Day 17: Boti Falls and a Surprise Guest!

Today was our first true Touristy trip. We all clambered into a taxi van and began our journey to Boti Falls. On the way, we obtained FanIce a soft vanilla ice cream you squeeze from a package! Yum. When we got to Boti Falls, we noticed huge throngs of students from around Ghana; they were wearing matching shirts or polos and as soon as we got out of our van we were kind of bombarded with plantain chips and candy, some of which we bought. So we went along with a tour guide down to Boti Falls, which was just a staircase away from where the plaza we parked our van was. There are two falls actually, one male and one female, from two rivers that had joined up at one point on their way to the falls but then diverged again due to a large rock. They were discovered in the 50s I think and the name comes from a foreigner's inability to pronounce the full name of the area (something-boti) so the name got shortened to Boti Falls. Then we stopped for a bit to eat more plantain chips, and began hiking up a trail to who knows where.

Sammy was a bit tired by this point, and for good reason. Some of the drops were like 90 degrees and there were some climbs where you had to be on all 4s to get up. Finally we reached our destination which was this large flat rock balancing on this other rock. And the view was amazing too. Lots of obronis on the way too. (Obronis being foreigners, like us). Anyways, after we made our way back to Obodan, we still had work to do: move 300 blocks from central Obodan to Anoff, a satellite of Obodan about a 30 second truck ride away. So we loaded 100 blocks at a time onto the flatbed truck, road with it to the site, then unloaded it all around where the pit was dug. These blocks would be the eventual substructure! Also, Clay and Chelsea and some ELiTE friends decided to visit Obodan and stay the night and even helped with the blocks.

After playin a little frisbee and soccer at dusk, we spent the night in Nsawam chilling at McDonal's and came back and collapsed from exhaustion. Also, tmrw we have to get up super early to make it onto the cruise on Lake Volta...

Days 15 and 16: Me Boh Eh Soom Thre Thre

Ah so today was a good day to wash our clothes. Not much to do initially in the morning so we had time. Too bad it rained later in the day while our clothes were line drying. Note to self: bring a line next trip so we can dry our clothes at our place rather than hang them up at Faustina's... Anyways, the rebar/steel bender came by today and he agreed to do one floor latrine per day. And then we went over to Kwasi-doi again to this time make sure the plastering was getting done on the substructure. The kids we noticed, in this area, are much more... outgoing. They'd get into random arguments and would just gather around the pit and chat. I asked James what they were arguing about, because James was the instigator of the argument in the first place, and he had said that they were going to put chickens in the bottom of the latrine, or something ridiculous like that. And then the Kwasi-doi kids got angry at James (who's from Obodan) and they would start arguing. They're like 10-12 years old and it's great! I guess it was pretty enjoyable to have them around. For lunch we took a break and ate some Muslim food, it was like rice and beans and some spicy ingredients, and it was quite tasty. We also got "sugar bread" later which is just sweeter-than-normal bread, plus we got a discount (and thus a larger loaf of bread) cause the driver of the bakery van liked Mira.

Also since the rebar was finished too, we helped with pouring concrete onto it to make the floor slab. Can't wait to see the finished product! We had some good food for dinner again too, Mira made her rice and spicy sauce and egg combo while Marta and Anjali made a non-spicy version with rice and tomato and egg. It was goood. We also watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall. LOL

--
Day 16:

Today we saw the finished concrete slab so we plan to start building the superstructure today. But it is still not 100% cured so we won't lay too many layers of superstructure. We took the second team to see the pilot source-separated latrine from last summer and hung out there a little bit, and it wasn't smelly at all! Looks like it was working yay! I tried hiding in the latrine to scare the team, and Mike would tell me when they were coming, so I sat on the toilet (cover down of course) and then Anjali opens the door and I'm like Ah Anjali, close the door, I'm using it. I think she said she was pretty startled. Nice. And the kids who were hanging around Ben kept saying to each other "Me boh eh soom thre thre" which means "I slap you three times" even though three in Twi is "ebiesa" they just shortened three to "threh." No slapping was actually done but it was just fun to say. Ben's got the phrase down.

So then after a few more sites got their concrete, Eric, Mira, Mike, and Marta went with Sammy to Accra to run some errands and most of all to buy souvenirs in this indoor outdoor market. They literally bombard you and shake your hand and ask you to buy their things. And most of them were selling the same stuff too, Ghanaian shirts, jewelry, wooden sculptures and masks, etc. Mike almost got a free painting for a piece of gum; unfortunately the package was soggy from the rain that day or else we woulda got a free painting! We all bought a few things and turns out Marta's really good at haggling. Tonight we had instant noodles, instant macaroni, and instant pasta for dinner. Yesss. I also think tonight was Lion King night.

Me boh eh soom thre thre,
Eric, Mira, Mike, Marta, and Faction 2

Days 13 and 14: New Kids in Town

The days here aren't as hot as you would think. The wet season is just ending and the hills next to the village are usually covered in this rolling fog. It doesn't rain too much, well it drizzles a bit, but it's not too sunny. The breeze is nice though. So today we continued with making sure the masons were plastering the inside of the pits and we were looking forward to seeing the second team today!

Sammy went to Accra to pick them up, but when we called him to check on how things were, he told us that their flight as cancelled and that they were stuck in Morocco. Plus, their bags had not made it on the flight. We didn't want to believe him at first because he likes playing jokes like this, but when he came back to the room and we didn't see anyone with him, we considered he might have been telling the truth. Then Suraj, Anjali, and Ben burst through the door and then we're like oh Sammy, you got us didn't you. The only part of his story that was true was that their bags actually had not made it on the flight and they were going to come two days later.

So we all visited sites together and tonight we ate at Fotobi and had a great time, although a few of us have been feeling slight headaches and fevers but nothing a little Cipro can't cure. And instead of Fanta, some of us had Alvaro, which is this nice non-alcoholic carbonated beverage with several fruit flavors to choose from, and we got Passion Fruit. Def a tasty drink.
--

Mostly today we hung around Kwasi-doi to make sure the substructure was getting completed. Everyone helped out, whether it was shoveling, mixing mortar, carrying blocks, anything! Anjali was learning a lot of Twi from the kids, and I had learned to count from 1-10 in Twi as well. I also taught John Kwaye how to count from 1-5 in Chinese and then later taught him 6-10 but he said that was too hard. Then later, we walked to the site in Western Obodan, around a 20 minute walk from Kwasi-doi, but 2 minutes away from where we were staying, and we saw that they had laid the wooden boards on the substructure, in preparation for pouring the floor slab.

Then we noticed that they were designing it per the pilot latrine we implemented last summer, which was neither gender-divided nor side pit access. So we had to sit down and talk about which design would be better, and of course we knew it would be gender-divided but we had to clarify where the entrance doors were and where the pit access doors (where you dig out the solid waste) were. We ended up getting it figured out thanks to Sammy!

Tonight most of us went to Nsawam, and logged on to the internetz. But nobody updated the blog. Psh.

Night,
Team 1 and Team 2

Day 13 pics (Day 14 pics start at the picture with Ben, Anjali, the kids, and the pit):

Days 11 and 12: Laboring and Anniversaries

So today is Sunday, which means all the kids wake up real early and go to church with their parents. It also means it's communal labor day! The most work gets done today so we were really excited. We went up to Kwasi-doi, the lazier of the villages, who kind of disappointed us cause they were supposed to have the pit dug and all by the morning but they said they'd come back at 2pm in the afternoon. Hmph. At least we did have the honor of being served some food again by some of the villagers, this one woman has given us fufu (mashed casava) before so this time she gave us some cold square kenke, which is mashed maize, with some spicy tomato fish sauce. She also had us mash the fufu she was preparing for us with some hot soup which was great too!

On a brighter note, Alata's substructure is halfway done. We videotaped a lot of the construction with Marta's camcorder for her documentary. I even interviewed a couple of the kids, like James, who enjoys making animal noises and wants to be an engineer! It's all on camera I swear. And we also met John Kwaye from Kwasi-doi, who wants to be a doctor because doctors help people. I noticed how he said doctors help people, not that he himself wanted to help people. Well, maybe once he's closer to his dream he'll realize he will be the one helping others!

Dinner was quite special tonight because Mira made gardenegg soup (gardenegg is a squash the size of a tomato i guess, and it has tomato paste, onion, jalapeno peppers, palm oil, and some spices) and cocoyam (a yam-like... yam) Sammy said it's almost as good as his mother's gardenegg soup... Congrats Mira!

--

Monday, August 1st, means only one thing. Team 2 is one day away! Suraj, Ben, Anjali will be coming tomorrow! Anyway, Mike and Sammy went to Accra to take care of bizznazz, and me and Mira had to go check up on Kwasi-doi, the slower-digging village. We literally took the straightener and shovel ourselves and made sure the bottom sides of the pit were vertical and straightened. It was really sunny too, so it turned out to be a good workout. As you can see too, kids love helping out with the latrines too. So why not let them have a shovel and go at it right?

And tonight we went to Nsawam again to McDonal's! Not for burgers and fries but for chicken and rice. We also celebrated Marta's 7th anniversary with her bf, well with us, but you know what I mean. McDonal's is like a club actually because when you enter there's a huge space for dancing. The restaurant is upstairs, and a floor above the street so you're free from the streetlights and noise and everything. And today we were able to get some internet too, only the 2nd time actually. We're really living simple here, even though there is electricity in the village, we don't have a means of calling or going online without Sammy's blackberry or coming to Nsawam which is a 15 min taxi ride from Obodan. At least it's kinda cheap though (the taxi which is around a $1 per person and the internet which is a $1 an hour)

Your obronis,

E&Ms

Day 11 pics (Day 12 pics start at our group picture):

Days 9 and 10: Bros and Hoes

Well hello again, this is our shout out from the ninth and tenth days of the trip. Important events included: Mike pick-axing, Eric hoe-ing on the side (of the pit), serious table-topping from all sides, a 3 - 1 current tally of wrestling victories to Mike over the great Sammy Gamson himself, sweet concrete-pouring in western Obodan, an absolutely delicious dinner of home-cooked rice, eggs and pepper sauce made mostly by Mira, and financial clarity (at least on paper).

The next day began when we finally decided to leave our room at the extra late time of 8am, only to find out that Sammy Gamson had been setting up workers for over 2 hours. Our first stop was in Obodan where we led a massive block carrying campaign with the help of eager children. Yes, cement/dirt blocks are very heavy and yes the kids are much better at it than we are, but we did our best! Kwasi Doi came was our next stop where we again aided in the digging process.

Skip to tonight and we spent the night in Fotobi and some Don Garcia magically appeared and tempted us to drink it. Which of course led to Mike and Sammy arm wrestling.

Well that's alsadbdf aiabmasd aawa *drool*

Eric, Mike, Mira, Marta (the 3 muskebeers)

Days 7 and 8: Doctors and Masters

Today the doctors came omg! It was great, we met Amelia, her husband Cyril, and Joseph. So we set up shop right outside school and started preparing index cards for each person, with a place to put their name, age, village, then sections for their heart rate, height, weight, blood sugar, etc., while we set up the stations at the same time. People started coming around 7:30 ish and the doctors started seeing people around 8:00pm. In total around 100 or so people came! Mostly middle age to older women and men. Mike and Mira even helped with taking down their height and weight so it was a full team effort. And the Queen Mother of Nsawam even came and said hi!

Anyways, we successfully poured concrete today in the north villages. Anyways, I include a picture of one of the villagers because he's hilarious. His english is only so so but he's just a character. He enjoys drinking which is why we always think he's drunk whenever he talks, but he is just really friendly. That's why the north village is one of our favorites, one because of this guy, another because they work really fast.

Tonight we again ate and drank at Fotobi and even learned how Sammy met his wife. It's a great story for another time :)

--

Today we met MARTA! Well first we had to go to Accra again. It was mindblowing really, after being in a village for a week it is kind of amazing to see not only other Obrunis (white ppl) but also civilization lol. We had yummy chicken sandwiches too.... double chicken sandwiches. Marta's great too. She's here to document the latrine construction process and how the community interacts with each other during construction. She's more an architecture urban design person so its cool seeing what she's done before in relation to construction in Italy (where she's from). We also bought groceries at a Shoprite today, and even looked at cribs for Sammy's newborn aw. We hope to make lotsa Ghanaian food in the coming days.

Then we saw Sammy's farm! Hella pineapples in every direction holy s***. They were unfortunately not ready to harvest yet lol but whatever.

Hopefully we'll get online soon because we are not doing these blogposts justice. at all.

See ya'll later,
Eric, M^3

Days 5 and 6: Fufu and Mark

Sorry for the long break but we've been really taking our sweet time here, not having checked our emails for a week hehe. But anyways, we started our 5th day here with yummy pineapple nutella sandwiches. Pineapples here are amazing to say the least...

We worked mostly at Kwasi-doi, one of 6 latrine sites in Obodan and its satellite villages, but without going into too many details, this site has been the slowest going. There are hella rocks in the pit and they find them too hard to dig through. What has been fun about this village though is this one mother who makes fufu for us, basically mashed casava, and even had us try it out. We also enjoy sugar cane when we get the chance. It's like gum cause you chew it but it doesn't last nearly as long, but it is quite juicy.

We also kept up with progress at the incomplete second pilot latrine, it still needs a floor slab and the superstructure, but it looks great. Nice plastered walls and everything...

Today we also seemed to have more time to chill because me and mike ended up playing... bamboo baseball on the soccer field in front of the school. The kids are just way too active for us haha.

--

Well the sixth day we had to start thinking about how we were going to meet the doctors for tomorrow, the 27th, but it ended up going very well as you will read about! Today we actually spent a lot of time in Accra. But first we had to make sure the villages were molding blocks and everything. It's actually a really quick process, they mix cement and sand and only a little bit of water then put it in this block mold and make sure it's all compact, then dump it in rows and let them dry. Quite cool. Plus it's less expensive and clearly more fun than buying blocks!

Anyways, we were in Accra most of the day too getting money for materials, etc., but it was interesting seeing the city life of Ghana.

There are still people selling stuff on the streets like in the villages but just much more densely populated, and crazy. We even have a private taxi guy who's been around since Steve Forbes rode with him, his name's Mark and he's awesome. He's only like 28 or so. But anyways, we saw a bunch of sites just driving around, and we met the Queen mother of the Nsawam region and even chilled at her place for a bit to chat and have soda :) We just made sure she would be in Obodan for the doctor's visit!

Well, again sorry about the delay in updates, but this is only the third or fourth time we've had access to blogspot...

Peace,

Eric, Mira, Mike