Seamstress Shops

Seamstress shops with hand powered sewing machines are very common here. This is the shop where I had a blouse and skirt sewn, using the fabric Maxwell chose. We visited a smock shop in Wa and the three tailors were using electric sewing machines to sew men's smocks.

Mole National Park

Josephine, Philip, Maria and our guide Adam in front of a group of African Elephants.

July 21-22
Half of our three hour drive to the Mole National Park was on a bumpy, red clay road, bordered by some of the loveliest villages we have seen so far. Many of the mud homes had designs of lines and dots etched into their walls. The majority of the remote villages that we passed had power lines and bore holes (wells), yet the tall cell phone towers beside them still looked out of place in the tranquil setting. Generally when you approach a village on the road there are handmade speed bumps to slow vehicles down. This road had speed bumps, huge pot holes, ruts, and the occasional cow and goat sunning themselves on the road. We finally arrived at the park and checked into the Mole Motel.
Mole is the largest national park in Ghana. The savannah woodland park is home to 93 mammalian species, 33 reptiles, nine amphibians and 300 bird species. We went on two safaris and were fortunate to see kobs, bush bucks, ververt monkeys, water bucks, baboons, warthogs, crocodiles, striped ground squirrels, patas monkeys, a nile momltor lizard, a mongoos, a saddle bill stock and elephants. Did you know that elephants only have two enemies- people and soldier ants?
A number of baboons frequent the Motel hoping to steal food from people eating at the outdoor restaurant. We were told that they only steal food from women as they are afraid of men. As we walked from our room to the restaurant we saw a baboon open the door of an unoccupied dormitory and go into it. He came out empty-handed, and ran off to try his luck by the pool.



These two African elephants have just come out of the water. All African elephants are black. The reddish brown elephants in the picture below have covered themselves with soil to protect their skin from insects and the heat.

The baby baboon is sitting on its mother in this group of baboons

A bush buck

School Visits

The carpentry class at the Wa School for the Deaf


The children are choosing a sign for Maria`s name.


The dormitory at the Wa School for the Deaf


Girls start at a young age carrying things on their heads.

July 20

We visited three schools today; the Wa Residential School for the Deaf (SFD), Tawonchelle Junior High and PISI Catholic Primary School. We were touched by all the children, especially the children at the SFD. Some of them are profoundly deaf, while others have some hearing and would benefit from hearing aids, if it were only possible to get them. We were told that years ago a French organization donated hearing aids to the school, but those hearing aids are no longer working. With their teacher`s help, the children gave each of us a sign for our names. The school also offers vocational training through support from Chalice, so we visited the carpentry class which had moved outside, the weaving, sewing and craft class. We were able to purchase some of the goods made by the students: beautiful bracelets, placemats and a bolt of hand-woven material.

We arrived at PISI at break time. The teachers were under a tree marking exams and the children were playing. I went with some students to their classroom to see their work. Their classroom looked identical to all the other classrooms I have seen. It was bare with a concrete wall blackboard and two person desks and benches set in rows facing the front. When I asked a teacher what student materials she used she said that they have a shortage of textbooks, and for every subject they share 30 textbooks among the 120 Primary 4 (P4) pupils. She also said that their textbooks were stored in the Office, and pupils were not allowed to take them home as they would get damaged.

When we arrived at the Tawonchelle JH School a group was working on installing a short piece of eaves-trough to collect water into a large black rain barrel. This is another Chalice project. Chalice has a school reforestation programme and is planting trees to prevent the school roof from blowing off during storms. Rain water collected in the barrel will be used to water the newly planted trees during dry spells.


Clothing, including school uniforms are hand sewn by a seamstress. The cloth is purchased at the market. At this school students are provided with lunch.



The eaves-trough and rain barrel.


The new Tawonchelle JH school. The children gather inside the stone circle for their morning commencement and prayer.


The old Tawonchelle school.

Chalice School Projects as reported by Philip

-The support areas given to sponsored children in the SFD sub-site, which comprises five schools at the moment are: uniform and shoes, school fees, text books, reading materials, supplementary feeding, and registration for the whole family in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) which provides free medical care.
· Under the SFD sub-site children are also sponsored in three other schools- Baaleyiri, Loggu Sagu and St. Andrews Catholic Schools.
· In Lassia Tuolu Main sub-site, there are eleven sub-sites.
· In Nandom (MBB), Chalice has four schools in which children are sponsored. The support areas are the same as those of SFD.
· Lassia Tuolu Main provides Parent Group Literacy classes, School Days, school rehabilitation, furniture for pupils and school reforestation programmes.

Philip

We've mentioned Philip in our blogs without acknowledging who he is, so we'd like to share with you a little about him. Philip made our trip to Ghana possible, by agreeing to take responsibility for us during our time here. He is the Chalice Area Director for Wa, and an advocate for the children in this region. Philip was a teacher before joining Chalice, and values education. He has an infectious laugh and is incredibly humble, endearing and genuine. He makes us feel like family. Philip is well received everywhere we go. No matter what we ask of Philip, such as driving us to the Internet Cafe, stopping off at the Market, or banks, he responds with "My pleasure". He goes out of his way to make sure that we are safe. Instead of us taking the bus from Kumasi to Wa, Philip drove eight hours to greet us and bring us back to Wa safely. We probably asked him 90 questions during that eight hour drive. We're still asking questions, and he still happily answers each and every one! Every morning we" gracefully" climb into the truck in our skirts to his cheerful "Good Morning" and beautiful smile. We greatly appreciate all the new experiences that he has exposed us to, and we look forward to the many opportunities to come.

Workshop Planning

July 18
We met with three supervisors from three different school districts at the Municipal Education Office to plan our teacher workshops today. School ends on July 29th, so our timing is unfortunate with final exams and report cards. Our target group are the UTTDBE (Untrained Teachers in Diploma in Basic Education) teachers. These teachers teach in the villages during the year and attend classes during their breaks.

We started with the logistics first and the difficulties were surprising. First of all we had to address the long distances and time the teachers would have to travel, how we could provide food (there are no catering services), and how we would let the teachers know (there is no electricity, email or fax in the rural areas). We decided to hold the two day conference in two different locations, to make the travelling a little easier for the teachers. One location has electricity, while the other doesn't. Our plan had been to use our laptop and an LCD projector that we are trying to purchase and have sent from Accra. Fortunately one of the supervisors had some chart paper and we bought a black marker.

Programme was next on the Agenda, and we shared our plan to focus on planning: long range, weekly forecast and lesson notes. The Ghana Education Service has an excellent handbook on lesson notes preparation and teaching learning materials. They also have a teaching syllabus for every subject. Teachers however do not have their own copies, in fact in the rural schools they are lucky if they even have a copy of each document. Photocopying is very expensive and not an option for us.

However, Calgary Catholic teachers are a resourceful lot, so we are now busy preparing our two Conferences for July 25-26 and July 27-28.

The Women of Ghana

When we left the airport in Kumasi we saw a woman carrying groundnuts on a large, silver coloured tray on her head. She effortlessly and gracefully walked down the chaotic road selling her groundnuts. She was the first of the many we were to see.
As we drove down the road to Wa we saw women carrying bowls full of fruit, coal, water, clothes, and purchases from the market. Some carried two full bowls stacked on top of each other. Others carried huge bundles of branches for firewood on their heads. We found ourselves wondering how far these women had walked, where they were coming from and where they were going.
Since our arrival in Wa we have discovered that the norm is for women to carry everything on their head, with their babies wrapped securely to their back, allowing them to keep their hands free. Their beautiful posture, sway of their hips, and ease with which they turn their heads while simultaneously carrying their babies and heavy loads on their heads has enthralled us. Because of this we desperately wanted to capture these beautiful women in a photograph. Success eluded us until Tiffany took this wonderful picture at the market.

The Market

After visiting Emmanuel we went to the market and Philip took us for refreshments at 'Meet Me There'. We enjoyed the local beverage alvaro so much, that we ordered a second and soon required a trip to the washroom. Have a look at the accompanying picture and try to imagine our experience. The small room contained a platform toilet, with a basket of used, soiled paper, and two small windows. After that we opted not to have another beverage for the rest of the day! We did however sample the local fresh ground nuts and bean cake, which were delicious. As always the children and adults were fascinated with our white skin and digital cameras.

My Visit with Emmanuel and His Family

It struck me when I visited Emmanuel and his family how little it takes to make a difference in the life of a child in Ghana and their family. I've been sponsoring Emmanuel for a number of years, but it wasn't until I met Emmanuel, his mother, younger brother and sister in their village today that I really understood the impact of sponsorship. $33.00 a month is so little for me, but in Ghana it means that a child will have the opportunity to go to school, and have a better future. When we arrived at their small home in their little village, Emmanuel's mother came out to greet me and express her gratitude. I brought some gifts for Emmanuel and his family, and it was heart-warming to see their beaming faces when they received them. His mother in turn gave me three beautiful hand-woven baskets which she had made, and Emmanuel gave me a live rooster. The rooster was a surprise to say the least and I certainly felt guilty about taking their next meal, but Philip said that it was important to accept their gift, so I did. Emmanuel is very bright and I hope one day to receive a letter announcing his graduation from University.
If you are not sponsoring a child, I urge you to contact Chalice and sign up. There are so many Ghanaian children waiting for sponsorship, and the opportunity to go to school. They really do need your help.

Our First Sunday in Ghana

Dancing outside the Church

July 17

Joyful, exuberant singing, prayerful and uplifting, only begins to describe our experience at Mass today. It truly was a beautiful Mass. The Church was small and simple, with paper chains hanging from the beams, painted crosses with roman numerals representing the stations of the cross, and chairs and benches that the parishioners brought with them to sit on. The setting was simple, but the people and music made it very special. Hand-made xylophones accompanied the choir as they sang and danced their prayers to God.

Mass at Ponyentanga

The parents in the school room.

The children peeking into the school room.

One of the parents reciting the alphabet during the parent literacy class.

Posing for a picture following lunch.

Nasaala

July 16
At seven o'clock we awake to the sound of staff sweeping outside our rooms. Philip picked us up two hours later and drove us to the Chalice Lassia Toulu Parish and Youth Centre. On our drive many of the children excitedly waved and shouted 'nasaala', which Philip told us means white person. When we arrived we met with the Chalice staff, and showed them a Ppt. about St. Patrick School. They were eager to receive our gift of two video cameras. Together we spent the next hour exploring how to use the cameras, taking videos and pictures, downloading and watching them. We were so caught up in the fun that we were late for lunch and the priest came looking for us.
Lunch at the Rectory was light-hearted, entertaining and delicious. The four of us laughed so much with the two priests, two sisters, and the catechist, that we lost track of time and were late for our next visit. We arrived at the KPF school sub-site in the village of Kawu, surprised to see the parents and children waiting for us. The parents were at the school for their weekly literacy class, which we got to watch. The room was filled with laughter as the parents recited and sang the alphabet in their native language. Watching the parents take risks and supporting those who volunteered to come up to the board as they sang and pointed to each letter with a stick was poignant. Meantime the children peered through the door and any openings they could find. Maria and Tiffany were distracted by the children peeking in and began taking pictures of them, to the delight of the children who were thrilled to see themselves on the camera. When the class was over the adults were also excited to have their picture taken and took a few moments to recognize themselves.
We arrived home to find a full parking lot, loud live music and well dressed people in the court yard. We quickly went back to our room, dropped off our stuff with the idea in mind that we wouldn't stand out and went back to the courtyard to peer through the bricks. It was a wedding reception! We were noticed by some guests and were warmly invited in to join the festivities. It was entertaining listing to the music and watching the guests dance. Members of the band came down to teach Maria and Tiffany a Ghanaian dance, and we sampled some wedding cake. We feel so welcomed everywhere we go.