In the Village: Day 1

Hello friends and family!

Scene One:

For most of our team today began at 4:00 a.m. with a symphony of unusual sounds coming from our West windows. Was it singing we heard?  Shouting? Crowing?  The roosters valiantly competed with the call to prayer from the nearby mosque.  That’s one way to get motivated for quiet time!

Scene Two:

Panoramic shot of savannah with clusters of mud walled, thatch roofed compounds separated by yam fields, dotted with mango trees, accented by flocks of guinea hen and chickens.  The team bows in front of the village chief, thanking him for his welcome to the community and requesting permission to proceed with their project.

Today we spent our first day working in the village. World Vision has selected a community just outside of Tamale in which to construct the modified pumps and latrines. We received a warm welcome this morning from the entire village (including the village chief).

Noela, a World Vision employee who has been helping to coordinate our trip and a native of Ghana herself, led a community meeting to explain the project to the village and take any questions or suggestions they had. We then met with the men of the village (who will be the primary ones constructing the technologies) and the women (who will be the primary ones utilizing the technologies) to discuss our ideas and receive feedback and suggestions from them. We were blessed to have some wonderful translators to help us communicate with the people in the village.

Noela featured with some of the members of the village leading the community meeting. 

The documentary duo (aka Derick and Rodney) were able to conduct several interviews today as well as collect additional footage from the village. The community we are working in includes several physically handicapped people, a visually impaired individual as well as a growing population of elderly members. These groups of people will be the ones to most benefit from these improved technologies and their stories  provide important insight for the film to include.

In the afternoon, we bought the construction supplies for the project in Tamale. The film crew was also able to interview another physically handicapped individual who also serves as an advocate for the disabled and works at a local radio station.

We plan to start construction on the modified pump and latrine tomorrow morning at 7 am to avoid working in the hot afternoon sun!

We also thought you might enjoy a personal update on each member of the team. Here was our day in a nutshell:

Nate: Nate managed to make a mess of his food at lunch while the rest of us had no trouble keeping our food either in on the plate or in our mouths. He also wanted to make sure that his wife knew that he didn’t finish his plate (take note Amanda). 

Believe it or not, this does not capture all of the mess...there was more on the floor!

Derick: Derick made small children cry in the village. We are thinking it was because the big bad black camera frightened them (or the fact that they had never before seen people as white as us in their lives.) 

Elizabeth: Elizabeth tipped over a disc-like object (filled with water) in the village thinking it was a Frisbee. It wasn’t. Instead, it was a dish filled with water for the chief’s chickens.  Lesson learned: if you’re in a remote village in west Africa, chances are the disc-like object filled with water on the ground is not a Frisbee.

Evie: Evie has shamed us all with her incredible memory of names and faces, giving Nate more of a reason to feed her to the crocodiles. She also requested to use the pit latrine at the village soliciting many smiles and surprised faces from the community.

Rodney: Rodney kept a low profile today. Perhaps he knew personal updates were coming tonight and did not want to be featured. We may have to do this again another day…

Prayer requests:

--Pray for the construction of the pump and latrine tomorrow in the village, specifically for the safety of those working on it, the establishment of a final design and the cooperation of the village as we work with them.

--Pray for the film crew as they work to gather additional footage and interviews they will need to complete the documentary.

--Pray for the continued support and cooperation that we have received from World Vision (specifically Noela) and the local community. We could not do this without them!

--Pray for the continued health of the team as we move into the field setting.