Light at the end of the tunnel.

April 1, 2010. Just a quick update, and I think I may have sounded more morose than I actually felt. A friend from home is visiting me, and it is just wonderful. Also, the projects are taking hold. So here's a brief review. 28 kids showed up for the English club, and didn't even have to be bribed. I'm thinking of word games we can play, and they had a spelling bee that was a lot of fun. More later.
The grant money that we did get includes funds to drill a new borehole on campus, with an electric pump that would fill both polytanks. They are now filled by women, one bucket at a time, from a borehole about half a mile away. One tank will flush the toilets in the visitor center, and the other will provide water for the kitchen and have a standpipe close to the gueshouse. My house water, stored in a large garbage can, now is filled separately but from the far borehole. So we are getting bids for the work, and it's pretty fun. Apparently old ladies, or women of any age, don't ask questions like:
What size pump? What's the hp? How deep will you drill, and what kind of guarantee will we have that the hole won' t dry up three months later? The first bid we got was like 6800 ghana cedis for drilling, 500 for development, and 200 for plumbing. When I asked the director what he meant by development, and what size pipe he would use for the plumbing, he hung up on me. So I am seeking new bids now, and have talked with a couple of guys that seem really promising. One says they will drill through bedrock to deliver *ancient water*, and the other says at least 300 feet. The members of the committee were as shocked as I was that the first bid refused to provide any real information, and each said (with no prompting from me) that it was totally unacceptable.
I am also working with the pastors of four churches in the village, three of which do not have electricity. For one Sunday a month we will ask each member of the congregation to contribute one cedi to the electricity fund. I also had a census done, and just got the results. Five men in the village went to every household and asked how many adults, how many kids and what age, do they go to school, and whether there is light in the house. I am trying to put it all into an Excel spreadsheet, and use the information to convince the District Assembly that they should help. Then I can show that X number of kids in this village don't have electricity at home, that the two schools do not have electricity so kids can't learn computer skills or study at home, etc. Everybody is excited about that, because we don't even know how many people live here, and they are checking with me to be sure they got included, etc. We will try to raise the money locally, and try for matching funds from the government and/or with an NGO. I want it to be THEIR project, not mine, and not just so the white lady can have electricity in her quarters. It requires a lot of money from people where the minimum wage is 3 cedis a day, but people are working together to see it happen.
A friend lives close to a church that often has all-night services, and she reminds me that as soon as they have power the two churches across the road from me will install amplifiers, but I'll deal with that when the time comes. In either event I'll be ready to go home by the time we get this done, but I'm not leaving yet.