GeoDiscovery Lab Video - Low Resolution

Thank you to everybody who helped support the launch of the GeoDiscovery Center at OrphanAid Africa. As you will see from the following video, your donation went to a wonderful cause and is bringing a world-class learning resource to a small village in Ghana. Please excuse the low resolution video, but the bandwidth here is not strong enough to upload the high resolution version.

We are now raising money to purchase 10 computers for the children's home. In the next two months, we will be connected to Ghana's hydro-electric power grid and will be able to put the new high-speed satellite router that we recently installed to work. If you'd like to donate, please visit: http://thevoicesproject.org/geodiscoverylab.html

Barack Obama visits OrphanAid Africa for Rasta Endorsement

Barack Obama is very popular with Ghanaians young and old. Our campaign pins and copy of Dreams of My Father were worth their weight in gold.

There is a very catchy new Obama song that is everywhere on the radio.

Click Here for Full Blakk Rasta Obama Song

Evelyn's Banku with Peppe

Along with Fufu (which was documented in a prior posting), Banku is a staple food in Ghana. The best Banku - by far - that we've had is at the OA Guest House. It is the ultimate comfort food. We asked Evelyn to teach us how to make it. We didn't have power that night, so everything was made by candle-light.
Start with even portions of corn and cassava flour. Sift the flours and mix with water. Mix by hand and sieve soaked dough, removing clumps. Boil everything together and mix regularly until the mixture gets doughy. Add more water and pull the dough from the edges of the potm forming and reforming a ball. Steam the ball for 15-20 minutes.

For the Peppe sauce, add dry peppers to water and mix until the water is red. Add 1/2 onion and 4 tomatoes and mash together into a sauce while the banku boils.

Mold the banku into baseball-sized balls and serve with Peppe and fried chicken.

Termite Mound Pizza Oven

First, you hollow out enough of a termite mound to create a pizza oven . . .

Then, you make the guacamole (using a recipe from the Essential Jungle-Fusion Cookbook) so that everybody has something to snack on while we prepare the pizza . . .
Then, you play music and dance to the local pizza deity . . .
Then, you collect herbs and spices from the organic garden . . .
Then, you call home to Denver to get a recipe for the dough.

• 2tsp yeast
• 1 2/3 cup warm water
• 4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup oil
• tsp salt

1. dissolve yeast in water
2. mix flour and salt
3. create a well in the center and pour in yeast mixture
4. add oil
5. knead until elastic and cover
6. let rise for 1 hour
7. punch down, beat out air and let rise for 45 minutes
8. roll out into pizza crust

We used Merrick's recipe for the sauce . . .

Cook pies in the termite mound and enjoy with plenty of Star beer.

GeoDiscovery Center Opens Tomorrow!

As you can see. The kids are already excited!

We've used local craftsmen and traditional building techniques for the entire project. The roof is made of thatch, the walls made of mud and the ceiling covered with local hand-woven mats. Even the electrician is from the local village.

The final layer of mud for the interior is built from termite-mound sand, giving it a bright red appearance. The outer walls are also made of mud, but are decorated by groups of female Ghanaian artisans. Every paintining and relief tells a story. The women like to drink (quite a bit) before getting to work. The older the artisan, the higher her rank and more detailed her images.

We've wired the entire lab so that when hydroelectricity reaches the village in the next couple of months, we will be able to add 10-20 computers to the resources that we offer. Please feel free to help support this effort at: www.RyanFlahive.com

Fufu and Banku are the 2 most ubiquitous foods in Ghana. You just cannot escape them. We've documented a detailed recipe for banku that will be posted at a later date. Fufu is made out of pounded cassava and plantains. It is a very physical - and somewhat dangerous - process, as you will see in the attached video. Due to limited bandwidth, this low-res version will be replaced with a higher resolution compression at a later date.

Progress Report on the GeoDiscovery Lab

THANK YOU, to everybody who donated money to help build the GeoDiscovery Center at OrphanAid Africa. We've completed the mud walls and thatch roofing. The final layer of mud (made of termite mounds, so they are a vibrant red) is drying as I write this. The furniture is under construction and our shipment of wall maps from the National Geographic Society is scheduled to arrive today. If all goes as planned, our opening ceremony will be next Monday.

With the rains, our solar panels have not been able to support computer use. Therefore, I am working from the nearest internet cafe, 45 minutes away by "tro-tro". I am kicking myself for forgetting the photographs that I have taken so far of the lab!! We have, however, installed a new router that is going to turn the entire orphanage, Ayenyah village and the surrounding 1 Kilometer into a wireless hotspot. Once we are hooked into the nearby hydroelectric system created by Lake Volta (the biggest man-made lake in the world) we are going to be able to create a new Computer Lab for area students. Please visit www.RyanFlahive.com in the next couple of weeks to find out how you can help make this happen.

Since I don't have photos of the lab with me, I will instead share these photographs of our first GeoDiscovery Field trip to Boti falls with the children. More on that later too!

Ayenyah Womens' Group Field Trip

Ryan and Denise recently joined Ayenyah's womens group on a tour of the biggest bead market in West Africa and the local "factories" that produce beads. In a village where the average family has far less than $100/year, very little cash makes its way to women. By learning how to produce beads, we hope to provide women with income that they can use to pay school fees and purchase food.

Here is the group photo:
Molds are made out of Plaster:
Glass is ground into small pieces. As you probably expect, there will be plenty of wine and beer bottles left behind when Denise and Ryan leave the community:
Pieces of glass are placed in the molds:
And melted into beads in the fire. Once they cool, each bead is painted by hand.

Football - Orphanaid Africa (green) vs. Ayenyah Village (red)

Football is a religion here and Ghanians play rough and fast. Ryan has been playing with the under 14 group and still has boys and girls running circles around him and taking the ball away just when he thinks he might be able to make a pass. The 18+ mens team has asked him to join, but we think they are just being polite. The final score of this game was OA 6, Villagers 3.