Walewale and Batik

This week we went into the office Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and worked on our reports (when the power was on, which wasn’t often). It was nice to get into the office and our reports are coming along pretty well.
On Thursday Patrick and I visited our last district of Walewale, which is about 2 hours north of Tamale. We stayed there for a night and hung out with Whitney the WUSC intern there. Friday morning we went to the office, which was one big room, and then we went with Esenam (the long term volunteer) and Mme. Mary, (the DGEO) to a Wannugu to visit a school there. It was really neat. When we first got there we went to visit the chief and the elders of the community to tell them why we are here and seek permission to meet with the school. Permission is more of a formality and a sign of respect than a necessity. Here were maybe 50 of them and it was really cool. There was a guy playing the drums and they were all greeting each other. Then we went into this open building where they all sat around on the floor while we sat on chairs in the middle of the floor. Then a group of men filed in to the drumming and one of them was singing. The chief and a few other men, who I assume are the most senior and important community members, sat at the front. Mme. Mary introduced us to the chief and told him what we were doing there. Then Esenam spoke to him through a translator about the importance of education and especially of educating girls. She quoted a saying that says “When you educate a man, you educate one individual. But when you educate a woman, you are educating a nation” which speaks to the idea that women will pass their knowledge onto their children and so forth. Then a few of the men had a discussion with Mme. Mary in Dagbani so I did not understand all of it, but from what I picked up, they were expressing their skepticism about investing in a girls education since she will probably go out and get pregnant anyway. That was slightly discouraging but over all it was a really neat experience to see this meeting and see the elders of the community. At the end of the meeting the chief told the translator to tell me that he wanted to keep me there to be one of his wives. We all had a good laugh about that.
Then we went to the school and met with the teachers where they talked about the different organizations and stakeholders who are supporting the school, what each of them is doing and what else they could be doing. Afterwards I met with the two matrons of the girls club there, which was really interesting. Then we caught a tro-tro back to Tamale, which was crammed full of people, luggage, and live chickens. Tro-tros are always an adventure.
On Saturday a few of us girls went to learn to make Batik fabric from a very nice lady named Margaret. It was a really neat process. We each got 2 yards of white cotton fabric and then you melt wax until it is liquid and use a wooden stamp that is carved in a design. You dip the stamp in the wax, and then make a print on the fabric. Then you pick a colour and mix the dye with this stuff called costic that relaxes the fabric so it will accept the dye and then another chemical that makes the dye stay in so the colour won’t run. When you dye the fabric, the wax keeps the dye from getting on the design that you have printed. Once the fabric is dry, you boil the fabric to melt the wax off, and then wash and rinse it. You can also so a few different colours and fold it to make stripes, but I chose to do a white stamp with blue dye and it turned out very well. I am having it made into a dress that will be ready next week. Saturday evening we had a bunch of the other interns over for home made pizza (courtesy of Patrick) and then we all went out to this open air club, which was really cool.
Today is the beginning of our second last week in Tamale which is pretty crazy. I am planning on going back to Yendi for a few days to observe some of the workshops that Billie and Jess have been doing with the girls clubs there. Then we have the next week and a half to finish our research reports.