Tales from Ghana 2010: The Village Part 1

Maire gets down to work with daughter and Yaarah Operations Manager Ramat

By Maire Tejani, Founder and CEO of Yaarah Schools

On the 17th September, Rob Atkin and I (Maire Tejani)  went off to Ghana to continue the project with the money we had raised in the last few months.  At Heathrow, our luggage was so over the limit due to us taking some tools to workers in the village of Aziedukope in the Volta Region of Ghana. On arrival in Accra, Ghana our luggage took about 30 minutes to arrive.

We went to the village the following day as planned although it was pouring with rain and visited the project site for a progress check. The next steps were to begin the building of the classrooms 3, 4 and 5, buy tables, chairs and door for classroom 1 and 2. At the next village-Ahunda- we rented 2 rooms where we stayed during our visits on the project. This was in order to save time and money travelling from Accra to Aziedukope everyday.  We managed to speak to the local counciler Alex, who covers the area including the village of Aziedukope.  We returned to Accra on the same day.

Our next visit was on Monday and had to travel to HO the regional capital of the Volta Region to buy all the necessary materials for the project.  During buying of the materials, we had to keep Rob out of site in the car because he is an “Oburoni” (whiteman), otherwise prices could triple for us.  Haggling is the norm here or  you pay a higher price for everything!  We were welcome by Alex when we return from the shopping trip to the village at about 6pm.  We settled down in our rooms ready to experience village life with no TV, outside bathroom and toilet (a hole in the ground), no kitchen, fan or air condition. Just basic living conditions but at least there is electricity to console us. Check for more village stories and a project update next week.

Thank you to all our supporters, volunteers and team for making all this possible.

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