Saw this the first morning I was in Accra.
A less commercial section of "Oxford Street" (Cantonment Road) where tourists gather.
Who wouldn't want to have their furniture made here?
Cars get fueled at Goil, people at the coconut cart.
The Afia Beach Hotel abuts the Atlantic Coast. The Danish built Osu Castle, now a military base, is in the distance.
Young man selling Fanmilk yougurt packs and icecream. Those packets, as well as the water satchets, generate an immense amount of rubbish. Many NGOs try to get women (typically) to collect, disinfect and sew them into bags and wallets. http://trashybags.org/ is an example.
View from the Kejetia tro-tro station.
Ben buying his first stove
The girl in the middle just ran down the hill with Meg and Julianna, two IDDS participants, just for the joy of it. I love it!
There were walls and walls of these ads in Kumasi.
S/he was definitely taking a nap!
Kumasi, near the Cultural Center
Kejetia Market--the largest market in west Africa. Believe it. This picture represents at most 10% of it. See the map.
Shoemaker
"I'm just doing this because I'm on holiday from school..."
Ben and the guy who sold him a coal oven, and a cake pan in the shape of Ghana!
Ben buying his second stove. The man is happy even though talked him down to 1/5 of his asking price.
Possibly the only female metalsmith in the area--who thought we paid 3 times more than we should have. Ah, Obruni tax.
Ben stencilling the IDDS logo on a piece of sheet metal at ITTU, the "incubator" at Suame, and official workshop for the IDDS folks.
Suleman was by far the coolest dude I met in my entire time in Ghana--from his bucket hat to his slightly oversized denim shirt, to his laid back stance, to his calm, deliberate walk.
And Ben said the man is a genius with thin metal.
Ben without his bag!
Ben and Amy.
A coal furnace at Stone Foundry. Cool video of the entire process of stoking the furnace, melting iron and pouring the molten metal to follow.
The cleanest bus I saw.
The bead market
The small variety of eggplant that they grow there are called garden eggs.
I've also seen crabs at markets, and prawns on sticks near a toll booth, but I've never seen any of these on a menu.
The food prepared for Obrunis are mild. The spiciest meal I had was on a road side in the middle of nowhere.
The discs are pepper grinders, to be used with a wooden pestle shaped like one of those acrobatic toys people roll and swing on a piece of string. Know what I'm talking about?
Here's the wholesale yam market
Yams from different farms are marked with different colors
I've never seen yam like this before. I call them big-foot yam!
One of the traders
Shea butter
The bag of stinky fish I alsmot had to sit in front of on my way out of town. (See blog for details...)
Bonwire: A couple of houses down from the main intersection. This man was introduced to me as a master weaver. His grandson, who chose to finish his education, was also a weaver, selling his craft to supplement his education.
A young man weaving in front on his house
Another loom sits across the other end of the porch
One of the few cotton pieces available at the weaving institute. The majority are now made of synthetic fibres.
An old, silk kente cloth displayed, and is for sale.
Indeed, 80% of the stores on the two main streets sold kente. Some families have their own stores, other weavers place their creations with these stores.
A young man applies the screen and dye with swiftness and accuracy, on alternate squares and rows. Red is fresh dye, orange-brown is dried.
When he's done, his little helpers take the piece to dry in the sun, and bring him a new piece.
Silk screens used for creating the adinkra cloth
Elmina Castle was a trading post for gold and other materials for the Portuguese for 200 years before the Dutch and then the English found a more lucrative trade in humans. They expanded the fort.
At the Elmina Castle, the female captive who was selected by the governor would climb up these stairs that led to his apartment above.
The few who were brave enough to resist being raped by the governor were shackled with ball and chains, and made to stand in the courtyard without food or water.
Captives who rebelled were locked into this airless room for months on end until each one of them died in this cell.
The Cape Coast Castle was the final holding post for captive Africans where those who survived the journey to the coast, estimated at 1 in 15, were held here, often for months under horrifying conditions, physically, and of course mentally. The men entered from the outside, down a ramp, through the opening to the right. The spy hole in the top, middle, is where soldiers would shout mostly unintelligible orders. Yes, they had to enter through the chapel above to get to this spy hole.
The second room that the captives would enter.
A shrine has been set up in one of the dungeons
One of the female cells
View of Cape Three Point in the distance. Oil has been found off shore.
View towards Dixcove (away from Cape three points)
My luxurious chalet (outdoor shower beyond)...
The woman, in the front, carrying the small branches had post-polio atrophy in one of her legs. She had to hike up and down a hill to get back to her compound after gathering the wood. My good guide took the log from the small girl in the back and carried it for her.
Lots of excitement as I approached the town, back from my hike.
A few fishing boats had come in, with their catches. The townspeople gather, as curious as I was.
Early morning visit to the mangrove swamp
My guide, Emmanuel, a 20-yr old, thoughtful young man, who had just finished the free, junior secondary school (grade 9). He's waiting for results and hoping to attend senior secondary school in the fall. SSS is not free, costing about US$20 per semester. Many girls and boys do not have the money to go on. He also mentioned that his football team can't travel, even though they're very good, because they are lacking a sponsor. Wouldn't it be cool to have each of these teams partner with a suburban your team, who would also provide scholarships, one for a girl for each one for a boy?
The Women's Trust office is located in the Area Council building, which also houses a health clinic. Outside taxis congregate. The WaterHealth facility is immediately to the right of the building.
Gertrude, the fearless leader of Women's Trust-Pokuase. She certainly reminds me or Arethra Franklin. She was tremendously helpful.
Rohan, the Women's Trust summer intern extraordinaire, and Sami, who wears too many hats to count!
The engineer at the WaterHealth plant
(Mostly) attentive students taking their exams at the Roman Catholic School. Women's Trust has already built them two extra classrooms and will continue to do so.
This lady yelled at me after I took a picture of her and other women at the market. It turns out she wanted me to take a picture of her when she's prepared and properly showing her palm nuts!
The first time I saw an entire bunch of palm nuts. The guy thought I wanted to buy the whole bunch...
I wandered away from the main drag, found myself in an area where a bunch of kids were playing. I hung around, taught them to play tic tac toe, and put-a-girl-on-a-pedestal (my euphemism for hangman).
Each of these buckets cost 50 pesawas
Folks can also come with their own vessels
To economize, many still get water to wash clothes from a pool down the road. The girls and women I asked were very aware that this water is not fit for drinking or cooking.
Both Abigail and Sami were incredibly helpful in setting up the trainings. Their relationships with the teachers and principals were invaluable. I could not have done this without them.
