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.

Our mailing address:

Kyler & Lyndee Lum
4H Ghana / AgriCorps
P.O. Box 2561
Koforidua, E/R
Ghana
+233 0 533 237 115

- Church Update -

For the last few weeks, we have been attending a nearby church, the Odumase church of Christ. Kyler has begun teaching Bible lessons and helping with the church service there. Worship, sermons and Bible studies are conducted in a mixture of English and the local Krobo language. We pray that, with time, we will feel more and more connected at this church and will be able to deepen our relationships with the members there.

In addition, both Kyler and I have been recruited to lead some of the morning devotionals and Sunday night lessons for the students at the school. Over 500 of the students that attend are boarding students, which means they rarely see their families or people outside of the school. We pray that we can provide an example of love and kindness in an otherwise strict environment.

Very proud of this man and the message of love he spreads.

#GhanaLife #GodisGreat #proudwife

(sorry for blurry photos)

I recently submitted a paper to my advisor at Colorado State University as part of an internship program I completed. Here is an excerpt I thought I'd share with you all:

 "Upon arriving in Ghana, I had prepared myself for the differences and similarities I would see between the agriculture practices I am familiar with back in the United States and the practices used in this West African country. However, I quickly found that no amount of studying can compare to a first-hand experience. It was humbling to realize how diverse agriculture is across the planet and how much I have yet to learn.

The first and most obvious difference I noticed was the climate, and therefore, the crops grown. A year-long growing season and high amounts of rainfall allow for crops such as cocoa, banana, plantain, mango, cocoyam, sugarcane, pineapple and cassava, all with which I am very unfamiliar. By physically seeing and touching these plants and speaking with the Ghanaians who produced them, I was able to learn things like: how to tell a banana tree from a plantain tree (they look very similar), how to propagate new cassava plants rather than plant them from seed, cocoa seeds must ferment before being dried and roasted, there is both an edible variety of cocoyam and an ornamental variety of cocoyam, fast-growing plantain trees are intercropped with cocoa seedlings to provide shade, and it takes a full year from planting a pineapple to the first harvest.

I also noticed how different the farming practices are in this country due to the low income levels of the farmers. Although I had expected this coming in, it was eye-opening to actually witness someone using a cutlass to slowly remove weeds on a large field or to see goats and chickens running free, literally everywhere, because fencing is too expensive or to watch a tro-tro (large van used for public transportation) drive by, filled to the top with cassava roots, because very few people have vehicles, much less a truck to transport produce. This made me realize that many of the “solutions” I had for the problems of African farmers were not solutions at all if they depended on a resource they could not easily obtain.

Finally, I have realized that despite language barriers and geographical differences, when you meet a person who is dedicated to their work in agriculture, that passion is universal. Farmers in Ghana care about their crops and livestock and worry about weather, pests, yields and the market, just like in the United States. Agriculture educators search for new, innovative information to pass on to their students, just like in the United States. Students studying agriculture at senior high schools or universities in Ghana have decided to spend their lives working in the industry that feeds the world, just like students in the United States.

 In conclusion, I would like to encourage any student, who is given the opportunity, to venture outside their familiar, comfort zone - experience, first-hand, a culture or practice different than your own. You will quickly notice the differences, and you will come to recognize the similarities. My guess is that you will walk away from the experience with a greater appreciation for your home and a greater understanding of the diversity of our world; I know I have."

Lyndee

Update

The Last Few Weeks

Hello everyone! I hope that everyone back in the States are doing very well. The last few weeks have been very busy. I have been in Accra working with the Agape House New Testament Church. I also went on a mission trip to Wa, in the Upper West Region, with the Preacher's Apprentices at Agape. The mission trip to Wa was very humbling. I went to 3 different villages in the Upper West Region, Kalkapoor, Chaang and Siriyiri. While I was there, we gave out a ton of clothes to the parents and especially the kids, dug bore holes for some of the villages and most of all, got to tell people about Jesus that have never heard before. It is unbelievable how God works in the heart of people that have never heard the story of Christ. God just keeps amazing me how he can use my messed up life to give Him Glory. Along with Lyndee, The theme of my time in Ghana has been I am not in CONTROL, but through my struggles I have come to realize the God is COMPLETELY IN CONTROL.

We are excited to be settling in our home in Odumasi Krobo and we will continue to update you all about our experiences!

Your brother in Christ,

Kyler

 

Some of my Brother and Sisters in the Preacher's Apprentice Program 

My Brothers Prince Henry and Michael

I spent August 28, 2015 riding a trotro on a highway with seriously deep potholes, surrounded by tropical rainforest, passing roadside vendors and women balancing impressively large loads on their heads, on my way to Koforidua, Ghana, Africa.

I spent August 28, 2005 (exactly 10 years ago) in Flagler, Colorado, United States, becoming a baptized believer of Jesus Christ.

The transformation that has taken place in my life during those 10 years is one that can only be attributed to a God who redeems and loves. I cannot remember my exact perception of God on the day I was baptized, but I know that as each season of my life passes, I gain new understanding of who God is. Every relationship, adventure, hard time, good time, excitement and frustration I experience grants me another glimpse of God at work in my life. My prayer is that I never stop trying to know God better. I could live a million years and never come close to realizing the depth of His love for me – but as long as I am striving to do just that, my life will be better for it.

Lately, the theme of life’s lessons has been clear: I am not in control!

This lesson started before we ever arrived in Ghana. Kyler and I assumed that we would know our village placement many months before we actually did. We also had a last-minute change of plans for Kyler’s living/working situation during our first month in Ghana (while I was training).

There was more than one instance when our frustration over this bubbled up to the surface and we ended up having some I-am-mad-at-the-situation-but-not-at-you arguments. Thankfully, we were able to see the big picture and decided, together, that it did not matter if we knew exactly where or when we were going. What mattered was that we put our trust in a God who works for the good of those who love him [Romans 8:28]. One of my favorite sayings is “grow wherever you are planted,” and that is exactly what we intend to do.

Since we’ve been in Ghana, we’ve also come to realize that we are not in control of…

…the electricity. Sometimes it is on…sometimes it is off. When the lights go out, you just gotta bust out the headlamp and candles and pretend like you’re camping!

…plumping. Sometimes, the person a few houses down doesn’t pay their water bill, therefore all running water is shut off. This must be viewed as an opportunity for a free cross-fit-style workout that involves carrying buckets of water up the hill to the house. (Note: do not try to carry the buckets full of water on your head like you see all the Ghanaians doing… this will only result in sadness.)

…transportation.  Trotros (basically large vans) are a common way of getting around. Some trotros, especially long-distance ones, are actually pretty nice. Most trotros, however, are a bit dusty, quite crowded and have Ghanaian pop music blasting through the speakers. Once you embrace the excitement of a trotro ride and accept that personal space is really not that important, you will have a good time - the unpredictability is half the fun. Your trotro may break down in the middle of a round-about, causing you to hop out and catch another trotro. You may go to shut the sliding door of your trotro, only to have the door fall completely off. Whatever the case, always be prepared to laugh it off.

…the amount of pepe (hot pepper) that comes on your food. Ghanaians like their food spicy! That being said, the food is actually pretty great here. I've eaten a lot of chicken and jollof rice and I’ve tried many of the local dishes including fufu (a dough made with cassava and plantain served with spicy soup), banku (basically fermented corn dough), redred (slightly spicy beans and red sauce…my personal favorite) and lots and lots of fish (mostly tilapia, cooked whole and put on your plate).

At the end of the day, I appreciate how out-of-control my life is. If it were all up to me, I’d probably be in the same, old, comfort zone I was in 10 years ago. The moments when we give up control are the ones in which adventures start. I could not have possibly imagined the paths that led me to this point in my life, but thankfully I have a God who did and who continues to do so.

Love from Ghana,

Lyndee

We have been given our village placement!

Odumase Krobo, Ghana

 

We will be living for 11 months in Odumase Krobo, a town in the Eastern region of Ghana, in between the capitol city of Accra and the southern end of Lake Volta. Kyler will be teaching English to community members using FriendSpeak curriculum and connecting with local churches to discover how we can best serve our community. Lyndee will be teaching an agriculture class at a senior high school and helping lead the local 4-H club.

"The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete."

 

PLEASE take some time out of your day to watch this!

For those of you following Kyler and I as we leave for Ghana, I would especially love for you to hear this message.

 

Link to the video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg