Hi!
It's been generally quite pleasant in Ghana the past week or maybe the smell of my skin singeing in the hot sun just doesn't bother me anymore. Saturday was a sorcher but it worked out perfectly as that's the day we decided to take the village kids to the beach. It was great fun!
I am craving some quality protein right now. Goat is a poor substitute for... well anything. On the other hand I'm a huge fan of Kenke and Shitto (i know... but that's the name... it's shame) - "It da B phaaa". I've had it 3 days in a row now.
I'm keeping well and have forgotten to take my malaria pill only twice in the last two months.
I went to Ghana vs Gambia yesterday with the older kids from the orphanage - it was great fun! Drums, singing, dancing and plain old fashioned screaming - it was a true ear splitting Ghanaian experience. Bye!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
To go to Togo and be in Benin
Yes - I came up with the title all by myself.
The new geography lab was inaugurated yesterday. I'll try and upload some pics later today (such a hassle uploading pics with this crappy internet). The kids were every excited! We brought our class over and got them to find a whole list of countries and cities and write down their latitude and longitude. They loved it! They loved finding the cities where their favourite football teams are from - Barcelona, Madrid, Manchester etc... Ryan has done a great service to this community.
Today we are hoping to use the globe to show them why we have day and night and that the world is actually round. It should be fun!
This saturday I'm leaving for Togo and Benin for 1 week. I'm quite excited about Benin - it being the source of voodoo. Voodoo (or fetish or juju - as they call it here) is quite big in the village here as well and Awo was telling all these crazy things she has witnessed with her own eyes. She promised to take me next time there is a ceremony though Bianca was freaked out after the last and doesn't want to go again - I'm very excited to see what has all these well educated people convinced. Awo, Nana Yaw and even Bianca believe in it even if they don't follow it. There is a big voodoo temple at the top of the hill behind the village as well which Awo promised to take me to one weekend.
The new geography lab was inaugurated yesterday. I'll try and upload some pics later today (such a hassle uploading pics with this crappy internet). The kids were every excited! We brought our class over and got them to find a whole list of countries and cities and write down their latitude and longitude. They loved it! They loved finding the cities where their favourite football teams are from - Barcelona, Madrid, Manchester etc... Ryan has done a great service to this community.
Today we are hoping to use the globe to show them why we have day and night and that the world is actually round. It should be fun!
This saturday I'm leaving for Togo and Benin for 1 week. I'm quite excited about Benin - it being the source of voodoo. Voodoo (or fetish or juju - as they call it here) is quite big in the village here as well and Awo was telling all these crazy things she has witnessed with her own eyes. She promised to take me next time there is a ceremony though Bianca was freaked out after the last and doesn't want to go again - I'm very excited to see what has all these well educated people convinced. Awo, Nana Yaw and even Bianca believe in it even if they don't follow it. There is a big voodoo temple at the top of the hill behind the village as well which Awo promised to take me to one weekend.
Friday, June 6, 2008
The Project
I probably mentioned in a previous post how I was doing some IT stuff here. I think it's a cool project. So here's what it is:
1. As I mentioned OA doesn't believe in institutionalised care and therefore have a number of children in foster homes - where possible with relatives or family friends of the deceased parents. OA provides them with money to look after the child, to send him/her to school, for medicines etc.
2. Social Workers visit the children to ensure they are doing well and are not being neglected or mistreated. They visit at different frequencies - ranging from once a week to once a quarter depending on the circumstances.
3. They file a report after each follow-up which is reviewed by the director of OA or Lisa for signs that the child needs further attention or taken out of the foster home. This could be things like - child no longer at school, child looks weak and malnutritioned, foster family hasn't collected money, signs of abuse.
Problems with this process:
1. Right now all this is done on paper - obvious problems with that considering there are 600 odd kids all over Ghana.
2. No formalised process where reports can be rejected and more details requested from Social Workers.
3. No reminders for SW to visit a child. SW sometimes is late or forgets to visit child.
4. No reporting!
So... I have the task of automating it using PHP, MySQL, SSL etc. It will be a webapp.
Biggest problem I have right now is getting access to a computer where I can work! So if you have spare laptops you wish to donate let me know. Would have been great if I could have kept my accenture laptop. My second biggest problem is creating a webapp with only 4 hrs of solar power.
Another cool thing - I'm blogging from a OLPC - One Laptop Per Child. Look it up on google. Someone donated one recently. Very awesome.
On a personal note - there has been no running water for a week now :S
1. As I mentioned OA doesn't believe in institutionalised care and therefore have a number of children in foster homes - where possible with relatives or family friends of the deceased parents. OA provides them with money to look after the child, to send him/her to school, for medicines etc.
2. Social Workers visit the children to ensure they are doing well and are not being neglected or mistreated. They visit at different frequencies - ranging from once a week to once a quarter depending on the circumstances.
3. They file a report after each follow-up which is reviewed by the director of OA or Lisa for signs that the child needs further attention or taken out of the foster home. This could be things like - child no longer at school, child looks weak and malnutritioned, foster family hasn't collected money, signs of abuse.
Problems with this process:
1. Right now all this is done on paper - obvious problems with that considering there are 600 odd kids all over Ghana.
2. No formalised process where reports can be rejected and more details requested from Social Workers.
3. No reminders for SW to visit a child. SW sometimes is late or forgets to visit child.
4. No reporting!
So... I have the task of automating it using PHP, MySQL, SSL etc. It will be a webapp.
Biggest problem I have right now is getting access to a computer where I can work! So if you have spare laptops you wish to donate let me know. Would have been great if I could have kept my accenture laptop. My second biggest problem is creating a webapp with only 4 hrs of solar power.
Another cool thing - I'm blogging from a OLPC - One Laptop Per Child. Look it up on google. Someone donated one recently. Very awesome.
On a personal note - there has been no running water for a week now :S
Monday, June 2, 2008
The one with pics...
Sadiatu - How cute is she!
Nana Yaw and Abi - The 'sweetheart' and the 'princess'
Ade - The trouble maker! Look at those eyes.
Nana Yaw showing off his moves. That's Peter at the back.
John-Paul - Affectionately known as Pope... well so far only by me but it'll catch on!
I'll put more on facebook at some stage
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