Columbus Global Village Team leads Habitat for Humanity Mission Trips: Ghana 2005 : Friends from Awaso

Friends from Awaso

By Dave Bezaire, March, 2005
(Click photos to see full size)

Friends from Awaso are people we met and worked with for two weeks in Ghana. Their stories, told here primarily through pictures, give glimpses into Ghanian life, Habitat for Humanity's work, and our Global Village team. Click to open each title, and then on any of the small thumbnails to see some beautiful, full-resolution images.

Introduction

Welcome to the new Habitat for Humanity village in Awaso. Seven of its ten houses are visible here, and as you shall see, they are home to many wonderful people.
This report introduces you to those individuals, and to many of the other wonderful folks from Awaso that we were privileged to work with for two weeks in early 2005. Their pictures and stories will give you a unique glimpse into the living conditions in rural Africa, and a view of the hope and joy that Habitat for Humanity brings by helping them build safe, decent shelter.
Ghana is in western Africa, due south of London England. We traveled about a day by airline from Columbus, Ohio to reach the capital city of Accra. Then we rode for nine hours in a chartered bus on a route that took us through Kumasi, the only other large city in Ghana, to get to Awaso, our village home for the next ten days.

Being on the equator, Ghana is hot year round! Ghana's population is about 21 million, with a life expectancy of 56 years old (compared to 77 in the USA). The land area is slightly smaller than Oregon, which has a population of only 3.5 million.

Ghana's literacy rate, defined as the ability to read and write at age 15, is 75%. English is the official language, but most people speak a variety of tribal tongues. Those with more education tend to be more fluent in English. In the farming village of Awaso, many of the children had learned some English in school, but we needed an interpreter to speak with most of the adults.

Ghana's economy revolves around subsistence agriculture, with some development of the cocoa, timber, gold, and bauxite industries for export. Lake Volta, formed by the dam at Akosombo, is the worlds largest man-made lake. The generating station there provides electricity for much of southeastern Ghana as well as for export to neighboring Togo.
Our team was lucky to be traveling in a fairly new, well maintained bus, because in many places the roads were rough or even washed out.
Here is an aerial view of Awaso from the Bauxite mine. The village of about 3,000 people is in the left background. The new Habitat village is in the right background, to the right of the little lake. The long "slide" along the left edge is a 2-mile long conveyor that transports bauxite to a railroad for transport to the port city of Takoradi where it is sent by ship to Canada. Due to its high-quality, Ghana's bauxite is used mostly to obtain aluminum for the pharmaceutical industry.

These pictures of main street in Awaso and the new Habitat village give an idea of the "before and after" we experienced in our trip.
As one of over 365 Global Village teams who travel to do Habitat for Humanity work annually, we had the advantage of being plugged into a well-oiled machine, allowing us to concentrate on the work at hand.As we would come to discover, it was unusual for a GV team to be as knowledgeable about Habitat as ours, because we have an unusually large complement of dedicated local volunteers. As you will see, this led us to an unusual role in Awaso.

This is our team ready to get started on the first build day. Don't let those clean looking clothes fool you! They lasted only about 20 minutes, as the 85 degree morning heat wrenched copious quantities of sweat from our bodies.

Here we see several of the women in a rousing Habitat cheer, "Oyeh!", which means, "We can do it!" in Swahili.

Here is our team in another rousing Oyeh! cheer.
Singing was a part of every Habitat work day. Here is a sample of our joyous sound.

Janet

Janet is a very strong woman who you see in the picture standing in the herb garden in front of her Habitat for Humanity house. Next to Janet is a little girl who lives next door, along with the girl's mother wearing the traditional Muslim shawl.

The well in front of Janet's house provides drinking water for the entire Habitat village.
Janet's house, one of the first Habitat built in Awaso in late 2004, is one of about 4,000 houses that Habitat for Humanity people have built in Ghana since the early 1990's.
This is a common sight in Ghana, where a tremendous amount of the movement of goods is by people, typically balanced atop the head. It's not unusual to see a head pan filled with bananas or oranges, or with several gallons of water weighing 20 to 30 pounds.

Janet has raised 8 children on her own since her husband died about 10 years ago. When Habitat for Humanity came to Awaso, Janet seized the opportunity to better her life and poured her energy into establishing the organization and building her house. She continues to serve as the Vice Chairwoman of the Awaso Habitat for Humanity affiliate.
This typifies the strength we would come to know among Ghanaians. Janet supports her family by making palm oil. Each week, Janet buys several bags of palm oil nuts and begins a 3-day process of peeling, separating, and cooking them to produce the rich red/yellow palm oil which is used for cooking. She sells it at the market for about $.25 per liter. The average income in Awaso is about $1.25 per day.

Note the firewood! Janet's work, as well as virtually all the cooking is over open fires. Even in Accra and Kumasi, it was common to see people cooking over an open fire.
Janet is a wonderful hostess who helped integrate our team into the Awaso Habitat village. Here she is bringing the entire work crew together for lunch.

This is one of Janet's daughters bathing her baby. Another of Janet's older children has also applied to become a Habitat homeowner herself.
The cement-bag hats that Marge and Susi are wearing pad the head for carrying heavy loads. Shown here on our runway models are the preferred long-bill style that provides shade for the face as well.
Janet was the only adult Habitat homeowner woman who spoke any English. To help the women on our team get to know the women of the affiliate, Janet brought together a ladies-only meeting one morning.While learning how to make banku, a popular local stew, the group held a wide-ranging discussion.

They started with everyday topics like cooking and chores and moved into heavier issues like slavery and health -- including birth control and feminine hygiene. The women of Awaso had never known the convenience of a tampon nor the relief of Midol, so our team left some extra supplies behind.
Note the one man in the group… Poor Sellasie was recruited to interpret for the women's meeting. Even his gentle and patient nature was challenged when it came to discussions of tubal ligation and vasectomy—a topic which caused him to tightly cross his legs.
Far more than a bus driver, Sellasie became an integral member of our team. He was instrumental in helping us learn many things about Ghanaian language, culture, food, customs, etc. He really took care of us, both as a team, and each individual.

Near the end of our trip we took Sellasie, his wife, and his daughter to lunch—a first in his 10 years in the travel guide business.
Janet's next-door neighbor is George Tiernye, owner of the third house built in the Awaso Habitat village. He helped get Habitat started in Awaso and keeps a handle on all affiliate finances as the Treasurer.

He assisted our team on and off throughout the trip, frequently acting as interpreter and accompanying us on our errands, such as shopping for tools the first morning on site.
George's experience exemplifies the strength of family ties in Ghana. Multiple generations of families often live together, not only because of lack of funds for separate housing, but also because they bond together so closely. The resulting overcrowded conditions are terribly difficult on everyone.

In their case, George's wife has been unable to separate from her grown children, so they have not yet moved into their new Habitat house. Habitat, of course, protects against overcrowding by mandating in the ownership deed that only one nuclear family can occupy each house.

Ishmael and Ya Abiba

The Habitat homeowners with whom we worked most closely on construction are Yaa Abiba and Ishmael Attah. We worked with their family throughout the entire process.

Ishmael supports his family of 8, including one grandson, by operating his farm.

During our visit we worked on three separate houses, completing the Attah's, putting the final touches on another, and getting an initial start on the newest one.
After our first day of work in the hot Ghanaian sun, we refreshed with a shower and dinner at our hotel, and then visited Ishmael and his family in their previous single room.

The Attah family is pictured in front of the door to the single room in which they resided—all 7 of them. It was just large enough for one double bed and a 6' by 10' walkway. The only other furniture was a bench along the wall.

Their narrow courtyard surrounds 8 rooms, each housing a large family, and often grandchildren as well.
Looking out of the courtyard from the Attah's door, we see in the left foreground the latrine shared by all families living there. Just out of sight to the left is a small shared cooking room.

Beyond is the town dump. Unfortunately, the village had no organized collection of trash, so we found discarded plastic and litter everywhere.
We also visited with other future Habitat homebuyers. This woman, cares for her elderly mother in the older part of Awaso. She demonstrated how to make fufu, a common dish made from the casava root.

Our team attracted plenty of attention whenever we went to town, especially from the children.
Like most of the streets in Ghana, roads in Awaso are not paved or maintained, and subject to erosion. Along the main street are typical buildings used for both living and "Mom & Pop" businesses.
No running water, but Central Awaso has a running sewer.The young boy in this picture is standing near a water faucet at one of the village wells.

This is January, the dry season, so what you see running between the houses is not runoff from a rain.
Our Habitat escort, Solomon, talked with the family on this porch. They told him that they think their housing is just fine. Clearly people have not yet heard the Habitat message that everyone deserves safe, adequate shelter.
It's hard to call many buildings in the town "structures" given the cracked conditions of the walls.

Can you imagine sharing your front porch with the chickens and goats?
This future Habitat homeowner lives in one room in the building behind her. It looks like a two-story house, doesn't it?

That's an illusion caused by rampant erosion which has removed several feet of earth from around the building.
In a world with so few opportunities to improve one's lot, everyone looks for a source of hope. Each village has a Lotto stand, where one of the most coveted prizes is a visa to study in the United States of America.
Ishmael and Yaa Abiba decided that hard work and Habitat make dreams come true.
We'll never forget the half-mile trek to obtain over 100 special concrete blocks for the latrine—one at a time on the heads of the women. We would call Nation's Rent for a bobcat to do such a task, yet they just carry the materials as a matter of course.

They demonstrate dedication and work ethic that buried every single person on our team when it comes to physical effort. Whether carrying water, mixing cement, picking and digging earth, they had the strength and stamina to work for hours in the hot sun, whereas we needed frequent breaks.
The work pays handsome dividends, of course. Here we see the happy Attah family at the Dedication of their new house.

Don't they look formal? That is the way of all Ghanaians when the camera comes out. But don't let it fool you. These were some very excited people as we celebrated a big step toward making their dreams come true.

Anthony

Anthony Baidoo became a Habitat for Humanity homeowner in the late 1990s, and he currently works as the Construction Manager for several affiliates. Running a construction site is a major challenge when you have skilled help… just think of Anthony's reaction when 11 "green" volunteers arrived from America?

Fortunately, Anthony is a pro, having supervised the building of many Habitat houses in the region. Here is his own Habitat home in the neighboring village of Subiri.
We soon found out that despite Anthony's building skills, he did very little to organize the work and keep us volunteers busy and productive. With our team's extensive Habitat background from volunteering at home, we recognized the need for the manager to drop his tools and turn full-time attention to organization and supervision -- and we began to "coach" Anthony.

It was a bit of a stretch for him because he is normally very hands on, but we eventually had him putting us all on teams, each led by one of his skilled masons. At one point on Monday morning, Anthony looked around and said with a smile, "Look, everyone is working. Together!" The best part is that this made the volunteers just as happy as it made the construction manager.
Holding hands is very common in Ghana for men and women.It is typical in any meaningful conversation to gently hold each others' hands, which took a bit of getting used to for the men in our group. After a week, though, it came to be a natural part of the easygoing Ghanaian communication style.
Here we see the teams working together, and we also get a chance to learn how Habitat houses in Ghana are built. This house is just getting started. First a footer of concrete about 6" thick and 12" wide is laid on hard-packed ground. Then a row of "Sandcrete" blocks – which are moisture-proof so they tolerate having dirt directly against them – are laid straight and level and anchored in place with mortar.
The walls are built with "Landcrete" blocks made of clay. They are held in place with a generous lattice of mortar 1½" to 2" thick.Pre-made window and door openings purchased from the carpentry shop in town are imbedded in the walls. The entire surface is plastered on both sides with a coat of concrete about ¾" to 1" thick, which is carefully smoothed and finished. This results in a very strong and moisture-proof structure that we are told has a life expectancy of 80 to 100 years.
The corrugated steel roof is installed by professional carpenters. Can you imagine working barefoot on a hot tin roof in the sun on a 98 degree day?
These pictures show the device future HfH homebuyers use to make the clay "Landcrete" blocks from which their house walls are constructed. Each homebuyer must complete sweat equity requirements before construction on his or her house can begin. Usually it takes about 2 man-weeks of labor to make the 1500 required blocks, which can take anywhere from one to six months depending on available time.
The physical piles of blocks give a very graphic meaning to the term sweat equity. Prospective homebuyers must also demonstrate their ability to repay the mortgage by pre-paying 10 to 12 monthly payments before construction begins.
Note that the sweat equity contribution continues thru the entire construction of the house. We see here the source of water for making concrete, carried in head pans from a stream about 1/8 of a mile, mostly by the women.
Gravel for making the concrete floors is gathered from the hill behind the village. First a small broom is made by binding together the stems from a couple dozen palm leaves. Gently brushing away the dirt reveals the gravel, which is gathered by hand into a head pan and carried to the work site. Note the growing pile of gravel in the left foreground.
Anthony is also leading his Subiri affiliate in the development of a profitable farming operation. This mirrors the development of the Build It Again Center here in Columbus as a way to earn money to finance construction of more Habitat houses.

Anthony obtained funds through a grant from Habitat for Humanity Ghana to begin the farm two years ago with 3 animals. They now have nearly 30, some of which will be ready for market in the Spring. All this seems like quite a feat for a full-time construction manager who happens to be a Vegetarian! It is also notable that Anthony earns funds for his Habitat house payments by running a nursery to grow and sell sustainable farm plants.
Kwami is a 15 year-old boy who was orphaned 8 years ago when his parents died. Anthony has cared for him, and taught him the mason trade so he now has a way to support himself. Anthony is continuing to work with Kwami to catch up on the schooling which he missed after his parents died.
Anthony always has a moment if someone has something to talk about. He really became an integral member of our team and a friend to all of us.

Peter

Peter is 22, has completed Primary and Junior Secondary school, and has completed vocational training in upholstery. He is currently trying to save enough money—about $500—to begin his own business.
Peter, along with many members of the Catholic Youth Organization group that he leads, reached out to our team. They demonstrated traditional African dancing and drumming, and performed a drama which they authored to spread a message of good living.
We enjoyed several evenings of their entertainment, and at the end of our visit we made a donation to the group so they can obtain additional drums and props to further their work.
Our team was surprised to find that there were no local volunteers on the work site with us. In fact, we were a bit shocked since we'd been told we would work on 6 to 10 houses—which we implicitly believed possible given our generous local volunteer base. Solomon helped us understand the difficulty of developing volunteers from among people living at a subsistence level. In this new Awaso affiliate, the FIRST volunteers had come from 5,596 miles away! We quickly realized that part of our team's contribution would be to assist Habitat Ghana's efforts to develop a volunteer component in Awaso.

Peter accepted our invitation and was the first person from the village to volunteer—which we were careful to explain as "work for free"—at the Habitat site with us. We welcomed Peter warmly when he arrived, put him to work, and made sure he got a good lunch. He came back each of the next five days, and brought along additional volunteers like Bright and Patrick who we see with him here. By the end of the week he had become a pretty capable mason!
The search for volunteers intensified as we faced the daunting task of digging the latrine pit. What started as a simple wager between two of our team members soon grew into a challenge for the affiliate. In Ghana, a neighborhood that desires electricity service must purchase poles and hire a contractor to install them and run the transmission lines. We offered to donate 10% of the required electrification fund if they could complete the pit in one day. The affiliate leadership quickly recruited 6 or 8 volunteers who worked extremely hard all day long to complete the pit and claim the prize.
Here we see Scott handing a head pan of mortar to the masons who are lining the pit with concrete block walls.

The "improved" design latrine is odorless because of proper ventilation. It boasts dual chambers which allow 10 or 15 years of unattended operation after which they can be renewed with a simple cleaning of what has by then dried to an easily-handled powder. What a wonderful advance over the open sewers of the village!

Solomon

Solomon has been employed by HfH Ghana for two years as a "National Partner" with responsibility for much of the center of the country.

Staffing is very lean, with Solomon overseeing 22 affiliates that are each operated by the homeowners themselves.

The 250 houses they will build this year is almost half of the HfH production in all of Ghana.
Normally, Global Village teams such as ours are accompanied by the Volunteer Coordinator or Development Director from the HfH national office.

However, with a major celebration of the 4,000th HfH house in Ghana coming up, and with another GV team in the country just one week before us, Solomon was pressed into service to work with us—and, as always, to keep all of his other work up to date at the same time!

We are most grateful for Solomon's continual guidance and patient responses to our incessant questions. He truly became an integral member of our team.
Solomon was a school teacher in the neighboring village of Subiri which began lobbying Habitat for Humanity International in Americus, Georgia in the early 1990's. They formed their affiliate, began building in 1996, and had completed 50 homes three years later. They now claim to have eliminated overcrowded housing in Subiri, and have turned their attention toward building 50 additional Habitat houses so that everyone is also in safe, decent shelter.
Solomon volunteered with Habitat in Subiri, became a Habitat homeowner, and developed an intense passion that lead him to campaign for two years to get the National Partner job with Habitat Ghana.
In order to cover such a large territory, Solomon has had to leave his Habitat house behind and move to Kumasi. We took he and his family to lunch, which is when we met his adorable daughter who is pictured here.

Though Solomon's work takes him throughout the center of the country, he does not own a car. Like most Ghanaians, he travels by Tro-Tro, which are small overcrowded buses.
In addition to Solomon's passion, we were struck by the purity of the Habitat message.

Everything EXACTLY mirrors the Habitat for Humanity we know and love in Columbus: the ecumenical Christian underpinnings; the no-profit and no-interest business model; the "hand up not handout" requirement that every Habitat house is purchased at cost; a mortgage payment equal to approximately 1/4 of income; even money-making supportive businesses like our Build It Again Center, Subiri's pig farm, and Awaso's planned fish ponds.
In a small gesture of appreciation, we gave Solomon a briefcase to replace the plastic bag he'd been using to carry his papers around all week. The festive wrapping was held in place with standard issue Habitat duct tape, of course.

Solomon is an avid reader, so we also have him a copy of Millard Fuller's latest book.

Chief

Our team enthusiastically accepted an advocacy role for Habitat for Humanity in Awaso through meetings with village leaders, churches and schools. Ghana's government is a constitutional democracy, and they boast about their very successful free and "weapon-free" presidential election in December 2004.

Power is also vested in the Chief of each village because he is the actual owner of all land. One of the requirements for any new Habitat affiliate is to gain agreement from the Chief to designate an adequate building site. Visitors always meet with the village Chief and elders in a formal ceremony that includes extensive hand-shaking and welcoming. The visitor explains his mission and obtains the blessings of the Chief for it.

Gifts are traditionally offered such as the OSU Buckeye cap and Habitat pin the Chief is wearing here, and Habitat hammer necklace being put on the Queen Mother.

We previously learned that the Chief had never visited the Awaso Habitat building site, so we extended an invitation to come out during our visit. We were not afraid to use our "exoticness"—many people, especially youngsters, told us they had never before seen a white person. We hoped to also inspire the Chief to see Habitat first hand.
The importance of family extends to ancestors who are always honored in the meeting with the Chief by pouring a libation -- usually schnapps or gin -- on the ground amidst an elaborate prayer ritual. Sometimes, such as our meeting with the Awaso Chief, the entire bottle goes to the ancestors.

Other times, such as our meeting with the Chief in Subiri, a glass is brought out and each person in turn takes a sip of the libation.

Ackah

Ackah Boampong welcomed us upon arrival. He helped establish Habitat in Awaso, and continues his leadership as the Chairman of the affiliate. We also came to know Ackah as a teacher in the local Anglican Church public school.
Our team's research prior to the trip revealed an intense need for additional educational resources in Ghana. We brought along some donated school supplies and funds, and a vague plan to try and determine an effective way to apply them. We were pleased to learn of a new program the Habitat Ghana national office is rolling out in mid-2005 into which we can channel educational funds and know they will be effectively utilized.
Children are housed in meager buildings such as these with few windows and no amenities. We found a startling contrast between the physical conditions and the people in them.
Inside we found polite students—attentive and hungry to learn—
—and many teachers dedicated to educate them.
Supplies were another matter. How can they practice writing without pencils and paper?

How can they learn geography without pictures of the world?
We decided to visit all of the Awaso schools as part of our advocacy role. We purchased some additional school supplies in the neighboring town of Bekwai and split up into six teams of two on Thursday morning.

We distributed a few things to each child.

They responded with rapt attention and open appreciation.

It was gratifying to see the obvious value these children place on a few simple supplies.

Every student received at least a pencil and exercise book. Each school received a handful of pencil sharpeners to share.

The book bag used to haul in the supplies was given to the "most deserving" student in each school.
Soccer is an important Ghanaian pastime. This field across from our hotel was used constantly from the time school ended until dark, and we heard vague references to an upcoming "sports festival."

We gave it little thought until we handed each school two soccer balls that we had brought along from Columbus.

It seems that, in response to the children's complaints about not being able to practice for the big event, Father Thomas, Anglican Pastor and school teacher, had been instructing them to pray for soccer balls for the past three months.

Imagine the joy when their prayers were answered just one week before the festival!

Imagine our own deep feelings—ranging from joy to an intense frustration at not being able to do more—as we observed some of the most radiant smiles in all of Africa.
Chairman Ackah is living in his house by now. These pictures give a sense for the progress over two days, from footers through foundation and the first few courses of block.

Fr. Thomas and Susi

Father Thomas is the Pastor of the Anglican Church in Awaso and a school teacher.

Father Thomas's mother, wife and daughter are all named Susi, and, by coincidence, Susi from our team had visited his school, and then met his mother at church on Sunday.

Here we see Susi with Susi.
After conferring with Solomon, our team decided to further our Awaso advocacy by visiting all of the village churches on Sunday.

Father Thomas, who we had already met at school, was very receptive, and helped us to make the necessary arrangements.
Once again we divided into teams of 2 and spread out through the village.

We found people to be extremely devout—some 97% of Ghanaians claim to be Christian.

Of course, the very familiar looking Christian services were punctuated with traditional African drum and dance rites, especially at the collections of the offerings. Yes, plural. There always seem to be two collections.

An Awaso Habitat homeowner accompanied each team and spoke as well—even though most of them were rather terrified at the prospect of being in front of a congregation.

At each church we delivered a couple of simple messages. The first is Habitat's mantra that ALL people deserve safe simple shelter—and through Habitat, they have a way to obtain it.
The second request was for everyone to put their faith into action by volunteering once per month at the Habitat site.

Father Thomas brought this group of students to the site to volunteer with us for several hours one morning.

Here we see Father Thomas with trowel in hand,

and one of his students helping carry block.

Although our stay in Awaso was very short, it is our hope that we were able to plant the seeds for continued growth of the Awaso affiliate through community support and volunteerism.

Adu and Memunatu

Adu has about 1,200 coconut oil palms and hundreds of cocoa bean bushes on his 32 acre farm. He explained that he works it alone because he could not possibly afford to hire any help.

He is proud that his children do not help on the farm. Rather, one is in vocational school to be a mechanic, another is in Junior Secondary School, and the other six are in primary school or pre-school.

Although the Awaso affiliate is just getting started, already they point to the Dauda's as a sterling example of success.
Note the custom block work he has added to enclose the front porch of his Habitat house…

…and the neat paint job inside and out. In the living room Adu have added a wood ceiling and a shelving unit that holds dishes, keepsakes, and even a television.
The Dauda's also have a rare propane cooking stove.

Needless to say, Adu is working hard to bring electric power to the Awaso Habitat village.
This is their very beautiful little daughter.

One of our team members started cleaning up trash from around the Habitat village before the dedication ceremony and enlisted this young lady's help. She enthusiastically took up the task, refusing to quit until the whole village was spotless.

Dedication

Our building efforts culminated with the dedication of two Habitat houses. The village showed their appreciation to our team through a formal ceremony.
Here we see Chairman Ackah and Treasurer George linking Awaso to Columbus.
Another pastor dedicates the first house.
Ishmael and his family listen as Father Thomas, standing next to Solomon, prays over the Attah's new home.

Once again, although everyone seemed joyous and happy, they all displayed the serious pose so typical of Ghanaians in front of the camera.
The village Chief visited the Awaso Habitat Village for the first time for the Dedication, and toured a completed house.
Our team leader, Susi, was enstooled as "Queen Mother of Development" for the village of Awaso

She was brought up to sit next to the Chief for the remainder of the Dedication.
The Awaso Habitat Affiliate showed their appreciation by giving each member of the team a beautiful African shirt or dress.

They had taken the time to measure us earlier in the week, so everything fit perfectly.

Here is team member Natasha next to Habitat homeowner Janet. Who do you think is happier?

Life in Ghana

With building work complete, we visited the most significant historical sites in Ghana.

Much of the slave trade from Africa to Europe and North America flowed through Ghana because of the protected port facilities at Elmina and Cape Coast. We visited the two most prominent castles which housed untold numbers of unfortunate people in terrible conditions, and then sent them on to lives of slavery in the "new world".

The visits were chilling, with evidence of man's inhumanity to man so close and tangible. As distasteful as these images are, we feel compelled to remember what happened so that we resolve to never let it occur again.
On a lighter note, chickens and goats roamed everywhere, and we even got use to seeing cattle on the main highway.

Our hosts went out of their way to try and please us by serving American food. Every day at our Cane Basket Hotel we had onion & green pepper omelets for breakfast and chicken and rice for both lunch and dinner. OK, sometimes they served rice and chicken...

The man on the right offers a "bush rat"—more accurately known as a "grasscutter"—for sale. These animals are hunted in the wild for their meat. Unfortunately, the methods are anything but sustainable, using large scale burning of the countryside and poisons. Hopefully efforts to raise grasscutters domestically will catch on soon.

Most of Ghana's economy is based on single person businesses, whether they be subsistence farmers or merchants. The vast bulk of the inventory is also very evident, as almost every foot of roadside in populated areas serves as a storefront.

On the right we see a woman at the Subiri market offering dried fish, pork and beef. Unfortunately, it was displayed in the open, and available to the flies as well. We can only hope that over time improved sanitation standards reduce disease.
Since English is Ghana's official language we could read all the signs, but some took a bit of getting used to.

Shell has a campaign to let folks know that they have "honest" pumps? Apparently something relatively new?!?!

The devout Ghanaians keep God foremost, which is evident in the names of virtually all of their businesses and even Tro Tro services.

Picture this crowded market street and consider a number of the more humorous business names we saw:
- God is King Motors
- Sisters in Christ Beauty Salon
- Psalm 23 Drinking Club
- In God Brake and Clutch Works
- God First Fashions
- Glory and Honor Fashions
- God is the Provider Shoes
- God Is Able Meat Market
- Showers of Blessing Mini Super Market
- God's Time is the Best Hardware Store
- Prince of Peace Photo and Video Productions
- Christ is the Answer Magazines
- While I Have Hope Hair Styles
- My Redeemer Livith Hardware Store
- The King and I Eye Clinc
- Jesus the King Saloon
- Even Jesus Was Hated Tro-Tro Service
- God's Finger Farm

Americans

Enjoy a look at all of the people on our team. You can also learn a bit more about them on the Team Members page. Remember to click or touch to see larger size images!