Trying to upload some more photos. Here is another set…
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Category Archives: 2014
Back to Gushegu and Zamashegu
Today was a transit and setup day, but we were still all exhausted. The heat really wears us down.
We finished up all our recordings yesterday, a bit ahead of schedule. One of the nurses from the local clinic came to our studio (our kitchen) the day prior and we recorded him covering about a dozen community health topics in the Komba language. From sleeping with mosquito nets to cutting fingernails and toilet sanitation, he provided instructions on how to reduce the occurrence of common health problems. This is a harsh land. We recorded him describing the symptoms and illnesses that could happen: typhoid, cholera, malaria, and guinea worms. I don’t suggest googling those.
Now that Nathan is better :-), we can now let you know he was in bed for a day with a mild fever and lack of energy – could have been a number of things, but I think dehydration is the most likely culprit. Thanks for everyone’s prayers. We pumped him full of water and the Gatorade mix that we brought with us and his humor returned. I probably should have monitored more closely everyone’s water consumption. I suffered from an afternoon of food poisoning, but simply did what you do when get food poisoning (not something to blog about) and then recovered. So, we are all good, but as I said, the heat is brutal.
It is a strange tradeoff… in the dry season, we can drive around without fear of getting stranded for weeks (or longer) by a downpour that would render the roads into something I’m guessing resembles British HP sauce, or maybe Thankgiving gravy. Hmm, can you tell I’m hungry? BTW, Ray was describing a playground game called “Stuck in the Mud”, where kids play tag, but must halt if they are tagged. They can’t move until another player crawls under their legs. We replied, “Oh, you mean freeze tag”. Then we realized that “freeze” is not so common here, but “stuck in the mud” makes much more sense. Nice.
Anyway, the dry season also lets us sit out under the stars without swarms of mosquitos and talk, enjoy the cool air, and watch shooting stars. I think we talked for about 3 hrs last night. At least a dozen shooting stars zoomed overhead. None produced that amazing golden sparkling tail that we saw several nights ago, but we did have one come in at such a steep angle it made the whole sky flash with what looked like faint lightning. We carefully listened for a sonic boom, but heard nothing. In the dry season we pay for these luxuries with heat and brown fields. Oppressive heat — standing in full sun while your skin becomes crispy — heat. My hat is my friend. My thinning hair is not. We know the wet season gives the Komba farmers green fields of maze, guinea corn, yams, and millet. All we see now is brown.
The nurse in Gbintiri that provided our community health information said he has about 15 cases of malaria in the small village. So I think I like the heat.
This morning, as we were packing up for our drive to Gushegu and Zamashegu, Pastor Elijah came by with a present for us. He thanked us for our work, and handed me a live rooster. His feet were tied together and I slipped one hand under his chest and with the other grabbed his legs as the rooster looked up curiously at his new pale white owner. Hmmm. I think Elijah sensed my awkwardness as he flashed the most amazing smile. After we thanked Elijah and he left, I put the rooster in one of the bedrooms, closed the door, and we finished packing up and started to load up Ray’s truck. It was then that I discovered that trying to pick up a rooster sitting on the floor of a bedroom is not for the timid. Even with his legs tied together I had to chase him around the bedroom as he flapped his wings, squawked, and pecked. The mighty African warrior prevailed, and I returned to the kitchen with my rooster in tow. “Roger” was put in a cardboard box put in the truck.
Oh, and while Elijah as getting his rooster ready as a gift this morning, Beth was writing a thank you note to Betty. Beth had brought thank you notes with her…. Complete with envelopes. How amazing is that? She still boggles my mind. We make a fantastic pair, because while I was working on a packing list that included duct tape, my voltmeter (which I’ve already had to use), antibiotics, and my titanium pans, Beth was coordinating which village we would visit, memorizing people’s names, organizing the reading scripts, and packing thank-you notes! She is amazing. Thanks God!
The people of Ghana are extremely friendly and generous. We often just stop to talk to someone along a road and take some pictures. Only on a rare occasion has anyone ever given us an unfriendly sideways look. In most of those cases, a big smile and wave from us sets everything right. As you may have noticed from the pictures, most are excited to be honored as the subject of your photo. Ray is very well respected everywhere in Ghana, and always knows exactly how to get things done and motive people.
Tomorrow we will be working in Zamashegu. We have several things left on our ToDo-list: Record the Bible Stories; Record some more choirs (we already have probably 2 hrs of fantastic traditional “caller / response” music… we can’t wait to upload an example for you); Take some video for a possible Prayercast video; and check in on the water filtration units we left last year. In March/April, Michael Van Huis will be bringing several hundred up to be distributed.
So… there you have it, we are all caught up! Here in Gushegu, we actually get **3G** cell service, so I can upload pictures. We are staying at a new guest house / hotel, and have a real shower (with one temperature water …. Wonderful cold…. Ahhhh). Luxury. Each day we will drive 30 min down to Zamashegu. Thanks again for everyone’s prayers. Nathan and Kevin have been totally fantastic, and have quickly acclimatized to Africa. Last night, I gave Nathan a lesson in driving a stick shift. He did pretty well, but we have not yet tried downshifting around corners… What better place to learn to drive stick than Africa?
Roger? What happened to Roger? Well, let’s just say he will probably join us for dinner tomorrow. We gave him to the hotel to prepare. How many hotels in the USA can you drop off livestock AND check in at the same time….
-Pete
A Fine Friday
Another productive day. Whoohoo!
But…. before we talk about today, Kevin gave me some tracks from the choirs we recorded in Gbintiri that you have to hear :-)
The first part is the “caller”, so don’t turn up your speakers too loud or you will get quite a surprise when the choir joins in. This track is a bit over 4 minutes, but well worth it. The choir leader is the beautiful young lady below. We thought she might be 12 years old.
The girls wore cute little white socks with flip-flops, and the boys had black shoes. The shuffling you hear in the background is their stomp-step.
The “caller” style is the most common choir type here, and the melodies and rhythms come from their homes and villages. Many of the pieces were composed by the groups themselves. The cement walls and tin roof of the church gave wonderful reverb.
Each of the choirs had prepared about 6 numbers. I really can’t describe how much fun it was to hear them sing. On Sunday we will try and record a small choir in a village near Zamashegu.
The other choir you can hear today is an older group, with an accomplished choir leader calling out the songs he has composed himself.
Here is a sample of his music:
The second-to-last song on the choir leader’s sing-list was about Zacchaeus, but other than picking out that word, we didn’t do too well understanding Komba
So… back to today…. my eyes are drooping and I’m falling asleep, so I better wrap this up.
We spent some time checking in on the water filters that we had test deployed a year ago. Pastor Paul’s water filter seemed to be working fine:
The ceramic filter is simple to use, cheap, lasts several years, and can be cleaned with a brush. The current plan is for MVH to set up the delivery of several hundred of the units to some of the very very remote areas without wells (bore holes). His trip is scheduled for March. They are looking forward to his visit.
The other work today was recording Pastors Peter and Paul tell Bible stories in Komba. They were quite practiced and quickly made it through about 12 records.
Oh, and Roger did end up enjoying Dinner with us. Here is a before and after picture.
Ok, I’m falling asleep on my laptop… Good night.
In Tamale
Sorry for not having time to blog. We will catch up tomorrow with a nice long post. Yesterday we drove far far into the bush and recorded a choir and several more Bible stories in the Komba language. I have a lot of fun pics, but here is just one, until we have time to explain more:
BTW, did anyone listen to the choir audio files I posted? Did you enjoy them?
This morning we had some changes to our plan, but eventually drove out of the bush and to Tamale. In the morning we fly to Accra, and begin preparing our trip home.
Dayugdigili
Catching up:
On Saturday we zigzagged down the road from Gushegu toward Zamashegu. The road is wide, sufficient for three trucks to drive in parallel. However, there is usually only one good path. Flying along at 60-80kph does not give enough time to always guess correctly, and Nathan levitated out of his seat and smacked his head on the roof of the truck on more than one occasion.
Several miles south of Zamashegu we turned West into the bush. The electrical lines follow the main roads, and within moments we entered a land where strong calloused hands build homes, plant crops, and wash clothes. Our destination was the village of Dayudigili. Larger villages have a government-built concrete school building with 4 to 5 classrooms. The building is always open. Rough-hewn wooden desks face a blackboard painted on the concrete. On Sundays, the classrooms become a church. Today, however, the rooms will be a recording studio. As we setup, curious children peek in, eyes wide.
Kevin and Nathan test the room for sound dynamics and we setup the microphone on my tripod with an elastic strap. The choir is cautiously smiling, nervous, and looking at our equipment a bit of apprehension. We set the drums up outside the building, under the porch, knowing they would deafen us in the small classroom.
Sound check…. The choir’s energetic singing and thunderous clapping overwhelms the microphones and has us all laughing. Yes! Wonderful, but we can’t let them clap. We tried to limit it to 4 people clapping…. Finally we had to select three people who clapped like a polite dignitary on the heel of their hand to get the balance of the singing and clapping. We had to coach the men of the choir to sing out a bit louder, but their praises were fantastic. They had three different callers, each with about 2 songs.
Moms sung with their babies snuggly tied to their back. When infants started to squeak, the moms would loosen the cloth, spin the baby to the front, and nurse them while singing — never losing a beat. Then, when baby was happy, they got spun back around and cinched up. Wonderful. Since mommy modesty is unknown here, I don’t have any pictures of the choir singing :-)
We did eventually try the drums… but had to move them another 15 yards into the field next to the school :-) However, it was inspiring, and the choir sang much more energetically with their drums pounding out a wonderful beat.
Just magical!.