A Warm Welcome...Round 2

Hello family and friends!

Wow, not one but two blog posts in the same day. (We had meant to post the previous one yesterday but encountered some technical difficulties.) As a result, we are able to give you a two for one deal--two posts, one day! (Also, apology for the lack of pictures...we will look to resolve that for tomorrow's post!)

We traveled to a new community today just outside of Bolga. We would love to report that the people we're welcoming and eager to see us...but that could not be further from the truth. We arrived first to the latrine sight to find that the necessary materials to build the structure with had not been collected and as a result we would not be able to start construction today.

We then traveled to the site of the pump and again the community seemed indifferent to our proposed work. It was then that we realized we needed to bring our concerns about the project to God and held a brief prayer meeting as a team in the village. After that, things started to quickly improve!

A difficulty we faced today that did not pose to be as much of a hurdle in Tamale was the language barrier. Since all of the schools are taught in English, most of the children know the language well, but many of the adults do not. Twi is the trade language so many are familiar with that. However, in the more rural communities, many of the adults only speak their local dialect.

Thankfully, both Noela and Gabrielle (World Vision Ghana employees that have been traveling with us) are fluent in Twi. However, in this particular community, many of the adults only spoke their local dialect. Noela found someone to translate from Twi to the local dialect as she explained the project.

Between all of these languages going back and forth, you can guess where that left us: lost. Very, very lost. However, that did give us an incredible opportunity to observe the body language of both the audience and the speaker and try to piece together what was going on in the conversation.

The transformation from the beginning to the end of the local village was incredible. Though they were hesitant to recognize the importance of the new pump structure and sanitation in general, the community left the meeting singing and dancing. Yes folks, that is singing and dancing in excitement of this project. Singing and dancing!

As a result of the community involvement, we were able to complete the pump modifications in one day! What a change from just a few hours earlier that morning. The pump modifications included a ramp (particularly designed for persons in wheelchairs but also convenient for others in the community) and a lifting station (to assist the people in lifting the heavy buckets of water to their heads.)

We all had lots of fun building the pump superstructure with the community involvement. All of us got a lesson (and practice) in carrying buckets on our heads (though don't expect a demonstration when we get back.) And yes, Elizabeth did receive several marriage proposals though no one was able to post the price of 50 cows for her hand.

At the end of the day, the community gifted us four guinea fowl and were very grateful for the work we had done. The transformation in attitude we witnessed today reminded us of a story that Gabriel had shared with us. Gabriel is a technician with World Vision Ghana. When he first began work on the latrines several years ago, he spent and entire year just talking with people in e villages about the importance of sanitation and hygiene. In that whole year, he was only able to convince one community to build a latrine. The next year, he continued educating the communities but was able to build three latrines. Following those times, the information about the importance of these structures to both health and hygiene has rippled through the communities. It is our hope that this message will continue to spread and that, by using local materials, many communities will begin constructing their own facilities without the assistance of World Vision.

Following our time at the community, were able to meet with some members of the Ghana Blind Union as well as a a local assembly woman who is blind herself. The documentary team was able to film interviews with many of the individuals there. While the team completed the real work and conducted the interviews, Elizabeth instead found herself playing freeze tag with some of the children of the interviewees.

We are looking forward to completing the construction of the pump modifications tomorrow and beginning the construction of the latrine as well. Here are some specific prayer requests we would ask you to keep in mind:

--Pray that the communication barrier would be more easily worked around and that the community would begin to embrace and adopt the new practices for sanitation and hygiene.
--Pray that the construction of the latrine would be successfully completed and that the community's indifferent attitude to the latrine would be transformed in a similar way to that which we saw today.
--Pray for the continued safety of the team and community alike as we work together to construct these structures. 
--Pray for open doors for us to engage the community and for bridges of trust to be built between the team (and World Vision staff) and the village.