We're sorry for the delay again, everyone! We bought an internet modem last week, but the provider has been down, so we have had very limited internet access. We should be able to put up several new posts by the end of today, though. Thank you all for your patience! :)
***
We all awoke Monday morning wondering if the recently
returned power was really all that appreciated. The local student radio station
adjacent to our room greeted us at 5am blaring their music from a small radio
in their room, disrupting all of our sleep. But we were still able to get
moving at 7am to enjoy a nice breakfast of eggs, toast and avocado prepared by
Mollie, Chelsea, and Helena, while Clayton and Mike slugged their way through
their morning.
This was our group’s first day apart from one another.
Helena, Chelsea and Mollie stayed in Sunyani to sort out tasks around our dorm,
while Clayton and Mike set out to Kwame Yeboahkrom to deliver the Lister engine
housing plans and create a parts list, accompanied by our Kumasi electrician
friend Peter (pronounced “Peetah”). This trip was also another first because
instead of using Emmanuel’s forestry trucks to get to the village, we took the
famous Ghanaian tro-tros the entire way, which created quite an adventure.
Starting in Sunyani, the first tro-tro trip was to Dormaa,
with Mike and Clayton crammed in the first row and Peter behind. We entertained
ourselves by pointing out the various oddball ads, business signs and taxi
slogans along the way. One sign
appeared to be trying to tell us not to simultaneously lead small chickens
while playing the trumpet. From
Dormaa everyone packed himself into the back row of another tro-tro, said
goodbye to pavement, and bounced, rocked, creaked and banged all the way to the
village of Ankrankwanta. From there, we took one last tro-tro to the clinic in Kwame
Yeboahkrom, arriving there a bit after noon.
Working with the clinic’s doctor and our tro-tro driver- who,
coincidently, also is helping with our project- we discussed the plans for the
generator housing. We decided on a 10’ by 12’ room with one door and three
basic windows for ventilation. The engine will be bolted to the floor with four
studs imbedded in the cement that were delivered with the engine, while all
other components such as the generator will be screwed in place after the
building is done.
While we were in Kwame Yeboahkrom, our driver showed us
another Lister engine being used in the village, which was previously unknown
to us. This engine was powering a small grain mill, so although we still need
to create our own system to connect a generator to ours, we at least have a
working reference for what is needed to get our engine running.
After seeing the motor, we returned to the clinic and ironed
out the rest of the details. We then shared a quick friendly chat with the
clinic’s doctor and after Clayton attempted to speak Twi to a small crowd of
laughing girls, we set off again in the same series of tro-tro’s back home.
Leaving a little after 4:00 in the afternoon, and arriving home to the dorms
around 8:00, Clayton and Mike joined the girls for a nice dinner of rice, fried
cocoyam (a potato-like tuber), and breaded garden egg (like a mini eggplant) along
with their best interpretation of no-bake cookies with locally available
ingredients, ending another long successful day.
The girls had a full day too, but with less travel: learning
more of the ins and outs of the Sunyani market, organizing information from our
projects so far for documentation, putting up blog posts, and cooking with
ingredients from the market!
*Note: This post was written by Mike, though he wasn't here to post it himself.
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