Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Pokuse Pizza

We're going to try to make pizza.

My friend Hannah and my friend , Sammy, both with whom I wrote the curriculm with, have decided to make the first pizza ever in Pokuse village. :).
Sammy's parents own a local bakery, They have the ingredients, flour, water, oil, yeast, garlic. We can get red sauce at the store, We're alitle stumped on the cheese part ,but we'll figure it out. We'll see.

African Women

One of the many thing I've been impressed with on this trip, it strength of the African women I have met. For the most part, they are strong physically, emotionally and spiritually. They don't hold back. They are gracious ,but strong. They are giving, yet truthful. They can hold more than they probably should on their heads. I found this poem on a blog It's call African Women. I think it describes a look.

African women...:

African women you are strong,when you rise the valleys and hills move with you
when you walk the children of the land follw,when you sing the rains stops and the sun appears
Your melodious voice rivals the sweetest of honey
Your joyful embrace makes your children admire your strong will and draw strength from your ways
You are strong but doubt yourself at times,why do you do so
Have you no idea how many envy your beauty and strength ?
You have taught even me,the value of sustenance and strength in a world of turmoil and turbulance
It is you who are strong and i am merely a follower in your path
Though we live miles away,i will draw my strength from you for knowing you i have gained in me,the strength to follow my heart and value the treasure thats is,being a strong and beautiful black....

african women

http://ebonystone.blogster.com/poem_african_women.html

Sunday, July 29, 2007

exploring the world curriculum.

One of the extracurricular activities I've been doing while I"m here, aside from the Microfinance project is helping expand the science program they want to start at Women'sTrust.

We've expanded it to include literacy, social studies, research skills, health, career planning, and community involvement. Ok, now it doesn't look that much like a science curriculum but an 4 year program to support girls as they transitition from junior high to senior high. (most girls drop out)

It\'s a funny thing,I have say, for some reason, I brought my curriculum design book from my curriculum design class with me to Ghana. I used it to guide us , (one NYU student from Rhode Island and two ghanaain teachers) through the process. Of course, like any curriculum it's evolving.

We surveyed and interviewed parents, teachers, head masters, and kids to get bulk. It's been really fun. I can't believe I brought that book.

AGED

Last week, I had the opportunity to accompany, a staff memeber from WT on his monthly visit to the give financial assistant to the elderly. In Ghana they have not social secruity system.

The program is called AGED Program. It gives 10 Cedis (about $9. 93) to old folks who have no family to take care of them. They only have 30 slots and as people die they fill them in.

I visited about 6 houses and witness some pretty extreme poverty. They were all living in pretty bad situations, but one just sticks out. It was a man who was blind. The house he was staying in was just concrete and blackened from indoor fires. There was little furniture. He was sitting on a bench. His eyes were hazy.

Eric the staff member, a man with such grace and intergity, told him we had arrived and he took the man's thumb and pressed it in the ink pad. Eric juggled the things in his hands to get the man's thumb print by his name. then he pressed the 10 cedis in his hands. We said our good byes and left.

I know the 10 cedis aren't going to catalpult change into the world, or empower the people to rise up ,but I still think there's a place providing a bit of assistant to people in dire need. WT doesn't require them to subscribe to a religion or view. Nothing is asked of them. They don't have to subscribe to a religion or make job goals. They are our responsibilty. They are just taking care of the poorest of the poor.

Banku

I have started to venture out into the land of Ghananian food. My favorite is banku with Okra soup. Banku is a like a dough in a ball. You dip it in the soup and eat the soup with it. No spoons. It's spicy.

At the table there is a bowl of water and soup to wash your hand before you eat.

I really want to learn how to make it. I want to have it with chicken.

Kathy

Interviews.

This last past week, we did a lot of interviews of participants of Women's Trust. It was so interesting to go to their business and talk about their experiences. In so many ways people are people whether in Ghana or in Seattle or in New Jersey (smile). They go to work everyday work and have good days and bad days.

Yet, their story takes a turn. They speak of not being able to afford school fees, ($70 a year)., They want to learn m ore about how to run business, but there is no where to go to learn.

Their health care system is prayer. They pray no one in their family gets in an accident or gets the deadly strain of malaria. I've heard quite of few stories about a snake bit victim dying in 3 days, and a women who collapsed and died because she coulden't get the hosptial. It's really tragic.

I"m still strongly in the belief that this microlending money needs to be accompanied by education and health care.

JULY 28- important day!

Just want to say first Happy Birthday to my wonderful and loving mom. Happy Birthday! She's a really good mom.


And... Congratulations to Sean and Julie! They tied the knot yesterday. I was going to fly back for the weekend, but the price was a little expensive.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Twii word of the day

Learned another word in Twii yesterday.

The word is OBRUNWAWOO..

It's the Twii word for donation. The literal translation is:
White man is dead, so here are his clothes.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Pictures

Sorry, I haven't been able to post any pictures yet. I'm still trying to normalize just getting to the internet cafe regularly. Maybe in the future.

The project begins

For this project we are using observations, interviews and group questions to gather data. It's been a slow start, but we are on our way. We're constantly doing observations, but last week we started with interviews.

We are interviewing women who have recieved loans from Women's Trust. It's really interesting to see microlending in action. The response is positive. The women are amazing. The loans seem to have been making a difference.

The loans start out at about $50 US . For a women to get a loan she needs to get 4 other women to join her in her group. They each get a loan for $50, and all have to pay back before they can take a step to a higher loan. I believe it's $75 dollar . They can't go any higher, until the groups loan is paid off.

The stories seems to be that if a member can't pay, the other members deal pay for her, but then may drop her as they go to the next level.

What I like best is that Women's trust is not only giving loans, but are trying to also implement education classes and healthcare for the women. There are a few studies out there that say to really make a different with micro credit education and health care need to be part of it. It seems to be true.

Happy Birthday Rona and Marilyn!

I wanted to offically use this blog entry to wish my two wonderful roommates a Happy Birthday. Have a great birthday.

house with many rooms

I've been thinking alot about the quarry and the people I've met there. I was trying to figure out how I felt about it. The image of a house comes to me.

It's like we live in a big house, where there are many rooms. We have our lives in just a few of the rooms. The house is so big that we forget there are other rooms in the house. Every once in a while we'll find ourselves searching for something in a room or we'll discover a room we've forgot about.

Visiting the quarry and seeing what happens there, I feel like I"ve visited a room, I seem to have forgetten about. It's on the same level of the people I met in the Domincian Republic that work in the bateys, or the children who forge through dumps in Mexico and bRazil to earn a few pennies. We seem to forget that they are there. We seem to go about our daily lives and never venture in their rooms.

quarry

During my first week in Pokuse, I was able to visit the quarry that lies on the top of the town (village). I wasn't expecting to go, but my translater suggested it and all of a sudden I was walking through it. It's very hot and with little tree cover.

It's the lowest paying work that a person can find in this area. As a worker, you taking a hammer and knocking out large chunks of stone from the side of a large wall of rock. No big machines, just mallets. Families are working there. It seems to include mothers, fathers, elders and young children, not yet in school. I saw little children playing around the rocks and also using mallets to crush the rocks.


One scene I saw was a man knocking out big chunks of rocks. Hewas wearing street clothes and flip flops. The rocks were being picked up by a women. and loaded into a bowl and carried on her head. She dumped them in a pile and more people, (The grandmothers? ) were knocking the rocks smaller and then dumped into a piles of smaller rocks. Everyone was sitting on the ground chopping up rockes. There were a few piles of rocks, getting into smaller and smaller bits. Finally ,the rocks were pretty fine and into buckets. The buckets were carried to the truck where they were getting paid by the bucket full. They were making cement.

I was sort of taken off guard because I wasn't expecting to be taken to the quarry that day. It left me speechless. I didn't know what to say to the folks. I think I said something like, You sure have a tough job. Must be hard. (??, I just didn't know hwat to say.) They go up there everyday with out any safely measures ,w ith out shoes, with out googles and risk it. It's exhausting work for hardly any money.

I don't know how much they get for bucket, but for truck load the truck owner makes about 200 dollars a truck load.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Wisdom

I'm in the internet cafe and I've just met a Ghanaian boy named Wisdom. He's been reading my blog. He says he doesn't want to say anything.

Kathy
This first week working for Women's Trust, I spent observing the village. I've taken a special look at schools and education because of my interest and my background as a teacher.

I think the on of most shocking thing I've seen is the condition of the school. There are not lights. It's lite by the open air. Each grade is in one class. I observed one public school class that had 97 kids in the classroom. 30 kids could probably sit comfortable. They were tripled up and standing in a dark damp classroom. There are hardly any text books. BTW it costs $70 a year for child to go to that school and a lot of folks can't afford it.

More later.

BTW. Thanks so much for the comments. They really make me feel supported. Thanks!

walk into the village

It's been a really interesting week. It's an amazing experience to wake up and realize I'm in AFrica. Not a fake African back drop, but actually Africa. I keep thinking about the Woodland Park zoo in Seattle where they have an Africa village set up and you walk through the set up school to see the girafees. Every morning, I keep thinking I'm going to walk past the scene and go see some penguins at the penguin pool.

When I walk into the village in the morning, I see stalls with merchants (traders) in them . They are selling food, a variety, which includes, fried bread, tomatoes, greens, peppers. People are heading off to work in Accra and are wearing street clothes. Many of the women are wearing african print dressess.

People are very friendly and yell out to me. Oblanee! (White girl) I greet them with Etesay? (how are you?_) They are surprised and say , I yah. I"m fine and ask me how am I say , I yah. They laugh and laugh and laugh at me.

write it down.

I've been meaning to post, more regulary, but I've been having some internet access issues. I'm just on the outskirts of Accra in the village of Pokuse ,where there is one internet cafe. At first I didn't know about it,and was taking a little "tro-tro", a mini bus, that I can catch on the road near my guest house. The internet cafe is about 20 minutes away and the computers are so slow.
The computers were mind numbly s l o w.
A few days ago, I found the internet cafe the other day in Pokuse, but the net was down, (no power) Then... today, the internet stars alighned and I could get on. Then I couldn't access my account, because,......yes,... I forgot the password. I've just spent about an hour finding it. Write it down, Write it down. Write it down.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

We've arrived in Pokuse.

It's hard to describe. I'm not sure I can do it justice. It's a villiage. It's a right off the main road between Accra and Mombasa. ONe you get off the main road, you find a dirt road where are people around selling things from wooden shacks. They are living close by. We are staying at a nice guest house close by.

Right outside my guest house is the Catholic church. St. Sylanus. I honestly thought it was a half completed buidling, because of the beams and holding up the roof and only half walls.

Come Sunday morning, I stepped out of my guest house and walked right in to the church with it's colorful rows of plastic chairs. People were so friendly and shared their hymnal. They sang a lot from it.

It was a bilingual mass both in the local language Twee and English. It was interesting. The music was great. The choir was amazing and used alot of african drums. I recognized some of the songs that we sing at all Catholic churches. Allelua and Hosanna . IT was great because I could sing along.

My favorite part was durin gthe collection when I followed the crowd to bring up my offering. The line up was dancing to the african music and I had to dance up to in the line.

FYI Like most Catholic churches they reported how much money they collected the week before. They collected about $120 dollars. There must have been over 500 people at this church. Think about the last time you spend $100. Kind of blows your mind.

Next week is a big festival at the church because it's their first anniversary in their new building. I can't wait to see it.They say there will be music and food and dance.

I don't have internet access regularly, but I'll try when I can.

How to charm a two year old.

One of my favorite things I did in Accra was visit the Cathedral in the city. It was pretty small, empty and dark. It looked like a big old church that has seen a lot of incense. The only unusual thing was the two large school clocks hanging on either side of the altar. BTW, they were a few minutes off from each other. One read, 3: 10 and one read 3:12. It was just a little odd. It was during the week day so no one was around.

I started talking to a young boy about 10 or so, about what time church was and his little sister who must have been 2 was staring up at me. I talked to the little girl like every two year old I talk to, I hold out my hand and say.. hi I'm Kathy , what's your name? They usually reach out their hands and say something, and then I tell them I like their shoes.

It works every time to charm a two year old. It works with two years in New Jersey, in california , in SEattle, in Nicaragua and in Ghana and if my theory holds true the entire globe.

It worked on this two year old and she kept staring at me and her brother kept trying to get her to leave and then the mom tried with no luck. She would not budge. She was on me like glue. It took quite a while to pry her away from me.

Kath

Friday, July 6, 2007

Accra travels

(I wrote this last week, but didn't have time to publish)

Hi,
The last few days, it's hit me that I'm in a developing country. We've moved into a hotel in Accra , the capital city for a couple of nights. I'm starting to notice the creature comforts are missing. Things like paved roads, covered sewers, and electricity aren't readily available.

I walked around a main area of the neighborhood of Osu. It was very busy with people wanting me to buy their items. I did buy a bag and as soon as the merchants saw I bought something, they were on me. I'll be glad to move on to our place in Poquasi tomorrow. It's outside the city. I like Accra, but it's busy.
Kath

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

We made it.

It was quite a long day yesterday. After 25 hours we *emily and I* finally arrived settled into our hotel, Greenwich Guest \lodge just outside Accra. \it was a long journey and pretty uneventful. We were greeted warmly by our ride and owner of the hotel Mr Osa as we stepped out of the airport. It felt like we were being greeted by an old friend. That's a good feeling after such a long ride.
Everyone here has been so nice and friendly. We've come into Accra today with a guide, Nee and have stopped at internet cafe. It's the main market of the city , people come from all over Ghana. It's packed. YOu can find everything here. We're going to tour the city, see the beach and then scope out a new hotel closer to the city.
There are many amazing things to see. One of them is how the women can carry such heavy items on their heads. We saw one women with about 6 heavy boxes on her head. I watched a man take one of the boxes off her head and he struggled to get it off. They had to be at least 20 pounds a piece.
I'll post more in a few days.
Oh yeah, Happy fourth of July.

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Here today and Ghana tomorrow.

Here today, Ghana tomorrow. Sean W. came up with that one. I just had to use it today. When else could I possible ever use that pun again , in such an appropriate way?

I'm up and finishing up details. I'm excited and can't wait to go.


Rona's taking me to the airport at 9:30am tomorrow. I'll fly into Amsterdam, land there on the 23rd and fly onto Accra.

Bye for now.

Kath

Learning to blog

A huge THANKS goes out to my cousin, Brendan, the master blogger of the family. He showed me some ins and outs of blogging while we were down in Berkeley this weekend for a Keefe family wedding. Thanks!!



Here he is in action helping bring my mom up to speed on how this blogging thing works.

(click on picture to make it bigger.)

Brendan's blog
http://bjkeefe.blogspot.com/
(Oops, I don't remember how to make it a link!)




BTW. Great wedding and congratulations, Aidan and Sachi!