Work up this morning to find that none of us had any running water. No message from reception but we did find a bucket of water outside our rooms (well myself and Laura did - Ruth found an empty one in her bathroom!)
After our morning wash (lucky we all had showers last night!) we headed over to the restaurant for breakfast and awaited our ride. Puios, one of Mankessim's Plan workers, picked us up with Stephen and showed us around some of the communities that Plan have working with.
We first visited Nanaben CHIP Zone (I think that it stands for Clinic, Health and Innoculation Programme but not entirely sure) and met some of the staff at the clinic including one of the communities Traditional Midwife. Her traditional skills have been supplemented with modern training organised by Plan.
We then headed to Ebuakwa where the Nurse in charge of Nanaben CHIP was holding an outreach session with some mothers. On the way to Ebuakwa we were shown Garden Eggs (an item from last nights menue that had bemused us). While we were taking photo's (which are similar to Aubergines) we met some women on their way to work.
From the outreach session (where we managed to make several children cry) we walked over to Ebuakwa Pre-School which was built by another NGO - Star of Hope International. We were enthusiastically received by everyone and managed to disrupt every lesson that was going on (something we managed to do at every community we visited - don't think the teachers liked that much but they didn't seem to do much to take control back). After taking lots of photo's and having several of the classes before a lion dance for us, we were shown the teachers quarters that had been specifically built. Like many countries, the smaller towns have difficulty in finding teachers because of the location, the cost of renting or getting teachers to turn up on time (okay maybe not something many countries have difficulty with). So along with providing sanitation, buildings and eduction, many NGO's also help provide teachers accommodation.
After Ebuakwa we were taken to Ekotsi Bogyano Junior Secondary School ( JSS) which is currently in the process of having a new building built for it. Again we were enthusiastically welcomed but this time the Chief, Queen Mother and community elders turned out to meet us, as soon as they heard we were there. Once we were welcomed we were shown around the new building. It was surprising that most of the carrying was done by women.
We then were taken to Ekotsi Bogyano Primary School which is very similar to the Akwansa Kokodo Primary School project. The layout is very similar to the new structure that will be built at Akwansa Kokodo. Once the new school has been built the old bilding will be used for a school canteen which is currently based on the roadside.
On the way to the next community we had a quick refreshment stop and a lesson is drinking and eating coconuts.
After stopping at Essueshyia Health Centre and seeing the renovations which were made with the help of Plan, we had the opportunity of visiting the Posuban (A Shrine) at Mankessim. We were told about the story of the Posuban by it's caretaker James Francis Raiden.
After dinner we retired for a nightcap and to inflate the footballs ready for our visit to Akwansa Kokodo tomorrow.
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