Project GROW

More Travel Observations from Jan
Blessing Basket Project. We recently met Peace Corp member James Kubley. Hailing from Indiana, he is in Ghana on a 2-year stint. He is currently working with the Nyariga Craft Centre, the home of the famed Bolga baskets, where he is providing assistance with financial statements and work orders. This project employs about 600 basket makers, and they create a dozen styles and sizes of baskets. The fibres are dyed bright colours using natural pigments and woven into many patterns. The craft centre has a contract with Whole Health grocery stores in the U.S. to sell baskets. Whole Health returns all of the profits of the basket sales. This money is used in the village for infrastructure projects such as adding to the health clinic, school or community centre. Called the Blessing Basket Project, this cooperative was started by Teresa Wilson, a far-sighted American woman. James told me her story. After her husband’s death, she kept all of the sympathy cards she received in a basket. She soon referred to it as her blessing basket as it contained all of the blessings her friends had sent to her. When she started this craft cooperative in Bolga, she chose this very fitting name. The magnificent baskets are a blessing to both those who create them and those who purchase them. See their website at www.blessingbasket.org.

Before we visited the twin villages of Nyobok Nkunszii, it was essential to greet the chief in a ceremonial fashion and ask his permission to proceed with Project Grow’s work. Our first glimpse of him was in the early afternoon. He was seated in a large chair beneath a spreading tree, and his community surrounded him in a circle. He wore a smock and pants that had a wide black and white stripe. His sandals each had a large gold medallion above the toes, and his ceremonial walking stick was arranged by his side. On his head he wore a tall red cap. He is a tall man, larger than his male advisors seated by his side. But it was his faced that was most striking, almost sculptured looking. His high cheekbones and chiselled planes of his face gave him the look of an Egyptian pharaoh. He greeted us warmly, and through his official spokesman, expressed his appreciation for the work of Project Grow in the twin villages and for the chance for his home village of Sakote to become part of the program. From a squatting position – I was kindly instructed to get off my knees – we presented our gifts to him. Cindy gave him a striped beach towel which she draped around his shoulders. I presented him with a walking stick/cane and a mickey of Canadian Club. The chief’s spokesman, a wizened guy of my age, was particularly interested in the mickey. He put his arm around me most warmly when photos were being taken! The chief and community were very appreciative of the chance to work with Project Grow. And we were very appreciative of the respect they showed us with this moving ceremony.

The women of the villages we visited looked like colourful flowers blooming in the dry ground of the Upper East Region. They were all dressed in their good clothes to meet us – brightly patterned long dresses or two-piece tops and long skirts. Many wore head scarves tied in slightly different styles. They sat waiting for our arrival under a large tree. They sang and swayed and clapped to greet us, and many came forward to shake our hands. They sang several songs for us, and some women came forward to perform solo dances that differed in tempo and footwork. Cindy and I were invited up to dance, and we provided the comic interlude! After the ceremonies, the women drifted away back to their homes, blips of colour among the dry grasses and tall trees.

Yesterday was a day of interviews with various officials who, we hoped, could help extend electricity to the village, implement a One Computer per Child school program, and provide a suitable adult education program. The latter particularly interested me. In this region, adult education is referred to as non-formal education. The teacher is known as the facilitator, and this person can hopefully be recruited from within the village. It is almost a volunteer position, and after a 21-month program the facilitator is gifted with a bicycle, sewing machine or zinc roofing material. The facilitators get in-service training, and their work is overseen by a supervisor who visits the class twice a week to see that everything in on track. The supervisor is paid a stipend for fuel. The first 21-week session is taught in Gurune, one of the local dialects (although not the language of our villages who speak Fra-Fra). Then there is a following 21-month course that teaches English. Students are provided with workbooks to follow. It is a lock-step program, and unfortunately doesn’t completely address the needs of village women and men who are looking for practical English reading and printing they can use in a timely fashion. We are going out to the village tomorrow and will begin a teaching session using a curriculum that Cindy has devised to teach them how to print their names. The program is based on the Reflect Action Aid program (google itJ) We think this will be an exciting day.