Ghana Team Journal

Quote of the day: “I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do for any fellow being, let me do it now… as I shall not pass this way again.” –

William Penn

Journal by: Kristen “Kay” Edwards

After breakfast, we all reconvened in the parking lot to begin our daily trek to our respective volunteer stations. After 15 minutes of convincing Madam Esther that I really was not sick and didn’t need to stay home, we were on our way. Laurie spent the morning and early afternoon with her kiddos at the Presby school, while Tracee meandered down to the Peace Perfect school to join up with her small but loyal class. George and I, now the only two remaining crew members at the construction site, spent our day mixing, shoveling, lifting and pouring wet concrete, as has been the norm for the past week and half. Good news? We have completed work on a substantial amount of the library, both in terms of carpentry and concrete. Bad news? Though we have been laboring for the past two and half weeks, there is still much work to be done. It pains me that we will be ending our stay here in Ghana so shortly, and that we will inevitably be stepping away from an unfinished project. It hurts even more knowing that work cannot continue without GV Volunteers, so all construction will come to a halt until the next group arrives to work in New Akrade. We can leave satisfied knowing that we have done everything we can, though, and to know that we played some small role in the creation of what will be a very important building in the future of the children here.

Lunch, as per usual, was served promptly at 1:00PM. Though the main meal was groundnut soup and rice balls (a team favorite, I think), Millicent and Bless were kind enough to make us a few small servings of FuFu to taste. It was… different… to say the least. In short, Cassava and Plantains are cooked, then pounded down into what eventually becomes FuFu. Though the taste was fine, the texture threw a few of us off. It’s got a consistency very similar to raw bread dough, and just felt strange to eat. George, the most adventurous of us all, decided he liked it right off the bat and ate an entire bowl of it. Tracee avoided it like the plague, and Laurie politely sampled a small bit before retiring to her rice and soup. Me? I found the first bite rather difficult to consume, but after Bless kindly informed me that I was not supposed to actually CHEW it, I decided I liked it as well and consumed a small bowl myself.

Lunch was followed by talk of Kente Cloth and a walk to the library in Senchi. We had a pretty decent turn out, and were all kept busy with our avid little readers for the hour we were there. Tracee and myself walked away with an added bonus- cornrows! Or rather, partially finished cornrows. While reading with some of the older children, two of the younger kids decided that our hair needed braids. We walked out looking, as you may likely have guessed, quite stylish.

We made an evening visit to the Volta Hotel, though we were initially delayed by a few rather unfortunate events. Our taxi driver (due to an alleged unexpected encounter with the police) never made it to the guest house, so we caught a Tro-Tro to the market in Akosombo and from there caught a taxi to the Volta. Upon arrival, the internet was borderline unfunctional. We were just about to give up hope and return to the guest house, when the internet kicked back in and a refreshing round of soda was delivered to our table. The rest of the evening went swimmingly, and ended with a pasta dinner and a rousing game of Uno with Bless.

Hard to believe we will all be leaving in 4 days… we’ll have to make the most of them!