Cadets are welcomed by the community of Abordahi

Here's the latest blog from Cheshire Fire Cadets, who are currently out in Ghana, Africa. This blog has been written by Keith Roberts.

Visit to the local fire station in Ho

All cadets and staff were up on time for breakfast, which makes a pleasant change. We set off five minutes later.

Our first port of call was the local fire station at Ho, which is the regional headquarters, very enlightening for staff and cadets a control room, covering hundreds of square miles, 13 fire stations, staffed by a very nice young lady, with a telephone, a note book and pen.

As always, with firefighters around the world, they couldn’t do enough for us, extremely helpful and friendly, and the cadets and staff thoroughly enjoyed this visit.

Our next port of call was to buy a variety of coloured paints that will be used by the cadets to decorate the gable end of the school.

As is the Ghanaian way, this transaction took 50 minutes. This also gave the cadets another opportunity to buy various items that the cadets like buying from the roadside shacks and shops.

Dancing in Abordahi

Now armed with our paint a quick call back to the hotel, to regroup and then onto our village, Abordahi.

The road to the village was extremely interesting and our arrival to the village was greeted enthusiastically and warmly by the school children proud parents and the village elders.

After many speeches from both communities not least was a fine example of fire service waffle by our venerable leader who had his speech sprung up on him, we were given entertainment by the villages drum band and the children dancing, which soon descended into a chaotic dance involving not only school children but cadet staff and village elders.

After this, we inspected the work to come. Cadets continued to interact with all of the village children through football, throw ball and improvised dancing again.

As we were ready to leave to return to the hotel, we found out these things are never simple. We all got off the bus, to say our goodbyes, which yet again involved dancing which descended into an all-inclusive dance of the conga around the assembly area.

After a brief rest bite at the hotel, we left for our evening meal and to allocate work schedules for the coming days. Tomorrows work will start bright and early. It will involve rendering the walls, lots of painting repairs to the school building - while entertaining the village children.

Time for bed now - early start and lots to do tomorrow.

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Last updated: Tuesday 30 October 2018