Essam

Morning:  After our night visit, JJ, Solomon, and I left the hotel at 4am to observe what happens in the villages during the dark hours of the morning.  There was a group of children walking to the farms to gather cocoa beans to bring back to their homes to dry at about 4:30am.  There were also men collecting firewood to sell at the market (they had a truck).  The same seamstress that we saw the night before (she works until 11pm) was getting ready to start sewing again around 4:30.  There were a few women cooking banku or other dishes that morning as well, some for their families, and some to sell.  One was putting sugar she bought from town into bags to sell and holding the flashlight in her mouth.  We saw a woman sweeping the dirt with a small flashlight in her mouth.  It was generally much quieter in the dark morning hours than in the evening when everyone was still awake (even though some were just sitting in the dark).  Nearly everyone we saw awake in the early morning when it was dark were women.  By 5:20 it was light enough to see fairly well and by 5:40 it was light enough to read without straining the eyes.  By this time many children were busy fetching water from the boreholes and more people were up sweeping and cooking.  I pumped a bucket, too.  It was a workout.  My guess is that lanterns will primarily be used at night, by children.  However, if we could identify some hardworking parents of students such as the seamstress or others who wake up very early, it could be helpful to them.  We saw a lot of wells while wandering around the villages.  Most were buckets but one was a purse with a hole in the corner.  We were passing along a narrow dirt path through the jungle when we ran into a 103 year old men who was just standing by the path near his house.  He greeted us and looked rather healthy for a 103 year old.

Merry-Go-Round:  Before school, the kids chop the grass, sweep up the chopped grass, or collect wood.  I predict they won’t play in the mornings.  They will definitely play on it during break times and after school, though.  They love it.  The village kids sometimes come and play while Golden Sunbeam is in session, but I got the feeling that the teachers chase them off when they see them.  Because the mgr wasn’t fixed by the time we left in the evening, we didn’t get an idea about how long the kids will play on it during the evening time.  I figure we won’t know for sure for a while since it’s been locked in the evening and can still be considered a novelty.

We wandered around the village even after it was light, talking to some people about what they typically do in the village.  Although palm oil and cocoa are the cash crops, there are actually a lot of rice and cassava farmers as well.  Our day interviews were fun and I got to give a lot of kids stickers.  They were the sparkly kind, and one very small child was shy and didn’t seem to know what to make of it and went back to her mother to steer clear of the obruni.  However, whenever I glanced back she was moving her hand back and forth slowly, I assume to catch the light and see the sparkle.  We were all pretty tired by the time we did the day visits, so the late night and early morning visits were much more memorable.  I was finally able to sleep in the car on the three hour ride home.

Trip #2: JJ and I visited Essem again and were able to take a short walking tour this time, guided by Robert, one of the Ghanaian teachers. We saw a lot of cocoa and palm farms, as well as families drying the cocoa beans.  They typically have a long table outside made of wood and spread them out along the table and move them around.  There was also a family working on getting the palm oil.  It is quite the process.  We saw the village tailor (there is only one, and he works with one sewing machine).  We ran into some young men digging a 12-foot hole for a latrine.  We also saw a LOT of goats wandering around randomly, but they even do that in town.  The houses were mostly made of mud.  The people were so nice and one of the cocoa farmers gave us a cocoa pod to try.  They work so hard!  All these people living in mud huts with no lights, pumping their water from pumps, rotating cocoa beans in the sweltering sun so we can drink our Ovaltine.  

Our lunch that day was some cookies, juice, dried cherries, and the inside of the cocoa pod, all of which we had brought from home and ate in the exam room, which was just a dark, concrete, boxy room with one table in it.   

There was an exam written on the chalkboard asking questions such as: what is a buffet?  Name three types of oily fish? and other food-related practical questions suitable for farmers but never taught to students in America.   

It was interesting to read their beginning reader books too.  There was one in Kweku’s car.  It was kind of like a “See Jane run” book.  Except instead it was, “See Uncle Sofi hit the snake on the head with a big stick.  The snake does not want to die.  Uncle Sofi hits it harder.  Can you hit a snake with a big stick like Uncle Sofi?”  Or… “Adwoa is pushing a wheelbarrow full of wood.  It is hard.  Why is it hard?  Because Adwoa is a girl, and not strong enough.”  Or, “Kojo is climbing a mango tree.  He falls down.”  Or, “Grandmother is chasing a big dog.  She wants to throw a stone at it.  Why?  Because it stole her fish.  Can you throw a stone at the dog?”  I am glad to see that they had books fitted to their culture. I always get concerned when people have Americans donate all their old books and ship them over to Africa. Just thinking about a young Ghanaian girl reading Sweet Valley Twins or getting a hairstyle book (for white people's hair) makes me shudder.