Email Number 5
Email Number 5
July 9, 2006
Accra, Ghana
Hello Everyone, hope your day is going well!!
We are doing fine. We have been very busy this past week traveling and doing training for work.
First, we continue to be amazed at how small the world has become, yesterday, we called Adam and reached him on his boat, crabbing on Puget Sound. He sounded like he was next door and we had a really good talk about crabs, kids and other mundane things. We talk to our kids often and every once in a while we get one of the little ones to say a word or two. Jeremy, of course has real conversations and we love talking to him.
We have moved into our new apartment and it is fine. (see photo) Living in an apartment African style is a bit of a challenge. Everyday we come home or wake up to another small crisis. One day we came home to find a strange man breaking the floor in our dining room (to replace some tiles), another we came home to no water, then no electricity, then the toilet leaking. Everything gets fixed or replaced, but it is all done in a sort of slow motion. Peter has even learned to slow down. Amazing! We have done a very luxurious thing, we hired a housekeeper. She come 3 or 4 times a week, cleans, does the washing and ironing (everything here gets ironed including underwear and socks), and cooks. She is very nice and a great cook. She calls us Mommy and Daddy, which is a sign of respect for elderly people, and gets upset with me if I do the dishes. I am having a hard time getting used to having someone serve me, but I bet I can do it. By the way, all of this is costing us $70 for two months plus the cost of food. As you can see labor is very inexpensive while other things like housing, fuel, utilities, etc are considerably more expensive, especially for locals.
I’d like to tell you a little about the environment we live in. Here in Accra there were many villages. Over the years the chiefs of the villages have sold off the land to developers and in many cases have only kept small parcels for members of the village to continue to live in. So what has happened is that there are small villages, maybe 3 – 4 square blocks, with mud houses, no electricity and no plumbing, surrounded by beautiful homes that cost approximately $400,000 and more with all the accoutrements to match the price. Our house borders one of these villages. One of the photos shows a couple of leather couches being made. They were being made for us, right in front of our house. The furniture maker and his assistant came every day for a week and built these two couches and 2 chairs from scratch, using pieces of cardboard for backing and rubber strips from tires for springs. They are the most comfortable furniture that we have sat in here, (and elsewhere in Africa as well).
Now for work, we spent last week in a town called Hohoe, (“Hohwoy”), a 4 hour drive northeast of Accra in the Volta Region. Pro-Link, the organization we are working with has a project office there and we visited them, their project sites and did a few days of training to 9 staff members (see photo) on report writing, more efficient work methods, computer use to make you work easier, and photography. By the way, anyone who has a digital camera that works but is not being used anymore would really be helpful to this group. They have an old film camera that makes funny noises, and film/developing in places like Hohoe is pretty expensive. Let us know and we will make the arrangements to get it here.
While in Hohoe we were taken to several of their project sites; people were overwhelmingly friendly, hospitable and welcoming. We were given palm wine, oranges, danced for and with (see photos) and generally had a wonderful experience. We have told you before that the Ghanaian people are the most friendly we have met and this last week only confirmed that.
We also spent some time with a group of college students doing a 7 week construction project for AJWS. They are all from the US and
Canada, and are helping to build a youth center for a poor village school. We spent a few hours on July 4th with them celebrating with a barbeque. They were a nice group and we enjoyed spending time with them.
By the way, while we were in Hohoe, Peter realized he forgot to bring a pair of shorts so he went to market and bought a pair for the grand price of $1.66. We also discovered that people who don’t have scales will tell you how much they weigh based on bags of cement. “How much do you weigh? One and a half bags of cement.”
Last but not least, for all of you who have expressed willingness to donate to the Keta tree project, we want to say thank you!!! We have been delighted by your response and continue to get more donations everyday. We are sure we will be able to meet the goal.
Peace, love, and hugs to all of you!
Hinda and Peter
July 9, 2006
Accra, Ghana
Hello Everyone, hope your day is going well!!
We are doing fine. We have been very busy this past week traveling and doing training for work.
First, we continue to be amazed at how small the world has become, yesterday, we called Adam and reached him on his boat, crabbing on Puget Sound. He sounded like he was next door and we had a really good talk about crabs, kids and other mundane things. We talk to our kids often and every once in a while we get one of the little ones to say a word or two. Jeremy, of course has real conversations and we love talking to him.
We have moved into our new apartment and it is fine. (see photo) Living in an apartment African style is a bit of a challenge. Everyday we come home or wake up to another small crisis. One day we came home to find a strange man breaking the floor in our dining room (to replace some tiles), another we came home to no water, then no electricity, then the toilet leaking. Everything gets fixed or replaced, but it is all done in a sort of slow motion. Peter has even learned to slow down. Amazing! We have done a very luxurious thing, we hired a housekeeper. She come 3 or 4 times a week, cleans, does the washing and ironing (everything here gets ironed including underwear and socks), and cooks. She is very nice and a great cook. She calls us Mommy and Daddy, which is a sign of respect for elderly people, and gets upset with me if I do the dishes. I am having a hard time getting used to having someone serve me, but I bet I can do it. By the way, all of this is costing us $70 for two months plus the cost of food. As you can see labor is very inexpensive while other things like housing, fuel, utilities, etc are considerably more expensive, especially for locals.
I’d like to tell you a little about the environment we live in. Here in Accra there were many villages. Over the years the chiefs of the villages have sold off the land to developers and in many cases have only kept small parcels for members of the village to continue to live in. So what has happened is that there are small villages, maybe 3 – 4 square blocks, with mud houses, no electricity and no plumbing, surrounded by beautiful homes that cost approximately $400,000 and more with all the accoutrements to match the price. Our house borders one of these villages. One of the photos shows a couple of leather couches being made. They were being made for us, right in front of our house. The furniture maker and his assistant came every day for a week and built these two couches and 2 chairs from scratch, using pieces of cardboard for backing and rubber strips from tires for springs. They are the most comfortable furniture that we have sat in here, (and elsewhere in Africa as well).
Now for work, we spent last week in a town called Hohoe, (“Hohwoy”), a 4 hour drive northeast of Accra in the Volta Region. Pro-Link, the organization we are working with has a project office there and we visited them, their project sites and did a few days of training to 9 staff members (see photo) on report writing, more efficient work methods, computer use to make you work easier, and photography. By the way, anyone who has a digital camera that works but is not being used anymore would really be helpful to this group. They have an old film camera that makes funny noises, and film/developing in places like Hohoe is pretty expensive. Let us know and we will make the arrangements to get it here.
While in Hohoe we were taken to several of their project sites; people were overwhelmingly friendly, hospitable and welcoming. We were given palm wine, oranges, danced for and with (see photos) and generally had a wonderful experience. We have told you before that the Ghanaian people are the most friendly we have met and this last week only confirmed that.
We also spent some time with a group of college students doing a 7 week construction project for AJWS. They are all from the US and
Canada, and are helping to build a youth center for a poor village school. We spent a few hours on July 4th with them celebrating with a barbeque. They were a nice group and we enjoyed spending time with them.
By the way, while we were in Hohoe, Peter realized he forgot to bring a pair of shorts so he went to market and bought a pair for the grand price of $1.66. We also discovered that people who don’t have scales will tell you how much they weigh based on bags of cement. “How much do you weigh? One and a half bags of cement.”
Last but not least, for all of you who have expressed willingness to donate to the Keta tree project, we want to say thank you!!! We have been delighted by your response and continue to get more donations everyday. We are sure we will be able to meet the goal.
Peace, love, and hugs to all of you!
Hinda and Peter
posted by Peter and Hinda Schnurman at 3:30 AM
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