I love the smell of Deet in the morning!
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| Breakfast with the AfriKids Team at the Next Generation Home |
Meeting the Hosts Families
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| Experience Challenge Team meeting their host families |
Veronica from Thy Will Be Done Hairdressers & Jane
My host - Samuel, Headteacher
After introductions and getting to know everyone it’s time for AfriKids to drop each of us off with our families. I’m trying to hide the feeling of terror with a fixed smile! Believe me, at this point I am scared.
Samuel and Bridget’s compound home is more decorative than others. It has cheery blue flowers and shapes painted onto the mud walls. AfriKids drop me off with my case, mosquito net, several boxes of bottled water and a motorcycle helmet. Apprehensively, I wave goodbye as I watch them drive off into the distance!
Samuel & Bridget's Family Home
We stop for
petrol which is sold on the roadside from an array of 1L glass, screw top
bottles – it's the petrol station equivalent of a corner shop. Next stop is the local “spot” for some Alvaro
pear mineral drinks. This is the moment I
realise that being of short stature makes getting on and off the motorbike a
rather comedic sight!!
Lorge Junior High School
I am terrified travelling on the back of the motorbike as we leave the main road to go cross country towards Lorge JHS. Despite Samuel being a careful driver, I am concerned that he will soon be starved of oxygen given my intense grip around his chest. Luckily, we make it to the school in one piece and quite possibly in the case of Samuel, one breath!
Lorge Junior High School
Speaking the Language
My next challenge
is meeting the teachers and speaking the local dialect. All the teachers are very welcoming though
burst into laughter when I attempt to speak in Fra Fra. This is the language spoken in Northern
Ghana, particularly the Upper East Region, and the southern part of Burkina
Faso. Fra Fra is made up of five principal
dialects. In the Talensi-Nabdam region
the language spoken is Nabt. My attempts at using the customary word “namba” after each greeting is very much
hit and miss so I try my luck at “wentanga”, meaning good afternoon, and “neposaya”,
meaning “thank you”.
I can safely say I
do not possess a flair for languages! I also resist the urge to break out into
my own regional dialect with the traditional Essex greetings of … “Oi Oi” and “Awright My Son”!
Handshakes
Greetings are a very important part of the Ghanaian culture and welcoming each person individually and asking how they are is considered polite. So, doing my best to pick up a new language, I greet everyone with a handshake and a smile and they delight in showing me how to shake hands Ghanaian-style. This involves shaking hands in the usual way then sliding your thumb and fingers together down the other person’s hand and breaking off with a snap of the fingers.
Learn how to do this here:
Meeting the Children
The first Junior School class I go to has the words “Painted by Allen & Overy” above the door. It’s an odd moment, being in the middle of Africa, on my own, with people I hardly know and yet, in front of me, the well known name of the company I spent over a decade with. A slightly surreal moment.
The children at
Lorge JHS are all looking very smart in brown and yellow school uniforms and
greet me with enthusiasm and big smiles.
They are very polite and speak good English. I am struck by the bareness of the
classrooms, the lack of resources, basic furniture and some of the children only
wearing worn out flip-flops (known as slippers) on their feet.
On our way to the
nearby Kindergarten, we pass the bore hole where children are collecting water
for their school. I have a go! It’s hard work pumping water in the heat and
I am amazed how many litres can be balanced on top a child’s head and expertly carried
without spilling.
Kindergarten
Next we go to meet
the younger children at the Kindergarten.
I hear shouts of “solamina”, which means white person, as little
children frantically run around and point to me. Some of these children have never seen a
white person before – there is a mix of disbelief and curiosity on their
faces.
Some of the younger
children are sharing a class following a recent thunder storm which partially
tore the roof off their building. There
is no furniture in this classroom and no table for the teacher, however, there
is an abundance of warm welcomes as they stand to sing me a song. AfriKids said it would also be an emotional
challenge and already I’m starting to see why.
Ghanaian Dress Codes
Samuel and I go to
meet the Head Teacher of the Kindergarten who shares photos of traditional Ghanaian
dress for men comprising striped hand woven smocks, brightly coloured kente
cloths and the chief’s elaborate regalia which distinguishes him from the
group.
He explains the importance of
dress, the use of colour and how people can tell which region you are from by
what you are wearing. As an image
consultant, it’s great to be talking in the same dialect for this is a language
I do understand!
Going to the Headmaster’s Office
Having met the
staff and children in each class at the Junior High school and paid a visit to
the Kindergarten next door, I am now in the Head Teacher’s office. On the wall there are last year’s photos of
the A&O Experience Challenge Team busily painting the school classrooms as
part of their team activity for the local community.
End of the School Day
2pm marks the end
of the school day. Starting at 8am for
registration and taking a break for lunch the children all leave at 2pm. For many this means a long walk back to
their family’s compound home to help with farming, collecting water for the
family and preparing dinner by grinding groundnuts, maize etc with a pestle and
mortar.
Family Introductions
It’s time to get
back on the motorbike – I’m on tiptoes trying to get on the back! We travel to the local market in Kongo and take a
look round before stopping at “Thy Will Be Done” hair salon owned by Veronica. This is where Som (also on the Experience
Challenge) is staying. Samuel introduces
us to the delights of street food, especially “Fried Yams”, which are like the
biggest chips you’ve ever seen! They
come with a peppery dry spice dip and are indeed yummy-yams!
The Compound Home
Back at the compound, I feel hot, tired and rather dazed by the amount of people I have been introduced to today. Adjusting to the heat takes a while. It’s 37˚C and to avoid dehydration I’ve already drunk 3.5L of water today!
I take some time out while Samuel and his nephew, Cali, continue building a mud hut for the family’s goats and pigs. I am absolutely shattered.
The temperature cools
as the sun goes down at around 6pm and everyone is getting ready to settle down
for the evening. I give Bridget
(Samuel’s wife) gifts of metal cooking utensils (as recommended by
AfriKids). Bridget shows me around her
home.
Then she politely shows me where
the best places are to go to the toilet outside of the compound, identifying a
tree and some secluded bush land. I haven’t been looking
forward to the lack of toilet facilities but the tree looks ok!
Bridget then asks me if I would like to take
my bath.
Bathtime!
Taking a bath = one small open air room + a bucket of cold water! I wasn’t quite sure what I was expecting, after all there isn’t any running water. I shut the “bathroom” door and immediately plunge my feet one at a time into the bucket in an effort to cool down. At about the same time I realise I also have to wash my face in the same water!
There is obviously an art to bathing in a bucket. It’s a new experience and rather magical bathing under the stars. Not many UK bathrooms can boast an open air ceiling illuminated by the stars! The application of whiffy mosquito repellent shatters the moment but is a necessary precaution in an area where the risk of Malaria is high. More worryingly, the strength of the Deet actually appears to be melting my flip-flops!!
Evening Dinner
We sit down later
in the evening for dinner which comprises a ground nut soup with chicken and
fish served with rice balls. It reminds
me of a menu from BBC’s MasterChef and suddenly I am missing home, my family
and the dog. Samuel & Bridget tell
me that as part of their family they will call me “Yenmah” which means God
Mother.
After dinner we share stories and photos of friends and family. Samuel’s dog it sitting by my feet and it strikes me that family life across the world is not so different really. Samuel & Bridget have a very kind and friendly family.
At 9pm we set up everyone’s beds with mosquito nets outside in the middle of the compound. At home this would be the equivalent of the whole family sleeping outside in a line on the patio! Most families sleep outside as it’s cooler than being inside the mud huts which have small windows and little ventilation. I’m so tired I’m out like a light.
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