Dec 23 (Home sweet home)

After 2 nights with my new host family, I knew I didn't want to stay anymore! Daniel (who's room I had obviously stolen) was in and out of 'his' room all night which involved lots of door slamming and lights being put on and off and I wasn't sure he wasn't trying to wake me up. I spent many hours hiding under my sheet pretending to be asleep. Although they kept repeating that I was welcome, their actions spoke much louder and suggested the opposite. Without my own room or a lounge, it was impossible to read or study and they insisted I spend my evenings sat outside the bar with them where they all drank vast amounts and shouted lots in twi. Not much fun and once a very drunken friend of theirs announced he had given up his job to spend his time talking to me ('talking' being his word for letching and breathing beer all over me), it was time to plan my escape.

Yesterday Jordan and Emma managed to escape the clutches of their host family long enough to come into Accra. I showed them the Phoenix, took them shopping and introduced them to my new rasta friends. They decided they would come back today and stay the weekend so not off to the beach after all.

I spoke to Phoenix about getting a room and sneaked out early this morning, telling Daniel I was leaving early for the beach to avoid traffic. You have to experience rush hour in Accra to believe it but it was a viable excuse and I have no plans to go back.

Since I last wrote, I have met with the wonderful Dr Kenu again. He is so incredibly generous with his time and knowledge I cannot thank him enough. He instructed me to read the latest National Strategy Plan from the GAC before returning next week so I can pinpoint, exactly what I want to investigate and he will place me in the right department.I asked, off the record why he had chosen to work in HIV/AIDS and he smiled the most beautiful smile and said when he started 8 years ago, nobody was interested in PLWHA but he is very attached to his patients and loves his job. I think the PLWHA in Accra are blessed to be under his care. I offered to send him anything I wrote about him or the Korle Bu before I published it here or wrote it in my dissertation and he insisted this was unnecessary.Given the problems they have had recently with volunteers who have not behaved appropriately, I feel honoured to have gained his trust in such a short time. Unfortunately my 3 weeks at the Korle Bu will be more like 3 days but it's out of my hands now. I tried to track down the NSP and found it was unavailable to the public. Another doctor rang me and said he could provide me with a copy. I suspect this is officially a leaked document and I am extremely lucky to have obtained it. What I have read has turned my dissertation topic on it's **** quite frankly but it's an intriguing document and if I jiggle my dissertation topic/ title, I think I'm on the home stretch.

I digress...I arrived back at the Phoenix just after 7 am and I feel so at home, I can now start to get ready for Christmas, Ghana style. The boys are arranging a beach party with drummers and dancers this evening 'for the empresses' ( this is Emma, Jordan and myself). A girl could get used to being treated like this!

Tomorrow, Hawa wants to take me to see her Grandmother who is also here in Accra but also has a house in London and tomorrow evening, I have been invited to a christmas party by a friend of a friend in London. As for Christmas day...anything could happen by then. This is Ghana after all. I'm already dreading leaving. I always knew I would return to Ghana but I never dreamt how hard it would be to leave. 

I have yet to tell you all about the main man 'Likle Joe'. The wisest most wonderful man you could wish to meet. I'm guessing Joe is in his 60s, possibly older. He is committed to his Rastafarian lifestyle, deeply proud of his African roots and culture and every time we speak, I feel I have learnt a lifetime of knowledge. My writing skills are far from adequate to relay Joe's teachings. Were he in the West, he would be a world famous philosopher and people would surely fill stadiums to listen to him. He paid me the biggest compliment I believe I have ever received when he told me how he was fed up of white people, their NGOS and governments coming here and telling African's how they should live and what they should do. That he doesn't believe anything they do is with an open heart but only to better their own economies; and then he said " But you, you are different. You have an African heart and you are welcome always." High praise indeed from such a man. When Joe calls me, I answer my phone and follow him like a lost puppy, awaiting his next lesson.

For now, there is only one thing left to say: HAPPY CHRISTMAS. I hope you are all as happy as I am and that you all have a wonderful christmas and a very happy New Year.