Our last few days in Abomosu are upon us! Yesterday, again, Leah and I went with Seth to another village called Wekpeti-Abresu or something like that. This village seemed much smaller and deeper in the "jungle". Here in Ghaan, it gets dark all year at around 6:30. It's interesting how many things play into the fact that most of Africa is so underdeveloped, and education is a BIG reason, but there are many reasons why people aren't getting educated, and one of those reasons is the fact that it gets dark so early. Many people don't have electricity, and if they do, it's pretty sketchy. In our super nice house we are living in, the power probably goes out about 5 times a day, which means the whole village doesn't have power, and probably neighboring villages as well. Since there isn't any, or much, light after 6:30, children don't have any light to study by, so they aren't getting as educated as they should be. To try and help with this, companies have put in carousels to generate electricity to light lanterns so the students can take them home and use the light to study. The carousels are actually like those toys you stand on and people spin you around really really fast. It's a toy for the kids to play on. And while they play, then generate electricity. These lanterns are pretty small and they don't have enough for everyone, so the kids have formed study groups, which has helped with cooperation in the classroom. We got nothing but positive feedback after interviewing families and educators about these lanterns. They only wish they had more so kids didn't have to walk to and from homes when its so dark!
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| The Carousel |
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| The Lantern |
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| Just a cool picture around Wekpeti-Abresu that I thought I'd share. I love those trees! |
Today, we drove about an hour and a half to a town called Begoro, to a rehabilitation clinic run by the Salvation Army. It was on a hillside and it was a really neat town. Basically the people that ran the place were all from Australia. I was really looking forward to today, because they have Occupational Therapists from Australia who were working there and I wanted to meet them, and we were going to be painting the clinic. When we got there, there was a church group from Australia that were painting the walls, and so we were given the cleaning job. The smell of paint was so strong and some people suspected that there was also mold in the building and many people couldn't handle it; they felt sick. I felt fine, luckily, but because of the strong smell, we didn't stay very long. We cleaned the boys dormitories and started the girls dorms when it was time for lunch, and since people weren't feeling well, we just left after lunch. We had lunch at a hotel called "Hillside Hotel" and it was pretty fancy and tasty. I'm disappointed that we didn't get to stay longer at the clinic and I wish we could have interacted with patients and kids and the OT's (because I want to be an occupational therapist) more instead of cleaning rooms, but I know cleaning is important and I was happy to do it. It was pretty cool meeting Occupational Therapists who were working abroad. It just reminds me of what I could do when I am done with school. I think it would be awesome to move to a rural country like Ghana for a year and just help them out, but I don't know if I would be able to do it! Living in these conditions for a year would be tough. But it's amazing how much they really help the people with disabilities. Like i've said before, kids born with disabilities are often killed, and these Occupational Therapists really make a difference here. They help people who can't walk at all, learn to be able to walk again. We met a man who couldn't walk at all when he first started seeing the OT, and now he can walk just fine, and even showed us his squats! These therapists are just more educated and they know that with some therapy, people can live a normal life. It's pretty awesome. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the Rehabilitation Center, but I have pictures of the town of Begoro!
So for dinner tonight, we got a real authentic Ghanaian meal. I have mentioned before that Stephen Abu lives next to this house we are staying in and he basically runs it for World Joy, but his wife, Margaret Abu, cooked us all dinner. She made fried plantains, Red Red, bean stew, Jollof rice, rice and beans, balls of rice, peanut butter soup, chicken, fish, salad, and probably something else I didn't mention. There was so much food and it was all tasty! But let me tell you, if I never had rice again in my life, I wouldn't complain! Haha we have almost had it every day since we have been here, sometimes multiple times a day! No more rice please!
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