We started the day early with a 6:30 departure for Kwame
Yebohakrom in one of the FORIG trucks, with what we hoped would be the last of
the parts for the Lister engine project. With Govina at the wheel of the truck
and Peter as co-captain we made quick time to the village arriving somewhere
after 10, even with a quick stop for fufuo. The building for the engine was
still unfinished but was complete enough to hopefully finish the project. After
quickly bolting the generator up, tightening the belt in place we were ready to
test our system. The engine was fired up, running as well as ever and the
generator was spinning without vibrating out of place or throwing the belt.
Everything seemed okay until Peter went to test the generators voltage with a
standard light bulb, which was immediately popped. Concerned, we called the man
we had purchased the generator from to learn that he misspoke when we told us
the generator operating speed, and we were operating it at over twice what it
should be running.
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| A man in Duasidan next to the covered Lister engine |
Determined to finish the project, we decided after a bit of
head scratching to try the second smaller pulley on the machine that was
shipped with it to see if we could match the desired speed. After a quick run to Nkran Kwanta to
grab another belt and relocating the generator we fired the Lister engine up
again for another test. Sadly, even though the generator was spinning at what
should be the correct speed, the test light bulb was popped again. Even after
turning the generator around to spin it in the opposite direction we were
unable to get the correct voltage. Running out of time in the day, we decided
to take the generator back to Kumasi to see if it had become damaged on its way
to the project site. It was upsetting to leave the village with all our hard
work unfinished, but we knew if the generator could be revived, our friend
Peter would have no problem finishing the project after our departure.
Meanwhile the girls were dropped off at Duasidan in the
morning to have one last meeting with community members regarding the monkey
sanctuary advertisements and future work in the community. We arranged with the printer in Kumasi
for the road sign advertisements to be printed before our departure from Ghana
and arranged for the Duasidan Assemblyman, Jacob, to post them at appropriate
intersections en route to Duasidan.
The community expressed interest in forming a community center if future
Pavlis students could provide supplies for it. They even showed us which room in an old school building
they could renovate for community use.
After our formal meeting we requested that we could have a
taxi called to pick us up. It took
three hours to actually get the taxi, but we passed the time playing with the
huge crowd of kids that showed up.
Finally, the taxi arrived, driven by a nice guy called German, who
dropped us off in Babianeha.
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| Mollie and Helena with kids in Duasidan |
In Babianeha, Mollie went with Victoria, Emmanuel’s cousin
who will start University in September, to interview families in the village
about their cooking habits. It was
really interesting to see the range of cooking methods used in the village all
the way from very modern gas ranges in kitchens to open fires outside the
house. Meanwhile, Helena and
Chelsea ran a few final errands around town, including dropping off a bag of
biochar for the school garden.
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| A typical outdoor fire for cooking |
In the afternoon the girls traveled to Dormaa to speak with
the MCE there. However, because it
was the one-week celebration of the president’s death, both the MCE and the
Director were busy and so we got to meet the assistant director. He was very enthusiastic about our
efforts to advertize the Duasidan Monkey Sanctuary and he was especially
excited about the website we hope to develop. He was very optimistic about future development of the site
by the Dormaa Assembly in collaboration with Pavlis!
After a long day of work everyone was ready to head home to
Sunyani to have dinner with a delegation of people from the Sunyani MCE’s
office as well as some other friends from Sunyani. Just as Mike and Clayton were beginning to arrive in Dormaa
to pick up the girls, their truck overheated, stalling on the road. The girls
were sent on ahead to finish the journey by bus, just before realizing that
Mike and Clayton had the only sets of keys to the dorm. Running quite a bit
behind, the truck was quickly fixed and the guys quickly rushed home to change
with the waiting girls and head to the dinner.
Despite being one hour late, we were still able to meet
everyone for a wonderful dinner. The meal was a fancy buffet with two
courses. We all looked quite
dashing in our newly tailored Ghanaian outfits if we do say so ourselves!
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| The group with our friend Govina after the dinner (note his black clothing and red scarf worn in honor of the one week celebration of the president's death) |
Written by Mollie and Mike
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