Learning Twi and Ga

We spent the morning at UCC (Underprivileged Children's Centre) which is a transitional school for children of families that can't afford to pay school fees. I felt so privileged to tour the school and meet the kids, the founder/director, and volunteers.
The school is in the middle of one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Accra and the director basically welcomes all children to the school so they won't end up working or begging on the streets all day. He rented a house where he lives, along with the volunteers and some of the older vocational school students (that his wife runs). He erected 6 small classrooms (little wood shacks) in the yard for over 160 kids. Volunteers come from the UK mostly to staff as teachers. I went around taking photos of the classes, students, and volunteers for the non profit that is just being started to raise money for the school and recruit volunteers.

I focused on children from 5 families because Lo has followed these families for months for her field research about education.
The second half of the day was planned to visit the homes of the five families and photograph the individual family members as well as their living conditions. We ended up making it to one of the five but we will go back to finish.

No normal tourist would have this chance to invade someone's community and home, especially with a large camera and a tripod. I felt very lucky to get this opportunity. A Ghanaian named William, who works for Lauren as her research assistant and interpreter, also joined us throughout the day. He is from her research area and he speaks both the local dialects (twi and Ga). It was only because Lauren and William have been meeting and interviewing with the families for months and they felt comfortable with them. I was introduced to the whole family and was very polite about taking their photos. At first, most were shy and nervous but then I showed them the digital picture and they got really excited and then pretty into it.

The living conditions were shocking. I think the pictures will do a better job than any description. One thing the pictures won't tell is that the family of nearly 20 were living and sleeping in one very small room that was packed with all their belongings and one very large bed. There were a few other rooms down the hall that were packed with other large families. Lauren is very familiar with the details of their lives, and I found it very interesting to learn more about their history, family dynamics, and daily lives.

By the time we left, everyone was very warmed up to me and very thankful of my visit. I am looking forward to meeting the other families and learning more about the life style and taking more pictures.

I have hundreds of pictures and I wish I could put them up on picasa. I don't see that as a possibility as of now but I will try to add a few pictures to the blog. The internet has been out at Lo's since the day I got here. I guess the landlord didn't feel like paying the bill. Guess I will just go with the flow...