Hi Everyone,
It has been a long time since we first set up this blog (I still can't believe we only went to Ghana three years ago - three years does not seem like that long ago and yet it feels so far away!) and a long time since I felt like I might have time to post all of the remaining details of our trip and adventure. I still hope to do that here.
In the meantime, I've received word that World Habitat Day is coming up on Monday, October 4th and I wanted to spread the word here.
World Habitat Day is a day the United Nations has set aside to call attention to the dire need for affordable, adequate housing.
To find out what actions you can take on World Habitat Day click here for some ideas!
Let's raise our voices to advocate for safe, affordable housing around the world!
Friday, October 1, 2010
Saturday, August 8, 2009
It's been a really long time . . .
. . . since we left Ghana, since I posted to this blog.
Today my friend Jen shared this TED video with me. I found it so moving. It brought me to tears. It brought me right back to Ghana. It immediately made me think of our friend Charlotte who is leaving for Uganda with Watoto in just over a week.
Next, I thought of this blog. This past week I have been reminded of our travels on several occasions and also reminded of just how long ago we were in Ghana. I think it will always feel like we were there 'just yesterday' because the experience was so rich and so it feels so strange to say we traveled there in November, 2007 - that was 21 months ago!
With that, I have decided to try my best to finish posting the rest of my hand-written travel journal here to this blog. I hope you will join me in sharing in the remainder of this long over due journey.
More to come soon (got lots of typing to do!),
Brandy
PS For those who no longer want to receive these automatic notices, you can edit your subscription here.
Today my friend Jen shared this TED video with me. I found it so moving. It brought me to tears. It brought me right back to Ghana. It immediately made me think of our friend Charlotte who is leaving for Uganda with Watoto in just over a week.
Next, I thought of this blog. This past week I have been reminded of our travels on several occasions and also reminded of just how long ago we were in Ghana. I think it will always feel like we were there 'just yesterday' because the experience was so rich and so it feels so strange to say we traveled there in November, 2007 - that was 21 months ago!
With that, I have decided to try my best to finish posting the rest of my hand-written travel journal here to this blog. I hope you will join me in sharing in the remainder of this long over due journey.
More to come soon (got lots of typing to do!),
Brandy
PS For those who no longer want to receive these automatic notices, you can edit your subscription here.
Here is Bruce with some of the village children.
This photo is so blurry but I love it. Me sitting in the desk with some local school children. They look so happy to share this with us.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
It's been a while since we have posted to this blog but I just received this email from the Global Village Team and wanted to pass it along since readers of this blog may be interested in learning more.
Hope you are well,
Brandy
Hope you are well,
Brandy
_____________________________
Global Village Needs You!
Europe has an urgent need to provide safe and affordable housing for the working poor who struggle each day to make ends meet. More than 98 million people in this region live on less than $2 per day, that’s over 20 per cent of the total population. Millions of people lack access to clean water, sanitation and heating systems. The fall of the Soviet Union led to large scale unemployment, mass migration to ill equipped urban centers and severe deterioration in the housing stock that was once maintained by the government. This has led to severe over-crowding in small, dilapidated apartments which lack even basic amenities
We need your help. Please consider signing up for a Global Village trip to Europe this spring.
Poland (May 3 – 15, 2009)
Nearly one in four apartments in Poland should be condemned according to research done by The Economic Housing Institute. Almost one in ten shares a toilet with an entire floor of apartments or has no indoor facility at all, and approximately one in eight do not have a kitchen. Nearly 12 million Poles – almost a third of the population – live in overcrowded homes. These sad statistics highlight Poland’s need for more than 1.5 million affordable apartments just to meet current demand. With a severe affordable housing shortage, low-income families often have no choice but to live in sub-standard housing that threatens their health and safety.
Make a difference in the lives of Polish families in need of a simple, decent place to live. You might just find your own life changed as well.
To read more on this trip to Poland and to sign up, please visit the trip schedule at http://habitat.ca/
Romania (May 10 – 21, 2009)
The people of Romania need you. The second largest country in Central and Eastern Europe with a population of 21.6 million, Romania is also one of the poorest countries in Europe. More than 15 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Some 2.4 million Romanian’s live in extreme poverty. Many Romanian’s live in cramped housing and only half have access to piped water. Much of Romania’s housing stock is low-quality and deteriorating because of a lack of maintenance. A family of eight is more likely to live in a two-room flat than in a home with four rooms or more. More than 10,000 blocks of apartment flats erected before 1980 need serious renovation to their infrastructure, heating systems and roofs.
Please help us change the lives of a Romanian family by giving them a safe and secure place to live.
To read more on this trip to Romania and to sign up, please visit the trip schedule at http://habitat.ca/
Check out our full trip schedule for all upcoming trips at: http://habitat.ca/
Many thanks,
The Global Village Team
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens CAN change the world. Indeed, it is the ONLY thing that ever has." Margaret Mead
Monday, January 28, 2008
Morning in Kofiase
November 27 6:22am
We are sleeping in a finished house. It is fully light by this time of day but the sun is not high and bright and hot yet. Most of us are still sleeping or dozing but everyone and everything else is awake and they have been for an hour or more. Our cooks, Peace & Jane, are busy preparing our first meal of the day and the community is awake cooking and crying and yelling and crowing.
Peace was the lead cook for our trip and she joined us in Accra with boxes and boxes of supplies and equipment to cook for our brood. She had cooked for many Habitat Global Village trips before and did an amazing job keeping us very well fed with simply delicious food! Here she is in the storage room of the utility portion of the women's building - we ate off of the dishes stacked off to the left and food was served piping hot from the round yellow thermos like pot you see directly beside her to the right. Neither Bruce nor I experienced many stomach troubles from the food and I think Peace's experience and skill were the biggest reason we stayed healthy! Here's hoping Peace is doing well - she is expecting a baby in early February!
Jane joined us along with Peace from Accra. She did a lot of the cooking outside. Here she is using a stove which holds charcoal under the pan - she is fanning the charcoal to heat the oil to fry either potato or plantain (yum!) fries.
I hear the sounds of pounding fufu (as shown in the video below - courtesy of Bruce), snoring, clucking, sweeping or peeling of fruit, louder crying and talking. Sometimes I hear the wind rustle the garbage bag hung on the large open door, not yet full of our North American garbage (dirty wipes, granola bar wrappers and toilet paper rolls).
Our room is quite large and houses 8 of us – Sue, Sharon, Britt, Karen, Suzanne, Krista, me, Yanik. We have used a rather ingenious method to rig up our mosquito nets and I think it has made everyone more comfortable. Three lengths of rope strung the length of the room, one at each side and one in the middle then the middle of each end of the net is tied to the string to make a two peak tent long enough and wide enough for our sleeping mats. We have then exploded our packs and suitcases inside and placed items in each corner and along the sides to widen it. We have tied our corners together to give us much needed height and breathing room. Having the net sit just several inches over your head means it gets much hotter inside, much more quickly and also means a good work out anytime you want to search through your pack, change or even put on your shoes. Lying on your back, planting your feet flat on the mat and lifting your rear off the mat means you can remove pants and underwear and put on clean ones. Sitting cross legged and bent almost in half means you can change your shirt or sports bra within a few minutes, rather than the few seconds it takes you standing up. At dawn and dusk this is important to do all under the net because this is prime time for the mosquito which carries malaria. So far we have seen little to none of these little ‘beasts’ which many of us are thankful for I think.
We are here at the beginning of the dry season and are experiencing the warming harmattan winds from the Sahara. These are more pleasant than we had thought as they take the humidity out of the air and give us a lovely breeze. Our room has two large double doors at each end and these have kept things cool for us at night. [Unfortunately, the threat of cobra season meant that our host, Naomi with the Habitat for Humanity Ghana office, suggested we keep the doors closed instead of open – yikes! This made things much hotter, but safer I guess.] Last night I slept well from about 9pm until 5pm. I was warm at first, but not as warm as the night before but I did wake to find myself damp and chilled again so I was prepared to lay my fleece over top of my torso to stay warm. I’m wishing I brought my fleece blanket but will likely be just fine with just my jacket.
Washrooms are a latrine within the same house. A quick hop to the ground from our room and then a step on to the porch and then down the hall past the cook’s room and shower room and stacks of bottles of water in the halls. There are two toilet seats set into the mortar covered bench in the room and so far it doesn’t look like things will be dire enough for us to come to the point where we will have to go two at a time! The set-up is quite smart and is a raised clay bench with the seats directly cemented into place – they are rather far back though so you almost have to fall back on to them. They are clean and smell fine despite the heat and are a pleasant surprise for most of us, as many things here have been.
The latrine of the Habitat for Humanity Kofiase office building that the women stayed in. Typical in its set up but atypical in the fact that there were two seats . . sadly, the 'lack' of smell did not last long with 13 women using the same latrine ... : (
This morning’s air is misty and it seems like things may be much cooler today – we cold weather Canadians can always hope! I am cross legged under my tent facing the doorway and I can see grey misty sky and tall stalks of corn blowing in the cooling breeze. Meg just walked by in Capri pants and a sweater so it must be nice and comfortable out. It’s 7:04 now and breakfast is at 7:30 – time for me to get dressed for our first full day of work and hopefully visiting homeowner families in their current homes, as planned.
A typical breakfast . . . fresh white bread, delicious Ghanaian style omelette (this one had mini sausages/wieners thrown in for kicks!) and fresh papaya or popo, as it was called locally.
We are sleeping in a finished house. It is fully light by this time of day but the sun is not high and bright and hot yet. Most of us are still sleeping or dozing but everyone and everything else is awake and they have been for an hour or more. Our cooks, Peace & Jane, are busy preparing our first meal of the day and the community is awake cooking and crying and yelling and crowing.
Peace was the lead cook for our trip and she joined us in Accra with boxes and boxes of supplies and equipment to cook for our brood. She had cooked for many Habitat Global Village trips before and did an amazing job keeping us very well fed with simply delicious food! Here she is in the storage room of the utility portion of the women's building - we ate off of the dishes stacked off to the left and food was served piping hot from the round yellow thermos like pot you see directly beside her to the right. Neither Bruce nor I experienced many stomach troubles from the food and I think Peace's experience and skill were the biggest reason we stayed healthy! Here's hoping Peace is doing well - she is expecting a baby in early February!
Jane joined us along with Peace from Accra. She did a lot of the cooking outside. Here she is using a stove which holds charcoal under the pan - she is fanning the charcoal to heat the oil to fry either potato or plantain (yum!) fries.I hear the sounds of pounding fufu (as shown in the video below - courtesy of Bruce), snoring, clucking, sweeping or peeling of fruit, louder crying and talking. Sometimes I hear the wind rustle the garbage bag hung on the large open door, not yet full of our North American garbage (dirty wipes, granola bar wrappers and toilet paper rolls).
Our room is quite large and houses 8 of us – Sue, Sharon, Britt, Karen, Suzanne, Krista, me, Yanik. We have used a rather ingenious method to rig up our mosquito nets and I think it has made everyone more comfortable. Three lengths of rope strung the length of the room, one at each side and one in the middle then the middle of each end of the net is tied to the string to make a two peak tent long enough and wide enough for our sleeping mats. We have then exploded our packs and suitcases inside and placed items in each corner and along the sides to widen it. We have tied our corners together to give us much needed height and breathing room. Having the net sit just several inches over your head means it gets much hotter inside, much more quickly and also means a good work out anytime you want to search through your pack, change or even put on your shoes. Lying on your back, planting your feet flat on the mat and lifting your rear off the mat means you can remove pants and underwear and put on clean ones. Sitting cross legged and bent almost in half means you can change your shirt or sports bra within a few minutes, rather than the few seconds it takes you standing up. At dawn and dusk this is important to do all under the net because this is prime time for the mosquito which carries malaria. So far we have seen little to none of these little ‘beasts’ which many of us are thankful for I think.
We are here at the beginning of the dry season and are experiencing the warming harmattan winds from the Sahara. These are more pleasant than we had thought as they take the humidity out of the air and give us a lovely breeze. Our room has two large double doors at each end and these have kept things cool for us at night. [Unfortunately, the threat of cobra season meant that our host, Naomi with the Habitat for Humanity Ghana office, suggested we keep the doors closed instead of open – yikes! This made things much hotter, but safer I guess.] Last night I slept well from about 9pm until 5pm. I was warm at first, but not as warm as the night before but I did wake to find myself damp and chilled again so I was prepared to lay my fleece over top of my torso to stay warm. I’m wishing I brought my fleece blanket but will likely be just fine with just my jacket.
Washrooms are a latrine within the same house. A quick hop to the ground from our room and then a step on to the porch and then down the hall past the cook’s room and shower room and stacks of bottles of water in the halls. There are two toilet seats set into the mortar covered bench in the room and so far it doesn’t look like things will be dire enough for us to come to the point where we will have to go two at a time! The set-up is quite smart and is a raised clay bench with the seats directly cemented into place – they are rather far back though so you almost have to fall back on to them. They are clean and smell fine despite the heat and are a pleasant surprise for most of us, as many things here have been.
The latrine of the Habitat for Humanity Kofiase office building that the women stayed in. Typical in its set up but atypical in the fact that there were two seats . . sadly, the 'lack' of smell did not last long with 13 women using the same latrine ... : ( This morning’s air is misty and it seems like things may be much cooler today – we cold weather Canadians can always hope! I am cross legged under my tent facing the doorway and I can see grey misty sky and tall stalks of corn blowing in the cooling breeze. Meg just walked by in Capri pants and a sweater so it must be nice and comfortable out. It’s 7:04 now and breakfast is at 7:30 – time for me to get dressed for our first full day of work and hopefully visiting homeowner families in their current homes, as planned.
A typical breakfast . . . fresh white bread, delicious Ghanaian style omelette (this one had mini sausages/wieners thrown in for kicks!) and fresh papaya or popo, as it was called locally.Thursday, January 17, 2008
Arriving in Ghana
While we were in Ghana I found some time to journal about my experiences. I wasn't able to journal as much as I would have liked so I'll use some of my journal entries and fill them out with other details that we can remember. This post starts with Bruce and I close to arriving at Heathrow Airport to catch our flight to Accra, the capital city of Ghana. The next date is two days later. We arrived in Accra on the evening of the 24th to meet our team and stayed at the Miklin Hotel near the airport. We enjoyed a late supper of fried chicken and plantain and then were off to sleep in preparation for the long bus ride north through Kumasi to the village of Kofiase where we would be staying for 12 days. At the end of a long day traveling by air-conditioned bus through cities and towns, witnessing Ghanaian life as it is lived in the streets - hawking anything from baked goods to crackers to tins of sardines to every vehicle as it passes by - we didn't know what to expect as the sun set and the roads became bumpier. After 7-8 hours of traveling our bus suddenly stopped.
The frosty morning in Hastings as we left for the airport.
Our first Ghanaian meal - fried plantains and chicken!
Accra as seen from our bus window.
Enjoying FanYogo - frozen yogurt! Purchased from a roadside rest stop (pretty fancy by Ghanaian and even Canadian standards) - there was much ado about cleaning the package and using clean scissors to open it before we sucked the delicious frozen treat out. By the end of the trip Bruce & I were far less careful.
Sunset outside of Kumasi as seen from the bus window.
November 24 9:35am About 25 miles to go! Getting excited on the M25! Left around 8:15am from Hastings . . . too excited to record the time ; )
November 26 6:58am We arrived last night and our arrival was quite amazing. The full moon was rising and brilliant orange and everyone came to meet our bus. Kids were loving the camera and flashes and we all had fast new friends who held our hands as we walked the path towards our site. We walked lit by the full moon and the headlights from the truck carrying our bags and supplies. Looking back on our silhouettes created by the moon and head lights made me smile; as our team of 18 Canadians walked along an uneven dirt path holding hands with tiny Ghanaian children, kicking up dust, I realized, we were in AFRICA!
Once we were led to where we would be staying and found our luggage in the mild chaos of backpacks, suitcases and boxes of bottled water, we explored our accommodations and quickly divided ourselves up; men off to a smaller Habitat house back behind the main common area and the women in a larger building the affiliate had built to serve as storage and office space – 6 women in the smaller room and 8 of us in the larger room. It was dark, so we dug out flashlights and headlamps and began to tackle the problem of hanging our mosquito nets. We worked together quite well as a team and fashioned our own method to hang the nets. While we set about getting our rooms together, our cooks, Peace and Jane, were busy preparing a very tasty spaghetti dinner. Our group then gathered together in our first circle for a short meeting and then it was off to bed.
A view of the women's room Brandy slept in, complete with our mattresses, bedding, bags and mosquito nets strung up - at night they were lowered and tucked around our bed and bags.
Here's Bruce posing on the porch of the men's house - the camera is looking north out towards the farm fields and forests of the community. The Habitat houses are simple, two rooms and a porch in this case, with a utility shed off to the left (not shown) which houses a toilet, bathing room and storage room.
For me it was a terrible night; it is nice to wake up on the other side of it. I couldn’t sleep and had to get up for the toilet twice – the first time I scared a cat (or other small unidentifiable animal?!?!?) who ran past me and scared me half to death as I turned on my light. Lesson – never forget to turn the headlamp on no matter how bright the moon.
The morning roosters started at 2am and again by first light – around 5am. It was hard to get enough sleep as they crowed back and forth to each other endlessly! Time to organize my pack, find some clothes and get ready to meet the chief!
Just a few of the many, friendly neighbourhood chickens that we shared the village with. These ones have found a jackpot of dried corn kernels in this basin.
Stay tuned - 12 more days to share.
Coming soon!
Also, special thanks to the Rotary Club of Oak Bay for their generous donation in support of our fundraising efforts - check out our final fundraising total $6,325.43!
The frosty morning in Hastings as we left for the airport.
Our first Ghanaian meal - fried plantains and chicken!
Accra as seen from our bus window.
Enjoying FanYogo - frozen yogurt! Purchased from a roadside rest stop (pretty fancy by Ghanaian and even Canadian standards) - there was much ado about cleaning the package and using clean scissors to open it before we sucked the delicious frozen treat out. By the end of the trip Bruce & I were far less careful.
Sunset outside of Kumasi as seen from the bus window.November 24 9:35am About 25 miles to go! Getting excited on the M25! Left around 8:15am from Hastings . . . too excited to record the time ; )
November 26 6:58am We arrived last night and our arrival was quite amazing. The full moon was rising and brilliant orange and everyone came to meet our bus. Kids were loving the camera and flashes and we all had fast new friends who held our hands as we walked the path towards our site. We walked lit by the full moon and the headlights from the truck carrying our bags and supplies. Looking back on our silhouettes created by the moon and head lights made me smile; as our team of 18 Canadians walked along an uneven dirt path holding hands with tiny Ghanaian children, kicking up dust, I realized, we were in AFRICA!
Once we were led to where we would be staying and found our luggage in the mild chaos of backpacks, suitcases and boxes of bottled water, we explored our accommodations and quickly divided ourselves up; men off to a smaller Habitat house back behind the main common area and the women in a larger building the affiliate had built to serve as storage and office space – 6 women in the smaller room and 8 of us in the larger room. It was dark, so we dug out flashlights and headlamps and began to tackle the problem of hanging our mosquito nets. We worked together quite well as a team and fashioned our own method to hang the nets. While we set about getting our rooms together, our cooks, Peace and Jane, were busy preparing a very tasty spaghetti dinner. Our group then gathered together in our first circle for a short meeting and then it was off to bed.
A view of the women's room Brandy slept in, complete with our mattresses, bedding, bags and mosquito nets strung up - at night they were lowered and tucked around our bed and bags.
Here's Bruce posing on the porch of the men's house - the camera is looking north out towards the farm fields and forests of the community. The Habitat houses are simple, two rooms and a porch in this case, with a utility shed off to the left (not shown) which houses a toilet, bathing room and storage room. For me it was a terrible night; it is nice to wake up on the other side of it. I couldn’t sleep and had to get up for the toilet twice – the first time I scared a cat (or other small unidentifiable animal?!?!?) who ran past me and scared me half to death as I turned on my light. Lesson – never forget to turn the headlamp on no matter how bright the moon.
The morning roosters started at 2am and again by first light – around 5am. It was hard to get enough sleep as they crowed back and forth to each other endlessly! Time to organize my pack, find some clothes and get ready to meet the chief!
Just a few of the many, friendly neighbourhood chickens that we shared the village with. These ones have found a jackpot of dried corn kernels in this basin.
Hand painted banner displayed in the middle of town to welcome us to Kofiase.
Stay tuned - 12 more days to share.
Coming soon!
Also, special thanks to the Rotary Club of Oak Bay for their generous donation in support of our fundraising efforts - check out our final fundraising total $6,325.43!
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Heading Home . . .
Well, today is our last day in Ghana. Tonight we head back to London, pick up our winter luggage in England at Bruce's Aunt's and then we are off to Ontario for the Holidays. We have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the people and culture of Ghana while we have been here but after a few days in the big city of Accra, we are starting to look forward to heading back to the snow and cold of Ontario. There are so many stories and photos (100's!!!) to share and we can't wait to post all about our trip once we get back to Victoria in the new year. The most exciting news is that our amazing team of 18 Canadians helped to build 4 houses from the ground up in the village of Kofiase and we were honoured to be part of the dedication ceremony which involved presenting the keys for two of these to two families. So until we post again with photos and stories, take care and Happy Holidays - thank you so much for helping to make a difference to four deserving families in Ghana - their homes are just beautiful thanks to your support!
Friday, November 2, 2007
Counting Down the Hours . . .
First, take a second and click this link: Our Group. I know I have mentioned this a few times but I'll give it one last plug. Before we leave Ghana we are hoping to send a blog update to you all, however it is unlikely we'll have very quick or lengthy access to the web. So, we plan to simply send an email to our blog which will make a post automatically and if you are signed up to our group (28 of your currently are) you will automatically receive the update. Right now we have a giant list of emails we copy and paste each time we send a message which may take too much time to do, this way it should be a bit easier . . . at least theoretically! Okay, plug done. On to even more important things:
We really don't feel like we say this often enough (I know, you don't want to get hourly emails from me . . .) but seriously we are very thankful for the support each of you have offered to us during our fundraising and preparations for this trip to Ghana.
Thanks to your support we have now officially surpassed our goal and a total of $6,035.43 has been raised!!! Thank you so much! Thank you - and yes, thank you again!
So, yes, we do in fact leave on Sunday! We are pretty much prepared but as always there are lots of last minute things to do. The good news is that we have the basics, so everything else will be a bonus if we remember to pack it!
We also learned our first lesson about life in Africa - be flexible, take it as it comes - last week Rick and Suzanne told us that the community we will be building in has changed. Now, instead of building in Fiankoma, we will now be in Kofiase. You can click here for some great info on this community from the Habitat for Humanity Ghana site. Kofiase is quite close to Fiankoma and is North East of Kumasi if you look at our previous map (sorry it isn't labeled on this one though).
There are about 5,000 people who live in Kofiase which is largely a farming community where people grow such crops as yam, cocoyam and plantain and other tasty eats like tomatoes, okra, beans, garden eggs, yam, maize and cocoa. (Did we mention we are both really looking forward to the local food???) The temperature should range between 26 to 40 degrees Celsius, a far cry from the 1 degree temp we saw here in Victoria this morning!
In Kofiase, Habitat for Humanity has helped 22 families build their own homes since 2003. It is likely we will work on several homes while we are there, which will likely include helping to make and lay bricks, do simple carpentry and helping to finishing the homes with a cement/mud stucco. We will also spend time getting to know the people in Kofiase and will likely visit schools, go to church, perhaps meet the local chiefs and hopefully play some soccer!
We have learned that in the Akan language, people are often named based on the day of the week they were born and it has been recommended to us by several people to make sure we know which day of the week we were born. We have done our research and found that Bruce was born on a Monday and would be so named, Kwodwo (which sounds more like Kojo in Akan) and that I was born on a Saturday and so my name would be Ama.
Well, that's it for our last post on this side of the ocean! Thank you again for all of your support and stay tuned for updates before we leave Ghana (hopefully) and upon our return to Victoria in January (definitely) - we are hoping to arrange a photo slide show evening of sorts so we will keep you all posted.
Now, back to the packing . . . talk to you soon,
Brandy & Bruce
THANK YOU!
We really don't feel like we say this often enough (I know, you don't want to get hourly emails from me . . .) but seriously we are very thankful for the support each of you have offered to us during our fundraising and preparations for this trip to Ghana.
Thanks to your support we have now officially surpassed our goal and a total of $6,035.43 has been raised!!! Thank you so much! Thank you - and yes, thank you again!
So, yes, we do in fact leave on Sunday! We are pretty much prepared but as always there are lots of last minute things to do. The good news is that we have the basics, so everything else will be a bonus if we remember to pack it!
We also learned our first lesson about life in Africa - be flexible, take it as it comes - last week Rick and Suzanne told us that the community we will be building in has changed. Now, instead of building in Fiankoma, we will now be in Kofiase. You can click here for some great info on this community from the Habitat for Humanity Ghana site. Kofiase is quite close to Fiankoma and is North East of Kumasi if you look at our previous map (sorry it isn't labeled on this one though).
There are about 5,000 people who live in Kofiase which is largely a farming community where people grow such crops as yam, cocoyam and plantain and other tasty eats like tomatoes, okra, beans, garden eggs, yam, maize and cocoa. (Did we mention we are both really looking forward to the local food???) The temperature should range between 26 to 40 degrees Celsius, a far cry from the 1 degree temp we saw here in Victoria this morning!
In Kofiase, Habitat for Humanity has helped 22 families build their own homes since 2003. It is likely we will work on several homes while we are there, which will likely include helping to make and lay bricks, do simple carpentry and helping to finishing the homes with a cement/mud stucco. We will also spend time getting to know the people in Kofiase and will likely visit schools, go to church, perhaps meet the local chiefs and hopefully play some soccer!
We have learned that in the Akan language, people are often named based on the day of the week they were born and it has been recommended to us by several people to make sure we know which day of the week we were born. We have done our research and found that Bruce was born on a Monday and would be so named, Kwodwo (which sounds more like Kojo in Akan) and that I was born on a Saturday and so my name would be Ama.
Well, that's it for our last post on this side of the ocean! Thank you again for all of your support and stay tuned for updates before we leave Ghana (hopefully) and upon our return to Victoria in January (definitely) - we are hoping to arrange a photo slide show evening of sorts so we will keep you all posted.
Now, back to the packing . . . talk to you soon,
Brandy & Bruce
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