Kente Cloth Weavers

In Ghana, if you need to give a gift and you’re not sure what's appropriate, you cannot go wrong if you give cloth. One of the best known Ghanaian textiles is kente, a cloth that is woven in narrow strips about 5 inches wide and 4 feet long and costs 10 or 15 cedis depending on the type of thread used. Looking for a more dramatic gift? Bigger pieces of kente are made when the strips are sewn together. These are often used for making clothes. Really, really big pieces seem to have two popular uses: they are worn toga-style by Ghanians to ceremonies and celebrations, or purchased by ex-pats intent on owning a stunning bedspread!

If you want to learn a little more, hit this link for a nice description of why kente cloth is so important to Ghanaian culture.

These weavers are set up beside a busy road about 45 minutes walk from campus. 

All the weavers say they have a lot of low back pain...

... and calluses.

The warp extends from the loom and is tethered to a rock. Its also exactly 
high enough for dogs who want to scratch their backs to walk under. 

This freshly minted bride and groom wore traditional garments made of kente.

Our Favorite Little School Grows

One of the Children of God Community School's longtime supporters from the US raised enough to build and furnish two new classrooms. Applause, Sean!

Cudjoe, Sule and Ozzie with the new desks. The school is now running 

six classrooms staffed entirely by volunteer teachers.

The school's landlord, Jack, is a carpenter as well as a school supporter: Jack donated his labor to the build. His assistant demonstrates how to use a saw backhand.

Jack's assistant bangs it out.

The reno crew (from L): Jack's helper, Jack, Sule, Cujoe, Francis, Ozzie.

We Moved and It Is Good

This is the view from the back of our new house facing west-ish. Little Vesuvius in the centre-right is actually an anthill that’s more or less 12 feet high. Seriously.

The land we’re on was loaned by the University of Ghana to the engineering firm that built the George Bush Highway. (Dunno if its for Dubyah or the other guy, or if they’re supposed to share.) The deal was the company could borrow land from the university for houses that would be deeded to the university in lieu of rent at the end of the project.

Ours is the house on the right.

Five of ten houses are occupied. We think of it as the first tract home development we’ve lived in: all the trees are the same height; everyone has the same garbage can; uniformity, people, uniformity. We have two bedrooms, our most functional kitchen to-date, privacy, and a couple of dynamite porches tacked to the house’s front and back.

Our rear windows look out over grassland that turns into a cornfield. The vertical cement posts across the back are intended to support a barbed wire fence. Besides ants, the fields host a variety of birds, including some I hadn’t ever seen until we encamped. There’s one eccentric variety of brown bird that sashays its hind quarters toward starboard and port at the same time it both condenses and loosens its tail feathers when it walks, as if it were a strutting girl wagging a ponytail, then fans its tail feathers really wide and flat for flight. Wacky. (PS. An amateur ornithologist friend made me track down the bird. It is a Senegal Coucal.)

Chai's routine is largely unchanged since moving.

Meet the Children of God

I'm spending a lot of time these days working with a really cool elementary school. The Children of God Community School provides kids in Accra’s Adenta neighbourhood with elementary education even if the parents can't afford to pay fees, with school supplies and uniforms, and a daily bowl of rice. The kids who attend CGCS are from poor families, and many of the seventy-odd students stuffed into the school's four small classrooms have already spent time living or working on the streets. If CGCS weren't there, its pretty likely that many of these students wouldn't have a chance to learn. 

Chilling by the water cooler.

Science class.

Camera! Did someone say camera!

Francis offers lunch in the unfinished part of the building.

Not enough desks or uniforms.

Three of the CGCS’s teacher’s are former street kids as well as the school’s founders. They're motivated by the idea that education combats poverty, and by a desire to keep kids off the street. Cujoe, Sule, and Ozzie, all in their late-twenties, taught school in a church, under a tree, and in an abandoned house before they raised enough money to rent land and put up a small school building. Because the school doesn’t make enough to pay them, these guys don’t have homes themselves: they sleep at the school on student benches that have been pushed together. These three guys are kind of my superheroes. 

from l: Ozzie, Sule, Cujoe

Sule & the little blue school that could.

All the Pretty Girls

Estuary

A week ago we took a trip down to Ada Foah, at the mouth of the Volta River. There are actually two little towns here, joined by tourist camps and small hotels. We booked a great room in a guest house. Amongst its amenities, most important of which was allowing our dog, was our own sitting room (separate from the bedroom), the use of a fridge and kitchen, and a covered back deck with comfy lounge furniture. Here we could sit out and read, and it was here we took our breakfast each morning. Though the guest house is in the heart of Ada Foah — most camps and hotels are directly on the beaches — the backyard overlooked 'vacant' lots, wooded with palm trees.

The sandy point

The main attraction is the estuary where the Volta River meets the Gulf of Guinea. The river comes at the gulf at an angle, rather than perpendicularly. This results in a long sand spit (several kilometres) with the gulf to the south and the river to the north. So while the Atlantic continues its merciless pounding on one side, calm waters welcome on the other. And as a tidal pool, the river is safe, that is, free of nasty, fresh water parasites. It's also free of crocodiles. (There are several islands in the river here, one named Crocodile Island, though they have long ago been driven out. On another island is a rum distillery. But that will be another post.)

The banks of the river are populated by a few hotels and many large vacation homes owned by rich Accra residents. But this is the off-season (notice the brooding sky above) so we pretty much had the run of the place. Because of the calm waters of the estuary, sailing and boating are a major attraction. There is even a sailing club. The fact it is safe to fall overboard (drowning excepted) is also an attraction.

The calm of the river

The contrast between the river and the ocean could not be more pronounced. All along the coast of Ghana the surf is unrelenting, and guidebooks constantly make much of the dangers of the undertow. There are a few places where I've ventured to take my feet of the ground and do a little body surfing. This was not one of them. The undertow here was fantastic. A few times, standing, feet planted firmly in the sand, the receding waves flipped me over.

The tempest of the gulf

Wherever we go, Chai provides a somewhat welcome distraction from the calls of 'obruni'. Without her, people stare at (and call out to) the two white folk. With her, we sometimes wonder if we humans are noticed. She loves the surf, and the best game is chasing a plastic bottle weighted with a little sand. But we always soon draw a crowd.

Night Garden

I took this photo a few evenings ago. I was sitting out on our verandah, enjoying both the night air and, surprisingly, the absence of mosquitoes. I looked up and saw this little view. The garden was framed between two white plaster pillars, which I've avoided in the photo, and lit from above by a fluorescent tube. I like the unnatural feel of the light. It has the overly crisp appearance and stark contrast typical of a flash photograph, but the source of light is above rather than in front.

In the photo you can see thin leaved croton on the right (we also have broad-leaved varieties), ginger lily in the left foreground (they look a bit like birds of paradise), and ti or good luck plant (the tall red plant) on the left. 

From where I sit, and took the photograph, we are sheltered from the elements. We have spent many pleasant hours, both during daylight and dark, reading, chatting, eating, and looking out at our little garden. This has been especially enjoyable during the rainy season, when we can watch rains, light and heavy, dance on the leaves of the garden.