04/04/2023 Travel Report 11, Ghana - Trip

Today we spent our first full day in Ho in the Volta region. The climatic difference with Sunyani is considerable. In Sunyani it was very hot, but less humid and easier to bear. Here in Ho, however, it was about 37°C and extremely humid. Even short distances outside caused us difficulties. The day started very early with a meeting with Emanuell Chances, in whose great hotel we again get to spend the few nights. It was he who supported us so far with his foundation in various projects in Ho and the surrounding area. Without him, transporting the donations to Ho and storing the PCs and other materials would not have been possible. Some points for clarification have been left in this long-standing relationship because of the Covid19 pandemic. It was urgent to clarify these points and determine further cooperation. An even more important appointment for us today, however, was the visit of our partner school, the Mawuko Senior Girls High School and the partly new staff around the principal Ernestina Peniana. Beloved colleagues such as Delight and Divine have left the school in recent years and transferred to other schools. In Ghana, this is common, as we learned. Ernestina is also expected to be transferred again in a few years. Why was the date so important for us - quite simply, we had great gifts from the Carlo von Mierendorff School (CMS), which were collected by the teachers of CMS. We from HITA also had gifts and donations with us. It is always impressive to see how hospitable our partners are and how comfortable we feel there. No matter how short notice we sign up, no matter how much we are late, we are always welcome. Thank you very much for this. After a detailed round of introductions to the new colleagues, we got down to work. There was a lot to catch up on, during the Corona years we were only in contact via video conference or email. A special highlight was that we were able to connect Petra Knott, the responsible teacher at CMS, via video call from her vacation. It is always amazing how much Petra and also Rachida have left their mark on Ho at the Mawuko.

Once again, our IT colleagues confirmed to us how good it is that we do not install the latest equipment, but robust large stand-alone PCs whose fans are able to cool the equipment sufficiently despite the high temperature and whose individual parts can be replaced without any problems. More on this in our YouTube Video Channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1zWW3JrtH5z93YMK3CybSw shortly. It is always impressive how our IT colleagues - we do not yet have a female expert in our group - are able to improvise and make the most of very limited resources. Well done our friends! As a thank you, we presented the three experts with a memory stick that they can put to good use in their work. We concluded the short visit to our friends at Mawuko by briefly summarizing what we had discussed and noting responsibilities for next steps. For this purpose, we use our HITA Meeting Notes blocks, which enable structured logging. The participants were amazed when they realized how much the given structure of the block can help to structure and thus reproduce the minutes of a long meeting. The visit was very short, but enormously important for the next steps of this cooperation between the Mawuko Senior Girls High School, the Carlo-Mierendorff-Schule and HITA e.V.. We look forward to intensifying this partnership, which will really get rolling now - after the Covid19 pandemic.