Everyday LIFE in Sandema: Home Sweet Home

Our home is snuggled away in a quiet area of Sandema and only a 5 minute walk from work. Surrounded by greenery, we live in a pretty peaceful area with the only noise coming from the animals that roam around our house and the funeral music (drumming and singing) which is happening on a daily basis as it is the dry season.  

Smack bang in the middle of the compound is the kitchen, a cherished place for us, especially as we’re often reminded that Sandema Team 1 had no kitchen initially. Although, there's no oven or microwave we’ve become quite resourceful with what’s available to us, even making cake and burritos! See more on our Food blog post which will be coming soon!

Our dining area is where we are at one with nature, especially in the evenings. During our candlelight dinners we have the amazing opportunity to do some star gazing in the evenings (I’ve personally never seen so many stars) and have fights with the creepy crawlies who also join us at the dinner table (see our Animal blog post which will also be coming soon!).



Oh and we do have our occasional water fights (that’s Tracy, our team leader, who is in the process of drenching me when I’m busy posing for this picture).











This is my room in the compound and one of the smaller ones but admittedly the best one. A piece of advice for the next volunteers, bring noise cancelling earphones. It’s rained a few nights whilst we’ve been here and it can get quite loud which can be quite annoying when you’re trying to get some sleep.








- Roya

Disabled People’s Organisation (DPO) Meetings in the Builsa District

As a continuation of the work the first set of Sandema volunteers have done, we are developing the Local Inclusive Festival Project (LIFE) by working on 3 specific areas as mentioned in Shazia’s earlier blog; Sports, Cultural Activities, and Livelihoods. All 3 of these are focused around the social inclusion of persons with disabilities (PWD) and will be done within the context of the Feok Festival.

This week we focused on Cultural Activities and Livelihoods by meeting with the Disabled People’s Organisation (DPO) of several communities within the Builsa District. Our aim was to interview the DPOs, who represent persons with disability (PWD) within their community, and find out about their livelihoods, difficulties they face at work, cultural groups that they are part of, and would like to be part of in preparation for the Feok festival.

Most DPO meetings started with a traditional song and dance by the DPO members followed by a prayer and this would be repeated at the end of the meeting. We introduced ourselves and Tracy talked about the LIFE project before beginning with interview questions to the group and occasionally individual interviews. Festus was our translator throughout our meetings and interviews with DPOs, as our knowledge of Buli didn’t go beyond greetings!

Overall, a very interesting experience and a stark realisation of the differences between Ghana and the UK:

-          Meetings took place in classrooms or under a tree as most DPOs don’t have a place for regular meetings, except in Sandema which had a Resource Centre specifically for PWD.

-          Not all DPO members could come to the meeting due to various reasons including family duties, lack of transportation, or lack of mobility devices.

-          Following a torrential rain shower on May Day, the meeting had to be cancelled as it would be difficult for PWD to travel to the DPO meeting.

-           The meetings were quite successful but slightly challenging as some DPOs weren’t always too eager to respond to our group questions and preferred individual consultations.

With regards to Cultural Activities, they were all willing and eager to have a singing and dancing group and to teach each other but needed instruments, training, and someone to organise regular rehearsals. With regards to Livelihoods, DPOs whose professions ranged from farming to shea butter production to trading emphasised the lack of resources available to them. The vocational training that some had received with the help of CBR or from the Disability Common Fund could not be developed and used to make and sell goods due to financial constraints.

Following these interviews at Sandema, Kadema, Siniensi, Gbedema and Wiaga it was clear that although very eager to learn, PWDs are faced with a lot of challenges and difficulties most of which are financial.

With our research we hope to create sustainable, yet practical, solutions to address the social inclusion of PWD by creating programs that will be go beyond the Feok festival, and will benefit persons with disabilities all year round.  We will keep you updated on any developments and our ideas!


-Roya

Two Team Leaders, 1 week, 10 trotros, and a whole heap of fun....

After the first team bid us adieu at the end of March, myself, Zoe (Tamale team leader), and Sean (Bolga team leader) were granted a week's holiday.  Sean headed up to Burkina Faso to see his lovely lady wife, who is a team leader on an International Service ICS programme there, and me and Zoe began an adventure which would take us half way across the country in the space of a week.

We did too much and had far too much fun to write about it all here....I wouldn't want to make you jealous, but here are 10 Things I did on my Holidays:

1.    Danced on top of a mountain to celebrate Easter (Kwahu Easter festival)

Paragliding at the Kwahu Easter Festival....the dancing came later!

2.   Learned to weave Kente cloth in Kumasi

3. Figured out I was born on a Friday, which means
 I am called Afia in the Ashanti region, and am consequently considered to be a heartbreaker....

4.  Received approximately 5 marriage proposals, and was sold to a man wearing huge, comedy sunglasses for 15 cows (I don’t know if he was wearing the sunglasses as a joke or seriously).  15 cows is actually a very good price.  I think there may have been a problem with the transaction as I believe I am still single.

Fishing boats in Elmina.....
I tried to pick up a smaller version of this and failed, quite miserably!

5.  Tried to convince a shipbuilder in Elmina that I was strong enough to work for him…and then failing miserably to pick up the boat which would have secured me the job.

6.  Visited the Word Alive children’s home that my lovely friend Pippa used to work at in Esiama and took them some sweets and let the children speak to her on the phone.

Life above water...Nzeluzu, Ghana

7.  Spent 13 hours travelling in a trotro to visit Nzeluzu for 30minutes; a great community on stilts on the water, only accessible by canoe…worth the 13 hour trip? Hmm.

8. Made friends with the man in charge of Education at Cape Coast castle who let us in for free (Thank you Mr Steven!).

This is Zoe demonstrating how to walk on a rope bridge....
this was something I proved incapable of doing without crying like a baby.

9. Had a panic attack on the Canopy walk in Kakum National Park….who knew you could develop a fear of heights at 29.  Apparently doing 2 skydives and a bungee jump is much less scary than walking across a rope bridge 40 metre high.

10. Had a “crazy” 29^th birthday, dancing at a beach bar in Cape Coast with some lovely friends and a random Rasta man.

It's not easy bein' green

When I arrived in Sandema in January, everything was a yellowy-brown colour, including the sun, the ground, even the trees seemed to fit into this colour scheme. 

The lovely brown tones of Sandema in January

Poppy, Jenna, Will and I slowly adjusted to the lack of greenery, only made more intense by the increasingly stifling temperatures.  At the end of March, I headed to the south of Ghana for a holiday and a tour of some of Ghana’s more obvious/popular tourist attractions - I felt like I had entered a different country; not only was the climate completely different – don’t get me wrong it was still blisteringly hot compared to UK weather standards, but not as deathly as it is in the north due to a cool breeze and a little more humidity (In fact there were times when I can say I was a little cold and would have welcomed a jumper!), but the scenery changed quite dramatically as well.  Everything was green.  Really green.  It was beautiful, but so different from the landscape in the north of the country. 

Green, green, tall trees in Kakum National Park

Flourishing plant-life in the lake at Nzeluzu, near Benin 

In Ghana, it isn’t only the landscape which changes dramatically from the north to the south – whilst there are some inherent constants in this country (like the incredibly welcoming nature of the Ghanaian people), there are also a lot of things that differ, even if you only travel 10 minutes up the road, such as the languages.  There are, according to Wikipedia (which is, of course, an entirely reliable source..ahem!) a total of 81 different languages in Ghana, including Twi, Dagbani, Kasem, and Buli, the language we are learning here in the Builsa district (English is the official language of Ghana).  Many of the Ghanaians I have met over the past 4 months have been able to speak at least 5 or 6 different languages.  

So upon trekking to the south of Ghana (it was hardly a trek sat on a rather comfortable plane with a free drink and something resembling a chicken sandwich, but I’m allowed a little bit of artistic licence!), it was rather unsettling to be confronted with an entirely green, yet considerably more developed (they actually have tar roads, and the cars have seat belts.  I even travelled in a trotro which had air conditioning, and by this I don’t mean the window was missing either) landscape and not being able to understand a single word anyone was saying.  I am by no means fluent in Buli, but I can at least recognise the odd word here and there and can generally figure out what people are trying to say to me, or about me.  The confidence I had parading around Sandema’s dusty and quiet streets was zapped as I entered what felt like a completely new country upon arrival in the hustle and bustle of Accra, and then travelling around the green, leafy, and humid southern regions.

At the end of our week off and after the induction week for the new volunteers, I was getting quite restless to get back to my Ghanaian home; a place that is now very familiar to me.  I was looking forward to being reunited with the hues featuring entirely on the orange-yellow side of the colour wheel.  After just 3 weeks away, I was amazed as we drove through Sandema to our house….everything was GREEN!  

In the short time I had been away, and even more so over the past 2 weeks, Sandema has changed from being entirely orange and yellow, to include every colour on the colour wheel!  The trees are most definitely green, as are the fields surrounding our house and little flowers in a striking red colour dot many of the trees, and there is water everywhere adding a bluey-greeny-grey tinge to the landscape. 




If Poppy, Jenna, and Will were here now they would think they were in a different place.  I can only imagine what Sandema will look like in a few weeks when the rains really begin!

Tiksung kui ale asiak boyi la tia! (Team 2, Welcome! - in Buli)

(Roya, Shazia, Festus, Tracy and Maxwell the Project Co-ordinater of CBR)

Hello there! We are the 2^nd batch of volunteers to come to Sandema and we are nearing the end of week #2 and we feel an introduction is well overdue. We have the lovely Tracy who is our Team Leader, Festus who is the National Volunteer and Roya and Shazia who are the new UK Volunteers.

Our first week in Sandema has been lovely! As Tracy has already been here for 3 months she’s become quite the celebrity in Sandema. We have quickly realised that you have to give yourself about an extra 30 minutes to go into the market because Miss Popular will be stopped by friends every 10 minutes to have a chat. Everyone has been very kind and welcoming to us new volunteers, and we’re already on first name terms with a few of the market stallholders. We have already met a lot of people and are very lucky to have been introduced to the children at the nearby foster home who I can tell will quickly become my best friends purely based on the fact they give the best, heartfelt hugs (and hugs are one of my favourite things, after chocolate).

We have also started work at the Sandema Presbyterian Church of Ghana Community Based Rehabilitation Centre (or CBR Centre if you want to save yourself quite a lot of time). The CBR Centre works to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities by focusing on social inclusion, rehabilitation and the equalisation of opportunities for people with disabilities.  Our team will be carrying on the work of the previous volunteers who had done a lot of research and built a strong foundation for us to work on. Find out more here: http://internationalservicelifeinghana.blogspot.com/p/what-we-are-all-about.html

These two weeks we have spent quite a vast amount of time creating a database for the CBR Centre and for our own use whilst arranging meetings with Disabled Peoples Organisations (DPO’s). We have developed the outline for 3 projects that we will be working on simultaneously. One is a livelihoods project, the other well be centred around cultural activities and lastly, we are developing a sports program for the young children with disabilities. All 3 of these will be done within the context of the Feok Festival which happens in December but we are also working to ensure that the skills people have learnt, the programs that will be set up will be utilized all year round in order to make sure that there will be a long term change here in Sandema!

We will keep you updated on our progress as time goes on J

-Shazia

A little catch-up from Team LIFE!

The last few weeks have flown by and so much has happened.  Unfortunately, we neglected our blog a little bit so I thought I would catch us up quickly!

The first Sandema team worked incredibly hard in the last couple of weeks of the project, putting together a brilliant report on the Feok festival which serves as a written document (the first of its kind that we know of!) explaining the festival and its traditions.  The report also analysed the inclusion of people with disabilities into the festival and identified some of the key issues which prevent their involvement, including financial concerns, discrimination, transport and mobility issues, as well as a complete and utter lack of awareness on the abilities of people with disability to participate.  The team followed this up with a Stakeholder Engagement meeting, where we had representatives from the District Assembly, Disabled People's Organisations, the Paramount Chief, community chiefs, health organisations and social welfare officers present; all with the view to discuss the inclusion of people with disabilities in the Feok festival.

The team gave an excellent presentation summarising the state of the festival and its popularity (not very popular!) and the issues surrounding disability inclusion.  The meeting was a huge success and we earned the support of the district assembly, and importantly, the Sandema Chief (Paramount Chief of the District) as well as a pledge from him to ensure changes are made to the festival this year.

Well done team!!

The final weeks were busy socially as well, as Poppy, Jenna, and Will all wanted to make sure they said their final goodbyes to everyone they had met and made friends with (this was a LOT of people - the team were so well loved and made a lot of friends in Sandema!).  The final weeks were memorable though and involved a great day at the swimming pool with the children from the foster home; a dinner with the CBR staff and some of our friends, some last minute clothes-making trips, plus much, much more!

In our final week as a team, we, along with the other ICS teams in Ghana, took a trip to Accra to visit the DFID office at the British High Commission.  We each presented our projects and outcomes of the past 12 weeks to DFID (including the Head of Mission and her second in command....this was a big deal!!).  All the volunteers did a great job and it seems that DFID were very impressed with their work.  The volunteers also provided DFID with further ammunition to remian in Ghana - apparently there is talk that DFID has no role to play in this country anymore, but our research and findings suggest that there is a greater need than ever for DFID, and other development organisations, to have a presence in Ghana, particularly in the north of the country.  International Service are hoping that we can build a good relationship with DFID in Ghana and develop future projects - the teams definitely helped make a contribution to that relationship.

The trip to Accra unfortunately signaled the end of the volunteers' time in Ghana, and the day after the meeting they flew back to the UK.  Myself and Zoe (Tamale team leader) waved them goodbye and then turned to each other as if we had both just lost a limb!  We really did not know what to do for a while (luckily Patience, the ICS Programme Manager, showed up not too long afterwards and sorted us out!!).  Another post will follow about what two team leaders get up to when there are no volunteers about!!  I do remember being on a trotro to the mountains though, and looking at my watch around 7pm and finding it incredibly strange that my team were already back in the UK!

Martina’s New Wheels

Back in February, as part of our project research, the team and I travelled to Wiaga to meet a local women’s group to find out more about the Feok Festival. We’ve visited a number of women’s groups in the district to learn about how the groups are involved in the Feok and find out their thoughts on the participation of PWDs (people with disabilities), as we aim to include them in future festivals. It was an insightful meeting and the women of Wiaga were very warm and welcoming.

There was one woman in particular that stood out in the meeting. Her name was Martina, a young mother from Wiaga who was unable to use her legs. She sat with crutches beside her and a baby on her lap, who was often passed around. She was very vocal in the group, voicing her opinion on the Feok Festival and PWDs whilst laughing and joking. Martina was very positive, which was refreshing to see, and I later found out that she also works as a seamstress.

Considering her physical ability, whilst having to raise a child and go to work, I truly admired her positive attitude. Unlike a small number of PWDs that we have met, Martina had a fantastic ‘get up and go’ attitude. It made me realise that most of us take things for granted and moan and worry about the silliest things. Life on crutches alone with a baby cannot be easy.  

At the end of the meeting the women approached us to thank us and say goodbye, whilst Martina approached our national volunteer, Festus, to tell him about her mobility bike. Speaking in Buli, she told Festus that her bike had been broken for sometime and she cannot use it, making travelling and day-to-day tasks difficult. Festus acknowledged her request for us to help her, whilst she thanked us (in English) for visiting and said goodbye. 

We’ve had a lot of requests from disabled (and able bodied) people when visiting the different community groups in the Builsa District. We’ve visited a number of disabled peoples organisations, mental health organisations, schools and women’s groups who have all made requests. Some inform us of the problems they face and the resources they need, whilst others reel off a wish list of wheelchairs, stair lifts and mini buses.

Although we would obviously love to help with the said items, they all cost money - a lot of money. We do record these requests, which can be discussed at a later date, however, CBR, the organisation we work with, don’t have the money either. This is when I had a light bulb moment after hearing Martina’s plea.

Martina's new wheels!

I decided that I would pay for her bike to be fixed. If I brought the issue up with CBR it would have sat in a long queue of other requests and may have never been resolved. Knowing her story and having met her I decided that I wanted to help.

The following week en route to Fubisi, we asked our driver, Kwame, to make a stop off in Wiaga so I could visit Martina’s home and see what work her bike needed. After asking directions from pupil at a near by school, we finally found her at her home; a dingy concrete room filled with cooking utensils, with a large mosquito net filling half of the room with her baby daughter sleeping soundly beneath it. At the back of the room, underneath an old wheel chair, cloth and crutches sat the mobility bike. Coated in dust, it was obvious that it hadn’t been in use for a long time. Three years in fact, as Martina told us. She said that it was a gift from a group of Canadian volunteers, yet the wheels and chain needed replacing. 

We took her number and Festus contacted a repairman who later met us in Sandema town to buy the parts needed. In total, to repair and buy the new parts cost only 83 Ghana cedi, which is around £28.62. I spend that in a heartbeat whilst shopping in Leeds, so it was the easiest (and by far the best) £28.62 that I’ve ever spent.

Tyre shopping

Last weekend I received a text from Festus to hear that the bike had been repaired and was returned to Martina. I was so excited to see her on it so I asked if Kwame could drive me back to Wiaga for me to visit her. I met her earlier this week and she was so happy. The bike looked fantastic with its shiny new wheels. She got in it and cycled around to show me and kindly posed for some photos. 

Martina and her daughter

She told me that she was very grateful that I had it fixed for her as she had her mobility back. She can now travel around with ease and more importantly, take her daughter with her, who can sit beside her in the chair. In the past, Martina had to leave her daughter with someone else whilst she struggled with her crutches. Now, her little girl can travel with her wherever she goes.

It has been amazing to have had the opportunity to help Martina and to actually see the difference it has made to her life. I’m grateful that I’ve had the chance to come to Ghana and to not only help people as part of our project but to also help others in the community. I’ll certainly never forget Martina and her new set of wheels.

- Jenna