To Lawra and back again

Today wrapped up two days in Lawra, a one-horse town about 2 hours north of Wa.  It would be a one-horse town if there was one horse. I didn't actually see any horses, but plenty of goats, pigs, chickens and one monkey on the way back today.  Oh, and a donkey. So it's a one-donkey town.

Wa is pretty cosmopolitan compared to Lawra. The people of Lawra are mostly peasant farmers. Here, peasant farming means maybe you keep a bag of corn for your family at the end of the harvest. Then again, maybe not.

Our first school was Kuoli

Kuoli is "extreme rural schooling." It is surrounded by miles of...nothing.

Luckily for Kuoli, their head teacher, Alphonsina is extremely dedicated.  Also lucky for Kuoli is that they are part of the UN World Food Programme school feeding program and can provide lunch to students 5 days per week.  At Kuoli, this program results in higher-than-average attendance. And higher than average cooperation from parents.

At Kuoli I heard the backgrounds of all the kids we support. When you know what your life is like and then hear what their lives are like, gifts of a few pens and pencils seem almost ridiculous. But you have to remember that no one gives these kids gifts and many parents can't or won't buy them pens or pencils.  Besides that, driving through Lawra I could not readily spot any stall (no stores in the Upper West, just merchant stalls that line the roads) that sold pens or pencils. And you have to remember the faces of the child support kids at Kuoli:

Childen supported at Kuoli Primary. To my left is the head teacher, Alphosina with Virgin next to her.

After 2 hours in the hot sun at Kuoli, we continued down the road to Yikpee Primary. I was looking forward to Yikpee the most because we support the most kids at Yikpee and their head teacher, Cecilia Aeliyama is the most responsive of all our head teachers.

Yikpee Primary: You can tell there's a blueprint for constructing Ghanaian schools.

The office was stifling so we moved outside to meet with children under the trees next to the KG "classroom."

We met individually with each student to emphasize the importance of attending school.  Fortunately, we didn't have to chase after any parents today, though one Aunt did come to us.  She helps with Yikpee's lunchtime feeding program so that she herself can eat.  Of the 15 primary schools in the Lawra district, only TWO have a feeding program.

After meeting with the student, they were each measured for their uniforms for the coming year:

The faces of Yikpee:

We decided to take a different road back to Wa, so that George could stop and see his Uncle Favo who has been in poor health.  Uncle Favo gave us some bags of cold water and went on and on about his medicine and after looking at George (and getting a look from George) slipped Uncle Favo C$10 for his medicine.

Money. Can't take it with you.  Unlike the memories of the faces of Kuoli and Yikpee.