Ho,
Ghana
Friday, November 4, 2005
Meghan got a great idea to go and do some volunteer work on a farm for a week. After talking to some other students she decided that she would go and Catherine offered to accompany her. By the end of the week we received a call from the two of them. They were calling in the troop for a new mission. Bat Conservation. That's right, bats. Meghan thought she'd be working on a farm, but she and Catherine ended up volunteering at a rural (and I mean one classroom school, two small villages, no roads, or phone connection, rural) school. The children at the school could only use one room, although the school had two because one of them had been taken over by bats. The other classroom was becoming infested and as a result the children were getting rashes from the Guano. The teacher/principal would take the children once a week into the other classroom and have them catch the bats. He instructed them to pull their wings until they broke and then throw them out into the sun. Catherine (studying animal science) and Meghan (a fellow vegan) naturally freaked out. So they set up a project to create bat houses and to teach the children about the helping to conserve the bats and yet keep them out of the classroom. So Friday morning the girls+Mike and I answered the call and headed to Xofa (4 hours away by tro-tros). We got to Xofa, an eco village, at about 6. The eco village is centered about the environment, run by Rasta's, and doesn't believe in a lot of modern day tools, i.e., electricity. Se we fumbled in the dark through our grass huts. The next morning we woke up to see what the place actually looked like, and we were pleasantly surprised. It was all so beautiful!! We spent the morning being briefed by Meghan, Catherine, and the Rasta's, about how to work with the bats and how the project was going to go. We began the walk through the fields to the school (just over an hour). We passed through two incredible villages and had a trail of children chasing after us. At the school we nailed nets to the roof (only one hammer, so Cha Cha helped me nail with stones, and no saw so I learnt to use a machete, that kids thought that was hilarious) to keep the bats from flying in. Then we began to move the bats from the rooms into their new bat houses. They didn't take right away but we're hoping the migratory process will begin soon. The whole project took a day and a half. The children were definitely the highlight and we're so much fun to play with.
The second night there, after a day of conservation we bathed in the lake together. There were no lights to prevent us from seeing the stars and the sky was lighting up with an incredible heat lightening show. I sat on the beach for awhile while the others got changed and thought about all of you and home. Still not home sick, but keeping you all close to my heart. Jonny you would love the stars here.
Sunday afternoon only one taxi came, and since there is no communication tools where we are, the rest of the group including myself had to walk to the nearest town. We climbed a good sized mountain, and walked for well over two hours. The view was spectacular. We met some local agriculturalists who live in the hills, some with no community for miles around them. It was such an isolated life, but they seemed very content. The ride back was fun, and two of our Rasta men accompanied us, which made the journey even more of a blast. Megs, Catherine I'm so proud of you both!!
