Ashtech 4-H

Women in Agriculture Day

November 23, 2015

15 out of 70 agriculture students at our school are girls... a small, but mighty, group of ladies!
One of my goals this year is to help these students feel empowered and motivated about their role in agriculture, their communities, Ghana and the world.

 These strong, brilliant and beautiful girls are the future of Ghana.

"Why did you choose agric?"     "Why are women important in agric?"     "What challenges do women face in agric?"

Women play a hugely important role in agriculture... they also face unique challenges in agriculture.

 Gena traveled to Odumase to help me out and she rocked it - thanks, Gena!

Check out this 2-min video:

Closing the gap between men and women in agriculture

LINK --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDM828TpVpY

At the beginning of Akrosec School’s first ever 4-H meeting, the club president stood in front of a small gathering of students in the dining hall and pounded a rock on the table to call the meeting to order. With shaking hands, but courageous voices, the seven club officers delivered their opening ceremony parts and guided the meeting through the carefully planned order of business. After the meeting had been adjourned, I ask the officers to gather around. I looked at their very focused and serious faces and simply said, “I am proud of you.” Immediately, all seven faces broke into huge smiles.

Helping my school establish a brand new 4-H club has been a favorite part of my job this year. I work closely with the seven high school students who were elected as club officers this term. Since 4-H is new to all of the students and teachers here, I met with the officers multiple times before the first club meeting, in order to explain the basics of 4-H and prepare them for their first student-led meeting. It did not take me long to discover that I was working with seven exceptional students; they were eager to learn about 4-H, optimistic about the future of their club, and determined to make the first club meeting a success.

After that first meeting, I realized that many of these students live in a world where punishment for failure is given out far more often than praise for hard work. Every week I spend with students, I witness the powerful effect you can have on a young person just by encouraging them and telling them you believe in their future. Fortunately, that is what this year is all about and I look forward to seeing many more smiles on student faces in the future!

Teaching JHS students in the small village of Bepoase.

One of the agriculture students and 4-H members at our school.

Kyler joining the teachers vs. students soccer game during sports week!

It's not about the destination - it's about the journey.

One evening we were riding a trotro back to our home; we had just visited a city near the ocean. A Ghanaian man, Kyler and I were sitting in the very back row. Three women sat in the row directly in front of us. For most of the journey, the ride had been uneventful and the passengers were silent - dozing off or deep in thought. Suddenly, one of the women in front of us screamed and jumped up onto her seat. Slight panic ensued and the driver pulled the trotro to the side of the road, not knowing what was going on. We quickly learned that a live crab had crawled onto the woman’s foot and frightened her. Kyler and I looked down at the floorboard and saw two more crabs scuttling by our feet. Apparently, one of the passengers sitting in the front had stored their bag full of live crabs under the back seat. A hole had appeared in the bag and the crabs were escaping. The women in front of us continued to panic and lift their feet, while the man next to us assured everyone, “I am a security guard, do not worry,” as he captured the escapee crabs and threw them out the window. Once the remaining crabs had been detained and our toes and feet were safe, laughter filled the trotro. Every passenger went home that evening with a smile and a story to tell. 

Sometimes it's better to put love into hugs than to put it into words.

Kyler and I have recently discovered a “shortcut” path in our town. We use this path to get to the market every week and it leads to my seamstress, the woman who has been making lovely Ghanaian fabric dresses for me. The other day, I was walking along this path because a zipper had broken on one of my dresses and I needed to get it fixed. At one point along the path there is a little store that sells candy and snacks. The woman who runs the store had two small girls, I’m guessing ages 3 and 5. Usually, when I pass, they see me and yell, “Broh-foo-noh!” This is the Krobo word for white person or foreigner. I usually just wave and smile and they wave back. On this particular day, however, they saw me coming and looked at each other as if they had a plan. Together they marched up to me, gave me a smile, didn’t say a word and wrapped their little arms around my legs in a hug. This precious act of kindness caught me so off-guard, all I could do was smile, hug them back and say, “Moh-choo-me,” which means thank you. Needless to say, I will be taking that route more often. 

Love each other as I have loved you. [John 15:12]

A few weekends ago, the 11 Americans working with AgriCorps in this region of Ghana met for the first monthly meeting. We had just spent our first weeks in our assigned communities and had plenty to talk about – crazy stories, complaints, weird discoveries, good and bad experiences, interesting living situations, and the things we miss about America. At one point, we decided to go around the room and have each person share their favorite moment from the last few weeks. Any of us could have easily mentioned a delicious new food we tried or seeing a beautiful, tropical part of Ghana or learning how to complete everyday tasks in a developing country or successfully implementing a new idea; but we didn’t.

Every single person told a story about how they connected with another person in some way. There were stories about making someone laugh, even though they didn’t speak English…not feeling well and having a student bring you a baby bird to make you feel better…walking your neighbor’s kids to school, hand-in-hand, every morning. Our favorite and most memorable moments are those that involve relationship with another person.

I want to share some of the people who have entered my life since arriving in Ghana.

Madam Peace is a home economics teacher at our school. She is also in charge of the girl boarding students, so she lives with us next to the girls’ dormitory. On the day she arrived, I extended my hand to shake hers as I introduced myself. She ignored the hand and went straight for the hug. I doubt we would have survived our first week of school without Peace – she has guided us around the school, taught us how to cook Ghanaian food, accompanied us to the market, invited us to her family dinners, given impromptu language lessons and greeted us every single morning with a cheery, “Good morning!!! How are you?!” She now refers to Kyler and me as her son and daughter, and treats us as such. We are extremely blessed and thankful to live with Peace!

Adwoa is Madam Peace’s 9-year old daughter. She was shy at first, but is getting more and more comfortable with the obronis (foreigners) living with her. Almost every night after supper, Kyler and Adwoa play the game they invented in the living room (which is mostly void of breakables). The game involves throwing/kicking a ball around and only has one rule: do not cross the board that is between the two players. By the end of the game, both Kyler and Adwoa are cracking up.

Mr. Sakitey is one of the agriculture teachers here at the school. Since day one, he has been amazingly helpful and has welcomed me as a co-teacher and co-advisor to the new 4-H club. I am always encouraged by his commitment to his students and their success. In order to help them improve their test scores, he has started a weekly “quiz bowl” after school. The students are divided into teams and he is posting their rankings as the year progresses; the students love the competition. Unfortunately, many teachers in Ghana put very little time and effort into helping their students learn, so the fact that Mr. Sakitey is taking extra time to do this is especially awesome.

Deborah is a boarding student I met one evening when I was sitting outside the house. She sat and talked with me for a while and I learned that she loved singing church songs. After singing a couple of songs in Twi, she started singing one in English, Ancient Words. I freaked out a little when I recognized the song – it had been so long since I heard someone sing a worship song I was familiar with. We sang together and she completely made my night! I see Deborah quite often and I can say that she is one of the most positive people I know. She makes me and the other students laugh when she is trying to tell me something (half English, half Twi) and I don’t understand but she, literally, cannot stop smiling.

Joy…is not technically a person. Joy is a male cat. He lives around our house because we feed him our extra food scraps. Sometimes he is friendly, others times he acts like a crazy jungle cat and freaks out when you get near him. I put Joy on this list for one reason: he kills the lizards, snakes and creepy things near our house. For that, I am grateful. J

Yokama: A Women's Day Celebration

"Yokama" = the ideal woman. Every year, a woman from the community is selected as the Yokama based on her work, education, character, family and reputation with the community.
Also during the Yokama 2015 celebration, we were able to witness the installing of the new Queen Mother for the Krobo people. The Queen Mother is the female equivalent to the chief.

Madam Yokama 2015, followed by Yokama women from previous years.

Girl dancers at the celebration.

Drummers!

Nene Konor: the Paramount Chief of the Krobo people

Girls from my school with whom I attended the celebration.