We next boarded a bus to Ananekrum, the village of Nana Marfo, one of the sub-chiefs of Agogo who lives in America. On the way, we stopped to see the reforestation project and fish farm, two initiatives led by Dan Warren, founder of One Village Planet. We were impressed with the growth that has taken place with these two projects over the last four years. It was interesting to learn that he is using teak, an exotic species of trees here in Ghana, because it is fire resistant and mixes well with native flora. We also lent a helping hand using a machete. It was a good workout, even for the five minutes we spent doing it.
Then, we reboarded the bus to continue our journey to Ananekrum, which we found to be an extremely bumpy and unpaved ride. It’s about 45 minutes from Agogo, and we were able to experience their weekly market day. We purchased some goods to take with us to the next rural village we would be visiting both to stimulate the local economy and in order to have goods in hand when we arrived at the next village. Before leaving, we met Mr. Abass, a global health worker who travels to Ananekrum on Tuesdays to hold clinic regarding testing and treatment for the Buruli Ulcer. More on that later.
We left that village and headed to an extremely small, remote, underdeveloped village that had no more than twenty huts. It has no power and no running water with huts made of mud and thatch. We visited this village to see another area where Dan Warren is creating jobs through the growing of teak saplings. This project is run by a woman that is local to the village. When we first arrived in the village, we were again welcomed with a ceremony similar to the initial ceremony but on a much smaller scale. We brought with us sugar and rice for the villagers that we purchased from local sellers in Ananekrum.
We reboarded the bus to Agogo with much hunger in our stomachs and little excitement about the bumpy road ahead. After a little over an hour, we arrived at the home of Nana Rose, who is a queen mother in the village but spends much of her time as a nurse in London. She served a delicious Ghanaian traditional meal of fufu, which Meghan had been requesting since the beginning of the trip. It was spicy and delicious and is made of a light spicy soup with a circle of what looks to be dough sitting in it; in fact, the dough is actually ground yams and plantains. This is the national dish of Ghana. We quickly realized the reasoning behind this entitlement when we realized how full we had become; clearly, this is a filling food that is cheap to produce and can fill the bellies of many hungry children. We also were able to taste some locally tapped wine called palm wine. When the palm trees are cut down for the palm berries, the trees are left for a period of time to ferment, before being tapped for the wine. It was sweet and tasted like fruity champagne. We only had two water bottles full to share, but we would have been more than happy with a larger portion.
After our 4:00 lunch, we were longing for a nap but dutifully headed to the ICT Center to again try our hand at Skyping. Kwenor was there to assist us, and we learned of a new tool called a dongle, which is a USB wireless stick. Unfortunately, despite our new technology, we were unsuccessful once again in our attempts to Skype. Kwenor swears that because the current wireless provided has been acquired by a larger technology company, the bandwidth and internet accessibility will improve soon. We are hoping that this proves true.
We were very excited about coming back to a light meal consisting of sandwiches and chips, but we were greeted by the public health provider, Mr. Abass, who had a presentation on Buruli Ulcers. The graphic but informational presentation followed by Mr. Abass’s discussion with us over a decidedly heavy dinner got us to thinking about how we might incorporate this into our Challenge 20/20 project. We were able to ask questions of him that related to the spread of the disease, the potential for education, and, most importantly, how he saw this fitting into our project. We are also fortunate in that he has agreed to be our contact person should we have any questions regarding the disease. We are thinking that posters, brochures, and educational materials could be collaborated upon by both Berkeley and Agogo students and the Agogo students could in turn use the materials to educate the local population on the dangers of the disease and the importance of early detection.
A long and exhausting day has come to an end, and our brains will be temporarily alleviated when we head to the largest nearby city, Kumasi, in the morning.
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