Our days at the village are numbered

Hi all, finally blogger is playing the game and I think this message should get to you. Hope I'm not speaking too soon and it all crashes again!

As the title suggests we are preparing for our move to the beach and our new roles as managing the eco-lodge - Green Turtle Lodge. We are looking forward to it, learning something new, beach views every morning and tanning heaven but are really going to miss our village, the people and the project. We intend to stay working on the project which will entail going back every 6 weeks or so to see how the building is going. I'm not too sure if they will miss our carrying mortar on our heads or cracking stone ability as we have a quarter the muscle of Ghanaian men, women and in some cases children. No worries, we know we're here to raise the money and keep people motivated!

As you can see from the above piccie, we don't work all the time. This is us visiting a palm wine tapping site in the bush and having the local drink. I can't believe we like it considering it looks like dirty dish water, possibly gives us the runs (not sure if is actually our cooking, the water, heat or this) and is warm like urine. Nice. It does come from palm trees

A friend from home - Michelle Mew-Sum is currently visiting us for 3 weeks which is great. She is getting used to the way of life - has experienced the palm wine and survived and this morning kind of had an offer of marriage - although it was in the local language Ewe so we're not entirely sure but sure we could have sold her off already. We are heading to Ho Hoe today to see the largest waterfall in Ghana tomorrow which should also be fun. Then, back to the village on the new direct bus link (hurray!) for the last few days before leaving on Tuesday. So far, my favourite quote from Michelle is "burning the used toilet papers is my favourite job". Well its not saying much about the washing up and cooking is it.

This is me washing with our lovely helpers - Patterson and Essinam. They make hand washing more fun but I am currently sitting here in the washed skirt and top with dirty marks on still so not sure on the quality control part. Dave's fault I think as he does the final rinse.

The kids are still very cute and make up a large part of us having fun by watching their favourite game - karate, teaching them how to do dot to dot, ensuring they wash their hands before plunging into the washing up and cooking, watching then dance in the middle of the street, feeding them and watching the whole plate taken within 3 seconds etc etc.

This picture is of us during the funeral hence his and her matching outfits as the family bought us this material to match them. We are with David Sinorita who cooks for us everyday and is lovely. She is next to me holding her sister's baby - aptly names Suzy-Maria after Dave's mum and yours truly. She was born on the same day as Dave's mum's birthday so its perfect.

Talking of Dave's parents - great news. They are coming to visit us at the lodge at the end of April. We are very excited to see them as have missed you all a lot. The village are very keen to meet them and for us to come back to visit.

Remember - an open invite to all who would like some time away on the beach. Our spare room is there so a cheap holiday and you get to live with us on the beach.

I think I should sign off before the connection goes. Before doing so though an update on our projects...

IT centre - looking good with pillars and walls built. Working on the supporting part of the walls - the lintel which entails bending steel, chain-sawing and retrieving wood from the farms, making boxes and filling with mortar and the stones. We have a problem with funding in that our UK charity will not release the 6000 pounds they have of ours. We need free legal advice. Can anyone help please???? This is severely affecting the speed of the work and to be honest mine and Dave's stress levels.

School Roof - good news - all 7 volunteers raised the money needed originally for the replacing of the roof. However, since then we with the village have reevaluated the need and discovered more than just the roof is needed so we need to raise another 500 pounds. Any donations welcome please!! We are appealing also to the relations of the village who have good jobs to help support. We cannot start the building until these funds are raised so we can complete buying the materials. The 1st half of materials were bought by us in Ho and journeyed back with Dave in the back of a pick up. Fun if not a bit dusty and open to the elements!

Library - we have made an application to a UK charity to get books for the new library for the village. We hope for a good reply but in the meantime are appealing to people to send over any used books. Anything in English is good - reference, fiction etc. Currently there is no access for villagers to books and text books are limited.

We are still receiving donations for the village to our DIVOG address which is on the Xmas appeal blog. Please dont hesitate to send anything at all as the village really appreciate it.

So - thats all for now. Next time we post a blog we should be in our new home at the beach - awesome!

Take care, remember - we still need more news from your side. Hope to hear from you soon,
All our love
Maria & Dave
xxx