John's Next Step

My post this week shares a setback in my gardening project. But first some good news about the computer room. Pictures of the computer room I have pictures!!!  (Although they took hours to put in this post.) Computer room ready for students One of my computer classes. Students with computers And one last picture Trying to manage 45 to 60 students working with 15 to 20 computers is difficult.  I’m mentally exhausted after each class.  Maintaining patience when I explain to a student over and over again how to do something or reminding them not to play on the computer when they are supposed to be completing an assignment is difficult.  However, this is a major part of my service and I have two more terms to bring the students up to a comfortable working level in using the computers. Travel plans This week I will be traveling to Tamale for a Food Security Task Force meeting on Tuesday – Thursday. I'll stay over on Friday for a w...

Construction projects We are getting into to building season in my area. This is the dry period when people can build their mud walls buildings. The school (students) started with making bricks a couple of weeks ago and now they are dry. Our students built a urinal pit for the primary students on Friday. We will have the students make more bricks for our next project – a new pigsty closer to our new school. The school raises pigs to support the end of year celebration. Fridays after the first couple of periods is normally set aside for such vocational work, or cultural practices, or academic competition between groups of students. Gender roles are followed - the ladies bring the water to make to mud mortar for the walls The bricks made by the students are carried to the construction site. Working on breaking up the dirt to make the mortar Some students like to stop working and pose for a picture. Like most children and adults some seem to stand aroun...

I keep track of the daily morning temperature and relative humidity when I'm at my place. Between June 7 th and Nov 3 rd the relative humidity was at least 60% everyday. However, I never saw it at or above 80% during this time so I can't really complain about the humidity. Since Nov 4 th the relative humidity has never reached 60% and yesterday it was at 36%. The morning temperatures have also decreased slightly from recently between 80 and 83 (Oct 3 rd – Nov 3 rd ) to getting down to 76 in the past couple of days in the morning. One can feel the few degrees difference in the morning. I'm adding some hot water to my morning bucket bath.  The daily high temperature is still close to 90 I think (although I don't track). One can begin to see winter coats on the local motorcycle drivers during the day. I can expect the humidity to go down to the 30% range in December and down to the mid-20%'s in February before moving back to the 60% range in May. Th...

Three rabbits in the bottom hutches.  The top hutches are for raising the babies when they come I got my rabbits this week. Two does and one buck. Neither doe is in heat so I'm trying to get them enough to eat so I can start breeding. I only have about nine months left which is maybe four breeding cycles. I would like to show that a controlled breeding program will produce healthy bunnies more effectively than the traditional colony method (Does and bucks are housed together and will breed anytime. Babies may be killed by others in the colony.) Feeding rabbits in Ghana, certainly in my part of Ghana, means collecting the food. They don't sell rabbit pellets although I can buy corn and mix with dried pito distillers grains to make a dry feed mix. I've not done that yet. I generally give the bulk of the food in the evening. Roger brings by some food in the morning. The rabbit will eat about its weight in leaves and hay each day and I think they tend to eat mor...

I mark the passage of another month in Ghana – less than ten months remaining in my service to Ghana.  Last night was Halloween and I enjoyed seeing all the pictures on Facebook of “trick or treaters” back in the states. The children here don't go trick or treating and Halloween passes without much notice. Roger and others continue to work on harvesting their crops. The corn, millet, and peanuts have pretty much been harvested. I saw yams and sweet potatoes in the market so those crops are also being harvested. Rice is the last major crop to be harvested I think. Dry season garden My garden has been grazed by the goats and I lost the last of the beans. However, I did complete the fence around the dry season area where I will be try to grow beans, okra, and kudzu. This will double or triple my daily water demands. I normally use about two buckets of water a day – the bore hole being about a city block away. Watering will be more of a daily chore – but such is th...