Village Life
on VSO in Ghana (Ghana), 04/Dec/2009 12:12, 34 days ago
Last week I (Haydn), found myself in Naku. We have travelled in Africa, India and the Caribbean and we have encountered poverty in all such places, but last week I was taken to the poorest community that I have ever seen. People were thin and weak and many were dressed in rags. It was the village of Naku, just 15 minutes south of Wa on the main road, and 10 minutes West on a dirt road that ends at the community. There is no electricity in the village. There were no motorised vehicles. The only motorbike seen belonged to the District Assembly representative, (local councillor), who had been invited to the meeting that took place.The invitation to me came from a student at the University for Development Studies, who visited the education offices and asked for support in a project he wanted to undertake to help poor people. Tustus Atayaba is the leader of a group of students who are members of the International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS).This is a worldwide organisation founded long before 1949, when a branch was set up in Ghana. The organisation encourages young people to identify the most disadvantaged and to help them to help themselves improve their lives.When we arrived at the village, there was no-one in sight. A local representative of the Anglican Church, who had founded the local school, was the first to spot our arrival and welcome us. A local house found a cooking pot and spoon and, through the clanging of the pot, the message went out to the village to attend the meeting. People began to appear from all directions. I was shown around the school building that is in need of complete demolition and re-building.Some 40 to 50 people of all ages gathered under the tree to greet their visitors.As is traditional in Ghana, the meeting opened with a prayer. All the people in the village areMuslims. So I had by now worked out that we have an Anglican school for the children of Muslim parents, being supported by a Catholic organisation. The religious tolerance and co-operation in this area of Ghana really is unique.In securing a replacement school for this village the university students tried to find out what contribution the community can make. In most places the community can grow produce, sell it at market and make a contribution to a school fund. As subsistence farmers there is no surplus produce to sell in thsi village. Indeed as the dry season gets a hold, food supplies are very short. The maize had failed through lack of water.The next avenue of exploration was to find out if the village had any craftspeople, masons, carpenters and the like. Again, there was a resounding no. Not one person from the village has any formal skills or paid employment.It transpires that the whole community survives, just, through subsistence farming alone.Further discussion in Waali, translated for the sake of the visitors, showed a total commitment to wanting a school for their children, where they do not have to run home when it rains. They conveyed strongly their willingness to provide all manual labour required. They will dig trenches for foundations, fetch and carry bricks, sand, cement, water, as required, but they need support for everything else.The Catholic student group is also interested in helping the village access water and learn about dry farming methods. They will seek funding for a fence, so that they can fence off a piece of land on which to grow vegetables, fruit and other staples. The fence is required to keep out the goats, chickens, and other scavenging animals that roam the area.A committee including a woman and young person was elected to champion the project from here onwards. They are pictured below.As the meeting wound up, I was presented with a thank-you gift of a pile of yams and a live chicken!!They are shown in the foreground of this picture.In Ghanaian culture, one must accept the gifts that are offered for fear of causing offence. Away from the village, I shared the yams with the Catholic students. Back at the education offices, I was able to present the live chicken to the students.What a huge relief!We will continue to support this group as they formulate a plan, proposal and seek funding from a variety of quarters.Last weekend, we travelled North to Nandom, near the Burkina Faso border. The village is described in the Bradt Guide as being a bit lively on the last weekend of November, when the Kokube festival is held. This festival is a celebration of local culture.It seems the whole of Wa knows about the festival!We did manage to get on a bus for the 3-hour journey north. Ghana Mass Transit buses are amazing. They are the size of 53 seaters in the UK. They have 75 seats, and the bus on which we travelled carried 115 people plus baggage. We secured a position at the very front, squatting on the engine. At each stop the driver filled the radiator. The picture shows Haydn helping him use his improvised funnel to get water to the almost inaccessible radiator.In Nandom, we stayed in a delightful guest house for the princely sum of 20GHc -£8. We visited VSO volunteers who have a house at the local secondary school. They prepared and presented a fabulous Ghanaian meal of chicken and groundnut stew over Fufu. Fufu pounding is pictured, and those who know Ghana will understand where my Yams from Naku village went.The pounding of yams and mixing in of water makes a doughy, textured staple which tastes a little like potato and is used to soak up the soup flavours. It was actually delightful.The walk to the festival, with VSO volunteers in Ghanaian dress was memorable.Nandon is well known for the brewing of pito, which is a local beer made from millet. Throughout the day and night, there are large cauldrons everywhere brewing the beer.People seemed genuinely pleased to see white people at their festival and they all greeted us very warmly. At the festival, the drums and xylophones were in full swing as dancers circled the musicians to theAfrican rhythms. The amount of dust made picture taking difficult. This is our best effort.