Ghana

This will be a very long story, because i did not write since last thursday, almost a week ago now.

Thursday i travelled with Lieke to Ingrid in Diemen. She was at the train station to take us to her home. Lieke had to go back, because she had musical lessons. At the house, we met Ingrids husband Marco and his friend Maarten, they were at home to welcome us. We had a very nice dinner, talking about Ghana and also about Holland. It was such a good day again.
The next day (friday 03/26) Marco had to leave for work and i went with Ingrid to the school for the deaf. It was an open day for the public to visit. It was nice to see this school and also very nice to see Ingrid being welcomed by her former colleages. We had a great time talking to the teachers and the head teacher and also some people in the administration. After about an hour we had to go to the African Market, with even an african mosque! Here i had the oppurtunity for the first time to have a friday prayer in Holland. It was a very beautiful mosque with a lot of African people form different countries. Whilst at the mosque Ingrid also discovered this market with quite a lot of products from Ghana. After prayer i walked around with her and we could talk to some of the Ghanian traiders, most of which are from Ashanti region. Therafter we had to go back home again, so we could prepare for dinner. There i also had the opportunity to call back home in Ghana. I was happy to hear that they were still doing well and that there was no cause for worry. We had a very nice dinner and also we talked and had a very long discussion about culture and some stories, for example traditional marriage, food and some believes etcetcetcetcetcetcetc ;-).
It kept us up late.
Saturday (03/27) early morning around 07.30h i had to leave by train to Nienke in Hilversum. Nienke was not there when i arrived a little bit after 8. I called her and she told me she was on her way. She picked me and we had to drive to Schoorl to be present at the introduction weekend for new volunteers that will go to Ghana soon. We met Lianne there. It was such a beautiful area to see, with a lot of nature and the dunes (big sand hills). The new volunteers also arrived. They were eight in number, 2 will go to Bolga, 2 will go to Sirigu, 2 in Tamale and also 2 will partly stay in Tamale and partly in Gowrie for a short time. So in Bolga area we will have 4 volunteers and in Tamale 2. The training started very good with lots of information. Much of what i did was to observe how Lianne prepares them for Ghana. I was really very happy with what information and training she gave. So for me now it's clear when a volunteer is pretending not to know about Ghana or what he or she is coming to face. Lianne has complete information. It was a two days workshop.
On sunday (03/28) Estelle picked me to go to her family who are living very close to Schoorl. We spent like 30 minutes with her family and went back to Schoorl again where my sister Carole and her husband Marcel were there to pick me up to go to there home in Bovenkarspel (of all places!). We drove for almost one hour. It is a very nice community to be in, very peacefull. I must say that Carole has a very big home with a very nice porch and a garden. We sat in the porch for nearly four hours, talking about my experiences and how i was managing the challenges in Holland. You know, generally as a sister she was much concerned about her brother's health. I told her i was still the strong one and she didn't have to worry much. We had dinner and i had a very nice room with a big bed. Also for me it was nice to sleep and look at the sky, because the bed is standing under a glass roof. I had a good night sleep.
The next morning (monday 03/29), Marcel had to go to work. So after breakfast i went with Carole to see the dikes around the IJsselmeer. There were some boats sailing. We later had to drive again further to a harbour where there were a lot of boats! Quite a number of people were working on their boats because the wheather was nice. And also we walked for an hour to see the breeding place for the birds. There was also this nice girl who was riding on a horse, she was so kind to let us make a picture of her and her horse. I like to show this picture to my brother, the Bongo chief, so maybe we could make a cart of that kind since he is scared to sit on a horse. There were also others who were walking with their dogs and training them a bit more going into the water to pick the ball. It was nice to see these dogs swimming. Thereafter we had to go to the harbour again, a carpenter was working in his shop. We had a good opportunity to talk to him about his work in the harbour, which he did explain. It was nice talking to him.
We drove home so we could go to the supermarket. We had lunch and around 16.00h we went to Marcel's workplace. He told us he was giving us a short walk around the company, he also told us the company was dealing in seeds for agricultural products. He showed us the greenhouse and explained that they try to keep these plants giving them the right conditions to be able to grow. And also to develop some new seeds to suit the consumer's demands. He was managing that sector. The greenhouse is different from the way we farm or test some of our agric products in Ghana. In Ghana we don't have the greenhouses, so much of it is depending if God is giving us the good wheather. But in this case they give the plants the proportionate requirements of what it needs to grow.
Thereafter we talked to a bee farmer, who is also working in the company. But he did bee keeping as a hobby, very interesting to know that he doesn't need any special clothes working in his bee farm because the bees know him. He also gave me some more tips for our tropical bee keeping and advice if i could get some of the tools from Holland since we don't have it in Ghana. I think there were much encouraging words from him. He invited me to visit his farm on a saturday when the wheather is nice and temperature is above 15 degrees. He is working only on saturdays with the bees. Thereafter we had to say goodbye and went back home. I worked in the garden together with Marcel to clean the whole garden and prepare it for the summer. I enjoyed it with him and also i saw this amazing tool, the mower! I would love to create one when i am back home, i have to understand the mechanism. It would have helped us a lot in the guesthouse to cut the grass really very low every two weeks. So then we prevent it from growing to high. We had a nice dinner, Surinam roti. Also i made some phone calls home.
The next day (tuesday 03/30) we had to drive to the farm where it was arranged for me to work there for a day. This was really nice to do! It is also what i was missing. It was an organic farm, so we had to clean carrots. There were two machines that we needed to use for the cleaning and i was controling those two machines. We finished the carrots and we had to go into the greenhouse to prepare the land for new crops to be transplanted. This was to clean and also to spread the compus. Time said that we had to stop working and that was it for the day. I really enjoyed it and i would like to do more of it. Around 15.30h Lianne picked me up from the farm and we went to see her camping site where she had planned with the husband and children to spend the weekend there. It was a nice area with a nice tent that was erected by the husband Richard. It was raining, so i could not make a picture. Then we drove back home to Lianne's place in Alkmaar. Lianne encouraged me to take a bath in the sink. Actually, i did not like to go in, but she still pushed i should do it because it would help me to rest after working so hard the whole day. I agreed, it was a mother talking to her child and in Ghana you don't refuse your mother. So i did it and.........it was really very nice! I nearly slept in the bath and the warm water was very nice. So thereafter, John from the YHF joined us at Lianne's place and later also Carole. We had dinner, we ate lasanga, it was really very nice and as usual the Dutch way you eat whilst you talk. We had discussions about how we could make Meet Africa grow, we talked for nearly 2 hours thinking of how we could put in place some other mechanisms to promote it further. And also to improve the workplaces in Ghana and some problems that are associated in hosting volunteers in the local homes. It was a fruitful discussion and it ended very good with some energy injected in us. We had to say goodbye and i went with Carole back to Bovenkarspel and John also went back to Diemen. We got home here and Marcel was watching a football match between Manchester and Bayern Munich. It was a very tough match, but Bayern Munich finally scored 2-1. We had to go to sleep and i had to say goodbye to Marcel because he had to leave very early in the morning to go for work.
Today, in the afternoon i will go to Ernest in Utrecht.