A "typical" weekend

While Mike and I were at work, Fati (our lovely local girl who helps cook, clean and wash three days a week) had been to market and bought fish and a live guinea fowl. She smoked the fish over her charcoal fire while her boyfriend Saibu slaughtered the bird and they plucked, gutted and cooked it for us. (Fati is well aware that I am not keen on anything with eyes, or indeed that vaguely resembles the living creature it once was!)
Fati then got a ride on the back of a motorbike, precariously balancing a very long wooden pole and a large wooden mortar along with the ingredients for our tea. She peeled and cooked the yam and started the groundnut soup. I was given hot peppers to grind and then we started pounding! One person flicks the sticky yam mush over while the other plunges the long pole from a height (hoping to avoid the hands of the flicking over person) and fufu is formed.
We ate the fufu with our fingers (remembering not to chew but just to swallow it) with very hot tasty soup. Ghanaians can manage to eat incredibly hot things without burning their fingers. I used to think my fingers were tolerant to heat until I came here.

On Saturday morning we had a surprise visit at 8am from a chap from the office who liked our house and wanted to show it to his architect., so that the architect could design something similar for him. He had brought the architect on the back of his motorbike. Mike and I were duly hospitable , still in our pyjamas. Water and electricity were both off, a not uncommon occurence, particularly at the weekends.

After lunch we met another friend, Mark, on the way to market and he showed us a shortcut through the mud hut villages. He and Fati guided us round the numerous market stalls speaking a variety of African languages as they went.

Sat evening saw Mike giving another ICT website tutorial to a couple of young men we have got to know in Walewale - Mashood and Josef. We are just about to launch our second ICT Club here next week which means 40 student are accessing computer training now. I was thrilled yesterday when the first club independently electd a girl president to monitor and keep track of the members' behaviour and attendance. Real ownership!
Sunday saw us at church for "Pastor Appreciation Sunday", where the congregation were harangued in Mampruli by the Bishop for our poor attendance and lack of appreciation. (Since we were actually there with a gift for the Pastor, this felt a touch harsh).
On Sunday afternoon we ended up with five visitors from the village who just happened to be dropping by- still no power or mains water. The photo includes Mashood, Mark and Jacob who is a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer. Mike has been mistaken for Jacob - do you think they look similar? Fati arrived with my sundress that her seamstress has been trying to copy. Her first attempt at gathering with elastic just about fitted my arm, this was the second attempt...Hmmm, maybe this was a bridge too far in the copying stakes. ( I have to say it is now finished but bears no resemblance to the comfy one I was hoping to duplicate).

We had a convivial afternoon till dark stopped play at 6pm. The electricity eventually came back on at 12.35am. What bliss to have the fan working over our bed, because the night was sweltering!
We have managed a bit of travelling recently too ,visiting Bolga and Tamale which are our nearest towns 1 hr and 1hr 40 mins away respectively on the bus or trotro ( now there's an experience!) In Tamale I managed to buy jam and spready cheese and door wedges! We are learning to appreciate the smaller things in life.

Meeting the Chief

At last we have managed it. Yesterday afternoon we met the Chief of Walewale.
Our friend Mashood and his cousin Yosef kindly agreed to escort us. We met in good time so we could go over the expected protocols. We were to have to remove our shoes and enter when summoned, Mike would then sit and greet while simultaneously clapping while I had to do a strange flicking gesture with my little finger and crouch low whilst also saying a greeting. The flicking gesture is meant to make a clicking noise but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get the desired effect. I had several men in the office pulling enthusiastically at my hands in the hope of success, to no avail. I did suggest I could cheat and just click my fingers but this was not acceptable. Anyway, I hoped Mike's clapping would mask my inadequacies.
So the big moment came and we were ushered forward. In deference to our western-ness they had provided plastic chairs so we didn't have to sit on the floor. Mashood acted as our interpreter as the Chief did not speak English. We exchanged greetings and then had to say what our mission was in Walewale. The VSO, "sharing skills, changing lives" seemed go down well and we expanded a bit more on what we would be doing. The Chief said he was very pleased to meet us and we were very welcome, and shared some thoughts on how important it was to work together.

We had many photos taken with the chief and some of his children. The Chief really liked seeing the pictures on the digital camera.


Then someone came in from a community sanitation club and we were asked to go and see what these volunteers were doing as they just happened to be cleaning in and around the Chief's palace that day. We took some pictures of the saniation volunteers, who like the chief were very interested to see the pictures.







We joined the sanitation volunteers for a while and were invited to their next meeting and said we would help with their next cleaning blitz in Walewale.



We then went back in to see the Chief and invited him back to our house sometime. (We had been told in advance that it was ok to offer this and he might send someone to take up the offer).
Mike then presented our gift of a small white towel which signified us coming in peace. Mashood seemed to think the Chief was well pleased and was sure that he would like to meet Anna and Daniel when they come over in December. The chief had said to Mashood that sometimes people come to Walewale and do not visit him, and he was glad that we had come to see him and explain what we were doing.

My first day at work

The day began at 3am with an enormous clap of thunder. What followed was certainly the fiercest most flashy thunder storm that Mike and I have ever witnessed. The rain was torrential and we pottered round the house checking windows. However, when we woke at 6am the living room was flooded. Several inches of rain had built up on the veranda and had then made their way under the front wall of the house. To add insult to injury, the water was no longer running from the taps and I was covered in a heat rash from where it had been swelteringly hot before the storm broke. So Mike and I mopped while our lovely house girl managed to make us a delicious breakfast despite there being no water.
So I set off for my first morning at the office unwashed but fed, hoping I looked respectable as we have no mirror in the house. I walked the 15 minutes to Walewale District Education Office in the rain and arrived at 8 o clock in time to chat with the cleaners. The rest of the staff trickled in and I arranged to accompany the lady who is in charge of the School Health Education Programme for the day. Thinking to take advantage of facilities before going out into the villages, I asked where the toilet was. The answer was, there wasn’t one. I could go and use the urinal in the corn field (yes, apparently ladies can pee standing up in Africa... I think I may have to put my shewee to the test) or I had to go to a nearby school and ask for the key. Before I could pick between these appealing alternatives, the Headteacher of the nearby school had been summoned from inside the office and four of us processed about 20 meters amidst conversations of what I intended to do and had I got paper. We arrived, much to the delight of about 50 children sweeping the compound before school. The head then went retrieve the key for the padlock and I was escorted to three wooden latrines at the side of the playground. After all that effort I felt duty bound to perform!
The car eventually arrived to take us to a village 18 miles away. The roads had not been improved by the torrential downpour of the night before. I fell to wondering how this would be on my motorbike...Hmmmm. We were warmly greeted at the school by a very young looking man. Sadly the Head teacher had recently died and this young chap had been brought in to support the assistant Head. He looked about 20! We assessed by interview some of the girls at the primary school. This was for a scheme to support 10 girls through their education with uniforms, books and fees. Many of the girls were about 15 years old. African schools don’t worry about age cohorts. If you start at 9 or 10 years old you join the Grade 1 class and work your way up like everyone else so there can be huge age ranges in each class. You also have to pass tests to get promoted so this adds to the age range if a child is held back a year.
Anyway, we got back about 3pm and headed for home, still with heat/ allergic rash raging and to find no water at home. Happy days!

(Picture added of Charlotte at her desk in the District Education Office - goats in the background).

A few first impressions

Ghana is vibrant and hot. The people are friendly and warm. They find our attempts at mampruli very amusing but seem to appreciate us trying. Greetings are important and switch at various times of the day. In this respect Ghanaians seem to be very aware of time.
They are not always the most efficient but are anxious to please and want us to feel welcomed.
The days seem to pass quickly, particularly if you have had a little lie in and weren't up at 5.30am. The 6am sunrise and 6pm sunset is becoming more normal to us.
The sun is fierce for several hours in the middle of the day.....I never thought I would be a convert to cold showers but they just hit the spot! We mostly have to strip off our sweaty clothes whenever we come indoors (sorry, is that too much information?!)
Frogs come out at dusk and are all over the paths. I am relieved to hear this is just during the rainy season which has almost ended. Mike and I dashed out to enjoy the rain the other day, much to the amazement of out guest house employees.
Beds don't have any covers, only a bottom sheet, but that is fine. We have only had one power cut for an hour since we have been here.
The children shout " salaminga, how are you?" and some have come to touch my hair. Salaminga means white person but this is not meant to be in any way offensive. They like us to speak to them in english rather than mampruli tho for some they only know a few set phrases (a bit like our mampruli) so the conversations don't tend to last long.
Water is sold in plastic sachets which take some skill to consume without giving yourself a shower too. They also have a strange aftertaste so I am not a big fan.
Our delightful neighbours invited us round for a meal last night of Tzed(like semolina), groundnut soup with guinea fowl. Really delicious but felt slightly put on the spot as we ate it all with our fingers while they watched. They apparently were going to eat after we had gone. I am finding these cultural differences most interesting.
We went to the Walewale Baptist church yesterday with everything translated from english to mampruli, even our welcome speeches. I'm afraid we weren't quite ready for their request for a song! There are about 70 church members and we sat on wooden benches. The service starts with an hour of bible study split into english and mampruli classes. The worship was wonderful with enthusiastic dancing. Like all churches , they had problems with the technology when the microphone broke but frankly the preacher was quite loud enough without!
So, a few musings on life here so far. I will let Mike add the photos.

Taking a good look at our new house

The new house is just behind the Masagri guest house where we are staying, so there was in fact no need to take the local taxi.

It was interesting to have a good look round the new house.....

....fitted kitchen ....

..... luxury en-suite facilities. .....

(When the builder was quizzed about the position of the shower wall, he replied, "yes, that was a mistake").

.... back garden ready for occupants to customise to their own requirements ....

... and even a mango tree in the front garden.

Felix the builder in the background was sleeping in the house overnight, but was on his own on site today as all the others had gone to a funeral

Welcome to Walewale!

James, the manager of the Walewale Education Circuit Supervisors, ready to travel up to our new house in Walewale with us.

The house is lovely - mains water and mains electricity, yippee! - but various problems to fix including lights, plumbing, cess-pit, so we can't move in just yet.

Mike by moonlight, in the garden of the Masagri Guest House where we are staying until the house-building is finished.

TENI conference day 3 - Sept 30

Day 3 of the conference for Tackling Education Needs InclusivelyCharlotte provides a summary of the work of the Community Involvement Group which she has just facilitated

Charlotte and Cath study the TENI implementation plans drafted by VSO and partners

Then it was a last meal (for now) with those of the VSO family in Tamale before setting off for Walewale.