Day 22

So, I know it has been forever since I have posted last and it is not because I haven’t wanted to! Unfortunately, we have had major problems with the internet provider, Vodaphone, that we use for our wifi connection and we have been completely without it for over a week now. Luckily, Dr. Herlin (Chief) has purchased a portable modem that we can use! Unfortunately, it charges by minute or data used or something, so my time is limited. In any case, I will summarize everything that has been going on with as much pertinent details as possible!

We will start with school. I began teaching last week and I absolutely love it! I only taught on Tuesday and Wednesday because Thursday and Friday were the annual “Sports days.” Which is somewhat like a “field day” in the states. I went to sports on Thursday and had a great time. It was quite a sight to see! The event took place in a large arena type area that was basically a huge dirt field surrounded by a chain-link fence with barbed wire on top. Inside the fence, there was a “track” of sorts. Basically, it was a large circular indented path that had just been created by so many people running it. This is where all the races took place. There were students from many of the schools in the region; some were competitors and some were just spectators. I would say there were at least 200 kids there. There were all kinds of events that took place and a student from each school would participate in each race. First were short sprints, like a 100 meter dash. Eventually, there was the longer race which would compare to our mile race I believe. None of the races had a defined starting or finish line, they were both just kind of outlined by the teachers who helped organize it all. I saw a great deal of racers passing out at the finish line!!! In fact, it actually seemed like a somewhat common thing to do. I got to see a lot of the girls I teach while I was there and they were SUPER excited to get pictures with me, so I have quite a few pictures with some of my students now J

As far as actually teaching, I LOVE it!! Despite being totally terrified every time I walk into the room (due to the 50 plus faces staring back at me each time), I have a wonderful time. So many of the girls are so excited to participate and answer any and all of the questions, and they also seem to understand what I’m saying and teaching! I do hear a great deal of giggling as I’m writing on the board which always makes me self-conscious, but it usually ends up being directed at my pronunciation of some word.  Especially “water.” I’ve found that they emphasize different syllables in their words and sentences as well which I’m sure makes many of my statements and questions sounds a bit odd to them. At any rate, I’m really enjoying teaching!!

In the Public Health setting: I met with the director of Administration again last week and he gave me a rundown on the health care system in Ghana (which I will have to review a few times, but is fairly straight forward)! He also offered to set up some meetings with other doctors as well, but that has yet to pan out. This Monday, however, I am supposed to be working with Mubareck, the SCT secretary on setting up some work in that area. One of Chief and Prof’s friends from England, Patricia, is actually a professor of Occupational Health at the medical school here and offered to set up some meetings with people there to get me introduced and hopefully start with some work! Apparently, it is the only public health school here that sends students out into the field to do the health work while still in their beginning levels (from what I understand). Another contact that I have acquired is Nash, who is an alum of the Zo-Simli-Naa scholarship and aid fund and who now works in the Health Department of Tamale! I think with the help of Mubareck (and a great deal of determination and pushing on my part) I will be able to set up a pretty good program for the public health part of my internship!

So far, I have interviewed 33 scholars!!! And I have yet to hear a story that isn’t truly inspiring J I have also visited a few of the alums at their jobs now! My favorite visit was to the Shekinah Clinic where Mariam, one of the first batch of scholars, works. This is a health clinic that offers its services free of charge to the severely needy . Mariam’s husband is the head doctor and Mariam is one of the nurses that volunteers at the clinic. It was a truly amazing place!

Probably the most important announcement I have to make is that Dr. Herlin, aka Chief, and Wyatt, aka, Prof, arrived in Tamale on Sunday, June 10^th. I was fortunate enough to join the welcoming posse at the airport to greet them! The group consisted of at least 10-15 people (3 of which were drummers). It was quite the little ceremony I must say and I was happy to be part of it. Back at the palace, there was another welcoming ceremony in the greeting room (where Chief sits two days a week to welcome people who come to visit her) and I was formally introduced to everyone. This week Chief has been very busy with greeting people and scheduling events and all, but we are all able to eat lunch and dinner together and sometimes meet for mid-morning or afternoon tea, too J Today, I joined Chief on her first visits to some other local chiefs, and that was very, very interesting! I borrowed one of Chief’s traditional outfits to wear for the occasion (the print on the dress is actually Sister Cities 25^th anniversary print!) complete with the head garment and all (someone helped me tie it on my head!). We visited two nearby chiefs, Lamegushu and Dakpena (the spelling is just an educated guess). The chiefs sat in their welcoming hall in a big chair with the crew of their elders sitting around their feet, and Chief and Prof sat in chairs to their right. I sat with Chief’s crew of elders in chairs to the welcoming chief’s right. The whole ritual was really interesting and intriguing and fortunately I was not expected to do or say anything because taking it all in was almost too much for me!

The food here continues to be amazing! My favorites remain the same, but so far I haven’t tried anything that I haven’t liked (and I’ve tried quite a bit!)

There was a bad storm last week that blew down a mango tree and the electrical wires and Bro Zee had quite a time trying to get it all back in order before Chief arrived!! For a while, we were without electricity and wifi. Then the electricity was restored, but there was a water shortage in town that left us without running water for about a day. Soon after the electricity was restored, there was a power surge that ruined a great deal of our appliances, including the refrigerator, microwave, toaster, and my A/C unit. They fixed most of it, but still haven’t been able to fix the A/C unit, so I have been relocated in the other guest room that does have a working A/C unit J Now, the only thing we still lack in a reliable internet connection! But, that is not a huge worry to me!

I’m getting to know more and more people that frequent the palace and Razak is working on teaching me Dagboni phrases so that I can greet them in their local language! I have also formed quite a strong bond with Magi and Ediya, the two littlest kids that live here. We play for an hour or two every evening in the courtyard around the palace. We have played hopscotch, had wheelbarrow races, and practiced writing numbers and letters in the dirt. I absolutely adore them both! And I believe that they have taken a strong liking to me as well!

So, in all, I have started adjusting pretty well to the new culture and environment that I have been living in for a little over three weeks now! There is still a lot that I have to learn and understand about how things works around here, but I’m slowly catching on, and everyone here is more than happy to help me along ;) Hopefully, I will be able to keep you up to date a little more frequently soon!

The Economic Benefits of Sister Cities of Louisville

Did you know that Sister Cities of Louisville brings a wealth of benefits to our city and surrounding areas — not only from a people-to-people exchange, but also an economic benefit. For those folks who want to know how it impacts Louisville’s bottom line, here is Sister Cities’ most recent economic impact on Louisville in 2011:

$129,500 generated in tuition for local Universities

$171,600 in educational scholarship to both students and teachers

$100,000 in sales revenue

$12,975 in hotel stays

That’s more than a half million dollars contributed to Louisville’s bottom line. But those hotel stays and sales revenues are misleading. Why?

Because there are many more dollars that are spent by our residents since many of Sister Cities of Louisville’s  foreign visitors stay with tax-paying citizens in their own homes. They feed our international visitors, as well as transporting them, paying for their visits to our local museums and restaurants, and the list goes on — and of course, those numbers aren’t booked by our membership. So MANY more thousands of dollars are contributed to Louisville’s bottom line.

велосипед!

By: Mary Beth Brown
The original post can be found on: bicyclingforlouisville.org


What a beautiful ride we had yesterday with our new friends from Russia!

We started with Wheel Fun Rentals at the corner of Brook and Witherspoon (Waterfront Park) and from there, checked out the Extreme Park.

Did you know Perm modeled their extreme park on ours? Click here to learn more.


Next we went to the Big Four, and proceeded to follow the new path along the waterfront past the marina...

...and all the way to Eva Bandman Park, where we got to explain CycloCross to our group! No one opted to do the Green Monster this time. ;)

We went back along the Waterfront and all the way to the locks.

We wove our way through Portland back downtown, where our new friends negotiated traffic on Market Street quite well.

Thanks to everyone who made it out. You were so welcoming and friendly to our visitors. Special thanks to Tom Dumstorf, Joanne Lloyd Triplett and Wheel Fun Rentals for helping make all this possible! We hope to partner with Sister Cities Louisville again soon.


To see all the pictures (and more video!) from this event, please click here.

I've arrived!!

 Hi! I am Brittany Hubert, and for anyone who does not know, I am the Sister Cities of Louisville/Sister Cities of Tamale Intern for the summer of 2012. My task this summer is to interview scholars from the Zo-Simli-Naa Scholarship and aid fund in order to document their stories and their feeling of how the fund has impacted their lives and the lives of others. While in Ghana, I also plan to meet with doctors and health professionals in the area. Since I plan to pursue a career in international public health after earning a degree in biology from the University of Louisville, meeting with these professionals will help me gain better insight into what my future may hold :)

So, I arrived in Ghana one week ago today. I flew into Accra, Ghana where I was met by Dr. Herlin's "son", Solomon. I stayed at a hotel in Accra on Thursday and Friday night. Solomon and his friend, Bismark, showed me a bit of Accra which is a very busy, bustling city with a lot of people and a ton of stuff going on! I experienced the true Accra rush hour traffic while leaving the airport with Solomon. Solomon took me to KFC for dinner. It was three stories!! I had a chicken leg and fries. It tasted quite different than KFC here. On Saturday, I met my first two scholars at the Accra Shopping Centre, Saaji and Kiram. Both have graduated from University. Kiram is doing his national service and I just found out a few days ago that Saaji was accepted to a Master's program where she will continue her education!!!

Saturday, I woke extremely early and went to the airport to Solomon to buy a ticket to Tamale. Fortunately I was able to get one for that day (you have to buy tickets from Accra to Tamale at the airport). It was a short and pleasant flight and I was met at the airport by Jehanfo, Madame Fati, and Mariama! They took me to Mariama's restaurant, the Crest Restaurant, for lunch since I had forgotten to eat breakfast and it was going on noon. I randomly picked something off the menu: Boiled Yams with egg. Apparently they were all pretty hesitant to give this to me because they asked me multiple times if I had tried Yam before. I replied no but I would like to try it so they agreed that I should try it. They gave me boiled yam with a plate of boiled vegetables in a red sauce for me to put on the yams. I'm no sure what they were so hesitant about, I LOVED it :)

Since then, a whole lot of stuff has happened. The rest of Saturday and Sunday they gave me to rest and get acquainted with the place and I started up with my internship on Monday. It hasn't even been a full week, but I've gotten so much accomplished. I made a visit to Tamale Teaching Hospital with Jehanfo where there was a very small opening ceremony for the building that Sister Cities helped fund. This building is a resting place/wash room for mothers who have sick children at the hospital. Before the place was built, the mothers would sleep and pass time under a big tree in the parking lot. This new building will prove to be such a great addition to the hospital. I also met with the Director of Administration at the hospital who was kind enough to set aside some time to speak with me about the hospital. I found out they have only about 50 beds in both the Maternity ward and Children's ward, but upwards of 100 patients in each at one time. They also only have one functioning Ambulance. Some of the stuff is just so hard to fathom. I also got a tour of the lab section of the hospital where they do all of the blood/urine/skin testing and all. I was able to see the bacteriology room and the parasitology room ;) For me, it was SUPER interesting. I am supposed to visit again tomorrow and hopefully more before I leave :)

In addition to the interviews and hospital visits, I have also agreed to teach general science for three hours each week!!! I am teaching Form 2 which is the second year of junior high school students. There are two classes of Form 2, so I will teach one of the classes for an hour on Tuesday and 35 minutes on Wednesday and I will teach the other class for 35 minutes on Wednesday and an hour on Friday. The topics I chose from the syllabus to teach are 1. Heredity 2. Food and Nutrition 3. Physical and Chemical Change and 4. Infections and Diseases!!! I observed my first class today and I must say that I will have my work cut out for me :) There were about 50 girls in the classroom I am in today and while they all pay very good attention, the number of students in one room is quite intimidating! Since it will be my first time teaching a real class, I'm extremely nervous, but I'm also very, very excited!

Besides that, I keep myself busy by editing interview videos (which I've grown quite fond of doing since all of the scholars have such interesting stories), reading, playing with the little kids that live at the palace (yesterday I gave them bubbles...they LOVED it!), and eating some delicious food. At the moment my favorite dish is a toss up between boiled yams served with just about any sauce and fried plantains. Although, I had fresh mango slices with my lunch today and I must admit that it was absolutely delicious as well.

The people at the palace are all wonderful. I have so many different people looking after me that it is hard to keep them straight at times. I'll give a brief overview now because I'm sure I'll be mentioning all of them very often. Jehanfo is the past president of SCT and he is helping to arrange my meetings with the scholars as well as transporting me to meetings at the hospital and other places. Madame Fati is the treasurer of SCT and quite possibly the cutest and sweetest little elderly lady I have ever met (and when I say litte, I mean little!). Mariama own a restaurant in town where I eat quite often. The food is delicious and one of the waiters there is helping me to learn Dagboni (the local language that is spoken along with English.) Dagboni is not a written language, it is strictly verbal from what I gather and they use English as their written language. Razak is my "caretaker"; he is a younger boy..around my age I would say and he helps me with just about anything and everything I could possibly need. We have become really great friends already and he is trying really hard to teach me Dagboni...thank goodness he is a very patient guy. Brother Zee also helps with organizing my meeting and showing me around the place. He lives at the palace with his wife and kids. Gomda is the handyman at the palace and he sometimes takes me into town for lunch. Today he gave me some tips for when I start teaching next week. (I think he kind of looks like Ghandi..haha.) For the life of me, I cannot remember the cook's name at the moment, but I'm sure it will come to me eventually. He is a very sweet elderly man that makes me all the meals I eat here, which is always breakfast, sometimes lunch, and usually dinner. He already has my habits all figured out, too, Coffee and juice at breakfast, water at lunch, and a Fanta and bottle of water at dinner :)! There are even more people than that, but at the moment, I think that is quite a bit of information.

So, hopefully I will be able to access the internet a little more often so that I can keep an updated record of all the wonderful, exciting, new things that I am experiencing every hour :)

Another Belief Statement from a Board Member

Tom Dumstorf is Sister Cities of Louisville's Perm co-chair. Here's his "Belief Statement" that is short, sweet, and very direct:

I believe Sister Cities is an extremely important vehicle for making the world a safer, closer and more understanding place. Were we able to make people-to-people relationships the primary means of diplomacy with world leaders relying on this as the best means of communication, we would surely be collectively less violent, less hungry and less self-interested. 

As soon as a face is put on a country in the form of an individual relationship, we no longer think of that country as just a pink or orange or blue shape on a map. I believe the sooner we take larger steps towards making this real, the better off we will all be. 

This I Believe

As I work with nonprofits, I have always believed that a person who sits on the board of directors should create a Belief Statement. Why? Well, why ARE you on the Board? WHY do you believe in this organization? What is the passion you have for the organization and wish to share with others to become a part of this great organization.


So, when I "re-joined" Sister Cities, I immediately developed my Belief Statement which I would like to share with you:

This I Believe

Why do I believe in Sister Cities and have been a member and board member for years?

I can begin with our mission statement —

Sister Cities is a non-profit diplomacy network that promotes

peace through

mutual respect,

understanding, and

cooperation

ONE individual,

ONE community at a time.

But there’s more…

I believe that in its simplest form, Sister Cities creates partnerships and relationships and because of individual relationships. Our citizens exchange people, ideas, and culture in a variety of educational institutional, municipal, professional, technical and youth projects.

Global Community, Global Communication by people like you and me — that’s Sister Cities. We’re able to get into homes and organizations faster and more efficiently because SCL is an organization that is not dealing with hierarchy, bureaucracy, and red tape.

We ARE the grassroots of international diplomacy, and all of the perks that come as a result of being a one individual, one community at a time organization.

That’s why I believe in Sister Cities.

On the Road to Louisville

Jon is a founding director of Exposure Leeds, being hugely supportive about the benefits of improving through sharing. When he's not thinking of the next big project for the photo group or planning a future Photocamp unconference he enjoys his own brands of art photography and male portraiture. He plans to come to Louisville this year as part of the Louisville-Leeds Sister Cities Photography Exchange, further sharing his love of art and creative thinking. Here he will describe his journey to and through Louisville.




I (and my co-directors) usually publish on this site as the voice of ‘Exposure Leeds’ – mainly in an attempt to focus on the people we’re talking to rather than have all this as a personal brandbuilding exercise but, for once, I’m going to be writing, regularly, about my impending visit to the United States.

When sitting down to start this I considered where it would be best to post it (I do, after all have both a personal blog, a photo blog and various social media outlets), but I decided to post here as I felt that you, as members of Exposure Leeds should have a chance to understand the whys and wherefores as to how I got in the amazing position of taking part in this photographer’s exchange, and to hear as soon as possible what happens along the way.

For those who are playing catch-up back in March the wonderful Michael Brohm visited us from his native Louisville; a city twinned with our own based of Leeds. Michael came along with prints from his previous visits to Perm, Russia – organised, as with this exchange, by the Sisters Cities of Louisville. He talked to us, took part in a workshop and took many pictures of the city (more of that soon).

This all started in 2010 – when, as part of the Leeds Photo Week activities, Alex Lawler from Leeds City Council’s International Leeds department came to the opening of ‘The Best of Leeds, Volume One‘ and asked if we’d be interested in helping host a visiting photographer from Louisville.

Since then both I and the other directors have discussed the relative importance of creating links outside the city and how this can educate and inform what we do here – how this can enhance our own work and show us these worlds beyond ours.

I head to the states on September 17th with several remits, and I want to be honest and up front about each – because I’m hoping all will advantage Exposure Leeds’ members:

•To develop my own work and experience – I’ll admit to personal gain here; that I get the chance to go to a place I probably wouldn’t otherwise visit – to engage with locals and to see who that place differs from Leeds; and the ways in which it’s the same. I want to come back with at least one new piece of work to enhance my folio – and to share with you and others in the city.
•To create links with those in another city – and this isn’t just some social connection, I’d like to find photographers in our twinned city and, hopefully, allow these to connect directly with Exposure Leeds and it’s membership. That maybe we can get photographers collaborating, sharing knowledge and combining their expertise and creating work thousands of miles apart. I am already in contact with a half-dozen photographers in the city; by the time I return I’d like this figure to be 25 or more.
•To understand what makes a good exchange – we’ve never done it before and, along with other challenges Exposure Leeds attempts, we don’t want to just follow the rules set by others, but we do want to work out how we can ensure these twinning projects become a success. I’m aiming to make connections in Louisville that will ensure any member visiting that city in the future will find a warm welcome, but also working out who we can facilitate that warm welcome elsewhere.
•To visit the Idea Festival – this is a major event in the city, and my visit has been timed to coincide with it, where some of the world’s great thinkers get together and share ideas. I’ve been invited to go along and record the event and to meet the delegates and speakers. This will form a single piece of work I hope to share with the world upon my return.
•To create a stronger link between the two cities. I’m sure many in Leeds are unaware of Louisville, never mind being aware of the twin connection; I’d like to change this and show more people in Leeds a little of what Louisville is and who it’s people are.
The imminence of Louisville is oh so exciting, but it’s not our only established ‘twin’ link – I’ve been actively involved in the 3 Harbours Arts Festival in Scotland (not truly international, but still it’s beyond our city), and will be talking about this at this year’s Photocamp and we are already looking into the possibility of twinning links with Leeds’ South African connection – Durban.
I’ll add more to this in the coming days – and update you on what is planned for my trip. But I think that is a good place to sign off, for today.
Image © Glorious Gaduang, used under creative commons licence with thanks