Me dekuku mije suku fea (Please give money for school fees)

The last several days have been a whirlwind of events and meetings. After learning plenty about water sanitation and production, I moved to Kpetoe and readjusting. I noticed it took me about five days to get acclimated to the food, climate, people, transportation, and of course, the toilet. Last week, I traveled to Wodome, which is a very small village nearest to Godwin Amway School. While there, discussions of what to do next ensued, and the plastering took place almost immediately thereafter. Currently, we are working on the frames for the doors and windows. All the frames, doors, and windows will be set in place by the end of next week.



Good news came early last week as I was able to meet with several familiar faces. DIVOG (another volunteer organization based in Ghana) will be assisting in the completion of possibly two projects; painting the outside, and building desks. This was certainly a great thing to know, as more volunteers can give their support to this very cause. Organizing such a project takes quite a bit of effort, so I am already attempting to set things up -purchasing, cutting, and transporting wood. I was also able to meet with a rep form CrossCause (Kieran), who has been very helpful to me, and a great contributor to Godwin Amway School.

As usual that day was followed by another day of frustrations. Discussing the project with one of the carpenters didn't exactly coincide with my hopes, and has slowed the project. Even another frustration is that we must wait for the dry season to be in full swing before digging for the start of toilets. Again it seems as though time is not working for me, but I'm certain that these important tasks will come to fruition in due time.

Monday I traveled to Accra to bring another volunteer (Tianna) to the village of Wodome to volunteer teach in the school. And as usual the transportation system in Ghana isn't reliable, as I arrived much later than anticipated to the airport. Ironically, they don't give out tickets to everyone that purchases them, but then later in the midst of your trek they decide to check for everyone's tickets...

To finish, today was another important day for the school. When I first arrived I requested a parent teacher meeting (PTA) to take place relatively soon. Today, Thursday, the PTA was able to start somewhere between 9 and 1030AM. Little by little the parents were able to gather in the room. Unfortunately, not all could make it to the meeting but roughly 36 were able to attend. The agenda consisted of being introduced to the parents, explaining what I was there to do, and then describing that I do not have all the money to support everything (as is the case with the other foreigner investors), so I introduced the idea of small school fees, which would be a great accomplishment in relieving some of the financial hardships.