Blog

Voices from the Field: Team Amin

It is crazy for us, a group of American college students, to think that for years the small village called Namdu 2 has been without a source of clean drinking water. We have now traveled to Namdu 2 for four days working to implement another CWS site.

Since our first visit, the village has been excited for a future of good health due to the water treatment center. Jimmy led the chief meeting and community meeting and got a good response from all involved. However we are still not sure if the chief is more excited about the clean water or the chance that one of these days we might bring him gin. but more to come on that.

You are probably wondering how we have gotten our equipment out to the village thus far. It’s definitely an African art to fit one taxi driver, one translator, three girls, 6’4″ Jimmy, plus the equipment in the taxi for our 1.5 hour drive. But Implementation must go on, and to date we have successfully taken our blue drums and polytank stand out to Namdu 2. game on Ghana!

With the exception of a few children who have run away screaming, the community has responded well to our presence. I think that from their point of view, everyday has a little bit of comedy from us, whether it be them laughing at our “work in progress” Dagbani, trying to carry water on our heads, or trying to play American classics (duck duck goose, Simon says, etc.)

We are excited for the days to come. We will train the women, distribute safe storage containers, and prepare for opening day, improving our Dagbani and farmers tans along the way. Namdu and CWS will now forever hold a place in our hearts. Who knows maybe the four of us will come back with Namdu tattooed on our arms (they could probably do that for us.) Each day we are excited to immerse ourselves in this village and see all the faces of Nambu on opening day.

JImmy and Miriam paint the new polytank stand
Jimmy and Miriam paint the new polytank stand
Serena playing duck duck goose with the kids!
Serena playing duck duck goose with the kids!
Caroline helps out to collect water
Caroline helps out to collect water
Miriam pumping out water (this is not a CWS pump!)
Miriam pumping out water (this is not a CWS pump!)