I'm staying in the village of Adugyama (Dwinyama), Ghana. It's on the Sunyani Road about 30 kilometers northwest of Kumasi. I'm staying in a house with the Atta family. Bea and Paul are the parents and they have threes daughters and one son. Their son, Yaw Bimbe goes to school in Abuakwa and return home for the weekends and vacation. He's been showing me around the village and I've been watching him play a lot of soccer. Their three daughters are living away at school or at University in Kumasi. I was introduced to them by Andrew Roberts who stayed with them while he was in the Peace Corps.
There are many rooms in the house. I have my own room and there's a hall where we spend a lot of time. I've been doing drawings with the kids. They're enjoying that. I'm also starting to learn Twi, the language of the Ashanti region.
Bea's mother, Nana, lives at the house along with their nephew, Kwaku Ba. Bea's sister, Rose lives there as well with her daughter, Sondra. The Atta's also have a couple farm laborers that live with them They farm cocoa, palm, maize, plantain, teak, moringa, yam, tilapia fish, and probably many other things I haven't yet learned about. Mr. Atta's frequently away. He works for the government at a large cocoa farm.
I've been getting to know the former chief's son, Mr. Addo. He is very active in the community and is doing a lot of projects to help the village. He worked a lot with Andrew when he was here. Mr Addo also work for a literacy program for adults at the Non-Formal Education Division. In his district, there are 3,619 people involved in the reading program.
Here' is Mr. Addo and Kwaku Ba leading me to the farm Mr. Addo owns with his partner, Mr. Brobbey. They have Teak trees, Palm, Maize, Moringa, Plantain, and a fish pond.
Mr Addo told me about his vision to someday create a large fish pond in the low part of the land. He would make the place into a tourist attraction by having various boats people can use such as the boats you can peddle with your feet. People from Kumasi and people traveling on the Sunyani Rd. would stop and picnic, go for a boat ride, and would be able to fish. They would pay for the fish they caught. Eventually, Mr. Addo would like to build a guesthouse near the lake to attract people to the village.
I'll be working with Mr. Addo on some projects. One project I plan on doing is planting Moringa trees. You can google Moringa to learn about it. It's a tree that's often called the Miracle Tree because of it's many healing properties. The leaves of the tree are packed with many vitamins and protein. It's being used all over Ghana for nutrition and for health.
This will be my address for awhile now.
Mr. Addo
Attn: Daniel Kerkhoff
P.O. Box 13
Adugyama (Dwinyama), Ashanti Region
Ghana, West Africa
Mr. Addo is trying to get school uniforms for some of the children in the village. He said two school uniforms would cost about 10 U.S. dollars. If anyone is interested in helping purchase school uniforms, you can send money to the above address. Books and school supplies would also be helpful. Thanks.
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