Three line whip for the Saturday morning meeting as we had a planned visit from the welfare officer in our neighbouring district – we needed to impress him with a view to extending our work into his communities. We also talked through a planned visit to a group of HIV sufferers next Saturday and tomorrow’s hypertension presentation in church.
Feel like Helen’s slightly taken liberties by confirming that we (the volunteers that is, rather than Tiyah) will fund some food for the HIV group without clearing it with us first – led to a little bit of friction, but we’re all prepared to let it ride this time.
In her remit as our SYTO rep as well as project leader we also talked to Helen about the ongoing situation with Paul and Theresa. Of course there’s more to it than me
ets the eye with much of the root of the problem based in complex gender politics, and apparently the stigma that Theresa feels – real or imaginary – for not having had children. Apparently this relates to her particular problem with women in particular moving in to the house – although that can’t be used as an excuse for her behaviour attacking the new resident, or indeed explain the other various bursts of aggression towards Kwame, Bernice, Judy, Paul and apparently Daniel and Katty (volunteers prior to us).
After a busy time recently it’s quite nice not to have trav
eled this weekend, and took the chance to meet up with the other Bunac volunteers in Kumasi. The plan had been for a spot of lunch and a visit to the Ashanti King’s palace, but with general laziness and people arriving at different times we didn’t make it further than the restaurant. Sick of always visiting Vic Baboos to eat we decided to try a new place and hit upon a bit of a winner, a third floor bar with terrace overlooking downtown Kumasi and decent food.
Sunday 23rd August
A day for results. England have won the Ashes – it made me realise how long I’ve been away when I think I haven’t seen a single ball of the series – the gunners won 4-1 yesterday, and touch wood, I think we have peace in the house again.
The day began with a bit of Sunday morning preaching as we took our hypertension presentation to one of the many churches in Achiase – up in front of the congregation, m
icrophone in hand I began to feel like one of those American evangelists and it was all I could do not to dust off a couple of ‘Halleluiahs’.
All said the presentation went well – despite looking a bit bored during our speech, the congregation asked a lot of questions at the end – compared to HIV it affects more people’s lives immediately, and of course is much more acceptable to talk about openly.
Otherwise it was a bit of a lazy day spent around the compound. After I got a text from Dad with the cricket score I had to indulge in a couple of beers to toast the victory and of course got involved in some obligatory gloating to Aussie Bridie.
Big Paul came later to tell us that the dispute has been settled, after a meeting including Theresa’s father and the elders from their church apparently Theresa is reconciled that the tenants can stay and that she has no responsibility to clean up after them. Let’s see how long the truce holds for…
Monday 24th August
A pretty quiet day, after a short Monday meeting we went into Kumasi to purchase a fan for the office, a much needed joint gift from all three of us volunteers to the project, after that we went into the SYTO office to see Helen about an application for a grant that we can help with, and to spend some time on the Tiyah website.
In the evening all of the electricity in our area went down when a lorry driver carelessly took out the line with his truck ensuring a very quiet night and an evening of eating and reading by torchlight.
Tuesday 25th August
Fresh came back from town with a new (to them) 28” TV for the family living behind ours – nothing flash by standards at home, but it got me thinking about the relative wealth here.
Carrying the baggage of western stereotypes with me I arrived expecting deprivation to be much greater than it actually is. There is certainly poverty in Kumasi in general, and Achiase in particular – but it’s not the abject poverty that I was preparing myself for. Many homes have TVs, and the odd PC, and nearly every adult I meet has their own mobile phone. And some strong brands exist both Ghanaian and the usual collection of global behemoths like Coca Cola.
That said the Ashanti region is the wealthiest in Ghana with its natural resources of gold, cocoa and agriculture – and just traveling around our communities I’d say Achiase is relatively more ‘well to do’ than the surrounding villages… I know also that our compound with its electric lighting, running shower and water closet toilet is a positive luxury to what some of the other volunteers are experiencing in Kumasi. Northern Ghana was also noticeably poorer – in the living conditions and the number and physical condition of street beggars.
Today was our first time taking the hypertension presentation to the streets as we visited Barekese, and it was well received – lots of questions and discussion as we went back to a couple of friendly spots where we have spoken to people on previous occasions. The smooth running of the day was only interrupted by a fight breaking out between two boys right outside of one of the hairdressers we were teaching in.
Back at home it seems as if Big Paul’s plans to travel and work in the Western Region have taken a bit of a back seat now that the situation with Theresa has calmed down, to no great surprise.
Wednesday 26th August
Small Paul has been offered a place at University which is great news for him after years of trying – there are only six Unis in the whole of Ghana. All he needs to do now is to work out how he will pay for it.
This development meant Paul had to cry off from work this morning to try and work out funding meaning just Ahmed with us – in theory at least – after waiting for more than one hour for him I instead headed into Kumasi to use the SYTO PC and work up the copy for the website. Helen’s away for a few days so her computer was free – once I’d woken her assistant Diana up from sleeping at Helen’s desk!
In the end it was quite a productive day, although it felt very different being back in an air conditioned office working on a document – a bit too much like the old world!
In the evening I hit the local spot (pub) in the hope of watching Arsenal v. Celtic, but a big local match had taken precedence, a top four play off game between the biggest two teams in the country so much shouting and jumping around the room at every close shave. Making for an entertaining night.
Peace is still holding in the house, although we disappointed Agnes by not joining her at a big church event this afternoon – she was genuinely bewildered by us claiming we didn’t have any religion, it just looked like an alien concept to her, I just hope she hasn’t taken it upon herself to save our souls.
Friday 28th August
Office based work again for the last couple of days – firstly we got the ceiling fan that we’d bought earlier in the week installed on Thursday morning which has made being in the office an infinitely more pleasurable experience. Money definitely well spent. The three of us signed a ‘propeller’ each, mine simply reading ‘stay cool!’.
Followed up with more work on the website and then lunch in town with Stacey and Becky when I could grab them between frequent visits to the bathroom.
Friday morning the plan was to deliver our HIV presentation to the youth group from the local school here in Achiase – the idea being involving the kids as peer educators and building a bit of sustainability to the structure at Tiyah. Great in principle, but unfortunately none of the group turned up despite the promises made only the previous afternoon. Not to waste the time I worked further on the online copy and on an application form for a subsidy grant.
Then made the mistake of going party shopping with Bernice and Laura in town – we’re having a bash on Sunday night as a goodbye to Laura… I’ve never understood why girls have to make parties so complicated, a stack of lagers and the rest will look after itself. Instead we ended up traipsing around three different supermarkets chasing this, that and whatever, my mood was only lightened somewhat by an excellent jollof rice and Star beer at Queen’s Gate restaurant.
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