Week 3

Akwaaba!

It's hard to believe have completed my first month in Ghana!  It seems so long, and yet so short at the same time....

This weekend we went to Busua, which is a little town on the coast just west of Takoradi.  We stayed at Alaska Beach Resort (ironic)  in a little mud hut with a grass roof right on the beach. It was super cute!  We even had running water and everything!  The town is the main beach resort place in Western Ghana, so it was full of tourists.  We saw more obruni (white people) there in one night then in the month I've been in Takoradi!  It's strange, really. I've gotten to the point where even I see an obruni and wonder "what are you doing here?!?"   ;)

It's clear we are getting towards the end of the dry season and making our way to the rains.  Every day looks like its going to rain, but it doesn't.  And it's starting to cool off a bit.  Apparently in March it will start to rain infrequently, then by May, every day.  Sounds pretty good in my book, except the for flooding, since the entire city is laced with open sewers!  Hopefully I'll be gone once the heavy rains come....

I don't think I've talked much about Mansek Music School!  It is the only Western music school in Ghana, and has been around for 13 years.  It used to be huge, but it struggling at the moment.  We are stuck in a decrepit building while we wait for the new facilities to be built.  Unfortunately, since we cater to rich folks, no one wants to bring their students to a ratty old place, so enrollment has dropped.  The new building is set to open around September, but who knows.  All construction is done with concrete blocks and cement, which is hard to mix with no water!  Plus, the workers need to be constantly attended or they just don't work.  So, we hope the building, which is in a great location just outside of downtown and very nice, will be done soon.  In the mean time we have been going to local schools to teach music classes and private lessons.  There is no general music classes in the schools, so we have been visiting several each day to set up something (at least for the rich schools that are willing to pay...)   During the day, we have a few adults who come in for lessons, then after school hours we go to schools and to people's homes for private lessons.  For the most part, students pay for lessons.  We do have several, though, that are talented and really interested and pay nothing or next to it.  Mansek is an NGO, and eventually the new facilities will hold several classrooms for the music schools, accomodations for volunteers, an auditorium, and a kindergarten school.  Baby steps though for the moment!  It's a really cool organization, and really unique.  We are working really hard to get things well organized before the move to the new building, and we've got a really good time of volunteers who are here for a long while, so hopefully the work will last!  

I had my camera, etc stolen the first week, so I haven't been able to post any pictures.  I got my new one sent in today (quite the process mailing valuables to a developing country in Africa....) so I'll be posting some soon!!!

All is well here, and I'll be keeping in touch!  

Love, Ecua  

(In Ghana your middle name is determined by the day of the week you were born... next week I'll post a list so you can learn yours too!   :)