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Voices from the Field: Team Peter (Carole Anne, Lilly and Taylor)

Posted on July 7, 2013July 10, 2013 by communitywatersolutions

We feel so fortunate that we got to be one of the two teams based in Salaga. Our team consists of Lilly Prince, Taylor Kirby, Carole Anne Spohn, and our translator, Peter, and we have been working in the village of Kideng for the past twelve days.

Carole Anne, Peter, Lilly, and Taylor with the chief of Kideng

We have had quite an adventure in Salaga:
• Fighting off scorpions
• Being accused of kidnapping a child in the village next to Kideng. (of course we didn’t!…confusion cleared-up after an hour or so…)
• Holding newborn babies of all kinds
• Carrying water on our heads from the stream (it is even harder than it looks)
• Worrying for our lives because of our adventurous tro-tro driver (just kidding Moms… it wasn’t so bad!)
• Making new friends in the village
• Cooking gourmet meals – burgers, grilled cheeses, salads, and kabobs.
• Chilling at local spots with our translators

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Team Peter with one of our awesome women entrepreneurs!

Today was unfortunately our last day in the village. It was bittersweet!
It was sad leaving everyone behind knowing we may never see them again, but we are happy that the community has clean drinking water. We started our morning out monitoring house to house wearing our awesome fanny packs. We have to wear these stylish fanny packs because they incubate our water samples taken from each house to measure for bacteria. As a group, we passed out all our gifts to the children, the chief, and the ladies who work the water business. To finish off the day, we painted a wall for the entire community.

Our time in Salaga is coming to an end; we are packing up and leaving for Tamale in the morning! The life of the party is coming back to town!

Successful Opening Days!

Posted on July 4, 2013 by samreilley

With opening days taking place Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week we can’t think of a better way to recap the excitement but with pictures from each of the teams!

The 7 new water treatment centers now serve clean drinking water to 3,664 people!! We are so lucky to work along side such amazing fellows!

Carole Anne, Lilly & Taylor pose with the proud ladies of Kideng!

caroline and brigid — Caroline & Brigid pose with the excited kids of Kasawuripe!

Team Shak (Victoria, Eda, Jacob & Hailey) peacesigning with their lady entrepeneurs, Mary & Fushiena on their opening day in Vogyili — Victoria, Eda, Jacob & Hailey peacesigning with their lady entrepeneurs, Mary & Fushiena on their opening day in Vogyili

Team Sharifa (Katie, Lucas, Stephanie & Sandra) post with their women entrepenuers and some kiddos in front of Namdu's up and running water treatment center — Katie, Lucas, Stephanie & Sandra with their women entrepenuers and some kiddos in front of Namdu’s up and running water treatment center

Team TJ (Maxine, Casey, Jhanel & Bryan) pose with their grateful chief! — TJ, Maxine, Casey, Jhanel & Bryan with their oh-so-grateful Chief of Kpali!
Kirsten, Sarah, Ethan, Angie & Nestor with the women as they fill their very first safe storage container of clean water in Gundaa

TJ, Maxine, Casey, Jhanel & Bryan with their oh-so-grateful Chief of Kpali!
Kirsten, Sarah, Ethan, Angie & Nestor with the women as they fill their very first safe storage container of clean water in Gundaa

Voices from the Field: Team TJ (Bryan, Maxine, Jhanel & Casey)

Posted on July 3, 2013July 3, 2013 by samreilley

Our Rising Tigers

Finally the day we and the villagers had been waiting for had arrived – our opening day! When we arrived at the dugout, six safe storage containers were already aligned in front of the Polytank in anticipation of getting clean drinking water. As the women arrived at the dugout to provide the drinking water, the numbers of buckets swelled from the initial six to close to forty. It was amazing to see the excitement the villagers had to finally have clean water despite the earliness of the day.

The women in charge of the water treatment center immediately took charge. They filled up a bucket with water to clean out all of the safe storage containers and put someone in charge to oversee cleaning. One sat at the station to collect the money and even moved some of the buckets out of the way, so that she wouldn’t fill up buckets for people who hadn’t paid yet. They then used the lids when transitioning buckets so no clean drinking water would go to waste. Once a new bucket was being filled, they would use the water in the lid to top off the bucket so each household had the most water possible in their safe storage container. One of the fellows even jokingly tried to get a bucket filled for free, and one of the woman in charge laughed at her and stuck her hand out, indicating she had to pay for a full bucket. The system was very efficient and we barely played a role in assisting them, allowing them to have full reign of their business.

Halfway through opening day, the chief and elders drove up in the chief’s Ford Pickup Truck. Many of the elders had already gotten their water and told us how tasty the water had been. The chief wanted to let us know he was leaving for Tamale to run errands, but wanted to see us before he left. From the get-go, we had always had the support of the chief; he had gathered his community to hear about our project and even talked to a few of the villagers who didn’t show up to the community meeting to ask why they didn’t come. Once again, he was showing his support by letting us know everything was going well and thanking us for our role in bringing clean water to his village.

When we were about halfway through filling up all the buckets, the Polytank ran dry. The women immediately took charge, refilling the tank with the settled water from the blue drums, and then refilling the blue drums to treat them with alum. They told the remaining people waiting in line that they would be open later in the evening once the alum had settled the water, so the remaining buckets could be filled and everyone could have clean drinking water on opening day.

Before we left, four drummers came and we danced around while the villagers watched and laughed while joining us. Finally, we left to head back to Tamale, excited for our villagers and looking forward to the upcoming days.

Voices from the Field: Team Eric (Fellow Alums, Brigid & Caroline)

Posted on June 30, 2013June 30, 2013 by samreilley

We’re so excited to be back in Ghana! Since we are returning to the fellowship program, our team consists of just the two alums and our amazing translator, Eric. After saying goodbye to the other fellows and translators, we arrived in Salaga on Tuesday with the rest of the team. Our first visit to our village, Kasawuripe, on Wednesday was a success as we met with the chief and planned to return the next day for a village meeting. We were thrilled to present the CWS model to the community and they were enthusiastic about partnering with us. Today we began constructing the treatment center and brought a movable metal polytank stand to the village so that they can move the polytank to their alternative water source in the months when their dugout dries out. The community has a great school and we especially look forward to educating all the kids on the importance of clean water and playing the CWS healthy habits game and other fun activities to encourage to drink healthy water. Tomorrow we’ll begin training the women and distributing the safe storage containers and we hope to have our opening day on Wednesday! After spending just a couple days beginning the project and playing with the kids of the village we’re so excited to be spending the next week opening the water business in Kasawuripe!

-Brigid & Caroline

Voices from the Field: Team Nestor (Angie, Ethan, Kirsten & Sarah)

Posted on June 28, 2013June 29, 2013 by samreilley

Our team consists of Angie, Kirsten, Ethan, Sarah and our translator, Nestor. We’ve been working in the village of Gundaa, about an hour west of Tamale. Our village has about 40 households, divided into New Gundaa and Old Gundaa. Their current source of drinking water is a dugout that is about half a mile from Old Gundaa (the center of the village).

The first day we visited Gundaa, we met with the chief, sub-chiefs, and elders to pitch the idea of a CWS Water Treatment Facility. They were totally onboard, super excited, and extremely thankful! The chief acknowledged that the dirty dugout water they had been drinking was making them sick. He said, “From now on, we will only be drinking clean water!” When we explained we would be working with them over the next two weeks, they even offered to build us our own hut. We organized a community meeting for the following afternoon, so that all of the women in the village could attend after spending the day in the farm (puni). There were over 100 people in attendance.

Angie and Nestor presenting the results of the 3M bacteria test to the village at the community meeting.

Our community meeting began with a prayer for a good meeting, led by the assemblyman. BAM! A table that many people were sitting on fell to the ground. Luckily no one was hurt and the assemblyman joked that the prayer hadn’t reached the sky yet. We each took turns explaining parts of the CWS concept and the work we would be doing. Everyone at the meeting was really excited and loved to see the visuals we brought with us (bacteria tests, a safe storage container, and our Fellow handbooks). At the end of the meeting, the community began to sing a song that involved the women clapping, singing, and yodeling. They sang us two songs – the first was a song of appreciation and the second represented the idea of “united we stand, divided we fall”.

The team clapping along with the women of the village during the appreciation song.

Tomorrow we’ll start building the polytank stand that will be near the dugout under the shade of a tree. We’re super excited to start tomorrow and we can’t wait!

Voices from the field: Team Shak (Jacob, Hailey, Eda & Victoria)

Posted on June 26, 2013April 29, 2015 by samreilley

Their extremely turbid dugout — Vogyili’s extremely turbid dugout

Anula from Tamale!

Team Shak just got back from Day 1 of building the Water Treatment Center. Yesterday was our first day in Vogyili, a village about one hour away from GILLBT. We love riding in Shak’s open air Jeep, even though we have to stop to reattach the gearshift now and then, it’s a great time on the open road! Jacob taught us a Vermonter/Kansan game called “My Cow” that we play often in transit. Our meeting with the chief went really well. We gathered around a shady tree and explained who we were, what CWS does, and how important is it to have the community on board because they will be running the treatment center once we leave! The chief was very enthusiastic, knowledgeable about the water source, and had a sweet green velvet hat. He brought out a can full of brown dugout water and told us how people get sick all the time from drinking the contaminated water. We ran a 3M test on the Vogyili’s dugout water and found that it was positive for E. coli.

Victoria giving a thumbs up to getting all the supplies there to start to build!

Building the first layer of the Water Treatment Center was lots of fun! The chief even came down to see how the building was going and tons of kids gathered around, helping carry sand, cement blocks, and water. The kids also loved looking at the pictures of other centers in our Fellowship Manual. It was therapeutic to smear wet concrete on the blocks with our hands. The blocks will dry overnight and tomorrow we’ll shellac the whole thing with more concrete—then it will be all ready to support the Polytank!

Building Treatment Center Day 1 Complete!!

We tried our best to communicate in Dagbani, but we’re still learning. We’ve pretty much mastered the greeting, which consists of “Despa” (good morning) followed by a series of “Naaa”s, which affirm that you had a good sleep, your family is well, our marriages are thriving (none of us is married), all of our children are healthy (we have no children), and your work is secure. We use lots of hand signals, which worked successfully for asking the kids about their names, school, and pigs. They chased the piglets for us and caught one, but we had them drop it once the Momma Pig began to charge. Can’t wait for more time in the village!

-Victoria, Hailey, Eda & Jacob

Salaga fellows are off!

Posted on June 25, 2013June 27, 2013 by samreilley

Top Row: Peter, Caroline, Brigid, Lilly, Taylor, Carole Anne & Eric. Bottom Row: Kate & Kathryn

First visit to the villages!

Posted on June 24, 2013June 27, 2013 by samreilley

With presentations complete, all fellows were more than ready to get out there and see it all in place! The fellows were headed out to see two communities (Sam took a group to see Chani & Gbung and Kate another to Wongbong & Nekpegu). They were greeted with lots of “Despa”s (“Good Morning” in Dugbani) and smiling faces.

The fellows were able to see the water treatment centers, the communities dugouts, meet some the women entrepreneurs and some even were able to talk with the village chief.

Once returning from the their village visits, the fellows were able to see the alum in action on their samples of dugout water collected from the field. Afterwards, we went through some mock household monitoring to prepare the fellows to conduct monitoring the following day. The fellows then broke out into their teams to practice with their translators the flow of conversation.

We finished the evening at a fellow favorite, Mike’s, to chow down on some delicious pizza!

Above: TJ’s Team (Jhanel, Bryan, Maxine and Casey) making some alum balls! Below: Everyone out to dinner at Mike’s!

Day 2 Success!

Posted on June 22, 2013June 22, 2013 by communitywatersolutions

We just finished up another fantastic day of orientation here in Tamale! Sam and Kate started off the morning by giving the final orientation presentations about water-related disease, water treatment, and the Community Water Solutions’ model.

Kate teaching the fellows about water treatment

After a couple hours of sitting, listening, and learning, the Fellows got outside and and moving around during another round of team-building exercises. We started with the infamous “spiderweb.” The Fellows had to get everyone from one side of the “web” to the other without touching the rope. Each hole in the web could only be used twice. The Fellows did an awesome job and got everyone to the other side in just over an hour. It wasn’t easy, but they rose to the challenge and had a great time!

Bryant attempts the spiderweb first. Be care not to touch the rope!

We finished off the morning with one final team exercise: The Senses Game. The Fellows’ competitive spirit definitely came out a little during this game – it was hilarious!

Maxine rushes after ball after Sam accidentally dropped it from the hiding spot in the tree!

Carole Anne and Casey searching through the trees for the ball. They had to rely on their teammates to send them in the right direction!

We started off the afternoon with a presentation by the CWS field staff (Shak, Peter, Wahab and Amin) who spoke about CWS’ long-term monitoring program. These guys are in charge of monitoring all of our communities throughout the year and now that we are in 49 villages, it’s quite the task! This was the first year that our field staff put together a powerpoint and formally spoke about the work that they do after the Fellows leave Ghana. They did an awesome job!

Wahan explains how CWS analyzes our monitoring data by showing the Fellows a graph of our monitoring results from April 2013.

Sharifa teaching Lucas, Stephanie, Sandra, and Katie some basic Dagboni greetings.

Amin explains how CWS identifies new partner villages.

After the presentation everyone broke into their teams and practiced Dagboni with their translators. Dagboni is the local language spoken in the villages in Northern Ghana. Its a very difficult language to pick up, but our translators did a great job teaching their teams some basic greetings.

Shak teaching his team Dagboni, the tribal language spoken in most of the villages in Nothern Region Ghana

We finished off the day with “healthy habits tag” a game that the Fellows will teach the school children in their village as a way to talk about good hygiene practices. It was a fun way to finish off a long but awesome 2nd day in Tamale!

And the Tamale venture begins…

Posted on June 21, 2013June 21, 2013 by samreilley

After a 13 hour bus ride and a 4:30am arrival, fellows were safe, sound and exhausted! We delayed the start of fellowship program activities until the afternoon and allowed everyone to sleep in. The afternoon started with some always needed name games. Right after we jumped into the presentations; starting off “Ghana 101” and the “Global Water Crisis.”

After a break for lunch, we all got back together, where fellows were put into teams and sent off on a scavenger hunt!

2013 Summer Fellows before running off around Tamale on their Scavenger Hunt!!