Madventurer School Group Bespoke Trip to Ghana

Barrow and Ulverston school group

The first bespoke group this year in Ghana have worked hard on the first phase of a project to refurbish a very old four classroom block in the village of Lume Ge. The old building was in a very bad state. It had no plaster or paint, a rusty and leaking roof, no steps into the classrooms and large holes in the classroom floors. Following completion of this project, two classrooms will be used as a Kindergarten, one as a library and the final room as an ITC classroom.

Community Building Project

Lume Ge, the village that volunteers have been working in, is about a 25 minute drive from the nearest city of Ho. It is tucked into a valley in the heavily forested hills that border with Ghana. Most people in the village work on their surrounding farms each day where they grow mainly banana, plantain, maize, yam and cocoa. Volunteers visited a cocoa farm and also went to see how palm wine, the local brew, was made.

Phase 1 of the build

The objective of this two week stage was to re-roof half of the building, begin work on the outside verandas, entirely complete the computer room and to plaster and paint the library. We also installed electricity to the building.

Sixteen pupils and two teachers from two schools in Cumbria, namely Barrow Sixth Form College and Ulverston Victoria High School, worked hard for two weeks to achieve this aim. The work they participated in included: breaking up the old floor in the classrooms, digging foundation trenches for the verandas, molding new bricks, laying a new floor in the computer room and lots of plastering, painting and mixing cement. They did this while skilled carpenters re-roofed half the building and electricians installed electricity and plug-sockets.

Throughout the project there were always a great number of community volunteers ready to help out. They showed our Madventurer volunteers how to do jobs like breaking a concrete floor, how to carry items on their heads and they helped with collecting water and sand.

The ICT room and Library

Pupils from both schools had worked hard in the UK to fundraise money in order to purchase computers for the ICT room. Levels of computer literacy in the area are almost non-existent with people only having seen them, let alone used them, if visiting or studying in Ho the nearby town. We were able to purchase 12 computers and a printer with money raised by the pupils. This means that after the school holidays, pupils from the school will now have the opportunity to learn valuable computer skills. It is hoped that evening classes can also be set up for adults hoping to learn these skills.Having these computers available will have an invaluable long term impact on those pupils who are, for the first time now, allowed the opportunity to learn computer skills that are so valuable in this day and age.

Pupils also generously brought a large number of books for the library. We were able to paint an old bookshelf in the colours of the Ghanaian flag and put this, with the books on it, temporarily in the computer room until the library is completed.

Accommodation and life in Lume

Our Mad volunteers lived in three houses in the community, all within a few minutes of each other and less than ten minutes walk to the site. All the girls were squeezed into a room in one house, the boys in another and the teachers in a third. This third house was also used as an eating and relaxing area as it had a large living room with some sofa's and chairs. We were lucky on this project to have running water and reliable electricity but life was still basic with volunteers still sleeping under their mosquito nets on a mattress on the floor.

Volunteers spent the evenings playing games, making up stories, having the evening quiz (made up by two different people each day) and having salsa classes from Malcolm (a teacher from Barrow Sixth Form College). They also spent time in the afternoons playing with local children, getting to know 'village life' in Ghana and having football matches with the local team.

Progress of the project

In just two weeks this group achieved a huge amount. Turning an old dilapidated and unusable building into an ICT classroom and library with electricity, a new floor, plastered and painted walls and 12 computers. We have since, with another much smaller group, been working on phase 2 of the project and have completed the new roof, plastered and painted a third classroom and completed one of the verandas around the outside of the building.

This large build will be completed in October by another group of school pupils from the UK who will be here for 2 weeks, plastering the final classroom, completing the veranda and steps around the outside of the building and finishing all painting that remains to be done.

Weekend activities

Weekends for volunteers in Ghana tend to be just as active as the weeks work. On the Saturday, volunteers opted to visited Wli falls, a nearby waterfall that is the largest in West Africa. After a two hour drive it is a lovely 30 minute walk through the forest to the foot of the falls where you are able to swim in the pool at the bottom or just watch the bats that live on the cliff beside the waterfall.

On the Sunday morning we were all taken to see how church differs in Ghana and treated to a two hour service that mainly involved singing, drumming and dancing. Volunteers had organized a sports day for the Sunday afternoon and local children enjoyed running races and other activities. To top off a great weekend the boys had organized a very competitive football match with the Lume team. This was a re-match of a game earlier in the week that had finished 5:5 and been lost by the Mad team on penalties. I'm afraid to say that the Mad team lost this one as well in a gripping 2 hour game that ended 6:4.

The MAD adventure

Following completion of the two week project pupils from Barrow and Ulverston then went on a week long adventure around Ghana. The adventure was amazing, taking in a safari park in the far north of the country, the huge and sprawling market in Kumasi, the historic slave castles of the coast and some stunning beaches.

Mole National Park - Volunteers spent the morning on a walking safari in the park seeing a great variety of bird life, a number of different antelope, crocodiles, monkeys and most excitingly - ELEPHANTS!!!The afternoon was spent by the pool overlooking a watering hole in the park and chasing away the baboons that had come to steel food.

Kumasi - A whole morning was spent getting lost in Kumasi's' vast and sprawling market, reportedly the largest free-standing market in West Africa. Almost anything can be purchased here from pig's trotters and cow hides to tropical fruit and spices.

The Slave Castles - The group visited both Elmina and Cape Coast castles and were taken on fascinating tours around the dungeons and given the different but equally horrific histories of both castles.

Kakum Canopy - We also visited Kakum National Park where volunteers were able to walk precariously along a walkway above the jungle canopy below.

The Beaches - The whole group enjoyed some 'down time' at beaches in both Cape Coast and Kokrobite. At Kokrobite we were lucky enough to be treated to an African drumming, dancing and acrobatics performance in the evening.

Than sadly it was time for the group to head home to the UK.The students, teachers, local villagers, tradesmen and craftsmen (and our Mad crew) all achieved so much during the project build.A massive MAD thanks to everyone who got involved, for friends, family who helped fundraise and all the hard work Malcolm and Jeanette have done to get the project off the ground.We all know it takes a massive amount of work to get the trip and group organized.Well done to everyone for their kind donations and real hard graft, nice work!

The Madventurer Team!