LC Does Africa: Back in the Hills

I am now back in the Hills (although I leave very shortly) and am very glad that I decided to come back. I am no longer living with my host family in Mampong (as they weren’t the friendliest of people and we had very little independence) but instead am living with a family in Mamfe. Gerald (the father) is the headmaster of a local school, I’m not sure what his wife Cynthia does (but unlike Oye, she does work) and they have 3 children, Paulina (8), Jane (6) and Brian (2). Brian is absolutely adorable and has the most infectious smile. However, Brian is a little different than most 2 year olds. He is non-verbal, has trouble interacting with his family and rarely makes eye-contact with people. Most of the time he seems to be in his own little world and is quite content in being there. He also has tape on his fingers to try and stop him from biting them. From my experiences living with Brian, I am 95% sure he has autism. However, I don’t think he has ever been diagnosed. In Canada coming up with a diagnosis is very important, but here I don’t think it makes much of a difference. Dr. Boakye and I talked quite a lot about the differences between Ghana and Canada in regards to support for children with special needs. In Ghana, supports for children with special needs are all but non-existent. Many are placed in institution-type school where neglect and abuse could be considered the norm. Others go to a regular school where there aren’t the resources to even teach he average child let alone one with special needs. I saw only a handful of special needs children at the pediatric clinic, and Dr. Boakye never seemed to have a positive outlook for their future. It is rather sad to know that Brian, even with his infectious smile, will not be able to get the help he needs to reach his full potential, just because of where he was born.

Living in Mamfe is very different than living in Mampong. The family here is a lot friendlier and I have a lot more freedom. The food here is also a million times better than in Mampong. We have two meals a day, breakfast at around 6:30-7 (for me anyways) and lunch/dinner at 3. For breakfast 2 loaves of bread are laid out on the table and we cut off as much as we want and have the choice of butter, peanut butter, jam or chocolate spread (ya, that’s right, I said chocolate spread) as toppings. There are also bananas in the fridge and we can make ourselves tea or coffee. Every second day we also get omelets. For supper we have a weekly schedule: Monday – Rice balls and groundnut soup, Tuesday – Spaghetti, red sauce, fried chicken and salad (ya, that’s right, here we get vegetables), Wednesday – Fried Yam, red sauce and fried chicken, Thursday – Mashed yam, and boiled chicken in light soup, Friday – Jollof rice, boiled egg and salad, Saturday – I don’t know as I’ve never been here, and Sunday – either Fufu or Red Red. We also have pineapple and groundnuts in the fridge that we can eat at our leisure. As an added bonus, I also had running water for 3 days (I never looked forward to a cold shower so much!).

While in the Hills I have been working on a building project in Yesu So, a 50 peyswa tro ride north of Mamfe. We are currently building a classroom for the local school, as there are currently too many students to hold in the building they have (to the point that the younger students are taught outside, under a group of trees. The children at the school are absolutely adorable, and always eager to help. I am always taken aback at how excited the kids are to see us each day. I do have a favorite though. Her name is Joyce and she is 8 years old. Every morning she greets me as I walk through the field to the school and takes my bag from me to carry. She always has the biggest smile on her face when I let her carry my bag. Tomorrow is my last day doing building, and I am going to give her the bag at the end of the day.

It has been really exciting to see the progress that we have made in the short time that I have been helping with the project. The first day I was there we were plastering the exterior of the building, as the classroom was constructed with mud bricks, and without a coat of cement on top mud bricks would soon become just mud in the rain season. Plastering was a lot of fun, although mixing the cement was definitely hard work (and something I became quite familiar with when I was in the DR). The technique for plastering was quite simple:

1. pick up cement with trowel

2. throw it against the wall

3. pray that the cement sticks to the wall

4. spread cement that actually stuck

Needless to say, it was a little bit messy of a job (I came home absolutely covered). The next couple of days were spent leveling out the mud inside the classroom and laying the cement. It was really impressive how quickly the project moved ahead and how good the building looked once that floor was in. More recently, Karen and I have been painting the inside, while the boys have been busy starting on the foundation of the second classroom (yay for sexism! Lol). Yesterday we managed to put on one coat (well at least as high as we could reach) and today I finished the top half of the first coat while Karen started on the second. Painting the top half was interesting to say the least, as it involved me perched on top of a hand-made “ladder” for the better part of the morning (and by ladder I mean pieces of wood nailed together to resemble a ladder-like structure… I have seen some pretty sketchy ladders in my day, but this one definitely takes the cake). We painted for a couple of hours, until we got overtaken by some of the overly enthusiastic school children, and thus decided to break early for the day. But I have thoroughly enjoyed working on the building project, as you can actually see the progress being made, and you know that all the hard work is going towards something that is desperately needed and will be appreciated.