Today we began by rehearsing the piece, we timed it as well, we still don't have our costumes by Tim and Scott have been making arrangements for posters and advertisement.
After rehearsals, Tim took us to visit the slums where he volunteers, teaching the children. He sponsors two of the young boys so that they can have an education and he wanted us to meet them. We took bags and bags of sweets, bread, paper and pencils for them all, as well as Gin and wine as presents for Tims family.
So, a bit about the slums! This was the part we were dreading the most, we knew it would be difficult and we loaded ourselves up with BAGS of sweets, pencils etc. It was important for us to visit this place. We met three young teenage boys who Tim sponsors so that they can have an education, they were shy but pleased with the pens and paper we gave them. The area is very difficult, I made sure we avoided the open sewers and took lots of alcohol clenser with me which i sprayed on various small hands in our group to stop germs. We had to walk over a large bridge over one of the large rivers which doubled as a sewage and litter ground. The smell was intense and will live inside me for some time - it has made it difficult for me to eat because of the memory but luckily no others in the group have been affected by it. It is hard to understand how these families survive in such heat, mess and the stench that surrounds them. They live in very small huts and the ground is rubble, severl people will live in one hut - by hut I mean incredibly small shed. There are small naked children running about as they don't have money for clothes and some of the women were washing outside but covered their dignity as we walked past. We handed out sweets to any children we saw, many were scared of us and we had to teach them how to open wrappers to get at the food, some just ate the wrappers too.
We ended up with a gang of children following us once they realised we had food. There is no clean water in this area or the villages. The government send tankers in with 'fresh' water regularly, but the families have to pay to get their share, if they cannot pay then they do not get water.
We met Tims first teacher, Mr Jabee who is in a wheelchair and now very old, runs the only school in the slums, although the children there are classes as the lucky ones because they get the chance to learn. They pretty much learn in the street where the outdoor classes have been set up. We handed out sweets and they were very gracious to begin with but then they got excited about what they were given and wanted more. I asked to see a one of the girls work, they were learning about English, Math and Ghanain history - suddenly they all wanted to show me their work. We had photos and filmed a lot of this experience. Terri - 'Big Mamma' was completely surrounded by a lot of small girls and they all wanted to give us kisses.
It was lovely, there are some positive and productive things happening there and most people are actually very cheerful and pleasant. Incredible considering what they are surrounded by. We also visited two other schools in the villages and handed out treats. Abbi was very popular among the kids, many were asking us to take them home with us, some asked us to bring them shoes. We left one school with a teacher demanding sponsorship from us 'rich europeans'.
We went to Tims dads house (Francis Folkwei), which was a new development called Queen City - a slightly richer area with very nicely dressed people, although they still just have holes for toilets. We met the community chairmen and some of the well to do neighbours and we all sat and talked under canopes while poorer people stood around the outside, they had been given permission to listen. There is an important heirarchy within communities. Many of the poorer people were frightened when we wanted to take pictures until the chairman gave them permission to appear in them. The guys from TimAfrik got the drums out and we started to perform a traditional African dance we had been learning, it was fun as the sun started to set and everyone was having a good time.
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