The day started out really well because I was able to snag a
couple mango slices for breakfast. They’re not my usual choice for fruit, but
the bit of variety and the sweetness of the fruit here makes the mangoes a
pleasant surprise every time we get it.
For most of the rest of the day, we traveled to a community
next to the Mankessim market we frequent every time we leave Abba lodge that I
don’t yet know the name of. The nine global health interns were split into 2
groups to work on 2 latrine projects.
The hole that was already dug was extremely deep, and the
mason we were working with went down almost immediately and started working. We
started mixing cement and lowering bricks to him to start building the sewage
tank that was meant to hold about 15-20 years of waste from the latrine and
could be dug up to use as fertilizer after that time.
I knew how much work it was to build a latrine from our
project in Nicaragua, but that didn’t make the process any easier; I tried to
use my legs and not my back as much as possible, but it’s so much easier to
move with back muscles rather than arm muscles.
Throughout the day, we saw a lot of kids stop by, many of
them eager to interact with us. They ended up crawling all over us and pulling
at our cameras, wanting to take selfie after selfie. Some of the ones that were
taken:
Along the way, there was a young girl that was carrying a
3-month old. Some of the boys had started a makeshift band with some sticks and
buckets and things, which was adorable, but the fact that such loud noises were
being made next to the infant made me nervous.
Some of the boys, especially a 12-year old named Prince and
his friend Kwame really helped us out in terms of moving cement, bricks, etc.
During lunch, I had the idea of taking some of my paper from
my notebook and making paper airplanes for the kids. It turned out to be a
really popular idea, and quickly had many a child lining up to get a paper from
me. I was happy to do it, but I hated how aggressive the children became when
they tried to get either the paper or wait for me to fold an airplane. There
were kids grabbing at each other’s until they tore the paper, bumping each
other in line, getting to the verge of fights, etc. It makes me wonder how that
translates into a larger scale aid program, where poor people are suddenly
provided with a ton of valuable necessities, and the kind of violence (and
dependence) that results from it.
Eventually, the children also started to write two words in
particular on the pieces of paper they got. When one came to show it to me and
ask me to say it, they all laughed. Because I’ve had brothers who are immature
to ridiculous levels, I can feel when something is sketchy, and it turned out
that the two words that they kept writing and asking us to say translate to
“vagina.” Oh, kids these days. It’s funny that the immaturity of kids in Ghana
matches what my brothers were doing at that age.
One thing that I’m not sure I mentioned before was that most
of the women, especially young girls, have very short hair (less than 1cm).
That is apparently because girls have to keep their hair short if they want to
stay in school. I was told this from Deanna, who is obviously not a native
Ghanaian, so I’m not sure about the validity of statement but I’m interested in
why this is a requirement for school and the social/gender equality
implications of such a rule.
It had been sprinkling for most of the day. Near the end, it
began to pour heavily. It was fun to be out in the rain for a little bit and
feel the raindrops fall on me, but the last time I really played in the rain, I
got sick. I 100% do not want to be
sick in Ghana, so I went inside.
By the time our van pulled around, the rain had let up a
little bit but it had rained so much within that short time that there was a
considerable amount of water on the ground and forming puddles. I stayed in the
van for a while as our driver played music. When everyone started to pile in,
the car didn’t start after several tries, and that made me extremely nervous
because I wanted to change into dry clothes as soon as possible to make sure I
wouldn’t get sick. Our driver, though, was able to open up the hood and do some
quick work to make the car start up as planned again. What he did was a
mystery, but it was kind of cool to know that it was so simple.
At dinner, we all finally got a chance to sit down with the
German medical students in town to build a latrine in another community. I had
the opportunity to talk to Ricky, a young woman who spoke English with just a
slight accent (she said she only learned it in school, but it was really
good!), German, and some Swahili because she had gone to Kenya a while back and
that’s the primary language they speak. It was the first and only time that she
had left Europe before because she grew up on a farm and didn’t always have the
opportunity to travel with family. It was interesting to hear that some things
(like wanting to live away from family for college) are common among college
students.
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