June is Bustin' Out All Over!

This has been a productive month. Our permanent Visitors’ Centre has moved to the next level. All construction materials are on site and boy was it interesting watching 30 or so young men from the local youth group transport 100 bags of cement, 50 plywood sheets, 74 long iron rods, a large Polytank (to handle the water for our flush toilets (YAY!!), many 5 gallon buckets of paint, about 10 boxes of nails, about 70 metal roofing sheets, a bunch of lumber, and assorted other materials to the site. All of that had to be unloaded from the cargo truck on the other bank of the river, then loaded on to canoes (many trips!) to cross the river, then loaded on to a hand truck, tractor (2 loads), and heads, shoulders, and backs to get it up the hill to the site, then unloaded, and finally moved into our temporary office where it will be stored. Ladies, you would have enjoyed seeing all of these rippling muscles glistening with sweat as these young men went about the task easily and with joy – even though we didn’t finish until 9:00 at night. Tractor loads of smooth river sand and rough sand were brought to the site and a crew molded the cement blocks needed to do the job. The trained construction crew from Nature Conservation Resource Centre (NCRC) – the NGO who is providing this building – will be back in July to finish the construction and then it will be time to CELEBRATE!! It promises to be the nicest building in Daboya.
And FINALLY our area sanitation meetings are happening. It took me a year to figure out that when it comes to something like this it is better to work through the elders of each of the 16 areas of Daboya than try to coordinate the entire village. It also took a long time (Hey – I’m a little slow, OK??!!) to figure out that it is better to have area meetings at night (8pm). Farmers are all back from farm, fishermen from fishing, weavers have packed up their looms, women have finished all chores, and people actually come to the meetings! So we have now had meetings in just about all the areas and the response has been very good. Now we just have to hope for consistent follow through and we will have a cleaner, healthier, and more beautiful Daboya!
Ghana Tourist Board is helping us put together a preliminary brochure and a lot of the same information will be useful for websites. I have provided the information to 3 different organizations for inclusion on websites they are working on.
A Guest House (hotel – sort of) has been built by a private citizen and is just about ready for use. It has a FLUSH TOILET AND REAL SHOWER!!! In the future, he will be adding a kitchen and bar as well as a store to sell the smocks, hats, dresses, and other items that are woven here. I’m hoping that he has the facility open for business by the end of July and they you can all come and visit!
AND one of the Peace Corps Volunteers in my group got married this month as well. His wife is a wonderful, beautiful Ghanaian woman and it was a kick to attend the wedding. For those who are wondering if we danced semi-naked around a huge campfire to the sound of rhythmic jungle drums, I have to disappoint you and tell you that they were married in a Pentecostal church! Nevertheless, it was interesting to see the cultural differences that show up in small ways in the wedding ceremony and at the reception. Since there were 12 Peace Corps Volunteers among the 100 or so guests, it was also a very nice reunion for us. The wedding was in the southern part of the country so I hadn’t seen any of these folks for quite some time. It was worth the 7 hour round-trip bus / tro-tro ride that I endured as part of a day that started at 4:45 am and got me back to Tamale at 8 pm.
Now we look forward to July and all that will fill it.
Bye for now……….Larry