We Are Back!

I felt it was necessary to inform everyone that the entire group made it back to Houghton safely! We are all very happy to be home and be with our friends but we also miss all the people we met while in Ghana as well as the country itself. It was an experience that opened all of our eyes to the beauty found in the culture and people of another country considered different from our own.

I'm sure any of you who have read this blog agree that our expriences are life changing, and I hope that it shed some light as to the reality of the world around us. I thank you once again for all the support you have given us and hope you continue to show the same for the future Pavlis cohorts when they embark on their own adventures.

Last trip to Kranka

Wednesday was the group’s final day in the village of Kranka and it came with pertinent information that Jon and I will add to our case study. Our intention for the day was to interview several of the villagers in a similar style as the community meeting in Babianeha, and then tour the village to gauge its relative size and layout, but we were only able to thoroughly accomplish the former.

Upon our arrival we made our way to the chief’s house, where there was no immediate answer to our knocking. Eventually, however, a small child peered cautiously around a wall of the house’s inner courtyard and instructed us to go to the school. We did so, and were greeted by several of the teachers and invited to sit. The chief joined us shortly thereafter; he had been in his house when we attempted to find him, so perhaps we had misunderstood the child.

In any case, we formally stated what each group would be doing: Roger would be teaching the same science lesson with the motors that he did at Ridge Experimental School, and the library group would be assisting us in interviewing the community. Since we had enough translators, we were able to do what we had hoped to do in Babianeha and split the representatives that Chief Nana had assembled for us into one group of all males and one group of all females, with each group interviewed by people of the same gender. We hoped that this way the villagers (particularly the women) would not feel pressured to give an answer that they personally didn’t agree with.

Indeed, the results of our interviews yielded very different responses. While we proceeded, more or less, off the same list of questions, the answers that the two groups gave were very different. The men insisted that the five water tanks and pumps installed previously by missionaries were more than enough to meet Kranka’s needs, and that water wasn’t an issue even in the dry season. The women had a different answer, which is not entirely unexpected, as carrying water is considered to be a woman’s job.

The women explained how they went to get water at three or four in the morning every day, sometimes walking several kilometers to a nearby spring when the pumps are either insufficient or too expensive. The cost of five pesewas (just over three cents) per pan of water may not seem like very much to Americans used to paying more than a dollar for a 16.9 oz. bottle, but the pesewas quickly add up, and the well water can become prohibitively expensive.

And while the well water is perfectly safe to drink, the water from the spring is not always the cleanest—the high demand for water (as well as the natural shrinking of the spring during the dry season) means that the women must frequently dig with their bare hands to get to the precious fluid.

Water, then, was the greatest concern of the women. The men, on the other hand, rated education as their greatest concern, noting that there aren’t sufficient desks and chairs for every student, and many children simply have to squat on the floor. The school doesn’t have a library, and has only two computers for student use—the XO laptop that last year’s group brought, and the laptop that Roger, Alison, and Mark donated to the school before we left. Additionally, very few students at the school are able to go on to high school—they have to work in the fields after school, and since most homes in Kranka don’t have electricity, students have to deal with not having any light as well as being tired.

There were a number of other issues that were brought up, such as the need for crop storage facilities. Since all the farmers for hundreds of kilometers around harvest at about the same time, the price of crops is quite low due to the large supply. People who can buy the products at harvest and store them for sale later in the year when they are out of season are able to make far more than the famers, who have to choose between either selling their crops for next to nothing or watching them rot mere days after the harvest.

However, one of the men explained to us that our ability to do a given project was just as important as the community’s desire for it. Perhaps we might not be able to solve their greatest concerns, he said, but they would be grateful for anything we could do for them. In the grand scheme of things, all of the projects we have worked on are very small indeed. But no one who has seen the children at the schools we have visited could honestly say that our work doesn’t make a difference.

Last few days

This will probably be one of our last posts before we get home. We will head back to Kumasi tomorrow to debrief from the trip, and may not have internet access.

Tuesday was our last day at the Ridge School, where we have spent most of our time. The students were done with exams and teachers were busy grading exams, so we had a lot of time to play with the children of the school and talk. It sure was hard to say good-bye to all of the teachers and students at Ridge.

The school had a thank-you ceremony for us that included singing, African drumming, and a few speeches. One of the teachers composed a song that the choir from the school sang, and it was very fun. "We want to thank you...for bringing computers and a library from Michigan Technological, Michigan Technological." Several took videos, so we will have to show you the videos after we get home.

The school also presented us with outfits to bring home, which we are excited to wear to presentations. The girls got skirts and tops out of matching fabric, but with different designs, and the guys each got a shirt.

Today we traveled to Kranka to interview teachers and community members and interact with the students there. Several of us have discussed an interest in next year's group doing homestays in the villages, to allow them to interact more with community members.

The teachers at Kranka, as with other village schools, are very interested in getting computers to the schools, and discussed the need for materials to engage the students, such as computers and books.

We only have a few more days in Ghana, and I think all of us will be sad to leave the friends and towns that welcomed us into their culture. We all have learned a lot, and have fun discussing things we would not have done the first week of the trip that now seem like second nature. We look forward to seeing you all when we get back, and sharing all of the stories we did not have time to post on our blog.

Finishing Up and Looking Forward

After meeting with all of the teachers at Ridge Experimental School, we had another meeting with Eugenia and Bertha, the two teachers that will be caretakers of the library. Our goals were. to make sure that they understood the organization of the library and show them how to use the library database we created in Excel. The organization system was clear, but the Excel database was not. Since computers are scarce here, Eugenia and Bertha have little experience with using computers and even less experience with using Excel. After realizing this, we explained in more detail and eventually decided that creating a manual for using Excel and our database would help reinforce our explanation. That way, both the current and future librarians will have instructions that they can always refer to. We created the manual using screenshots of Excel and our database. We added labels and instructions for completing tasks such as sorting columns, adding new books to the database, and finding specific books.

We've also been traveling with the other project groups to Babianeha and Kranka to identify potential library sites. So far, all of the schools we've talked to have been extremely interested. We collected data about each school, such as how many students there are and what resources they have, so that next year's group will have as much information as possible while preparing for their projects. While at the villages, we also assisted Jon and Kurt with their community interviews.

In our last few days at Ridge, it has been so wonderful to see the students sitting and reading in our library!

Back to Babianeha

Before Friday, Kurt and I had asked Kojo if he could get together a group of people who would represent Babianeha so that we could ask them directly about what sort of concerns they had about life in the village. We had also asked the library group to come with us, since we had really only spoken with men on our last few trips and thought that it might be easier for the women of Babianeha to talk with other women. Thus, we set out with high hopes for what we would be able to accomplish, and we weren’t disappointed.
As has become our habit, we first went to the house of Emmanuel’s relatives, discovering in the process that the tro-tro driver knew who we were and where we were going. In the house, Kojo asked us to wait while the community members assembled, so we sat and went over our questions again before everything was ready. Kojo also gave us the plans for a public
After a fairly short wait, Kojo came to tell us that everything was ready, and we walked from the house to a small open area close to Kofibadukrum. A number of plastic chairs had been assembled, giving the people there room to sit, and facing the chairs was a table and five chairs. Before sitting, we all shook hands with the elders and the linguist in the front row, responding “Yaa” to the occasional welcome of “Akwaaba.” After we sat, some of the people came to where we were for another welcome and more handshakes. Traditionally, we would have been offered water, but Kojo informed us that he had told them that we had had water in his house. With the greetings over, he explained our project in Twi, and then gave the floor to Kurt.
Kurt introduced us, and then asked for their informed consent to our questions, explaining the methodology we would be using. Kojo translated the statement and their response, telling us that they didn’t mind answering what we would ask.
We had intended to split the group in two, resulting in one all male group and one all female group, but Kojo was the only translator available to us. Since this meant that the group of villagers would have to stay together, we decided to change the format of our questions a little, and allow the group to discuss them rather than answer individually.
After this decision, we began by asking what the population of the village was. Although the exact number of people is not known, it is apparently somewhere between five hundred and one thousand, and Kojo offered an estimate of about eight hundred. With the number of people in the village known, and our map of the village almost complete, it would be much easier to plan future projects.
Of course, we also needed to find out what those projects should be. We asked what the major concerns of the village were, and the responses we received were about what we had expected from our prior trips to the village. Still, it was important to learn that these opinions were held by many of the villagers, not just the ones that we had already met.
The need for toilet facilities was impressed upon us once more, and one of the women explained that since the school didn’t have a lavatory, the children were at risk of snake bites whenever they relieved themselves in the bush. The school has also gone without much in the way of repair or maintenance since it was constructed in 1974, and is in great need of improvement.
While we were on the topic of schools, the issue of higher education was brought up. The village has the educational facilities to teach children up through junior high, but the nearest high school is in Sunyani. This naturally comes at a considerable expense for the parents of the children, but Kojo says that there are scholarships available for children who are academically brilliant but economically needy, such as some of the children that are currently living with him.
From the needs of children in high school the conversation moved back to the needs of the school in Babianeha. After Kojo explained how the laptop group donated a computer to the school, it is explained to us that the district assembly would be willing to shoulder the cost of providing the facilities for computers if the computers themselves could be supplied.
After this, though, the point is made that, while the needs of the school are pressing, there are other concerns that the village must take care of first. On the topic of improvements in sanitation, we bring up the issue of cost, asking if the community would have any ability to pay for part of the project. One of the elders, the sub-chief in charge of the youth of the village, tells us that he can mobilize men and women to do any physical labor necessary. While this is very important to know, it isn’t the piece of information we were looking for, so we ask again if it would be possible for the village to contribute any money for the start up cost of a project.
A minor debate went on in Twi for sometime after this, and when the talking ended Kojo summarized for us. The short answer, he told us, is no. However, several of the men in the village had pointed out that the government of Ghana had built the pumps that the village uses, and the village sells the water to pay for their upkeep. We were assured that, were we to finance a project, the village would take care of the maintenance and associated costs such as electricity.
One of the projects that we had been considering was the construction of a water tower similar to the one in Kranka. To get an idea of how large the tank would have to be, we asked what the average amount of water used per day was, and found that the average family uses about one hundred and fifty liters of water every day for cooking, washing, bathing, and drinking. Consequently, any tank put up for the use of the community would have to be at least a thousand liters, and would have to hold more than three million liters if it was to be used as a reservoir for longer periods.
From water use and sanitation the discussion moved to an idea that we have heard before: a health clinic in Babianeha. In the rainy season, many people in the village (especially children and the elderly) become sick with malaria, and need to be taken to Dormaa for treatment. The government of Ghana would be willing to pay for a nurse and the medicine if the village were to put up a clinic building.
Further questioning revealed that, for this to happen, the clinic would need to have at least three rooms (a consulting room, a sick room, and a storeroom), and possibly also living space for the nurse. However, it transpired that the idea of the health clinic did not have broad support; the general consensus was that public toilet facilities were the highest priority.
With that determination, the meeting ended, and we shook hands with the elders and the linguist once again before returning to the Opuni house for a meal of banku and groundnut soup. After lunch, Kurt and I mapped the one part of the village that was left. This conveniently brought us right to the taxi station, where Kojo saw us off.

Thursday in Sunyani

Having traveled to both Babianeha and Kranka in the preceding days, Kurt and I decided to go downtown in Sunyani to determine the pricing on various construction supplies. After all, while it is possible to bring books and laptops along in checked luggage, bringing along cement and rebar is out of the question for the next cohort, and Sunyani is the closest city to the villages.

We had already determined the price of cement at a small stand close to the forestry hostel, but we wanted to see if it was possible to get a better price elsewhere. Thus, we took a taxi into town on Thursday morning, and began walking around.

There was, we knew, a store that sold Polytanks—the ubiquitous black plastic water tanks seen just about anywhere where water is stored—so we found our way there first. The tanks come in a variety of sizes, but it is doubtful that a village would find a tank smaller than a thousand liters very useful, so we obtained prices for the larger tanks. From speaking with the chief in Kranka, we knew that a thousand liter tank should be about GH1400, and this was indeed the right number.

This was reassuring; one of the taxi drivers who had driven us had told us that business people automatically double their prices when they see Oboroni, so it was good to know that we were actually getting the proper price without having to barter. To a certain degree we had expected this result, since it had been our experience that anything sold in a store or a restaurant had a fixed price, and for everything else all bets were off.

In any case, we proceeded in our pricing secure in the knowledge that the prices we obtained would be accurate. In the store that sold the tanks, we also priced out PVC piping, and from there moved on to a store next door that sold rebar.

The rebar was all outside, bent into enormous skinny U’s and red-brown from a patina of rust. The rebar, much like the tanks and the pipes, came in an extraordinary range of sizes, but we explained to the saleswoman what we intended to use it for and quickly found what we needed.

Her shop also sold cement, but here the selection was rather limited: cement made locally in Ghana, or the foreign (and more expensive) Diamond brand. We determined the prices of both, making a note to look up the relative qualities of each. With that, we were done pricing out building materials, but the saleswoman left us with a word of caution.

We had told her that we were pricing items out for a project that would, at the soonest, begin in a year, and she warned us that the prices would have probably increased by then. However, we had figured on dealing with inflation, and told her that we were trying to get a general idea of the cost.

Of course, it isn’t only building materials that must be paid for. Thus, we decided to talk to an architect. The firm we found, IKA Consult, was located in a building somewhat incongruously called the White House (complete with American flag), but the office was entirely professional, with both drafting tables and computers running CAD programs. We explained our reason for being in Ghana, and asked the architect if he had any experience designing water towers.

He said that he did, but there was no one size fits all option for such a project. It depends, he said, on the size of the community, the available water resources, the land, and the budget. The last of these he stressed especially, saying that his firm would be able to arrange the entire project, from design to construction, if given a budget to work with.

Since we had not yet determined what project Babianeha considered the most important and since we ourselves would not be back next year, we exchanged contact information, and thanked the architect for his time.

Village Travels: Babianeha and Kranka

Last week has been full of travel and excitement for all three groups, but it also marked a lot of progress for Jon and me with our village sanitation research.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday we traveled back and forth between Sunyani and the two villages, Babianeha and Kranka. The extent of the information we want to provide has lead us to split the blog into two entries, one for Monday through Wednesday and the other for Thursday and Friday. The former is below and the latter will come at a later time.

Monday was the first time that anyone other than Jon and me went to Babianeha, and the journey itself was worth the experience. When Jon and I traveled last week our means of transportation were relatively easy to arrange; we found a taxi asked him to take us to Dormaa and paid the going rate (GH10.40).
With the group though, I had a much harder time securing the cab. At the taxi depot, the first place we tried, we were immediately turned down and told to go the new bus station. On our way to the station I tried asking some taxis waiting on the side of the road. They gave me a price of GH30 per cab. I insisted that we should be paying less but neither driver would go below GH20. Roger decided that there was too much arguing and that we should just walk to the bus station. Once there we find that they have a set rate, GH2.20 per person, to go to Dormaa. This was a discovery we remembered for the rest of the week.
In Dormaa we jumped in another tro-tro to Babianeha and finally arrived around 10:30am. Emmanuel’s family was very glad to see us, and very welcoming as always. We made our way to the Junior High school in Babianeha only to discover that they were writing (taking) exams. Speaking with one of the teacher we were told that at noon they would be free to talk.
We then went to the school in Kofibadukrum to meet with Kojo. Here we spoke with Kwaku, the headmaster, and were shown the computer room. We told Kwaku about the computers and books the other two groups had brought to Ridge and asked about the possibility of bringing the same to Kofibadukrum. Also here Roger worked on the desktop computers the Chief donated to the school. He was able to bring one of the computers into near-working condition. All that was needed to complete the task was to install Windows XP. Roger started the process and we disembarked, with the intention of returning at the end of the day, leaving the school teachers to finish it.
From here Kojo and Kwaku led us across the border to Cote d’Ivoire. Everyone, besides Jon and me, had their first African international experience by standing in both Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire simultaneously. Once again I realize how arbitrary the borders are in western Africa.
Heading back to the school in Babianeha we found that the school was once again in the middle of exams. We realized that it was 12:30pm, so we were tardy according to the time I had set earlier. We were still able to speak to Yaw, the headmaster and several of the teachers about bringing a computer and library to the school. We informed them that we would be back Wednesday and Friday and then made our way to Kojo’s house for lunch.
After eating we returned to the school in Kofibadukrum only to find that everyone had left. Incidentally the power had gone out, and therefore the Windows XP installation had not completed. Roger planned on returning Wednesday to complete this task. We then left the villages knowing that we would return to complete our work over the next week.

Tuesday we returned to Kranka with the intent to walk around the village to get an idea of its size and water resources. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate.
When we left the hostel in Sunyani, we planned to take two taxis (as the entire cohort was going) to the bus station, and from there get a ride to Techiman. From there, we would take more taxis to arrive at our final destination.
We were, in fact, able to do this, but even as we were riding to the bus station in Sunyani, it was obvious that it wouldn’t be long until the rain came. Large, ominous black clouds loomed over the horizon, and naturally none of us had brought our rain coats.
But the rain actually held until we got to Techiman and got two taxis to Kranka. The rain quickly picked up as we drove to Kranka, and the windows of the taxis fogged up. The taxis either had no defrosters or the drivers didn’t know how to use them, for they began wiping the condensation off with dirty rags, keeping just about the minimum of glass clear. And while the roads were initially no worse than what is typical for Ghana—the occasional pothole marred the surface—the road into Kranka was dirt, not pavement.
If Jon and I had thought that the roads were bad the first day we went into Babianeha, we quickly learned that they could be far worse. Giant puddles of water made it slow going, and it seemed as though the taxis would bottom out at any moment, sinking into the reddish mud that the road had become. The taxis made it into Kranka, though, and the taxi drivers insisted that we would be unable to find taxis out of the village. This was, we would soon find, completely false, but we took them at their word, and arranged for them to pick us up at two in the afternoon.
While at the school, we talked to the chief and the teachers about our respective projects. As previously mentioned, we had hoped to walk around the village, but the chief quite rightly pointed out that it was too muddy to attempt. He told us that we could do our walk around the next time we were in Kranka, and promised us that he would gather a group of people together so that we could ask them about their concerns and determine future projects.
He also told us that there would be no problem finding taxis back to Techiman from Kranka—apparently several of the teachers do this every day without any trouble. The taxi drivers who had attempted to rip us off had met with trouble of their own though—one of the taxis had experienced electrical problems (not too unexpected, considering how deep the water on the road had been) and the drivers had been forced to push it all the way back to the road into the village to attempt repairs.
In any case, the other groups were able to discuss their projects. The chief had set land aside for the building of a public library, but construction had yet to begin, and there weren’t really any books. The library group learned that the school would be interested in books for children of all ages, not just those in junior high, and that the school would be willing to provide the facilities if books could be supplied. However, transporting books to Kranka might have to be done the same way the books were brought to Ridge Experimental School in Sunyani—the nearest post office is several miles away, and they don’t make any trips out to Kranka. If nothing else, transporting books as part of the group’s luggage makes sure that they arrive in a timely manner, and the next cohort is larger than ours—they may be able to accommodate the books a little better than we did. It will depend largely on the recommendation of the library group and the decisions of the next cohort, but it certainly seems possible to expand the number of schools that books are brought to.
The laptop group was also faced with the decision of how to expand their project and distribute the two laptops that they still had after the donation of twenty laptops to Ridge Experimental School. The school in Kranka actually had a desktop that Roger said he could take a look at next Wednesday when we return. Roger, Alison, and Mark decided, after talking to the chief and the teachers, to donate one of the laptops they still had to the school, which they will do on our return trip. For demonstration purposes, they had brought one of these laptops, and the chief and the teachers seemed fairly impressed. In addition to the donation of the laptop on Wednesday, the laptop group got permission to run the motor experiment they had done at Ridge, which will hopefully go over as well in Kranka as it did there.
After our discussion, we made our way to the clinic in Kranka, the chief in the lead. The group that went to Ghana last year had promised the clinic some medical supplies, and so we had brought with us a small boxed packed with thermometers and rubber suction devices for clearing the airways of infants, as well as some pictures that they had taken and thoughtfully framed.
We presented these to the people at the clinic, who received us gratefully as the chief explained why we were there. Although small, the clinic seemed well built, and the walls were covered with posters showing such things as the health risks associated with smoking or the dangers of STDs.
From the clinic we walked back to the taxis that had taken us there, where Roger had earlier done a bit of bargaining. The drivers did agree to take us back to Techiman, but we were somewhat bemused to discover that they were attempting to charge us more since they had waited for us. Apparently the fact that one of the taxis was unable to move was irrelevant to them, but they eventually conceded the point, and we left for the same price we had negotiated for the trip to Kranka.
We made it to Techiman without incident, and from there our trip back to the hostel in Sunyani was uneventful. It was a little frustrating how little we had been able to do, but we had become used to things not always going according to plan. Indeed, we had planned on not always being able to do everything we wanted to, so hopefully our next trip to Kranka will be more productive. Chief Nana seemed very accommodating, so even if the weather precludes a walk around the village, we should be able to meet with a group of the villagers and ask our questions.

On Wednesday, the laptop group joined us as we went back to Babianeha. With five people, the trip from Dormaa to Babianeha was somewhat cramped, since we all packed into a Daewoo Tico, but we arrived around 10:00am and were able to start our work.
We first went to the house of Emmanuel’s family, as we always do, to let them know that we had arrived. We were, as always, warmly greeted, and from the house Jon and I led the laptop group to the school in Babianeha. After Alison, Mark, and Roger were set, we began mapping out the village, starting with the schoolyard.
As we worked, a group of schoolchildren quickly gathered around us, their interest piqued. I showed them the map, which at that point only had some of the school buildings and a soccer field on it, but this wasn’t what they wanted.
They wanted to have their picture taken, which I did after extracting a promise from them that they would go back to school immediately afterwards. The children didn’t, but a couple of teachers, as curious about what we were doing as the children were, showed up to talk to us and were able to get the children to disperse. We talked to them for a bit, and explained what we were doing. One of the teachers was a district representative, and said that we should inform the district first of what we were doing. We explained that Yaw knew what we were doing, and that we also knew Kojo at the school in Kofibadukrum. This satisfied him, and we were able to continue our mapping until lunchtime.
The laptop group was already at the house of Emmanuel’s relatives when we arrived, so we discussed our plans for the afternoon over a meal of rice balls and groundnut soup, generously cooked for us. Jon and I would continue mapping, and the others would go to the school in Kofibadukrum, where we planned to meet them at around 2:00pm. The laptop group had donated one of the laptops that they had to the school in Babianeha, and they would attempt once more to repair the computer in Kofibadukrum.
In the course of our mapping, Jon made a mistake as he drew the map, so we decided to split up so that he could correct it and I could work on mapping more of the village. At around the time we had planned on meeting the others we met up at an electrical transformer that was a convenient landmark and started walking towards the school. We had almost completely mapped the village, with the exception of a few rows of houses on the southern edge, which we planned to do on Friday when we made another trip to Babianeha.
At the school in Kofibadukrum, we found the laptop group quite easily—all we needed to do was to go to the room where there were children inquisitively staring into the doorway. The laptop group was in the room where the school keeps its desktop computers, and Roger was working on one of these computers as we arrived. We waited a bit as he finished what he was doing, since this was the last trip the laptop group would make to Babianeha. Although he was interrupted once more by power outages, the computer should be in working order.
From the school, we walked the short distance to the bus station in Kofibadukrum, and made our way back to the hostel. The trip back took longer than it usually did, since we had to wait for about an hour and a half in Dormaa for the tro-tro we were in to fill with passengers, but we made it back without any further trouble.