Akropong - Presbyterian University Center

I thought this meeting with the PUC Water Board may have been the best to date.

Backing up a little bit, Jim learned last night that the two senior members of the board were not going to attend the meeting - both away from Akropong. At that point it felt like the meeting might be a formality.

However, the rest of the board was very engaged in the meeting and were transparent with us as to their challenges. I don't know for sure, but my guess is the group at the meeting is very close to the daily activities of the CW system and the distribution of the water,

They set the tone of the meeting by presenting us with a formal report that outlined the Operation, Scope of their Services, a segmented break down of who they are supplying water, the benefits they are seeing, etc. Blew me away.

They are filling over 200 5 gallon bottles a month - this may not sound like a lot, but given their two big constraints - it's not bad.

The two issues they have are consistent power and the need for more bottles. We talked through the challenge they have with consistent electricity and figured out through another initiative they have going with the greater presbytery, they can probably fold in a more consistent source for power.

With regard to the need for additional bottles, we think we developed a solution for that as well.

We spent some time at their water system, see pictures, allowing MIchael to troubleshoot a small problem with the way the operator was cleaning one of the filters and how the operator was keeping the daily records.

Morning in Akropong (Updated)

I updated this post with a picture of the rain from out sidewalk porch. Ended up being a pretty good tropical shower.

Jim & I awoke this a.m. to a pretty good rain storm.

For sure all the water systems that are catching rain water for their source got a big boost with this rain storm this morning.

Akropong sits at a fairly high elevation as compared to Accra, so the winds off the coast last night were great.

This morning we have a meeting with the Presbyterian University College here in Akropong. The PUC has a system that has neem struggling, so having Michael, the LWW tech travel with us to Akropong will be beneficial to figure out what problems the PUC operating team is experiencing.

Nsawam

This morning we packed up and left Nsaba and began our journey to Nsawam, but not before visiting with one of the seminary classes.

Before I left the US, our household went through a purging of all the hats we don't use anymore - we came up with about 35-40 hats. So I packed them in my bag and brought them to Ghana. Jim and I have been handing them out along our journey so far and this morning we emptied the bag at Nsaba before we left.

Take a look at the picture and I bet many of you can see a part of you represented in these hats.

Sorry Stephen, but your Lynyrd Skynyrd trucker hat is now in Ghana. I thought for sure I told one of your brothers to pull it out of the mix - but now Sweet Home Alabama rings in Nsaba.

We traveled to Nsawam today where we visited BOPA. BOPA is a school for girls in the heart of Nsawam, we literally had to ask street vendors to move just to get inside of the school compound - it was a small sea of people to say the least.

BOPA is run by a minister named Dora. Dora has got to be one of the most dynamic and entrepreneurial people I have ever met. If this lady wasn't working for God, she'd be the CEO of some company.

BOPA is hugely committed to the clean water project. Clean water is front and center to all they do. BOPA catches huge amounts of rain water from the roofs of their buildings and I lost count at just how many reserve tanks they have that are holding water.

The one problem BOPA does have is that because they are catching rain water off the roofs, the water going through the system is laced with fine dust from the Sahara. So, the good news is that the local clean water tech, Michael, was with us at BOPA and he was able to provide some additional insights and training for the BOPA operator that will hopefully help improve the removal of the dust. There is a picture of the operator by the clean water station.

In addition, Jim knew of the problem and brought a little finer level of filter for Michael to install to see if that improved the removal of the dust as well.

One of the pictures you see below is the tank that catches all the rain water from the roofs and is the source tank into the clean water system which there is also picture.

BOPA (Dora) is taking girls, mostly the most vulnerable, from Nsawam and the surrounding villages and she is teaching them to be "self sustaining". BOPA teaches the girls two things: 1) an academic curriculum; and 2) a trade. The girls are trained in either cooking, sewing, or dying and printing of cloth. The program is a series of training and then placement as an apprentice and then more training and then another placement, etc. until the girls are ready to leave BOPA and go back home or relocate to somewhere else.

The current school compound is small based on the number of girls (80) attending BOPA. Some years ago Dora obtained some funding to build a new campus (100 acres) out in the country side where BOPA could serve more girls and BOPA could provide more education and training of trade. We actually saw the new campus and partially built building on the way to Nsawam.

Dora's vision is to expand the girls capabilities into agriculture, car repair, welding, etc. to where they are able to participate in even greater opportunities in the work force.

This lady is changing lives.

Dora doesn't want to depend on anyone. She wants BOPA to be a self sustaining and always growing institution. She has struggled to raise the remaining funds needed to complete the new campus mainly because she is also the chief fund raiser - so its difficult to take time away from the day-to-day of BOPA and spend the necessary time and energy to raise the capital.

In the mean time, they take the girls every other weekend to the campus and spend the night looking forward to the future.

We arrived to Akropong a little while ago for the evening.

The World is Flat

Just running through my emails and someone asked my how in the world if I am out in the middle of nowhere can I be sending emails, texts, let along updating a blog with pictures.

Well, we may be in Nsaba, Ghana working on clean water issues and sleeping in a building with no running water, but Nsaba has great electricity and great cell phone coverage (5 bars).

Therefore, I have access to the internet.

Most everyone (adults for sure) have cell phones. We have started every meeting off with passing a list around the meeting asking for name and cell phone number.

In fact, Jim has a local phone he uses here and we had to stop yesterday along side the road and let him "score" some minutes for his phone by buying a prepaid card with minutes.

Friedman said that technology is flattening the world - this blog is an example...of course along with chicken wings and satellite TV!

It's Universal

For those of you who know my wife, Chalmers, you know she fights an uphill battle everyday with household of all males - me, 3 boys, Luke (the dog), and Greer (the cat).

There is always a directive, discussion, debate, protest, etc. around clothes on the floor, "why does your stuff have to be in the middle of where we live..", the consumption levels of milk, and so on.

Dinner has become an art for Chalmers. The schedule is always challenging with practices, meetings, etc. The menu, i.e who like green foods - who doesn't, who likes fish - who doesn't, etc. is more like a crossword puzzle exercise than menu planning.

Probably the steepest part of the daily hill is when we all can have dinner at home together - where to serve the meal. The majority of the household would like dinner on their own "turf"..Luke likes his bowl on the patio by the den door, Greer likes his food served on the driveway outside of the garage, and the rest of us about 6 to 9 feet directly in front of THE TV.

Chalmers has adapted well however, now when she wants the family to sit at the table for dinner she goes ahead and sets the table and then waits for one of the boys or me to say.."so we're having dinner at the table tonight, huh?" - in a tone like Columbus discovering the new world.

In fact, when Chalmers gets pressed - she knows she can always throw out some wings from Gus' and a starch or two in front of the TV and the hounds will circle up and do what they do.

BTW - it even works for me as the other day I caught John & David taking a meal in front of the TV while watching an ice hockey game on some 700+ channel. I asked them what they knew about ice hockey and David said..."it's hard to see the puck".


So I tell you the above to tell you the below (and this is for you Chalmers):


As you all know Jim & I stayed at the Presbyterian School last night in Nsaba.

Dinner was planned at 6:30 p.m. with the school's chaplain and our driver (Samuel).

If I hadn't told you the above, you probably would have had a picture in your mind of us sitting around a table talking about the school, politics, cultures, etc. You'd be wrong.

Jim & I showed up to the room for dinner and in front of us was...the local form of chicken wings, white rice, and noodles all laid out about 6 feet from....you got it...THE TV.

There was a FIFA soccer semi-final game on TV being broadcast live from Germany. I am not sure we knew who was playing - Samuel knew one team - but that was about it. It didn't matter - it was the game.

So, there we were trying to have a little bit of dialogue while taking in our wings, rice, & noodles all while watching a game that no one really had a vested interest.

The takeaways are:

1) Chicken wings and a couple of starches fill the belly and soothe the soul of the male gender, AND
2) It's not about the sport, it's about the GAME, AND
3) Guys might not be able to find where they laid that last clothing item or we might have to be reminded about that upcoming special date, but you can bet one thing for sure - with a little help from electricity and satellite TV where ever we are in the world we can find a game on right at dinner time!

It's like home.

It's Universal!

Nsaba

We arrived at Nsaba, about a 45 minute drive from Awisa early afternoon.

The water system is installed at a school that resides on the grounds of a large Presbytery facilities, i.e. church, etc.

This install has been not as productive as it was planned to be in the beginning - three years ago. The idea was that if you install the system and train the students clean water will get broad acceptance. It did! Initially. However, what wasn't taken into account was the turnover of the students, faculty, and administration. In other words the knowledge and motivation was lost over time and the students, etc. now don't believe they have clean water onsite and therefore bring their on water.

Good news is that the gap can be closed and that the church and school leadership are on board as to the priority of closing the gap. Jim & I have some ideas that we covered a couple with the Water Board will cover the rest with Kofi later in our trip.

Kofi headed back to Accra a little while ago, probably a 2 hour drive, and Jim and I are staying here tonight since tomorrow we are headed out not in the direction of Accra.

Kids have all just piled into the cafeteria building and even though I don't understand all the words - sound to me like any cafeteria full of kids in Memphis.

Weather was hot today, got a little shower late this afternoon that broke some of the heat - but like Memphis in July - it's humid!

Here are some pics from the school in Nsaba.

Awisa

Arrived at Awisa a little after noon today.

JIm, Kofi, & I met with the Awisa Water Board - a group of about 10 people from the local presbyterian church and boys school.

The Water Board has some good questions around obtaining more 5 gallon bottles, how to provide water to those in their community that are really in need, and how they could sell some of the water to help offset the costs of the system's operation.

The Awisa system is based on catching rain water. So for about 3 months out of the year the cisterns run dry because of lack of rain. The Water Board is considering a bore hole to either be an additional source for their LWW system OR have an additional water supply for non-drinking applications, i.e. washing clothes, bathing, etc.

Awisa is probably one of Idlewild's best examples of of how a system should function to support the needs for drinking water related to the boy's school and church. Idlewild is at the end of it's 3 year covenant with the Awisa Water Board. Going forward Idlewild will certainly be interested in how Awisa is doing and is available to help - the benefits of the system are now up to the Water Board and the Living Waters Ghana network to sustain the system.

JIm was telling me that before the system was installed AND the health & hygiene training performed that the boys school did not have a place in the school for the boys to wash their hands - now the school has a wash basin just for washing hands.

I asked the headmaster of the school has the number of illnesses related bad water have gone down since the system was installed and training performed.

Some pics from Awisa