAAAAAAAAu4/msqHPayqBAo/s1600-h/Baskets+Bolga+G.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5GAXVnZfeI/AAAAAAAAAu4/msqHPayqBAo/s320/Baskets+Bolga+G.JPG" //a/divbr / div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5GA1iMSOfI/AAAAAAAAAvA/lhhAKymSz-4/s1600-h/Bolga+baobab+football.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5GA1iMSOfI/AAAAAAAAAvA/lhhAKymSz-4/s320/Bolga+baobab+football.JPG" //aa href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5GBGzqksEI/AAAAAAAAAvI/78pR0RWzl3c/s1600-h/Bolga+Basket+Makers+.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5GBGzqksEI/AAAAAAAAAvI/78pR0RWzl3c/s320/Bolga+Basket+Makers+.JPG" //aa href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5GBh4FguHI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/uO7lG-7pjJU/s1600-h/Bolga+Funeral+Dancing.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5GBh4FguHI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/uO7lG-7pjJU/s320/Bolga+Funeral+Dancing.JPG" //aa href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5GBq0ZYI1I/AAAAAAAAAvY/jWYGgn6gwac/s1600-h/Bolga+Funeral+Roof.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5GBq0ZYI1I/AAAAAAAAAvY/jWYGgn6gwac/s320/Bolga+Funeral+Roof.JPG" //aa href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5GB9zdnB1I/AAAAAAAAAvg/zYGle6vaDyY/s1600-h/Bolga+mountains.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5GB9zdnB1I/AAAAAAAAAvg/zYGle6vaDyY/s320/Bolga+mountains.JPG" //a/divbr / a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Insiders-Guide-to-Ghana-Sampler.pdf"Download a free sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. div class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-6273733795016292448?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=HNEXbMp0BMM:wwTARYqaVh8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=HNEXbMp0BMM:wwTARYqaVh8:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=HNEXbMp0BMM:wwTARYqaVh8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=HNEXbMp0BMM:wwTARYqaVh8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/HNEXbMp0BMM" height="1" width="1"/
• March 10, 2010
• 12:28

  Facing an Arms Dealer in the Ivory Coast: Part 1

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div style="text-align: left;"You can read the first half of Godwin's personal story at G-lish today: a href="http://www.g-lish.org/travel/facing-an-arms-dealer/"Facing an Arms Dealer in the Ivory Coast/a. This story isn't glamorous by any stretch. It highlights what happens when you're caught in the poverty trap and the choices you have to make.br / br / a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Insiders-Guide-to-Ghana-Sampler.pdf"Download a free sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-8974734135788383888?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=WdSo-U4-RNk:5iErvX1Q5To:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=WdSo-U4-RNk:5iErvX1Q5To:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=WdSo-U4-RNk:5iErvX1Q5To:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=WdSo-U4-RNk:5iErvX1Q5To:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/WdSo-U4-RNk" height="1" width="1"/
• March 09, 2010
• 21:24

  PDF Travel Guide to Ghana for sale

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CStation1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"/linko:smarttagtype name="PlaceType" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="City" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="country-region" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypelink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CStation1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx" rel="themeData"/linklink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CStation1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml" rel="colorSchemeMapping"/link m:smallfrac m:val="off" m:dispdef m:lmargin m:val="0" m:rmargin m:val="0" m:defjc m:val="centerGroup" m:wrapindent m:val="1440" m:intlim m:val="subSup" m:narylim m:val="undOvr" /m:narylim/m:intlim /m:wrapindentstyle !-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Wingdings; panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:2; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 268435456 0 0 -2147483648 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:"TrebuchetMS,Bold"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:auto; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:TrebuchetMS; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:none; mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} /* List Definitions */ @list l0 {mso-list-id:43604941; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:448835284 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:.5in; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Symbol;} @list l1 {mso-list-id:800148161; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:-12920732 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693;} @list l1:level1 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:.5in; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Symbol;} @list l2 {mso-list-id:838546524; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:-276776382 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693;} @list l2:level1 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:.5in; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Symbol;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;} -- /style /m:defjc/m:rmargin/m:lmargin/m:dispdef/m:smallfracbr / div class="MsoNormal"bspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"What is it?/span/b/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"It is a 278-page, instantly downloadable PDF guide to travel in st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region/st1:place. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"This is ba travel guide/b that lets visitors benefit from our inside knowledge and experience. bA guide that is:/b/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"li class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Up-to-date on prices, names and numbers (Updated versions and separate pages showing specific changes will be emailed to you free for 12 months from the date of your purchase.)o:p/o:p/span/li li class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Written by a Ghanaian and a foreigner who lives and travels extensively in st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region/st1:place (we got lost so you don’t need to—but it’s often a fun learning experience if you do)o:p/o:p/span/li li class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Explains clearly how to get from A-to-B (or C and D and E if you like)o:p/o:p/span/li li class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Includes the best attractions and accommodation (so you can save time and money)o:p/o:p/span/li li class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"That also explains what st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region/st1:place and Ghanaians are really like (so you’re not completely in the dark when you find yourself without a toilet, for instance)o:p/o:p/span/li li class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"With extended culture, costs, health, preparation and dangers sections (to put you in the most prepared and confident position before you leave)o:p/o:p/span/li li class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"And includes our “insider’s” tips throughout every section (so you can visit “hot” spots in your first week, instead of taking months to accidentally discover them)o:p/o:p/span/li li class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"With an audio file of basic greetings and words in Twi and Hausa (by Godwin!) so you can learn to say “hello,” “I’m fine,” “How much is it?” and other useful every day phrases in the two major language groups in Ghana. You can even listen to it on your I-pod before touching down to prepare for your first encounter with a taxi driver! Don’t worry—it’s not difficult and Ghanaians really admire your attempts to speak their languages, even if you’re trying to reduce a price. o:p/o:p/span/li li class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Godwin (our st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region/st1:place half of the team) and I (Aussie half) will also add some words of advice about how to haggle with a couple of examples (we are going to role play this one in English) so you can hear what to expect when you buy souvenirs or any products in the markets. He’ll be the trader, me the buyer. (*Note: These two audio files are “in production” now. You, and existing wonderful customers, will receive this as a separate update via email shortly if we haven’t already zipped it with the guide when you buy it.)o:p/o:p/span/li /uldiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"bspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Who it’s for: The Insider’s Guide to st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region/st1:place is umost suited/u too:p/o:p/span/b/divul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"li class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"First-time visitorso:p/o:p/span/li li class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Second- or third-time visitors who may have spent limited time in st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region previouslyo:p/o:p/span/li li class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Visitors whose last trip to st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region was more than two years agoo:p/o:p/span/li li class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Anyone who lives principally in one area, e.g. st1:city w:st="on"Accra/st1:city or st1:placetype w:st="on"Cape/st1:placetype st1:placetype w:st="on"Coast/st1:placetype or st1:city w:st="on"Kumasi/st1:city, and who will travel to other parts of st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region but may be unfamiliar with those areas.o:p/o:p/span/li /uldiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"bspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"The guide is unot suited/u too:p/o:p/span/b/divul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"li class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Anyone with extensive travel experience in st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-regiono:p/o:p/span/li li class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Anyone who has a guide that they’re already content with using/spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"o:p/o:p/span/li /uldiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"bspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Reality check:o:p/o:p/span/b/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"The guide won’t solve buall/u/b your st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region/st1:place problems, but it will make life and travel a whole lot easier, especially regarding transport, health, accommodation, culture, and how to get from A to B. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"This is what readers are already saying about the PDF guide:/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="color: #073763; text-align: center;"bspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"“Reading your guide has been SO helpful in preparing for our trip. Your writing skills are exceptional and your knowledge shared is appreciated.” D.N. (st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"USA/st1:country-region/st1:place)o:p/o:p/span/b/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="color: #073763; text-align: center;"bbr / /b/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="color: #073763; text-align: center;"bspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"“I’ve been to st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region/st1:place several times (9?). I consider it my second home in some ways. Such a deep love!!! What I like about your book is as I read it I’m saying to myself, ‘Yes, exactly! Amen!’ Lol!” A.G. (st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"USA/st1:country-region/st1:place)o:p/o:p/span/b/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="color: #073763; text-align: center;"bbr / /b/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="color: #073763; text-align: center;"bspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"“The guide looks AMAZING! It will definitely come in handy for our trip to st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region/st1:place later this year. ” T.O. o:p/o:p/span/b/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="color: #073763; text-align: center;"bbr / /b/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="color: #073763; text-align: center;"bspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"“Hi Gayle and Godwin, Thanks very much for the guide. It is the best tourist guide book ever!” S.B.o:p/o:p/span/b/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="color: #073763; text-align: center;"bbr / /b/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"bspan style="color: #073763;"“Hello, First of all I’d just like to say a massive THANK YOU!!! I’ve just finished reading the The Insider’s Guide to /spanst1:place style="color: #073763;" w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region/st1:placespan style="color: #073763;" and The Insider’s Guide to Volunteering and found them both to be interesting, informative and helpful.” L.M. (/spanst1:place style="color: #073763;" w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"UK/st1:country-region/st1:placespan style="color: #073763;")/span/bo:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"You can buy our a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=cartamp;i=617317amp;cl=103846amp;ejc=2"st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"uGhana/u/st1:country-region/st1:placeu travel guide/u/a here./spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a sample here. /a/spanbr / br / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"Here is an excerpt from "bArriving/b"/spanbr / div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5bGdkvZ3VI/AAAAAAAAAw4/GNX8ZeHZxdI/s1600-h/Guide-arriving.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="492" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5bGdkvZ3VI/AAAAAAAAAw4/GNX8ZeHZxdI/s640/Guide-arriving.JPG" width="640" //a/divbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"/spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"/spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;" /span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-1350874620180369402?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=caDHBUKA1UM:Gebp0ZpEGNE:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=caDHBUKA1UM:Gebp0ZpEGNE:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=caDHBUKA1UM:Gebp0ZpEGNE:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=caDHBUKA1UM:Gebp0ZpEGNE:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/caDHBUKA1UM" height="1" width="1"/
• 16:13

  Vodafone Ghana ignoring calls to restore internet to Bolgatanga

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  I'm posting from mobile since we still have no internet. Despite repeated requests for Vodafone Bolgatanga to restore a full, stable connection to our town, and Vodafone Accra's assurances that it already IS fixed...it's not fixed. Unless "fixed" means 1 hour in 5 minute snatches per day while Vodafone continues to charge monthly fees to cafes thatnow have no customers 23 hours a day. Net cafes are going broke in Bolga. Is this happening anywhere else in Ghana? When will Vodafone fix the connection?div class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-3715023017981781710?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=jKB7iewWbx0:bwShG8EYpCE:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=jKB7iewWbx0:bwShG8EYpCE:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=jKB7iewWbx0:bwShG8EYpCE:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=jKB7iewWbx0:bwShG8EYpCE:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/jKB7iewWbx0" height="1" width="1"/
• 9:31

  Making Sense of Oil Discoveries in Ghana: Part 2, a dispute with the Ivory Coast?

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CSTATION3%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"/linko:smarttagtype name="country-region" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypelink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CSTATION3%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx" rel="themeData"/linklink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CSTATION3%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml" rel="colorSchemeMapping"/linkstyle !-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /style br / div class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"In Sunday’s post a href="http://gisforghana.blogspot.com/2010/03/making-sense-of-oil-discoveries-in.html"Making Sense of Oil Discoveries in Ghana: Part 1/a, I explained the oil exploration industry basics. And in my very first post on the subject, a href="http://gisforghana.blogspot.com/2010/03/making-sense-of-ghanas-oil-discoveries.html"Making Sense of Ghana's Oil Discoveries: Introduction/a, I referred to the potentially problematic border issue:o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"“It gets quite complicated when the field also happens to sit in disputed areas like major gas fields between st1:country-region w:st="on"Australia/st1:country-region and st1:place w:st="on"East Timor/st1:place. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"st1:country-region w:st="on"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Australia/span/st1:country-regionspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;" and st1:country-region w:st="on"Indonesia/st1:country-region jointly determined maritime boundaries between the two countries after st1:country-region w:st="on"Indonesia/st1:country-region invaded st1:place w:st="on"East Timor/st1:place. These boundaries favoured certain gas finds to st1:country-region w:st="on"Australia/st1:country-region, but when East Timor gained independence from st1:country-region w:st="on"Indonesia/st1:country-region, East Timor disputed the legality of the boundaries that st1:country-region w:st="on"Australia/st1:country-region created with st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Indonesia/st1:place/st1:country-region during the illegal occupation. The boundaries deprived newly independent st1:place w:st="on"East Timor/st1:place of revenue. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"st1:place w:st="on"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"East Timor/span/st1:placespan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;" argued that the boundaries did not accord with international law. st1:place w:st="on"East Timor/st1:place argued that they should have more share of the royalties from the development of the field. This dispute went on for years (we had an annual conference and every year they said the agreement would be finalized that year…it was, five years later) and eventually a complicated revenue sharing agreement was finalized between the countries and those companies with interests in developing the field. It was very interesting.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"At least, in st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region’s case, there are no border disputes where the blocks lay on the border with the st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ivory Coast/st1:place/st1:country-region.” o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"I wrote. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"And then, later that very day, I read: a href="http://news.myjoyonline.com/business/201003/43007.asp"Ivory Coast Oil Claim has serious implications/a at My Joyonline /spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"by Fiifi Koomson./spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"ispan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"What what what what what what what?!o:p/o:p/span/i/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"So, I decided to create a separate post addressing this as simply as possible. I have included edited excerpts of Fiifi Koomson’s story here that explains the gist of the issue.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"i“Lands and Natural Resources Minister says the emerging claim from st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ivory Coast/st1:place/st1:country-region to portions of the oil fields in the Western Region is a very delicate matter. Collins Dauda said the issue has serious international and diplomatic repercussions. Government is expecting Parliament to quickly deliberate on a bill that would establish a boundary commission to negotiate st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region’s maritime boundaries with st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ivory Coast/st1:place/st1:country-region.”br / br / “We have not been able, as a country, to determine our boundary with st1:country-region w:st="on"Ivory Coast/st1:country-region and there is the need for us to now determine the maritime boundary between st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region and st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ivory Coast/st1:place/st1:country-region,” he said./i o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"All I can think is iNow? /io:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"br / i"Mr Dauda however said both countries have, for years, respected “a median line” between them that cannot be trespassed."/ibr / br / o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Respect is lovely when there’s nothing at stake. I have to say that “median line” featured heavily in discussions between st1:country-region w:st="on"Australia/st1:country-region and st1:place w:st="on"East Timor/st1:place.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"br / i“All of a sudden, with the oil find, st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ivory Coast/st1:place/st1:country-region is making a claim that is disrespecting this median line we have all respected. In which case we would be affected or the oil find will be affected,” he said./ibr / br / o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Who is surprised?o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"br / i”Collins Dauda said, last year, st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region appealed to the United Nations to extend its maritime boundary by 200 nautical miles.”/ibr / br / o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"I think he means that the appeal was made last year. iLast year?! /i(Mama Mia!)o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"br / i”Head of Research at the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre, Dr Kwesi Aning, says the latest turn of events exemplifies “a failure of the state institutions to protect our national interest.”/ibr / br / o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"An (unfortunately) astute observation.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"br / i”Dr Aning said there is a general lack of seriousness in ensuring the country’s boundaries are protected. The security expert is recommending a solid technical documentation studied by lawyers with expertise in petroleum issues.” /ibr / br / o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"Hopefully this can be resolved faster than st1:country-region w:st="on"Australia/st1:country-region and st1:place w:st="on"East Timor/st1:place could resolve their differences. It should be simpler as the issues in this case are less complex (not relating to agreements with a former invading nation, for starters), but rather between amicable neighbours. But they certainly need experienced, honest and independent experts to advise. If not, I won’t be the only person in st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region throwing my hands in the air and cursing about lost opportunities./spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;"o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-6708646180481924020?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9Mm40ri2P_I:XrFRv98R1A4:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9Mm40ri2P_I:XrFRv98R1A4:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9Mm40ri2P_I:XrFRv98R1A4:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=9Mm40ri2P_I:XrFRv98R1A4:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/9Mm40ri2P_I" height="1" width="1"/
• March 08, 2010
• 9:01

  In Honour of Wangari Maathai on International Women’s Day for Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div style="text-align: left;"div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5QSSdLO1hI/AAAAAAAAAwA/LMCXM9jxVvY/s1600-h/gallery_23.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5QSSdLO1hI/AAAAAAAAAwA/LMCXM9jxVvY/s320/gallery_23.gif" //a/divmeta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CADMINI%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"/linko:smarttagtype name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="country-region" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="City" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="PlaceName" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="PlaceType" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypelink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CADMINI%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx" rel="themeData"/linklink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CADMINI%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml" rel="colorSchemeMapping"/link m:smallfrac m:val="off" m:dispdef m:lmargin m:val="0" m:rmargin m:val="0" m:defjc m:val="centerGroup" m:wrapindent m:val="1440" m:intlim m:val="subSup" m:narylim m:val="undOvr" /m:narylim/m:intlim /m:wrapindentstyle !-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /style/m:defjc/m:rmargin/m:lmargin/m:dispdef/m:smallfracI remember being in st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Vietnam/st1:place/st1:country-region in late 2006 for Vietnamese Women’s Day and then in March 2007 for a href="http://www.internationalwomensday.com/"International Women’s Day/a. The timing was a coincidence. On the first occasion I was invited to a lunch with our partner organisation during which they honoured about a dozen of their Vietnamese female staff (and two of us expats) with bunches of flowers and a feast of excellent cuisine at a traditional restaurant. It was a fun afternoon with excellent food and company. In March, I was then in the middle of a training workshop in which the participants also surprised us with flowers in honour of a href="http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/Activities-to-mark-International-Womens-Day/20103/113275.vov"International Women’s Day/a (click the link to see what happens in Vietnam); I was so busy I didn’t even realise what day it was and I was certainly not expecting another celebration. br / div class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"I observed that st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Vietnam/st1:place/st1:country-region, even in that provincial area, was on its way to achieving gender equality at least in the home. On that second occasion the men explained how they shared the cooking, looked after the children and helped with the household chores like washing and cleaning—and the consequences if they didn’t. Vietnamese are extremely industrious (if they were the size of st1:country-region w:st="on"China/st1:country-region, st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"China/st1:place/st1:country-region would be looking over its own shoulder with great concern), so it shouldn’t have been too surprising to learn that the same culture prevailed in the home. I’ve no doubt that this industriousness and the sharing of the household burden are fundamental keys to st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Vietnam/st1:place/st1:country-region’s development success. A nation simply can’t develop when 50% of its population are given special treatment and the other 50% have to shoulder the burden of work inside and outside the house and are not given equal opportunity academically or professionally. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Ghanaians say “Wishes are not horses”. It essentially means that wishful thinking gets you nowhere. Nevertheless, I’m going to make a wish. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"I wish that Ghanaian women were treated as well as their Vietnamese counterparts in the home, if not the work place too. Better still, I wish that Vietnamese and Ghanaian women were treated as well as, say, their Swedish counterparts. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"I wish every woman and man on earth, but particularly Ghanaian women, could read Wangari Maathai’s “a href="http://www.amazon.com/Unbowed-Wangari-Maathai/dp/0307263487"biuUnbowed/u/i/b/a”./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"I often make silly lists of Top 10 this and that, but if someone asked me to name one book that everyone should read (or have read to them), a href="http://www.amazon.com/Unbowed-Wangari-Maathai/dp/0307263487"biuUnbowed/u/i/b/a is it. If you never read again, read a href="http://www.amazon.com/Unbowed-Wangari-Maathai/dp/0307263487"biuUnbowed/u/i/b/a. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"I knew I was on to a good thing when two of my favourite authors had given front and back cover endorsements for the book: Bill Clinton (the former President), whose “a href="http://www.amazon.com/My-Life-Bill-Clinton/dp/140003003X/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_2"My Life/a” is one of my favourite autobiographies, and Alexandra Fuller who wrote “a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Lets-Dogs-Tonight-Childhood/dp/0375758992/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8amp;s=booksamp;qid=1267993017amp;sr=1-1"Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight/a”. You should add both of these to your “to read” lists too. st1:city w:st="on"Clinton/st1:city’s is an epic masterpiece of autobiographical writing that takes you on a remarkable journey of which st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"US/st1:place/st1:country-region politics is just a part. Fuller drops you in the front row of racist, pre- and post-colonial, southern st1:place w:st="on"Africa/st1:place on a journey that unashamedly forces you to experience that past from her unique, child-voice point-of-view. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"But back to Maathai. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5QOZnwSFEI/AAAAAAAAAvw/Q2bK2AVA-aw/s1600-h/27771226_a744bd7d5b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5QOZnwSFEI/AAAAAAAAAvw/Q2bK2AVA-aw/s320/27771226_a744bd7d5b.jpg" //a/diva href="http://www.wangarimaathai.com/"Wangari Maathai/a must be the greatest living inspiration for African women today. Ghanaian women, who are in a better position to speak out for oppressed women across Africa and, importantly, within st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region itself, ought to “take a leaf” (no pun intended) from her life, her work, her determination and courage./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Indeed, where is st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region’s Wangari Maathai? Does such a woman exist? Is she quietly working behind the scenes, yet to come to the media’s attention?/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"In a country in which it is exceedingly less threatening to speak one’s mind than anywhere else in Africa aside from (perhaps) st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Botswana/st1:place/st1:country-region, where are women taking action against unequal practices in the home, in the public sphere, and with environmental issues? /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Where is the movement of women encompassing all women across st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region/st1:place, urban and rural? /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Looking around me here in the Upper East Region, where conditions are harsh, hot, unforgiving and designed to make life as difficult as possible, and women toil in the home and fields for virtually nothing—certainly not property rights when their husband dies, and not for money while they’re living—why is there not a greater call for change? /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"While I think Gifty Anti does a great job on GTV hosting a program that discusses women’s issues, in particular, with a panel or women and men each week, it only goes so far./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Maathai is well known for winning the Nobel Peace prize in 2004 and for her a href="http://greenbeltmovement.org/a.php?id=178"Greenbelt Movement/a which, since 1977, has planted more than 40 million trees across Africa.nbsp;/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"But this is half the story. She transformed not just the geographical landscape, but the human landscape in st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Kenya/st1:country-region/st1:place, too. Her will and her network prevented or remedied human rights abuses, corrupt practices, destructive environmental practices, and conflict across st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Kenya/st1:place/st1:country-region—in the face of death threats, abuse, harassment and much more. Every struggling nation needs their Maathai. If they don’t have one, they can take inspiration from st1:place w:st="on"Africa/st1:place’s Maathai./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5QMszHQKiI/AAAAAAAAAvo/NPM0dn-w1L0/s1600-h/858961057_ba13521ca9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5QMszHQKiI/AAAAAAAAAvo/NPM0dn-w1L0/s400/858961057_ba13521ca9.jpg" width="400" //a/divThe planet is going to the dogs. st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region is certainly not helping. Deforestation is a terrible problem in this country. According to Oxfam, only 25% of st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region’s total original tropical rainforest remains. When I visited Wli in 2005 the mountains had some forest cover, yet logging was taking place one metre outside the “protected area”. When I visited in 2007 I woke to the sound of chainsaws in the forest nearby. All day: chainsaws. Chainsaws for the next five days. The mountains, while majestic in form, looked more like something out of Lord of the Rings—Saruman’s burning, not the Ents—than what I experienced two years earlier. Does st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region want to become another st1:country-region w:st="on"Burkina Faso/st1:country-region or st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Mali/st1:place/st1:country-region? An extension of the st1:place w:st="on"st1:placename w:st="on"Sahara/st1:placename st1:placetype w:st="on"Desert/st1:placetype/st1:place? /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Timber is st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region’s third largest export after cocoa and minerals. Timber is also cleared for planting cash crops. The Government apparently banned exports of raw logs, but what about slightly processed logs? And whose needs are being catered for in the income generated from this business? 16% of the land cover has been set aside for forest and nature reserves. That means, and 9% of forests are still open for logging. These were Oxfam statistics. According to Stephen Yeboah on ghanaweb.com, the BBC estimates that st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region/st1:place has lost 90% of forest cover since independence in 1957. Either way, st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region is on the fast-track to desertification./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"This is not a criticism of st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region as a country, but rather an observation of what feels like many missed opportunities. In a country where one can speak fairly freely, why is st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region not leading the way for change for women in st1:place w:st="on"Africa/st1:place? And who is going to speak up for the environment? If one woman caught in an oppressive regime can speak up, why don’t women speak out more in st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region? Or am I being naïve? Or has complacency set in?/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Or is the “PhD” mentality too overwhelming? That is, the “pull him down” thinking that prevails in Ghana that one should only reach a certain “status” before one is "pulled back down to earth where one belongs"? Why should one not reach greatness? Who are you ibunot/u/b /ito achieve greatness, to stand up for other less fortunate people, and to protect your children’s natural assets?/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Incidentally, the same mentality is alive and well in st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Australia/st1:place/st1:country-region, particularly for women, so I understand. It’s called the “Tall Poppy Syndrome”. A poppy is a type of flower that grows on a long stem with a pretty, bright flower on top. The saying goes that if you become too much of a “tall poppy”, someone will “cut you down” to “where you belong”. When an Australian at home, but especially living abroad, achieves some level of success, they’ll often be criticized by the Australian media. Various actors, writers and activists living abroad have experienced this. Female politicians still suffer from this, as do academics and other professionals./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"None of us should repress our talents, skills, aspirations or our rights just because society deems it or someone else says so. Society is not a piece of granite; society is fluid like the water that falls in Wli. Even if you threw a stone into the pool beneath the hurtling falls, the ripples would be felt. And the “someone else’s” are simply mortals who will one day turn to dust./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"In a country that’s already struggling to meet its citizen’s basic needs, the solution for societal and environmental change, it seems to me, is an alliance of strength and courage. Women, I’ve observed especially in rural st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region/st1:place, are nothing if not strong and courageous. And, like in Maathai’s story, it only takes one strong woman to speak out and take action. Authenticity and passion are obvious when you experience these traits. As such, Maathai has the support of wise and intelligent men these days both within and outside st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Kenya, as well as her women sisters/st1:place/st1:country-region./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"There’s a saying that one doesn’t regret what one did, but what one didn’t do./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5QPcfOLJcI/AAAAAAAAAv4/xfY4zfQI62w/s1600-h/2810341439_2e5194e286.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5QPcfOLJcI/AAAAAAAAAv4/xfY4zfQI62w/s320/2810341439_2e5194e286.jpg" //a/divIf you’re not sure what to do next, read Wangari Maathai’s biuUnbowed/u/i/b. It’s for sale in the Silverbird book shop in Accra Mall for GHC 17.90. Share it with your friends and read it to them if they can’t read. Once you’ve read it, pass it one and the rest will follow./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Feel free to add your thoughts and ideas here and thank you for reading. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"And, most of all, thank you to Wangari Maathai for the inspiration and the ideas, now and in future./divbr / The photo at the top is from the a href="http://www.internationalwomensday.com/media/"International Women's Day site/a. The image of the book cover here is from a href="http://images.google.com.gh/imgres?imgurl=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3016/2810341439_2e5194e286.jpgamp;imgrefurl=http://flickr.com/photos/99175982%40N00/2810341439amp;usg=__UwFVil8P-kkL46aqWigF-Jukgwc=amp;h=500amp;w=375amp;sz=97amp;hl=enamp;start=16amp;itbs=1amp;tbnid=fnN6uOnMEmX-cM:amp;tbnh=130amp;tbnw=98amp;prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwangari%2Bmaathai%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26as_rights%3D%28cc_publicdomain%257Ccc_attribute%257Ccc_sharealike%257Ccc_noncommercial%257Ccc_nonderived%29%26as_st%3Dy%26tbs%3Disch:1"elycefeliz at Flickr/a. The image of logs cut in Ghana is from a href="http://images.google.com.gh/imgres?imgurl=http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1230/858961057_ba13521ca9.jpgamp;imgrefurl=http://flickr.com/photos/acameronhuff/858961057/amp;usg=__xj94R8i62W0Ghn4sMWaIUrSAPCU=amp;h=375amp;w=500amp;sz=128amp;hl=enamp;start=5amp;itbs=1amp;tbnid=SdjuoeH_sxH0hM:amp;tbnh=98amp;tbnw=130amp;prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddeforestation%2Bghana%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26as_rights%3D%28cc_publicdomain%257Ccc_attribute%257Ccc_sharealike%257Ccc_noncommercial%257Ccc_nonderived%29%26as_st%3Dy%26tbs%3Disch:1"acameronhuff at Flickr ./aThe image of Wangari Maathai is from a href="http://images.google.com.gh/imgres?imgurl=http://farm1.static.flickr.com/23/27771226_a744bd7d5b.jpgamp;imgrefurl=http://flickr.com/photos/holisticgeek/27771226/amp;usg=__0z-x40PHP5SqgjAALuFF9oUiwv0=amp;h=427amp;w=320amp;sz=36amp;hl=enamp;start=9amp;itbs=1amp;tbnid=XiOsc3bo9vpzUM:amp;tbnh=126amp;tbnw=94amp;prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwangari%2Bmaathai%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26as_rights%3D%28cc_publicdomain%257Ccc_attribute%257Ccc_sharealike%257Ccc_noncommercial%257Ccc_nonderived%29%26as_st%3Dy%26tbs%3Disch:1"holisticgeek at Flickr./abr / br / br / br / br / a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Insiders-Guide-to-Ghana-Sampler.pdf"Download a free sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-8971766732664771428?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=KyvostRX_xQ:jVDZHF-uiJQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=KyvostRX_xQ:jVDZHF-uiJQ:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=KyvostRX_xQ:jVDZHF-uiJQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=KyvostRX_xQ:jVDZHF-uiJQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/KyvostRX_xQ" height="1" width="1"/
• March 07, 2010
• 12:30

  Making Sense of Oil Discoveries in Ghana: Part 1, the industry basics

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5F8lz0hx1I/AAAAAAAAAuo/DBJz8YJn6Ko/s1600-h/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S5F8lz0hx1I/AAAAAAAAAuo/DBJz8YJn6Ko/s200/images.jpg" width="200" //a/divI’ve wanted to write about Ghana’s oil situation for some time. In my past life I worked for the national oil corporation of Japan (JNOC which became a href="http://www.jogmec.go.jp/"JOGMEC/a) as a researcher covering Oceania for the five years directly before coming to Ghana in 2005. Over time I came to see how awfully inaccurate media reports were regarding this industry and this taught me to never rely on what I read in the paper, but go to the source and check facts myself. br / br / Well, it was my boss who made me do this, thus opening my eyes to reality. When I culled a story about an exploration find from a media source (it was my job to do this daily), he’d request me to call the company and find out if the figures quoted were correct. I was always pleasantly surprised by how helpful all the companies were when I asked to clarify any points. If it was really important, we met the company face-to-face and asked directly. I was also surprised at how cooperative most companies were in this regard too. I had about 150 in-person meetings with oil company executives in the USA and Australia over those 5 years. I developed my own weird, oil-industry shorthand after the first year since I wrote and typed the same terms over and over. Just before I left I counted up the minutes I’d taken and typed up; there were just over 150. br / br / The thing is, though, I often wondered why on earth I stuck in a field (no pun intended), I had no real passion for. But here we are and I shall now try putting that experience to some good use. br / br / In any case, I wanted to truly understand the implications of the discoveries myself. Old habits, perhaps. It felt like a good intellectual challenge, too, and a change from the usual topics I write about. So, I hope this is helpful. And I truly hope this passes fact checking. Any questions, shoot. Finally, in writing this article I’m assuming no prior knowledge so this is basic for anyone with industry experience.br / br / bLet’s start with fields, blocks, and licences. These confused me, anyway, once upon a time. /bbr / br / Fields are geological formations in which hydrocarbons—oil or gas—may exist. They are natural formations with natural boundaries. Fields have names to make identifying them easier. In Tullow Oil’s case, the field that contains discoveries off-shore, Western Region, is called the Jubilee field.br / br / Blocks, on the other hand, are areas designated by humans that sit over a natural formation—field. It’s a bit like imagining your house block (a man-made designated area) sitting on a mountain (a much larger geological formation).br / br / A block is an area designated by the host petroleum authority—it’s often rectangular or square (or some other unnatural shape)—and it’s these blocks that are sold to prospective exploration companies who then explore within the block’s borders.br / br / The host petroleum authority usually releases blocks for sale on a regular (annual) basis to the highest bidders. This process is fairly standard around the world. The bidders submit detailed plans for how they will explore in the block—this is called their “work program”. The host authority benefits most if oil is discovered so they will award the block to the most prospective bid which is likely to be more experienced companies with good track records elsewhere and that undertake to explore or invest more (eg. drill more wells) than others. br / br / So, companies don’t just take a block and think, iI’ll drill a well and see how it goes./i Part of the company’s obligations in the bidding process to the host authority include a written undertaking to complete the “work program”. This includes drilling an agreed number of exploration wells over an agreed period of time. Eg. They may undertake to drill three wells by 2012. br / br / The company must uphold their side of the bargain. If not, they must accept penalties imposed by the host authority for not completing the work program stated in the bid. If they agree to drill three wells, for example, and the first two are unsuccessful (“dry”—no hydrocarbons—they’re not actually free of liquids since they’re underground and underground is wet), the company will be reluctant to drill the third—although they may strike oil in the third. It’s a gamble; oil exploration is a high risk, high (or low, or no) return business.br / br / I’ll mention briefly here that companies generally hope to find oil, because it’s valuable, but they often find gas. Gas is ok if the find is close to the market where it will be consumed, otherwise it’s economically useless. For example, if you look at a map of Australia, exploration companies have discovered a total of over 200 trillion cubic feet of gas (200 tcf) in waters offshore north-western Australia. Australia’s total energy needs are equivalent to approximately 1 (one tcf) of gas annually. That means, current discoveries of gas could supply Australia’s total energy needs, at current levels, for the next 200 years. And estimates are that there is at least double this volume of gas yet to be discovered in Australian waters. br / br / However, the fields are in very deep waters adjacent to the least populated part of the country. Even if they built a pipeline to shore, there is no market for the gas there. The market for gas is on the other side of the country—Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane—several thousand kilometres away across several land-based jurisdictions. And gas cannot be transported like oil just like that. It needs to either be piped in a pipeline or shipped in specially designed LNG (liquefied natural gas) tankers that cost a fortune to build and operate. Gas, by its nature, is not liquid like oil, so it either needs to be chilled to temperatures way below freezing until it becomes a liquid and then shipped or piped. br / br / In Ghana’s case, if a company should discover gas, there is a possibility of tapping into the existing pipeline infrastructure—depending on the agreements—and there is also a ready market and it looks like the companies that discovered oil will do just that with the “associated gas” that comes with an oil discovery.br / br / So back to the bidding. If there are no bidders the authority will keep the blocks for a future release. For example, the blocks may sit in unexplored territory so no one is willing to take the risk now. But someone may eventually take the risk and explore a block in a new area and find oil or gas. If so, other blocks around that area suddenly become attractive and the host authority then might be able to sell them in the next round of bidding. br / br / Right, so you have blocks which the host petroleum authority auctions to exploration companies.br / br / In Tullow Oil’s case, they have several blocks, but there are two important ones: br / bDeep Water Tano/b: over Jubilee Field br / bWest Cape Three Points/b: over Jubilee Fieldbr / br / Deep Water Tano and West Cape Three points sit, as you may have guessed, in deeper ocean waters. This makes developing them more expensive as they need taller platforms, longer drilling equipment, and so on. Wells can cost between 10 million and 100 million dollars to drill—each! The shallower the water depth, the less expensive to drill and develop. br / br / The first wells drilled on a newly acquired block are called exploration wells. If drilling in a completely new area, they’ll call it a “wildcat” well. br / br / Wells are also given names. Naming wells is not very technical; sometimes a well is named after the boss’s wife, sometimes after a famous race horse, or a plant, a geological period, or sometimes after the area in which it’s located (as in the Cape Three Points block).br / br / The well is also given a number. If a well is called Mahogany-1, the “-1” indicates that it’s the first well to be drilled in a series. The first well has nothing to do with production or development of oil—yet. At this stage, the company is in “the exploration phase” and trying to work out if there are any hydrocarbon reserves at all.br / br / If they find hydrocarbons of potentially high value, they will move onto the “appraisal phase” during which they drill more for the purposes of assessing the volume and value of the “reserves”. If they decide the find is commercially viable, they’ll move onto the “development phase”. This whole process takes several years and it’s highly technical involving geologists, geophysicists, financial analysts, lawyers, and other highly skilled professionals that deal with the various aspects of this business. I once worked with a gentleman who was a geophysicist, a qualified lawyer and he also had acquired an MBA—and he was not yet 40! He could analyse discoveries from every essential angle—technical, legal and financial. Needless to say, he worked for an investment bank and I was more than intimidated when working in his presence.br / br / I took a paragraph from a press release at Tullow’s website. It looks confusing, but I explained in simple language below. If you’re interested in this, hang in there as you’ll understand this jargon by the end of this article.br / br / i“The accelerated appraisal and development of the Jubilee field continues, with the first appraisal well, Mahogany-2, drilled in May 2008 in the West Cape Three Points block. The well targeted the Turonian turbidite sandstones encountered in the Mahogany-1 and Hyedua-1 discovery wells. Results from Mahogany-2 indicated that Jubilee is a continuous stratigraphic trap extending at least 11 km to the Hyedua-1 discovery well in the adjacent Deepwater Tano block, with combined hydrocarbon columns in excess of 600 metres.”/ibr / br / What that paragraph is saying is, firstly, they are fast-tracking the appraisal and development of the Jubilee field—they are obviously happy with the discoveries and intend to produce oil as quickly as possible. Secondly, the Mahogany wells sit in the West Cape Three Points block which sits over the Jubilee field. At this point, the company is in the appraisal phase and drilled the Mahogany-2 well. “-1, -2, or -3” indicates the order in which wells in a prospect were drilled. They had a clear objective: targeting the Turonian turbidite (geological terms) sandstones that they discovered when they drilled earlier wells: Mahogany-1 and Hyedua-1.br / br / The Hyedua-1 well was the first in a series drilled in the next block, the Deepwater Tano block—which also sits over the Jubilee Field.br / br / In drilling Mahogany-2, they worked out that the Jubilee field extends at least 11 kms (below the ocean floor) to their Hyedua-1 well. br / br / As I said earlier, blocks are artificial areas, often square-shaped, that are owned by exploration companies. Upon discovering oil or gas, they’ll work out where the “field”, the natural geological formation, sits beneath the “man-made” blocks. A field often extends beneath one or more blocks. br / br / Their next paragraph goes like this:br / br / i“A drill stem test of Mahogany-2 confirmed that the Jubilee Field reservoirs are highly productive with wells expected to have capacity in excess of 20,000 bopd when completed for production. The results of this well prompted a significant volumetric revision, with the P90 recoverable resources of the field now estimated at over 500 million barrels and the ultimate upside upgraded to 1.8 billion barrels. Two more appraisal wells, Hyedua-2 and Mahogany-3, are planned for 2008 with Mahogany-4 planned for 2009.”/ibr / br / So, to interpret this simply, “drill stem” refers to a piece of the earth that is removed during drilling and then analysed to assess the nature of the geology and the prospectivity.br / br / Their second well, Mahogany-2, helped them to quantify the field’s potential. They estimate 20,000 barrels of oil per day (we’ll get on to what this means in later posts) when “completed for production”.br / br / They mention “P90 recoverable resources”. I’ll explain that here. That’s oil talk for “bloody brilliant odds”. (No wonder wells are sometimes named after race-horses—it’s a gamble.)br / br / Reserves are classified on a scale of “Ps”. This rating system refers to the risk and the probability of oil existing and being producible. You have P90, P50 and P10 that align, respectively, with the concepts “proven reserves,” “probable reserves” and “possible reserves.”br / br / P90 reserves are proven reserves that have a 90% certainty of being produced. Essentially, the company is “reasonably certain” that the reserves can be produced under all current conditions—basically, there are no technical, political, economic or other issues preventing them from producing the reserves. That’s good news for Tullow Oil. They are also called 1P in some circles.br / br / P50 reserves are probable reserves that, as you probably worked out by now, have a 50% “certainty” of being produced (although that’s not very certain if you ask me). They are also called 2P or “Proven + Probable”.br / br / P10 reserves suck if you’re an investor. These are possible reserves that have a 10% chance of being developed under “favourable” circumstances—something needs to change in order for them to develop; maybe it’s a political situation, maybe it’s the technology. They are also called 3P or, yep, “Proven + Probable + Possible.”br / br / (You can imagine my first few oil industry meetings when I was new to all this and had had no training yet… What the hell! 1P, 2P, P+P+P… There were a lot of question marks in my early minutes.)br / br / While I once had a good grasp of this P business, a lot has happened in the last five years, so I refreshed my memory this week by reading a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_exploration"Wikipedia’s article/a and simplifying it for the purposes of this article.br / br / bWhat are recoverable resources?/bbr / This refers to the gas or oil that can be extracted, as opposed to the total volume that exists in a “trap”—the formation that holds the oil or gas. A company cannot extract all of what they find. So, an investor is really interested in recoverable resources, but total resources gives prospectors an idea of what’s down there and what may well lie elsewhere. br / br / And notice that they say they’ll drill a second Hyedua and a third Mahogany in 2008, and a fourth Mahogany in 2009? They’re very confident.br / br / The next paragraph says:br / br / i“In parallel with the appraisal programme, development planning for the Jubilee field is progressing rapidly. The operator structure is now in place and Tullow has been designated as the field operator. The Jubilee partnership, with the support of the Ghanaian Government, have agreed a plan for Phase One of the development which will focus on the core area of the field utilising an FPSO based sub sea development scheme. The project is targeting first production in the second half of 2010.”/ibr / br / Right. So while they’re still appraising the discoveries, they’re planning the actual development and production phases—the phase where you extract and sell oil in commercial quantities.br / br / i“The operator structure….Tullow…designated as field operator.” /ibr / br / Exploration blocks are almost always owned by two or more companies. Hardly does one company ever take 100% ownership. This is because it’s too risky so they offset risk by spreading it across several partners in a formal joint-venture with different share levels. If they fail, all partners share the costs and losses; if they succeed, they share the profits.br / br / The operator is the company that, usually, has the majority share in the block. They take the lead and make the decisions about how to develop the find, often employ their choice of technology in production but all partners have to share the costs so a lot of negotiating takes place about exactly how to proceed. Those interested in conflict management could take lessons from the negotiations undertaken in such circumstances.br / br / As far as ownership of Deepwater Tano and West Cape Three Points licences goes, according to Tullow’s press release, in the first, Tullow has 49.95% ownership, with the other interests being Anadarko, Kosmos, GNPC, Sabre. None of those interests have a greater share than Tullow.br / br / In the latter, Kosmos has 22.90% with Anadarko, GNPC, E.O. Group and Sabre taking up the balance.br / br / There are sophisticated software programmes that show the complex networks of interests in every block around the world. Companies have specialists that forecast who will produce what, where, and when, and how it will impact their partners and competitors. Your partner in one block may be your competitor in another.br / br / An FPSO is a “floating production, storage and offloading” facility—basically a really big floating tank that stores oil during production and will then pump it into oil tankers that ship it to refineries. br / br / “..targeting first production in the second half of 2010…” means pretty much what it says. They aim to produce commercial quantities of oil (not just explore or appraise) from the second half of 2010. br / br / So, in summary, when reading an article about oil production or exploration, check the name of the field, the block, the name of the well, the well’s number (1, 2, 3, 4 which gives you a hint of how mature the exploration program is), the name of the operator, the location, the volume of oil discovered or forecast for production (barrels of oil per day), the type of reserves: P10, P50, P90, and so on.br / br / OK, so that’s the basics of oil production and exploration. In the next post I’ll refer to the issue of the potential boundary dispute with The Ivory Coast. And in the final post I’ll answer the question: What does this mean for Ghana? (I’ll try, anyway.) In that final post I’ll look at the agreement between the national petroleum authority and the oil companies and interpret what this means in terms of income. I’ll explain what that means in economic terms by comparing it to, say, cocoa (if I can find reliable statistics) or other major industries.br / br / Check outa href="http://www.tullowoil.com/" Tullow Oil here. /aThe image at the top is a platform courtesy of a href="http://images.google.com.gh/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Oil_platform_in_the_North_Sea.jpgamp;imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oil_platform_in_the_North_Sea.jpgamp;usg=__fvyXwZwEAa-9o6GNIEHl_0nku1w=amp;h=1704amp;w=2560amp;sz=1379amp;hl=enamp;start=22amp;um=1amp;itbs=1amp;tbnid=P9q3769hJaAD5M:amp;tbnh=100amp;tbnw=150amp;prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522oil%2Bplatform%2522%26start%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26imgtbs%3Dr%26as_rights%3D%28cc_publicdomain%257Ccc_attribute%257Ccc_sharealike%257Ccc_noncommercial%257Ccc_nonderived%29%26as_st%3Dy%26ndsp%3D18%26tbs%3Disch:1"Wikimedia Common/as.div class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-1481259857922607895?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=W7q6vglz6yA:Y_COGj8gDQA:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=W7q6vglz6yA:Y_COGj8gDQA:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=W7q6vglz6yA:Y_COGj8gDQA:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=W7q6vglz6yA:Y_COGj8gDQA:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/W7q6vglz6yA" height="1" width="1"/
• March 06, 2010
• 10:00

  div style="text-align: left;"You may want to check ...

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div style="text-align: left;"You may want to check our next post in the series about a href="http://www.g-lish.org/making-a-difference/are-you-mad-micro-finance/"Making a Difference: Micro Credit/a at a href="http://www.g-lish.org/"G-lish/a. Here is a short excerpt:br / br / i"There has been a lot of buzz about micro-finance in the past few years, not without reason. That statistic about living on a dollar or two dollars a day in developing countries is very real and it sucks in reality. Translate that into, roughly, the same value in USA terms (I’m no economist—this is a rough estimate): You and your dependents are living on less than $50 a day. You can eat, just. You can “not die”, provided you stay healthy, but you can hardly get ahead, you can hardly pay rent, and you can barely afford school fees or medical bills./ibr / br / iNow, add to this the reality that you have no social welfare system. Many developing countries struggle to provide basic needs such as access to water and a regular electricity supply, much less a welfare system. Now, imagine you need to borrow $300 to pay a medical bill. This is five times your daily income from which you have nothing left over at the best of times. Where would you go for money? The bank? If you’re living on one or two dollars a day in the developing world the bank will not lend you money. Opening a bank account full-stop is a challenge. A bank loan is out of the question. So, family. Your family is equally poor. Possibly poorer. Your family can’t help."/ibr / br / br / div style="text-align: left;"a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Insiders-Guide-to-Ghana-Sampler.pdf"Download a free sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-3660598256447646203?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5beYC-6TbdM:yhySaWQTvcs:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5beYC-6TbdM:yhySaWQTvcs:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5beYC-6TbdM:yhySaWQTvcs:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=5beYC-6TbdM:yhySaWQTvcs:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/5beYC-6TbdM" height="1" width="1"/
• March 05, 2010
• 16:13

  Making Sense of Ghana's Oil Discoveries: Introduction

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div style="text-align: center;"div style="text-align: left;"As I write this post I'm putting the final touches on a series of posts relating to Ghana's oil discoveries. The first one will introduce the basics of oil exploration as it relates to the discoveries in Ghana's offshore waters in layman's terms. The second one answers the question of "What does this mean for Ghana" in economic terms by comparing it to other industries and looking at expected royalties./divdiv style="text-align: left;"br / /divdiv style="text-align: left;"In my final edits on the first part, yesterday, I referred to the maritime boundary dispute between Australia and East Timor that I researched in my past life when I worked for Japan's national oil corporation. I wrote:nbsp; "fortunately Ghana doesn't have maritime boundary issues so there is no dispute over ownership of the discoveries."nbsp;/divdiv style="text-align: left;"br / /divdiv style="text-align: left;"Then I came to the cafe a few hours later to discover this article at My Joy Online: a href="http://news.myjoyonline.com/business/201003/43007.asp"Ivory Coast Oil Claim has Serious Implications./a So much for that. I plan to check the Ivorian claim as much as possible from where I sit before finally completing the post on the introduction to the industry that I was planning to put up today. I shall post tomorrow or Sunday so watch this space. /divdiv style="text-align: left;"br / /divdiv style="text-align: left;"a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Insiders-Guide-to-Ghana-Sampler.pdf"Download a free sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-5304251646192513260?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oCjjG8v5Rk4:xd-pnvgBp70:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oCjjG8v5Rk4:xd-pnvgBp70:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oCjjG8v5Rk4:xd-pnvgBp70:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=oCjjG8v5Rk4:xd-pnvgBp70:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/oCjjG8v5Rk4" height="1" width="1"/
• 14:00

  Timbuktu Chronicles for Top African Bloggers

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  As far as blogging about African entrepreneurs is concerned, this guy is Michael Jackson. This is one of my top blog picks of all time, even though it’s hosted at a simple blogger platform--content is just as important (if not more) than looks. I never get bored of popping over to the site to see the latest news. It often prompts a post or an idea in my writing too. [timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.comdiv] class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-2405719475447702051?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oj_P0f5u2kY:hRkYoKXKjlI:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oj_P0f5u2kY:hRkYoKXKjlI:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oj_P0f5u2kY:hRkYoKXKjlI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=oj_P0f5u2kY:hRkYoKXKjlI:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/oj_P0f5u2kY" height="1" width="1"/
• March 04, 2010
• 16:10

  10 Ways to Make a Difference Traveling in Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"Here are 10 practical and simple things you could do to lessen your impact on the environment while traveling in Ghana and to enhance your experience as a traveler. It will probably also enhance the experience of those Ghanaians you meet along the way too. /spanbr / div style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"br / b1. Turn fans and air-con off when you leave your room. /bThis is especially useful for fans. Keeping fans on while you’re outside the room doesn’t cool the room; it just blows hot air around. Fans are only useful when you’re actually underneath them in the room. As for air-con, it takes a few minutes for cool air to kick in, so turn it off when you leave the room for more than 15 minutes and turn it on when you come back in. Saves electricity and reduces costs too.br / br / b2. Use water economically. /bWater cuts and shortages are common across Ghana as there is less rainfall than ever and more people needing access to water. If showering, wet yourself under the shower, then turn the shower off and lather up. When you’re ready to rinse, turn the tap on and wash the soap off. This saves loads of water. Sometimes water will be supplied to you in buckets. You only need a couple of scoops to wet your skin and then a few to wash the soap off. If I’m washing my hair, I bend down and dunk my hair in the bucket as it uses less water (and I tell myself that it’s like doing yoga) instead of scooping several scoops onto my long hair. br / br / b3. Only flush when necessary. /bConnected with the water issue in point 2, flushing toilets uses way more water than is good for any nation, much less one with water shortages. Perhaps the lack of toilets in Ghana isn’t such a bad thing. Also, many homes use septic tanks which means they can’t cope with too much liquid flowing in. Trust me—when you’re septic overflows you will wish you applied the following: If it’s yellow let it mellow; if it’s brown flush it down. You get our drift? Be prudent with flushing and limit water use and the impact on the septic. br / br / b4. Don’t throw rubbish on the ground. /bI know. I KNOW! Ghana is covered in plastic refuse from pure water bags and black “rubbers” and I know most visitors struggle with this and wouldn’t dream of throwing their rubbish on the ground. As annoying as it is, hold on to your bits of rubbish until you’re home, at a hotel, or find a rubbish bin. Bins are few and far between, but you do find them from time to time. I hold on to my rubbish and dispose of it at home. Godwin used to complain about all the plastic crap in my bag but he’s used to it now. br / br / b5. Small tips help. /bIf you’re on an extremely tight budget you probably won’t want to drop money around, but if you can spare it, the small change you leave with street vendors makes a difference to them. If I’m buying say, a bunch of bananas for 1 Cedi and some oranges and it comes to 1.40 but I only have 1.50, I’ll often leave the 10 with the vendor in the market where traders eke a living from very little. Of course, there is no moral obligation to leave tips and it shouldn’t be connected with guilt over the poverty that you’ll see everywhere; it’s just a really simple gesture that hardly takes any effort and will make a little impact wherever you go. It’s akin to leaving a few bucks in the US or Australia. br / br / b6. Buy close to the source. /bIf you have the option, buying souvenirs from the producers directly, or as close as possible to them, provides more of an impact to them than buying from a retailer in, say, Accra. Although if you do buy from an Accra based retailer you’re also providing them a living, but they most likely have squeezed the producer—they can be ruthless. One retailer with a difference is Global Mamas in Accra—their profit margin is a small percentage of the total revenue and the producer gets a great percentage than the retailer./divdiv style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"b7. Don’t promise anything you won’t or can’t deliver. /bYou may be excited or impassioned about helping someone out after hearing their story and promise to give or do something for them that, with a day or two’s reflection, you may feel less inclined towards. It’s better to keep your ideas to yourself until you’re ready to enact them in reality. Better still, if it’s possible, surprise the person/people when you’ve completed the action—their reaction will be worth the wait!br / br / b8. Show someone how to do something simple. /bThis may sound silly, but if you see someone struggling to do something you know how to do, offer them a helping hand in a no nonsense, understated way. This is a simple example, but I saw a little kid struggling to do their shoelaces up. They couldn’t do it for love or money and no one was offering to help, which is unusual in Ghana. I finally felt I should do something and walked over, bent down and tied the laces for the kid. I think they were more excited about the white lady coming so close than the shoes, but it doesn’t really matter. Maybe you know how to fix computers and see someone struggling with a recalcitrant lap top. You could always lend them a hand.br / /divspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"b9. Consider beggars (this is not meant to sound like a Ghanaian shop sign). /bThe issue of how to respond to beggars has perplexed me for as long as I’ve been in Ghana. I’ve “traveled” through various approaches from “don’t give any money because it perpetuates begging” (in the beginning) to “just ignore them” (after about one year) to pragmatism (now). I’ve seen a lot of suffering and extreme poverty in the last four years, listened to a lot of sad stories of how peoples’ lives fell apart because of their own actions or through no fault of their own, and seen how little there is by way of support for people with disabilities. I no longer feel any harm or shame in offering someone in need something to help them get through the day, especially if they’ve approached me. On the other hand, I’m mindful that those with disabilities can do things for themselves too, but everyone’s situation is different and I feel, in the end, it makes little difference to me but it can be the difference between a meal and not eating. It’s not like I’m faced with this every day (especially in Bolga where begging is hardly seen), so it doesn’t take an effort to keep change in my pocket to give when confronted with this. /spanbr / br / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"In January, during a visit to Accra when I had to visit hospital, we completely ran out of money as the hospital expenses were exceedingly more than I had anticipated. I had never run out of money in my life and never needed to ask for it ever. Godwin, on the other hand, was used to surviving on very little and the good will of others. We had no where to stay and no way of eating for at least 5 days until a payment arrived. I found it very difficult to ask for help then, whereas Godwin rescued us by calling everyone he knew who could help. So, there I was, a white woman in Ghana, surviving for a few days on the grace of strangers and distant Ghanaian relatives—talk about turning the tables. Godwin had helped a bunch of older, struggling students when he was an assistant lecturer at UCC during national service. They didn’t pay anything for the extra classes—he helped anyone who was genuinely interested in learning—even though he didn’t have enough money to eat then. So, when he called one of them for help, the older man said he’d been looking for him for a long time to repay him for his help and this was perfect; he transferred enough for us to live for a few days. A relative provided a little and we were then OK. I was quite frightened that week and I realised, for the first time, how hard it is to ask for help—essentially to beg. Perhaps after a while it becomes easier, but it wasn’t easy at all and I was grateful that I didn’t have to do it and Godwin has never made an issue of it./spanbr / br / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"I suppose the moral of this is that, while there are scammers out there and children sent in organized gangs (you’ll see this in the cities a lot) to collect money, use your judgment and remember that it takes a lot of guts and courage to beg, in whatever form. Not making a big deal about giving a few coins or a Cedi or two will help the person more than you can imagine. I now truly understand the expression: “But for the grace of God, there go I…” /spanbr / br / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"b10. Smile and greet people. /bThis may be the greatest single thing you can do traveling anywhere and one of the simplest too. Ghanaians are generally smiley and friendly people so smiling is natural (although it’s a challenge when you’re waiting for your 3 hour late bus…). I remember the saying, “When you smile, the whole world smiles with you.” Trust me, the whole of Ghana will be smiling with you instantly.* Try it! /spanbr / br / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"*Babies or toddlers may burst in to tears, but that’s another story. Smile anyway. /spanbr / br / bspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"Does anyone have any ideas to add on ways to make a difference while traveling? Or any comments about the ideas mentioned here? I’d love to hear more.nbsp; /span/bbr / br / div style="text-align: left;"br / /divdiv style="text-align: left;"a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Insiders-Guide-to-Ghana-Sampler.pdf"Download a free sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-2050127472140769503?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=UJudkHWIiok:_nJK6Bf3QgA:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=UJudkHWIiok:_nJK6Bf3QgA:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=UJudkHWIiok:_nJK6Bf3QgA:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=UJudkHWIiok:_nJK6Bf3QgA:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/UJudkHWIiok" height="1" width="1"/
• March 03, 2010
• 14:37

  Travel writing at Matador

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  Learn travel writing at Matador Online- www.matadoru.com. Having written this, I'm not there yet, but shall be soon. The updates alone are excellent. If you're interested in travel writing, however, check out the site. div style="text-align: center;"br / a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Insiders-Guide-to-Ghana-Sampler.pdf"Download a free sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana/a/divbr / div style="text-align: center;"br / bsee inside the guide/b before buying. /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-5121240409422279520?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=u7p1l8c_AeY:YXp-B8m_FiA:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=u7p1l8c_AeY:YXp-B8m_FiA:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=u7p1l8c_AeY:YXp-B8m_FiA:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=u7p1l8c_AeY:YXp-B8m_FiA:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/u7p1l8c_AeY" height="1" width="1"/
• February 28, 2010
• 18:04

  Ghanaian students contribute to virtual library

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div style="text-align: center;"div style="text-align: left;"An interview I conducted in 2009 was recently published at Global Voices Online. You can check out the whole interview there at a href="http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/02/26/ghanaian-students-contribute-to-virtual-media-library/"Ghanaian Students Contribute to Virtual Media Library/a.nbsp;/divdiv style="text-align: left;"br / /divdiv style="text-align: left;"Here is a short excerpt:/divdiv style="text-align: left;"br / /divdiv style="text-align: left;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"/span/divdiv style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"iIn July 2009 I had the privilege of catching up with old friends and meeting some new faces when Jonathan Thurston, his wife Kristi, and past and present students arrived in Ghana to carry out a book making project with students at a primary school in Elmina, in the Central Region of Ghana./i/divdiv style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"iWhat’s so special? They use simple, portable technology to inspire creativity and facilitate learning among Ghana’s poorest students. And they use ‘social media’ to establish networks with like-minded individuals and organizations internationally, enhancing development opportunities and increasing the possibility of involving other communities and countries as the organization grows./i/divbr / div style="text-align: left;"br / /divdiv style="text-align: left;"Download a free sample of the a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Insiders-Guide-to-Ghana-Sampler.pdf"Insider's Guide to Ghan/aanbsp;andnbsp;bsee inside the guide/b before buying./div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-1374020094874947814?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0c9AWWBUVww:z0DTjB8bFyE:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0c9AWWBUVww:z0DTjB8bFyE:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0c9AWWBUVww:z0DTjB8bFyE:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=0c9AWWBUVww:z0DTjB8bFyE:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/0c9AWWBUVww" height="1" width="1"/
• 17:58

  Insider's Guide to Ghana updated sample to "see inside"

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  Just updated the a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Insiders-Guide-to-Ghana-Sampler.pdf"Sampler for the Insider's Guide to Ghana/a. You can check it out in more detail by clicking on the link.div class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-5399796447840934442?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0__Po6s1YOE:krRIdRxDQ9o:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0__Po6s1YOE:krRIdRxDQ9o:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0__Po6s1YOE:krRIdRxDQ9o:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=0__Po6s1YOE:krRIdRxDQ9o:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/0__Po6s1YOE" height="1" width="1"/
• February 27, 2010
• 13:05

  Are you MaD?: Education for change

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div style="text-align: center;"div style="text-align: left;"We're doing a series on Making a Difference at G-lish. This is based on our new page, Are You MaD?, which gives you simple ways to make a difference in the various fields focused on the developing world, from education, to micro-finance and peace-building, to name a few. You can check out our post from today, Are you MaD?: Education at www.g-lish.org. br / br / See a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Insiders-Guide-to-Ghana-Sampler.pdf"Inside the Insider's Guide to Ghana/a/div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-2289371911090014593?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=HKUPsvB9kRs:h_CKil1YqHs:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=HKUPsvB9kRs:h_CKil1YqHs:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=HKUPsvB9kRs:h_CKil1YqHs:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=HKUPsvB9kRs:h_CKil1YqHs:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/HKUPsvB9kRs" height="1" width="1"/
• February 26, 2010
• 9:28

  Ghana Blogs I like

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div style="text-align: center;"div style="text-align: left;"Here's a round-up of some of my favourite blogs relating to Ghana by Ghanaians and foreigners alike./divdiv style="text-align: left;"br / /divdiv style="text-align: left;"I mentioned this the other day on a href="http://www.g-lish.org/"G-lish,/a but one blog I make a point to read regularly is a href="http://hollisramblings.blogspot.com/"Holli's Ramblings/a, a woman with a lovely writing style and whose stories and photos of life in Ghana will keep you riveted to the screen. /divdiv style="text-align: left;"br / /divdiv style="text-align: left;"One of the most informative blogs written by a Ghanaian, in my view, is a href="http://accraconsciousforever.blogspot.com/"Accra Conscious Forever/a. Check out the latest post on a href="http://accraconsciousforever.blogspot.com/2010/02/accra-twestival-2010.html"Twestival /ausing social media to raise funds for education for needy children around Ghana. /divdiv style="text-align: left;"br / /divdiv style="text-align: left;"When it comes to food, there is no better blog than a href="http://betumiblog.blogspot.com/"Betumi/a. You can read about every kind of dish from Ghana you can imagine at this site.nbsp;/divdiv style="text-align: left;"br / /divdiv style="text-align: left;"Another top Ghanaian writer is E.K. Bensah and his blog The Trials and Tribulations of a a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/"Freshly Arrived Denizen of Ghana/a, with a fantastic view of Akosombo Bridge as the main header. If you want to know what it's like to get caught in Accra traffic, readnbsp; a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2010/02/unbearable-lightness-of-being-in.html"The Unbearable Lightness of Being in Spintex Road Traffic/a. (Great title, crappy situation.)/divdiv style="text-align: left;"br / /divdiv style="text-align: left;"One of the most beautiful Ghanaian women writers is Maya Mame of a href="http://mayasearth.blogspot.com/"Maya's Earth/a Blog. Her blog is quite personal and gives you a sense of how life is for a Ghanaian-Swede woman bringing up a family here. You also get a sense of life in Ghana./divdiv style="text-align: left;"br / /divdiv style="text-align: left;"a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Insiders-Guide-to-Ghana-Sampler.pdf"Download a free sample of the Insider's Guide to Gha/anab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-6732784172509712376?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=KuDEDgL4US8:YdLmpEy8Ov4:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=KuDEDgL4US8:YdLmpEy8Ov4:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=KuDEDgL4US8:YdLmpEy8Ov4:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=KuDEDgL4US8:YdLmpEy8Ov4:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/KuDEDgL4US8" height="1" width="1"/
• February 25, 2010
• 17:51

  Ghana BusTimetables Journey Maps: STC etc

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have just released a new product: bTransport Timetable amp; Journeys Maps for Ghana/bbr / br / This product is included in the Insider's Guide to Ghana so if you have already bought or intend to buy the full country guide, you don't need to buy this.br / br / This guide is for those needing current transport timetables and whole country maps to better plan their journey around Ghana. br / br / bWhat you get: /bbr / Comprehensive bus timetable information and maps between Ghana's major cities and towns including Accra, Cape Coast, Takoradi, Ho, Tema, Koforidua, Kumasi, Tamale, Bolgatanga, and Wa. There is also a map of Kwame Nkrumah Circle area showing location of transport companies, costs and timetable information. Transport companies include STC, Metro Mass, OA Travel amp; Tours, and several others. We have STC timetables for all towns but Koforidua and Sunyani, and we have at least one option for all, but between 2-7 options for every town, on average. Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, and Bolgatanga have the most options. It also includes average times traveling between major towns and cities and distances in kilometres. It includes 14 pages of journey maps showing potential journeys by theme--"North", "South", "Lake Volta Ferry", "Crafts", "Coastal Highlights", "Best of Ghana", "All Over Ghana--3 different versions", "Volta Tour", "Nature Tour", "Forts amp; Castles" tour, and so on.. You also receive a printable journey map that lets you trace your journey over the dotted lines for connections between cities and towns.br / br / div style="text-align: center;"a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Ghana-Guide-Sampler.pdf"Download a free sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-7690298603972486402?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5mVe6lX-6-M:KeSZgLh23_8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5mVe6lX-6-M:KeSZgLh23_8:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5mVe6lX-6-M:KeSZgLh23_8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=5mVe6lX-6-M:KeSZgLh23_8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/5mVe6lX-6-M" height="1" width="1"/
• 9:11

  My Town: Cape Coast

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div style="text-align: center;"div style="text-align: left;"I've started a small series of posts on the theme My Town based on places I've lived around the world in which I post images that tell that town's story, not necessarily what you see in tourist brochures. Living is anything over 4 months...for me. Some of these photos were taken by a friend and former volunteer, Tina. Some were by me. My photos aren't too crash hot, but Tina's are fantastic.So welcome to Cape Coast:/divdiv style="text-align: left;"/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4UmAR5xVYI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/rffI6SYC0Xw/s1600-h/Aapecoast.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4UmAR5xVYI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/rffI6SYC0Xw/s320/Aapecoast.JPG" //a/divdiv style="text-align: center;"Over the rooftops towards the ocean by Tina. Cape is a hilly town and there are wonderful views if you can handle the sweaty walk to the top./divbr / div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4Um3WS5JDI/AAAAAAAAAtY/aZRzgo3rRDY/s1600-h/AFuneralPrepCatholics.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4Um3WS5JDI/AAAAAAAAAtY/aZRzgo3rRDY/s320/AFuneralPrepCatholics.JPG" //a/divBy Tina. Funerals are a common site on Fridays and weekends all over Cape and Ghana for that matter. This was right outside my former office.br / br / div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4UnUib5VrI/AAAAAAAAAtg/slsK47eIWsA/s1600-h/AKidsOnStreetNewOffice.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4UnUib5VrI/AAAAAAAAAtg/slsK47eIWsA/s320/AKidsOnStreetNewOffice.JPG" //a/divBy Tina. Along Jackson Street (Coastal Forex is in that building in the background on the right). You'll meet cheeky children like this everywhere.br / br / div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4Upq60ZtBI/AAAAAAAAAtw/0MqBNwWT8RI/s1600-h/beach%26beats+004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4Upq60ZtBI/AAAAAAAAAtw/0MqBNwWT8RI/s320/beach%26beats+004.jpg" //a/divBy Tina. Fishermen pulling in the nets outside Oasis.br / br / div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4Up4HOLPbI/AAAAAAAAAt4/6aToHEWGfMc/s1600-h/Cape+Coast+Oasis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4Up4HOLPbI/AAAAAAAAAt4/6aToHEWGfMc/s320/Cape+Coast+Oasis.jpg" //anbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"By Tina. In the other direction, boys playing football on the beach. Cape Coast Castle in the background. /divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br / /divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"nbsp;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4Uqf6cNjaI/AAAAAAAAAuA/3HhjvzOpUHw/s1600-h/Hillside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4Uqf6cNjaI/AAAAAAAAAuA/3HhjvzOpUHw/s320/Hillside.jpg" //anbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"By Tina. Another view of hilly Cape with the ocean in the background /divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br / /divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"nbsp;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4Uq4cFs8bI/AAAAAAAAAuI/1oqnZbHJwq8/s1600-h/Jollof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4Uq4cFs8bI/AAAAAAAAAuI/1oqnZbHJwq8/s320/Jollof.jpg" //anbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"By Tina. My favourite jollof rice lady, sitting opposite Melcom, on the main street of Cape Coast /divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br / /divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"nbsp;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4UrZVyZw4I/AAAAAAAAAuQ/_NuWHcuyzpA/s1600-h/Kingsway+area.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S4UrZVyZw4I/AAAAAAAAAuQ/_NuWHcuyzpA/s320/Kingsway+area.JPG" //a/divThese cleaning and tooth paste advertisements covered the whole wall of the building by the one main traffic light in town some years ago. br / br / You can find the photographer of most of these photos, Christina Froemder, on Facebook.br / br / I also did a post at www.G-lish.org today on "My town: Kumasi". The photos are full-size and give a clear impression of how that city feels and looks.br / br / div style="text-align: left;"a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Ghana-Guide-Sampler.pdf"Download a free sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-3825011280666563295?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=yUTihNiFvbY:Otx_tAet1yw:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=yUTihNiFvbY:Otx_tAet1yw:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=yUTihNiFvbY:Otx_tAet1yw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=yUTihNiFvbY:Otx_tAet1yw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/yUTihNiFvbY" height="1" width="1"/
• February 23, 2010
• 21:42

  Meningitis outbreak in Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  The outbreak is reported in the Upper West Region. 70 odd people hospitalized, 31 dead. If you're planning to visit Ghana soon please discuss this with your travel doctor. You can get vaccinated before departing home.br / br / Edit: I just checked My Joy Online and read an article which gave different figures. In any case, please take the time to read this and understand the situation: a href="http://news.myjoyonline.com/health/201002/42555.asp"CSM 10 More die in northern region/a. br / div style="text-align: center;"br / br / div style="text-align: left;"a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Ghana-Guide-Sampler.pdf"Download a free sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-6501016895677333530?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=2q_XaVYwle0:NMCInPHydlg:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=2q_XaVYwle0:NMCInPHydlg:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=2q_XaVYwle0:NMCInPHydlg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=2q_XaVYwle0:NMCInPHydlg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/2q_XaVYwle0" height="1" width="1"/
• 10:30

  Sending a package to Ghana and the post office

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"When someone sends you a package from home, there are a few things to be aware of. When it arrives you’ll receive a postal notice in the PO Box. You take the notice inside the post office where they will retrieve the parcel for you. Then, you have to take the parcel and notice to the customs desk in the post office. There, a customs officer will inspect the value of the parcel, as stated on the customs declaration that was applied by the sender, and ask you to open it. They’ll search through the parcel. They’ll then apply a rate of duty to the package. After they write the duty amount on the form you must sign the form and pay the duty. If you don’t sign this or pay, you won’t receive your package. Since customs will almost always calculate duty amount based on the external value on the coupon stuck on the outside of the package by the sender, it’s worth asking package senders to write as low a value as possible to help reduce your duty costs when you come to take your package. Don’t for into the trap of signing the duty forms before the officer fills in the amount of duty to be paid. Wait until the assessment is done and then sign the form. I hope this helps anyone receiving packages from home in Ghana. /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-371224773510794951?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=tQ2CGmyBr18:SVpWyt4j-ek:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=tQ2CGmyBr18:SVpWyt4j-ek:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=tQ2CGmyBr18:SVpWyt4j-ek:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=tQ2CGmyBr18:SVpWyt4j-ek:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/tQ2CGmyBr18" height="1" width="1"/
• February 22, 2010
• 21:08

  Guide discount: 8.00 for the next 15 hours.

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  It's 10 days since we released the guide and we're now discounting the guide to US$8.00 for the next 15 hours. div style="text-align: center;"br / a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Ghana-Guide-Sampler.pdf"Download a free sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana/a/divbr / div style="text-align: center;"br / bsee inside the guide/b before buying. /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-5815044971249735929?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=AegjPTAcmpQ:4he1gWraVcM:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=AegjPTAcmpQ:4he1gWraVcM:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=AegjPTAcmpQ:4he1gWraVcM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=AegjPTAcmpQ:4he1gWraVcM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/AegjPTAcmpQ" height="1" width="1"/
• 21:07

  Guide discount: 8.00 for the next 15 hours.

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  It's 10 days since we released the guide and we're now discounting the guide to US$8.00 for the next 15 hours. div style="text-align: center;"br / a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Ghana-Guide-Sampler.pdf"Download a free sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana/a/divbr / div style="text-align: center;"br / bsee inside the guide/b before buying. /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-2768039021033781782?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=tGNYvfk1zKY:nbt-BPygWBI:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=tGNYvfk1zKY:nbt-BPygWBI:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=tGNYvfk1zKY:nbt-BPygWBI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=tGNYvfk1zKY:nbt-BPygWBI:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/tGNYvfk1zKY" height="1" width="1"/
• 9:00

  Baobab photos and sunsets in Bolgatanga

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lFPsudWiI/AAAAAAAAAr0/-bYHE1PrFBg/s1600-h/16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lFPsudWiI/AAAAAAAAAr0/-bYHE1PrFBg/s400/16.jpg" width="400" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"emA gorgeous sunset through the baobab tree in Bolgatanga./em/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br / /divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lGRY50wFI/AAAAAAAAAr8/1aTaJ6UcQMI/s1600-h/14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lGRY50wFI/AAAAAAAAAr8/1aTaJ6UcQMI/s400/14.jpg" width="400" //a/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-6876367541452335532?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=QCqcnGmsF_M:n5cQYRscby8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=QCqcnGmsF_M:n5cQYRscby8:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=QCqcnGmsF_M:n5cQYRscby8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=QCqcnGmsF_M:n5cQYRscby8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/QCqcnGmsF_M" height="1" width="1"/
• February 21, 2010
• 12:37

  My thoughts on writing the guide to Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"This time around Godwin interview me on my experience writing the guide. Surreal! You can read more at a href="http://www.g-lish.org/ghanaguide"www.g-lish.org/ghanaguide/a/spanbr / br / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"strongMost challenging aspect of writing the guide book?/strong/spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"/spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"When I tried calling the STC in Accra to get the timetables they hung up on me five times. I’d get as far as, say, Cape and Kumasi and I still needed about six other cities and the customer service woman would say, “Oh Madame, why?!” and hang up on me. I waited a few days and tried again, got a different person, and they hung up too. I melted a pair of flipflops in Accra when we ran around finally getting the info on foot. During the final two weeks of writing we had no electricity at home between 9 am and 5 pm so I had to change my work pattern to start in the late afternoon and end around 2, 3 and 4 am—which was very productive, actually—and Godwin would get up and work from 3 or 4 a.m. until the power was cut around 9 or 10 am. /spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"strongWhat was the most exciting part?/strong/spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"Rediscovering places I hadn’t seen or been for a while and the thought of sharing that with travelers who would experience it for the first time. Seeing it come together at the end and hearing the first words of feedback from readers was fantastic. /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"strongWhat would you like to say to readers? /strong/spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"I remember how nervous I felt before coming toGhana. And I remember struggling to work out how the parts of the guide book I had joined together on the ground in Ghana. I hope that our guide provides a strong sense of Ghana, while also being entertaining and, most importantly, useful. And I truly hope that this guide helps you enjoy your travels, that it makes the everyday details on the ground easy to manage, and that you find it useful throughout your long-distance journeys. Any problems, confusing areas—please let us know. And let us know what you enjoy too!/spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"strongAnything else you want to say about the experience?/strong/spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"Details, details, details. I said I’d never write a guide book. It was surreal. I like things to be as great as they can be and we’ve begun a new round of updating as we write./spanbr / br / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"strongWhat will you be working on next?/strong/spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"Like Godwin said, we have been developing an innovative basket making project in Bolgatanga, the poorest region of Ghana, where we live. It will be an income generating project that will support about 50 women to begin with. The guide helps us fund this. Actually, the guide income goes into the hands of basket makers, so our guide customers are directly supporting impoverished communities in far northern Ghana. Basket making is huge here but the producers are taken advantage of because of over supply; many are illiterate and they have no bargaining power. The middle man doubles the price he pays to the basket maker and sells it on to another middle man or the overseas buyer. We intend to change that and shorten the supply chain by selling online directly to customers at G-lish. Producers will be paid at least twice what they’re being paid now, if not more and we’ll be giving a reliable income to over 50 women, skilled and unskilled, who otherwise have no work or engage in subsistence farming. You’ll see more on This is Ghana and G-lish shortly. /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-5823817328590880632?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=w6hiBxoIWL8:htq0AgKD-14:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=w6hiBxoIWL8:htq0AgKD-14:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=w6hiBxoIWL8:htq0AgKD-14:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=w6hiBxoIWL8:htq0AgKD-14:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/w6hiBxoIWL8" height="1" width="1"/
• 9:56

  Guide sale: US$10.00 for the next 24 hours

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  To all our readers:br / br / We're having a 24 hour discount sale for the Insider's Guide to Ghana. For the next 18 hours, until 9 a.m. Monday morning GMT, you can download the Insider's Guide to Ghana for US$8.00.br / br / You can read more about the guide at a href="http://www.g-lish.org/ghanaguide"www.g-lish.org/ghanaguide/a or buy it now by clicking on the link at the top right-hand corner of this page. br / br / All the best,br / Gayle.br / br / ps. If you happen to have found the discount codes hidden somewhere guide-related...even better of a discount: go you!div class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-6934312653737800444?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Lgq4geuC99I:NYguz6Ualts:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Lgq4geuC99I:NYguz6Ualts:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Lgq4geuC99I:NYguz6Ualts:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=Lgq4geuC99I:NYguz6Ualts:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/Lgq4geuC99I" height="1" width="1"/
• February 20, 2010
• 9:42

  Blogging tip for novice bloggers: Use html without knowing html

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div style="text-align: center;"div style="text-align: left;"meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CADMINI%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C03%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"/linkstyle !-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /stylebr / div class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Arial;"If you’re experienced with blogger or web design, skip this post! o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Arial;"As someone who knows no programming language and developed this simple blog through trial and error, I’ve decided to share some tips so that others who are struggling to work out what the heck all the blogger options mean might save a little time and do things a little more easily. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Arial;"If you’re interested, I’m simply going to explain how I “cheated” and created some of the badges and gadgets on the right hand side-bar of this page. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Arial;"If you look at the Lonely Planet Badge, you may wonder how I managed to centre it, or even how I managed to get it there in the first place. This is how I did it. LP provided the HTML (internet code stuff—that’s as technical as I get) for the image. I was like, great, just what I need, HTML. Then, I realised that HTML translates into images and text—it determines how the web pages look. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Arial;"When you post in blogger you have two tabs over the posting window: “Compose” and “HTML”. If you normally upload photos or text into the Compose version, try doing that and then pressing the HTML tab and watch what happens—those images and text all turn into freaky code. But click back on Compose and it transforms into images and nice text again. Scary hey. I suddenly realised that I might be able to format images or text in the posting window so that they will retain that format (centred, bold, etc) when I pasted them to one of the side-bar items. So, I uploaded the things I wanted to format for a side-bar gadget—photos and text—formatted it in the Compose window, and then clicked the HTML tab. There was the HTML—but would it look the same in a gadget on the side?o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Arial;"I tried pasting that HTML into one of the Gadgets at the Blogger Layout page. If you go to Blogger Layout, from the Dashboard, you’ll see “Add a gadget”. Each of those fancy things on the right hand side of this page is one of those gadgets—the LP Badge is a HTML gadget; the Global Voices feed comes from another gadget; the About me text is simply a text gadget. If you click “Add a gadget”, a separate window pops up showing the types of gadgets you can add. One of the first few is called “HTML/text”. Aha! It was one of those moments. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Arial;"As an experiment, I tried pasting that code that I formatted at the Post window into the HTML gadget. I shifted the gadget to where I wanted it to sit on the layout page. Saved. Guess what? The finished gadget looked just as I’d formatted it in the normal posting window. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Arial;"If you look at the “download the volunteering guide” link on the right, and how it’s centred and bold in one part, I actually did that as if making a post in the posting window. I then clicked HTML. I then copied the HTML and left the posting window. I went to the Layout Page, clicked on Add a gadget, selected a HTML gadget, and pasted the HTML into the main gadget window. I saved it. And this is how it ended up looking—just as I’d wanted and formatted it by using the posting window and transforming it to HTML there. If anyone knows a simpler way, please let me know!o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Arial;"Another way this helps is if you’re uploading a series of photos in your post, and you realise they’re in the wrong order and you want to drag the one at the top of your post down to the bottom of the post (as I used to do manually), instead, take note of where the picture sits and then have a look at the HTML. Click the HTML tab. If you look carefully, you’ll see the reference to your picture somewhere in the paragraph of code at the top (if the photo you want to shift is at the top). All you need do is copy and paste that paragraph of code wherever you want the photo to appear in your post. If it’s your first go, try pasting it right at the bottom, for arguments sake. Then click the compose window and have a look again. The photo should now appear at the bottom of your post if you copied the code correctly. I worked this out by trial and error, sometimes incorrectly copying, but you work it out after a few goes. It’s a much simpler way of moving images around posts than shifting the whole image in that tiny posting window.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Arial;"Those are my novice blog tip. Let me know if you have any or if you know a simpler way of doing what I just explained!o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /div/diva href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Ghana-Guide-Sampler.pdf"Download a free sampler/a and bsee inside the Insider's Guide to Ghana /bbefore buying. /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-5381918658557879180?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ZsrTi68oX1I:vQ-9mjouK0U:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ZsrTi68oX1I:vQ-9mjouK0U:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ZsrTi68oX1I:vQ-9mjouK0U:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=ZsrTi68oX1I:vQ-9mjouK0U:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/ZsrTi68oX1I" height="1" width="1"/
• February 19, 2010
• 7:34

  Updated guide to volunteering in Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  Yesterday I updated the 46 page Insider's Guide to Volunteering in Ghana. You can go download it at our sister site, a href="http://www.g-lish.org/"G-lish/a, by clicking on the Volunteer Guide tab.div class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-3958739461297245791?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3mps3A2Jdtk:chPtnos8pkc:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3mps3A2Jdtk:chPtnos8pkc:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3mps3A2Jdtk:chPtnos8pkc:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=3mps3A2Jdtk:chPtnos8pkc:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/3mps3A2Jdtk" height="1" width="1"/
• February 18, 2010
• 19:07

  The Truth About Guide Books

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CADMINI%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"/linko:smarttagtype name="City" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="country-region" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="State" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypelink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CADMINI%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx" rel="themeData"/linklink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CADMINI%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml" rel="colorSchemeMapping"/link m:smallfrac m:val="off" m:dispdef m:lmargin m:val="0" m:rmargin m:val="0" m:defjc m:val="centerGroup" m:wrapindent m:val="1440" m:intlim m:val="subSup" m:narylim m:val="undOvr" /m:narylim/m:intlim /m:wrapindentstyle !-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-unhide:no; color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /style /m:defjc/m:rmargin/m:lmargin/m:dispdef/m:smallfracbr / div class="MsoNormal"“As soon as a guidebook goes into print, some parts of it are obsolete.” said Sheila at a href="http://www.govisithawaii.com/2007/10/03/the-truth-about-guidebooks/"Go Visit Hawaii/a./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"On a href="http://www.salon.com/wlust/feature/1998/08/17feature.html"Salon’s Wanderlust/a page, an excellent US-based web-zine (go check it out—it’s fantastic), former guide book writer span id="goog_1010139600911"/spana href="http://www.blogger.com/"Dawn Mackeenspan id="goog_1010139600912"/span/a tells the truth about (large publishing house) guide publishing in a href="http://www.salon.com/wlust/feature/1998/08/17feature.html"The Truth About Guidebooks. /a/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"She has articulated my thoughts regarding the shortcomings of guides published by traditional guide publishers perfectly (and the underlying motivation for writing our guide): /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"iSeven days after graduating I landed in the middle of Greece…I had two months from that moment to become an expert on the country for the now-defunct Berkeley Guides; to travel to, research and write about 15 islands and nine cities and towns, stretching from the northeastern island of Lesvos clear across the country to the southwestern island of Zakinthos. In 60 days and in each location I had to find the best hotels, campgrounds, restaurants, museums, archaeological sites, beaches and bars, as well as the prices and schedules of the ferries, trains and buses. Plus I had to write them all up and find some time to eat and sleep.o:p/o:p/i/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"iThere was no way to research everything readers and publishers could want so I started to just glance at the places I was supposed to be reviewing. Is this hotel OK? Glance—yeah, looks that way. Is this a good restaurant? Glance—yes, looks like one. But I struggled with never being able to give readers the “best” information possible; I was simply doing the best I could under the circumstances. o:p/o:p/i/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"iUnfortunately, the tight deadlines, the superficial method of information gathering, the financial restrictions—are almost a guidebook industry standard (or I should say, sub-standard). And yet guidebooks are thought of, and promoted as, the definitive key to a place—comprehensive in scope and discriminating in judgment. o:p/o:p/i/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"iBut there’s a huge disparity between what readers think they’re getting for $19.95 and what they actually get. I’ve known readers who have read their guidebooks so many times that they can recite it almost word for word. Yet they could probably have gotten just as good advice by asking a local where there’s good calamari—which is most likely what the guidebook writer did, without ever taking a single bite.o:p/o:p/i/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Amen. Part of our guide philosophy is to give you the best-of places and to give you the confidence to be your own guide—to ask locals—that’s all guide writers do, while giving you everything you need to guide yourself. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Some guide writers haven’t actually walked the trails they’re writing about themselves. My first Bradt guide, 3suprd/sup edition (2004), suggested that the walk to Mountain Paradise Lodge uphill for 4 kms i“can be approached on foot from Fume on the Ho-Hohoe road—whichever way you come the walk will be about 45 minutes”./i Four kilometres uphill in 45 minutes? So about 1 kms in 10 minutes? Or 100 metres a minute uphill in the mid-day heat? I think that Jamaican dude might even have issues with that. Based upon that recommendation, however, we decided to walk. It was a 2 hour, arduous, hot and sweaty walk up hill, after bend after windy bend. The walk idown/i from the guest house took one hour walking at a brisk pace. It was obvious to us that the writer hadn’t actually done the walk themselves./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Similarly, I’d booked 3 nights accommodation at a guest house in Wli, starting on Christmas Eve in 2005. We rocked up about 3 pm on the night before Christmas to be told there was no booking for us. The number in the guide was actually a different hotel—our booking was somewhere else entirely—we still don’t know what hotel took our booking. The owners told us that the number in the guide was wrong and they often had guests turn up who thought they had a booking. They were booked out and we had nowhere to stay. Fortunately, they showed us to a recently established guest house in town which was also fully booked, but the owner graciously cleaned out her room so we could stay. We thought we might end up sleeping in a manger with the local sheep and goats on Christmas eve—who would have ever thought? This makes a good story (I’m writing it in my travel memoir), but I really wanted to stay at that lodge. I’d been looking forward to it for months. I finally returned in 2007 to stay there. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"While that guide was good, it had its share of mistakes that often left us wondering. While researching this post I found a few comments about the Bradt guide online.From Travelblog.org a reader recently wrote an article dated a href="http://travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana"Feb 5-9/a:/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"i“The only travel guide to JUST st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region is the Bradt guide [not any more!], which is quite outdated, and just wrong at times. What they estimated to be no more than an hour ride (total time for the trotro + taxi, took about 1.5 hours with no delays….”o:p/o:p/i/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"And on another travel blog called a href="http://buy-africa-travel-books.blogspot.com/"Africa Travel Books/ast1:place w:st="on"/st1:place we found, of the Bradt guide again, /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Kkeenan2 said /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"iOn the whole I was underwhelmed by this guide book (this was my first Bradt purchase, I usually stick to Lonely Planet or Rough Guides). It has some good basics and background information, and does cover much of the country….I think my main issue is that when there are hotels and restaurants listed in the guide (without addresses), not on the maps—which by the way don’t even have the streets accurately labeled for the second largest town in Ghana (Kumasi) [I concur; the Kumasi map is awful]…And while many of my friends who were living in Ghana for 2-3 months bought it, they all seemed to think the same as me. Provides generals, fairly useful as a doorstop, but not so much on the other information. Honestly since I stuck to the main track (Accra, Cape Coast/Elmina, Kumasi) I probably would have been with the LP West Africa Guide…despite sounding negative I wouldn’t suggest you shouldn’t get it…just be aware that it isn’t exactly accurate or reliable. o:p/o:p/i/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Indeed, these are the comments we’ve been hearing for years. This is why we wrote our guide. A bit of healthy competition is good for business. (Man, I can’t wait for Glo to get up and running to kick the sloppy Vodaphone’s butt so we can get a decent internet connection.) We know our guide will be subject to criticism too, and we welcome that feedback: there’s no way to grow or progress without stepping back to see the bigger picture, and without others’ feedback. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"I never imagined I’d have written a guide; I loathe details, but here we are. The other thing I said I’d never do is run a restaurant and now we’re whispering about that too—there is no coffee shop north of Kumasi; Tamale and Bolga are both crying for a rival to Swap/Swad which don’t sell real coffee anyway (they’re not under the same ownership, by the way) for all those stranded travelers to Mole or the brave Bolga backpackers—and I’ve recently mastered home made pizza…Any travelers or residents of Ghana reading this: Would you like/have wanted a coffee shop in Tamale or Bolga? Wood-fired pizzas? Pancakes? Salads to rival Sunshine Salads? If I can turn Godwin into a salad freak (Ghanaians generally turn their nose up at greens or fresh vegetables— “this is for goats”— or anything that has not been boiled in garlic, ginger and chili peppers for about seven hours), imagine what I can do for you…Anyway…way off topic….get back on topic Gayle…)/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Another writer at a href="http://buy-africa-travel-books.blogspot.com/"Africa Travel Books/a, Kofi Francis said:/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"iI used the earlier edition of this book in 2000 and it was top notch. However, here in the fall of 2008, the 4supth/sup edition [still current now] is not at all up to par. I have tried to visit many restaurants that have been closed for a long time. The hotel reviews do not match up either. For instance, Hotel Shangri-la has lost its steam and no one should pay the upper $100/130 GHC it now costs—at a minimum. And at night, the restaurant and bar is filled with foreign men and prostitutes….not what most vacationers are looking for. o:p/o:p/i/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Funny Kofi mentions that. We omitted several five-star establishments from our guide, which may leave some readers questioning our choices, principally because we experienced the same problem. It’s either poor service (for the price you’re paying) or the ladies-of-the-night problem with many 5-star hotels which is why we focus on mid-sized and boutique establishments for the higher end, as well as all the backpacker favourites. This is what we mean (when you read the guide intro) by selecting those establishments we have come to know and trust based on years of feedback working with and volunteering with more than 100 travelers. We’ve had our ears to the ground, and we still do. We aim to provide the best value-for-money establishments in their price range. So, that el cheapo 20 GHC per night room in Accra may seem a dive compared with the lovely 100 GHC and more hotels, but it is excellent value for Accra: double bed, running water and S/C bathroom, DSTV in all rooms and is a 5 minute walk to “Circle” for 20 GHCs—it’s quite unbelievable. You’ll see if you buy the guide. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Dawn McKeen’s article goes onto quote another guide book writer who says:/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"i“If readers assume I’ve tested every hotel in, for example, the Lonely Planet Thailand guide, they must be idiots!” says Joe Cummings, author of more than 30 guidebooks, travel atlases, and phrase books. “It’s physically and economically unfeasible to sleep in every hotel and guesthouse in st1:place w:st="on"st1:city w:st="on"Bangkok/st1:city/st1:place alone…” o:p/o:p/i/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"A guide book writer calls his readers idiots? How are they to know? Guide writers are human and their publishers put loads of pressure on them to cover a lot of territory on a very limited budget and time-frame. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"a href="http://www.govisithawaii.com/2007/10/03/the-truth-about-guidebooks/"Sheila/a, the regular to st1:state w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Hawaii/st1:place/st1:state, critiques her favourite guide book and also articulates our experience perfectly:/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"i3. Things change. o:p/o:p/i/divdiv class="MsoNormal"iFrom my travels to st1:state w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Hawaii/st1:place/st1:state over the years I’ve found some businesses that are well established and have consistently good service. I’ve also been to businesses that were once wonderful that don’t live up to their previous high standards. Restaurants, tours, and hotels open and close all the time. A business that may have previously been horrible makes improvements and deserves a glowing review and vice-versa. As soon as a guidebook goes into print, some parts of it are obsolete. www.govisithawaii.com/2007/10/o:p/o:p/i/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"She said it. “iAs soon as a guidebook goes into print some parts of it are obsolete.”/i/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"In our table, a href="http://www.g-lish.org/ghanaguide"Ghana Guide/a, which shows the difference between ours and other guides, we explain the nature of the publishing industry: There is about a one year gap between final edit and publication—but there is also a gap of several months from research to final edit. That means there is more than 12 months gap from the time a guide book is researched to the date it is printed—much less in your hands one or two years later, by which time it’s iyears/i out of date. The guide book industry does not general advertise this to its customers./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Last weekend we spent the weekend in Tamale checking more details and chatted informally with a number of travelers for their feedback about their guides. They universally moaned that their guide’s prices were wrong and that directions didn’t make sense. Of course they’re wrong—they’re years out of date and inflation is about 20% a month here./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"It’s one of the major differences between ours and other guides:/divulliWe are not printing on paper as traditional publishers and/li liI can update the guide at the press of a few buttons, instantly, any time I like/li liSo you, our readers, get one of the few current travel guides ever written /li /uldiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Unlike, say, the Bradt researcher who flew in in September 2009 to spend 8 weeks updating their guide, we have had the luxury of years to absorb a place, culture and its idiosyncrasies so that we can explain it to others in an honest, authoritative, clear and confident way—we’re not winging it or trying to see 10 regions in 60 days (6 days per region!). I’ve had one thousand, two-hundred days (almost) to see 10 regions and one of us is even Ghanaian. Unthinkable! Who ever heard of a “local” writing a travel guide to their own country? This is one of the things I’m most proud of. And that our guide sales underpin the development of a basket-making project with a very big difference for an extremely impoverished community on the outskirts of Bolgatanga. More on that shortly./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"If you haven’t already, check out the differences at our main site a href="http://www.g-lish.org/ghanaguide"G-lish/a. If you want a taste of our guide, download the a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Ghana-Guide-Sampler.pdf"Insider's Guide to Ghana see inside sampler/a from our new site. Oh, and, we’re working on making it compatible with hand-held devices (mobile phones). The Mobile Phone guide version will be released very soon—and included in the same price package. It’s all part of the same package of US$15 for the guide, basically. I’m currently testing, testing, testing this so that it will work across the spectrum of phones. For anyone who has already purchased our guide, you’ll be getting this file by email with instructions about how to transfer the file to a mobile phone and what types of phones are likely to work with it. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Feel free to add any comments about your guide book experiences here. How was your experience? Do you think it’s time for some kind of competition in the market? What’s your favourite guide book brand anywhere?nbsp;/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-5259342816868158389?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9fI-4QI2Z5E:11AAb5kv_p4:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9fI-4QI2Z5E:11AAb5kv_p4:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9fI-4QI2Z5E:11AAb5kv_p4:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=9fI-4QI2Z5E:11AAb5kv_p4:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/9fI-4QI2Z5E" height="1" width="1"/
• 16:22

  Feathered friends in Ghana: photos

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3k8Xolr8eI/AAAAAAAAArc/D0xO88TcTm0/s1600-h/24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" ct="true" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3k8Xolr8eI/AAAAAAAAArc/D0xO88TcTm0/s320/24.jpg" width="298" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"The rooster in our yard giving the visiting guinea fowl the once over. /divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br / /divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br / /diva href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lCaBqB9mI/AAAAAAAAArs/XcmfNX6kD1c/s1600-h/25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" ct="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lCaBqB9mI/AAAAAAAAArs/XcmfNX6kD1c/s320/25.jpg" //abr / div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"The rooster giving the guinea fowls short shrift. He was cockadoodledoing like a crazy rooster. /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-7625004879045601278?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=IT4KL696kzg:GdheYolUubo:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=IT4KL696kzg:GdheYolUubo:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=IT4KL696kzg:GdheYolUubo:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=IT4KL696kzg:GdheYolUubo:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/IT4KL696kzg" height="1" width="1"/
• February 17, 2010
• 15:00

  Competition reminder for Insider's Guide to Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  As part of the release of the Insider's Guide to Ghana, we’re giving away two nights stay at Ko-Sa Beach Resort just outside of Elmina to the first reader who can find the titles of 20 pop and rock songs we’ve interspersed throughout the guide. The two nights will be in a private, thatch bungalow valued at 65 GHC per night. That’s 130 GHC or about US$95. Check out to see what we’re talking about. br / Our contribution: We’ll take care of the payment for 2 nights room charge.br / Your contribution: Identify the titles of 20 songs interspersed throughout the guide and email them to us. We don’t care if you number them or not—we just want 20 titles. Then turn up and enjoy three days and two nights on the beach just outside of Elmina on us. br / br / A few hints. There are no single-word song titles. So, “RESPECT” is not included in the competition, nor is “Imagine”. br / br / To make it a little easier, we’ll give you the first one now. This is, by far, the most obvious title. Excerpted from page 6 of the introduction:br / em“because the second most important survival attribute is (not an ability to spout useless 80s pop trivia but, rather) a Scooby-Doo-like, Dogged Determination. (By the way, if you’re under thirty, you’re probably not still singing “whoah-oh, living on a prayer-er…” Anyway, whatever age, you’ll be saying your prayers in Ghana—especially on the road.)”/embr / br / So, the first title in the competition is Living on a Prayer. There is no need to give us the name of the artist, but you can if you wish. (eg. Bon Jovi.) We really just want the song title. The other 19 titles are interspersed throughout the guide. We’re not so mean as to have hidden them in the long lists of embassies or in the detailed visa information for investors (or anything most short-term travelers don’t need to read). br / However, there is at least one in every section, several songs in some sections and only one song in others. You will have to read the whole guide (minus the lists of embassies, clinics, etc) to find them.br / br / If you happen to find a song title that’s not included in our official list, but is a real song title of more than one word, we’ll allow it. If you can’t find all 20, send as many as you can. After 2 months of the release, we’ll contact the person with the highest number of titles. But we feel someone will identify all 20 pretty quickly. We’ll post about it so you know this is for real.br / br / Now, one last tip, having a knowledge of 80s rock and roll and alternative music from the UK, US and Australia will help greatly. But keeping an open mind on 70s disco and a bit of country and western wouldn’t hurt either. In fact, about 90% is pre-1990, but a couple of tracks are recent. br / br / OK, now this is really the last tip. When you read an odd sounding line in the guide, as if it was oddly phrased or superfluous, you might find a song title hidden in the words—even if you don’t recognize it as such. But googling that line might help uncover a song. br / br / Right, so we’re off to Accra later today and have to post this now. I can’t wait to get on the road again. Looking forward to the emails. br / br / br / Email all entries to either gayle@g-lish.org or gaylepescud@gmail.com . br / br / br / We’ll print the winner (if they like) and all 20 song titles and location in the guide when we have a winner.div class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-3584970282179756575?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=2HmE62QDhig:l92g0j2zwv8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=2HmE62QDhig:l92g0j2zwv8:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=2HmE62QDhig:l92g0j2zwv8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=2HmE62QDhig:l92g0j2zwv8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/2HmE62QDhig" height="1" width="1"/
• 9:33

  Interview with Godwin Yidana on writing a travel guide book

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"I interviewed Godwin about his experience writing the guide book and this is what he had to say about his experience./spanbr / br / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"strongWhat was the most challenging part of writing the guide book?/strong/spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"/spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"Getting the information we needed about transport systems in the different cities as we do not have an organized transport system in Ghana. Somehow it’s organized in its own way, but getting different stations prices and destination details was tough./spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"strongWhat was the most exciting part?/strong/spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"Walking up to hotel owners and transport managers and drivers and asking specific questions and pretending to be a customer to get the information was fun. Having to write things that I didn’t think I had the ability to write like Meeting a Chief or the part on Festivals. When we sat on a daily basis discussing, sharing ideas, how we’ll write the guide, how we’ll structure it was exciting too./spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"strongWhat would you like to say to readers? /strong/spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"I hope readers have a wonderful time reading and using the guide and that it will be as helpful to them as we intended when we set out to write it. We hope they find it simple, up to date and you can understand it, whether you’ve been to Ghana or not. We look forward to their honest critique. /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"strongAnything else you want to say about the experience?/strong/spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"Of all the people on earth I never thought I’d embark on a project like this. I never thought I’d write a guide. I was busy trying to get a full time job with a new organisation but writing the guide was much more fruitful. It was an amazing experience./spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"strongWhat will you be working on next?/strong/spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"We’ll be working on keeping the guide up to date. And next we’ll be looking at a basket project with a community of women in Bolgatanga. You’ll be very surprised when you see what we do—it’s nothing like you’ve seen before. We will let you know when this has started./spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-8815016783730349239?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=FZZ5nx_c8E8:Z-2jBeonW30:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=FZZ5nx_c8E8:Z-2jBeonW30:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=FZZ5nx_c8E8:Z-2jBeonW30:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=FZZ5nx_c8E8:Z-2jBeonW30:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/FZZ5nx_c8E8" height="1" width="1"/
• February 16, 2010
• 10:00

  Journey Maps in Insider's Guide to Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"When you buy the a href="http://gisforghana.blogspot.com/p/insiders-guide-book-to-ghana.html"Insider's Guide to Ghana/a we give you a dozen maps of journeys across the country. meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CTERMIN%7E1.EB1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C02%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"/linkstyle !-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /stylespan style="font-size: 11pt;"We created a guide book that addresses Ghana’s quirks—particularly its odd geography and the challenge of doing a complete circuit of the country, as well as the absolute lack of any transport timetable or information. You will find maps like this that show how cities and towns and attractions are connected so that you can more easily plan your journey around Ghana--and save time and money./span /divbr / div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3VYDI8UYEI/AAAAAAAAArU/ITddskHRZ0Q/s1600-h/Guide-Map+all+over.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3VYDI8UYEI/AAAAAAAAArU/ITddskHRZ0Q/s640/Guide-Map+all+over.JPG" width="449" //a/divmeta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CTERMIN%7E1.EB1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C15%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"/linko:smarttagtype name="country-region" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypestyle !-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p {mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /style br / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"When you buy the guide you will receive a zip file which contains both the easy read (colour, 1.5 spaced) version and the easy print (black and white, single spaced) version. You will also have an option to download the Insider's Guide to Volunteering in st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region u1:st="on"st1:place u1:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region/st1:place/st1:country-region for free at the same time. You will be directed to a site to purchase the guide using a secure connection. When your payment is accepted you will receive a link to download the guide immediately. It's that simple./spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"o:p/o:p/spanbr / br / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"You can buy it now by clicking on the payment button hereo:p/o:p/spanbr / div class="MsoNormal"a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=617317amp;c=singleamp;cl=103846" target="ejejcsingle"img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" //a/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-1538758421619402229?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=LnX3Qj8F_Cw:TuooCUAR6fk:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=LnX3Qj8F_Cw:TuooCUAR6fk:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=LnX3Qj8F_Cw:TuooCUAR6fk:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=LnX3Qj8F_Cw:TuooCUAR6fk:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/LnX3Qj8F_Cw" height="1" width="1"/
• 9:37

  Top 10 travel moments in the past 4.5 years

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"Top 10 travel moments in the past 4 years/span br / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / nbsp;/spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"1. I was dancing in a Vietnamese disco with my workshop trainees (we were in the middle of a 6 day workshop—they made us go). Right there on the dance floor they spontaneously broke out into the game dance we made up that day as part of a workshop energizer. It was truly fun and not what I was expecting to experience during an intensive training schedule. They were such a fun and friendly group to work with./spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"2. On my first trip to Mole our trotro broke down halfway between Kumasi and Tamale. We were busting to pee and asked a young girl in a kiosk if there was a toilet nearby. She led us behind the roadside buildings into what turned out to be a sprawling, shaded village that was hidden from the highway. It was my first walk through a real village. There were men and women weaving cane baskets, like the type you find in Asia, under old trees and it was very clean and tidy. It was one of my most memorable moments in Ghana. /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"3. When I was teaching at school in Kumasi the rain suddenly pelted down right on the final bell one afternoon, breaking the dry season. We couldn’t go anywhere and it was the first rain in months so the children were splashing in the mud and others made up a dance forming a large circle on the verandah. They pulled me in the middle and I ended up doing the split finger over the eye thing from Pulp Fiction (remember Uma Thurman and Travolta?). The kids copied and there we were doing that scene in a big circle in the rain. When I came back to visit after leaving, the first thing they did when they saw me approach was run up and start doing that scene again! /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"4. Making it to the top of Wli waterfalls. By no means an arduous climb by mountaineering standards, it was still exhausting and tough and one of the most rewarding travel experiences I’ve ever had. /spanbr / br / div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/75/184741555_25c941de10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/75/184741555_25c941de10.jpg" width="300" //a/divdiv style="text-align: center;"br / emCourtesy of [farm1.static.flickr.com] / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"nbsp;/spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"5. The day the preacher removed a huge wooden dildo from a sack and asked my friend to help demonstrate condom rolling techniques on a 4 hour journey between Accra and Hohoe. You just never know what you’re going to experience in a trotro in Ghana. I was actually speechless. We both declined, but the preacher did hot business that day. Young and old, the passengers were throwing notes at him for both the femdoms and condoms. /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"6. Same Vietnamese workshop, the participants took myself and my co-trainee out on a surprise dinner (I think it was the next night) to an ethereal park-like garden restaurant in the Hue countryside, about 30 minutes out of town. It was decorated with dozens of lanterns glowing in the night and it was actually cold—I hadn’t felt cold for 20 months. We wandered among gorgeous trees and bridges over ponds to our table where they treated us to a raucous evening of laughter, jokes and authentic, delicious local Vietnamese cuisine and endless Hue beers. /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"7. The day I realised I could direct visitors around Cape Coast. I remember thinking, I’m directing people around an African town! I couldn’t believe it. /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /spanbr / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"8. On a trip to northern Cambodia my friend and I decided to try the “bamboo railway”. We found the railway man in a shack by a train track about 10 minutes out of town. He assembled the train on the tracks (not before an actual cargo train passed us) before our eyes, helped by his tough little son or grand son. First they put the two sets of wheels on the track. Then they laid a bamboo tray on the wheels. Then they put a mat on the tray. Then they put a generator motor on the back. They started the motor. The two of us piled on and a few local kids climbed on the back. He gunned the motor and we started to roll along the tracks! We gathered speed and were hooting along on this less than double-bed sized tray train when I asked my friend what would happen if a real train came along. Would we jump off our train? The whole area was still heavily land-mined and I didn’t fancy any stunt diving into the bushes. As it happened, we came upon the train that passed us about 15 minutes up the track after we crossed an old bridge under which we could see the river way below beneath the tray…and that’s where our few kilometres journey came to an end—one of the most memorable travel experiences in the last few years. /spanbr / br / div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3284/2684725393_8cefee4a15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" ct="true" height="320" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3284/2684725393_8cefee4a15.jpg" width="240" //a/divbr / div style="text-align: center;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"emImage courtesy of flickr.com/em/span/divdiv style="text-align: center;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"ema href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3284/2684725393_8cefee4a15.jpg"http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3284/2684725393_8cefee4a15.jpg/a/em/spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;". /spanbr / br / div style="text-align: left;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"9. The day Godwin and I managed to pull off a game of football between two sides of the conflict in Bawku. We did it of our own volition for Peace One Day in September 2008. Our efforts had been terribly sabotaged the days before by powers that would only allow it to proceed on their terms and cajoled us throughout the preparations—not because of safety concerns (that was never mentioned), but rather political point scoring. We did it anyway and succeeded. We had two otherwise bitter and warring groups play a game of football together that, when it came time to blow the whistle, they begged to continue even though it was Ramadan and most of them were fasting and unable to drink in that heat. It brought a day of happiness, at least, and some hope to the people in that town./span/divspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"div style="text-align: left;"br / /div/spandiv style="text-align: left;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"10. This is possibly my most personally embarrassing moment of the past 4 years and one that I’ve only told a few people—until now. My friend and I traveled to northern Cambodia (2007—same trip as train track moment) during a couple of days break off work—we were working on the same project in Phnom Penh. In town there was a massage centre set up for blind people called Seeing Hands; they had offices around the country. It was a great organisation and we decided to treat ourselves to a massage since we’d worked pretty hard. The blind masseurs were both men but we didn’t think anything of this. I was just getting comfortable on the table when I felt something poking me in the head. It was just a light poke, but it was about crotch height for the masseur. I froze. I kept telling myself to relax but this thing continued to poke my head while he was massaging my shoulders, then my arms and then my waist. I thought to myself that I should sneak a peek, but I was too afraid to move at all lest he guess my thoughts so I stayed dead still. I felt very uncomfortable the entire 2 hour massage. Shortly before the 2 hours was up I heard a beeping sound. I looked up to see the masseuse remove a small gadget from a loose pocket sitting in the front of his smock—at crotch height. It was his beeper, a timing device letting him know when the 2 hours was almost up. The beeper has been hanging in his pocket, swaying and….poking! I hadn’t enjoyed the massage at all and as soon as we were outside I explained my mistake to my friend. She broke into laughter and explained she had exactly the same thoughts and experience. I really should have opened my eyes when I had the chance. That particular trip was a farce of hilarious experiences. /span/divspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;, sans-serif;"br / /span/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-6419284097300514036?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=DKNxEur85S4:szyQdFxw6S8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=DKNxEur85S4:szyQdFxw6S8:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=DKNxEur85S4:szyQdFxw6S8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=DKNxEur85S4:szyQdFxw6S8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/DKNxEur85S4" height="1" width="1"/
• February 15, 2010
• 16:22

  Sex Dating in Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3VWKbfCNdI/AAAAAAAAArM/XpjVMSNz77Q/s1600-h/Guide-Sex.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="504" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3VWKbfCNdI/AAAAAAAAArM/XpjVMSNz77Q/s640/Guide-Sex.JPG" width="640" //a/divbr / div style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"We took the unconventional step to include a section on sex and dating in the a href="http://gisforghana.blogspot.com/p/insiders-guide-book-to-ghana.html"Insider's Guide to Ghana/a. This is because many visitors have some kind of romantic encounter and, more often than not, depart burnt in some way—emotionally, financially or health-wise. We felt that a dose of frank, honest and sobering advice would not go astray. You can find 5 pages on sex and dating under the section on Culture and Background./span/divdiv style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"br / /divdiv style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CTERMIN%7E1.EB1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C13%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List" style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"/linko:smarttagtype name="country-region" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"/o:smarttagtypestyle !-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /style /divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"When you buy the guide you will receive a zip file which contains both the easy read (colour, 1.5 spaced) version and the easy print (black and white, single spaced) version. You will also have an option to download the Insider's Guide to Volunteering in st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region for free at the same time. You will be directed to a site to purchase the guide using a secure connection. When your payment is accepted you will receive a link to download the guide immediately. It's that simple./divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"You can buy it now by clicking on the payment button here/divdiv class="MsoNormal"meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CTERMIN%7E1.EB1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"/linkstyle !-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /style /divdiv class="MsoNormal"a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=617317amp;c=singleamp;cl=103846" target="ejejcsingle"img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" //a/divbr / nbsp; span style="font-size: 11pt;"br / /spanbr / div style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"br / /divdiv style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"nbsp;/span /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-4385577964518891151?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=QSfnUrT1exE:f_R5hf7YZaU:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=QSfnUrT1exE:f_R5hf7YZaU:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=QSfnUrT1exE:f_R5hf7YZaU:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=QSfnUrT1exE:f_R5hf7YZaU:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/QSfnUrT1exE" height="1" width="1"/
• 15:35

  Photos from Ghana: Bolgatanga

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lpKINpN2I/AAAAAAAAAsE/8J4id-RHfTE/s1600-h/19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" ct="true" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lpKINpN2I/AAAAAAAAAsE/8J4id-RHfTE/s320/19.jpg" width="298" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"A photo of a sunset near home recently/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br / /divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lpTKVwHhI/AAAAAAAAAsU/OvNAZKRof7w/s1600-h/Picture+119.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" ct="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lpTKVwHhI/AAAAAAAAAsU/OvNAZKRof7w/s320/Picture+119.jpg" //a/divdiv style="text-align: center;"A photo of a sunrise near home...6 a.m. in the morning/divdiv style="text-align: center;"br / /divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lpO0HqNkI/AAAAAAAAAsM/6D0wwR8ULQU/s1600-h/17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" ct="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3lpO0HqNkI/AAAAAAAAAsM/6D0wwR8ULQU/s320/17.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"The boys playing the beautiful game near home recently. You can see the dryness at this time of year. The rainy season will begin again around April or May./divdiv style="text-align: center;"br / /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-5015069508296668170?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eU8imo_Fhlo:L5Q-Qj_JPXU:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eU8imo_Fhlo:L5Q-Qj_JPXU:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eU8imo_Fhlo:L5Q-Qj_JPXU:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=eU8imo_Fhlo:L5Q-Qj_JPXU:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/eU8imo_Fhlo" height="1" width="1"/
• 9:00

  Ghana travel budget planning

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CTERMIN%7E1.EB1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C10%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"/linko:smarttagtype name="country-region" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypeo:smarttagtype name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/o:smarttagtypestyle !-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Arial Narrow"; panose-1:2 11 6 6 2 2 2 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 2048 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:none; mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /style br / div class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"I have created an average budget of the costs in your trip to st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region. You could spend a lot more than this, but this is the minimum. You can read this outline of the Insider’s Guide to st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region/st1:place (link to post above) for more details or buy it here (link).o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divtable border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse;"tbody tr style="height: 16.5pt;" td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"ITEMo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"DESCRIPTIONo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"COST IN US$o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"% of total costo:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 16.5pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Airfare return to US/UKo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Estimate—change as needed.o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"1100o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"24.89%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext red; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Ghana/span/st1:place/st1:country-regionspan style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;" tourist visao:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext red -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Approximation (depends on country) o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext red -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"50o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext red -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"1.13%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color red red; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"bspan style="color: red; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Insider’s Guide to Ghanao:p/o:p/span/b/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color red red -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"bspan style="color: red; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Guide booko:p/o:p/span/b/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color red red -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"bspan style="color: red; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"15o:p/o:p/span/b/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color red red -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"bspan style="color: red; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"0.34%o:p/o:p/span/b/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Travel Insurance 2 monthso:p/o:p/span/divdiv align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"br / /div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"nbsp;Estimateo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"200o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"4.53%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Tropical medical doctoro:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Follow your doctor’s advice on which shots to have before leaving. Yellow Fever is compulsory for travel to sub-Saharan st1:place w:st="on"Africa/st1:place.o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"350o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"7.92%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"3 months worth of anti-malarialso:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Depends on the brand, but $7 a week is a good averageo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"84o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"1.90%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Clothes and gearo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"For st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region’s climateo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"300o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"6.79%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 16.5pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Extra medicines and vitaminso:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Standardo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"100o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"2.26%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 79.5pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 79.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Meals and snacks daily for 2 months.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 79.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Average 10 GHC/day x 60 days = 600 (x 0.70 = US$420). You could do it for as little as 5 GHC but that’s pushing it now.o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 79.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"420o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 79.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"9.50%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Extended journey around st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-regiono:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Covering north and southo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"1200o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"27.16%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Entertainment: dancing and drinkingo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Spots, bars and pubso:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"250o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"5.66%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 32.25pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Souvenirs, cloth, beads, dress-makingo:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Various shopso:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"200o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 32.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"4.53%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 16.5pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Miscellaneouso:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div class="MsoNormal"span style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"Extras (medicines, clothes, snacks.)o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"150o:p/o:p/span/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"span style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"3.39%o:p/o:p/span/div/td /tr tr style="height: 16.5pt;" td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 123.3pt;" valign="top" width="164"div class="MsoNormal"br / /div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 143.55pt;" valign="top" width="191"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"bspan style="color: #242430; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"TOTALo:p/o:p/span/b/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.6pt;" valign="top" width="122"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"bspan style="color: #333333; font-family: quot;Arial Narrowquot;;"$4,419.00 o:p/o:p/span/b/div/td td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; height: 16.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 84.35pt;" valign="top" width="112"div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"br / /div/td /tr /tbody/tablediv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"o:pnbsp;/o:pspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"The Insider's Guide to Ghana will save you quite a few percentage points in dollars as well as a lot more in time and stress.nbsp;/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"When you buy the guide you will receive a zip file which contains both the easy read (colour, 1.5 spaced) version and the easy print (black and white, single spaced) version. You will also have an option to download the Insider's Guide to Volunteering in Ghana for free at the same time. /span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;" /span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;" /span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"You can buy it immediately at /spana href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=617317amp;c=singleamp;cl=103846" target="ejejcsingle"img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" //abr / br / span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"Thanks for reading and if you have any comments, please click the window below!/span/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-729791671294362384?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ES7POmFL5bE:6CfPXgiwjQ0:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ES7POmFL5bE:6CfPXgiwjQ0:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ES7POmFL5bE:6CfPXgiwjQ0:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=ES7POmFL5bE:6CfPXgiwjQ0:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/ES7POmFL5bE" height="1" width="1"/
• February 14, 2010
• 16:11

  "Join the Dots" planning Ghana travels

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"We have posted another excerpt from thenbsp; a href="http://gisforghana.blogspot.com/p/insiders-guide-book-to-ghana.html"Insider's Guide to Ghana/a here. /divdiv style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"br / /divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3VTqg0KKqI/AAAAAAAAArE/dAaFzmNkmXw/s1600-h/Guide-journeys.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3VTqg0KKqI/AAAAAAAAArE/dAaFzmNkmXw/s640/Guide-journeys.JPG" width="604" //a/divbr / div style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"This gives you a glimpse of what you will find in the section under Journeys which is over 140 pages long and covers the entire country. In this section we explain, in depth, how to manage your journey around Ghana on public transport. Our guide includes 7 pages of comprehensive transport timetables and fare information that you can't get anywhere else in Ghana.nbsp;/divdiv style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"br / /divdiv style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"When you buy the guide you will receive a zip file which contains both the easy read (colour, 1.5 spaced) version and the easy print (black and white, single spaced) version. You will also have an option to download the Insider's Guide to Volunteering in Ghana for free at the same time.br / br / You can buy the guide here at the secure check out:br / a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=617317amp;c=singleamp;cl=103846" target="ejejcsingle"img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" //abr / br / Thanks for reading and please email us if you have any questions./divdiv style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"br / /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-4962767503987385296?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=HESlhoTjHKs:SXM34eL7ff4:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=HESlhoTjHKs:SXM34eL7ff4:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=HESlhoTjHKs:SXM34eL7ff4:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=HESlhoTjHKs:SXM34eL7ff4:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/HESlhoTjHKs" height="1" width="1"/
• 9:03

  Travels in Ghana: the reality and hilarity

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CTERMIN%7E1.EB1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C07%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"/linkstyle !-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Century Gothic"; panose-1:2 11 5 2 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:none; mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} h1 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:none; mso-outline-level:1; mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning:0pt; font-weight:normal;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /stylebspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"o:p/o:p/span/b br / div class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"Ghana would flash alongside despots and endangered gorillas on the international media’s Africa radar if peace and friendliness were newsworthy. But Ghana, a nation where followers of all faiths—Christians, Muslims, and Traditionalists, all—work, eat, joke, and vote together, displaying a remarkably high level of mutual acceptance as they enjoy their constitutional right to Freedom of Worship, is still a bit of a secret. If there’s one thing we’re not good at, though, it’s keeping secrets that really ought to be shared, which is why we decided to write this guide. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"The idea took form during one of many spontaneous itrotro/i journeys. I had been “sweating like a pregnant toad”, as Ghanaians say, in velvet-heavy humidity on the hot side of an old, rusting lorry-bus (itrotro),/i while a lay-preacher shouted a revival-style sermon above my head for three hours ibefore/i we set off on a four hour journey that unfolded, like a market lady’s wrap skirt, to seven hours, because we broke down. It was while five men were simultaneously shouting at the driver who was banging on a piece of smoking engine, and every other man stood peeing along the road facing the jungle halfway to Kumasi, and one proposed for my hand in marriage, that the three Ghana survival essentials whacked me over the head. It was a perfect Zen-coma-itrotro/i moment, a state you must enter to endure and rationalize the numerous near death experiences and delays that every road journey absolutely iguarantees/i. I thought I best mention these survival essentials now, before we get started; you might want to find another country. Although, this advice applies in varying degrees to travel across all of Africa iand/i most developing nations.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"Right. So, when a man (or woman) peeing along the side of the highway proposes marriage to you imidstream/i—the eleventh in two days (granted, the other ten weren’t peeing)—and all you want to do yourself is pee (but you can’t because all eyes are on you), and get where you had to be—three hours ago, you need Patience, with a very, ivery/i capital P. You might point out that there iis/i no middle road when it comes to capitalisation, and that’s how it is with this most important of attributes. In fact, since you made it to the end of this paragraph, you might actually have what it takes.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"Now, if you’re over thirty you’ll remember waking up early to catch the best cartoons, and how much Boy George wanted to be Madonna, and how much Jon Bon Jovi just wanted their hair, and all the chores you did to save up for those feather hair-clip thingies and stone-washed denim jeans. Well, Whoa-oh! We’re halfway there-ere…Whoa-oh!...because the second most important survival attribute is (inot/i an ability to spout useless 80s pop trivia but, rather) a Scooby-Doo-like, Dogged Determination. (By the way, if you’re under thirty, you’re probably inot/i still singing i“whoah-oh, living on a prayer-er…” /iAnywayi,/i whatever age, you’ll be saying your prayers in Ghana—iespecially/i on the road.) o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"The determination is because you will encounter many obstacles along your journey. This is a good thing. It may be locating the vehicle (among thousands) to take you where you wish to go (which may not necessarily be where you end up), or finding the office that processes the twenty-third piece of paper you need to legitimize your stay, or finding a copier to copy the twenty-third piece of paper since the office (now you have finally located it) has a photocopier but it’s “finished” (not working), or not giving up when the internet crashes for the fifteenth time in an hour and you still haven’t opened one email. io:p/o:p/i/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"It’s more a tortoise than a hare kind of determination, if that helps, because nothing gets done fast, except switching channels to the UEFA Championship, or the English Premiere League, or any Blackstars game. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"And, finally, the third and final attribute, which is as much about survival as preventing malaria, is this: A-Steve-Martin-meets-Billy-Connelly-meets-Queen-Latifah-who-meets-The-Queen-of-England, royally-bonkers, whacked-out Sense Of Humour; after the fifty-fifth, breaking-down-pee-copier-email incident, you will need it.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"In fact, your journey’s sub-theme could be: Learning How to Laugh No Matter What. Because there is the poverty you’re not going to believe when you first encounter it. Poverty is not “funny ihaha/i”, but life is, and the ladies selling strings of beads from shiny aluminium bowls balanced on their heads, and the elderly woman selling freshly charred plantains from her smoking brazier by the open sewer, or the children who shout i“obruni!”/i when they spot you every few feet, or the men or women you promise to marry if they agree to be husband/wife number seventeen, will be shaking with laughter.nbsp; o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"If you are not naturally blessed with the three attributes, you have two choices: o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"1. Cultivate them very quickly, or o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"2. Try Europe instead. Apparently the London underground only keeps you waiting an hour on a ibad/i day. It’s up to you. Look. I don’t know much, but I do know that life in Ghana is nothing if not wildly unpredictable. It is certainly not “neat” or “conventional”: Japan is neat; France is conventional; Ghana is anything ibut/i. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"ispan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"Right?/span/ispan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;" Now we can begin. Although, this is not iexactly/i the beginning. And it’s definitely not conventional. Patience, trust me.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"Alright. If you’re reading this line, you’re still with us; you’re planning to visit Ghana. By now you may have mentioned this plan to family or friends and they may have given you that funny look and fallen silent. And they may have given you that certain fascinated stare as if you’re some kind of fearless traveler or, if they’re your parents or children, they’re freaking out. ‘West Africa,’ they utter, imagining all the conflict they’ve seen on TV. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"If you have been to Ghana you smile knowing that the ‘scary Africa’ myth is, well, a myth. You remember hanging out on empty beaches with some of the friendliest people on earth, eating fresh fish and coconuts. You remember dancing on the side of the street in front of six-foot high speakers that blast the latest highlife hits with whomever randomly joins you and, invariably, someone does. You remember navigating the country in an ingenious system of cheap, if death-defying, itrotros/i that reach all corners and often generate the best travel stories. You remember arriving at midnight in an unfamiliar town and asking the young man sitting next to you, who’d been debating the democratic process in Ghana with his neighbour for the past six hours, the way to your hotel—and him showing you the way and not asking for anything but your phone number or address.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"br / You wonder why Ghana is such a big secret. Of course, it has its downsides like everywhere else. It’s not for the impatient, as you now know, that’s for sure. On balance, though, Ghana has a lot going for it, particularly for the nervous first-time traveler to Africa. In fact, in our experience, 99% of people don’t want to leave when the time comes. Saying that last goodbye may prove to be the most difficult part of your journey.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"br / What Ghana is NOT: Ghana is inot/i the Africa you see on TV—war, famine and disease. While that Africa exists and its story must be told, it is just one part of the story. And it’s not all lions and giraffes and safaris either. It’s somewhere in between. One-third of the world’s nations—fifty-three actually—exist in Africa. More than two thousand languages are spoken across the continent. Ghanaians alone speak over forty. Most individuals speak three or four languages on average iand/i English.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"In addition to being a useful and helpful guide for your journey before and after arriving in Ghana, we hope this guide also helps to dispel some myths about “Africa”, and sets you straight on some of the unspoken aspects of travel, and put you (and friends and family) at ease and perfectly prepared for your journey. Once you’re here, it will help you avoid the pitfalls that many travelers hit, and save you a lot of money, heartache and time too.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"In fact, we intend that the inside information in this guide will take ‘the great unknown’ out of traveling, volunteering or living in Ghana. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"o:pbr / /o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"o:p(This is part of the Introduction to the a href="http://gisforghana.blogspot.com/p/insiders-guide-book-to-ghana.html"Insider's Guide to Ghana/a...the second half continues below from Philosophy...)/o:p/span/divh1 align="center" style="margin: 12pt 0in 3pt; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: center;"bspan style="color: #ffcc00; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; font-size: 18pt;"Philosophy behind the Guideo:p/o:p/span/b/h1div class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"We decided to write the kind of guide book that would let visitors benefit from our inside knowledge and experience. A guide that is:o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"span style="font-family: Symbol;"·nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"Up-to-date on prices, names and numberso:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"span style="font-family: Symbol;"·nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"explains clearly how to get from A-to-Bo:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"span style="font-family: Symbol;"·nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"includes only the best-of attractions and accommodationo:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"span style="font-family: Symbol;"·nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"that also explains what Ghana and Ghanaians are really likeo:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"span style="font-family: Symbol;"·nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"with extended culture, costs, preparation and dangers sectionso:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"span style="font-family: Symbol;"·nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"and includes our insider’s tips throughout every sectiono:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"We do love our other Ghana guides, but we feel they don’t give you a sense of Ghana. We’ve heard the same sentiments expressed by other visitors too. We also feel they’re a bit confusing in terms of organization. We also felt the guides needed to be more up to date—they are published every few years. Even when they’re freshly published, the research itself is already about one year out of date. Things change by the month in Ghana. We wanted a guide that was as up to date as possible.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"We also made a decision to only include the best value for money establishments based on our own experience and the accumulated feedback from others over the years.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"Indeed, our guide is quite different to the standard travel guide book. In addition to being up-to-date, it’s more personal and it’s written by us: A Ghanaian who’s traveled or worked across all ten regions, and myself who is heading towards 4 years in three different areas of Ghana and also traveled to all ten regions and taken close to100 long-distance trips on public transport across the country. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"Most guide writers drop in every three years for 3 weeks or 8 weeks to madly update a book. We live here. We’re connected and we pass that knowledge and experience on to you.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"We made a decision not to include localized street maps. There is a very good reason for this: no one reads maps in Ghana. Coincidentally, a few days after writing this section I read Elizabeth Ohene’s story at BBC online about this very issue. It’s quite illuminating in regards to the whole navigation challenge in Ghana as well as life in Ghana itself. She said, “I was excited therefore by recent newspaper headlines in Ghana that district assemblies in the country have been asked to name streets and number houses by 2010.” (That may be so, but we advise that you don’t hold your breath.) We do, however, urge you to read the article. [news.bbc.co.uk] class="MsoNormal" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin: 5pt 0in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"Just to make it very clear, we’ve included a scenario that may help you understand our reasoning a little more. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin: 5pt 0in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"Imagine approaching your average male on the streets of New Jersey/Newcastle/Melbourne/Paris and asking them, “Could you please show me how to dance?” I mean, would you expect a demonstration of dancing other than, say, the Macarena—iif you’re lucky/i? On the other hand, if you approached your average Ghanaian man with the same question, most would and icould/i dance for you on the spot, very skillfully. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin: 5pt 0in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"But if you approached the same Garden State/Geordie/Melbournian/Parisian male with a street map of the area and politely asked, “Could you please point out the way to the best pub in town?” there’s a 95% chance that all the men you asked would and icould/i do just that. They’d direct you using the map. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin: 5pt 0in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"However, if you approached your average Ghanaian man ior woman/i with a map, oh boy. Just as dancing is not part of your average western male’s culture; map reading is not part of Ghanaian culture. Roads and locations are better known by nearby landmarks and street vendors than by their actual name.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin: 5pt 0in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"We’ll put it bluntly. Almost no one reads maps in real life situations except in academia. When virtually no one knows the names of roads, anyway, maps become somewhat redundant. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin: 5pt 0in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"It’s much, imuch/i simpler to ask how to get somewhere.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin: 5pt 0in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"However, when you do ask someone for directions verbally, there is often a contradiction between what your helper says and what they demonstrate with their hands. “Go straight” is the standard verbal response that accompanies hand signals that may well indicate left and right turns. Fortunately, sometimes some people ido/i say right and left. You get used to interpreting this. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin: 5pt 0in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"To put you in the picture, here is a standard response if you asked someone how to get to, say, the “In Him We Trust drinking spot” (we made the name up, but you’ll soon see the extent to which business names embrace religious expressions).o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin: 5pt 0in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"So, “Can you please tell me how to find the In Him We Trust Drinking Spot?”o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin: 5pt 0in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"“Oh. Ah! Ok, you go straight for some few minutes. When you see a blue lotto kiosk you curve right and go straight and keep going then you meet a big niim tree at a round-about. Then you curve right again then keep going straight iaaaaaahhhh/i, and you see a big green house. Then in front of the house you will see the Guiness sign. It is there.”o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin: 5pt 0in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"Godwin insisted we mention that if you hear the speaker say “aaaaaah” as in, “Go straight iaaaaaah/i” it means the place is far. “Aaaaaah” emphasises distance./spanspan style="font-family: quot;Century Gothicquot;; font-size: 14pt;"nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin: 5pt 0in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"Landmarks are the keys to navigating in Ghana.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin: 5pt 0in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"We usually follow directions up to the point, then we ask someone there for more directions, and so on.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin: 5pt 0in;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"When we had to go to an obscure part of Cantonments in Accra, there was absolutely no use using a map or street names. I used the closest well-known landmark, Adwoa Wangara Hotel. Most drivers could get to that hotel. Luckily my destination was next door.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"On that note, distance in Ghana is measured more in time than space. There are so many obstacles between A and B that to assume how long a trip will take based on kilometres or miles is a mistake—unless you have your own vehicle. It’s best to think in terms of time alone. Accra to Cape Coast is a three hour journey. It should really be about an hour and a half, based on kilometres: about 150 kms. Accra to Kumasi is anywhere from 4-6 hours. However, we have included a distance chart for distances between cities in kilometres, which you will find at the end of the guide.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"So this is why we chose not to include localised maps and, rather, provide longer explanations about how to navigate and how to ask for help.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"We chose to create large country maps that show various options for planning a route around the country. You will find these at the very end of the guide too. We based some on themes such as crafts, others on beaches, others on a particular region, and we included several monster trips including everything you could hope to see in Ghana. We also included one map showing the interconnections between major towns and cities. You’ll see these maps under the Journeys section. These maps give you a good sense of how each area and attraction is connected by public transport. If you’re driving, fortunately roads are reasonably well sign-posted, as are attractions and hotels. Ghana is nothing if not overflowing with signs. All you have to do is follow the signs and have faith and eventually you will get to your destination. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"We have included a few smaller maps showing localized areas where finding transport might otherwise be a problem, such as “Kwame Nkrumah Circle” area in Accra. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"bspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"Guide Conventions: o:p/o:p/span/b/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"Telephone numbers: In all cases we have included the international country code in case you are calling from overseas. All our numbers follow the same pattern: o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"span style="font-family: Symbol;"·nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"country code/area (or mobile) prefix/number. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"span style="font-family: Symbol;"·nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; /spanspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"as in: +233(0)21-233-244. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"When calling from overseas you omit the zero (0). So you would dial +233-21-233-244. However, if you are calling from iwithin/i Ghana you drop the +233 (Ghana’s country code), and dial the entire number and always include the zero. So, if calling from within Ghana you would dial: 021-233-244. To use a different example, this number +233(0)244-123-456 dialed from outside Ghana would be +233-244-123-456. In Ghana it would be 0244-123-456.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"GHC: Stands for Ghana Cedio:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"We sometimes quote prices as ‘about’ because the cost of fuel increases by around 5% a month, routinely increasing prices for goods and services across the country. Basic foodstuffs like rice, fruit and vegetables and share taxis regularly increase.o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;;"Finally, we have co-written this guide. Due to differences in our individual experiences in Ghana, particularly before we met, we occasionally distinguish between “I” and “we”. Throughout the guide “I” or “my” refers to Gayle and “we” or “our” refers to both of us. Where Godwin took on exclusive writing tasks we have noted the section as “by Godwin” and similar for Gayle as “by Gayle”. Otherwise it was co-written with individual experiences noted as per this explanation. o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CTERMIN%7E1.EB1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C09%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"/linkstyle !-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:none; mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /style /divdiv class="MsoNormal"So that was the full introduction to the Insider's Guide to Ghanao:p. /o:pThe first-half of the introduction was originally the prologue to the book I am writing about my journey since leaving Australia to come to Ghana (and a little before). However, it seemed better suited to this guide, so I pulled it from my manuscript and here it is. We hope this gives you a “sense of Ghana” before you arrive. The second half of the intro should help you understand what our guide book is about. If you like what you read on This is Ghana, this blog, you will probably like the guide and find it useful too.nbsp;/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"You can buy the guide now by clicking the link through to the shopping page:/divdiv class="MsoNormal"a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=617317amp;c=singleamp;cl=103846" target="ejejcsingle"img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" //a/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"When you buy the guide you will receive a zip file which contains both the easy read (colour, 1.5 spaced) version and the easy print (black and white, single spaced) version. You will also have an option to download the Insider's Guide to Volunteering in Ghana for free at the same time.nbsp;/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Oh, and check out yesterday's posts. We're running a competition for the guide--2 nights at Ko-sa beach resort on us.nbsp; /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Thanks for reading!/divbr / div class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-6161576669570116403?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=zehh4JCA94g:uT0jdPmsAUc:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=zehh4JCA94g:uT0jdPmsAUc:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=zehh4JCA94g:uT0jdPmsAUc:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=zehh4JCA94g:uT0jdPmsAUc:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/zehh4JCA94g" height="1" width="1"/
• February 13, 2010
• 16:00

  Share taxis and ghana guides

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3VPOJgZaSI/AAAAAAAAAq0/R0VgdaW7yNs/s1600-h/Guide-share+taxis.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="524" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3VPOJgZaSI/AAAAAAAAAq0/R0VgdaW7yNs/s640/Guide-share+taxis.JPG" width="640" //a/divbr / To give you an even better sense of the feel and content of the guide, here are the first couple of paragraphs on share taxis, as part of the larger section explaining how the transport system in Ghana works.br / br / You can read more about the a href="http://gisforghana.blogspot.com/2010/02/ghana-guide-insiders-guide-to-ghana.html"Insider's Guide to Ghana /aby clicking the link.br / You can buy the guide now for US$15.00 by clicking the button below.br / a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=617317amp;c=singleamp;cl=103846" target="ejejcsingle"img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-4745628329664428959?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=PWbRJPfi4Cw:KJQvZJgfrJ8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=PWbRJPfi4Cw:KJQvZJgfrJ8:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=PWbRJPfi4Cw:KJQvZJgfrJ8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=PWbRJPfi4Cw:KJQvZJgfrJ8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/PWbRJPfi4Cw" height="1" width="1"/
• 12:00

  Competition Announcement: Insider's Guide to Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"/metameta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"/metalink href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CTERMIN%7E1.EB1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C03%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"/linkstyle !-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:TrebuchetMS; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:"TrebuchetMS,Italic"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:none; mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /style /divdiv class="MsoNormal"As part of the release of the a href="http://gisforghana.blogspot.com/p/insiders-guide-book-to-ghana.html"Insider's Guide to Ghana/a, we’re giving away two nights stay at a href="http://www.ko-sa.com/"Ko-Sa/a Beach Resort just outside of Elmina to the first reader who can find the titles of 20 pop and rock songs we’ve interspersed throughout the guide. The two nights will be in a private, thatch bungalow valued at 65 GHC per night. That’s 130 GHC or about US$95. Check out to see what we’re talking about./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"bOur contribution/b: We’ll take care of the payment for 2 nights room charge./divdiv class="MsoNormal"bYour contribution/b: Identify the titles of 20 songs interspersed throughout the guide and email them to us. We don’t care if you number them or not—we just want 20 titles. Then turn up and enjoy three days and two nights on the beach just outside of Elmina on us. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"A few hints. There are no single-word song titles. So, “RESPECT” is not included in the competition, nor is “Imagine”. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"To make it a little easier, we’ll give you the first one now. This is, by far, the most obvious title. Excerpted from page 6 of the introduction:/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 11.5pt;"“because the second most important survival attribute is (/spanispan style="font-size: 11.5pt;"not /span/ispan style="font-size: 11.5pt;"an ability to spout useless 80s pop trivia but, rather) a Scooby-Doo-like, Dogged Determination. (By the way, if you’re under thirty, you’re probably /spanispan style="font-size: 11.5pt;"not /span/ispan style="font-size: 11.5pt;"still singing /spanispan style="font-size: 11.5pt;"“whoah-oh, living on a prayer-er…” /span/ispan style="font-size: 11.5pt;"Anyway/spanispan style="font-size: 11.5pt;", /span/ispan style="font-size: 11.5pt;"whatever age, you’ll be saying your prayers in Ghana—/spanispan style="font-size: 11.5pt;"especially /span/ispan style="font-size: 11.5pt;"on the road.)”o:p/o:p/span/divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"So, the first title in the competition is Living on a Prayer. There is no need to give us the name of the artist, but you can if you wish. (eg. Bon Jovi.) We really just want the song title. The other 19 titles are interspersed throughout the guide. We’re not so mean as to have hidden them in the long lists of embassies or in the detailed visa information for investors (or anything most short-term travelers don’t need to read). /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"However, there is at least one in every section, several songs in some sections and only one song in others. You iwill/i have to read the whole guide (minus the lists of embassies, clinics, etc) to find them. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"If you happen to find a song title that’s not included in our official list, but is a real song title of more than one word, we’ll allow it. If you can’t find all 20, send as many as you can. After 2 months of the release, we’ll contact the person with the highest number of titles. But we feel someone will identify all 20 pretty quickly. We’ll post about it so you know this is for real./divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Now, one last tip, having a knowledge of 80s rock and roll and alternative music from the UK, US and Australia will help greatly. But keeping an open mind on 70s disco and a bit of country and western wouldn’t hurt either. In fact, about 90% is pre-1990, but a couple of tracks are recent. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"OK, now this is really the last tip. When you read an odd sounding line in the guide, as if it was oddly phrased or superfluous, you might find a song title hidden in the words—even if you don’t recognize it as such. But googling that line might help uncover a song. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Right, so we’re off to Accra later today and have to post this now. I can’t wait to get on the road again. Looking forward to the emails. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"Email all entries to either a href="mailto:gayle@g-lish.org"gayle@g-lish.org/a or a href="mailto:gaylepescud@gmail.com"gaylepescud@gmail.com/a . /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"We’ll print the winner (if they like) and all 20 song titles and location in the guide when we have a winner. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"br / /divdiv class="MsoNormal"You can buy the Insider’s Guide to Ghana here. /divdiv class="MsoNormal"o:pa href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=617317amp;c=singleamp;cl=103846" target="ejejcsingle"img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" //a/o:p/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-837271388162580930?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ngbl5PqDl4s:MrVyAZyYriE:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ngbl5PqDl4s:MrVyAZyYriE:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ngbl5PqDl4s:MrVyAZyYriE:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=ngbl5PqDl4s:MrVyAZyYriE:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/ngbl5PqDl4s" height="1" width="1"/
• 9:00

  Contents: Insider's Guide to Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  Here is the table of contents so you can really get a sense of what is in the Insider's Guide to Ghana. br / br / TABLE OF CONTENTSbr / br / INTRODUCTION: 5br / br / CULTURE BACKGROUND: 13br / Essential Facts Figures: 13br / Interesting Facts Figures: 13br / Climate: 15br / Language: 18br / - Twi Greetings: 20br / - Day Names: 21br / - Hausa Greetings: 22br / - Expressions aimed at visitors: 22br / Cultural Outlook: 24br / - Etiquette: 26br / Food: 30br / - Hot to eat Fufu: 31br / Drinks: 32br / Events Festivals: 34br / - National Holidays: 39br / - How to Meet a Chief: 40br / Dancing Drumming: 42br / Arts Crafts: 42br / Sex Dating: 44br / - Relationships: 49br / Only in Ghana: 51br / br / PREPARING TO GO 53br / Obtaining a visa: 53br / - Single or multiple entry visa: 54br / - Documentation: 55br / - Extending your stay: 55br / - Applying for extension: 56br / - Visa on arrival: 56br / - Airlines flying to Ghana: 58br / Travel insurance: 59br / Money: 59br / - Currency: 61br / - Old Cedi versus New Cedi: 62br / Health Preparation: 63br / - Travel doctor: 63br / - Feminine Hygiene: 64br / Power Voltage: 65br / - Electrical Equipment: 66br / - Phones: 67br / Packing your bags: 68br / - list of items to pack: 68br / Gifts to bring: 71br / Airline Contact list and web sites: 72br / Ghana Immigration Contacts across Ghana: 74br / Ghanaian Embassies Abroad: 75br / - sample visa costs for sample countries: 75br / Extended Visa Information: 80br / - Transit visabr / - Business visabr / - Study visabr / - Employment visabr / - Investors visabr / - Right of Abode visasbr / Investment Centre contacts 85br / br / COSTS: 88br / Budgeting: 88br / Average souvenir costs: 88br / Food drinks costs: 88br / Sample journey costs: 89br / Cooking, kitchen and bathroom items: 90br / Used clothes in markets: 90br / Electrical equipment: 91br / Vehicles: 91br / Renting Living: 91br / Utilities: 92br / br / DANGER, HEALTH SAFETY: 93br / Health: 93br / - Malaria: 93br / - Diarrhea: 96br / - Sunstroke: 96br / - Sunburn: 97br / - HIV/AIDS: 97br / - Typhoid: 97br / - Giardia: 97br / - Dengue Fever: 98br / - Cholera: 98br / - Rabies: 98br / - Meningitis: 99br / - Food Drink: 99br / - Water: 99br / Transport: 99br / Crowds: 101br / Ocean: 101br / Danger Areas, suburbs, and streets: 102br / Managing IBS: 103br / Natural skin treatments: 109br / Clinics Hospitals in Ghana: 111br / Accra: 111br / - General and specialists: 111br / - Pediatricians: 112br / - Obstetricians: 112br / - Ear, Nose, Throat: 112br / - Dermatologists: 112br / - Dentists: 112br / Cape Coast: 112br / Ho: 113br / Hohoe: 113br / Takoradi: 113br / Tamale: 113br / br / ARRIVING IN GHANA: 114br / Airport, Immigration Customs: 114br / Taxis: 115br / “Dropping” taxis: 115br / Negotiating with drivers: 116br / Navigating by Landmarks: 117br / Share Taxis: 118br / Trotros: 120br / Accra Trotro stations: 122br / Accra Map: 123br / Money Exchanges: 123br / Culture Shock: 123br / Foreign Embassies in Ghana: 124br / br / JOURNEYS: 128br / br / INTRODUCTION: 128br / How this works: Ghana’s curious geography: 129br / “Join the dots” method: 130br / Trotro system explained: 132br / Avoiding backtracking: 133br / Akosombo-Yeji ferry: 135br / Coach services: 139br / Advice and Warnings for travel: 139br / Hiring vehicles: 139br / Customer service issues: 141br / Eating out: 142br / Insider’s toilet tour: 143br / How to guarantee a toilet: 144br / Other Ghana guides: 145br / Guide style: 146br / br / PART 1: ACCRA: 147br / Introduction: 147br / Major Highlights: 148br / ACCRA: 148br / Ocean, Culture Centre High St: 148br / - Independence Square, Osu Castle, National Cultural Centre, Nkrumah’s Mausoleum, National Museum, National Theatrebr / Around Danquah Circle: 152br / - Ghana planetarium, Global Mamas, Sunshine Saladsbr / Down Oxford Street: 153br / - Hakim’s Jewelry, Frankie’s, Mama Mia’s, Arlecchino Ice-creambr / Towards Nkrumah Circle: 155br / Airport, 37, and Tetteh Quarshie: 156br / -W.E.B. Dubois Centre, Accra Mall, Wild Gecko, Cuppa Cappuccino, Osteria Michelangelo’sbr / Night Life: 158br / - Toilets—Accra: 159br / - Map of Nkrumah Circle/transport: 160br / - Stay in Accra: 161br / JUST OUTSIDE ACCRA: 169br / - Aburi Gardens: 169br / - Teshie Fantasy Coffins: 169br / - Cocoloko Beach Camp: 170br / - Big Milly’s: 170br / - Bojo Beach Resort: 171br / br / PART 2: ACCRA TO CENTRAL WESTERN REGIONS: 172br / Introduction: 172br / Major Highlights: 173br / CAPE COAST: 173br / - Cape Coast Castle: 173br / - High life band: 174br / - Cooking, batiking and drumming workshops: 174br / - Baobab Café: 175br / - Oasis Beach Bar: 175br / - Restaurants and chop bars: 176br / - Dancing and drumming classes: 177br / - Gramophone Records Museum: 177br / - Eshu Spa Centre: 177br / - Toilets—Cape Coast: 178br / - Stay in Cape Coast: 178br / - To From Cape Coast—How to: 181br / JUST OUTSIDE CAPE COAST: 182br / - Anomabo Beach Resort: 182br / - Kakum National Park: 183br / - Monkey Forest Reserve: 183br / - To From Kakum—How to: 183br / ELMINA: 183br / - Elmina Castle: 184br / - Elmina Walking Tours: 184br / - Fish Market: 185br / - Elimax Spot: 185br / - African Pot Spot: 187br / - Mabel’s Table: 187br / - Toilets—Elmina: 188br / - Stay in Elmina: 188br / - To From Elmina—How to: 189br / JUST PAST ELMINA: 190br / - Brenu Beach Resort: 190br / - Ko-sa Beach Resort: 190br / - To From Brenu Ko-sa—How to: 191br / TAKORADI: 192br / - Stay in Takoradi: 193br / - To From Takoradi—How to: 194br / BEYOND TAKORADI: 194br / - Busua Beach: 194br / - African Rainbow Resort: 194br / - Green Turtle Resort: 195br / - Butre Beach: 197br / - To From Busua/GT/Butre—How to: 198br / FURTHER BEYOND TAKORADI: 199br / - Axim Beach Resort: 199br / - Fort San Antonio: 200br / - To From Axim—How to: 201br / NZULEZO BEYIN: 201br / - Nzulezo Stilt Village: 201br / - Stay in Nzulezo: 203br / - Beyin Beach Resort: 203br / - To From Beyin/Nzulezo—How to: 204br / br / PART 3: ACCRA TO EASTERN VOLTA REGIONS: 205br / Introduction: 205br / Major Highlights: 205br / ACCRA TO KOFORIDUA: 206br / - Koforidua Bead Market: 206br / - Toilets—Koforidua: 206br / - Stay in Koforidua: 208br / - Ananse Village: 208br / - To From Koforidua—How to: 209br / VIA KROBO TO ATIMPOKU: 210br / - Cedi Beads: 210br / - Agomanya Bead Market: 210br / AKOSOMBO ATIMPOKU: 211br / - Stay in Atimpoku: 211br / - Aylo’s Bay: 211br / - To From Atimpoku—How to: 212br / HO KPOTOE WEAVERS: 213br / - Kpotoe Weaving Village: 213br / - Toilets—Ho: 214br / - Stay in Ho: 214br / - To From Ho—How to: 216br / BIAKPA MOUNTAIN PARADISE: 216br / - To From Mountain Paradise: 217br / WLI WATERFALLS: 218br / - Stay in Wli: 218br / - Waterfall Lodge: 218br / - Waterview Heights: 219br / - To From Wli Ho—How to: 219br / ACROSS LAKE VOLTA TO KUMASI: 220br / - Kpando Pottery Fesi Shed: 220br / - Kpando to Agordeke Ferry: 221br / br / PART 4: ACCRA TO ASHANTI BRONG AHAFO REGIONS: 223br / Introduction 223br / Major Highlights: 223br / KUMASI: 224br / - National Cultural Centre: 224br / - Kejetia Market: 225br / - Restaurants: 225br / - Toilets—Kumasi: 226br / - Stay in Kumasi: 226br / - Four Villages Inn: 226br / - Presbyterian Guest House: 227br / - To From Kumasi—How to: 228br / JUST OUTSIDE KUMASI: 229br / - Lake Bosumtwi: 229br / - Rainbow Garden Village: 230br / - To From Lake Bosumtwi—How to: 230br / - Bonwire Adanwomase: 231br / - Bonwire Kente weaving: 231br / - Adanwomase Kente weaving: 232br / NKORANZA: 232br / - Operation Hand in Hand: 232br / - Baobeng Fiema Monkey Sanctuary: 234br / To From Techiman/OHIH—How to: 235br / br / PART 5: ACCRA TO THREE NORTHERN REGIONS: 236br / Introduction: 236br / Major Highlights: 237br / TAMALE: 237br / - Tamale Central Market: 237br / - Toilets—Tamale: 239br / - Stay in Tamale: 239br / - To From Tamale—How to: 240br / - Akosombo-Yeji Ferry Map: 242br / MOLE PARK LARABANGA: 243br / - Stay in Mole or Larabanga: 244br / - To From Mole—How to: 244br / BOLGATANGA: 245br / - Bolgatanga Market: 246br / - Bolga baskets: 247br / - Bolga basket workshop: 247br / - Restaurants: 248br / - Toilets—Bolga: 249br / - Stay in Bolga: 249br / - To From Bolga—How to: 250br / SIRIGU-NAVRONGO-PAGA-PIKWORO: 251br / - Sirigu Potters and SWOPA: 251br / - Navrongo mud cathedral: 252br / - Paga Crocodiles: 252br / - Pikworo slave camp: 253br / WA: 253br / - Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary: 254br / - To From Wechiau and Wa: 254br / br / SAMPLE JOURNEY MAPS: 255br / Printable journey planner map: 255br / Travel times between cities: 255br / Distances between cities: 256br / MAPS SHOWING JOURNEY CONNECTIONSbr / Lake Volta ferry map: 256br / All over tour option 1: 257br / All over tour option 2: 258br / All over tour option 3: 259br / Best of Ghana tour: 260br / Coastal Highlights tour: 260br / Forts Castles tour: 261br / Best of Beads tour: 261br / Expanded Highlights tour: 262br / Arts Crafts tour: 263br / Nature tour: 264br / Volta tour: 264br / Wildlife tour: 265br / Northern tour: 266br / Southern tour: 267br / TRANSPORT TIMETABLES: 268—277br / 2-3 transport options from all major citiesbr / Times, prices for departurebr / LIST OF WEBSITES: 278br / br / You can buy the Insider's Guide to Ghana now by clicking through to the shopping cart pagebr / a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=617317c=singlecl=103846" target="ejejcsingle"img src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" border="0" alt="Buy Now"//adiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-2453155437803414199?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=G-I1C3Q8z_o:DRL9De3gD3g:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=G-I1C3Q8z_o:DRL9De3gD3g:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=G-I1C3Q8z_o:DRL9De3gD3g:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=G-I1C3Q8z_o:DRL9De3gD3g:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/G-I1C3Q8z_o" height="1" width="1"/
• February 12, 2010
• 16:00

  Insider's Guide to Ghana: Arriving excerpt

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3VNa7HSNcI/AAAAAAAAAqs/nsJniZj0m8M/s1600-h/Guide-arriving.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="492" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3VNa7HSNcI/AAAAAAAAAqs/nsJniZj0m8M/s640/Guide-arriving.JPG" width="640" //a/divbr / We have posted an excerpt from the Insider's Guide to Ghana from the section on "Arriving" to give you a sense of how the guide looks and the style of the content. You can check out the details of the guide here at an earlier post about a href="http://gisforghana.blogspot.com/2010/02/ghana-guide-insiders-guide-to-ghana.html"the Insider's Guide/a.br / br / To buy the Insider's Guide to Ghana now, clickbr / a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=617317c=singlecl=103846" target="ejejcsingle"img src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" border="0" alt="Buy Now"//adiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-8544350544165156045?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=zVzEQ568bS0:XW0sV_wtueI:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=zVzEQ568bS0:XW0sV_wtueI:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=zVzEQ568bS0:XW0sV_wtueI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=zVzEQ568bS0:XW0sV_wtueI:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/zVzEQ568bS0" height="1" width="1"/
• 12:14

  Ghana guide: Insider's Guide to Ghana released

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"We have just launched the span style="font-weight: bold;"Insider’s Guide to Ghana/span: an unconventional travel guide book. Why? Because it is a 278 page, instantly downloadable PDF guide to travel in Ghana./spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"We decided to write the kind of guide book that would let visitors benefit from our inside knowledge and experience. A guide that is:/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"• Up-to-date on prices, names and numbers/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"• explains clearly how to get from A-to-B/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"• includes only the best attractions and accommodation/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"• that also explains what Ghana and Ghanaians are really like/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"• with extended culture, costs, health, preparation and dangers sections/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"• and includes our insider’s tips throughout every section/spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"The stressful nature of transport in Ghana/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"After almost 4 years of living and travel in Ghana, I believe the most challenging aspect of travel for the independent traveler is transport. This is because there are no up-to-date printed or online timetables for any one transport company. Also, transport services are scattered all over cities and are virtually never signposted other than directly outside the establishment. /spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"Planning ahead of your day of departure has traditionally involved traveling across traffic-jammed cities to a bus station, asking them when their services leave, attempting to buy a ticket for the next day, going back to stay somewhere for the night, then returning the next day to catch the bus. There are no online booking or reservations. There are no phone reservations. You have to physically travel across cities and take your chances. This costs time and money, not to mention energy expended in the hot and sticky day-time temperatures and being stuck in Accra’s smoggy, endless traffic jams for hours. Lonely Planet rated Accra as one of the world’s top 10 worst cities—which is not really a surprise for those who’ve had to get around without any kind of transport map or explanation./spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"No more stress. OK: a lot less stress. (Nothing will ever be totally stress-free in Ghana.)/spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"The Insider’s Guide to Ghana takes that hassle and guess work out of transport and planning. /spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"The cost of this guide is span style="font-style: italic;"less than half of what you would pay in taxis across Accra to a bus station only to find that there is no bus departing until tomorrow and doubling back to a hotel for the night and returning the next day/span—until now, you’ve had no choice but to take this hit and miss approach. /spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"No more hit and miss./spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"This guide changes that. This Ghana guide gives you no less than five timetables showing fares from Accra to destinations all over Ghana—as well as clear explanations of the company’s location with a map showing where they’re located in Accra. And you get at least two options between all other cities—but often three. Not only that, you get our insider’s tips on some unusual connections that will make long distance travel easier—these are not obvious unless you’ve been here a while./spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"Avoiding that one trip across Accra saves you twice the value of this guide and days of valuable travel time. What are you waiting for? /spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"You can buy it now: Click the link to the secure checkout. /spana href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=617317amp;c=singleamp;cl=103846" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" target="ejejcsingle"img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" //abr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"OK, if you’re like me, you want to know more. /spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"Our style/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"By the way, we have written the guide in an informal, chatty style so you will hear our “voice” throughout, rather than the somewhat detached, cool style you will find in most guide books. If you like the style of writing you read on this blog, you will like the guide. /spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"Why us?/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"Many travelers are familiar with one or another city in Ghana—say, Accra or Cape Coast or Kumasi—but it’s very difficult to find people with knowledge across the country. And it’s even more difficult to find this in a clear, precise and logical format. And even more difficult to find it distilled from the point of view of both a foreigner (who has traveled in your shoes and knew nothing about Africa or developing countries when she first touched down in Ghana in July 2005) and a Ghanaian who has traveled and lived all over Ghana and interacted with foreign visitors in volunteer settings for years./spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"Who are we to write this guide?/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"The difference between us and other guide writers is that we live here. This is our home. And we’re not scheduling writing this between writing guides to five other countries. We don’t drop in every few years and spend 8 weeks madly updating a book that is then not published for another 12 months after this short visit.br / br / /spanspan style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"We are on the ground every day and Ghana is it. We pick up new tips and ideas daily. We hear a lot through the grapevine which we translate into helpful tips and information in the guide. And we’ve experienced first-hand every topic we write about. (Once you’ve used some guides for a while you’ll see that the writer didn’t actually do the journey themselves). /spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"“To and From” Sections/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"We have included longer-than-average explanations on how to get to and from places. When you read the introduction to the guide, you will see that maps and directions are one of the biggest challenges in Ghana. We’ve given you these details in language that drivers (you will have to explain them to) will understand—because there is a huge gap between navigating in western countries and navigating Ghana-style. The Insider’s Guide to Ghana fills that gap and, therefore, makes your journey much less stressful than it may otherwise be—and will save you time and money./spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"How it all fits together—explained /spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"Another important point is that other guides show maps by regions with a map of the whole country, but they don’t show how the regions connect—like how to get from one to the other and, thus, how the attraction you actually want to get to connects with the next attraction. For example, when reading other guides it’s very difficult to work out how to get from, say, Wli Waterfalls in the Volta Region to Green Turtle beach resort in the Western Region on public transport or driving yourself. Should you return to Accra? Should you cross Lake Volta? Can you go via Koforidua? You have to read the minute detail at the end of each area section and then flip 20 pages ahead and read the minute detail there and often you still can’t work it out and have to flip back. But all trips (unless you don’t venture out of Accra) overlap from one region to another. /spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"Choose your own adventure! /spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"So we’ve included a dozen maps of the most common trips travelers take around Ghana showing connection points from city or town to town, and the sequence in which you can do it, so you can see how you can get from A to B to C to D to E—or skip C and D and go straight to E—you can work this out with our maps. To make it easier, we included a printable country map with dotted lines between connecting points so you will be able to instantly see the potential routes you can take to get around the whole country and avoid backtracking. We show maps by ‘journeys’, not regions that form but one part of a journey. The Insider’s Guide to Ghana will give you a clearer picture of how all the cities and towns—and therefore the major attractions—connect so you can save time and do and see more./spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"The informal transport system/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"In addition to that, we’ve given a comprehensive explanation of how the informal transport system works. We believe this is unprecedented. When you first arrive you will think there is no order to the trotro (mini bus) and share and dropping taxi systems, but there is method in this madness and that’s what we have taken the time (several pages) to explain. You will be able to hit the ground running—or at least walking./spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"Sex and dating/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"This may prove to be a controversial inclusion, but we felt it necessary. In fact, since we mentioned this on the blog a week or so ago we have received several emails asking for this section before we actually release the guide—there is a need. This is because many visitors have some kind of friendly or romantic encounter and, more often than not, come out burnt in some way. We felt that a dose of frank, honest and sobering advice based on our first- and second-hand knowledge will help you and your friends and associates avoid some of the heartache we’ve witnessed over the years. This section is five pages long and covers the cultural context including the fact that men are permitted to have multiple sexual partners (and are not expected to be honest about it), the issue of money and dating, and a couple of paragraphs on sexual intercourse itself (you might find it’s not worth the hassle). We also discuss more serious issues in relationships and communication should you be in that situation. /spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"Travel visas/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"Visas. We have included clear, accurate and extensive information about obtaining a visa with lists of embassy contacts in dozens of countries. There is much conflicting information and advice online, but we researched this with immigration officials directly and distilled it down to the most important elements including what you need to know about visitor visas, documentation, applying, and the confusing contradiction between the duration stated in your visa and the stamp you receive upon arrival. We explain this clearly and simply. We also explain the “extension of stay” that you must receive should you stay longer than 60 days. And we explain the truth about visa on arrival. There is also extended information on working, investment and student visas. /spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"Hospitals/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"I’m torn between whether finding a good clinic is more difficult than understanding the transport system. Either way, finding a good clinic is very difficult. However, we have inside tips about the best clinics and physicians gleaned from our network of contacts that means you get two pages of contacts that you can’t get anywhere else. If you’re staying here for any length of time, even a month, this information is invaluable should you fall sick. We have more than a dozen good contacts in Accra as well as at least one or two for Ho, Hohoe, Cape Coast, Takoradi, and Tamale./spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"By now you may see that you will save the cost of this guide countless times over.br / You can buy it right now by clicking a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=617317amp;c=singleamp;cl=103846" target="ejejcsingle"img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" //a./spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"Attractions and journeys/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"We have focused on all major, and some not-so-major, and some little-known-but-excellent destinations that travelers rave about, and we have chosen to leave some places out. For example, we’ve not heard one positive word about Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary in the Volta region from the dozens of visitors we know who’ve visited over the years. “Not worth it” and “disappointing” were the usual responses. When you have options like Baobeng Fiema near Techiman that are worth it, we feel it’s not worth recommending any place that doesn’t meet a certain standard. It’s subjective, but we didn’t want to “pad” our guide with everything and anything. We chose to leave establishments and attractions that we feel, after considering the accumulated feedback over the years, are not worth the effort./spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"We know that most travelers have limited time and simply cannot see everything. It is doubtful that you could see everything that we’ve included in our guide in 2 full-time months of traveling, let alone a shorter time frame. Even with what we have included, it is likely that you will have to miss some excellent attractions. But it is less likely that you will hit a terrible or poor attraction. If you do feel something is not up to par, please let us know. We value your feedback—good, bad and ugly! Bring it on./spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"None of the establishments listed were aware of our presence throughout our writing this guide—unless someone noticed us taking copious notes at meal times. We haven’t received any free meals or rooms from any establishments. As far as we know, the establishments chosen are not aware that we have chosen to feature them or in fact that this guide even exists. In other words, we paid everywhere we stayed (many times in some cases) and chose to include establishments because they’re good—or even better./spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"We have listed dozens of attractions, hidden or in-the-know shops, restaurants and bars. We elaborate on those establishments worth getting to and, particularly, how to find them in detail. We also bullet point most hotels’ features so that you can quickly scan them and compare. We deliberately omitted some of the famous international chains for the terrible feedback regarding service. We focused more on boutique hotels and lodges with a personal feel that have excellent or higher than average customer service. Of the budget options, we can’t guarantee top-notch service, but they were all reasonable by Ghana standards. /spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;"The PDF Guide/spanbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"We have created two versions of the guide: Easy Read and Easy Print. “Easy Read” is designed specifically to be read on a computer screen. Font is 12 point and 1.5 spaced (between lines) so that it is easy on the eyes. Each section has a distinct colour theme so that, when you scroll through, you can identify where you’re at easily by the colour. In addition, each page has a section header at the top showing which section you’re in, like a book has a chapter title at the top of the page. This is 5.5 MBs. /spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"“Easy Print” has exactly the same content, but it is designed to be printed, should you wish to print any part of the guide. This version is black and white, 10 point font and single spaced lines so that more information fits on one page and you don’t have to use all your coloured ink and use less weight in paper. This is 3.5 MBs. /spanbr / br / div style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"You get both versions for $US 15.00. Again, the price is US$15.00 for the two versions. They are in a zip file and will be downloaded together./divbr / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"You also have the option of downloading the 46 page Insider’s Guide to Volunteering in Ghana for free with this guide. You will see it with the shopping cart when you click through to pay. You can also get it separately at www.g-lish.org /spanbr / br / span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"So that is a brief overview of the reasoning and content of the guide. We truly welcome all feedback. Writing has been a long, surreal process and we shall write a post or two about that experience in coming weeks too./spanbr / div style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"br / /divdiv style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"When you buy the guide you will receive a zip file which contains both the easy read (colour, 1.5 spaced) version and the easy print (black and white, single spaced) version. You will also have an option to download the Insider's Guide to Volunteering in Ghana for free at the same time. You will be directed to a site to purchase the guide using a secure connection. When your payment is accepted you will receive a link to download the guide immediately. It's that simple./divspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;,sans-serif;"You can buy it now by clicking on the payment button here/span a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=617317amp;c=singleamp;cl=103846" target="ejejcsingle"img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-3647643396849834853?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=cQwbLkYfD1c:FhAC_HDQe6U:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=cQwbLkYfD1c:FhAC_HDQe6U:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=cQwbLkYfD1c:FhAC_HDQe6U:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=cQwbLkYfD1c:FhAC_HDQe6U:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/cQwbLkYfD1c" height="1" width="1"/
• 12:10

  How to Shake Hands in Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana

  Enclosure: [download]

  You might be wondering what the fuss is, but there is a certain way of shaking hands in Ghana. We made a small clip to show you. First grasp hands and shake with your right hand as standard in western countries, then...you snap your middle fingers together to make a clicking noise!br /br /Check out the clip here.br /br /object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-2f21e3396dc0c938" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"param name="movie" value="http://www.blogger.com/img/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fv13.nonxt5.googlevideo.com%2Fvideoplayback%3Fid%3D2f21e3396dc0c938%26itag%3D5%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26app%3Dblogger%26et%3Dplay%26el%3DEMBEDDED%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1269169700%26sparams%3Did%252Citag%252Cip%252Cipbits%252Cexpire%26signature%3D1027B151945A6CAA36A0653A9B2073DE763EE008.6D3AEC7C1AE95B96D90793FC9DEB17256A739919%26key%3Dck1amp;nogvlm=1amp;thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D2f21e3396dc0c938%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3D2VqZbSxiqR0KEsqyYNlaoc09z7Qamp;messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den" param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.blogger.com/img/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fv13.nonxt5.googlevideo.com%2Fvideoplayback%3Fid%3D2f21e3396dc0c938%26itag%3D5%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26app%3Dblogger%26et%3Dplay%26el%3DEMBEDDED%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1269169700%26sparams%3Did%252Citag%252Cip%252Cipbits%252Cexpire%26signature%3D1027B151945A6CAA36A0653A9B2073DE763EE008.6D3AEC7C1AE95B96D90793FC9DEB17256A739919%26key%3Dck1amp;nogvlm=1amp;thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D2f21e3396dc0c938%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3D2VqZbSxiqR0KEsqyYNlaoc09z7Qamp;messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/embed/object br /br /Oh, and the noise in the background are the dozens of guinea fowls in our garden!div class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-7528596129044862607?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=8pFlKRlr7Wk:q41K949rzT4:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=8pFlKRlr7Wk:q41K949rzT4:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=8pFlKRlr7Wk:q41K949rzT4:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=8pFlKRlr7Wk:q41K949rzT4:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/8pFlKRlr7Wk" height="1" width="1"/
• February 09, 2010
• 13:29

  Accra accommodation: Rising Phoenix and photos

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3Fl-q8vxPI/AAAAAAAAAp8/350qRmWySMc/s1600-h/32.jpg"img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436238352568272114" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3Fl-q8vxPI/AAAAAAAAAp8/350qRmWySMc/s400/32.jpg" //aemspan style="font-size:85%;"br //span/emdiv align="center"span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"emspan style="font-size:85%;"On this cloudy morning the only sunlight to break through shone a golden line over the horizon. You may just be able to see the glow./span/embr /br //div/spandivspan style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"On our recent trip to Accra we took these photos from the verandah of our room at The Rising Phoenix. The a href="http://magicbeachresort.com/"Rising Phoenix /ais the former Akuma Village that we refer to in a href="http://gisforghana.blogspot.com/2009/10/ghana-highlights-part-1-accra-to.html"Ghana Highlights Part 1/a and which we've updated in the Insider's Guide to Ghana. For those living in Accra, Rising Phoenix will hold free yoga and meditation classes daily from 7 a.m. They also hold reggae nights on Fridays with a 5 GHC cover charge. And, they have an excellent vegetarian menu with Greek Salads ranging from 3.00 GHC and, for example, Ghanaian dishes with a twist: Jollof rice with tofu. It's very good value and the view is spectacular. It's also just a 5 minute walk to Kwame Nkrumah's mausoleum and the Cultural Centre and there is an excellent Vodaphone Internet Cafe directly behind./span/divdivspan style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"/span/divdivspan style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"Rooms sit on a cliff overlooking the ocean--the views from this photo--and cost between 20-30 GHC per night. A great budget option in the centre of Accra. We have this and plenty more in the new guide. Subscribe on the right if you would like to be updated upon the release. Discounts for the first 24 hours and a fun competition with prizes for travelers in Ghana./span/divbr /pimg style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436238338723233714" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3Fl93X1P7I/AAAAAAAAAps/29JjdPrDiPY/s400/28.jpg" //pp align="center"span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"emWhen the sun finally broke through the clouds it cast a heavenly glow over the ocean and the fishermen pulling in their overnight haul./em/span /pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-5255771176972378806?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=xGDw5Nwl8Zk:2wKcEySeKfY:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=xGDw5Nwl8Zk:2wKcEySeKfY:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=xGDw5Nwl8Zk:2wKcEySeKfY:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=xGDw5Nwl8Zk:2wKcEySeKfY:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/xGDw5Nwl8Zk" height="1" width="1"/
• February 08, 2010
• 19:01

  Basket Day in Bolgatanga, Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3BghFPF_BI/AAAAAAAAApk/PF9_dSA-M90/s1600-h/27.jpg"img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435950871693622290" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3BghFPF_BI/AAAAAAAAApk/PF9_dSA-M90/s400/27.jpg" //aI took these photos on market day in Bolgatanga. Every third day, in rotation, basket makers come into town from outlying villages and sell their baskets to middle-men traders. Sometimes they may have only 2 or 3 baskets to sell, but this is enough to buy food for a few more days.br /br /In the Insider's Guide to Ghana we outline a workshop you can do with women basket makers in a village just 5 minutes outside of town. Half-day and full-day workshops will include weaving and taking home your own basket, a village tour and experiencing a taste of life in northern Ghana. The workshop will cost 20 GHC for a full day and 15 GHC for half day, inclusive of finished basket--your gift. Look out for this and hundreds of other insider tips and off-the-beaten track attractions in the guide--coming soon!br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3Bgg44I_LI/AAAAAAAAApc/fwdRq5hYnUI/s1600-h/26.jpg"img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435950868376124594" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/S3Bgg44I_LI/AAAAAAAAApc/fwdRq5hYnUI/s400/26.jpg" //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-5594760590701633816?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=FXeO_Ppss4Q:ybNn4PT9MMY:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=FXeO_Ppss4Q:ybNn4PT9MMY:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=FXeO_Ppss4Q:ybNn4PT9MMY:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=FXeO_Ppss4Q:ybNn4PT9MMY:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/FXeO_Ppss4Q" height="1" width="1"/
• February 02, 2010
• 17:22

  Update: Insider's Guide to Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We're cracking on the final legs now...br /br /Here's a list of more of the stuff in the guide:br /ulliThe best hotels, in their price range, across the country, with a focus on those outside the mainstream and those that are lesser known, but excellent value for money./li/ululliAt least 3 transport options per regional capital with all departure times and prices, and a very detailed explanation of how they work. /li/ululliIf you've ever traveled in Ghana you'll know that it's virtually impossible to get even one bus company's complete timetable, even when you visit them directly, let alone options for others to compare. This will give you total freedom to come and go at your convenience (we know there will still be issues, but this will take much of the planning hassle out of it) while traveling independently in Ghana./li/ululliA printable map showing connections between major and smaller destinations across the country so you can plan and trace your own journeys without having to know anything about Ghana before you arrive--it's all there for you./li/ulAnd loads more that we'll be updating over the next few days.div class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-6770052633545304060?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=LDJHc7PjxGo:HJNPgfJOhno:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=LDJHc7PjxGo:HJNPgfJOhno:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=LDJHc7PjxGo:HJNPgfJOhno:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=LDJHc7PjxGo:HJNPgfJOhno:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/LDJHc7PjxGo" height="1" width="1"/
• January 31, 2010
• 15:06

  Insider's Guide to Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  OK, the Insider's Guide to Ghana. As I wrote earlier, it's looking like 250 A4 pages (1.5 spaced) with at least 30 maps. The key to our guide is "insider"; that is, it includes the kind of information you only get by living here for years and traveling extensively across all parts of the country--several times.br /br /What this means is you get the benefit of our mistakes--such as the time we took the totally wrong vehicle but ended up in a really beautiful part of the country and staying in a guest house that wasn't yet listed in any guide, discovering a new way to get about that area too. You get that--without all the hassle.br /br /You will be able to navigate the country, alone, almost immediately if you read the guide before departing or anytime after arriving.br /br /You also get the benefit of an articulate and well-traveled Ghanaian's perspective on travel, life, and culture in Ghana. For example, we've included a section on "dating and intimate relationships" for travelers in Ghana. Why? Because in our experience working and volunteering with hundreds of foreigners, about 40% (our rough guess) enter a short or long-term relationship with a Ghanaian and most have no idea what the heck is going on most of the time because the cultural gap is huge.br /br /For example, most Ghanaians will say "I love you" after the first date or the first hour of knowing you. This is rather difficult for most westerners to comprehend. "You don't span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"love /spanme," they will reply. The word "love" is used offhandedly in Ghana. Obviously it doesn't mean deep, committed, caring love. It's generally what must be said to get things moving to the next level, even if it's shallower than Benya Lagoon; it's expected between Ghanaians. We interpret this and many other "challenges" that come up in relationships (and flings) between Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians so you can avoid getting burnt the way we have seen many others.br /br /Many foreigners, for example, are asked for money or some kind of material good after a few days of dating. We've seen many people completely taken advantage of in this regard. We elaborate extensively on this.br /br /You may not be planning on such an encounter, and we met many people who expressed no interest whatsoever, only to suddenly find themselves involved some weeks down the track--even when they had partners in their home country. It's not uncommon.br /br /So, while we don't know of any other guide addressing this, we felt it remiss of us not to given the problems, drama and tears we've witnessed over the years. There is certainly scope to meet someone genuine, but we estimate that only about 1 in 10 people you meet are truly genuinely interested in you for being you (not a passport or ATM card or some other source of access to money or travel overseas). So, we devote about 5 pages to this in the 35 page section on background and culture. Watch this space. Or subscribe by email on the right to be kept informed about the imminent release.div class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-7134268263023137452?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=s4OYzMV6HKA:iD5V-o_qNEg:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=s4OYzMV6HKA:iD5V-o_qNEg:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=s4OYzMV6HKA:iD5V-o_qNEg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=s4OYzMV6HKA:iD5V-o_qNEg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/s4OYzMV6HKA" height="1" width="1"/
• 14:57

  Ethiopia Clean Water Project

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  I'm anticipating a few questions over this post since I live in a nation equally in need of better access to water even in the capital city, Accra. I also know that the world is in donating to Haiti mode--unquestionably important.br /br /Nevertheless, an excellent blogger (who spent 4 years volunteering for a medical charity in West Africa) at a href="http://www.chrisguillebeau.com/"The Art of Non Comformity/a blog is campaigning to raise $500,000 by next year for clean water access in Ethiopia. I know much of this blog's readership understands the dire situation regarding lack of access to clean drinking (or any) water across much of the developing world so I thought you might be interested to get involved in this campaign knowing that any contribution will actually go where it's intended. Check out a href="http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/clean-water-for-ethiopia/comment-page-1/#comment-17235"Clean Water for Ethiopia/a here to get the full story.div class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-7166506546972977671?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3a2HfZkWahY:s74HzlXg4Fo:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3a2HfZkWahY:s74HzlXg4Fo:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3a2HfZkWahY:s74HzlXg4Fo:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=3a2HfZkWahY:s74HzlXg4Fo:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/3a2HfZkWahY" height="1" width="1"/
• January 27, 2010
• 16:35

  Guide Updates

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  So we're very close to finishing the new Insider's Guide Book to Ghana. It's looking like 250 A4 pages now--about 90,000 words in total and 35 pages of maps. Boy, it's kept us busy. The details! And I swore I'd never write a guide book. Never say never. At this stage I might end up liking cricket if I'm not careful. Until our next update. Happy Ghana travels.br /br /Check out the "Ghana Highlights" series if you're looking for info on Ghana. It's referenced as a link on the right hand side.div class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-7459291553502275502?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Cb9MMGSo9Qg:o_aDFWxbPC0:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Cb9MMGSo9Qg:o_aDFWxbPC0:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Cb9MMGSo9Qg:o_aDFWxbPC0:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=Cb9MMGSo9Qg:o_aDFWxbPC0:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/Cb9MMGSo9Qg" height="1" width="1"/
• January 18, 2010
• 12:38

  New Guide to Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  As we hinted a few weeks ago, Godwin and I are finalising a brand new Guide Book to Ghana. It's not your average guide book in many respects.br /br /This is what makes it different.br /br /1. It's written by the two of us (an Australian and Ghanaian) with the cumulative experience of our own extensive travels, work and life across Ghana.br /br /2. It integrates years of feedback from hundreds of travelers and volunteers we've worked directly with about the best and worst of Ghana and how to do it--as insider's. Even before you leave home you have the benefit of hundreds of people's years of mistakes and best experiences distilled to the most important elements in one handy, downloadable resource. br /br /3. Yes, our guide is a downloadable PDF that you will receive instantly upon payment. You might wonder why we're selling it. We need to live too. If you read the Insider's Guide to Volunteering you'll see that Gayle spent over $10,000 in her endeavours as a volunteer for a year in Ghana. We've both volunteered our time extensively to help organisations making a difference in Ghana related to poverty reduction and travel. This will help us to help others to keep making a difference.br /br /4. It includes all the posts at this site plus some excellent information that you cannot get in or outside of Ghana. We'll outline that more in future posts. The posts from this blog formed the backbone of the guide--so you get everything from This is Ghana--organised brilliantly (if we may say so) with double what we have here as extra insider's tips and insights.br /br /So, this is just the beginning. Stay tuned for more.div class="blogger-post-footer"Download a sample of the Insider's Guide to Ghana here: [www.g-lish.org] width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-5316417959336242653?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=kuT0yfUxRL0:mYdx8OEhRTs:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=kuT0yfUxRL0:mYdx8OEhRTs:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=kuT0yfUxRL0:mYdx8OEhRTs:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=kuT0yfUxRL0:mYdx8OEhRTs:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/kuT0yfUxRL0" height="1" width="1"/
• 11:29

  Top 5 posts of 2009

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  You might be interested to know what the most popular posts of 2009 were. Here they are in order.1. How Dangerous is travel in Ghana?This is not really a surprise as we did a mini survey about what visitors wanted to know and Danger came out top of the list.2. 19 Day tour of GhanaWe received numerous emails asking about what's best to see and do. After almost 4 years in Ghana, we put together ourdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=3ic_rEDoA9E:2XP0Vtq1Byo:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/3ic_rEDoA9E" height="1" width="1"/
• January 03, 2010
• 17:11

  Insider's Guide to Volunteering in Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  For those who haven't checked it out yet, you can download the Volunteering Guide for free, no sign ups or anything, here:Insider's Guide to Volunteering in Ghana at our new web site G-lish.orgHappy Holidays and stay safe and thanks for reading and sticking by us and for all the positive feedback about the Volunteer Guide so far.Please let us know if there is anything you'd like to add to the div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=22Mh7WTbfbo:FpEnUAjxx-U:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/22Mh7WTbfbo" height="1" width="1"/
• January 01, 2010
• 13:45

  Welcoming 2010: Ghana Style

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  Join us for a pictorial journey through Ghana and prepare yourself for the new year!1. Take stock of history.[/caption]Viewing the courtyard of Elmina Castle, the oldest standing European building in sub-Saharan Africa.2. Now, time for a fresh start.A split fresh coconut at Green Turtle Lodge3. Looking for a change of direction? What are you good at? Maybe you’re a great cook?The holiday menu at div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=xAQd_fjn7a0:wBWO6LJTWbI:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/xAQd_fjn7a0" height="1" width="1"/
• 10:00

  17 Ways to Start 2010: Ghana Style

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  Join us for a pictorial journey through Ghana and prepare yourself for the new year!You can read the whole post over at our new site G-lish.org or click on the link to the post: 17 Ways to Welcome 2010: Ghana StyleHere is a sneak peak!1. Take stock of history.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ZVyxl37xKoM:F4Nr09bQWSU:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/ZVyxl37xKoM" height="1" width="1"/
• December 31, 2009
• 13:08

  Goodbye 2009...and thank you

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  !--[if gte mso 9]gt; Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 ![endif]--gt;!--[if gte mso 9]gt; ![endif]--gt;!--[if !mso]gt; st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } ![endif]--gt; !-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9GV8sxqH9CU:lBXTIlcDJGE:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/9GV8sxqH9CU" height="1" width="1"/
• December 30, 2009
• 12:27

  Top 5 Posts of 2009

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We reviewed the year that was in blogging. As part of this, we checked our feedburner stats. We wanted to see which posts were most popular. We should mention that we only started measuring stats in October! Better late than never. Drum roll please...Top 5 posts of 2009 in order: Number one was How dangerous is travel in Ghana?Read the whole post at our new Blog. G-lish.org: Top 5 Posts of 2009 div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=eJoNVF976MU:fq0xpkfmq8U:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/eJoNVF976MU" height="1" width="1"/
• 12:08

  Christmas in Bolgatanga, Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  I did a guest post over at Ever The Nomad about Christmas here, in Bolgatanga. And we just posted it to our new blog site G-lish.org here: Christmas in Ghana.You can read the whole post at Ever the Nomad by clicking on this link Guest Post Ghana. Here is a short excerpt:There are no gifts. There is no roast turkey or goose. There are no chocolates or puddings or trees or tinsel. The aroma of div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=NaRx0lBjJc8:pbcb2_I4J8s:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/NaRx0lBjJc8" height="1" width="1"/
• December 23, 2009
• 9:05

  Insider's Guide to Volunteering

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read every article from This is Ghana--in a much more organised fashion--and download the free Insider's Guide to Volunteering.We have posted the Insider’s Guide to Volunteering at our new site: G-lish Please visit the "Volunteering Guide" page/tab to click and quickly download a copy of the guide. No sign up or anything necessary. If you do like div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=h67ZQMKB2-s:1BQ2HFImva8:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/h67ZQMKB2-s" height="1" width="1"/
• December 21, 2009
• 13:30

  Insider's Guide: Two More Warning Signs

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read every article from This is Ghana--in a much more organised fashion--and download the free Insider's Guide to Volunteering. Two More Key Warning Signs to look out for: Warning sign: To “qualify” you must send some expensive item first, such as a lap top, camera, or a huge sum of money unrelated to the program. Solution: Don’t even reply to div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=cCaZEWTtZwo:BCaF-2KzBZA:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/cCaZEWTtZwo" height="1" width="1"/
• December 20, 2009
• 9:00

  More On Making A Difference in Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read every article from This is Ghana--in a much more organised fashion--and download the free Insider's Guide to Volunteering. In the Insider’s Guide to Volunteering we explain that you can’t make a difference in 2 weeks or 2 months (and even 2 years is pushing it—poverty is a complex problem), but we explain that what you can and will do is div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=VHHoF7U1R08:v3GNVycJe0Q:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/VHHoF7U1R08" height="1" width="1"/
• December 19, 2009
• 9:20

  Journalism volunteer projects in Ghana: A tip

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  !--[if gte mso 9]gt; Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 ![endif]--gt;!--[if gte mso 9]gt;div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Jq9zE15KtEc:BQcryg2-gRM:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/Jq9zE15KtEc" height="1" width="1"/
• December 18, 2009
• 13:13

  Update: Volunteering Guide

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read every article from This is Ghana--in a much more organised fashion--and download the free Insider's Guide to Volunteering.We're in the final stages of completing the Insider's Guide to Volunteering. We'll post the link to download it early next week, just in time for Christmas. Oh, and here is one of my favourite world-changing organisations: div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=D0kt6TOSw5s:tmHU8Zq-14U:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/D0kt6TOSw5s" height="1" width="1"/
• 9:07

  When to Volunteer in Ghana?

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  !--[if gte mso 9]gt; Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 ![endif]--gt;!--[if gte mso 9]gt;div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=5VyaHb38iek:YjhJa0Odq18:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/5VyaHb38iek" height="1" width="1"/
• December 17, 2009
• 9:30

  Bad Volunteer Programs: Warning Signs and Solutions

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  !--[if gte mso 9]gt; Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 ![endif]--gt;!--[if gte mso 9]gt;div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=f-Zv4NuyOJo:z-F_YlJKXL0:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/f-Zv4NuyOJo" height="1" width="1"/
• December 16, 2009
• 8:58

  Key attributes of a helpful volunteer

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  !--[if gte mso 9]gt; Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 ![endif]--gt;!--[if gte mso 9]gt;div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6f2r8xcyz0A:-1FPWL-9yCs:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/6f2r8xcyz0A" height="1" width="1"/
• December 15, 2009
• 10:24

  Cautionary Tales: What to look out for in a volunteer program

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Cautionary Tales: What to look out for in a volunteer program there.We hope our tough-won experience guides you so that you can avoid the emotional and financial stress we saw many others endure—or endured ourselves.The most contemptible practices relate to the handling of div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=kQKTl5NWG_Y:c35q-ue-laI:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/kQKTl5NWG_Y" height="1" width="1"/
• 9:16

  Cautionary Tales: The Reality of Volunteering in Ghana (and elsewhere)

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  !--[if gte mso 9]gt; Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 ![endif]--gt;!--[if gte mso 9]gt;div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pSSBuAuqMfE:5_X4Imix-9Y:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/pSSBuAuqMfE" height="1" width="1"/
• December 14, 2009
• 9:02

  How much will you spend as a volunteer? Program costs and other issues.

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read How much will you spend as a volunteer? Program costs and other issues there.Here is a rough break down of what I spent volunteering for eleven months in Ghana in 2005. I didn’t keep perfect records of all my weekend trips, but I know from my bank records that this total is div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=au5zf4RJFok:x-lq4eC69YI:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/au5zf4RJFok" height="1" width="1"/
• December 13, 2009
• 18:01

  Key Volunteer Skills Always in Need and more

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Key Volunteer Skills Always in Need and more there.Any skill will find a home in a volunteer organisation. Does that sound too easy?If you’re a budding or experienced writer, many organisations need help with PR, marketing and newsletter writing and, these days, blogging anddiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=OyE7GD_1Tn8:AijOdf6FZsg:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/OyE7GD_1Tn8" height="1" width="1"/
• December 12, 2009
• 13:04

  But What Difference Will I Make as a Volunteer in Ghana?

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read But What Difference Will I Make as a Volunteer in Ghana? there.The one comment that virtually everyone I worked with made was that they were disappointed with “how little” they achieved and they didn’t feel like they made a difference. I said the same thing myself early div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=Za52Zxh2pMo:VTHxqR_V5M8:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/Za52Zxh2pMo" height="1" width="1"/
• 10:09

  About the Journey to Ghana and more

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read About the Journey to Ghana and more there.Very soon we’ll be posting a 22 page Insider’s Guide to Volunteering in Ghana as a PDF that you can download for free. It will include the sum of my and Godwin’s experiences—as volunteers and managers of volunteers. It will include div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=uoBiN_Ih50I:nPRPzrGLxmU:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/uoBiN_Ih50I" height="1" width="1"/
• December 11, 2009
• 15:38

  What Makes a Good Volunteer?

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read What Makes a Good Volunteer? there.Age, gender, work experience and nationality have nothing to do with how much people contribute and how well they cope when they come to volunteer in Ghana—or anywhere. I never could tell who would adapt and who would have trouble. Many div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=mefQkXavW3Y:rDz9rfNr-tM:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/mefQkXavW3Y" height="1" width="1"/
• December 09, 2009
• 16:48

  About the Journey to Ghana and more

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  Very soon we’ll be posting a 22 page Insider’s Guide to Volunteering in Ghana as a PDF that you can download for free. It will include the sum of my and Godwin’s experiences—as volunteers and managers of volunteers. It will include this journey, posted below, key attributes of a good volunteer, key skills, reviews of 6 good volunteer programmes and NGOs, an item by item outline of costs I div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F36eNV94pWI:qlsIpPRHbWo:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/F36eNV94pWI" height="1" width="1"/
• December 06, 2009
• 16:11

  Cape to Kumasi and Kejetia: the first time

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Cape to Kumasi and Kejetia: the first time there. I wrote this after my first visit to Kumasi and Kejetia. Maybe it will help you brave it too. Cape Coast. Tantre tro station. Touts shouting “Where are you going?” Market women selling stacked balls of Fanti Kenkey on the div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=9cw_-UW9DIA:cCbPDEIwcx0:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/9cw_-UW9DIA" height="1" width="1"/
• December 05, 2009
• 9:47

  My 2 Week Diary on Creativity or Working Without Electricity

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read My 2 Week Diary on Creativity or Working Without Electricity there.I was once able to sit and concentrate all day, without disruption. Now, even when I’m deeply engrossed in what I’m doing, I have no choice but to endure random disruptions and shift my attention to somethingdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=W4-pEia9mJk:BLa3F8Qqzy8:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/W4-pEia9mJk" height="1" width="1"/
• December 03, 2009
• 17:49

  Two different 19 Day Tours of Ghana for independent travellers

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Two 19 Day Tours of Ghana for independent travellers there.You can check out all the Ghana Highlights by clicking these links and planning your itineraries in depth around the places you most wish to visit.Itinerary 3: 19 Days Taking it easy like the Dude version.Days 1-6: div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=YPPk6UywHWo:uMCknTjv_8E:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/YPPk6UywHWo" height="1" width="1"/
• 17:11

  Ghana Travel Planner: two different 10 Day Tours of Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Ghana Travel Planner: two different 10 Day Tours of Ghana there.I tend to rough it as a traveler and don’t mind putting myself through hell to get where I want to go (which I didn’t know about myself until I came to Ghana), and sometimes forget that not everyone shares this div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=37b9vld4HlQ:kT9CpWI9eTg:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/37b9vld4HlQ" height="1" width="1"/
• December 02, 2009
• 10:24

  The Power of Prayer

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  !--[if gte mso 9]gt; Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 ![endif]--gt;!--[if gte mso 9]gt; ![endif]--gt;!--[if !mso]gt; st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } ![endif]--gt; !-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=RKt5zFFSrlI:gyBxEivexOA:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/RKt5zFFSrlI" height="1" width="1"/
• November 29, 2009
• 18:40

  Guide Book Writing: Inside the Rough Guide

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Guide Book Writing: Inside the Rough Guide there.This is a 2005 article but I thought it worth a mention since most readers are probably using some kind of travel guide book too. The Independent on Sunday published an article entitledGuide special: You can't believe div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=XLbQrv39bjQ:JAI0WeyMqCk:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/XLbQrv39bjQ" height="1" width="1"/
• November 21, 2009
• 15:12

  Ghana Highlights Part 4: Accra/south to the three northern regions

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Ghana Highlights Part 4: Accra/north to the three northern regions there.Welcome to what sometimes feels like ‘Far, Far Away Land’—the three northern regions of Ghana—which occupy about half of Ghana’s land mass. But they needn’t seem so far. I’ll give you a couple of tips (div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=vOZJ-yyr4KQ:vQzQ_33LWwE:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/vOZJ-yyr4KQ" height="1" width="1"/
• November 20, 2009
• 15:18

  Ghana Highlights Part 3: Accra to Kumasi and the Brong Ahafo

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Ghana Highlights Part 3: Accra to Kumasi and the Brong Ahafo there.Ghana Highlights Part 3: Accra to Kumasi and the Brong Ahafo. In this part, we’ll cover the highlights in Kumasi and the Ashanti Region, then north to the Brong Ahafo Region. Part 4 (which I created because div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=nLng0mhDyvU:KddiHPhdvjI:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/nLng0mhDyvU" height="1" width="1"/
• November 14, 2009
• 16:50

  Ghana Highlights: How to get from Volta to Kumasi or ‘the north’ without returning to Accra or Koforidua

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Ghana Highlights: How to get from Volta to Kumasi or ‘the north’ without returning to Accra or Koforidua there. st1:*{behavior:url(#ie !-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Georgia; panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3; mso-font-charset:0; div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=SKL-wPJpDJ0:Eoe83O0-k_s:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/SKL-wPJpDJ0" height="1" width="1"/
• 15:45

  Ghana Highlights Part 2: Accra to Eastern Region and the Volta

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Ghana Highlights Part 2: Accra to Eastern Region and the Volta there.As I said in Part 1: Accra to Cape Coast and the Western Region, every region has something to offer travelers in Ghana: culture, history, arts, crafts, drumming, dancing, beaches, monkeys and elephants—youdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=pxPnBzrABs4:g35-wvI0h98:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/pxPnBzrABs4" height="1" width="1"/
• November 12, 2009
• 12:58

  Top 10 fair trade holidays

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Top 10 fair trade holidays there.This article was published by The Guardian, UK, in February 2008. If you're looking for a fair trade holiday, or want to know a little more about taking a break that helps sustain the communities through which you travel, you might want to div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=y24L7x98aBo:jkMSt4K0vc8:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/y24L7x98aBo" height="1" width="1"/
• November 10, 2009
• 11:45

  Nature's Masterpieces: Clouds in Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  I took these two photos recently. Breath-taking: Nature (not my photography). People go on about the sun in Africa but the clouds are what capture my imagination here.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=0g-lAczCQGo:CeC0VNtCLRw:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/0g-lAczCQGo" height="1" width="1"/
• 11:03

  Two excellent Ghana blogs

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  This post highlights two great Ghana blogs that readers may be interested in.For absolutely stunning photos of Ghana that convery a strong sense of how the country feels, particularly in the three northern regions, go check out Ghana Travels here. Marie is the photographer and the high quality of her photos made it difficult to decide which one to feature. However, since I have a thing for fufu div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=yRib5z-k0xE:BE1K6Us3Vf4:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/yRib5z-k0xE" height="1" width="1"/
• November 04, 2009
• 17:50

  The Great Escape: Guinea Fowl Style

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  The Great Escape: Come on fellas, let's make a run for it! (Or, Guinea Fowl dashing across the roof of my home--they were communicating with the birds caged in the backyard; they are the biggest gossips in Ghana.)Looks kind of high from where I'm standing.You never said we had to fly! (They stood like this eying the dash over the fence to freedom for more than half an hour.)Maybe we could all div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=F3ru4UzvGjw:Pgir7wR_fh0:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/F3ru4UzvGjw" height="1" width="1"/
• October 31, 2009
• 11:28

  Ghana Highlights Part 1: Accra to the Central and Western Regions

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  Check our a href="http://www.g-lish.org/ghanaguide"Travel Guide to Ghana/a here. br / span style="font-weight: bold;"br / Ghana Highlights Part 1: Accra to the Central and Western Region, or the coast./spanbr / br / I’ll cover major attractions in each part. After I have posted each part, I’ll provide a few simple itineraries in a fourth post. a href="http://gisforghana.blogspot.com/search/label/Ghana%20Highlights"Click here for all the Ghana Highlights on one page/a.br / br / In Ghana, every region has something to offer. Culture, history, beaches, flora and fauna, you can sample it all over the country, from the tropical jungles of the south to the savannah plains of the north. If you’re a beach or history lover, you’ll enjoy this tour along the coast.br / br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Accra. Historical monuments; Shopping./spanbr / span style="font-weight: bold;"Intro/span: Unlike many capital cities, Accra is missing a ‘focal point’ which can make it difficult to know where to head first. It is more like a cobbled-together series of districts in which there may be something of interest in each, but no one area that stands out above all the others. Tourists tend to frequent Osu and its main street running from Danquah Circle all the way towards Ministries (where government buildings are) area and seeing a few highlights is a twenty minute taxi ride from here.br / My highlights:br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Nkrumah Mausoleum/spanbr / span style="font-weight: bold;"National Cultural Centre/span which is somewhat underwhelming, located in a dusty field on the ocean. They sell a good range of arts and crafts but the hassle factor is extremely high. However, you can find some interesting surprises in the small shops behind the main shed including intricately carved camel bone beaded necklaces and other crafts from all over West Africa.br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Trade Fair/span, an underdeveloped centre with small stalls selling traditional crafts, but the USAid shop has an excellent range of crafts at great prices. Near the National Cultural Centre.br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Global Mamas /spanshop beside Koala in Osu is good for souvenirs and Christmas gifts that make a direct difference to the women producers.br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Osu Castle/span. You can’t go inside, as it’s the President’s official residence, and photography is forbidden, but it’s worth passing by if you’re interested in historical monuments.br / span style="font-weight: bold;"br / Greater Accra. Chilling out./spanbr / span style="font-weight: bold;"Aburi/span: About an hour north of Accra by trotro is Aburi Botanical Gardens. Aburi is a great day trip from Accra or a good weekend away. The day I visited was overcast and drizzly which was perfect. The gardens were misty and magical; you could almost imagine fairies hiding beneath the ferns and behind hundred year old towering trees. It’s a great respite from the bustle of Accra. There are plenty of places to sit and have a picnic. We stocked up at Max Mart near 37 on Lebanese bread, hommus, falafel, cheese and other goodies and had ourselves a feast. You can catch a trotro from 37 directly to the town and walk 5 minutes to the entrance from there.span style="font-weight: bold;"br / br / Cape Coast. Beaches; Historical monuments./spanbr / Fanti name: span style="font-style: italic;"Ogua Koto/span. Koto means crab, appropriate for this fishing town, and you will probably pass the crab statue on the main road at some point.br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Intro/span: The crumbling gelato-coloured decaying colonial facades give this regional capital character.br / My top choices:br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Anomabo Beach/span. This fantastic beach is half an hour from Cape and great for a day trip. You pass the turn off to Anomabo as you arrive in Cape from Accra. From Cape, catch a Mankessim trotro from Kotakoraba taxi station (Cape’s main one) and hop off at the Anomabo junction.br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Cape Coast Castle/span: Located at the ocean, or southern, end of the main street, this UN-listed historical monument, the former British trading stronghold, is not to be missed if you only have a day or two in town. See Elmina below.br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Global Mamas workshops/span: They offer half-day batiking, cooking, and drumming and dancing workshops in town. Book at the shop which is located up the hill from Melcom on Jackson Street, or the road that runs perpendicular to the main road at the one traffic light. The Global Mamas shop is worth visiting too. Incidentally, there is a FOREX in the same building as Global Mamas.br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Baobab Café:/span On the main street serves real plunger coffee. Ask for it strong. Their banana or coconut muffins, and their wholesome pizzas, are a welcome change from rice and beans. And it’s for a good cause.br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Black Star Bookshop/span: Next to Baobab and a minute from the castle. English, French, Dutch and German second-hand and new titles. I found several gems here.br / • span style="font-weight: bold;"Kakum Canopy Wal/spana href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/SuwjgNhRltI/AAAAAAAAAgM/7eq_KPHtmtg/s1600-h/kakum+019.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398729089602393810" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/SuwjgNhRltI/AAAAAAAAAgM/7eq_KPHtmtg/s400/kakum+019.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 266px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 400px;" //aspan style="font-weight: bold;"k/span: You’ll be disappointed if you’re expecting ‘forest elephants’ or even monkeys, but if you’d like to know how it feels to sway in a rainforest canopy, it’s worth a trip. If you have limited time, don’t worry if you miss it.br / br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Elmina. Historical monuments; Beaches./spanbr / Fanti name: span style="font-style: italic;"Edina/span. The name Elmina came from the Portuguese for 'the mine' because of the abundance of gold they found traded here.br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Intro/span: A town alive with colour and bustle that often frightens first-timers. But it’s worth walking through. And check out the market: step inside the corrugated tin doorway, opposite the castle, and meet brightly-dressed women sitting on upturned crates around platters of fish in every stage of guttedness: an alley cat’s dream. And buy a bag of rock salt for 5 pesewas.br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Elmina Castle:/span I felt more awed by Elmina Castle than any other in Ghana. Also a UN-listed historical site, it has the dista href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/SuwmcTstrvI/AAAAAAAAAg8/GDXFwt3I8V8/s1600-h/Elmina.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398732321076391666" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/SuwmcTstrvI/AAAAAAAAAg8/GDXFwt3I8V8/s400/Elmina.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 299px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 400px;" //ainction of being the oldest standing European building in sub-Saharan Africa. It was built in 1482, but it has been built on many times over the years. The pillars still standing in the sand in front are what remains of the pier that ships used to moor to. Fort St Jago, a smaller fort built by the Dutch in 1665 to protect the castle against an ambush, sits on the hill behind. The Dutch, you see, ambushed the Portuguese from that hill to take control of the castle in 1637. It was in the late eighteenth century that the British acquired the castle from the Dutch in a monetary exchange.br / Brenu Beach: Only twenty minutes from Elmina, this is one of my favourites for a day trip. Just catch a trotro or a share taxi heading towards T’di. Get off at the Brenu junction. Catch a share taxi from there to the beach. You only need pay 50 pesewas to enter the beach area for the day (although it might have gone up). The meals are very good. Return the same way, but don’t leave it too late as it’s tough to get one back late at night.br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Ko-sa Beach Resort/span: This laid-back, German-owned establishment has a fantastic menu. Take the same turn-off that takes you to Brenu. I stayed four days here; I didn’t want to leave and ate my way through the best yam balls and stew (aside from Eli’s), lobster in tomato and garlic sauce, delectable salads with olives and Balsamic, pancakes and coffee…the beach is good too and you can take walks to Brenu beach from there.br / Coconut Grove Resort: If you want to spoil yourself, stay a weekend here. It’s in the same price range as Elmina Beach Resort and ten times lovelier. Swim all day in the pool or on the beach. Rooms have scalding hot water, air-con and satellite TV. Food is ok (hotel resortish), but Ko-sa’s is better.br / span style="font-weight: bold;"br / Past Takoradi. Beaches; Nature./spanbr / span style="font-weight: bold;"Intro/span: If you keep heading west past Elmina you hit the twin cities, Sekondi/Takoradi, capital of the Western Region. I didn’t find much to excite in T’di itself, but the area past here, all the way to the border, is fantastic. You only need to head another half hour by tro to get to Busua Beach, Butre Beach, or Green Turtle Lodge. You change tros in T’di. From its main station catch the one heading to ‘Agona’ Junction. This junction connects you to all these beaches. Busua is easiest to get to. Catch a share taxi from the junction straight to the beach. For Butre, ask for the Butre tro. For Green Turtle take a tro heading to Akwida. It can take a while to fill up, but it only takes twenty minutes to get there.br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Butre Beach/span. The place to stay is Ellis Hideout. You get there by walking through town and crossing a small river by canoe and walking along the beach for about fifty metres. The beach is all yours for mila href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/SuwhAzY2XnI/AAAAAAAAAfE/LVVxfgDGZGs/s1600-h/Busua+Beach2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398726350988533362" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/SuwhAzY2XnI/AAAAAAAAAfE/LVVxfgDGZGs/s400/Busua+Beach2.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 300px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 400px;" //aes.span style="font-weight: bold;"br / Busua Beach/span. I liked staying at the old backpacker favourite, Alaska. Rudimentary rooms in a concrete thatch hut: bed and net were about 10 Cedis a night. And, best part, it’s a ten metre walk to the beach from your front door. But there are about a dozen guest houses to choose from so go check them out. The beach here seems to be safer than many others, perhaps because of the cove at one end. span style="font-style: italic;"Kids playing soccer on Busua Beach./spanbr / br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Green Turtle./span Almost always bookeda href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/SuwjfrCdfdI/AAAAAAAAAf0/IA39C4W83Js/s1600-h/GT+camping.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398729080346344914" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/SuwjfrCdfdI/AAAAAAAAAf0/IA39C4W83Js/s400/GT+camping.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 267px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 400px;" //a out so book far in advance. Very similar ambience to Ko-sa. Food-wise, Ko-sa wins. Beach-wise and cocktails-wise, GT wins. I love the set up under the main hut in the sand and all the areas to hang out—and the shower under the palms! They also have eco-tours in a canoe along a river and seeing turtles lay eggs and hatch.br / span style="font-size: 0pt;"span style="font-style: italic;"Sleeping on the beach at Green Turtle./span/spanspan style="font-weight: bold;"br / br / Further past T’di. Beaches. Nature. Culture. Historical Monuments./spanbr / span style="font-weight: bold;"Intro: /spanThe area makes a good weekend trip from Cape or Elmina, or even Accra, if you’re tough!br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Axim Beach Resort/span: This is mya href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/SuwgwCZW1sI/AAAAAAAAAek/r0ho4jDTR-Y/s1600-h/Axim+Beach.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398726062959417026" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/SuwgwCZW1sI/AAAAAAAAAek/r0ho4jDTR-Y/s400/Axim+Beach.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 300px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 400px;" //abr / favourite for beach, location, and views in Ghana. If it had Ko-sa’s food, I’d never go anywhere else. And, it’s owned and run by a Ghanaian man called Jonas. His story is unique: he saved money teaching English throughout Asia which he used upon his return to build Axim, and he’s done an amazing job, seeming combining some of the best characteristics of South East Asian guest houses with African style. Situated on a hill overlooking a rocky beach to the west and the Awangazule Beach to the east, what I love most is that there is a range of accommodation and room styles to cater to all budgets, but you don’t feel as if you’re roughing it even in the cheapest room. The décor and even bathrooms are quirky with seashell mosaics and tiles adorning almost all walls. I spent many a weekend chilling out on the beach. There is a great restaurant and bar on the beach, a park area, BBQ, and even a flying fox! There is another restaurant on the hill by the guest rooms with several tiers of tables down the hill. Breakfast is a spread of eggs, toast, lemon grass tea, the usual Nescafe/Lipton/Milo, and fruits and is included in accommodation. The main menu has fresh fish, plenty of good Ghanaian dishes, and good drinks. And there is even an internet room with about 5 computers and a decent connection.• Fort Sao Antonio is the second oldest fort in Ghana after Elmina and worth a walk into Axim town, reminiscent of Elmina, to visit if you have a free half day. span style="font-style: italic;"Umbrellas along the beach at Axim./spanbr / span style="font-weight: bold;"Nzulezo Stilt Villag/spana href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/SuwkFl0hbnI/AAAAAAAAAgs/IkaWfJpy94s/s1600-h/StiltVillage-Nzulezo.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398729731780734578" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/SuwkFl0hbnI/AAAAAAAAAgs/IkaWfJpy94s/s400/StiltVillage-Nzulezo.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 209px;" //aspan style="font-weight: bold;"e/span. This is one of my Ghana highlights, an experience in itself. This village, as the name suggests, is built on bamboo stilts and sits entirely above the lake in the Amansuri wetlands. There is even a school room on stilts at the edge of the forest. The one-hour canoe trip to and from the village, across lilly-pad studded waters, and through jungle growing in the wetlands, is quite special. I stayed overnight there and swam (brave or stupid—both I think) in the lake with the locals. Staying overnight, I sensed how life is in this isolated, secluded village. Wouldn’t you know it. One family had a generator and what was everyone gathered around one TV watching? Football, of course. It occurred to me then that the kids who lived there had no where to play football. They would have to canoe the hour to land to play. When I arrived it was Friday afternoon and school had ended. There were about a dozen kids each in their own canoe, still in uniform, spread all over the lake gazing into the dead still water, looking for fish. Most people visit for half a day from Axim Beach or even T’di. If you’re staying in Axim, ask the staff how to get here as it can be tricky. Otherwise, check the Bradt Guide or its web site for latest updates. It lies along a long dirt road off the main road between T’di and Elubo. I advise getting a trotro or share taxi from the junction to Nzulezo.br / span style="font-weight: bold;"Tipping guides/span: I a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/SuwkFXl0TbI/AAAAAAAAAgc/quKuQlKxEhQ/s1600-h/Nzulezo+canoe.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398729727960960434" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PBQZHqzyzy8/SuwkFXl0TbI/AAAAAAAAAgc/quKuQlKxEhQ/s400/Nzulezo+canoe.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 247px;" //ahave learnt that guides don’t get paid a salary for guiding at most attractions. They survive on tips. That includes Cape Coast Castle, Elmina Castle, Nzulezo canoeists, and, in Part 2, Wli Waterfalls. Keep in mind the minimum wage is 2.65 Cedis a day. I tip commensurate with the effort made—great, average, bad—and what I gauge they might make that day. I’d probably tip 2 Cedis at the Castles if it was an informative tour and I could hear their voice because they’re likely to do a couple of tours a day and have more than one person on it (I’ve done about 5 tours of Elmina castle and the guides varied greatly). I’d tip more for the canoeists as they might do that one tour a day, likewise the Wli Waterfalls.br / br / For what it’s worth, most drumming and dancing groups don’t get paid by the venue for their performance, including at 5-star hotels. They also survive on tips so when they hand around a hat, it’s good form to tip a Cedi or two if you enjoyed the performance.br / br / Next: Part 2: Accra to the Eastern Region, Brong Ahafo and Volta Region, or the mountains and lake. Following: Part 3: Accra to Kumasi and the three northern regions, or the savannah.br / Final, Part 4: Itineraries for short and long trips.br / br / The photos of Cape Coast Castle, in the tent at Green Turtle, and the Kakum ropeway are from my friend Tina who took the picture of the woman with the Ghana flag on the top right. She's on facebook if you'd like to see more of her photos.br / span style="font-style: italic;"/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"div style="text-align: center;" div style="text-align: left;" a href="http://www.g-lish.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ghana-Guide-Sample.pdf"Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana/ab see inside the guide/b before buying. /div /divimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8826326494207776999-8517366596837841566?l=gisforghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=CScTJw4ejHk:YE-U8DdmGoQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=CScTJw4ejHk:YE-U8DdmGoQ:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=CScTJw4ejHk:YE-U8DdmGoQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=CScTJw4ejHk:YE-U8DdmGoQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/CScTJw4ejHk" height="1" width="1"/
• October 29, 2009
• 10:50

  How dangerous is travel in Ghana?

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  When it comes to Africa, ‘newsworthy’ and the words ‘conflict’, ‘disease’, ‘starvation’ and ‘rock-star adoptions’ seem to be interchangeable. We hardly ever read empowering stories. Really, when was the last time you read or saw a positive story in the mainstream media? A story that didn’t suggest danger or impending doom? Or that didn’t include endangered animals?First timers to Africa (as I wasdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=bFU_Oz4LxO4:eLFwaGo3pxE:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/bFU_Oz4LxO4" height="1" width="1"/
• October 26, 2009
• 11:26

  Latest News from This is Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  Hi folks,I've had malaria this past week--badly--(there's a vast difference between mild and severe malaria) and was laid up in bed for about five days. So don't be surprised when the post on 'Is Ghana Dangerous?' which will hit your inbox within 48 hours, includes references (in my humblest opinion, based on experience), to Ghana's greatest danger: mosquitoes. There will be a few other 'dangers'div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=V2uRbjm0ZjQ:AcTiUAvno2E:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/V2uRbjm0ZjQ" height="1" width="1"/
• October 15, 2009
• 15:25

  Climate Change in Ghana: Blog Action Day 2009

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  I used to think that ‘Adaptation’ was the name of a quirky film about an orchid hunter and a depressed script writer inspired by a book called The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. But over the last few weeks I’ve discovered that ‘Adaptation’ is also a key word in climate change circles and arguably the key word to survival. Not that it wasn't the key word to survival before, but it seems that our div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=7FRhd54zPIA:bGOWR8khb9o:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/7FRhd54zPIA" height="1" width="1"/
• October 12, 2009
• 9:12

  Remembering Kwame Nkrumah

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  I recently did a round-up of blogs commemorating Dr Kwame Nkrumah's 100th birthday at Global Voices. Reading the various blog posts, mostly by Ghanaians, was fascinating. I really enjoyed myself and learnt much in the process to augment my understanding of modern Ghana. You can read the full round up at this link. Here is an excerpt from Abena at chardonas.blogspot.com:‘In a dusty, browning albumdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=BohSQkSDe1o:2JiHHjjEWdY:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/BohSQkSDe1o" height="1" width="1"/
• October 09, 2009
• 8:25

  Godwin Talks: Swimming with Crocodiles in Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  I had no idea we had a big dam near our house until we went walking last week. This reminded Godwin of his childhood days and as we approached the water, he related this story and he agreed to share it here.'When we were kids we played hide and seek with this crocodile in a dam at the village where we went to swim. We were always at one end of the dam swimming and the crocodile would be at the div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=6PUgofx4oD0:sTpQJaer2Fg:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/6PUgofx4oD0" height="1" width="1"/
• October 07, 2009
• 16:54

  What’s in it for me? Or greed and money in Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  Unfortunately, I learnt another lesson the hard way this week. I didn’t listen to my gut when it was telling me no. It was a very faint no, but a no nevertheless.I always try to write the positive about life and travel in Ghana, since there is enough negativity in the media, and the world has enough complainers, but the reality is that much has disappointed over the years and I feel that sharing div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=I83ZkD9yN_c:WPfYlwGoIIk:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/I83ZkD9yN_c" height="1" width="1"/
• October 04, 2009
• 11:22

  Costs and money for travel and life in Ghana

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  In response to the most checked answer in the September survey, I give you this post: How much do I need to spend?Budgeting for travel or life abroad is one of the most difficult challenges you face before departing. How much should I bring in cash? Is it safe to carry cash? What about traveler’s cheques? Can I use a credit card?I’m going to make it simple. I will list ‘a basket of products’ anddiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=ID6Op7r_NqY:FvrA3qSuQuU:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/ID6Op7r_NqY" height="1" width="1"/
• October 02, 2009
• 18:17

  Blog of the Month at Expat-blog

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  A couple of months ago Expat Blog contacted me, asking to feature this blog as 'Blog of The Month' on their site. What a surprise. So here is an excerpt of the interview and you can read the full interview over at their site. For anyone who's ever wished to live abroad, and hankers after new shores, and wonders how on earth one would go about working in Peru or Portugal or even Ghana, check out div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=oITZfix3p9o:6R0CWa1Zgwo:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/oITZfix3p9o" height="1" width="1"/
• September 30, 2009
• 10:40

  Bright guys like this are rare: Computer fixer in Bolga

   » ‎ This is Ghana
  Computers don’t stand much chance in this climate, and I’m not just referring to the heat and humidity. There is also the dust, persistent viruses courtesy of lazy internet café owners, and the power fluctuations—you absolutely must use a stabilizer (as I write, the stabiliser is click clicking insanely and the power cut out twice).However, finding someone who can competently repair a lap top ordiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:4cEx4HpKnUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:4cEx4HpKnUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?i=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?a=p7eXirm-43c:dPmfp23YuAU:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ThisIsGhana?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThisIsGhana/~4/p7eXirm-43c" height="1" width="1"/