Ghana 2009: Axim and WHH (Part 1)

I got the first part of this Axim journal up and now want to show a bit of the life at Western Heritage Home and some of the Axim surroundings. WHH is an orphanage/community center that our group, Ghana Together, has built and are supporting.  There are now 2l children living there, 10 boys and 11 girls, ranging in age from 2 1/2 to 15.  My son, Paul, and I stayed in the guest quarters on the first floor.  The kids and the House Mother live on the the next floor and there are classrooms, a conference room and and office on the top floor. It's bright blue color make it easy to spot!

Of course the main attraction of WHH is the kids!  They come from various backgrpounds.   Some of them are truly orphens with no family whatsoever.  Some of them have a relative but there is no place for them in    the family life.  All of them had little or no hope for a decent education or for a reliable place to lay their heads or be assured of three meals a day.  They now have stability in their lives and hope for the future.  Here is are  group of them after playing football (soccer to us in US) in the little parking area on the road.

                     

They are full of life and very accepting and loving.

 

While we were there I was Uncle Jerome and Paul was Uncle Paul.  During the day Uncle Paul spent a lot of time with Mary since she was too young to go to school.   Mary was found abandoned at the age of about 10 months.  She is now about 2 1/2 and is  thriving. The kids take pretty good care of her.  I learned that             after I left she began going to Nursery School and loves it.  I played peek a boo with her and she loved it        giving out a deep throaty laugh.

The other little girl was Joanna who is three.  She was extremely shy with Paul and me for the first few days but gradually she came around and became very affectionate.  She started school during the second week of my stay there and she blossomed right before our eyes.  

Ben helped to keep the little ones clean!

The common room for eating and fun.

 

The front porch was a scene of much activity.  The motorcyle was kept there overnight. The kids used it as a mini soccer field using any size ball they could find and in this picture they were doing piggy back racing.

One Saturday they cut branches from palm trees and using knives stripped away the leaves to get the single strip down the center.  These strips were then tied together to make brooms for sweeping.  The coconut       palm leaves were used for outdoor brooms and the oil palm leaves were used for the softer inside brooms.         

 

When the water was shut off the kids had to bring water up the hill from this rather stagnet pool.  Serious steps are being taken to ensure a steady and safe water supply.

Near the pool is a small farm that had a few cocoa trees on.  The beans from this tree used for making chocolate are a very important part of Ghana's export trade.

The kids practiced hard for the dancing celebrations at the closing ceremony of the science workshops.  They had to learn the steps and body movements.  It was amazing how quickly they picked it up.

And they looked great when they performed at the ceremony.

They loved their Uncle Paul.  This is the scene when he returned after touring around the coutry for a week.

My special friend at WHH was Olivia.  She sort of adopted me on the first day and was always solicitous about my health and welfare.  She was a very nice little girl.

But it wasn't all serious work or playing with the kids.  Paul and I managed a few trips to the beach. (That's a cold bottle of Star beer in the foreground!)

 

Paul is  good swimmer and enjoyed going out in the surf.   The waves are strong and one has to be careful.

Paul went up to Mole National Park and saw elephants, antelopes, wart hogs, monkeys and baboons.  My wildlife experience was a few of these lizards!

 

Being a rank amatuer at this bloging bit, so I am going to have to close this one and start another because my"album" for chosing pictures is filled up and I can't import any more on this entry!!

Ghana trip October, 2009

Since photo albums are a thing of the past and many of you have asked to see something of my latest trip to Ghana I have set up this blog site (which is no mean feat for this non-techi) to give you an idea of what is was like. 

The whole purpose of my trip was to give three one-week workshops to Junior Secondary School science teachers on the topics of Physics and Earth Science. While giving these workshops I would be staying at the Western Heritage Home (WHH), an orphanage built and supported by my sponsoring  group, Ghana Together.  These pictures will be selected first to illustrate the workshops and then to illustrate WHH and the general atmosphere of living in Axim, Ghana.

There was a welcoming banner in central Axim

The contact for me with the East Axim Education District was Mr. Sarfo Hayford.  He did a terrific job and did everything in his power to make the program a success. I really appreciate all he did.

 

 

The workshops were scheduled to take place at Nseim Senior Secondary School. We set up in a biology lab and welcomed the first participants.                                                                                                               

The overhead fan in the picture didn't work but my son Paul, who accompanied me on this trip, gave up h is floor fan from his room and made life possible this sweating senior.                                                             

My voice was not used to doing four lectures per day and I started losing my voice at the end of the first week. We decided to change the venue from the large laboratory to a smaller classroom at WHH.        

Here the overhead fans worked fine and atmosphere was much more pleasant and it was in the same building in which I was residing.  There was also a small room adjacent to it in which I could keep all my equipment    and prepare classes.                                                                                                                                    

   

In addition to the small things above, I also used  a tripod made of local materials, a large inflatable globe with a jury-rigged support, and my trusty overhead projector.                                                                               

 

 

The lesson on waves, sound and music was fun to do.

The closing ceremonies at the end of the three weeks was a big affair.  There were representatives from the educational district and  the municipality.  Nana Kaku Buluu gave inspirational words to the 31 teachers       getting awards for completing the course and children from WHH did some traditional dances to make it a   very festive occasion.                                                                                                                                

 

 

 

This has been a bit of an overview of the professional part of my Axim experience.  I'll post this part before I goof something up and lose it all.  To Come: living at WHH and other fun stuff. 

                                                                                                                               

       

 

First attempt at pubished blog

So this is a new experience for me but I want to have some kind of record of my trip to Ghana that I can show to anyone who would like to see some of the pictures.  This first attempt is just an experiment.

This is a look at the kids working on a puzzle I made for them.

And here is my namesake Jerome Kaku Kwofie and his dad, Patrick.

And finally here is old Pegleg going into the surf!

WONDERS NEVER CEASE!  I actually got this blogging thing to work!

More later...............Jerome