On our fourth day, we travelled to Kumasi, the Ashanti region of Ghana, a town about 7 hours away from Accra. The ride was long and extremely bumpy! The people sitting at the back of the mini-bus (including myself) kept jumping up and down! This was our team leader’s hometown (Aaron Berko), hence the choice of the city. Once arrived, we got settled in the hotel where we were going to stay for the night. Aaron Berko was part of the Revival Church during his childhood and youth and in the evening we met with the church committee that we were going to help the following day with their Revival Life Programme. This programme welcomes people of Kumasi, whether Christians or not, to have a place where they can seek guidance, help, ask questions about religion and have access to a library with all kinds of books. This programme outreach takes place twice a year: a team from the church goes onto the streets and in the neighbourhoods and approach people to let them know about the programme. As we were having dinner with the committee (a wonderful traditional dinner – boiled yams and kewele in pavala sauce) we also donated around 120 books to be added to their collection (that we had gathered before leaving).
Therefore, the next morning, we all met up (the iCAN team and the church members) in one of the neighbourhoods of Kumasi and separated ourselves in groups of 3 to 4 people - with at least one local person in each group. I was in a group of four, with my teammate Buki (again!) and two members of the church (Eric and Djara). From 11am to 3pm, we walked around the rural parts of the town. We knocked on doors and said what we advertised the programme. Some people were very open-minded and listened to us generously; others had no trouble showing that they were not interested. It was hot and humid although the sun wasn’t completely out. It was very important during the whole trip to drink lots of (bottled) water and unfortunately during that time, we only took one for four people. There was one woman we encountered that was very touched by our presence. She invited us into her home (she was the eldest sister of the family, in her early 20s) and we sat in her living room. Now when I say living room, I don’t mean what we would picture as a living room of a wealthy and modern world. She kept saying how there was never anyone in her family of 7 children that would listen to her problems. Either there wasn’t the time or there wasn’t the interest. She felt comforted when she heard that other people outside of her family would care and there was someone she could talk to.
Once we had finished, we travelled back to Accra (another 7 hours of drive). Upon our arrival, we were all very tired from the long trip and called it an early night.
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