Responsible volunteering at the World Travel Market

On 7th November I was invited to speak at the World Travel Market on the topic of overseas volunteering and how the sector can improve in this area. My speech focused on best practice when involving young (16-24 year olds) volunteers. You can view the slides and watch a recording of all the speeches and […]

Sunshine in Northumberland

Whilst the south of the country was fighting storms earlier this week I was lucky enough to be taken away to Northumberland by Anna and be shown around the top sites by her mum. Below are a few photos from the beaches, Cragside House and the stunning Northumberland scenery. I was even shown the original […]

God’s Time is the Best – shopping in Ghana

Britain was described by Napoleon as “a nation of shopkeepers”, but in 2013 I would say that this title is much more appropriate to Ghana. “Hustle” is a daily part of life for many Ghanaians and wherever your tro-tro (bus) stops there is always a number of people looking to sell water, food, footballs and […]

Meeting the Hackney Pirates

“Welcome to our beach shack” is not what you normally hear when you visit a charity’s head offices, but this is exactly the welcome you get when you visit the Hackney Pirates. Having worked with the charity over the past year, and with them attending the last two LSE volunteering fairs, I was lucky enough […]

My Ghanaian summer

A few photos to show what I got up to during the summer of 2013. Best enjoyed listening to the song below:

Ghana V Zambia

“I recommend that you get inside before it gets too busy,” said Mourinho (not the Mourinho, but Dan’s friend) to us as we stood outside the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi, each of us grasping a ticket to Ghana’s final group stage match of the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign. With over four hours to kick-off Chris, […]

A series of fantastic events.

Originally posted on Luke's Mystical Adventures:
Last time I wrote I briefly updated you readers on what happened between me getting here and going to ada foah, since then there have been a few things that have happened and I will run you through these one by one before giving a brief overview of…

Going loco down in Togo (with Coco)

“Haha, the white man looks scared,” crowed the delightful lady who’d just sold me mobile phone credit, as I clambered on to the back of a motorbike a few miles away from the Togolese/Ghanaian border. Holding on for dear life on a motorbike as I went into Togo wasn’t outlined to me by Coco when […]

Church at St Cecilia’s

On Sunday the whole KickStart Ghana Summer School team were invited to meet the community of the church that is connected to the school. We were all really honoured to be invited (even if 7am was a little early…) and were asked to introduce ourselves to the 300 people at the service. The Father also […]

Summer school, football coaching and a haircut

Apologies for the delay in the latest blog post, but since I last wrote seven new volunteers have arrived and five of those have left. They’ve been completing a large variety of work. Chris Minch has settled in well to the role of Assistant Volunteer Coordinator. His time has been taken up by airport pickups, […]

A busy two weeks

Two weeks already? Ghana has a fantastic way of making time go incredibly slow and fast at the same time. When you are waiting for a tro-tro (mini bus) to fill up, knocking back unwanted offers of meat on a stick, in the mid-day heat and humidity, it feels like the seconds are minutes and the minutes […]

Ghana, Ghana, Ghana!

“Three months in Ghana? Wow, that’s a long time,” is the phrase I’ve been hearing a lot recently. Sure, three months in West Africa isn’t the typical summer vacation but I know from experience that the time will zip by in a flurry of volunteers, projects, blog posts and Azonto moves. This summer I’m acting […]