Meeting the MCE, and Travel- July 12

This week’s tasks required us to split apart once again, but not before we had a meeting with the MCE of Sunyani, more or less the equivalent of a mayor.  We were greeted outside his office at the Municipal Assembly building at 10am by the Director, who we had met the previous day.  He led us inside the office and into the sudden sight of about seventeen of the important ministers and managers of the city.  We were invited to sit for the meeting and did so, a little nervously. First, we went around and shook hands with everyone. Then we sat down, and it was everyone else’s turn to come and shake hands with us. Everyone in the room introduced themselves, and the Director gave an introductory speech about our presence there.  

For the most part, the Director and the MCE did the majority of the talking, explaining their main concerns for their district and how we might be able to help. One of their concerns- which we are already assisting with through our book shipment- is the lack of supplies, especially books and computers, in their schools and communities. The minister of education also spoke up regarding education methods, and proposed that when we visit the local schools, we can observe and learn about their teaching methods, while we teach them about ours. Lastly, the MCE discussed the details of our book shipment, which will be picked up and paid for by his office once it arrives at the port in Tema within the next couple of weeks.

At the end of the meeting, we all shook hands again and exchanged contact information with the MCE as well as the minister of education, who had offered to show us around the local communities next week. After we left the Municipal Assembly, it was time for our group to split up for a while- Mike and Clayton took a taxi to the Sunyani bus station and nabbed the last seat on a bus to Kumasi while the girls expected to stick around Sunyani for a bit and take care of some work before traveling to the Babianeha for the weekend to get the middle school’s biochar experiment started and re-visit the Duasidan Monkey Sanctuary to discuss some advertising ideas with the community. 

The plan for the Mike and Clayton in Kumasi was to meet our electrician friend Peter and spend the day searching for an electric generator/alternator component for the Kwame Yeboahkrom Lister engine. By the time they navigated their way across Kumasi and met up with Peter however, it was too late to go looking that day.  Mike and Clayton spent the night in the FORIG guesthouse on campus, while Emmanuel’s wife was very kind and made them each a mountain of rice and mutton for dinner.

In the meantime, Chelsea, Helena, and Mollie spent much of Thursday afternoon following up on project work. They went to the Ridge Experimental School again to check in on the school’s supplies and computers, and to find a time when our group could come and do some science demonstrations similar to what we did at the CSIR Basic School in Kumasi. They met Jackson, the former headmaster at Ridge, who showed them around and explained that the students have exams next week, so we will not be able to visit until the week after.

Next, a trip to an internet café in Sunyani (a small room with ten or so computers, in which we paid the U.S. equivalent of about 25 cents for a half-hour of internet access), allowed Helena, Mollie, and Chelsea to check on the progress of the Duasidan Monkey Sanctuary marketing documents. They arranged for Mike and Clayton to pick up the documents at the FORIG campus, so that they could bring them to Babianeha on Saturday.

The Ghanaian version of Target.

After a late lunch and some fast packing, the girls took a taxi to the transit station, hopped on a nearly full bus to Dormaa (Note:  In Ghana, busses are less likely to depart at regular times since they usually don’t leave until they are full, so getting on to a crowded bus meant a sooner departure!), and began their journey to Babianeha.  After a comfortable (if bumpy every once in a while) one-and-a-half-hour ride, Mollie, Chelsea, and Helena arrived in the town of Dormaa, where they convinced a taxi driver to take them on the twenty minute drive to the Opuni house in Babianeha (the Opuni house being the home of Emmanuel’s mother and excellent host, Dora Opuni, as well as an assortment of his relatives).  

Chelsea, Mollie, and Helena's bus ride to Dormaa.

 Upon the girls’ arrival, helpful residents carried their bags and ushered them into their compound, where Emmanuel’s brother, Kwadwo, spent about ten minutes haggling (in Twi) with the taxi driver for us over the price of the ride. The discussion was very interesting to us, because Kwadwo and the taxi driver alternated between raised angry voices and laughing. After the taxi driver was talked down from twelve to seven cedis (7 cedis ~ 3.5 USD). The girls sat down to a meal of cooked yams (plain, so as to please Chelsea) and a vegetarian dish of cocoyam leaves (so as to please Mollie) which had already been prepared by the Opuni household.  The girls then retired for the night in the Opunis’ guesthouse, a beautiful newly constructed home that had not yet been used by the family themselves.

*Note: This post was written by Clayton, Helena, and Chelsea.

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.