Friday, July 06, 2007

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 09:22:10 GMT

Monday, June 18

This is the main reception house of the Senchi Riverside Resort. The sign reads, "Welcome, Global Volunteers! AKWAABA!".

The chief performing a traditional ritual at the welcoming ceremony for Global Volunteers.

All of the important members of the community dressed in their traditional Ghanaian attire.

Tuesday, June 19

The strenuous work kicked in this morning at 8 A.M. after a scrumptious meal of eggs, oatmeal, Wonderbread, and more. Despite the early hour, the already humid air turned walking into a sweaty ordeal. After walking throughthe village with the children shouting, "Obroni! Obroni!" ("white man") at us, we arrived at a school with children of various ages in matching uniform. Upon seeing us, the teacher ordered the kids to bring us chairs, which they promptly arranged and wiped down. While the leaders discussed what tasks we would fulfill, we felt slightly amused at the intense scrutiny of the children, but at the same time uneasy as we noticed some of the children hacking away at the grass behind us with knives almost as big as themselves. We then split up into three construction groups and proceeded to our respective sites.
           Our group, which consisted of Mrs. Wetzel, Alex, Joey, Kristen, Reza, and myself (Miki), headed for the foundation site in Akrade, in which the locals told us to use a pickaxe to dig between two lines, which we then shoveled out. After about an hour of sweaty, hard work, we stopped to listen to the locals arguing to each other. To our dismay, it turned out that the hour of work was completely wasted when one man told us we had dug in the wrong place. Although discouraged and weary, we stayed strong for another couple of hours, this time digging in the right place.
             In the end, we got together with Mr. Maruyama's group and helped to finish the last two batches of concrete bricks. By the time we finished, the sun was beating down on us relentlessly, by which time those of us who had forgotten our sunscreen were noticing the first signs of burnt skin. Exhausted and quite ready to plunge into a cold shower, we trooped back to the resort. After a refreshing shower, we experienced a delicious Ghanaian meal of Red Red and Plantains (a meal of red beans with fried plantains, a banana-like fruit), which everyone devoured happily.
             After having looked at all of our exhausted faces, the leaders decided to, instead of teaching, give us a much deserved break and take us for a relaxing afternoon at the pool. Cheering, we hopped on a van and got on our way, excited to soak in the cool water. In fact, some of us (not to mention any names but... Sean) were so excited that we jumped into the pool at the first chance we got, only to be scolded by Mrs. Bloomer. After a few hours of chillin', water gun shooting, and an unsuccessful game of sharks and minnows, we headed home. Having eaten a delicious dinner, we had an informative Twi language lesson, and later dispersed to our ooms for a well-deserved night of sleep.

By Miki Maruyama

Part of the mile long walk from the hotel to the Senchi and Akrade work sites.

The kids who sat and waited with us while the adults discussed our projects.

Jumping in the pool after a long morning of work.

Wednesday, June 20

Dragging our bodies out of bed after the first day of working, we all met up for breakfast. After that we quickly walked to the work site. We split into three groups: the buff guys dug trenches (the foundation of the preschools), one group went to Senchi and made 120 bricks from scratch, and the last group stayed in Akrade and made 90 bricks. The work was really hard and the humidity was unbearable. After working for 5 hours we got back to the resort and had lunch. Then we went to the town again to go to the sports festival. When we got there, there were a lot of people smiling, but some people appeared as though they did not want us there. It gave me insight into how they viewed foreigners. There was pingpong, volleyball, netball and soccer. Everyone was really into it. Everyone was staring and calling us obroni (meaning "white man" in Twi). It felt weird with everyone staring, but I got used to it. When we got back from the Sports Day, we hung out in each others' rooms and then had dinner. It was a day full of good experiences.

By Kana Maeji

The Akrade work crew shoveling dirt for the concrete making mixture.

The Senchi work crew with locals King and Patron.

The game of girls volleyball at sports day.

With local children at sports day, right by a soccer game.

Thursday, June 21

My sixteenth birthday was surely one to remember. Not because of the fact that it was my "sweet sixteen", but rather because of the fact that I was in Ghana.

I woke up to the usual 6:30AM alarm and soon after, Mrs. Bloomer knocked on my door and left a small gift that came from my mom. This was the first of many more surprises to come.

At breakfast, the group sang the customary "Happy Birthday". We then started the long walk through Senchi Ferry village to our work site. With Elicia, Remy L. and Tai, I worked at the Senchi Ferry school. Upon arrival, we noticed that the bags of cement had not yet arrived. Bored, we walked into the classrooms filled with loud children, but lacking a teacher. We heard that the teachers choose not to show up every once in a while. Baffled, we decided to "teach" a class. We asked everyone what they ate for breakfast and discussed the importance of a healthy diet. We also sang songs.

When the heavy bags of cement arrived, we were slightly disappointed that we had to leave the classroom and get to work under the hot sun and heavy humid air. The work was becoming more and more familiar to us, as we complete the same task every day; mixing and molding 4 bags of cement into bricks. We always started by filling wheel barrows of sand and dirt, which we then dumped onto a concrete working surface. We mixed this dirt with the cement and some water. Then, we filled the brick molds with the muddy mixture. Everyone's arms got more and more muscular and tanned as the days went by.

After working, the children from the school suddenly started to gather around me. They burst out in song, singing Happy Birthday. It was the longest "Happy Birthday" ever sung to me, as they also went through rounds of "How old are you now?", then "You're 16 years old", then "May God Bless you now", and finally ending with several "Hip Hip Hooray"s! Much to my surprise, Zachary, the foreman of the work site, handed me a basket filled with about 20 eggs. It may not seem like a lot, but those eggs meant something to me that strangers would be so kind as to give me something that's so valuable to them.

When we returned to the hotel, fully ready for cold showers, I gave the eggs to the hotel cooking staff.

After lunch, despite the sheets of stormy rain, we drove to the Akosombo market. Certain smells assaulted me, especially that of the dried fish. However, I enjoyed seeing the colorful produce and textiles of Ghana.

Soon after, we drove to the nearby pool where some played cards and just relaxed.

That evening, I was slightly late to dinner, but as I pushed open then door the Happy Birthday song filled my ears once more! Not only that, but balloons hung from the ceiling like lanterns, star stickers surrounded my placemat, and a sign on the wall read "Happy Birthday Caitlin!". I sat down and there was even a bouquet of tropical flowers at my seat. After the meal, one of the cooks brought in a banana/peanut cake!

The whole day surprised me and I'm more grateful than I could ever express. I really was the birthday girl that day and I don't regret being in Ghana for it!

By Caitlin McHose

Remy, Tai, Samuel, and Robert making the concrete mixture.

Zachary, the foreman of the work at Senchi.

Samuel buying us deep fried bread balls for 1000 cedis each (10 cents!) on the way back from work. They turned out to be delicious.

Caitlin walking through one street in Akosombo market. Only a small portion of the market was on a paved road like this; the rest consisted of small shack-like shops scattered over dirt ground.

Friday, June 22

We awoke to the sound of Mrs. Bloomer knocking on our door, like every other day. Slowly we got out of bed, realizing we had a long day ahead of us. After a great breakfast of oatmeal, eggs and toast we walked through the village of Senchi Ferry to reach the worksite, "the trenches". Before we reached it we heard the word "obroni", meaning "white man" in Twi, from all the youngsters. Though we were familiar with the term, it seemed new every morning and we waved every time. At the site, we scraped the mud off of the cement, created due to the rain the night before. Since one more layer was needed, we mixed more dirt, cement, and rocks together, which we later poured into the trench and signed our names into. Later, we brought, or attempted to bring over using a wheelbarrow, bricks from our first site to finally put up a wall at "the trenches". We were all tired from a week of hard work with the trench team, consisting of locals Daniel, Solomon, and two Samuels. The local children chilled with us in the school house dancing and taking pictures. After trooping back to the hotel, we ate a quick lunch of red red and fried plantains, our favorite Ghanaian meal. Finally, we loaded the bus which we ended up riding for 5 hours. Fortunately, Kana brought her speakers and we all found ourselves rapping to someone's I-pod. Though we got a bit lost on the road, we reached the Coconut Grove Hotel in Cape Coast, safe and sound. Starved from the bus ride, we ate at the restaurant and jumped in the pool. After a long day, where Alex Jones said he was "soo disappointed to leave Senchi for the weekend", we all went to sleep in our rooms next to the beach.

By Joey Benus

The small children who always called out, "obroni, obroni!" at a primary school in Senchi.

Locals Solomon and Samuel.

Children carrying water to pour on the dirt piles.

Saturday, June 23

It's raining, it's pouring, at 6 in the morning, so me and Sean go back to bed.

At 20 to 7 me and Sean ikimasho to breakfast by the beach consisting of cereal, different kinds of bread, and some eggs specially made on request.

We wait in line to order ourselves an omelet but decide to just sit down when a picky French lady takes too long to order. Our hotel is situated right on the beach and is about a 5 minute car ride from Elmina, a coastal town with a very busy port. Filled with fishermen selling all kinds of sea creatures, the port is placed in between a Dutch fort and Elmina Castle on the beach. Elmina is where we go for our day trip- it is an old castle, still in surprisingly good shape. This was a castle built for trading goods but soon after started trading slaves. Leaving the castle we have some time to go to the fish market, where I met Joseph who sells clothes for a living but wishes to be a computer engineer. I meet him again at the hotel after I have my lunch, and go see Joseph and his friend Sylvester a.k.a. "STONE" and also Esien a.k.a. "Green Dollar". I play soccer with them and then rest next to the beach with some music. Our new friends dance to the music until the batteries run out, which is when we are stunned by Green dollar's rapping abilities. Soon after, some of the hustlers come over to relax with us and play the drums, until the hotel's lifeguard calls me over to chat, because I had met him before and he was a cool guy. We talked for two hours and I left to go play pool. At around 7:00, we go to dinner and then I went to bed.

By Remy Moolman

Waiting on the steps inside El Mina castle.

Sunday, June 24

The Ghana Volunteers got an early start this morning, with plans to visit the Kakum National Park around 45 minutes away from the Coconut Grove Beach Hotel. The bus ride was unusually calm, drowsy and quiet as many of us attempted to make up for the minimal hours of sleep attained last night. A few of us even got up in the morning at an unreasonably early hour- some watched the sunrise, and Miki, Mr. Maruyama and I went for a beautiful but exhausting run on the beach. Others did not even make it to breakfast before departure at 8:00AM.

Upon arrival at the National Park, we were able to learn a bit about the history and produce of the Ghanaian rainforests from an exhibit at the entrance. It was extremely frightening to see one particular display showing how much rainforest used to exist in Ghana compared to how much exists today. When the tour guide arrived, we were led up a steep, winding trial through the dense foliage of the forest. It was surprisingly cool thanks to the thick layers of leaves sheltering us from the sun. We soon reached the main attraction of the park- the canopy walk. We were each made to walk on this wooden bridge suspended by netted string, up to 40m above the forest floor. The bridges were more unstable than expected but we were assured by our guide that we would not die. Despite the early start, we agreed that the slightly nerve racking walk over the lush rainforest was well worth our time.

We then quickly returned to the hotel, and after saying our last goodbyes to our newly made friends there, we hopped on the van once again. The 4 hour ride was spiced with the eagerness of the group to get back to Senchi, and we all breathed a sigh of relief as the familiar Riverside Resort came into view.

After a delicious meal of minestrone soup with white rice and sweet pancake rolls, we retreated to our rooms to rest for the hard days of work ahead.

*Quote of the day: "Home sweet home!", after returning to Senchi :]

By Elicia Cousins

The beach right next to the Coconut Beach Grove Hotel, after sunrise.

The canopy walk!

Walking back down throught the rainforest after the canopy walk.

Monday, June 25

Back in Senchi after an amazing weekend at Coconut Grove, I could tell that all of us were really out of it and I must admit that we didn't get much work done. However, it was nice to see the kids again, and just looking at their beautiful smiles made work less stressful.

After lunch, it began to rain so we couldn't go back to the village and teach. We spent some time in our rooms and about half of us decided to go to the bead factory. There, a guy told us that the people in Ghana are categorized by the type of beads they wear. Then, we went to the bead shop. A smile rose upon our faces just by taking one look- every one piece was so pretty. Only three more days left in Ghana. I want to treasure every minute of it.

By Miho Horio

One of the many goats that were roaming around in the village.

Back in the village!

A woman outside her house.

Tuesday, June 26

Tuesday started out like any other day: waking up around 6:45 and arriving at breakfast by 7. After breakfast we walked the mile to Akrade where Alex, Elicia, Caitlin, Robert, my mom and I laid bricks with the locals while the others went to Senchi to dig in the trenches. Upon returning to the hotel, we realized the power had been out since 9:30 that morning. After eating lunch, the power was still out so we played cards and later had a water gun fight. About ten people went to go teach at the schools in Senchi and Akrade. Dinner was an hour earlier than usual so that we could get to the African drumming show on time. During the show, we all got on stage to dance and tried playing the drums. After the show everyone was exhausted so we came back to the hotel to sleep.

By Adam Wetzel

An 8th grade class taught by Elicia and Remy M.

A classroom at the Senchi school.

The drummers on stage.

On stage at the culture show- the drummers.

Some local children who had gathered to watch the culture show as well.

*The Trenches*

By Sean Hozumi

At Akrade, Joey, Remy, Miki and I were the ones who went to the trenches almost every day. Working at the trenches was a lot of hard work. We had to pick the tough ground with heavy pickaxes. Picking wasn't hard for the first couple of minutes, but then your arms started to slowly get weak. Shoveling was also hard because every time we dug out the loose dirt, more came down from the sides. The good thing was that we had three locals helping us out. Their names were Solomon, Joseph, and Daniel. The hardest time I had with the trenches was when Joey and I had to pick apart a termite heap, an ordeal that took what seemed like hours. Even though the work was tough, the satisfaction I got after we were done was worth it.

The Senchi preschool foundation being dug out. (a.k.a. the "trenches")

Wednesday, June 27

Good morrow!! Today is our second to last work day in Ghana, and as usual I started the morning with OJ (orange juice). As we walked to our work site, we asked ourselves, "Where are the kids?". Then, from the distance I heard percussion and the voices of children singing a religious song called "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder". We learned that every Wednesday, all the school children gather in the morning and sing loudly in prayer. It was the most beautiful church music I'd ever heard. After we were pumped up from the song, we finished four bags of cement. A banana lady sold us some bananas, and when you're tired Ghananas (Ghanaian bananas) taste better than ever.

We walked back to our rooms and dined on beans and Wonderbread. After eating, we were treated to a pool party where some kids talked about their past and their relationships (oh yeah teens got problems). Singing Aerosmith- "Don't Wanna Miss a Thing"-, we went back home, where chow mein was served for dinner.

Afterwards, all of us had questions about Ghana which Richard answered passionately, sharing his views on the poor and the rich in Africa. We ended our day with our heads on our pillows, knowing that tomorrow is our last work day in Ghana.

By Tai Koga

The children singing all together in the morning.

Having some fun during a break from the hard work.

* The song the children were singing:

When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more

And the morning breaks eternal bright and fair

When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore,

And the roll is called up yonder I'll be there.

When the roll is called up yonder

When the roll is called up yonder I'll be there.

Thursday, June 28

Today was our last day of work, which at first made me happy. We finished our four bags a lot faster than normal so we played with the kids. We played Duck, Duck, Goose, tag, and played with the soccer balls that Mrs. Bloomer brought from Japan to donate. When it was time to leave the mayor came and gave a speech. All of the kids sang for us and a lot of them, as well as us, started crying. It was really hard to leave and even though I'd been ready to go home, I still felt really sad and didn't want to leave. It took us a really long time to actually leave since the kids were following us and we didn't really want to leave them behind. We finally got back and ate lunch. After that we had a lot of free time. Me and Tai played some mancala and hung out with Sean in Miho and Kana's room. We listened to music and talked about our dream girl/guy.

At around 7 we had our goodbye party. At the party we all said a few words about how we felt. The villagers then sang a song for us and we sang "Allstar" for them. After the party ended a few people stuck around and we had a dance party with the kitchen ladies. After a while, I was tired so I went to my swamp-like room and watched some TV then slept.

By Remy Lagrois

A bug we found right around the concrete mixing ground.

Playing with the kids behind the schoolhouse.

The children who followed us all the way back to the hotel.

Friday, June 29

Friday was our last day in Ghana before we all head home. It was nice to sleep in and not have to wake up at seven for breakfast. Me and alex Jones even slept through breakfast, which was scheduled at nine. When I did finally get up I finished my trip evaluation, which I had fallen asleep doing the night before. I took a shower then started to pack. Some members of the group went and visited the Akrade school for one last time. Soon we had lunch. The lunch was red-red and fried plantains. It was probably the most popular meal of the trip, but by the last day I was sick of it. After lunch me, Jones, Adam, Robert, Joey, Kristin, Remy L, Tai, went to the bar for french fries. We realized we had 10 minutes until the vans left, so we stuffed the fries in our mouths and sprinted to our rooms. I then realized Jones, my roommate, hadn't even started packing. I helped him pack, then we went out to where the vans were. We were told we had to wait 20 minutes for another van to arrive because there were not enough seats. On the drive to the airport most people slept. Once we got to the airport it was extremely hectic having 18 people with luggage trying to make their way to the check in line. After relaxing in the duty free area, my mom, Joey, Caitlin and I split up from the rest of the group who were flying to Tokyo. It was sad to say good-bye to Robert and Remy L, who will not be returning to Tokyo next year. The experience in Ghana was one to remember. The people were very welcoming and I felt that they really appreciated our work.

By: Reza Bloomer

Friday, June 15, 2007

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:09:58 GMT

The Ghana Project team is excitedly awaiting the day of departure! We will be leaving in the evening of Saturday, June 16. These are photos of the first meeting at Saniya Bloomer's house, where the group first met and learned the details of the trip. We will fly to Accra, Ghana via Dubai, and will stay the first night in a hotel in Accra, and later stay in the village of Senchi/Akrade, where we will be working. The project will be to help the local community build two long-needed school buildings.
Ghana is a country of 18 million people and over 60 ethnic groups. There are 52 complex major languages and hundreds of dialects in Ghana, although English is primarily spoken. The climate is tropical and there are two distinct rainy seasons in the south-May through June and August through September. We are more than excited to experience the new, rich culture and energy of this emerging West African nation.

The students:

Clockwise from back left: Miho, Kana, Caitlin, Miki, Elicia, Robert, Reza, Remy L, Tai, Remy M, Sean, Joey / Missing: Kristin, Adam, Alex

The Ghana Project parents:

Standing (from L): Mrs. Maeji, Mrs. Hozumi, Mr. Moolman, Mrs. Benus, Mr. Maruyama, Mr. Cousins / Sitting (from L): Mrs. Koga, Mrs. McHose, Mrs. Lagrois, Mrs. Rakocy, Mrs. Bloomer / Missing: Wetzel, Horio, and Jones

And finally, the Ghana Project team:

Standing (from L): Miho, Mr. Maruyama, Sean, Remy M, Reza, Joey, Robert, Remy L / Sitting (from L): Kana, Miki, Elicia, Caitlin, Mrs. Bloomer, Tai / Missing: Mrs. Wetzel, Kristin, Adam, Alex

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Friday, June 15, 2007