Back to Accra

LWW team from Idlewild on the van headed back to Accra a few hours ago.

Celebration

Ready for celebration.

The CoE church service started at 7:00 a.m., so we were up and out of the Gold City Hotel by 6:30 a.m. this morning.

Ghanian church services have a lot of singing and this one at the CoE was no exception.  Except for the Sermon the students put on the service - it was great.

At the end of the service there was the dedication of the Water Room (which is directly across from the chapel and next door to the kitchen - could not have been located at  better place on the CoE campus).

Students lined up to take a tour of the water room.

Late Night

We headed back to the CoE Saturday night to put some final touches on the Water Room and decorate for Sunday's celebration (had to wait for painter to finish).

We also bottled some 20L and 5L bottles for the celebration on Sunday.

Saturday at Kibi

Saturday at Kibi saw the Water Room getting final touches and the health & hygiene training coming to an end.  Here is a montage of pictures:

Painter "sweeping" the walls

Michael & the operators showing the health & hygiene team how the system works.

More painting

Calibrating the bottle washing station

Bottles stacked, ready to be washed and filled.

MIssion from God

The start of Saturday, 11/14, reminded me of those classic scenes of Jake & Elwood Blues explaining to the groups in the townships of Lake Michigan that they were on a "mission from God" to put the band back together to save the St. Helen of Blessed Shroud Orphanage in the movie classic The Blues Brothers.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-4YrCFz0Kfc

Now I am not sure that Sammy, Charles and I resemble either of the Elwood brothers - but at 6:30 a.m. we were in the PCG van - heading to Accra on a mission from God - to find, at best price, 4 dispensers for the 20L (5 gallon) water bottles.

We pulled out of the gate with a 1/2 tank of fuel, 14 bananas, & 8 bottles of store bought water.

We made the 50 mile journey to the outskirts of Accra in 1:45 flat - so early most of the commerial stores were not open yet.  So we headed to "THE" marketplace - Central Accra - if you can't find it in the marketplace of Central Accra - you don't need it.

Central Accra

Central Accra

We went to 2-3 shops until we got to the one run by "Babba".  Babba had what we needed and now it was all about the negotiation.  Babba started at $190 per dispenser and quickly went to $162 after Charles and I haggled a bit.  We ended up at $148 a piece for these four dispensers, but in the process we set the price for any dispensers from Babba going forward to be no more than $130.  So we loaded the dispensers in the PCG van and made our way back to Kibi arriving back to Kibi at 11:45 a.m.

Charles at Babbas' shop.

Babba

Had to get to Babba's from a side alley off a small street...

Idlewild bought 2 of the dispensers and CoE bought 2 dispensers - that was the "give-to-get" agreement we made with Rev Bensen (principal of CoE) Friday afternoon.

Not bad for a Saturday a.m.

We have figured out this trip that dispensers are critical in school and clinic setttings.  So we reallocated some funds for purchasing 20L bottles to purchasing dispensers and fewer 20L bottles.  Historically we have always looked & talked about the bottles - the reality is that we should be talking about the distribution of the water - which will certainly have a bottle component, but we have to be more detailed around what it takes in addtion to bottles, i.e. dispensers, bottles with handles, size, and so on.

Has any one seen Steve....

Looking in the indoor kitchen, but the cooks are saying they have not seen Steve...

So many eggs - but no Steve...

He is not by the soup either...

Something smells fishy in the indoor kitchen and it's not the fish frying in the pan, these cooks know something.

Steve is not hanging around to lick the banku paddle either.

Steve really likes black-eyed peas and rice, surprising he is not hanging around this pot.

Red sauce - hmmm - still no Steve.

This cook is spying for a reason, better head over to the outdoor kitchen!

Not surprising that Steve is not helping clean the fish.

But with all this kenkey, usually Steve is hanging around baskets like these hoping to snatch a ball of fermented corn and cassava dough wrapped in corn husks.

He's just not at the outdoor kitchen either....

Hold it - those cooks in the indoor kitchen were hiding something for sure...let's head back over to the indoor kitchen with a "surprise" visit.

Ha - Found Steve!!

As usual stirring the pot.....

Should have known his kitchen buddies were hiding him today.

Food

So I have gotten a few requests to be a bit more detailed about food here in Ghana, so I thought I would use today to address some food topics using today's meals.

Breakfast

We had oatmeal, a beans and "leaf" mix, bread, coffee (instant) & hot chocolate (instant).

Michael unpacking the breakfast basket.

Lunch

We had fish, rice, red sauce, banku and fried yams.

A lot of people just don't think about packing their banku (cassava dough with some fermented maze wrapped in plastic) to go in a cooler...

It was too dark to take photos of dinner tonight, but we had fried chicken, fried rice, & salad with the bananas we bought this am for desert.