A Big Thank You!

Meet Madam Isabella. Isabella ran into our arms every morning and night with a big hug and an even bigger smile. She's 4 years old and being looked after by her uncle's wife and two teenage aunts. Isabella's playful imagination and charming personality made us fall in love with her from the moment we met.
It is hard to think of such a special child filling her days by playing along the road where her sisters sell oranges when she could be in school. School tuition, books, and uniforms are expensive and with her mother and father absent, school is not easy to afford. With the help of your donations, we've been able to leave money to ensure that Isabella gets the opportunity to go to school. Her family greatly appreciated it and we know Isabella will too someday.



Patricia and Patrina are Isabella's twin aunts who help look after Isabella for their older brother. Their own father is not around to pay for school so they spend their days selling oranges at the side of the road. These bright young women are about to turn 17 and would like the opportunity to continue their schooling. With your donations, we were able to pay for both of their annual school fees to help end the cycle of poverty through education. Patricia and Patrina will not forget your generosity.



This motorcycle is more than just a transportation vehicle for Abraham, a beadmaking cassava farmer. It will be used to carry sick villagers and heavy bead making supplies for an entire village called Sebrino. The town is located in the middle of nowhere on a road in the middle of nowhere and then 2 miles up a mountain in the middle of nowhere. It was the most unaccessible community that we visited during our stay in Ghana, but one of the most welcoming. This motorcycle in the picture was donated many years ago by another NGO, but has been broken down for a very long time. Abraham has no money to fix the motorcycle since he has a daughter at university and another child in high school. (AMAZING!) The sacrifice not to fix the motorcycle to afford education for his children comes with many hardships for Abraham and the entire village of Sebrino. Luckily, we tracked down the motorcycle at a repair shop in town where it was stripped down to almost the bare frame and engine. We were able to surprise Abraham by leaving money with Global Mamas to ensure that the bike is repaired properly. This is sure to make a huge improvement in the quality of life for Abraham and the other beadmaking villagers.



Richard is an ambitious young man who works in the Global Mamas office and quickly became our friend. He came to Cape Coast by himself when he was a teenager to look for his father. A well-wisher named Eli took him in and has cared for him like a mother. Most boys in Richard's situation might have dropped out of school, but he continued to persevere. Richard has been saving his salary for a very long time to afford to further his education at a university. Without parents and student loans, university is a very big expense that is unaffordable for the large majority of Ghanaians. Through his hard work, he is leaving for university in Kumasi this month to study computer science. Richard can barely afford tuition and isn't sure how he will pay for food and housing without working multiple low-paying jobs. To acknowledge his hard work and dedication, we decided to help him concentrate on his classwork by donating money to help with his school expenses.


Thank you to everyone who donated and supported us during our time in Ghana.

Elmina Slave Castle

I stood in the same dark cave where many women stood 150 years ago and hoped to die. My fingertips pressed against the same walls where they clawed the musty concrete trying to stay in the dungeon filled with months of feces, urine, vomit, and menstrual blood. The stagnant air inside the cave still smells vile. The slave trade was something everyone studied during history class, but standing inside the slave castles was a different lesson.

In the center of the four dungeons that held the women was a small courtyard. Above it, a second level with a catwalk that led to the general’s bedroom. The women were brought into the courtyard where the general walked along the catwalk to select the woman he wanted to rape. The soldiers then washed the months of filth from the woman’s body. Once suitable, she would be led up a stairway to the bedroom to be raped. The women who fought back were chained and tortured on display in the courtyard to deter others from resisting.

For a few, there would be one solace. If they became pregnant, they would spared the journey across the Atlantic ocean. The general and the soldiers kept the mothers and their lighter skinned children in nearby homes. The children were given proper education which developed into the first Ghanaian schools. It is said that many of the locals with Portuguese or Dutch last names are descendants of these women.
After visiting the women’s dungeons, we were led to the caves that held 600 men at a time. Often times, tribes captured other rival tribes and brought them to the castles to trade for goods. Men of the same tribe were separated to make communication difficult. The captured men were fed a small meal only once a day to weaken them and lessen the chance of an uprising. There were men called “freedom fighters” who risked their lives to free other slaves. When a freedom fighter was caught, they were thrown into a prison cell baring a skull and crossbones. The guards would wait 3 days for them to die from starvation or dehydration.

The enormity of the castle is difficult to express. The one we visited in Elimina is the largest in the world. Between the giant fort walls lies a large two-story Catholic church built by the Portuguese. Years later during the Dutch occupation, the Dutch also built their own place of worship inside the castle. As we walked through the churches it was unsettling to feel the irony of religion in the middle of such sin.

The tour of the castle ended with the tour guide asking for us not to focus on the past injustices, but instead to use our energy to ensure humanity never again repeats such crimes against each other. He recited the following verse that is inscribed on the main wall.

IN EVERLASTING MEMORY
OF THE ANGUISH OF OUR ANCESTORS
MAY THOSE WHO DIED REST IN PEACE
MAY THOSE WHO RETURN FIND THEIR ROOTS
MAY HUMANITY NEVER AGAIN PERPETRATE
SUCH INJUSTICE AGAINST HUMANITY
WE THE LIVING VOW TO UPHOLD THIS

Pictures of the castle
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26883529@N02/sets/72157606857168929/

Our work in Cape Coast - Money Talks

It’s hard to believe we only have a few weeks left in Ghana. The past month we have been enjoying our time in Cape Coast. Besides being a much bigger city, it is a larger volunteer location and production site. Our volunteer house is filled with 12 people of various ages from all over the world. We have volunteers from Japan, Scotland, China, Iceland, Canada, Nigeria, and the U.K. The cast of characters is completed by our housemaid, a talking bird, and a batty old security guard named, Appiah, who spends most of his time stealing our bread and practicing his aim with his homemade slingshot.

The office in Cape Coast is a much busier location with a retail shop below and a production office above. Women in Progress (WIP) employs 10 locals who manage the orders and ensure the items meet the quality standards before being exported. It is a complex process involving over 50 independent producers who must work together to complete the order on time (without email or normal forms of business communication!). It is amazing to think that just 5 years ago there were only 6 producers and a very small office. Now, WIP provides a source of income directly to 300 men and women and indirectly to over 1,000 more locals.

Our mission in Cape Coast is to ensure the wages are fair and to educate the women on distribution processes and costs of doing business. Over time, the producer’s morale has become a big issue for WIP. Many women feel they are not being paid fairly because they sell their goods for more money at the local tourist shops than WIP pays them to produce for export. They are also used to getting handouts from other organizations as a result of the foreign aid in Ghana. It has been intriguing to hear the women complain about WIP when we found they are making 4x’s the minimum wage. We figured the women would be happy about the growth of Global Mamas (and many are), but others feel like they should get a cut of the growth and don’t understand that there is very little profit for WIP. All of these morale problems directly impacts production delivery and quality, not to mention the WIP staff relations.

To educate the women on this issue, we’ve designed a presentation and role-playing game to illustrate WIP’s operational expenses and the difference between retail and wholesale prices. Ghanaian women are typically reserved, but become animated like Nigerian film stars when role-playing so we’re looking forward to some good entertainment. In the end, we hope that the education will improve morale and prevent women from leaving the program. The alternatives for supporting their families are few and a solid partnership is vital for WIP to continue to grow and reinvest in Ghana.

Here's a link to our pictures from our volunteer house and our time with the member's from Iowa's Lutheran Church of Hope!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26883529@N02/sets/72157606857568827/

Change of Scenary

Hello Everyone,

Sorry for the delay in the blog update. During the time since the last post, we moved to Accra and exchanged our rural village experience for the bustling city life. In Accra, Jon and I returned to a desk job to help WIP prepare to launch a new fair trade ecommerce website. It was a difficult transition from our time in Krobo. No longer the celebrity “obruinis” in town, we had to readjust to the differences in culture and lifestyle. We also had to readjust to using utensils, bowls, and napkins with our meals instead of drawing our food from a hole in a plastic sack. After indulging in western meals and gaining a few pounds back, we were happy to finish our project in Accra and leave for our third location.

We are now in Cape Coast to work on a cost and wage analysis for the fair trade apparel. Cape Coast is a gorgeous ocean city a few hours west of Accra along the rocky shoreline. Jon and I have been enjoying our morning runs with the ocean breeze, but were shocked to find the sandy beaches littered with human feces. The problem is so bad that it is impossible to run on the beach without playing hopscotch to avoid the messes. The lack of public toilets is a major issue throughout this country. It is tragic to witness the beautiful natural resources being spoiled because the government hasn’t invested in basic necessities and policies against pollution. In many cities the garbage is pumped to sea and trash decorates the shoreline. Instead of building larger soccer stadiums, why not build an infrastructure that would support the growth of the tourism industry? In the areas along the coast where the villages have kept the beaches and ocean clean, there are fabulous resorts that are prospering from tourists.

Cape Coast is also home to two strikingly beautiful castles that are an eerie reminder of a past that was once anything but beautiful. These castles once held thousands of slaves before they were shipped to America during the days of the slave trade. We plan to tour the castle in the next few weeks to learn more about this time in history.

This past weekend we were able to take a safari in Mole National Park which is about a 20 hour journey to the northern part of Ghana. In the north the landscape is very different. Large mosques and circular huts replace the Christian churches and square homes. The locals dress in traditional muslim attire and the call to mecca blares from loudspeakers at the daily worship times.

The trip to Mole was quite an adventure for us. After traveling all day in uncomfortable conditions, we were finally a few hours away when our tro-tro broke down on a seldom traveled dirt road. Darkness began to settle around our group as we waited for them to repair it without success. Luckily, one last vehicle of the night passed by and we flagged the truck down. It was filled with marketwomen and their produce, but they agreed to take us the rest of the way. We hurriedly fit 16 more people and bags into the back of the truck and rode the rest of the way under the stars.

After finally arriving at the hotel around 10pm covered in red dirt from the road eager for a shower, food, and sleep, we discovered that they had given away our rooms. Despite 3 phone calls to confirm the room during the week, they assured us that they had no record of any such thing. After an hour of begging and minor extortion, the receptionist decided she would ask the community for mattresses and charge us to sleep on the floor of an already occupied room. That night we all shared mattresses for a short night’s sleep before the morning safari.

Daylight was kinder to us as we left for a walking tour to see the animals. On the safari, we saw several elephants, monkeys, baboons, and waterbuck from just a few feet away. In the afternoon, we went deeper into the bush on a jeep safari in hopes of seeing different animals. While we didn’t see anything new, it was still a cool experience to sit on top of the jeep and roll by the wildlife in their natural habitat. We returned to the hotel for the night and relaxed in the pool overlooking a dipping pond where the elephants were cooling themselves. Later when we were in our room with the door open, a monkey almost came right inside our room, but he quickly left when he found out he’d have to sleep on the floor.

It was one of those weekends where all you can do is laugh at the situation because you know these experiences are only in Ghana.

Link to more pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15177460@N07/sets/72157605789225277

Back to School

Thanks to your donations, we were able to return to the village near Boti Falls armed with books, notepads, crayons, and other supplies for the teachers and children. When we arrived at the classroom constructed from mud and palm tree branches, the children eagerly greeted us with the few lines of English they had memorized for our visit. The kids at this school carry their handmade stools with them to and from class, some walk for for miles just to attend. Although the children ranged in age from 3 to 10, they all learn the same material since this is their first exposure to schooling. The teachers are volunteers from the villages who have attended only a few years of school themselves. The leader of a Ghanian nonprofit named “Big Mama” spends her time once a week teaching the teachers the lessons before they teach the children.

One of the ways the children are learning English is through music. The adorable smiles on their faces as they sang the songs to us was captivating enough to forget for a moment the reality of their future. With no source for clean water, access to health care, or proper education, the truth is that these children are more likely to master the concept of hardship than of opportunity. And, even among those vacant of basic opportunity, one child in this village will most certainly have none at all. I would tell you his name, but it is common for the villagers not to name the mentally challenged or physically deformed babies. It is believed that these children are in a state between life and death and will go home to God soon. They are typically given names of objects if they are given names at all. According to the locals, the boy in our pictures was not able to speak or hear, but a fellow volunteer was able to teach him how to high-five and play peak-a-boo within a few minutes of working with him. We wondered what else he could learn if given the chance.

After visiting the school, we also walked to see the living conditions and water source for the villagers. The water collects in a small pool at the bottom of a steep hill that is over a mile away for most villagers. It is typical for only the women and children, not the men, take this journey to fetch the water later used for bathing, drinking, and food preparation. Although the water appeared fairly clear, it is not healthy and they are at risk for many waterborne diseases.

Although the Akaa school wasn’t one of our projects we came to Ghana to work on, we couldn’t resist wanting to help these children and villagers. The basic school supplies purchased with your donation money will not only help the children learn, but also provides a glimpse of opportunity for change.

In addition to our work through Women in Progress, we’re look forward to funding additional projects with the donation money. Thanks to you for all the love and support!



Here is a video of the children learning to speak English through songs. We try to teach them "The itsy bitsy spider" at the end of the video. If the video won't play, you can try this link.

Here's a link to more pictures from the school


http://www.flickr.com/photos/15177460@N07/sets/72157605789225277/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15177460@N07/sets/72157605789225277/show/

Misc Pics

A new posting is below, but here are a few miscellaneous pictures since our last update.

Click here for the pictures

Click here for the slideshow

Week 3 Photos

Click here to view Week 3 photos. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15177460@N07/2570716439/in/set-72157605558846366/

You can also view it in slideshow form here http://www.flickr.com/photos/15177460@N07/sets/72157605558846366/show/

Sorry we don't have a story prepared to accompany the photos this week, but it seems nothing goes quite as planned here in Ghana.  Jon is working on an update to our glass sales and 

I am working on writing about our trip to an orphanage and also our experiences traveling to a very remote bead making village called Cebrino.  We hope to add it soon.

Take care and I hope those of you in the Midwest are keeping safe from the floods!