Greeting the Town- July 10 & 11

Tuesday the 10^th was a day filled with going to the Sunyani open market for ingredients for dinner (we always have particular fun at the stand where we buy eggs, because the friendly women there, Nana Afia and Nana Yaa, always try to teach us a few new phrases of Twi when we visit), compiling our video footage, and doing a bit more writing for project documentation. At the end of the day, Mike, Chelsea, Mollie, and Helena went for a run along the street that goes by our dorms, during which most of the people who saw us go by either stared, laughed at us, or asked “Where are you going?”. As we realized later, people do jog around here, but the locals only go in the cool early morning hours.

One small section of the open market in Sunyani

Clayton holding one of the cocoyam leaves (similar in taste to spinach) we got at the market

On Wednesday, our morning was filled with errands and chores:  buying fresh food for the day, picking up a couple of science demonstration supplies, and filtering water.  Around noon, Emmanuel arrived (he had driven from Kumasi) to introduce us to a variety of individuals who will be instrumental throughout the remainder of our stay in Sunyani. 

We were introduced to Andy Ampong, the new headmaster at Ridge Experimental Junior High School, a site of donations and lessons from previous Pavlis cohorts.  Then, on our way to briefly visit another project location, the Abesim Community Center, we stopped in at the Sunyani Municipal Assembly, where we met the director and made future plans to meet with the Sunyani MCE (Municipal Chief Executive)- the official who has taken responsibility for the payment of our book shipment.

Emmanuel knows just about everyone in Sunyani, so our greetings did not stop there.  We stopped downtown and met Emmanuel’s mother-in-law, Comfort, at her local business, the Glory Pharmacy.  We drove to see the beautiful home of the Regional Minister and waited outside a meeting of all the area MCEs for the chance to be formally introduced to Kwasi Oppong Ababio, the Sunyani MCE, with whom we planned to meet the next day.

We met with the head chancellor of Sunyani’s new local environmental and natural sciences university (to be called ENAT) and became acquainted with Dr. Solomon Fofie, the head physician at Sunyani Polytechnic (another local university).  We also drove to see the Sunyani Regional Hospital, the workplace of Dr. Jacob, one of our main contacts for assessing medical needs in the area.

After this full day of greetings and introductions, Emmanuel delivered us back to our dormitory room and then headed back to Kumasi.  As for us, thoroughly worn out from meeting so many new faces, we made dinner (a spicy ginger/lime stir-fry), had our group meeting, and called it a night.   

*Note: This post was written by Chelsea.