Giving a blank page to the unheard.
Asisiriwa Day 28 5 December 2015 I am becoming acquainted with the movements of insects; the delicate struggle of the spider in its web, the erratic fluttering of moths, the probing curiosity of cockroaches, the scuttling timidity of huntsman spiders on the ceilings and walls, the imperious buzzing of flies. The insects here have become the neighbors and tyrants of …
Sometimes the humanitarian and the local community are both wrong. Sometimes compromise means trying something new. I’ve talked before about the stubbornness of Ghanaians when it comes to their local building techniques. Many of them are resistant to innovation when it comes to construction—at least in the rural area where we live. In their minds, they have found something that …
Asisiriwa Day 13 20 November 2015 I live most in the morning, when the air still moves coolly down through the mountain roads, slowing even the taxi drivers into reason. Unfrenzied and bright, these mornings are different from the November mornings of home, which I am thankful for when going outside to bathe in the still-cool mid morning. As the …
Asisiriwa Day 7 14 November 2015 I am ravenous, devouring books like a person who has been starved, walking barefoot through a desert, delirious from thirst and hunger, not realizing they are deprived. I have not realized how I’ve been deprived until I began reading again, and now I am ravenous. I will read all the books we brought with …
Asisiriwa Day 5 11 November 2015 I think when you live near animals, you begin to think more of death. Life seems a little less precious to you, and you start to realize, the way you started to as a child, that death is always forgotten and always just a moment away. Animals don’t think of death, which may be …
Intro: When we were getting ready to head to Ghana, I had every intention of posting updates on our life in the village of Asisiriwa. I wanted our followers and supporters to get a little taste of what it was like for us to live and work in this new culture. Of course, writing about such a thing does not …
Don’t you find it’s easy to get caught up in the routines of life and somehow forget the passing of time, especially when you’re busy doing something you’ve never done before? You become so focused on the task (or tasks) at hand that days, weeks, months pass, and eventually you look up from that grindstone and realize that, somehow, somewhere …
Partnering with an international community to build something is a lot like an interpersonal relationship: you both have to make compromises to make it work. You don’t compromise just to keep them happy; you do it out of a genuine desire to see them get what they need. For example, the village of Asisiriwa really wants to steward the money …
Kaitlyn and I arrived back in the village of Asisiriwa, Ghana on Saturday with our liaison, Professor Agyekum. We made our way first to the chief’s house where men had gathered from all over the district to see what tidings we had brought. The council meeting opened in a similar fashion as last time. We walked counter-clockwise around the room …
According to the CIA World Factbook, the 2015 estimated global literacy rate is 86.1%. Upon first hearing that, it doesn’t sound so bad. Here in the US, that’s a solid B grade in school—perfectly passable. But if you zoom in on that number and realize that 13.9% of the world is still illiterate largely because of poor access to education, it …
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