Monthly Archives: December 2006

On Christmas Day the 25th of December SYDD celebrated together with the students at Edwenase Rehabilitation Centre. We had brought rice, chicken, oil, drinks and biscuits two days earlier and on the same day as the party took place we had made a provision for music (DJ), chairs and tents. We arrived around 11 am and some of the students were already dancing and enjoying the music. They were all served our drinks and biscuits after a couple of hours of dancing, when they started to sweat and became tired. Several of the students were very happy with our contributions and presence and they told me; “I’m very happy today! God bless you!”. After dancing together with the students, then we walked inside to have lunch together with everyone including the Regional Director of the Social Welfare Department. He was very happy that we had made this possible and we left the celebration party around 3 pm, when everybody was still enjoying.

On the same day, Christmas Day, Mumin turned 3 years old and because of that there was a birthday party held for him including music, dance and food. He only received a few couple of gifts, 2 or 3, so I’m very grateful and glad that my mother had sent him a book in English about Pippi Longstocking. I read it to him and he commented my reading and describing by agreeing “yes, yes, yes”. Mumin eats more than anyone I know, and I’m talking about all age groups. During his birthday party, wherever I saw him he was either having a drink or food in his mouth. Hehe. It was a nice birthday party with lots of chaos.

On Boxing Day, 26th of December, we received a call that GBC (Ghana Broadcasting Corporation) was going to talk about the NGO (Solidarity for Youth and Disabled Development) I’m working for in their 1 pm news (and at 8 pm). GBC covers the whole of Ghana (with a population of approximately 20 million people) and everyone throughout the nation can hear the same news. The news reporter talked about what we did at the Edwenase Rehabilitation Centre on Christmas Day and also the fields we are working in and the importance for other NGOs to focus on not just HIV, because there are other groups of people as well who are in great need of help and support. It was nice to hear my name on the radio too in the news; “Project Supervisor Mr Per Erik Torkelson”.

Today the Islamic holiday, Eid il Adel, has started and it will continue for 3-4 days. The Muslims celebrate it by sacrificing (killing) animals, e.g. cows and sheep, and then eating the meat.

Gott Nytt År!

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Last week I received my first Christmas gifts, and the package was sent by my mother. I won’t open it until Christmas Eve. I also received a Christmas card from my aunt.

On Thursday (14 Dec), I went to the STC bus station in Adum to see off my German friends who left Kumasi that day. I have great memories when I think of them. From the first time I met them in the Pink Hostel in Accra two months ago, until they left Kumasi last week. I will remember Crash by being extremely happy and talking about everything after visiting Baze one night in Accra, I will remember Maria by telling me about her true love; Croatia (sorry Crash) and I will never forget Tamara in the waterslide in Cape Coast: “Ready? The heavy person!” (with an English accent just like Arnold Schwarznegger) and the stories goes on. I will see you in Stuttgart one day.

Last week’s work: we attended an HIV-meeting in Adum, I taught two days at the evening classes, updated documents and records, interviewed orphans. But the most special and emotional assignment last week, without any doubt, was our visit to the Edwenase Rehabiliation Centre, where we interviewed 12 disabled youths. We came to the rehabilitation centre and received a list with names of 13 youths (the worst cases), which we all interviewed during three hours. The first person we interviewed was a 14 year old boy, who told us that his biggest problem is that he wants to live with his uncle, but that he’s not allowed (because of legal reasons). The boy started crying at the end of the interview and it made me sad seeing him cry. The next person we interviewed was an 18 year old girl and she began to tell us about that her daily life in general is very tough; that she can’t afford daily life basic things, doesn’t have money to buy materials so that she can produce in school and that her footwear has been spoiled since a long time. When I heard all these things and she sat in her wheelchair and started to cry, then it was very difficult for me to hold back my tears. I had to look away and I tried to write what she was telling us, while Mr Abu embraced her to show concern and care. I saw that Mr Abu also started getting tears when she told us about her life situation. Another boy we interviewed was a 21 year old one, whose father died last year. His father had big debts and when he died then those debts were inherited by the rest of the family, and as they were in a tough financial situation, they couldn’t pay it all off and we found out that this boy’s family was evicted from their apartment recently. When I heard one sad story after another, it reminded me that some people just don’t know how lucky they are. But one of the worst cases that day was a 29 year old man who was completely blind and walked around with a cane and had problems walking too. He was laughing continuously (he was mentally challenged in some way). We found out that his mother was dead since a long time and that he sometimes stays with the stepmother when they vacate from the rehabilitation centre. The centre manager at the rehabilitation centre told us that the 29 year old man’s real father lives in Germany and he was visiting Kumasi two weeks ago, but the father refused to visit his blind son at the rehabilitation centre. We were also told that all the brothers of the 29 year old man have been put in schools by the father, but the father has refused to put his blind son in a school for blind people. I sighed when I heard this and it was an emotional rollercoaster inside of me. Mr Abu got very angry when he heard about the father and as for me, I was even more sad when I heard that this 29 year old man only had one visit in 6 months (and it was the stepsister). When everybody else has gone home for vacation, this 29 year old man has been left at the rehabilitation centre for three consecutive times, because no one wants to come and pick him. Another boy who we interviewed told us that his “only” problem is the loneliness that he feels; when he’s at home with the family then they never let him participate in any activities. He even told us whenever they go to church, he has to remind his family that he wants to come along, but the answer they give him is that “it’s too difficult to find transportation for you”. Oh, oh, oh! When I heard this, it almost became too much to handle for me emotionally. It was really emotionally pressuring listening and meeting these people, hearing about their lives and looking at which situations they are in; physically disabled, mentally challenged, poor, neglected (sometimes fully) by their own families, never receive visits etc. Once again I and Mr Abu told each other that; “there are so many people who don’t know anything about how lucky they are, being healthy and having someone who cares about them”. This day was definitely the biggest challenge since I arrived to Kumasi, Ghana.

This week at work: it has been mostly office work and at the evening classes we have had maths exam and yesterday we had English examination, and I was very happy when the men took the maths exam, because they felt very confident. Tonight we are going to give back their results and it is the last lesson for a couple of weeks, then we are giving the men and women vacation and we start again in January. It will be nice with a break for us too, because we have other things to focus on.

Today I haven’t been feeling well at all, so I have tried to rest and take it easy in Dote and Adukrom.

God Jul!

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Work last week; on Monday (4th Dec) we attended a meeting at Okomfo Anokye Hospital (biggest hospital in Kumasi) where they wanted to know about our NGO and what kind of work we do with HIV-infected people. Last week I also interviewed several male and female orphans about food, accommodation, education, future work plans, problems and needs. I got very emotional when one of the boys, 17 years old, told me: “I have one problem; I don’t have anyone who takes care of me. When all the other orphans go to their extended families and relatives, then I don’t have anyone to go to. Instead I always go and work in a village on weekends”. His story made me sad, because he spoke straight from his heart. There was also a girl who made me sad last week, when I was interviewing her at Nuriya Islamic School and asked her: “Where do you live? How many people do you live with?”, then her answer was: “I live in Zongo, it’s only me where I live”. I saw that it was hard for her to tell me, because the tears started coming when she answered my question. Zongo is what they call the area where the poor Islamic people live. Both these orphans reminded me once again that you can buy almost everything, but you can never buy the most important things in life. Last week’s work also included me buying 8 dozens (96) of bowls, cups, plates and spoons which were intended for the orphans. When we visited the Head at Nuriya Islamic School and told him about it, then he was very appreciative that we try to help some of his most needy students. The past Friday (8 Dec) Mr Abu and I wrote individual numbers and “SYDD” on 73 cups, plates, bowls and spoons which we distributed the following day. We worked for about 3 hours on Saturday, distributing the items I had bought plus food (rice, sugar, oil etc.).

The past Saturday I followed with some friends (five volunteers) out to the village where they live, Esase, which is between 30-60 minutes drive with tro-tro from Kumasi depending on the traffic. They had a very nice house for themselves and the environment was very relaxed and quiet compared to my life in Kumasi. It was nice to get away for a night, even if it was short, because otherwise I’m more or less caught up in my work everyday. My friends’ house of their own includes nice rooms with toilets and showers, something which is very different from my accommodation. The following day, two days ago, we had breakfast at 06:30, which was way too early for me. I’m not used to get up that early, because most of the days my work ends late. On Sunday they showed me their workplace, the school and dorm, before we headed off to the Miklin Hotel in Kumasi, where we relaxed, swam in the swimming pool and had lunch. It’s nice to do things like this, but I need a longer vacation, because it is work from Monday-Saturday and on Sundays you think and discuss about what’s going to happen the coming week.

The night between Sunday-Monday, I experienced the hottest night in my bedroom so far; it was 28 degrees Celsius in the room. It was difficult to fall asleep, and around 03 am there was a rooster who had gone almost mad, constantly making noise, so when I went to the toilet I also looked for a stone and threw it at the rooster. Their noise is making me crazy, especially when it continues for 20 minutes.

I treated myself with four audio CDs and one VCD last week; T.O.K. “Shake Ur Bam Bam”, Lucky Dube “Respect”, P-Square “Da Remix (Bizzy Body II)”, C-Zar “Araba Lawson” and P-Square “Tempted 2 Watch: Da Videos II”. I play the P-Square “Da Remix (Bizzy Body II)” CD a lot, they are from Nigeria and sing in English. I saw one of their videos on TV; “Temptation” ft. Alaye. It’s a great song! I play it over and over. All the CDs and the VCD cost 15 000 Cedis each (around 12 SEK), except for the C-Zar album. There is one song on the C-Zar album which is really good; it’s called “Araba Lawson”.

I received my first postcard in Ghana last week, and it was from my grandparents. It was really nice to get regular mail.

Yesterday I went to Nuriya Islamic School and started interviewing orphans, but I started feeling extremely weak during interviewing, so I had to rest from noon until bedtime. I had real pains in my stomach. Today I’m feeling better, but I’m still not 100%.

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Last Friday I and Issah were in a drop-in on our way between Dote and Adukrom, and there was another car coming against us driving in our lane (right hand side) in Tinpom. The reason why were 15-20 cows walking in the road, but when he passed us the man in the other car got really angry at our taxi driver and started shouting at him. I told our taxi driver, who was a boy around 20-21 years old; “don’t mind him, he’s wrong, in Ghana you are supposed to drive on the right hand side of the road”. When we reached Sawaba about 3-4 minutes later, the angry man had turned around his car and he came back and pulled to the side just in front of our taxi, walked out of his car and punched our taxi driver right in the face through the window. There were several men gathering around trying to calm people down, I walked out of the car and told the man and a couple of the others standing around that; “this man is all wrong, in Ghana we drive on the right hand side”. The angry man didn’t say anything, he just left in a hurry after the punch. What an idiot! I told our taxi driver, who was hurt on his cheek and started to cry a little; “don’t care about him, he’s an idiot, he’s all wrong”. I wish I had this on video.

The same day as the taxi fight incident, I booked a room at Guestline Lodge in Adum (Kumasi), because I was leaving for Cape Coast the following day and the Guestline Lodge is located next to the STC bus station. The room I stayed in was fine, but I had a problem, I couldn’t sleep for more than maybe 30 minutes that night. I had sprayed the room with insect killer too much so I could hardly breathe; not very smart of me (I know some of you will laugh when you read this). The STC bus left for Cape Coast very early, around 04:00, last Saturday morning. I was invited by some other volunteers (from Germany, USA and Switzerland) I know to come along with them, so we were six including me that travelled to Cape Coast that morning. I tried to sleep on the bus, but it was really hard to get some sleep. The bus took less than 4 hours and we arrived before 08:00 to Cape Coast. We checked in at a place called Samoo’s Guesthouse. The place was fine and I shared room with the same German volunteer I shared room with in Accra when I arrived to Ghana. That day we visited the Cape Coast Castle (a former slave castle) and we had very nice tour guide who showed us around and guided us. I learned that where the Cape Coast Castle stands is on the site of the Swedish Fort Carolusbourg, which was built from wood in 1653. It was really interesting to visit the castle and I enjoyed the tour very much. We left the castle before noon and headed towards a place called Elmina Beach Resort and there we spent almost the whole day; we had lunch, socialized, relaxed and swam in the pools. I truly appreciated the beach resort and the lovely breeze coming from the ocean, it really felt like we where on vacation, which was much needed when you usually work 6 days a week. That evening we had to wait for 1 h 30 min before we received our dinner and when we finally got it, then it was cold. Frustrating? Yes!

The following day, Sunday (26 Nov), four of the volunteers including myself went to Kakum National Park which is a rainforest roughly 33 km from Cape Coast. After arriving to Kakum NP, then we started off by having a guided tour just the four of us for about an hour, which was real nice and quiet. We didn’t see many animals, but I didn’t care about that, I just enjoyed the rainforest. The humidity in the rainforest made me sweat like a waterfall. When the hiking tour was over, then we continued on to the canopy walk, and that was a great and special feeling to stand between trees looking out into the rainforest. The canopy walk was approximately 350 meters long and about 45 meters above the ground. We left Kakum NP and took a drop-in to Elmina Beach Resort, where the other two volunteers already were. I loved it that we came back to the Beach Resort that day, because of the relaxed mood and the nice breeze from the ocean. It was something very different from my hometown Kumasi and the daily life I have there, so that’s why I appreciated it very much. In the evening we all had a real nice time with dinner on the roof of our guesthouse and I taught the others some Swedish.

On Monday morning I and an American volunteer went to the Elmina Castle, the others decided to skip it, but I definitely wanted to see it because I don’t know if I will be back in the Cape Coast area again. Although Elmina Castle was nice to see, the Cape Coast Castle was definitely a more interesting and nicer place to visit. I and the American volunteer walked around Elmina Castle for about 20 minutes before we got in a drop-in to enjoy the breakfast buffet at the Elmina Beach Resort. After breakfast and getting back to Cape Coast, then we all headed towards the STC bus station to buy tickets, but the buses back to Kumasi were already full. Instead we had to go to the tro-tro station and after awhile we got tickets in a Mercedes-Benz tro-tro, which was quite nice. I was quick and chose the front seat next to the driver, because I didn’t want to sit tight with 15 other people in the back. The drive took less than 4 hours and I talked to a real nice man from Kumasi during the ride. The landscape between Cape Coast and Kumasi was very nice. When I got back to Kumasi I really felt like I had been on a vacation and I missed it, because I was experiencing a truly great time in Cape Coast.

Work this week; I had Monday off because of my Cape Coast trip, but other then that it has been very busy days with various assignments. I and Mr Abu have realized that we need to be with the orphans (boys and girls) more and interview them more frequently to engage ourselves in their lives. So, this week I haven’t had time to teach the men or women in the evening down in Aboabo, instead I have met boys and girls (orphans). Tuesday evening we had a meeting with the orphan boys next to the mosque and they are all great. I stood up and asked: “what is my name?” and 50 orphans answered simultaneously: “Mr Erik!”. The day after, Wednesday, Mr Abu and I visited Nuriya Islamic School (where most of the orphans I know go to school) and we met the head there and discussed the needy students’ problems. The head, Malam, was very thankful for the food that some of the children receive through SYDD (food delivery from OICI). He just got back from travelling to Saudi Arabia, and it’s a country I have been thinking of travelling to some day and I will absolutely try to get there. Two days ago we were also visiting Edwenase Rehabilitation Centre (a center for youths with physical disabilities) where Sarah, the girl I have talked about before, is schooling. It was amazing to see how happy she was when Mr Abu and I arrived, she ran towards us and shouted: “both my parents are here!”. It was really nice to see how happy she was just by our visit. It’s hard to imagine myself in her shoes with both her parents being dead since long time and her grandmother, the only sole caretaker, who died last year, so she is all alone and no one ever visits her. There were also two other girls at the centre, Lydia and Felicia, which also have tough situations with either no parents or parents who just don’t care about their children because of their physical disabilities. It’s very sad, but as I have told before, Ghanaians in general don’t care at all about people with physical disabilities. Today we held our SYDD monthly meeting with the orphans in Adukrom and we mainly discussed the importance of not being ignorant. As you can see, it’s been a great week at work.

Two days ago, when we got home to Adukrom after work, then Mr Abu and I ran into Baki, which is a neighbouring boy at the age of 6. He had an open nasty cut just above his right eyebrow which he had received during the day. I told Mr Abu that “it’s not good letting the cut be like this in this heat and with all the dust and dirt that the children are exposed to all the time”. So Mr Abu and I brought Baki with us to Mr Abu’s place and there we treated the cut. Mr Abu told me that the father has run away and the mother is not taking care of Baki. There are so many parents who aren’t concerned at all about their children’s health and hygiene. Everyday I meet so many children with dirty hands and I tell them: “you have to wash your hands before greeting”.

Yesterday, 1 December, it was Farmers’ Day (national holiday) and it was instituted in 1984 to thank the hardworking and often un-rewarding farmers for their efforts. There are lots of mixed feelings about this holiday, because some farmers say that they lose money because they can’t go to the market and sell their goods. I, myself, relaxed in the morning, but then I went to the office to work on the computer. As I have told before, there is always work.

Voltic water; I drink it all the time (1½ litre costs less than 4 SEK).

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