Message by Lowell: A usual day in Kintampo

Pictures

1) Scorpion in the barrel of water (the one we use to bath).
2) Experiment in group
3) Suicided scorpion


Today is Friday, May 18. Our daughter Laure spent the morning in a daycare center run by the Catholic Church. This has been a trying experience for her, since she is the only white child in the center and has difficulty in receiving so much curious attention. But this is gradually getting better, and she now has a few friends among the other children. (At the house, she has a selected group of about five Ghanaian children who come over to play).

This has been another day without electricity. The schedule lately has been 12 hours without electricity every second day, and there are rumors that the water level in Lake Volta, which powers the hydro-electric dam which gives electricity to Ghana and three neighboring countries, is so low that the dam may be completely shut down by the end of this month, with just two turbines used to give some power. (But yesterday I ran into the Paramount Chief of the Eastern Kintampo region, and he assured me that the dam would not be shut down. And, if that did happen, a source of power for the town of Kintampo would be created somehow).

Caroline spent the morning at the internet room at the Health Research Center in town. We have access to their good internet site thanks to the fact that I worked with the director and his staff to finalize a two-year study to determine the nutritional impact of Moringa leaf powder as a food supplement among infants of post-weaning age. This study will, once funding is secured, be done in collaboration with GIANT (the Global Initiative for the Advancement of Nutritional Therapy): an American private organization chaired by the former American ambassador to the U.N., Mr. Andrew Young. (GIANT is actively approaching foundations to find funding for this study). At the internet office, Caroline met a young American woman doing a few months of health-related research at the center. We discovered that there are two other foreign women (two from England) also living in Kintampo to work with the center. Until we discovered this, we had thought that we, along with one Peace Corps volunteer, were the only “ogbonis” living in Kintampo.

Yesterday we did an interesting experiment. I remembered once reading that if a scorpion is placed in a site surrounded by a circle of fire, it will commit suicide by stinging itself. We had one live scorpion we had put into a jar in the house (Caroline had found it a few days ago swimming in the barrel of water we keep in the bathroom. How it got there is a mystery!). So, I created a circle of burning charcoal, with a diameter of one and a half feet, and we dumped the scorpion in the middle. It ran to the edge of the circle until the heat drove it back. Then, as anticipated, it stung itself and rapidly died. (Scorpions, snakes, and malaria-bearing mosquitoes are the biggest dangers to life in Kintampo. On the bright side, there are also some interesting and non-threatening wildlife. One day, when driving to a nearby village, we saw a chameleon walking off the dirt road. I stopped the vehicle and took Laure and Caroline out to study it. Although wild, this chameleon was very mild. We were able to pick it up and pet it, then watch it slowly walk off the road, gradually changing its color to match its surroundings).

Tonight we hope to have electricity again. Laure looks forward to seeing her videos*.

Lowell

* by Caro: no, we did not have electricity...