A volunteer's experience in Ghana

At Heathrow waiting to board our outbound plane to Ghana. Shaun, one of the group, was making a video journal of the whole experience, and was interviewing Arata here Photograph: Kharunya Paramaguru/Christian Aid

Our local shop in the village, on the main (and only) road. They sold everything from Key soap to the very potent akpateshie, locally distilled wine Photograph: Kharunya Paramaguru/Christian Aid

Early morning in Cape Coast, in the 'Peace Ghetto'. This weekend trip was definitely one of the more sombre episodes. The atmosphere in the city was very different to the settled pace of life in Gbledi Chebi, and we were also definitely aware of the history of this place. Yet it still retained a kind of broken beauty Photograph: Kharunya Paramaguru/Christian Aid

From left to right: Justine, Genevieve, Pearl and Elom, all sitting on the steps outside the girls' dormitories at Mount Afadjato senior school Photograph: Kharunya Paramaguru/Christian Aid

Theodore, 4, the youngest in the Agbenyo family, whose house we stayed in. He was playing hide and seek, in the store bin in the kitchen Photograph: Kharunya Paramaguru/Christian Aid

Bertha, the tro tro driver's daughter, selling food around the village on the weekend. Tro tros are illegal vans but often the only form of public transport available Photograph: Kharunya Paramaguru/Christian Aid

Children in the next village along from us, watching us as we were working Photograph: Kharunya Paramaguru/Christian Aid

Men push our tro tro out of a very large puddle created by heavy rain. We have to drive along sideroads and worn-down tracks so that the tro tro drivers can avoid the police. The van is usually packed with 30 or so people when it was only designed for 12. Sometimes it's fun, and other times an absolute nightmare. This was one of those moments when breaking down in a ditch of knee-high water was actually a lot of fun Photograph: Kharunya Paramaguru/Christian Aid

A bizarre moment when our project manager dropped us around a mile from the town centre to scrape off this poster, and then left us to it. We didn't have any means of reaching the top, until a really nice man came along, asked us if we needed any help and walked back to his house to fetch his bamboo ladder Photograph: Kharunya Paramaguru/Christian Aid

A child waiting outside the teacher's house Photograph: Kharunya Paramaguru/Christian Aid

Our project manager wanted to plant a coconut tree at the project site in honour of our volunteering group, Platform 2. This was the planting ceremony Photograph: Kharunya Paramaguru/Christian Aid

Jordan drafting up a lesson plan for his class on Sustainable Energy for the senior schoolchildren Photograph: Kharunya Paramaguru/Christian Aid

Cape Coast: Queen Victoria's bust in a park just by the coast itself, next to Cape Coast castle. One of those jarring moments, when history and the present seem to clash in one frame Photograph: Kharunya Paramaguru/Christian Aid

My friend showing me his grandmother's land, where they hope to build a church one day Photograph: Kharunya Paramaguru/Christian Aid