In the Belly of the Beast

For the past couple of weeks, Marina and I have been living in Accra. We're working at a vocational training school for the physically disabled. The students are trained in tailoring, shoemaking, tie-die and batik (a local method of dying fabric using wax to imprint patterns before immersing the fabric in die) and computers. The Center Manager was obviously not impressed with our shoemaking skills, since he's placed us in charge of the computer training. During the day, we work with small groups of the students on the one functional computer at the center. In the evenings, Marina takes half of them to work on beginner reading and writing and I go with the other half to read out loud from a novel.















































































In most cases, the students at the center have not had access to a proper education. The young man in the photo below has very limited reading abilities. He carries bags of newspapers, pamphlets and magazines around with him everywhere he goes, and spreads them out for hours on end to pick out and copy down the words that he recognizes.

















We live with the students, on the same compound as the school. The lady with Marina in the photo below is Olivia. She's a fantastic cook and has made us lots of delicious, spicy meals. The door behind Marina is to our bedroom - which even has a TV that entertains us some evenings with its two fuzzy channels.

















One of the teachers took us to his neighborhood near the beach.

















There were some nice, surfable waves rolling in. But unfortunately, the water in the area has been polluted into garbage soup...

















After a lengthy battle with some immigration officials here in Accra, we've at long last got the necessary papers and tickets for our visit to South Africa. We fly out on Saturday! We'll transit in Dubai and arrive in Johannesburg on Sunday afternoon!

-Davis

Winds of Change

The winds of change are blowing in Achiase.

The volunteer from America, Amy, has gone home.
Here is a farewell shot that we took with her the night before she left. She's the one sporting the Ghanaian mumu.
















This week it's Marina and I's turn to move on, and we're excited for the change. We're still waiting on word from our volunteer organization, but it seems that we'll be placed somewhere near Accra for our remaining few weeks in Ghana.

Most recently I've been teaching English at one of the local junior high schools. It's a public school so it's essentially free for students. I taught grades 7 and 8 and each class had about 60 students. Many of them speak little or no english, and they varied in age from 10 to 20 years old. Out of this teaching, I met one boy named Frederick who is 20 and is unable to read. He was pulled out of school for 6 years when his father died to help support his family. I have since been tutoring him individually and he has been making good progress. Here's a photo that Marina took of us working together on Sunday.
















It's also a time of new arrivals. Ducklings, kittens, and chicks abound. Here are some newcomers that live under the woodpile in our front yard.






























Yesterday our house was struck by lightning. It's the tallest structure in the area and has a metal roof. I saw a spark on the metal trim at the base of a column inside the dining hall where we were sitting. I immediately felt the charge in my body - particularly in my feet and head. I had a headache for about 20 minutes after the strike occurred. Has anyone else ever experienced this?

I'll update again once we've moved.

- Davis

Rainy Weather, Mud Houses

During our visit with the Okomfo, heavy rains fell for several hours. It was one of the most sustained rainfalls we've witnessed, and it came down so hard that even the spray from the rain hitting the patio was enough to come in sideways and flood the covered area where we sat.

The region we were in is very mountainous, and I learned that evening that one of the villages in the valley had been severely flooded throughout the afternoon. The man we were staying with is a disaster management deputee, so I asked to accompany him on his trip to the village the next morning to take account of the damage. We were up at dawn and racing through the fog to get to the village before the people went off to work on their farms for the day.

When we arrived, the villagers explained that a water vein from up the mountainside must have burst, and that a sudden rush of water had came down on the village. This, combined with the sustained rain and the overflowing of a nearby creek, resulted in several homes collapsing and twenty families having to evacuate their homes and spend the night in the church building which was on higher ground. They asked me to take some photos during the visit.

You can see how high the water reached as it rushed along the side of this home:

Residents were anxious to show us the damage to their property, hoping that some funding and assistance would be forthcoming.

This is the front yard of the man pictured above:

The homes are all built with mud, clay, and sticks, which makes them particularly vulnerable to erosion and collapse from the rushing water.

From what I could see, much of the town was built in a basin, with the road acting as a retaining wall for all the water that came rushing down the mountainside. There is a tunnel about one metre in diametre dug under the road for drainage. I pointed out that the tunnel was partially blocked, and one of the villagers explained that before this flood occured, it had been half-plugged with dried mud from a flood which took place over a month ago.

One year ago, a similar flood in a nearby village killed three people. I passed that village on the way home and saw that many of the people are still living in tents by the roadside.

We are currently just at the beginning of the rainy season. What is urgently needed is to relocate some of the homes up the hill, to dig drainage channels through the town and a second and even third tunnel under the road (there's a river on the other side), and to make sure that the tunnels are kept clear.

Without the funding and expertise for the landscaping and without the will of the residents to move their homes to the other end of the village, it's sad to think that a relatively simple but very serious problem will continue to plague the village.

- Davis