Journal Ghana 2005
Day 1: August 9, 2005
Saundra: Today was the first day with all of the volunteers. We had a lot of business to handle in Accra. We exchanged money, had lunch in Osu, looked at some crafts, went to the grocery store, and tried to register at the Embassy. The Embassy had changed its hours, though, so we were not able to actually register. But regardless, it was a productive morning and everyone got to see a lot of Accra.
Karen: During the afternoon we all went to the Accra Zoo. It wasn't expensive, about 10000 cedis. It was pretty neat because none of us had seen zoo animals that close up before. It was kind of small, but we got to see a lot of monkeys. One tried to take Teisha's camera. We also saw a lion, a hyena, several birds, and some crocodiles.
Teisha: In the evening a few of us took a walk through an area of Accra that is called "the gutter," and the name really explains it well. The people there live next to a giant river of excrement and garbage in tiny shelters that are smaller than the average American bedroom. It was really sad to see all of the people there in such poor conditions. The thing I noticed though was that all of the children were playing and laughing despite the poverty. Also, many people commented on my appearance (being the only white female in the area) and the children followed close behind us.
Michael: Following the walk, the group enjoyed a scrumptious dinner at a cozy restaurant that served a wonderful chicken and spicy rice dinner, as well as gave a wonderful taste of live island jazz. The music within the restaurant, just as the music of the marketplace on the way to the meal, shouted, without words understood by us Americans, the joys and trials of living in Africa, and I personally could not help but feel overwhelmed with the desire to dance with the beautiful rhythm. It was really something to behold and appreciate.
Tom: We were able to purchase a basketball at Osu. It's funny colored, which is good because it will be distinguishable from the other basketball in Larabanga which, apparently, is privately owned. However, it says "No Jesus No Life" on it. We couldn't find one anywhere that didn't say that. We'll obscure that with marker before we get to the Muslim village. Our bus leaves tomorrow at 8:30AM; which means we have to be at the bus station at 7:30AM to weigh our luggage and make sure it gets on; which means we should leave Kokomlemle at 7:00AM; which means we should all be out of our rooms by 6:30AM; which means we should all get up at 5:30AM. That's before sunrise, so set your alarm clocks and don't rely on the sun to wake you up.
Day 2: August 10, 2005
Tom: We woke up early and had to wait a long time to get the luggage on the bus. Then, we rode in a bus all day. It was a fairly comfortable ride and we had good seats next to the back door. We arrived in Tamale at about 7:30PM. We dropped off the luggage at Faisal's house and went to Giddipass for dinner. Then we went to bed.
Day 3: August 11, 2005
Saundra: Today, we woke up early and went to Paga which is about 3 hours from Tamale. It has a crocodile sanctuary and a few other sites we did not have a chance to see. The tro-tro ride was so cramped! A tro-tro is an 18 passenger van that crams about 24 seats into it. I think there were 28 people in the tro tro we rode today. Once there we paid for a chicken and it was used to lull a crocodile from the pond. We posed for pictures holding the animal's tail (which for some reason did not want to eat us). Afterward, it ate the chicken in 30 seconds. When the visit was over, we headed back to Tamale.
When we arrived back in Tamale, Faisal's mom gave us a cooking class and we learned how to make riceballs. It was a long class and some people went and took naps. Overall, it was a very good lesson and the dinner was tasty.
We considered going out after dinner but everyone except Michael and Faisal were too tired. The rest of us had an early night and the two boys went into town for some happy times.
Day 4: August 12, 2005
Karen:
Today we got up early and went to buy cloth from the women's group in Tamale. Between the four of us we bought nearly all their cloth. Several of us had skirts made, either for ourselves or for a friend. Then Faisal and Michael went into town to find a tailor for men. Both Michael and Teisha had men's shirts made.
After that, we all went into town. Some of us used the internet or made phone calls. Faisal and Saundra went to the market to gather supplies for the village while Tom, Teisha, Michael and I ate and went to a small art market. Except for Tom, we each bought something.
Around 130 we went to the bus station to wait for the bus that would take us to Larabanga. It was supposed to be there at 2, but it did not come until almost four. We had a lot of luggage, so we had to carry some of it on the bus with us. It was very crowded and uncomfortable. We were squeezed into a row meant for 5 people, but 6 of us we crammed in there. We had no foot space and we each had to carry something on our laps. At one point we thought the bus was going to tip over! However, we made it to Larabanga in one piece, had dinner, and went quickly to bed.
Day 5: August 13, 2005
Teisha:
Today we had more of a slow day with most of it spent waiting around for transportation.
We had breakfast of tea and peanut butter and jelly on bread. After that we had to wait around to hitch a ride to Domongo so that we could go to the hospital and speak with a doctor about malaria. The transportation that we had to Domongo was a over cramped truck bed that we shared with big bags of peanuts and what seemed like a thousand people. Everyone was literally on top of one another and some lady gave me her baby to hold for the whole ride!
Once in Domongo we took a taxi to the hospital and spoke with a nurse there who gave us a lot of valuable information. We also had brought along Zenabu to have her examined. We spent some time just waiting around there for a doctor and then we were informed that a lot that needed to be done (like de-worming) would have to be done another day.
Then we ate lunch consisting of more rice and some meat. The rest of the day was spent waiting for a ride back to Larabanga. 4 hours must have passed while we waited. Eventually we gave in to paying for a taxi ride to Larabanga and then we had pasta for dinner. It is funny to me that everyone here thinks that it is cold out while we are enjoying a break from the hot sun.
Saundra: After our day in Damongo, we were treated to a party in the village. There was a cute play about the importance of girl education (we couldn't understand it but that's what we were told). After the play there was dancing. People requested songs for their friends and then the people would dance. If the crowd liked your dancing, they put a coin on your forehead and it was donated to the children's group. Michael joined Afishata for a dance and then she requested a song for all of us. We all danced until we were out of breath and had many coins put on our foreheads. It was a good time.
Day 6: August 14, 2005
Michael:
Today was a day filled with adventure and wonder; we went on a safari tour. After the usual breakfast affair of bread with pb&j, eggs, oatmeal, and tea, we traveled to Mole From a distance, in the resort area's viewing post, we viewed a herd of magnificent elephants bathing themselves, and we excitedly hoped to see them closer up on our tour.
However, our tour was very slow in coming; we arrived in Mole at 10:30am but had to wait until 3:30pm to actually have a tour. We were mostly left to our own devices, our main means of entertainment being food, a museum, a viewing post, and a pool. We ate a lunch together that took a long time in coming, but was delicious for the most part. A trip to the museum was next, after a brief interlude of peaceful conversation. We saw many different bones and skins of the animals within the park, and even saw an elephant fetus. We returned to the resort, relaxed a bit more, and then finally, it was 3:30. Our group, along with a few other ladies, was led by a knowledgeable guide on a magical journey, where we saw, up close, a great many monkeys, warthogs, antelope, and even an elephant. Though a very long trek it was a once in a lifetime experience that will forever remain engraved in my brain. However as with all things, good and bad, this great experience ended, just as the Sun was setting.
It seemed, however, the forest was calling us back to its wonders, with monkeys as its messengers. Many of the furry mammals, obstructed the road, and we were nervous to traverse in what seemed to be their territory. However, we braved it, and were gratefully surprised to meet Atiti, on his motorbike, on his way back to Larabanga. He gallantly took us, two by two, back to the village, bringing a wonderful end to an already magnificent adventure. Back in Larabanga we ate dinner, and performed the play we created to educate the village about Malaria.
Saundra: Malaria class was great tonight! We did our play with Afishata translating and the crowd responded well. After the play we asked questions about malaria and gave small prizes (pens, hair ties, and candy) for answering a question correctly. When we had finished our review we opened the floor to questions. The villagers were very eager to ask questions about malaria and we were happy to answer them. We were surprised by how specific the questions were. For example, one woman asked how we could hydrate a baby who is under 6 months old and only supposed to be consuming breast milk. We were so glad she had asked the question so we could clarify that they should follow the normal feeding rules with babies. Overall, the class was very successful and I think people will come tomorrow night as well.
All of the programs are set up for tomorrow, so everyone is excited to sleep and get to work. I am very happy right now.
Day 7: August 15, 2005
Teisha:
Today was the first day that we had a chance to work with the children of Larabanga. I took some of the older children with me to the wall of the school building that faces the road. We painted the whole thing white in preparation for painting a mural on it about malaria. The kids seemed to be having a good time painting and they were very well behaved. I was impressed that they were sharing the brushes and taking turns sitting out. I was completely covered in white paint by the end of it, which was no surprise. We had to get a "ladder" that was nothing more than a long piece of wood that had foot holds cut into it. Faisal painted up at the top because he was brave enough to use the "ladder." While I was working on the wall, the others did other various activities with some of the younger children.
We had lunch consisting of rice yet again and some people decided to take a nap. Unfortunately, I am not feeling very well and it is making me cranky, but I am still happy with how everything else is going.
In the evening we had another malaria class and it went a little differently than the previous class. We did not have the use of the microphones so it was hard to talk over the crowd. Also, people were crowding us in hopes that we would pick them to answer questions. This was overwhelming, but they do seem to be learning.
Mike: Work in the fields was a relaxing first for me! It was wonderful, I learned many crop leaf shapes today, especially that of corn and of a type of squash. We ate a lunch of yams in the middle of the field, after gathering firewood from dry trees. Along with the yams, I was asked to eat a bug to become an African man, and I acquiesced to the request, thereby becoming a man. Later after all the work was done, I helped skin a bunny for some rabbit fufu which I partook in, and finally returned home.
Karen: Today I made kites with the P1 class. We made them outside because the school was closed. That was probably best because it was really messy anyway. It went well, and I think the kids enjoyed themselves. First they drew with crayons on both sides of the kite. Then I took out some paint and paint brushes. Many of them liked painting better than drawing. A lot of them made the Ghana flag on their kite out of the paint. Afterwards I took out some glitter, which the kids seemed to really like a lot. Some of them took handfuls and put them on their heads, which I thought was really strange, but funny. The best part was when they finished the kites and were able to play with them. For the most part they were really well behaved, but whenever I was handing out supplies they crowded around me and would not sit.
Saundra: Tom and I worked in the preschool (nursery) today. It was VERY overwhelming! There were at least 75 kids with just me and Tom to supervise. The Assistant Head Master, Mash, jumped from each of our groups and was very calm with the nursery kids. We sang "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and the ABC song. Tom read the kids "The Lion King". We also colored. I didn't have enough coloring book pages for everyone to draw a picture, so I ripped pages in half to create a page for everyone. After everyone had a paper, I gave everyone a color crayon. They seemed the share the colors well, but they pushed and showed when I was handing the crayons out and it was difficult to focus. Overall, we had a nice time.
We also saw the Mosque and the Mystic Stone today. Tom tried to give a tour but couldn't remember a lot of the details. However, when we were with Mash, he tol us all about the Mosque.
Day 8: August 16, 2005
Teisha:
Today I worked with the nursery children with Michael. It was hard to communicate with them because there were so many that cannot speak English, but we made do with what we had. I read them "the pokey little puppy" which is my favorite children's book, and I had the kids repeat what I was saying to make sure that they were paying attention. After the story we took them outside and sang songs with them. We sang "the hokie pokie," "head and shoulders," and "the itsy bitsy spider." The assistant head master showed up and they all sang a song to me about how the white people have come to teach the children. After that, Michael read them another story.
After class with the children we had some lunch prepared by Faisal and it was rice and stew.
Karen: Today I drew an outline of what will be painted on the mural wall. It was very difficult because I have never had to do anything like that before. I also did not have a ruler, so the lines are not straight. Hopefully it will look much better when it is painted. The boy that came up with the design did not show up, so it was mostly just me drawing with a little help from Teisha and Faisal. I did not stay out long because it got very hot around 1130.
Tom: Saundra and I worked on a farm today. The farm belonged to the president of Sungsim Women's Association. We used cutlasses to weed the entire farm. The farm had yams, peppers, and melon. We ate some granite nuts fresh from another farm and a bitter tasting nut later on. After we weeded the entire field we came back into Larabanga. After a short nap, Faisal, Michael and I killed a guinea fowl for dinner.
Saundra: Farming was fun but also very exhausting. We farmed for about an hour and the woman we were with started to take us home. We ran into some boys on the way back and asked them to tell her we wanted to farm longer. She laughed and said she thought we were tired. We informed her we were not tired and so we farmed for a few more hours. By the time we were finished we were too tired though! When I came home I took a nap with Tom and Zenabu and then helped cook the rice and boil water for dinner. The guinea fowl was very very very tasty. Faisal fried it and it was nice.
After dinner we had some mango and then the Assistant Headmaster came to take us to his evening class. He volunteers his time to run a night school for the children who farm all day. It was so great! The school has some books and some puzzles and he has a nice little write-up and proposal about the school program. After we looked at his paperwork, the kids sang us some songs and did introductions. After each introduction each child recited a small poem. The poems were so cute! One was about fufu, one was about killers, and another was about the importance of education. At the end a little girl about Zenabu's age (who had been picked on earlier in the class by another child) did the cutest little introduction! We will donate our extra art supplies to this program when we leave the village.
We were going to have a small malaria contest thing tonight but it was raining so we decided to cancel the class. We figured everyone would be too cold and only children would come. Also, Afishata was still at a meeting in Mole and Faisal was MIA, so we didn't have anyone to translate. We also decided we would rather have Atiti's sound system for our programs and he had already sent it somewhere else. Tomorrow is a free day but we may do the game tomorrow night. If not, we will just save the prizes for the big game at the end.
Day 9: August 17, 2005
Saundra: Today was a free day and everyone was able to do whatever they wanted. I went to the Assistant Headmaster's farm with Karen. We walked the 45 minutes to get there, toured the farm, then only worked about 30 minutes before he took us home. It was a nice time though. After the farm I took a nap then prepared riceballs. They were awful! Haha. I didn't add salt and it was so bland and blah that even Zenabu wouldn't eat it! We all had Power Bars instead.
After dinner, the Sungsim Women's Association gathered and we met with them. We discussed the rest of the project with them and informed them that each woman who was up to date on her dues would get a mosquito net. We handed out 33 nets. The women seemed really happy about the nets and sang us a "thank you" song. They also sang us a song about HIV/AIDS. We informed them we would be giving the women 100,000 for the electricity bill and 50,000 to buy a new spout for the polytank. We also told them about the repairs we had made to the building. It was a nice meeting and when it was over we went to bed. However, it was difficult to sleep because someone was playing music "Sooooo loud"!
Tom: Faisal and I went to Damongo today to get Zenabu dewormed and call my mother. I did not use the bathroom number two the day before, and I was looking forward to using the toilet at the hospital, which is a step above the one in Larabanga. We were able to catch a lorry without too much waiting. Faisal referred to it as a "bone-shaker", but we were allowed to sit up front in the cab where it was not so bad. When we got there, Zenabu asked for a biscuit, and I got one for her. There were four in the package and I let her eat all but one which I saved for later. We then went to buy phone cards. The place we went to only had 50 unit ones, so I waited while they sent a boy to see if he could find bigger ones. He returned and reported that he could not, so I bought two 50s. Then I bought a roll of toilet paper, and Faisal found us a shared taxi to the hospital for 2,000 cedis each (Zenabu was free). We got to the hospital and checked Zenabu in at the desk. The man there took her name and asked if she was a boy or a girl. Faisal told him she was a girl, but he wrote "M" under her sex anyway. I pointed out his mistake and he fixed it. I then told the man that we had already made a card for her on Saturday in the Casualty ward, which we had, and he sent us there. When we got there, the lady asked if Zenabu was a boy or a girl. She couldn't find the card and sent us back. On the way back, she called us back and said she found it. She then gave me a hard time because according to the card, we were supposed to come back Monday at 8:00AM. It was Wednesday at about 12:30PM. Faisal explained, not for the last time, that the girl is from Larabanga, and that we get here when we get here. She then asked if Zenabu had been taking the drugs that they didn't give us on Saturday because the laboratory was closed, and we said "no, you didn't give them to us because the laboratory was closed". She replied that she didn't know what we wanted her to do then, because the girl didn't need to be looked at again until there had been some change. I said we wanted to get her dewormed, so she sent me back to the doctors at the check in area. We took her to the nurse there and told her what we wanted, and she asked if Zenabu was a boy or a girl, and whether we brought the stool sample they didn't ask me for, but had written down on her card that she needed to bring. I said no. They asked how they were supposed to find out if she had worms then, and offered to cut her stomach open so that we could see them crawling around. I declined, and they said I should come back when she has a stool sample. Faisal then explained to them that Zenabu is from Larabanga, and that it is easier said than done to get her to the hospital. I offered to see if we could get her to create a stool sample, and they sent me to the lab to get the equipment for it. They were actually helpful at the lab, and once we had explained the situation to the man there, he equipped us with a small glass tube that looked as though it should have been used to contain gold dust, not poop. Faisal then asked Zenabu if she could create a stool sample and she said no. I asked if we could give her a laxative, and the man at the lab said that would be a bad idea. Then someone there suggested that we take her to the toilet and asked her to try to use it, so we did. She still said she couldn't go, so we brought her back and said we couldn't create a stool sample. The man at the lab said he could not test her to make sure she had worms without a stool sample. I asked if there would be any negative effects of taking the drugs to kill the worms if she didn't have worms, he said no, so I said that we should just get a prescription for the drugs then. He said that should be fine and sent us to a doctor. To do that, we had to go back to the mean nurses. We told them what had happened and they sort of chuckled for a moment. Faisal then took interest in a poster that illustrated all the ill effects of smoking. I looked for the blurb about emphysema and said my grandmother had died from that one, which is true. The nurse asked me to elaborate, and I told her my grandmother's smoking history. She then stopped being obnoxious, weighed Zenabu, and sent us to the doctor. The doctor was very nice, examined Zenabu, answered all my questions, asked if Zenabu was a boy or a girl, and sent me away with a prescription for a general worm killer and a bill for 3,700 cedis. We went to buy the drugs, and the woman at the counter looked at Zenabu and said "Small boy, are you sick?" I corrected her, bought the drugs, and left. I should note here that Zenabu had just had her hair taken out of braids, and it was in kind of an afro. Also, she was wearing kind of a boyish outfit of matching black and white plaid collared button up shirt and shorts. The only girly thing on her that day was her purple butterfly shoes that we gave her. But she did look adorable. While we waited for a taxi back to town, Zenabu showed me that you can break off pieces of vine from a certain tree that grows by the hospital and balance them on your eyelashes, which was also adorable. Also, I called my mom and got Zenabu to say "I'm fine, thank you" to her. Sometime while we waited, Zenabu found the last biscuit I had been keeping in my pocket and broke it all to pieces. Then I created a stool sample of my own, and the shared taxi was soon there. We ate a lunch of rice, corn, and power bars and waited for about an hour for a lorry and gave up. We then got a taxi to go to Larabanga for 100,000 cedis, and I gave the crumbs of the biscuit to Zenabu, who fell asleep in my lap on the way.
Michael: I spent the day in Damango with a friend who was making me a great many necklaces, he showed me many of Damango's wonderful secrets and he asked me to teach him English slang. Fun Times!
Teisha: Today I spent the whole day in bed because I had a fever and many other not so pleasant symptoms requiring that I run to the "toilet" every 20 minutes or so. I am so mad that I am sick because I don't want to miss out on anything. At night during the meeting with the women's group I had to excuse myself early because I was in a lot of pain.
Karen: Today was our free day. I decided to farm, so Saundra and I went to Mash's farm. We spent most of the time walking around because Mash wanted to show us his entire farm. He told me I was too small to farm, but we insisted that we could farm anyway. So, we spent about 20 minutes farming and then went home. The rest of the day I just rested and later met with the women's group.
Day 10: August 18, 2005
Saundra: Today Tom and I went to the preschool to work with the kids. Tom was doing such a great job with them that I went to get the camera so that I could take pictures. I took pictures of the activities and the worked on the malaria mural on the school wall. I tried to draw some sleeping people but I failed. Maybe Teisha can fix them tomorrow. Karen, Tom, and I painted the outline of the buildings, some grass, and the red "X" over the mosquito. We had fun giggling over how bad it was. In truth, though, I think it will turn out nicely.
After we finished we went back to the rooms and Karen and I showered in the rain. Later on me, Karen, Tom, Faisal, and some of the older boys played basketball. It was a ton of fun and everyone was bad. The ground was muddy and uneven and I had to take off my shoes because they kept breaking. It was great exercise!
We had HIV/AIDS class tonight and it went well for the women's side. The women were very calm and interested and everyone got to demonstrate how to use a condom because the condoms that had been sent to us were expired. The women asked some hilarious questions! Afishata told us that Ghanaians believed AIDS was started by a rich man in Cote D'Ivore who paid prostitutes to have sex with his dog that had AIDS. I told them you cannot get AIDS from a dog and they were so shocked! It was very funny because then they launched into a whole series of questions about whether or not it would be okay to have sex with a dog. Overall, it went really well and Afishata came away with the thrill of learning about (and being given) a ribbed condom. It was a fun time.
Tom: Faisal and I showed up first to the HIV/AIDS talk for men, and some small amount of boys started to assemble. I sent Yusuf away to get more men, and promised him one of the prizes, so he went. While we waited for boys to assemble, Faisal held an informal competition among the men who were there to see who had the most girlfriends. I was unclear about the benefits of this toward the topic we were discussing, but I allowed it to continue, not wanting to be called a "square", or perhaps some epithet for "vagina". Atiti clearly won by thinking about it for a long time, then declaring that they are "unaccountable", trying to count on his fingers, and then asking Faisal "do you want to know the number of my girlfriends, or the number of those I fuck? (pronounced 'fouk' by him)" Atiti's father who was nearby looked up angrily and the discussion faded. We continued to wait and a pair of young adults approached us. One told Faisal that the other was deaf and could therefore not benefit from the group class, but could benefit from some condoms, which he understood we had. To verify their story, I observed the other boy looking on uncomprehendingly while we talked, then motioning back and forth with the other boy in what appeared to be sign language. Faisal asked me if we should give him some, and I told him to communicate a question to him, and if he answered it correctly, we would give him one. That happened, so we gave him some and he left. Then the boys who had assembled became restless, informed me that there was a party down the street, and demanded that I start. So we waited a couple more minutes and started. I did most of the lecture, and Faisal translated. Nothing too fancy. They tried to look as though they were listening while they waited for us to ask questions and give prizes. We asked for questions. They asked two or three, and then insisted emphatically that there weren't any questions, and that we should get on with our questions. So we did that. After the first couple of questions, Faisal broke in with the question that was possibly the reason he conducted the earlier contest. He asked "what is the proper number of girlfriends" to which the correct answer was "one". Then after a couple more questions, one of the boys showed me that the condoms we were giving out had expired. I told the others and ran to tell the girls. Apparently there was chaos while I was gone, but thankfully, I wasn't there for it. Under Saundra's instruction, I sent a message to Michael to find something with which to do a demonstration with one of the bad condoms while I bought all the condoms at the local drug store and split them between Saundra's group and mine. Apparently, Michael used a discarded corn cob. When I got back, the atmosphere was riotous with no organization whatsoever. I tried my best to maintain some semblance of order by calling on the answerers who were the least aggressive, and soon all the prizes were gone and we went back home. The women were still talking and doing something with a very realistic wooden replica of a penis, so I took Zenabu home. On the way back, I bumped into a woman I knew named Nana and invited her to come for the rest of the women's talk. On the way, I gave her a mini lecture, trying to cover the ground she would have missed. Then, the women were still talking, something about dogs, so Michael, Faisal and I went to the mosque. I gave a much better lecture on the history of the mosque than I gave to the girls, because of Mash's lecture from two nights before. Mash was holding his class, so I showed it to Faisal and Michael, and Faisal, Mash, and I talked for a while about beatings they used to receive in school in front of their girlfriends while Michael sat tiredly by the mosque. I offered to go to take them to the mystic stone as well, because the night was clear and the stars were out, but Faisal said we should wait until tomorrow. He didn't tell me until the next day that he hadn't wanted to go this night because he was afraid the dwarves would get us.
Karen: Today I did art with the P2 class. It went really well. The kids were really well behaved and they were in smaller group than the group I had the other day. I rolled out a large piece of paper and told the children to draw Larabanga. I gave them paint and crayons and so they seemed to enjoy themselves.
Later I helped a little with the mural, which went ok, I guess. The paint is really sticky and not fun to play with.
We had AIDS class at night. The women were very attentive and well behaved. I was really pleased with how it went. We gave them a lot of information and showed them how to use a condom on a wooded penis. We had a lot of laughs over the questions that they asked. They thought AIDS came from a dog in the Ivory Coast. They were really surprised when we told them that you can't get AIDS from a dog. Then they asked questions about having sex with dogs… It was really hilarious, Saundra and I could not stop laughing.
Michael: Today I worked in the fields, or should say tried. I felt terrible and went back to the guest house where I took a long nap.
Then later at night we had an AIDS class to inform the men about AIDS and the importance of condoms and the like. As usual all the men seemed to care for were the prizes, which they were especially thrilled about since it was condoms, and they cared very little for order or anything else for that matter. There was much screaming to begin with, and then when we found out the condoms expired and that we'd have to get new ones, the screaming turned to chaos, with everyone screaming and shoving. Tom and Faisal left at one point to get new condoms, and then everyone crowded around me trying to convince them to give them condoms. In the end, or at least until Tom and Faisal returned, all they did get from me was a lecture and a demonstration of how to put on a condom, using an eaten, dirt-caked, and decaying piece of corn as my sample phallus. Thereafter, Tom and Faisal soon returned and condoms were given out, and the night was finally over.
Teisha: Faisal went with me to the hospital today in Domongo because I am still sick. At the hospital we had to wait a long time before they started to take patients. When it was my turn I had my blood and stool tested to find out what was wrong with me. It turns out that I do not have malaria, but a bacterial infection in my intestinal track. Yum.
Day 11: August 19, 2005
Saundra: Tom and I woke up early this morning to farm but no one came to get us until 3 hours later. Eventually we went to a granite farm and found we had no tools. We weeded with our hands for awhile until we found these gross little worm things that bore into your feet so we left.
When we came home we went to the mural wall and helped finish the main painting work. It was hot and sticky and everyone was feeling sick and grumpy. But, in the end the wall is finished except for the little kid's hand prints at the bottom.
Teisha: In the morning we finished painting the mural on the wall of the school. Tomorrow the children will add their hand prints to the bottom so that they are a part of the finished product. The mural painting isn't what I would call art at it's finest but it still gets the point out there for people to take note of. Plus when you look at it from far away it almost doesn't suck. At night we had health class with the women and they were so great as usual. Everything is going really well.
Karen: Today I was supposed to work with the nursery children, but only a few showed up, so I helped out with the mural instead. Together, Saundra, Tom, Teisha, and I finished it.
Michael: I was to work with Karen in the nursery today, however, as she stated, not many children came and class was canceled. Since, I was still feeling rather ill, I went back to sleep for the rest of the day. I later, in the evening, saw my friend Shariff, who I had previously hung out with in Damango, and we discussed rap music, and I found out he was even a rapper himself, with the nickname, Diamond Dealer.
Tom: Tonight, we had a general health class from which we barred all male attendees. We did this with the justification that the men in the town are just plain bad students and would make it harder for the women, who are generally good students and would make good use of general health knowledge, to learn. We considered this tactic to be quite successful. The women eagerly asked questions, largely about their vaginas and in an orderly manner until we ran out of questions. When that happened, we told the women that they had been such a good audience that we would give each of the remaining women in attendance a prize of some sort, and they all walked away with a brand new somethingorother.
Day 12: August 20, 2005
Tom: I was excited this morning and couldn't sleep anymore after 6:30AM. I read my God Against the Gods book, which I am losing patience with, until Michael got up and started making breakfast. After breakfast, we all went to finish the mural. That went pretty well. Mash met us there and the children were fairly orderly until they had to wash their hands, and even that went fairly well until they started coming faster than I could finish cleaning them. So then I had a big crowd of kids standing around with dirty sticky hands, waiting for me to clean them, and what do kids do when they stand around waiting for something? That's right, something stupid. The stupid act of these children was to attempt to make their hands cleaner by rubbing them around in the dirt. I think the philosophy behind this move was that their hands were sticky, so they should cover them with dirt that is not sticky, and once the dirt comes off, the hands will be clean. This offensively bad logic must have followed in the minds of all of the children, because it is not as if one of them conducted an experiment and the rest of them waited for the results and saw what a bad idea it was, or even predicted that this course of action was nonsensical. Once one did it, they all started doing it. Amazing. But it turned out my cleaning method was foolproof, and proved to be so when tested by real-life fools, so the finishing of the mural was a success. When we got back, I put the curtains on the doors of the building, we all ate lunch and rested until the party started. The party started somewhat late, and then no grown ups came because the benches were set up differently than they normally are so that we could hand out nets first thing. Once we set up the benches right, and Afishata's girls started their performance, people began to arrive. After Afishata's girls performed, Saundra explained what we were doing and what the general atmosphere should be like. I volunteered to have Atiti as my translator because I thought he would be the hardest one to work with. Boy was I wrong. His crowd control skills were amazing. As a result, my group was relatively orderly. Some people lined up behind me, but I explained to them 3 or 4 times that I wouldn't see and wouldn't call on them if they were back there, so it was their problem, not mine. After a while, people started to get somewhat rowdy, and I simply said, "Atiti, I'm not happy." And he yelled at the crowd "He is not happy! Obidiwagujinibara!!!!(Or something like that, it was really intimidating and he did some move like a professional wrestler over a fallen opponent on whom he is about to perform his finishing move and is trying to get the crowd excited about the impending catastrophic destruction). So they snapped right into place. I demanded that they return to the order with which we began the exercise, and they did to the best of their ability. I finished rather quickly, and Atiti ran off to help Michael who was the last questioner and he provided a similar presence. After all the nets were distributed, we retreated to the big room to regroup. When we emerged, the dancing continued and we were asked to dance in front of everybody. That went well. Then Saundra and I were given clothes made of beautiful fabric that it apparently took Afishata two weeks to tie and dye. After that, the sky started to threaten to rain, so the party died down. We ate dinner and Zenabu became very tired. She had been great all day and seemed to really enjoy the party, so it was nice to have a good last day with her. We took her home and said goodbye to her and her family. Then we came back and I found that my friend Muhammed who had taken me back to the hospital on his bike and motorbike had come to visit, and had brought a friend from his youth organization. So Saundra and I finished washing the dinner dishes, gave them some of our leftover rice, and had drinks with them. I tried a malta for my first time, I didn't like it. After that, we went to bed.
Saundra: My day went as Tom's did but my group was a little different. My malaria group was pretty well behaved until the very very end. I think Karen's group ended first and I got her left overs. People complained a little that I wasn't calling on the men enough or that they hadn't gotten a net. But, overall it went really well. I was very happy. My mural job was to place the kids hands on the wall after they had been covered with paint. That went pretty well and only one kid was bad at it. Overall it was an exhausting day but really fun.
Teisha: In my group for the malaria questions there were two stages. The first stage was a calm and orderly way of doing things. I asked questions and picked on people and then they got a mosquito net if the answer was correct. Stage two came when everyone else began to finish up and the leftovers came to my group and tried to ambush me from every side. I was in the middle of a bunch of "mosquito net hungry" people. I thought that I was going to be smothered because Mash sucked at the translator job and stop listening to what I said and tried to take over. I was just about to strangle Mash and use him to beat off the crowd when Saundra came to my rescue and took me away. Then the mob followed us and Mash stood outside our door for a long time and when we came out he was still asking if we were giving out more nets even though we had told him 8 times that we were finished because no one was following the rules.
After the day was over for us I tried to get some sleep but the people in Larabanga thought it would be a good idea to start the party back up with loud music. There was no way that I was going to fall asleep with the music playing I decided to go for a walk. Michael and Faisal joined me and after a while it was just me and Faisal. We then talked a lot about how they can put people on the moon and make something that allows you to carry around 5,000 songs with you at one time but they can't get clean water to people in Africa. It boggles my mind. Then I went to bed in preparation for waking up at 3 am.
Karen: My Malaria group went really well, and I think that had a lot to do with the fact that Afishata was my translator. Everyone stayed seated and behaved. I went through the questions quickly and got mostly correct answers. Overall I was very pleased with how it went.
Later, after the party I went to sleep. I had a little trouble getting to sleep because of the music and all the people, but I was really tired and didn't feel good, so I fell asleep pretty quickly.
Michael: Today was pretty fun. It started out very easy with the children being surprisingly cooperative for hand painting the mural, keeping calm through the entire process. Then, the festival itself, was a wonderful gathering with many different foods, and cultural dances being presented. Our group had to dance as well, which was a fun little affair, or at least a comical one J. Then the malaria groups started which were wonderful to begin with, at least on my end, and then towards the end, as more people came, grew very rowdy. At first, the happenings were under control, but then the horde of people swarmed closer and I was beginning to get upset because I wanted to hand out all the malaria nets possible, and not end early, which was becoming a task in and of itself. However, just as I was thinking it was time to go, Atiti to my rescue!!! He came in and bulled everyone back, threw me up on a bench and helped me hand out the rest of the prizes. It was wonderful and hilariously exciting! Then, after taking numerous pictures, and seeing the village presentation, many good-byes were said, and I finally went to bed.
Day 13: August 21, 2005
Saundra: Today was hell. We woke up at 3am to catch the 4am bus (which in Ghanaian style arrive at 5:30am). We rode the bus to Tamale, then took the worst tro tro ever to Kumasi. The tro tro broke down half way there and the driver took apart what seemed to be a section of the engine. After a small delay we were back on the road. Once in Kumasi we realized it would be too late to see any of its sites so we all took a few deep breaths and braved another tro tro to get all the way to Cape Coast. We arrived at 9:30pm and all went to sleep after the most wonderful showers of all time (running water and everything!!!!)
Day 14: August 22, 2005
Karen: Today we got up early and went to the rain forest. We did a canopy walk across the top of the rain forest. We all seemed to enjoy it. We left from there and went straight to the slave castle. There, we looked around the museum and then went on a tour. We had a really good tour guide and were able to learn a lot about the slave trade in Ghana. Then we kind of did our own thing for the rest of the day. We got lunch next door to the slave castle, bought some things, used the internet, hung around the hotel , and then had dinner on the roof of the hotel. Overall it was a pretty relaxing day.
Day 15: August 23, 2005
Michael: Today was the veritable road from hell to paradise…of sorts. We took an exceedingly uncomfortable tro-tro to Accra, which lasted a little over three hours, and then we walked around Accra for a little to drop off luggage, go on the net, eat, and do all those other little odds and ends that we may want to do before we go on our short trip to Kokrobite. At 3 o'clock we left to Kokrobite on a very short tro-tro ride. For me it was a surprisingly comfy one, and then, when we arrived to the resort area of Kokrobite…. It was indescribably beautiful. The best way I can think to compare it is to compare Hofstra and its gardens, in the middle of Hempstead; The town itself, and surrounding towns looking a little rough, but the place itself being so beautiful.
After catching a quick dinner of chicken and rice, and a snack of delicious dough balls, we were given the opportunity to do as we liked. Faisal and I checked out the beach, and I hung out in a nearby hammock. When we finally regrouped it was to watch the end of "black hawk down", and most of "short circuit". What a relaxed day!
Day 16: August 24, 2005
Teisha: We spent most of the day just hanging out on the beach even though the weather was not really ideal. I had a banana pancake for breakfast and it was awesome despite the grease. The Rasta men had shops on the top of the beach where they sold jewelry and clothes. We all found some things that we were looking to buy and paid decent prices for them. I bought some skirts and some necklaces to bring back to people in the States. Karen and I went for a walk on the beach and took some pictures of us standing on the sand and of the Rastas. For lunch we had fruit plates of pineapples, bananas, papaya, and watermelon. Some people had some mango but mine was lacking in that area…I was pissed. For dinner I got to have pizza with real cheese! That was the highlight of my day. Now we plan on having a meeting and drinking some alcohol.
Day 17: August 25, 2005
Saundra: Today we took a tro tro into Accra and it went pretty smoothly. We took a cab to the hotel we stayed at the first few nights and stored our luggage there. We then went into the art market to purchase the rest of our souveniers. I think everyone felt pretty successful when it was over and spent the last bit of money we all had. After we were finished we went back to the hotel, ate some street food, used the internet, and just chilled until it was time to got the airport (about 6:30pm). The 6 of use crammed into a taxi one last time and set off for the airport. We said goodbye to Faisal, checked-in, and flew home.