Last Ceremonies and Ghana Night

Friday, July 31st.

Woke up early 5:30 with some machine noise outside. Not sure what it was but probably something to do with the construction. We went to the college by 10:30 and waited while everyone had snack. Then I MC'd the gender equity sketches. There were seven this time and they were pretty good and within the time limit. Right after that Diane and I got Eric to drive us into town to exchange some money. Brenda, Marie and Obed came with us. Eric couldn't find a ForEx so we tried three banks but none of them would do the exchange. The last one gave us a heads up for a ForEx. We drove there, met a young man on the corner and asked the rate. He told us 3.6 which is better than we have gotten before. So he lead Eric and I down a couple of narrow streets to a little shop that had a nice concrete and tile base, as opposed to the dirt ones in the shops around it. Inside was a bigger, older man. He confirmed the rate and said he would give us a receipt. So we went back to get the others and we all went there dressed in our lime green GNAT outfits. We didn't stand out too much! We exchanged our money for the rate he said but he wouldn't give us a receipt. I figured so what? We have the money at a great rate and we could all sign a receipt from our book. Obviously we had stumbled upon a black market outlet. We got back to the college in time for lunch. After that we sat through another long three hour closing ceremony. At the end of it we were all presented with little gifts of thanks. At the end GNAT invited all of the resource people to a room for a drink and a kebab. I got Ernest and the two Thomas to pose with Diane and me and then got the memory card from Ernest from his camera so I could get the photos from the closing ceremonies and the school visit from Wednesday. I asked Eric to round up the other three drivers, Francis, Felix and Daniel so that I could present them all with an ETFO t-shirt that says I AM THE FACE OF MY UNION. I told them that they truly are that and how much we appreciated all of their hard work. They packed up our luggage and hauled it around to all the sites we went to. This includes all of our workshop material as well. On a personal level I thanked them too because they had also carried all of the boxes of school supplies that I had purchased in Accra. And Felix had found my lost Canadian quarter pendant. They were very pleased to be thanked and appreciated. Then we went back to the hotel for dinner and to get ready for our last Ghana night. We arrived at 8:00 and they were already dancing. They had a small drum group and two young women who danced. The older of the two brought some guys up to dance and tried to get me but I ran away from her. There was no way I was going to be centred out dancing. So she asked me why I didn't like dancing and we got to talking. Turns out she is 17 and her sister is 10 and all the women on stage who were sitting and singing were her mother, her sisters and friends and the drummers were males in the family. She introduced me to them and they let me take some good photos. I went outside to cool off for a bit and ran into five participants from our class. One asked me if people in Canada were as religious as people in Ghana. I told him that there were lots of religious people in Canada who celebrate a number of different religions but that I was definitely not one of them. They were surprised and asked me why. I told them that I didn't believe in god because if there was a god who loved us he would not allow children to die of cancer, or people of AIDS and ebola. And I said if we didn't believe and he really loved us why would he send us to hell? It was a long conversation but that was the jist of it. Then I said I didn't understand why the people of Ghana after being subjected to the slave trade by the Europeans, would adopt the European Christian faith. A couple of them looked at me a bit shocked but the one guy said that apparently their own original religion gave out more severe punishment for noncompliance than going to Hell. They killed or maimed people. I found that to be an interesting reason. Then I went back in and hung around with our group a bit before we left at ten to go back to sleep before tomorrow's return trip.

Last Day Of Workshops

Thursday, July 30th.

Last day of classes. We arrived at the college by 8:30 and while Pascale, Vanda and Obed went to the class to finish their workshops, I went to the resource centre to sign certificates for all the participants. Thomas Musah showed up in the classroom and told the team that he had to change things around as Jacob Andersen did not get to do his workshop yesterday as he was ill. So Obed and Pascale rushed to finish their stuff. Then they raffled off the last of our supplies and a few personal items. I gave them the erasers that Sonya had provided and the two GNAT books Abu and Musa. I sat with Thomas and worked some more on the team report for his section. Then he wanted it on his computer, so I gave him his section and he said he would get it to me later. I asked about the potential of running another HIV night to clarify the misconceptions of the other guy, he said he would ask Baafi. It was the last day of school for the students at the school on campus today. After lunch Diane and I went to the hotel to get our financial stuff and then returned and worked on that. It took a while to figure out but it looks like she is not missing money and I'm not as up as I thought I was. It is a pain to keep track of. Vanda did her two hour workshop on mentoring with John's headmaster class. That went really well and the participants seemed very interested. Back to the hotel with the co-tutors and Eric for dinner. After that Diane and I paid our hotel bills. It was only 8pm and too early for bed so Diane asked if I wanted to sit outside and have a beer. So we sat by the outside bar and talked about the project, the teams, travel and Australia. Off to bed by ten. We have been very lucky here, the temperature is much more moderate, high 20's and very comfortable.

Koduakrom Primary, Our Third and Final Remote School

Wednesday, July 29th. (continued)

Then it was time for our last visit to a remote school. We drove about a half hour down a dirt road to Koduakrom Primary School in the Brong Afho Region. The community is a rural farming one that grows cassava, mangoes, maize and cocoa. The whole community was there to meet us as were the students who had been sent home on holiday a week early because their teachers and headmaster were at our workshops. The school had a very different feel. We could see immediately that they had a new structure built in a u- shape with a concrete centre courtyard. The windows were boarded up, but that was because it was closed for the summer. The children and parents all carried chairs to the courtyard to set up an area for a meeting. I went into the new school and discovered that although the building was new the furniture was old and basic and there were no resources anywhere to be seen. Looking out the back window I could see the remains of the old school, just mud walls and a sheet metal roof, where the headmaster, Francis, had apparently been bitten by a cobra a couple of years ago. He survived but it drew attention to the needs of the school and the community and GNAT in partnership with CTF and the Nkabom program helped get them a new school. This story made me feel better about the whole providing supplies to needy schools. I think and hope that our efforts will draw attention to the needs of the schools we visited since the media and elected officials were invited by GNAT to all our presentations. We listened to a number of speeches again and presented our supplies to GNAT, the headmaster and the parent council. As always the community was very appreciative and we had a good visit interacting with them.

Exploring the Market

Wednesday, July 29th.

Back to the college by 8:30. This morning Obed started followed by Pascale. I went for a walk to visit the local primary and junior high school that is attached to this college. I meet a number of the students and talked to some of the teachers before Musah called me. I went back to our class to meet him and we talked about what to do about the mentoring workshop and the gender issues skits. The mentoring will happen Thursday instead of today. Then we went around and told the classes about the gender issue skits. Then it was time for our last visit to a remote school (see next page). When we got back we had lunch and then our group had the afternoon off. We had Eric drive us back to the market area to buy some fruit. We wandered around for a couple of hour looking and buying a few things and interacting with the people. Having Eric with us is a bonus as he is able to tell them who we are and we can take some photos. I met a woman who was cooking kenti and she told me about it and posed for some photos so I bought two of them and gave them to Eric. Two other women called 'obroni come here'. They wanted to pose with me too. We had a bit of spare time back at the hotel before dinner. Then we headed back to the college for our last Canada Night. We presented our slides and performed the chicken dance and then we danced with the locals and posed for endless photos. Back by 10:30 and off to bed.

Shopping In The Market

Tuesday, July 28th.

Eric picked us up at 8:10 and we headed back to the college. Obed and Pascale were on today. I spent the morning updating the narrative report and entering Diane's expenses into my spreadsheet. I sat and talked to Ernest and Thomas Baafi. I asked if we were going to the remote school today and Ernest said that the head teacher had just been notified today and couldn't get the elders together as they were out farming, so I suggested we go on Wednesday, as we had the last two weeks. He agreed. Then I asked about getting a local person to lead the HIV/AIDS workshop and about what we were going to do on the weekend back in Accra. Ernest then phoned the Coconut Grove Hotel and booked us for the last three nights, I thought that had been done a long time ago! They both vetoed Eric's idea of going to the big soccer match in Accra, saying that they didn't think it was a safe place for us to be. Then I asked if we could go to Elmina slave castle. Ernest said 'why not' and suggested we go to the canopy walk, Kakum, as well. I told Diane the plans and then walked to the resource centre where I found Thomas Musah . We sat together and finished the section of the narrative report that required his input. I hung out with Diane in the staff room where we worked on our reports. After lunch we left for the afternoon and Eric took us shopping in town. We parked and walked about looking for bags for Diane's group and soccer balls for their schools. It was really interesting walking around the market and watching the locals and seeing what they were selling. Some people bought creams and Marie bought a pair of padded underwear that local women wear in order to enhance their tush. Back to the hotel were Vanda and I summarized yesterday’s survey while Pascale reviewed the report. Then we had dinner. The food here is quite good and John the waiter takes good care of us. I had a vegetable homemade soup and fried rice. Then Pascale, Diane and I headed back to the college for the HIV/AIDS presentation. The speaker started early before we even got there. He was not very engaging and it was really hard to understand his accent. I thought I heard wrong information, but not sure. In hindsight I wished that we had presented the CTF PowerPoint, but too late. We went back to the hotel and settled in for the night.

Berekum College Of Education

Monday, July 27th.

Eric picked us up at 8:10 after our breakfast of oats. (We also ordered dinner for tonight to speed up the ordering process). We arrived at the Berekum College of Education a few minutes later and went to the assembly hall where we met the GNAT exec and waited for the opening ceremonies to begin. This one was mercifully shorter, after which we were led to our new home room for the week. Thomas Musah spoke to the class about the reasons for the course before turning it over to us. We introduced ourselves and then I took them outside for the ice breaker where each person tosses a ball to someone else calling their name. After everyone gets the chance we start again and then add a second and third ball. The participants are not used to this type of activity and some had trouble with the instructions. We had them discuss their expectations and what they need to do to get ready for the first day and week of school. I explained to them my time capsule idea and later led them through the four triangle geometric shape activity. One of the participants brought her daughter to the workshops as she has no one to take care of her. Her name is Gifty and she is the sweetest little girl I have ever met. She loves all of us 'obronis'. We left and went back to the hotel, dropped off the teams before Diane and I went to buy some water and fruit (bananas, mangoes, pineapple and oranges). Our dinner was ready shortly after 6:30 which was much quicker than ever before. After dinner Diane and I worked on our financial report. I can't figure out CTF's spreadsheet so I am creating my own. Dianne seems to be short about 600 cedis and I am about 1000 up... more work required obviously, tomorrow.

Travel Day to Berekum

Sunday, July 26th.

We were up early and off for another long day of driving. We left Bolgatanga by 8:30 and headed south in our convoy of six trucks to Tamale, where we turned west and headed past where we turned off for Mole last week. As we drove west the flat rural farming land and the villages of round thatched family units gave way to a much hillier and lush landscape and the houses became mostly cinder block. There were patches of long stretches of forests but a lot of the time it seemed more like one town ran into the next in an African version of urban sprawl, but with everyone living in slum housing and the shops all being small shacks. This area of the country reminds me of Uganda and Kenya. It was a long bumpy ride as there are thousands of speed bumps along the route. We stopped for lunch at a nice road side restaurant. Diane and I went for a short walk to see a falls but it was not very exciting. As we drove we saw a couple of truck accidents in the hilly area. We arrived at our hotel by 7:00 and after checking in we went for dinner in the hotel’s really nice restaurant and then retired to our own rooms. We all have single rooms. The rate has gone up from 75 cedi to 85 per room per night because of the falling cedi.

Paga Tour

Saturday, July 25th.

Eric came and picked us up at 8:00 and we drove to Navrongo to meet with Martin (our GNAT guide I talked to yesterday). We drove from there to the little town of Paga to visit a couple of local sites. First we went to a slave camp where years ago people were rounded up and either traded or sold into the slave trade. Other tribes or people also brought people here. They were told they were being taken somewhere to be trained for better jobs. It was an interesting place and quite scenic, but it felt haunted. After that we went to the Chief Crocodile Pond, home of the sacred crocodiles. Crocs are sacred here because legend has it that a crocodile helped a local prince in trouble and in return he swore that his people would no longer hunt or eat them but would instead feed and take care of them. There are apparently about 300 of them in this large pond. The guide calls them and they come out of the water where we are allowed to touch them, hold their tails and sit on them. They fed the croc a live chicken. When we left there we met a man selling leather goods and I told him I was looking for the villages with the geometric patterns. He told me he had some in his museum across the street. We followed him into his home compound where he told us some of the history of the place and showed us his collection of old art and pottery. We also saw two houses that had a bit of the art I was looking for adorning their walls. He had a structure that we had seen in village compounds as we drove through the countryside and we were wondering what it was. It turns out it is a sort of grain elevator where they store their food stuffs and the animals shelter under it. There is a false floor just above ground and the goats go in there. After that we went to a bead store where the women bought beads to support women in poverty. We drove a little farther north to the Burkino Faso border before turning around. Apparently the villages I am looking for are too far away and too remote for us to get to, disappointing but nothing I can do. So we drove back to Navrongo and visited the Catholic cathedral that was built by three Canadian missionaries in the early 1900's. The inside was nice and had lots of the kind of paintings that I was looking for. From there we went to the same outside bar where I thought I had lost my coin and had a drink. Then we dropped Martin off and drove back to Bolga. I worked on my team report before dinner. Then we had dinner outside by the pool. I had a pizza. We had a good talk about our feelings about the project so far which gave Diane and I some input for the team report. After dinner Diane and I went to her room to update our receipts, before I went back to work more on the report and my journal before bed. There was a big party happening in the courtyard this evening and there was loud music and lots of religious speeches, but thankfully it ended by 10 and I went to sleep shortly afterwards.

A Farmer's Home

Friday, July 24th.

We had a bit of a sleep in today and didn't go to the college until 10:30. We went straight to the assembly hall where the students were having snack. We were there to supervise the gender equity skits. The participants enjoy performing and the audience has a good time. I hope it gives them something to think about, things like girl’s access to school and women's roles in the home and at school. Then it was lunch time. After I ate I went to the resource centre and decided to walk through the small community there to get some more photos. I was photographing two kindergarten boys on a bicycle when I heard someone calling me. It was a man in his house, and he was gesturing for me to come to him. So I went to see what he wanted. I wasn't nervous as everyone here has been very friendly. He invited me into his house and showed me a large python in an oil drum! He had found it in the woods and intended to eat it. Then he showed me around his compound and took me up on the roof and inside his living area. He allowed me to take photos showing me his chickens, ducks and two monkeys, very cool. I would have stayed longer but I had to get back for the closing ceremonies. They were incredibly long again, three hours! It was really hot in there and the electricity kept going off so the fans stopped. After the ceremonies Thomas Baafi told me he kept checking to see how I was doing because I had said they were too long last week, and he was laughing to himself. Then they took us with all of the resource people to another building where we had a social and a couple of beers. I asked around about the village I want to see and I found a GNAT rep from the area who knows what I am talking about and he volunteered to come with us tomorrow on our excursion. From there we went to dinner, after which I went for one last walk and went to say goodbye to my kitchen friends and especially Mary, the head cook. Ghana Night was slow to start and it was still really hot in there, so I walked around the college grounds in the dark lost in thought about the schools and the project and enjoying some alone time. I could hear the music and the cheering as the participants danced. I went back and sat at the back of the hall where I met a young six year old boy who found me fascinating and kept touching my arm and arm hair. When the school drum and dance group came in I went and sat on the stage to get some photos. They were okay but not the best I've seen. They served drinks and food which turned into a bit of a melee as the participants tried to help themselves to seconds. After that the men at the table where I was sitting announced to the crowd that they had a container of cooked dog! Apparently it is a delicacy up here and the participants were excited about it. GNAT knew we would find that strange so were herded out to the van and Eric drove us back to the hotel by eleven.