May 27th 2009

We finally made it to the north! This morning we drove twenty minutes from Bolgatanga to our home for the next month in a village called Sirigu. The place is called swopa and it is run by a women’s group from the area. The place is a series of four sleeping huts, a kitchen, a dining hut and a large courtyard with several trees. There is roof access to two of the buildings. All of it is painted in a vivid traditional red black and white tribal paint. It almost looks very Hollywood Africa with its grass roofs and bright colors.
We did not linger long in Swopa, merely claiming our huts and introducing ourselves to the staff, before jumping back into the car and heading to Yua.

For me it was very difficult to tell where Sirigu ended and Yua began. Other than the market places the traditional mud made family compounds seem to be equally spread out between the villages with little delineation between the two. The market areas were made of many buildings sitting much closer together and with a greater mass of people milling about.

We arrived at the clinic expansion worksite to a multitude of men women and children. The elementary school building right next to the clinic was apparently in session when we arrived because as soon as the jeep pulled up children began literally pouring out of the doors and windows. Everyone greeted the team with happy smiling faces and handshakes. We stumbled through the local greetings and managed to take a look at the site.
Though not as far along as he had hoped, John and the village had made a lot of progress on the clinic. There were many workers there and it looked as though the foundation was almost finished.

Next the whole team stopped by last years project, the water plaza. Unfortunately two of the three water spigot had been broken. We were told that they were broke by fighting women and therefore we will be having a meeting with village members in the near future to explain that this is unacceptable and they will need to make and pay for the repairs although we will help them do that.
The rest of the day was spent greeting various contacts around the village, such as the Afrikids representatives as well as resting after out long journey. Tomorrow the work begins.

-Kate Dorrell