Meet the housemates

Sounds like a line from 'Big Brother' but there are certain similarities: random bunch of people taken out of their usual habitat and living in each other's pockets for an extended period of time. The results are generally worth a mention. So, who are they?

Ali is Canadian, from Toronto, arrived at the same time as me and stayed 3 weeks. She is 27 and works in Human resources for a food company. She makes the snappiest decisions ever and can end up spending quite a bit of money in the process. Sometimes she regrets the decision almost immediately but never stews over it. Ali loves children and worked in an orphanage while she was here. She would have adopted all the local kids if she could.

Becky also started the programme at the same time. She is American, from somewhere near New York. She is 19, between semesters at university and had to put in some effort to convince her mum it was safe to come over here. I bet her dad didn't make flippant lion jokes!

Rebecca is Canadian, also from Toronto and was my room mate for my first 3 weeks until she left. She didn't snore, or at least I couldn't hear her over the noise of the fan. She is 18 and about to go to university to study political science. She had lots of pairs of flip flops, all of which broke in one day leaving her stranded in various interesting places. She looks great with braids, African style, and I have some fairly wild hair pictures from when they came out.

Emma is 26, originally from Wigan but defected across the pond to California some years ago. She got bitten regularly by the resident beasties and responds by swelling up impressively. Emma worked at a school while she was here.

Kristina is a critical care nurse back home in Boston and is working in the emergency care ward in Hohoe Hospital. She is totally appalled by their lack of hygiene or sense of urgency. She has taken it upon herself to teach the nurses the basics of emergency medicine and has rallied various members of the homebase to go and give blood since there wasn't any to save lives with. Should we tell our cook most people were turned away due to low iron levels?

Robin is from New Jersey, she is studying special education at university and is working in a school for learning disabilities in Hohoe. The kids, most of whom need 1:1 attention are in a class of 30 with one teacher. Robin sometimes plays scrabble with me but has been known to try playing 'words' like 'e-i-e-i-o' so needs to be watched.

Tim is 19, from Ottawa and has just been accepted into Toronto university to study economics. He is friends with nearly all the locals and knows all the short cuts into town and all the best places to go out. He has had the most exciting multicoloured hoodies made during his stay here.

Rik has also mastered the wearing of exciting hoodies. And bargaining for large and interesting souvenirs. He is 20, from California and hoping to set up his own business. He daydreams about the possibility of creating miniature animals and ponders the genetic implications of such a thing. I wonder whether his malaria pills are adversely affecting him.

Julianna is from Massachusetts and is studying nursing. She is actually working at two different placements - one in the labour ward at the hospital and one at an orphanage 'happy kids'. She is currently trying to 'renovate' or at least clean the kids rooms in her spare time - quite an exhausting task as I discovered at the weekend.

Marcella is 30 something, from Glasgow but would live in Ghana were it not for the temperature. She works in finance but is here working at an orphanage and teaching. She extended her stay for 2 weeks because she couldn't bear to leave the kids and is currently dreading the prospect of leaving Hohoe next week. It has been nice to have a friendly scottish accent around - even if it is from the west.

Brenda is also 30 something and is Canadian. She is a pig farmer and often uses her experiences as ammunition to bring the conversation downwards at mealtimes, possibly to ensure we don't all eat too much. She has the most exciting sleeve like tattoo on her arm and plans on getting another to match.

In true Big Brother style, housemates are evicted (well hopefully not, but they finish their programmes and leave anyway, albeit very reluctantly). and others are introduced - on a monthly basis. So, wait until next week for the sequel.....

see photos