Day 2 in Senase

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April 16, 2013 by oceangirl821

We woke up to a breakfast of porridge and bread. You add sugar and condensed milk to the porridge. It was similar to that we had in South Africa.

When staying in a village it is customary to meet the chief and elders to be officially welcomed to the village. So we all walked over to the palace where they were waiting for us. Fred briefed us on the etiquette of meeting everyone and we went in. There were drummers playing and a girl dancing. The elders were all sitting in chairs and we walked around the circle and shook hands with our right hand ONLY. Our left hand was to be behind our back. We had to bend over slightly as we shook their hands since they were seated and we were standing. Once we had shaken all their hands and taken our seats, they got up and came to us and shook our hands.

They then introduced themselves and their role in the village while Fred translated. They officially welcomed us and said that we were now welcome to roam the village as locals.

When we left we split up into 2 groups and went to 2 different elementary schools. The one I went to was in the next village, Akatim. We bumped down a very rough dirt road and saw many people walking alongside the road. Fred said they walk all the way from Senase to farm plots of ground along that road.

When we got there the kids in the outdoor lean-to classrooms jumped up and were very excited to see us. The lean-tos were the only classrooms they had until Fred built them a school building 2 years ago.

We split up in groups of 2 to go into the classrooms to help teach. My friend Maggy and I were placed in a classroom of 7 11-year olds. Their teacher didn’t show up that day so we were their teachers. We handed out school supplies that our group had brought with us. Maggy was awesome. She’s a finance major so she taught math. One girl was super smart and one little boy couldn’t subtract 1 from 1. I sat with him most of the time trying to teach him very simple math. I taught a little geometry. Maggy asked them to write their name and their dream for their future on a notecard. They had no idea what she meant. We reexplained that it’s just what they want to do when they get older. They still weren’t totally sure what we meant. The smart girl said she wants to be a doctor. Others said policeman, soccer player and picking mangoes. It was eye-opening to realize that they don’t really have “dreams” like we do. That’s something that we just grow up thinking about. They just live day to day and very few of them will have the opportunity to do anything different than their parents.

A bell rang for us to go to “break time.” The boys played soccer and the girls played clapping and jumping games. We had so much fun with them.

We were there for about 4 hours. As we left and started down the bumpy dirt road, Fred asked us if we’d mind if we picked up some of the people walking along the road. We picked up a total of about 8 or 9 people. One group of guys brought their dog with them. They all stowed whatever they were carrying under the bus and seemed really excited to get on the bus with us. It was great.

We got to Senase and reunited with the rest of our group. Fred led us to the center of the village to see the water pump that SAS money had purchased. Construction had begun on the water tank and plumbing that our trip had funded. The women still have to carry the huge metal bowls of water on their heads back to their homes. It just amazes me that they can put something that heavy on their head!!

When we were headed back to Fred’s for lunch we heard this loud sound coming over the hill towards us. The school there had just let out and the kids were running toward us and were all screaming. What a sight that was! We were a little intimidated – LOL.

For lunch we had my favorite Ghanaian dish – Red Red. We had it in the buffet lunch on our way to Senase and I loved it! It’s fried plantains and a mixture of black-eyed peas, spices and palm oil on the side.

Everyone spent a couple hours with their host family before we moved on to our next activity.

To bid farewell to the village the next morning, we were going to have to perform a dance for the chief and elders. So Fred had a dance instructor and a drumming instructor teach us a cultural dance called agnadwa. Five of us learned to drum while the rest of us learned the dance. Thank goodness no one had a video camera.

Two of our people had actual showers at their houses, others took a bucket bath. Then we had rice and a leaf and bean stew for dinner. Fred’s mom is a great cook!

We loaded into our bus with a few of Fred’s brothers and friends and headed to a local night club. Our dance instructor came with us too! It was at a hotel and we were the only ones there. We learned all sorts of Ghanaian dances, had a couple beers and headed home. I think Fred and his friends had even more fun than we did.