Feb. 23 to March 1st, 2009 Legon, Accra, Aduagyiri

Monday, Feb. 23, 2009:
In West Legon, Ghana,
I walk from Sober Spot to Pure Fire
take a Tro-tro to The University of Ghana, Legon.
I go to the Library and look for the book,
Cosmopolitanism, by Kwame Anthony Appiah.
The librarians found another book that he did with Peggy Appiah,
Proverbs of the Akans.

I'm at the Performing Arts Center.
I watch the dancers and drummers practice.
I talked with Charles, one of the drumming instructors.
He tells me the drums, reddish brown stained,
cost 50 cedis and they can ship them to the States.

At the univ. to meet Winfried Donkor
who I was introduced to via e-mail by Patsy Barber
who is friends with my friend Amy Symons.
Winfried is the program manager for The Development Institute,
He is at the university for a conference on HIV/AIDS.

I meet him at the Noguchi Conference Hall. He is
with his friend, Fortune. They tell me that they are at a
conferencedesigning and modifying an HIV/AIDS questionaire/survey
that they use in the field to gather information on behavior
and safety patterns and peoples' attitudes regarding HIV/AIDS.

I asked Fortune about peoples' openness to being asked personal
questions and she says for the most part, people will open up and
be forthright. The survey takes about an hour.

We go to a university canteen and Winfried orders a Guinness
and I have a Castle Milk Stout and some goat on a stick.
Winfried tells me that he works out of three different places.
One is in Accra, the other in the Ho area where he grew up, and the
other on a peninsula on the Volta, KeteKrachi (sp?). This is where
there was some turmoils between relocated Muslims and the existing community.

Winfried's also interested in working on a literacy program with the
Accelerated Rural Development Organization (ARDO.
They emphasize motivating parents to keep their children
in school longer by assisting them with expanding their
business. The parents won't be tempted to pull
their children for financial reasons. Creative Incentives.

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009:

Irene and Mercy make me breakfast: eggs with onions and tomatoes,
toast w/orange marmalade, instant coffee.
I take a tro-tro from Sober Spot to Achimota Circle, 25 pesewas.
A nice man helps me get a on the tro-tro to Circle (Accra Circle, Nkrumah Circle.
I look in the market at some shops. I look mostly at stationery stores.

I head down Nkrumah Ave. and stumble upon The Loom Limited, an art gallery.
A beautiful woman helps me look at the artwork by opening the portfolios
of artists I'm interested in. I like the Batik artist from Accra
who signs her work, "Edwina". Abstract and strong images.
"Abnormality" for 56 cedis, brown and white paint on canvas from
the Sirigu Collective called SWOPA (The Sirigu Women's Organization of
Pottery and Art) based in Northern Ghana, Bolga.
Another little acrylic of a tree by the artist, Ismaila Tagoe.
And crayon and marder pieces by a Nigerian artist, Oladapo Adao Osogbo.

The owner's been in business for a long time. Strong lady. An American was in
there trying to make a "deal" with her and she wasn't buying it. The beautiful
woman showing me the art work was her daughter.

I walk down Palma to Nsawam Rd and then onto Farrar Ave.
I stumble upon the Step In Gallery and met the owner, Nicholas Kowalski.
His work-- lots of shapes, colors, organic, op art/African art,
nice landscapes as well. He said he lived in NYC for 2 yrs
and showed in Vancouver, BC wher he was able to work for 6 months. He loved it there. His grandfather was Polish, thus his name. I later found these 2 galleries in my guide book.

I walk to the Club Hotel Spot to do some writing and try some more of the Ghanian beers. I try Stone and Gulder this time. Stone is a strong lager. I decide I still prefer Star.

Wed. Feb. 25, 2009:

Go to Accra Circle again, walk down Kwame Nkrumah Ave., stopped at stationery shops.
Walk through Makola Market, busy and bustling in the heat.
Stop at Methodist Book Shop and bought two Calabash gourd art making books.
Walk to Mkrumah Memorial Park and had a coconut to drink for 40 pesewas, about 35 cents. Then walk to the beach through some shanties. I walk along the beach until past Independence Sq. and the walk along Marine Dr. and onto Labadi Rd.

I catch a tro-tro to Labadi beach, pay a cedi to enter and a bartender escorts
me to her bar. I go for a walk along the beach and two guys approach me
to sell me bracelets and paintings. I end up stopping and having a beer
with people trying to sell me stuff and because I made the mistake of talking
to them, they won't leave and I end up buying a couple necklaces and leave early.
I really came out this way to see The Artist Alliance Gallery which I walk to.
Mostly art, the decorative abstract type in my book. I liked Chief Toba's work from Nigeria. He uses string and glues it into colorful shapes.

Others I liked:
George Hughes like Basquiet/Francis Bacon,
Kobina Nyorko School of Fish w/ black and white eyes
Kate Oadoe, Milton Korley, Augustine Gokah,
book Asafo! African Flags of the Fante by Peter Adler

February 26, 2009, Thursday
Today I head up to the OTC (the Orthopedic Training Center) in
Adoagyiri-Nsawam, an hour north of Accra.

Long suburban tracts being developed north of Accra.
Beautiful, hilly country, major construction on highway
to Kumasi, rough roads for now.

Get to Aduagyiri around 10am, I walk up a hill to the center.
It's a large place with animal cages out front, a pigeon coop,
and a little wading pool. I meet Sr. Elizabeth. We talk for a little bit, but the
students are waiting. I'm here to teach them art.

The first group is nine students. We have lots of paper,
watercolors, pencils, color pencils. I let them know
that they can paint what they want and I encourage
experimenting and trying different techniques. I demonstrate
wet on wet, dry brush, splattering, and different effects
you can get with different brushes.

They start working and create all sorts of unique paintings.
I'm so happy. They're exploring different techniques, some
are using lots of water and are loose, some more dry and controlled,
some exploring shappes and layering. We talk about composition
and the importance of negative space. Some are drawing trees.

I try and learn their names: Faustina, Naomi, Awuerta, Mariama, Jaliha, Mansa, Mafua, Jeremiah, another Naomi.

The second group is from 11 to 12pm and has 8 students. They are Mary, Lradi, Grace, Ehweshnna (sp.?), Emmanuel, Timothy, Love Joy, Aduana(?).

I have lunch with Sr. Elizabeth, Sr. Cecelia, a nurse from San Antonio, and Comfort, a novitiate from Nigeria. Sr. Elizabeth tells me about the center. It was started by a Brother from Holland in 1961. The place has 73 employees. We ate pork, potatoes, and vegetables with tea in a shaded, screened in porch.

Sr. Elizabeth gave me a tour, saw the monkeys, guinea pigs, rabbits. Talked with Brew who manages a lot of the grounds. We went to the workshops and she showed methe many prosthetics they make there. In the workshop, the prosthetics look like real feet because everyone wears open sandals. They are making metal braces still but are phasing them out due to the elimination of polio.

We went into the babys' room. One baby, two months old, had a metal brace connecting her two shoes about 12 inches apart. Sr. Elizabeth was joking with the mother and the other women that the baby is getting too chubby. The little baby had eye makeup on and was smiling. Sr. Elizabeth explained that babys stay at the center for clubfoot for about six weeks. If they get in early, it's a very effective treatment.

I taught a third group of students from 2 to 4pm. They were Mabel, Thomas, Sule, Seidu, Mohammed, and Attah. Mohammed gave me two paintings, one of the Ghana flag and a soccer ball, and another of a cool car. Some made four paintings in that time. Thomas, their teacher, also painted and did a lot of experimenting, adding the pencil shavings into the paint.

I'm sure they could use more art supplies if anyone is interested in sending some. Colored pencils, crayons, pens, pencils, papers, watercolors, and children's books can be sent to:

The Orthopedic Training Centre
C/O Sr. Elizabeth Newman,
P.O. Box 306
Adoagyiri-Nsawam, Ghana, West Africa

February 28th, 2009, Saturday:
Today was the big engagement ceremony which I wrote about earlier.
After the ceremony, I went to Osu, Accra with Winfried to meet Urji, a former Peace Corps volunteer. She's Ethiopian who lived in Minnesota for awhile and is now working for the National Conservation Research Center on Eco-Tourism. I was delivering a small children's computer from a friend in Minneapolis which she was going to give to the village she volunteered in.

We met at the Osu Food Court and had coffees. It was a very modern mall-like place and I read that the chain originated in South Africa. Urji's sister was visiting. She was getting a B.F.A. in painting in Virginia and was looking into moving to Accra. Urji really liked the layed back atmosphere of Accra and the friendly people.

Winfried went back to Median where he lived and had a beer. Medina was a really lively place on the outskirts of Accra and it took me some time to get back to West Legon.

March 1st, 2009, Sunday:
Mr. Fudzie and I go to his church, St. Thomas More. We're late but he nudges himself up to the front. There were drummers this time with the choir. This is the first time the choir is wearing their new outfits that Mr. Fudzie payed for. They were scarlet, academic outfits. Everyone was very happy. They had a blessing for March born people, so I went up front with about nine others and got blessed with holy water.

In the afternoon, I went with Mr. Fudzie to take back his friend and Patrick who was there for the ceremony. We drove through the Keneshie area and Mr. Fudzie and his friend were pointing out all the housing built during the Nkrumah era. They were a mixture of apartment complexes and bungalos and Mr. Fudzie was explaining how he was really trying to help Ghana, almost as if he needed convincing as well. From what I've read and heard, Kwame Nkrumah, the founder of Ghana, still is viewed with a lot of mixed feelings for what he did.

We stop to meet one of his friends who's not home. I end up talking to someone who asks me where I'm from . I say the States and Minnesota. He says, I know Minnesota, the Twin Cities. I ask him how he knows and says that Eckankar is based there in Chanhassan. I first heard about Eckankar when I moved back to Mpls from NYC. My cousin had some pamphlets. I had to laugh talking about Eckankar and HU and Sri Harold Klemp (I even saw an Eckankar sign when I was heading up to Kumasi the next day!)

After we dropped off his friends, we stopped by his cousin's house which was really big. It had a large swimming pool, his daughters were watching a show from The Disney Channel. We drank Johnny Walker with Coke. His cousin showed me his paintings, some from a fundraiser, a landscape, a shiop, two little kids w/gulls, and a coast scene, none of which were to my taste.