Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Day 21: A Traditional Celebration

Well hey there! Just pretend you're reading this before Thursday's post. Wednesday was a very exciting day for our team and for Obodan because Benard Amadei came to visit our projects in each community. During the morning we worked at various sites, particularly Akwakupom while Winnie took Benard to a few places in the Nsawam area including Blue Skies. Upon arrival he asked us questions about community involvement, feedback, structural choices and the materials that we used. He was very impressed with our work and surprised that we were able to work on 6 different sites all at once. His input was also valuable for thinking about future projects. As a civil engineer, he was mainly concerned with the structure of the homes and the erosion that jeopardized the structure of them, so he talked a lot about diverting rainwater away from homes. In the end we showed him our pilot latrine and honored us by using it himself!

Afterwards, we walked back to the Chief's Palace where a traditional celebration awaited us. Loud drums and dancing started things off, with Benard and Mike taking respectable stabs at Ghanaian dancing! We met with the Queen Mother and other community leaders and listened to talks given by Sammy, Winnie, the Queen Mother and Benard as well. The celebration was topped off by the presentation of a beautiful white mask from the village to Benard. We hope to communicate further with Mr. Amadei to hear more feedback from a man so experienced in engineering for development. Colorful pictures and video to come!

1 comment:

  1. Sounds great!! Glad Benard liked what we were doing, can't wait for pictures..

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