In case anyone was wondering, we did make it home okay. The delay in posting this update was due solely to the fact that we are all so busy giving presentations about our work in Ghana.
The opening of the community center in Baabieneha was a rousing success, with moving speeches by both Emmanuel and the Regional Minister, and much dancing and celebrating.
We all miss our friends in Ghana, but we are eager to aid next year’s cohort in the continuation of the work we have started.
On Friday the group was invited to the opening celebration of the computer lab of CSIR Basic school in Kumasi. We had previously visited this school last week, dropped off school supplies and taught lessons to the elementary students. When we approached the school we could hear the music from a far off distance. The celebration had all the students, parents, teachers and members of the University that sponsor the school. The celebration consisted of students dancing, singing, and reciting poems. Jaimee gave a brief speech and then everyone was presented with custom-made scarfs as a thank you. Joe helped cut the ribbon to the new room and the people poured into the new facility. We closed the celebration off by dancing with students and teachers.
The celebration was over by noon so we rewarded ourselves with mango crisp which we have come to love when made with fresh mangos. The only problem is we have trouble finding a working oven, so when we visit Kumasi we try to take advantage of the opportunity. Lastly we packed up and headed back to Sunyani where a few of us had our travels interrupted by a flat tire on our bus.
On Saturday, part of the group enjoyed a relaxing day in Sunyani. We had a successful trip to the market for more pineapples and mangos, while others finally did their laundry. Genny and Emily went to Baabieneha to check on the status of the community center and to begin setting up some work for biochar. The community center was looking great with most of the indoors painted, the bookshelves in, and the light switches being installed. We’re excited to see it done tomorrow! Or at least done enough for the opening ceremony.
On Saturday night, the group was invited out to Tyco Restaurant with the mayor of Sunyani. We were joined by the regional minister and a federal agent at dinner as well. We enjoyed a great dinner of light soup and fried and jollof rice. After dinner, the group had some fun with the mayor and a few of his staff members, dancing to the live band.
Sunday we headed back up to Baabieneha, and everyone got to see the progress made on the community center. We were also presented with Ghanaian clothes made for us to wear to the ceremony tomorrow! Amazingly, without taking our measurements, they made all the clothes to fit us, except for one that needed a little resizing. Then Emmanuel took us to a small village to see a monkey sanctuary and get some contacts for a possible project for next year. After having some fun with the monkeys, we enjoyed another amazing dinner of peanut butter soup and rice. We’re looking forward to celebrating the opening with the community and the regional minister!
Today Jaimee and I(Joe) presented all the materials to the Nsawkaw Senior High school in an impromptu presentation. We were able to attain the presence of the Deputy to the District Coordinator to conduct the ceremony. Many teachers and students were present and happy to be part of this first step of creating a relationship between Nsawkaw and the Pavlis Institute of Michigan Technological University. The ceremony was brief and closed with the students singing their school anthem. After the presentation we said goodbye to our host Anna(Dr.Jacob’s mother who graciously offered her house) and made a final visit to the market. Nsawkaw proved to have a small town atmosphere with aspirations of great development in the future. After visiting we are assured that Pavlis’ involvement will be instrumental in furthering their advancement while allowing us to learn a great deal from them. Finally we headed back to the hostel in Sunyani where we are eagerly waiting to be reunited with the other members of our group.
After an exciting weekend of touring the monkey sanctuary and waterfalls then sharing dinner with the Regional Minister Jaimee and I (Joe) split off from the rest of the group traveling by tro tro to Nsawkaw on Monday. Walking from the tro tro station to Anna’s (Dr. Jacob’s mother) house and ours for the next few days we were welcomed with waves and greetings from many of those we passed by. We settled in and walked over to the school and then met with Sampson, the assistant headmaster, and explained our goals of seeing if a community ICT and library center could be implemented and to donate the supplies we brought over. The next morning we returned to the school and met with the headmaster and many of the teachers, learning and sharing our ideas with them. We toured the current temporary school which will have a computer room completed soon and visited the site of the final secondary school which will be completed in December. All the those we talked to were very excited that we had come and were passionate about continuing to improve the educational opportunities for the students of the community.
In the afternoon we went to the district hospital, just down the road from the school. Emily and Genny met with the doctor of the hospital last Friday and Jaimee and I were kindly given a tour by the administrator today. We were grateful to see some of the amazing accomplishments achieved with limited resources ( 200% increase in staff and more then double the number of patients seen since the doctor arrived last December) and to learn about the areas where they hope to continue to improve (particularly with greater access to medical equipment). We hope to be able to assist the hospital in the future and continue to learn from them.
Tomorrow we will return to the school to present our supplies and wrap up our research before returning to Kumasi on Thursday. We look forward to joining the rest of the group and seeing the newly completed community center in Babianeha.
On Sunday, the group spent a relaxing day in Sunyani. In the morning, several of the group members attended local church services prior to starting the day. After church, the group went to one of our favorite restaurants in Sunyani for a quick lunch. Not only is the food pretty good, but also very inexpensive for our college student budgets. From the restaurant the group split up, some of them heading downtown to explore the markets and the rest heading back to relax at the hostel. The market group’s main goal was to find groundnut butter as this has become a staple food item for the group. After finding groundnut butter and a couple of beautiful bracelets in the main market, the group once again split up, some of them leaving to meet with a friend of Emmanuel’s, Dr. Solo, and the rest went in search of a salon for hair braiding. The girls managed to convince Coleman that he should get his hair braided and he agreed as long as he didn’t have to pay for it. Before too long, we had collected plenty of money to cover the cost of the braiding and he was stuck getting it done. He wasn’t alone in this adventure as Emily had already wanted to get hers braided as well. They both started the process at 3:30 in the afternoon. Coleman was finally done around 5:00, just in time to go to the regional minister’s house for dinner. Emily took much longer, starting at about 5:15 and not finishing until nearly 8:30.
Thanks to the introduction from Emmanuel, the group was invited over to the regional minister’s house to have dinner with him and other local officals. We met over at the Residency in Sunyani and were introduced to everyone from the police commissioner to the mayor of Sunyani to the customs official for the region. It was an amazing opportunity to accomplish some networking with the officials and enjoy some fantastic food. Dinner was served buffet style so we were able to have a little bit of everything. The light soup was so great, we tracked down the chef for the recipe! We felt extremely welcomed during the entire experience and are looking forward to possibly working with them in the future. The minister even agreed to come help us celebrate the opening of the community center in Babianeha on Monday and officially commission the building.
The mayor of Sunyani also brought another project location to our attention just outside of the city. A community library has been built, but not supplied with books or computers yet. We’re looking forward to possibly making this a project location as the mayor has offered to help us figure out the shipping of the supplies.
On Monday morning, Joe and Clark went for the last visit to Ridge Experimental to teach the ICT instructor about the blog we would like them to start. They were able to set up the blog with the teacher and show them how to continue posting throughout the year. The school seems very excited and looks forward to sharing more about their school through the internet. While Joe and Clark were at Ridge, Genny wrote an official letter to the minister inviting him to the Babianeha ceremony on Monday which was delivered shortly after. The community is very excited to show the minister what they have accomplished over the past few years.
After delivering the letter, we boarded taxis to the bus station to head out to the villages. Joe and Jaimee left for Nsawkaw and the rest of the group crammed into a tro tro out to Babianeha. The tro tro was already pretty full with t.v.’s, a fridge, and tables shoved into the back, but the driver managed to get all 8 of our backpacks and one extra suitcase in as well. The seating was tight as the back seat was full of tv’s, so the boys were especially surprised when the driver put 2 extra people in the backseat with them. It was definitely a slightly uncomfortable ride for them!
Upon our arrival to Babianeha, we were welcomed once again into Emmanuel’s mother’s house. We went right away to see the progress on the community center and were very excited to see the painting of the ceiling was well underway. The group ran back to the house to change into painting clothes or grab wallets to run to the market and we discovered Emmanuel’s mother had prepared us dinner. She had prepared a delicious meal of groundnut soup and rice balls, emoa ne nkatekwan. It was the perfect meal to have after traveling! After dinner, the group went for walks around the village and continued the painting at the community center.
Today, we woke up bright and early to continue painting. Once again, we were surprised with a delicious meal for breakfast of fried eggs with tomatoes and onion and bread. Once our stomachs were full, we headed over to the community center to start another coat of paint on the ceiling as well as prepping the walls for paint by filling in cracks. We were also able to prep the wall for our chalkboard, making sure to sand the wall smooth enough for the chalk. By Monday, we need to finish all the painting, move in supplies and furniture, and decorate the outside of the building. It’s going to be a busy week for us and the community!
For lunch, we were once again treated to delicious jollof rice and chicken. This time Emily shadowed the women so we now have the recipe. We were given the task of making it tomorrow for lunch to test out our cooking abilities! Now that lunch is over, we’re returning to the community center to finish painting the ceiling and clean up for the day. Hopefully tomorrow we can start on the walls and continue our progress on the finishing.
Emily and Genny stayed with Dr. Jacob’s mother Thursday night in Nsawkaw. After a wonderful meal of chicken stew and rice and a good nights rest, we met with Dr. Michael Rockson at 6:30 am. He had planned on meeting with us before he went to work, but he had also had a late night with an emergency c-section at midnight. We are thankful that he met with us so that we could outline a potential project with the hospital there in Nsawkaw. He helped explain the needs of the hospital as it tries to accommodate the whole district (approximately the size of a county). They are currently restricted by what services they can offer, not by the work force or talent available, but by the equipment. They have no way of applying anesthesia, so they can only do specific surgeries that can be done with a more local anesthetic. They also have lost a lot of funding due to the fact that record keeping has been extremely poor with an estimated recovery rate of 40% as of six months ago when the government came to audit the hospital. Ghana has national health coverage for a nominal cost each year. This program then provides 1.9 GH cidi per patient for a health clinic and 5.5 GH cidi for a patient in a hospital. The hospital just got approval for having hospital status. They have been treating about a hundred patients per day which gives them 190 GH cidi but they can only get 40% of that if records cannot be recovered. They are in desperate need of a record keeping system so that they can receive the funding needed to obtain equipment and provide services needed. Our hope is that the Pavlis Institute can use this as a project in the next few years.
After touring the hospital, we took a trotro to Weinchii where we attempted to catch a taxi to Asuano, where the Soil Research Institute has a biochar project currently being done. This is also where they are planning on putting a biochar reactor in September. After trying to explain where Asuano was to a taxi driver (it should be about 5 minute away), we got in and drove off. Genny fell asleep almost instantaneously so we kept driving. When she woke up, we realized that we were going in the wrong direction and had driven for bout 45 minutes towards Mole National Park. A quick discussion with the driver got us back on track and headed for Asuano, which really only did take 5 minutes from Weinchii. Once in Asuano, we met with Prince Andrew Boampong, a local leader for the farmer cooperative. He showed us around a farm that currently uses biochar practices. The soil was moist and dark, unlike most of the red soil here in Ghana. The farmers work closely with the Ministry of Agriculture (MOFA) representatives to try new plant types and farming practices, this has helped the research institute to start the biochar project in this area. We are taking what we learned from Prince Andrew and the other farmers to adopt a method of introducing biochar into Babianeha and other areas. Our plan is to do a small garden at the community center to show the effects of biochar so that farmers may be more receptive when the biochar reactors are installed in nearby villages in the upcoming year.
We returned to the group in Sunyani in the early evening and enjoyed a meal of pizza and curry at a local hotel. It was a good day to be able to do a lot of research and to share our stories with the others. We also accomplished a small goal of ours; to fit 10 people in a taxi. The driver seemed somewhat amused and the car seemed like it could barely handle all of our weight, but it was an adventure! One of the many we have experienced so far and are sure to have in the upcoming weeks.
Emmanuel met us early on Saturday morning, at least early for him at about 8:30. We had plans to go to the monkey sanctuary! We didn’t really know what to expect when we got there, but we were all really excited. We stopped in Kranka, a project site for past years, to greet the chief. It was only a short hello and goodbye before we left with the chief in tow. He had decided to come along with us, and who could blame him? We were going to see monkeys!
The monkey sanctuary began at a trail leading into the forest. Outside was a sign reading “Warning, do not feed the monkeys, keep your distance, these are wild animals, no littering.” Still not knowing what to expect, we entered the forest with our guide.
Not 30 feet from the opening of the trail the trees started to rustle and our guide started to click her tongue. We all stood at the ready, cameras in hand, as the rustles drew nearer to us. Suddenly there was a monkey in the tree above us. Everyone started to take pictures in a rush, worried that the monkey would leave, but then another monkey joined the first and still more followed. There were monkeys in every tree.
Then, some of the monkeys jumped onto the ground and started to run through our little group. We were all in awe, taking pictures left and right and standing in front of the monkeys to get pictures with them. Emmanuel had a different idea. He pulled out a bag of boiled peanuts Genny and Emily had made earlier that day and handed a peanut to the monkey. After that, everyone grabbed a handful of peanuts and instead of standing in front of monkeys, we took pictures of us giving them peanuts. So much for keeping our distance and not feeding them. At least we didn’t litter, though some of the monkeys threw the bad peanuts back at us.
We got done with that leg of the journey and moved on to see a ficus tree, a parasitic tree that grows on another tree and eventually kills the original tree, leaving a skeleton like structure of roots. Our guide told us that we could climb on it if we wanted and instantly most of the group was halfway up the trunk.
Next we saw the largest mahogany tree that we had ever seen. We also got taken through the monkey cemetery where all the monkeys that are found are buried along with a few people. As we continued, we saw a different kind of monkey in the distant trees. The kind we had fed earlier were Mona monkeys, this kind was called Colobus. Emmanuel told us they weren’t as social, so we only saw them from a distance.
Sadly, our trip to the monkey sanctuary had to end. Then it was time for souvenir shopping! There was a small shop near the trail entrance with artwork everywhere. We all looked around, a few people bought a few things, others weren’t happy with the prices and walked away with nothing, but Jaimee and Hannah both fought for the items they wanted. With the help of both Emmanuel and the chief they got somewhat decent prices.
We got back in the car and onto another bumpy road for another hour or so because the days adventure wasn’t over. Next on the list was a set of waterfalls. The first two stages were alright. Some of our group enjoyed climbing behind the first stage, but the third stage was by far the best. It was an amazing sight at over 50 feet tall. We all cooled off in the mist from the long walk down the stairs.
There were a few local boys that went in the waterfall and slid down some of the rocks. It must have looked like fun since Clark, Coleman, Joe, Emily and Jaimee all joined in. They weren’t quite as good as maneuvering on the slick rocks, or using them as a slide. There were a few bumps and bruises but everyone came out in one piece.
We all enjoyed the waterfall and the area around it a little longer and the ones that went in tried to dry off before we left. It didn’t work too well for them and they all ended up riding back to Sunyani in wet clothes. Before we got back we dropped the chief off to take a taxi to Kranka and we stopped at a memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In a continuation of our group desire for familiar foods, and an effort to show our gratitude to Dr. Emmanuel and others who have been helpful to us, we hosted a chili dinner at the FORIG guest house on Tuesday. The food turned out wonderfully, and contained a plethora of both familiar and novel ingredients. Our guests seemed pleased, and the event turned into quite a party, complete with music, dancing, and what turned out to be an exceedingly tasty dessert of mango crisp and icecream.
The next day was busy and productive, as we returned to the Basic School to conduct lessons and deliver the donated supplies. I (Coleman) paired with Hannah to teach a lesson on basic computer use, and another on Newton’s Laws of physics. Their were only six students in the class, all of whom were bright, pleasant, well behaved and eager to learn. We discussed the past experience that each student had had with computers- which varied from none to common use for schoolwork- and then went over the use of the word processor on one of the notebooks being donated to the school. Each student typed a sentence into a document, with the less experienced students receiving guidance from the others, and then we asked them to go back and revise their work to include proper punctuation. We concluded the computer lesson by showing how to name and save the document, and then retrieve it for future use.
The physics lesson also went well, with some help from the Ghanaian instructor in interpreting our examples for the students, and we demonstrated the three laws through the use of foam stomp rockets. The students were then more or less set loose to wreak havoc with the toys and their new knowledge of physics. The concept that force equals mass times acceleration was demonstrated on the first try as a student leaped onto the launcher and propelled the rocket onto the roof of the school. Too much force, too much acceleration.
The rest of the group taught a variety of other lessons during this time, including chemistry, differing lifestyles between the US and Ghana, and the physics behind magnifying glasses. We were then treated to a tasty meal of banku and soup before heading out to return to Kumasi. We arrived fairly late, and most of the group went to bed early. Clark, Genny and I attempted to watch a movie on the laptop, but found it too difficult to hear over the traffic outside the dorm. After some time we gave up, and I returned to the shared boy’s room, briefly debated putting up my mosquito net, opted not too, and climbed into the upper bunk to go to sleep. About thirty seconds later, the bunk collapsed beneath me, sending the mattress, wooden slats of the bed-frame, and my startled body crashing down on a sleeping Andrew. Luckily he was able to react quickly enough to my sudden outburst of choice expletives, as my pillow fell from beneath me, to get his hands in front of his face, and he suffered only minor defensive wounds.
On Thursday, Dr. Jacob kindly arranged transportation for us to visit Nsawkaw, where we met with the district officials, and discussed our plans for a community center there. Genny and Emily stayed the night at Dr. Jacob’s mother’s home, in order to visit Asuano the next morning and meet with local farmers about the use of Biochar. The rest of us returned to Sunyani by tro tro.
I spoke with the Hon. Vincent Oppong Asamoah, district chief of Dormaa, this morning about the status of the Lister engine. He informed me that he will be visiting Accra this weekend, and will ascertain the details of the engine’s movement through customs. Hopefully Andrew and I will be able to visit Kwameaboakrom next week, with the engine in tow.
Clark and Joe went to Ridge basic school to return some repaired laptops and discuss plans for creating a school blog. The hope is to pair the Ghanaian school with one in the USA, allowing students from each to share pictures and stories about their respective lives. With a primary focus around cultural and computer education for all students involved, it may also provide a way to raise funds to help the school here pay for internet access, since they cannot afford to do so otherwise.
