Village Ventures - Afamanaso

A dirt road runs through the village of Afamanaso.
Compound houses are dotted throughout.
There is no running water and only limited electricity.

Afamanaso is the community where Planting Technology International (the NGO I am volunteering with) implemented its first ICT Center, or computer lab. This weekend I was able to visit the village and see the fruits of our labor and meet the children who benefit from the hands on computer education they now receive. Currently, only 4% of all Ghanaians use the Internet.

BEFORE

AFTER

As three obrunis entered the community, we were greeted with the excited shouts of from the children. The adults were just as happy to have us.

To spend the weekend in rural villages of Ghana, made my heart happy. The people we met were genuinely nice! I have story after story to tell about the kind actions of others. It was great to get away from the hustle and bustle of Accra with the many brash encounters and be whole heartedly welcomed into a village and be treated with care.

We stayed in a compound house with Andrea's "father" from the village, Mensah. Now a compound house has separate rooms but are all connected. There was a "kitchen" which didn't resemble any kind of kitchen I was use to. There wasn't a sink since there wasn't running water or even a refrigerator.

The bedroom where we stayed was very bare and simple. A bed with a couple of chairs. Small and quait. No decorations or closets filled with clothes, as you might see in the U.S. There was electricity in this house, but I was informed that most of the houses do not have power. A small light lit the room to a dark glow. A melted candle sat on the table for the moment the electricity went out.

There was no living room or gathering area for the house. No stairs to climb to get to the next level. No television to entertain us.

On the first night we arrived, three girls from the village came by to visit. Andrea said they would come by every night when she was staying in the village on a regular basis. One was in high school, one in junior high, and the other in elementary school. When we would ask them a simple question, it would take them a while to respond, if they even did respond. It was like they didn't understand our simple English. Our clear cut questions. Over the weekend I met many people who couldn't speak English at all, which is Ghana's national language! Wow.

The next morning we went to greet some of the elders in the village, including Father Mensah's mother. She didn't speak English. Two high school aged boys were nearby and would translate for us. It didn't take long until she was asking us for bread and money. "Look at my arms." She said. "They are so little. I need more to eat." She then asked us for money to build her a new house and asked us to leave our clothes for her when we left. Thankfully Andrea warned Mallory and I that she would do this, because Andrea said she asks for money everytime she sees her.

Later that day, Saturday, we traveled with Andrea's friend, Accosi, to Mampong where another PTI project is in the works.