Time for Celebration!

Time for another update on the Ahunda School Project! Only a few days have passed, but each day is packed with activities and it seems like ages ago since my last post. Thank you again for your generosity it is fantastic how involved you all are! We are now only 2390 nok away from completing the entire project :-)

Not long from now I will reach the status of expert in African construction. I find myself walking around the city of Ho, with my SAP rugsack on my back. It contains a dusty (that is the common condition of most things here) laptop as well as: paint thinner, padlocks, bolts, a price list paint and metal rods, concrete nails (it’s getting heavy by now) and last but not least, some mosquito spray. What I lack in blood and tears, I certainly make up for in sweat! It’s hard work, but it pays off and I’m pleased to say we are still on track!
On Tuesday we bought up 5 stores worth of paint, loaded them in a truck and headed to Ahunda, which sounds easy but took an entire day! I was happy not to participate in Wednesday’s trip: buying up all the wood in Ho. They didn’t come back until after sunset!
It’s amazing what some paint can do, the junior high school is actually transformed from a gloomy ruin to a bright and neat building, fit for the learning of chemical elements and mathematical formulas.
The carpenters have finished the door- and window frames which have been plastered into the building for extra durability. The masons had to take a break today, not because they are enthusiastically religious, but rather because ‘hard work, we tired’. And right they are.
Tomorrow we’ll talk with the ‘water tank guy’, he’ll use 10 bags of cement to make 2 large water tanks that will collect rainwater and provide the kids with drinking water, something they do not have today. They bring water from home after carrying it (on their heads) from the village tap where it can be bought from the village ‘water man’.
We are all aware that the final deadline is next weekend when we will celebrate with a grand ceremony followed by a football match – how else would one celebrate such a great accomplishment?! We have invited the team of neighbouring Waya, mostly because we have a remote chance of winning (not all our guys have shoes) and also because they host a volunteer too, making it a very international happening.
In the meantime, the progression of the project called for a little taste of Ahunda entertainment. On Wednesday, I was working at my PC when I noticed some suspicious movement outside my Guesthouse. I opened the door to find some twenty community members starting to beat their drums and clap and sing enthusiastically. Pretty soon half the village was there, laughing and singing and even shaking some of their abundant behinds.. I have recorded one of the songs on my mobile phone, to become my future ringtone!
Life outside construction also continues to teach me the Ghanaian way. This weekend, emotions soared at the funeral of Van Dyke’s Auntie, north of Accra in Sogakope. I had been invited to the ceremony, together with around 500 family- and church members all dressed in black. Let me tell you, I felt like a white reflector and was happy to coincidentally be wearing brown.. When the corpse arrived, Auntie was decorated with lots of lace, beads and plastic flowers. The women danced around her coffin wildly (at times I was reminded of the chicken dance), singing and waving their handkerchiefs. They were accompanied by a swinging brass- and jazz band, New Orleans style! Tears and laughter mixed and I was encouraged, although uncomfortable, to take pictures of everything. This was surely quite different from the European way and I have to say, I wouldn’t mind such a party sending me off when my time comes!
Coming home to Ahunda today, I had planned a little celebration of my own: a bottle of cold Coca Cola! Last week, I was, rather absurdly, honoured with an old and dented freezer!! A great idea here in the tropics, but it generated so much heat, that I could not use it than anything else than a table. That is, until Evelyn took it into her room. Because it’s old, it doesn’t freeze very well but cools fantastically, so it has become very popular with all our neighbours. Today it must have been having a good day; I had to cut the bottle open with a penknife to get out my frozen coke!
Very refreshing…