Happy 4th of July from Ghana!! While we didn’t get to watch fireworks
streaking through the sky, we still got to bask in the Ghanaian
culture---sitting in a stuffy room with the power out, eating rice and
beans. ☺ We have finalized our class schedule for the rest of our time
here; we are teaching phase 3 in Amonom and Abomosu. The class in
Amonom is unique in that the five students we are teaching have
created an almost co-op group of palm oil sellers. They paid off their
first loan within 6 months! We couldn’t be more excited to have a
group of dedicated, hardworking students to work with.
The Abomosu class is much larger, nearly twenty students. We almost
canceled the class because they didn’t appear to be taking it
seriously. We let our students pick the day and time they are taught,
so there is no excuse for lateness. The Abomosu students showed up 90
minutes late!! The class is only 120 total! Douglas came down hard on
them and we’re sure that won’t happen again. The students have
apologized and we’ll be teaching them later this afternoon.
It’s an exciting period of time here in Abomosu. The NGO here, World
Joy, has raised enough money to create a beautiful learning center in
Abomosu, which we hope to be able to leverage in the future. Stephen
Sr. has just secured enough funds to start construction on a large
mill for the community, which he will rent out for a small fee. As
we’ve watched tourists and volunteers come and go, it’s been exciting
to brainstorm ways that SEED will continue to be able to mold and
adapt into what will bring this region the most economic success. More
ideas to follow… ;)
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Friday, July 4, 2014
Greetings!
Greetings! A lot has happened in Ghana this week. Most importantly (at
least what the locals will tell you) is that Ghana’s football team has
been eliminated from the World Cup. Ghana had a pretty good shot at
advancing, which would mean the USA would be eliminated instead, but
they lost their chance during the game with Portugal. We were in Cape
Coast during the game, so we got to watch it with about 100+ locals on
a giant screen on the beach. It will come as no surprise that the week
before and after the game, we told people we were from Canada. ☺
This was the week that we dropped off our dear Andi and picked up the
amazing Alex Daines. Because we already had to go to Accra, we decided
to have this be our week off and do a bit of traveling in the Accra
area. The previous interns have all commented on how great Cape Coast
and Kakum are, so we decided to do both of these. The weather was good
while we were in Kakum and we got to do the canopy walk! Basically,
it’s a labyrinth of rope bridges suspended between trees that you walk
across. The highest point is 120 feet. It wasn’t as scary as we were
expecting, but there was always that moment of fear when you first
step onto it.
After Kakum, we made our way to Cape Coast to watch the Ghana game and
to explore the slave castles. Those were incredible! It’s one thing to
learn about slavery from a textbook; it’s another thing entirely to
walk through the dungeons where the slaves were kept for months while
they awaited the next slave ship that would take them to the Americas.
The male slave holding room was 12 by 30 feet and would hold 200-250
slaves for upwards of 3 months. The only source of air for these rooms
would be a small hole (1 square foot) which was in the upper corner of
the far wall. Talk about a humbling experience.
From Cape Coast, we headed to the airport, picked up Alex ,dropped
Andi off and tried to head back to Abomosu. Unfortunately- Ghana’s
government has defaulted on its payments to the oil companies, so the
oil companies have decided to stop supplying Ghana with oil until the
government pays them. Gas stations have all shut down—the lines to get
gas have started to wrap around for miles and miles just for the hope
that when gas comes, they’ll be able to get some. Diesel is still in
supply, so we were still able to make it back home to Abomosu.
This afternoon, we will fund Sankubenase and later this week we will
start teaching another phase 3 class. We are all happy, healthy, and
excited for the USA v. Belgium game this afternoon. GO USA!!!
least what the locals will tell you) is that Ghana’s football team has
been eliminated from the World Cup. Ghana had a pretty good shot at
advancing, which would mean the USA would be eliminated instead, but
they lost their chance during the game with Portugal. We were in Cape
Coast during the game, so we got to watch it with about 100+ locals on
a giant screen on the beach. It will come as no surprise that the week
before and after the game, we told people we were from Canada. ☺
This was the week that we dropped off our dear Andi and picked up the
amazing Alex Daines. Because we already had to go to Accra, we decided
to have this be our week off and do a bit of traveling in the Accra
area. The previous interns have all commented on how great Cape Coast
and Kakum are, so we decided to do both of these. The weather was good
while we were in Kakum and we got to do the canopy walk! Basically,
it’s a labyrinth of rope bridges suspended between trees that you walk
across. The highest point is 120 feet. It wasn’t as scary as we were
expecting, but there was always that moment of fear when you first
step onto it.
After Kakum, we made our way to Cape Coast to watch the Ghana game and
to explore the slave castles. Those were incredible! It’s one thing to
learn about slavery from a textbook; it’s another thing entirely to
walk through the dungeons where the slaves were kept for months while
they awaited the next slave ship that would take them to the Americas.
The male slave holding room was 12 by 30 feet and would hold 200-250
slaves for upwards of 3 months. The only source of air for these rooms
would be a small hole (1 square foot) which was in the upper corner of
the far wall. Talk about a humbling experience.
From Cape Coast, we headed to the airport, picked up Alex ,dropped
Andi off and tried to head back to Abomosu. Unfortunately- Ghana’s
government has defaulted on its payments to the oil companies, so the
oil companies have decided to stop supplying Ghana with oil until the
government pays them. Gas stations have all shut down—the lines to get
gas have started to wrap around for miles and miles just for the hope
that when gas comes, they’ll be able to get some. Diesel is still in
supply, so we were still able to make it back home to Abomosu.
This afternoon, we will fund Sankubenase and later this week we will
start teaching another phase 3 class. We are all happy, healthy, and
excited for the USA v. Belgium game this afternoon. GO USA!!!
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