This week is a slow week since we are almost done with our project here in Adaklu. Monday the 7th of December 2015, we journeyed back from Cape Coast to Adaklu, where we stayed at the weekend to visit our other volunteers at Abro and cape. We had a stopover at the Accra mall for shopping and food; followed by an eventful bus journey back home as it was a volunteer’s birthday. Due to our exhausting weekend, and late arrival time, we were given the rest of Monday off.
On Tuesday morning, Esenam and Alex had their Action citizenship day on MDG’s (Millennium Development Goals) and in the evening we had Christabel’s post birthday party self-organized and sponsored by her counterpart Sara which we couldn’t have on Monday because we were all tired when we came back from Cape Coast. Fun was had by all with food, drinks, games, music and dancing, where everybody was till they retired to bed. We also had our usual Tuesday meetings and weekly updates; livelihood groups were discussed and other matters relating to our upcoming events were also sorted out.
On Wednesday we had a fufu post birthday party in the morning, which enabled all the volunteers to get together and share some traditional African food. After the planning and logistic group met to discuss our upcoming event and in the evening we had our sketch and choreography rehearsals for the same event. The sports day committee also met on Wednesday to plan the games which the school children would partake in.
It was a very cold Thursday morning, and the maize group went to waya to bid goodbye to their waya farming group before they leave the Adaklu community and the planning and logistic team went with them to survey the event ground for the upcoming event on Sunday. The sports day committee met again today to sort and organize the various items the volunteers donated into prizes for the children who would partake. Some of the volunteers who teach at the Anfoe E.P School went to the school to bid both the teachers and students goodbye. And the groundnut group also had their meeting with the farmers to package, price and label their products ‘’Dzowe’’ and “Tom Brown” for the event on Sunday.
Friday was eventful, where the volunteers had a spelling bee and sport competition organized for the students of the Anfoe E.P basic school, in other to give away the gifts they brought from their various homes when coming on the placement. The children who took the first, second and third positions got storybooks, shirts and shorts, pens, crayons, game boxes and participants also took away some valuable gifts as well. It was so much fun especially seeing these children smiling and rushing home to show their presents to their family. Volunteer Sara presented her ‘My Cultures Day’ with a twist as she has lived in various countries throughout her life, so she took her fellow volunteers through the different cultures found in each. She named it my cultures day because she came from three different countries. We learnt about life in Poland, Algeria, Spain, Bahrain and Wales. She finished off her presentation by teaching everyone a Ceilidh, with everyone up on their feet learning the traditional Welsh dance.
The weekend saw a funeral so close to where volunteers stay, today Saturday and most of the volunteers found it easy to just walk around and watch people dancing, crying and remembering. Some volunteers met to design and paint posters and banners for the event the following day; we had volunteer Alberta overcoming the lack of resources and using her fingers to paint a banner! At 4pm, all the volunteers headed to Waya to walk through the community and inform and remind them about the event tomorrow. The volunteers stumbled upon a wedding at the church, and some took time out to enjoy the festivities. The volunteer participants also had their last sketch and choreography rehearsals for the whole dream team before our Sunday event.
On Sunday, the volunteers woke up early for the event, we tidied up the event ground; planning and logistic group taking up the lead and reminding everyone of their assigned duties for when the event started. We headed back home after an awesome team effort; putting up shades, chairs and making sure everyone would have a great time. After lunch we headed back to the event ground, where the volunteers rallied while the bus shuttled participants of the various livelihood groups from their communities to the event location. We had a successful event, with lots of dancing and talks from resource personnel’s on important of marketing and branding. The choreography was well presented which got the crowd cheering and the sketch clearly delivered our message about marketing and branding, savings, good packaging and marketing skills.
The livelihood groups also did well in presenting their end products, we had waya kekeli maize group presenting branded “azikpeli”, Anfoe Kente group, presenting different types of Kente which were well branded, Waya vegetable group also presenting well dried Okro seeds which were also branded, and also well prepared “Shito” made from different types of vegetables coming from their farms. We also had the Waya mawulikplimi women’s association who are all groundnut farmers presenting Groundnut cake, groundnut paste, and roasted groundnuts all well branded and labelled and lastly we had the Anfoe Edem groundnut group which presented “tom brown” and our locally made “dzowe” which was very well branded. After the competition, the judges declared the Anfoe Edem groundnut group as the overall winner, the Waya mawulikplimi women’s association had the second position, the waya vegetable group had the third position, the Anfoe Kente group had the fourth positions and the Waya kekeli maize group had the fifth position. The first, second and third winners had certificates wellington boots, cutlasses, nose masks, and gloves as prizes and the other winners had a certificate of participation.
The event was a success and very fun. As this is our last event and week in Waya, volunteers had a nice time chatting, interacting and dancing with the community members. We all got back to Anfoe had a brief congratulatory meeting with the team leaders and the coordinator and which we all retired to bed after as we were all so exhausted.
Meghan and Christabel.
