Today, Saturday, while my wife is sewing, I went to the main entertainment in town. No, no funeral, today is market day. I am a regular at the market and they all know me. Not much selection in the market. Prices are very high, much higher than in California, since it is the dry season. I have my regular stops.
I give the “onion lady” one GH Cedis and she fills a bag of onion for me. The peanut butter woman is waiting for me with a large jar. Papaya, avocado, egg-garden (eggplant) and okra. We eat “same same” every night.
I am reading now “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson, who built many schools in Pakistan.
As an American, building schools for girls in an Islamic country, Mortenson had his share of problems. However, I wish that my Ewe Community would have some of the Pakistani Villagers enthusiasm to have a school provided for them. Here I am trying every trick in the book to bring the people to work on their own school. The Airfield Community interpret democracy in such a way that every decision has to be discussed by the elders and the chief does not have much power over the people. The bottom line is they will tel you whatever you want hear and do what ever they want to do.
This week like any other week on the site has it ups and downs. The only problem is that we don’t have any more time or money for “downs”.
The carpenters are progressing on the roof and one building is already covered with the aluminum sheets.
My ETC (Estimate To Complete) is growing every day. My roofing carpenter underestimated the amount of wood that he would need, adding $1250 to the cost of the roof. The plastering of the walls takes much too long, adding on labor cost for the masons. Now they are telling me about “screeding”, process of finishing the floor, which require more cement and was not in the original estimate.
The roofer is not on schedule but never the less is asking for more money. A deal is always open ended even if it is in writing and not keeping your word your commitment or your appointment is always OK as long as you have an excuse and it doesn’t make any difference how lame the excuse is. No shame and no apology.
On Tuesday I traveled with the carpenter (a different one) to Hohoe, a town two hours away, to buy wood for the doors and windows. I can save 25% on the wood price since the wood is brought there directly from the “Bush”, no idea if it is legal or not. Since the police has road blocks to check on such harvest, the wood was cut and shaped in Hohoe before shipped to Ho. We bought a partial quantity and will come back for more as soon as it is available.
When work was progressing too slow, I hired laborers for one day and stopped the work on the Toilet/Septic tank project. The community then decided to start to prepare the morning work at the end of the previous day, something that I am asking of them for long time but without avail. Thursday and Friday the work started on time but with slow progress. I asked the community to work on Saturday. They responded by telling me they cannot work Saturday, but will bring the whole community, not by groups, during the week if I hire more masons to finish the plastering. I agreed. I am getting tired.
Only five and half weeks to go and so much to do.
Tags: building a school in Africa, volunteer in Ghana, volunteering in