Ghana Immersion Project

Tuesday 6th July in Sunyani

Conor Sheridan 6-6-10

Today we went on our only project visit of this week. After attending our morning classes until 12, we hurried back to the hotel, as the teachers had given us the near impossible task of getting back to our rooms, changing and eating lunch in half an hour. Needless to say, it took longer than they had hoped for and we didn’t get on the road until quarter to one. The place we were visiting was the income generation project, or mushroom farm to us, which we were told a lot about before our visit. The journey out to the project took an hour and a half, and we when we reached our destination we were greeted by Bernard, the friendly manager of the farm. He took us around the farm in the stages the mushrooms grow. First he took us to the sawdust piles, which are used as the medium for the mushrooms to grow. A few of us took turns turning over a pile, which was tiring work in the heat. The next stage of the process is dividing the now decomposed into bags each weighing a kilo each. After this, the bags are filled with mustard seeds and then put in an incubation room. It was a very efficient operation and everyone was very impressed. The farm also keeps animals, including rabbits, goats, snails and a peculiar creature called a grasscutter. The goats were kept in an enclosure. The rabbits were housed in hutches which were in the open air. At a guess I would say there were 6 or 7 goats and at least 20 rabbits. We went on to the grasscutters next, which are essentially giant rats, the bigger ones reaching the size of a rugby ball. Bernard told us that they are nasty in the wild, but these ones had been domesticated somewhat, which made it very ironic when the one he was holding wriggled out his grip and ripped a hole in his shirt with its front teeth. It was onto the snails next, who also had an enclosure. The snails were all about the size of a fist, and apparently are quite delicious, but we all politely declined the offer to taste them. They also had a pet monkey on the farm, which Conor Flynn befriended. When we had seen everything there was to see, we all packed back onto the bus and continued another 40 minutes down the road to another town, which the project supports. When the bags of mushrooms are nearly ready for harvest, they are sold to women in various villages, who continue to cultivate them and then sell them on to people in the city. This was our first experience of the Africa that you see in the Trocaire ads. The community of 500 all lives in mud huts, while a vast majority of the children have the tell-tale sign of the swollen belly which means dirty water. A lot of us were taken aback by the poverty and destitution surrounding us, but as Bernard spoke in Twi to the local woman it came to light that recently one of their water sources had become spoiled, and the only remaining one is very unreliable. Nonetheless, they proudly showed us the room where they grow the oyster mushrooms, and after this a few of the children entertained us with a bit of local dance. After this a few words were spoken by the village’s chief and reciprocally by Mr. Nisbet, with Bernard acting as translator. After this, we hopped back on the bus and headed home, arriving just in time to watch the Netherlands beat Ghana’s conquerors Uruguay in the World Cup semi-final, which lightened the mood, but I doubt any of us will forget the sights we saw in the village in a hurry.