I know, I know, I haven't written in way too long. But, many experiences and updates to share again! I've been very busy these past weeks on completing our first prototype, and we finished it! I even brought it to Accra to get it tested by the Greater Accra Wheelchair Basketball Team, WITH my mom being there as well! Because yes, my mom is here. After I called my parents to tell them that I want to stay in Ghana for longer she wanted to see which place kept me from home this time :-) The development of the bamboo wheelchair has gone well so far, and I believe we can make a such an impact on many people's lifes that I feel like bringing this to a further stage, so I'm extending my time here! So, I'll start telling about everything bit by bit. The past weeks in Kumasi I spent most of my time on building our bamboo wheelchair. The whole process of getting different aspects made is hilarious. For example, the seat. This was the last part to be finished, and I needed it in 3 days because I wanted to take the wheelchair to Accra for testing. First we needed to go to the market to find foam of the right size and density. There is no "foam store" or "cushion store", but once you walk over the market you'll see where to get it; one area is just dedicated to foam and mattresses, all sizes lie on the street. Then we got the fabric for around the cushion. While we were buying this, it started raining. I knew rain in Ghana is something. But rain on central market, that is something. When people feel the rain is coming, the streets get even more hectic than they already are; everyone starts grabbing their things to get out of the market as quick as they can. For the women that's not their only worry, they also find a piece of plastic as soon as they can because their hair can't get wet! Can you imagine if we'd worry about that it the Netherlands... Haha living there would be impossible. Anyways, after we had the materials, we needed to find a seamstress to make our seat. It turned out that the sewing machines of the regular seamstresses weren't though enough for our material. At home you would just google "seat making" or something and find out where to go, but here everything goes by worth of mouth. So, via many people we were directed to a man who makes seating a for a couch, he wasn't the right person but wanted to help us. So he brought us all over Kumasi via someone who makes car seats, to finally a friend of him who teaches at a senior high to make our seat for us in 1 day, amazing! The next day we picked up a beautiful, really well-made seat for our wheelchair :-) After a little bit of stress (as always when you hit a deadline...) I was able to leave Kumasi on Friday with a completed wheelchair to go to Accra and pick up my mom! She arrived on Friday night, and the next morning I barely gave her time to land, because at 6:30 we had to leave to go to a practice of the Greater Accra Wheelchair Basketball Team. Together with Asante, who I built the wheelchair with, we had a very successful and fun day in Accra. We received a lot of good feedback, and it confirmed that it is totally the right decision to keep working on this. We had so much fun walking around Accra with a bamboo wheelchair. I put some pictures below, it looked quite funny. All the ladies kept telling me that I needed to carry the wheels on my head, but I really don't think my head is made for that haha. It was so nice to see Raphael and Maclean again that weekend! And also for my mom to meet them. That same evening the Indian Woman Association held their annual event, and the Go Get Dem Club was invited since they sponsor them. My mom and I came with them as guests. It was especially so nice because I had the opportunity to meet all the other members of the club. Each individual member of the club is such an inspiring person. It was really so cool to meet everyone and hang out with them. Also for our project it was really good to learn more about everyone, and their backgrounds, to get a better understanding of what it means to use a wheelchair in Ghana. The following week I mostly spent with my mom in Kumasi, and because Akua (the little baby in the house) turned 1, we organized a little party. It was so fun! My mom and I wanted to bake a Dutch apple pie. So after finding all our ingredients on the market (especially the cinnamon and butter were a challenge; cinnamon is something most people don't know, and every time I explained I needed "butter" everyone thought I was looking for a "bottle") we started making our pie. It challenged us to think creative without any kind of measurement instruments, but before we put it in the oven the pie looked great! After the oven however, not so great...:-( The whole bottom turned black because it was an old gas oven, so we shouldn't have put two pies in at the same time... But, didn't make our evening less fun. It was also the last night that Steph Lex (the other 2 Americans that live there) and I were all in the house together, so it was also a little sad at the end. We've gotten so close with each other during this time. When I go back in January Steph and Lex will be back home. After closing things up in Kumasi that week, my mom and took the bus in the morning to start our 8 hour journey to Mole national park, in the north of Ghana by Tamale.
It was really interesting to see the difference between the area around Tamale vs Kumasi. I knew that the north is more dominated by the moslim religion, rather than the Christian religion, and you could already tell by the bus. There were mostly Muslims in the bus with us going to Tamale, which is very different from when I take the bus to Accra. Once we were there, the streets were filled with people riding motorcycles! It gave such a nice street view. In Kumasi I'm told that if you buy a motor cycle, you basically tell your family that you're going to die (many accidents happen with them), but I guess here that's not so much the case?? We were staying in a lodge just outside of the park. The owners are incredible people. They have 4 children, but also raise 5 others that they took in their family. The place consisted of small huts to stay in, and the family lived in the same space as well. It almost more as if you were a guest of the family, which was so nice because it made it so personal. They had also started a school right behind the place, for the children from the village to get their primary education. My mom, coming from that field, was very impressed by this. The school has 400 children, and consisted of 3 small "buildings". One building had a foundation and a roof, the second one also had walls, and the third one had some doors as well. It was impressive to see how they created such an educational environment with aspects like paintings on the wall. We complain about our desks being to small in our classroom, but here the kids just sit on the ground between the goat poop. The owner of the lodge is using all the money from the guests, in addition with some help from volunteers sometimes, to further build the school. Inspiring! The next day, early in the morning we went on a safari through the park. I had said earlier that we could skip this, I've never done a safari and didn't think I would enjoy it that much, but it was so cool! It was so nice to sit on top of the jeep and see the beautiful park. AND, we saw an elephant! I have to admit that it was really impressive to see this huge guy cross the street not even 3 meters in front of us. Apparently we were really lucky because they hadn't seen any for a week. Well lucky... That was the end of our luck for the day. A couple hours later, after the safari, I started feeling very sick, and my body clearly didn't like whatever food I just ate. After a while I had gotten so much worse that we decided to go to the local emergency clinic, because I couldn't keep anything in. Especially the very caring Ghanaians around us got very concerned. This helped somewhat, but the next day I was actually still feeling worse, and the owner of our lodge was very sure it was malaria so I'd get medicine for that. The way that goes is so crazy to our standards. He just sent his (12 year old?) son on a motorcycle to town, we gave him 20 cedi's (4 euro's), and ten minutes later he came back with medicine. No doctor, no receipt. I took my first pil, and the next day I already felt much better :-) I álmost made it 3 months without getting sick. Next stop: Ghana Coastline.
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October 2017
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