So far we have celebrated 3birthdays in the group already. This week it was Shana's 20th birthday so I decided to bake her a birthday cake. At home this usually involves dashing round tescos, quickly stirring the ingredients and relaxing infront of the tv while it bakes. However in Ghana, this is a little more taxing. First I visited the food market in Kumasi, I was greeted by some very friendly women pointing out the stores I should visit. After an hour walking around the market I finally had all the ingredients; flour, sugar, margarine, nutmeg, eggs and chocolate!
I had asked my Ghanaian mother and sister for help with baking the cake, I suggested cooking the cake the night before but they insisted that it would be better fresh so I woke up early. First we had to beat the sugar and margarine together until all the grains are smoothly beaten - taking nearly 2hours! We then mixed the eggs and stirred it in with the rest of the ingredients. After another half hour stirring we finally greased the heart shaped tins and poured in the mixture. Thinking the job was nearly over we then had to waft the fire while the cake cooked - for another hour! So 3hours later, we finally had 2 heart shaped cakes with chocolate chunks and a birthday candle. The next task was carrying it over to Shana's house, this was quite challenging as the heavy rain had made the ground wet. When I finally arrived the group sang happy birthday in the dark (yet another electricity cut) and then ate the cake!
Making change happen
Platform2 is a unique opportunity for 18-25 year olds from the UK to volunteer in a developing country and then come back and creatively express their experiences in the UK.
