This morning started very early (but with running water!!!) We had another experience of African time - having been told we were being picked up at 6.30am we were eventually picked up at 7.30am - we could have had breakfast!
Anyway, before our visit to Akwansa Kokodo we first went to a community called Akoti which is about 45 min drive from our hotel. Akoti Rural Bank have just completed a 3 year contract with Plan Uk to set up a micro finance project with women of local communities. The project enables women in the rural communities to borrow 500,000 cedis (approx £31) upwards to start small businesses and help them earn some extra money for their families. Each loan has to be repaid within 16 weeks but the women then have the opportunity of taking out another loan to increase their business opportunities. The project has been so successful that now that the contract has finished it is completely self-sufficient.
Because of the late start and the visit to the Micro finance project we were a bit late in getting to Akwansa Kokodo but boy what a welcome!! It's hard to express in words what the reception was like - I don't think even the photo's can really do justice to it.
Anyway, once we were able to get out the van we were escorted to the rest of the community by way of a rather circutous route and some dancing (which definitely got the thumbs up from the women - even if I did end up doing more a twist than a traditional Ghanaian dance!!) Everyone was very keen to touch us and shake hands (although I swear one child licked me!) and of course everyone wanted to have their photo's taken.
When we eventually were taken to the rest of the community (plus some members of communities close by) we were offically welcomed and were given seats of honour. This was when we found out that one of the National TV stations was covering the event (not one of those big cameras you see in Europe but a tiny handheld camcorder - whatever works I guess).
Along with ourselves there were some members of Plan Ghana and the Ghanaian Government. The Deputy Education (I think that was his title) Minister was there to announce that the community had been given a grant from the EU for public sanitation. They were only able to get this grant due to their hard work in raising the standards of the community and their partnership with Plan International.
We were given the opportunity of making a short speech expressing our thanks for such a warm welcome and how priveldged we were to be working with such a strong community (we had learned a couple of Fante words one of which was Meda ese which means thank you - hope hope). Everyone was very impressed by our use of Meda ese!
After the speeches (and my dubious debut on Ghanaian TV) we moved over to the ceremonial sod cutting. The ground was first blessed by the Chief's speaker and then Laura was given the pick and shovel to make the first break in the soil. After this we were invited to go back to the Palace (!) where were were welcomed by drummers and the Elders of the community. I managed to get two proposals of marriage and the promise that I'd be made honorary Queen Mother when I came back (didn't like to mention that I probably wouldn't get the chance but the offer was nice!) After some time talking with the Chief and Queen Mother and meeting the Elders of the community we went back to the school where we got to play with the toys (well someone had to show the kids how to play with them).
They absolutely loved the musical instruments which were donated by Betty Demby, and I think they were impressed by the skittles and cricket set but it was rather difficult to explain the rules (especially of cricket!) Everyone joined in - even the teachers had a go at the skipping ropes and hulahoops. And of course the footballs - everyone loved the footballs. It was great to meet the children and have a chance to speak to them and see how they felt about Plan and the work that they do. All of them were very ethusiastic and relished the opportunities that they had been given by their community. Quite a few of them wanted to become teachers once they had graduated.
While the children continued playing with the toys we had the opportunity to really see the school. The surveyors had decided that rather than rennovate the school it would be better to start from scratch in a new plot of ground (the excavation of this was due to start on the day after our visit). Rather than demolish the primary school that the community had built, they found that there was an opportunity to turn this into teachers accommodation (another problem they have is getting teachers to stay in the rural communities because of the travel times and cost of accommodation - by having purpose built buildings they are able to encourage teachers to stay in the rural communities and enable them to be at work on time).
We had the chance to say a quick goodbye the children as school was finishing for the day (I doubt very much they had done any real work but who doesn't love missing schoolwork!). Unfortunately our driver still hadn't arrived so we started walking back to the main road. This, more than anything, caused an uproar. I'm not sure where they got their reference from but they couldn't believe that we would be prepared to walk!!
The first group of people we met were some school children from the Junior Secondary School, on their way home. As in the traditional way one of them was carrying their school bag on her head. Laura decided this would be worth a try but found it wasn't quite as easy as the school girl had made it look. The group were impressed with her effort though!
We met several people along the way before a taxi came from behind us and insisted on taking us to the main road. We could hardly refuse such generosity (and although we were fine I suspect that had we actually walked all the way we would ahve been rather hot!).
Our ride hadn't arrived at the roadside community so Puios was kind enough to treat us to some freshly squeezed oranges (again they supplied the oranges and we freshly squeezed them into our mouths!). We also met Prince and tried her toffee sweets (very nice!) By this time our ride had arrived and we were off again.
Our next stop was to a pineapple plantation (quite near our first stop at the CHIP clinic in Nanben). We picked up the farmers (and their rather big knife) and headed over to the plantation. They then showed us how pineapples grown (now I don't think of myself as too much of a city girl but I had no idea that they grew from the ground). They had recently planted a new crop (in a maize field) but we were able to go a bit further into the plantation and see the juvenile plants and their first fruit. We were even given some to take home (shame customs wouldn't have let us - they were much nicer than the ones we get in the supermarkets here).
By this time I think we were all a little hungry (bit of luck we had a late breakfast) so we headed back to our hotel and for some traditional ghanaian food. We still weren't able to try the Fu Fu (everyone raved about the fu fu but no-one seemed to serve it) but we did get to try the Banku and Okru stew and of course, some of our freshly picked/chopped pineapples!
We then had some free time which enabled us to have a bit of a wash and start on the packing. None of us can believe that it's the end of our trip already.
Puios came back for us later in the evening and took us to Mankessim itself. It is quite a busy town on a Wednesday night - one of their main market days. Lots of food being cooked and carried around. We were invited into a small hut where they showed us how Banku is made (or rather pounded). It's amazing how life is just worked round. We had to step over two sleeping children (were were encouraged to) so that we could see the Banku making process. There were children selling food and drink around the town (another problem is the fact that the children work of a night rather than doing homework - an unusal avoidance technique that I'm not sure happens in Europe much).
During our walk round I finally was able to get a bag of water to try. Quite a good idea but if you don't want all of it you can't just put the cap back on! Then off for our first (and only) experience of night life in Ghana. The Hot Pot - a local nightclub! Not much room for dancing but the drinks and company were good and were a nice way to end our day and our last night in Ghana.
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