What a (construction) site!!

First of all I’d like to extend a huge thank you to the fantastic support we’ve been receiving from the ‘homefront’! The response has been absolutely overwhelming and I am deeply touched by the enthusiasm and generosity of all of the donators, thank you so much!


About one week after I sent out the message about Ahunda Boso, we have been able to put together the amazing amount of 36 209 nok (around 4 500 Euro)! We are now only 6 500 nok away from being able to complete the project, something which I had only dreamed of, but never thought would really happen.


So, what has happened since my last post? Apart from the fact that I almost stepped on one of the world’s most poisonous snakes, the green mamba, only good things have taken place and we are making very quick progress!

Yesterday, Monday, the masons arrived with the 4 a.m. bus from Accra. While they were setting up camp, the carpenters had to send their tools to Ho to be sharpened, since we had been without electricity for 2 days (it was a regional power cut and while the tools were on the way, we got ‘lights on’ again). In the meantime, Van-Dyke (my counterpart) and I went to the crazy Monday market in Mafi Kumase to buy the cement and the metal rod needed to complete one of the buildings. They sell almost everything at the market; it is a fantastic mix of people, goods,

animals, sounds and smells, enough to capture your attention for an entire day! We filled the rest of the day with improving business relations with the workers (making sure that they understand that this is a community development project, not a commercial one) and preparing for today.
All in the African manner – focus on the people, not the time.

Today was a different story all together, African time had suddenly been transformed to European time on the double!! Van Dyke and I started the day at 6 a.m. on a tractor to collect 100 pans of stone. I felt like James Bond’s Martini – shaken, not stirred.. We arrived in a very stony village where the women showed their skills of carrying things on their heads, even 25 kg of stone!! (I wonder why we do not carry things on our heads in the western world. Really, it is very practical, leaving your hands free –the baby is strapped to the back- to farm or cook) Sylvesta, the financial secretary of the committee, made sure to count the pans of stone, with stone, of course..

When we arrived back in the village, it seemed that almost everyone was there; the masons were already starting their second wall of the Kindergarten building, the women supplying them with water to mix the cement with (carried on their heads of course) and the men digging a pit to gather sand for mixing with the cement. The electrician was hacking away at the walls to fit the PVC pipes into the plastering (this was their own very pro-active idea) and the carpenters were sawing, hammering and chiseling window frames for all the buildings. Of course the children were wild, they were moved to an alternative classroom, but with no walls in that building and a true spectacle to be watched, it was impossible for them to remain calm. They were even more intrigued when we tried to get their handprints into the wet plastering as a way to remember the project by. Unfortunately, the cement was too hard already so we changed plans and will let them dip their hands in paint before trying it again.

Of course all the flexing of muscles led to growling stomachs, so the women set up camp to cook for all the men and adding to the major buzz on the school ground. I myself spent the day sitting on wood to help the carpenter who ‘have no clamp, my leg is clamp’ (it looked very uncomfortable indeed), walking around taking pictures and admiring the speed and dedication of the workers, having a meeting with the painters and finally pulling on my rubber boots to have a look at Van-Dykes piece of farming land (more details on food in my next post!).

Again, thank you all so much for making this happen. The project is proof that change is possible when we all work together!

I will sign off now and get ready for another busy day tomorrow – at 6 a.m. the painters and I will travel to Ho to buy the painting equipment.
Besides, this laptop screen is attracting a wide range of creepy insects, time to log off!