A night out

I wanted to post some photos I took from a night I spent out in Accra with Lauren and Akrofi a week or so ago. On this particular night we went into Accra to the Alliance Francais for a concert. The performance would be the kick-off to a jazz festival the institution was holding. We went for dinner, were able to look at an art showing, drank some free nescafe (really addicting instant coffee!) and sat down for the show.

Two bands played: first was a drumming group that was really great. They all wore matching outfits and were so enthusiastic about their music. They all had huge smiles on their faces and moved as one with their music. It was a really dynamic performance, and it was really cool to see the different shapes and sizes of drums they had with them.

After the drumming group a jazz duo played. Their music was good, but wasn't as powerful as the drumming, and became a bit monotonous after a while. Regardless, an evening of live music is to be enjoyed. It was a fun outing. We spent that night at Auntie Renee's house in Accra, although it was a bit hard for me to fall asleep after the coffee!

Time flies... when you're having fun

Wow. Its been far too long since I've written... sorry about that! Time goes by so quickly here....

Well, at work things have been moving along pretty quickly. I've been working closely with Lauren and Auntie Renee to draft the training manual for the GSB program. The whole training initiative seems to be on fire with excitement and vitality.... as we say in Ga, "wo bag b3 am3" (we will kill them!)

The training manual document continues to evolve. At this point in time it is thirteen pages, and still going! Every day we sit in the seminar room with the document up on the projector so the three of us can go over edits together and brainstorm new content.

Today I continued working on the visuals for the document, which is my area of responsibility. I've been compiling a great deal of photos of the trainees and their activities, and even taken a few videos. The document is going to be very long and packed with ideas and information, so I want to be able to include LOTS of images. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words eh? I am also going to put the videos together into a video presentation. I'm waiting to start that because I know I will be recording a lot of new content soon. Another part of the visual presentation of the training are some charts and diagrams explaining the structure of the training as well as the philosophy of it and its evolution. It's really inspiring to work on.

In the afternoons we often go across the street to the Design Center for discussions and workshops with the trainees. We've begun a program where each of the trainees has an opportunity to teach something to the group. So far Talata has taught us how to make our own earrings, Commey told us a story from traditional culture (his grandfather was the chief of Kokrobitey village when he was alive), and Mr. Morrison told us another story that sparked a heated debate on whether or not cleverness is a good characteristic of a peacemaker. It is really amazing to see the intelligence of these young people and their capacity for abstract thinking. We have some better discussions here than I do in some of my college courses!

I have been able to contribute to the workshop series by teaching the trainees how to draw. I began by teaching them simple one point perspective, and we spent a few lessons practicing and learning how to apply the concept by drawing a road and houses in perspective. Today was the trainees' first lesson in two point perspective. They picked it up so quickly! I am beginning to be so proud of them. I've never had the opportunity to teach like this, and I am absolutely loving it.... I'm learning just as much as I'm teaching! We seem to have a really great learning environment going.

I've been learning the Ga language as well. There are several different tribal languages spoken in Ghana, but the two languages spoken in the Greater Accra region other than English are Twi and Ga. Twi is actually more common, but since most obrunis (white people/foreigners) choose to learn Twi, I've decided to go against the flow and learn Ga. I am thoroughly enjoying it, and am beginning to pick up on what people are saying. Its a long process, but slowly I'm getting there! Everyone seems to have new words for me and I am learning from everyone.

Well, thats all I have for now, I will have more posts coming on other topics, like social life, food, new friends, etc. If I wrote it all down now I'd probably have a novel! I will attach some photos below of the training. Also, here is a list of the participants in the program:

Me
Lauren
Akrofi
Larteh
Mr. Morrison
Akos
Maame Esi
Maame Yaa
Maame Adjoa
Commey
Teteley
Talata
Kor Kor
Dzifa

The Design Center- where the sewing machines are

Maame Esi helping another trainee on the sewing machine

Talata's jewelry workshop, left to right: Maame Yaa, Talata, Kor Kor, Dzifa, Commey

Cleaning recycled inner tube for use in designing bags and jewelry, left to right: Dzifa, Kor Kor, Elorm, Teteley

out and about

Ah, yes... the weekend!

After staying in Friday night and resting, I was ready for some fun on Saturday. I went to the beach with Lauren, Akrofi, and Larteh, who works in the office with us at the Institute. We had a great time relaxing, and I went swimming for a while and then went for a walk down the beach to dry off. It was exactly what I needed!

Unfortunately at the end of the week we ran out of gas for the stove, and when we replaced it, the gas started leaking. So, I had no stove for the weekend. We ended up doing most of our cooking at Laurens and having dinner/movie nights.

On Saturday after dinner I got ready and we all went out to Reggae Night at Big Milly's.... of course. As usual, we hung out, had some drinks, enjoyed the music, and danced until the night was over.

Sunday morning was perfect for sleeping in. After a breakfast of oats I did some laundry (by hand of course) and put my things out to dry. I then joined Lauren and Maame Esi for a walk into town. Lauren had decided to get extensions put in her hair, and we went on a search for the right color hair. After finding it we went to a small salon for a few hours while she had the extensions put in. They came out great!

Being at the salon convinced me to get my hair braided like the last time I was in Ghana... perhaps this upcoming weekend I will get them done! It does take all day though.... :-/ While Lauren was getting her hair done I got to play with the hairdressers baby boy Chief. He was so adorable!

After dinner and a movie that night it was time for me to pass out and get some rest for Monday- the first day of my second week of work!

my first workweek

I know this post is coming a bit late, but its all good :)

Friday the 30th of September concluded my first week of work! It just flew by; I seem to have no sense of time here. During the week I continued work and completed the book on the Ghana School Bag Training Initiative.

I also helped Akrofi and Mr. Morrison in the Design Center to create a mechanism for marking patterns for the Kindle cover. Our main goal has been to streamline the production process of the bags by creating systems and methods of producing several bags at a time. The pattern marking mechanism is fairly simple; after all, we must work within the constraints of the tools and materials readily available to us. We are in Africa, after all. We began by making a tray for a pile of the already cut pieces to rest inside. The template with the marking pattern is another piece that fits perfectly into the tray and is used as a stencil. The template will be on a hinge so it can be easily lifted and put in place as the operator has to move the already marked material. Our only problem was how to account for the diminishing height of the pile. The hinged template would have to be attached in a way that allowed it to rise and fall according to the height of the material pile in the tray. I was able to create a design that used a slot for the template to slide through, allowing it to move up and down. I understand this is a little hard to visualize, so I will post a photo of my sketches:

We made a model of the mechanism to make sure it worked, and put in a request for the materials with our carpenter. Right now we are waiting to construct it- Amazon has just released a new version of the Kindle that has smaller dimensions than the old one. That means we will have to redesign the Kindle cover to account for the new dimensions. We will wait to build the mechanism until the new pattern is resolved.

That's the short version of what I worked on this week. Next up: the weekend!