A Newsletter from Gill Norris in Nkwanta
July 2008
Dear All,
GEP is building a school, but I am not sure that you all really appreciate what this means in Nkwanta. There are no mechanical diggers, no bulldozers, no cement mixers, all is hard work. We employ 12 people, 6 labourers and 6 masons. They work for £9 and £14 a week respectively (that is fair pay!). They have to make all the building blocks by hand, mixing cement, carrying water and sand. The sand comes by tractor and has been manually dug from the river side. Once the blocks are made they have to stand for 2-3 weeks to strengthen in the rains, we then employ people to stack them. Each block is nearly too heavy for me to lift., 12 x 5 x9 inches of solid concrete. We will need 10,000 blocks to get the school to the height of the top of the windows. The financial position with the school is as follows:
Cost of sand for 10,000 blocks. £1300.00 paid
Cost of cement for blocks £4300 paid
Cost of sand for filling the foundations 100 plastic chairs for the chief(payment for filling sand) £520 + tractor to move sand £2000 aside
Payment to block moulders for making 10,000 blocks £600 aside
Wages of workers to dig sand and put up blocks £2300 aside
Next we need money for iron rods for the lintel and yet more cement and sand for pillars and gables estimate £10.000 + labour( no money yet)
We still need to buy wood for the windows and doors frames before the walls can be put up, so the recent efforts of the TWGGS team are very much welcome. When this building is complete, I can assure you that it will be the most advanced school in Ghana, but we have a long way to go. Building the basic structure is relatively inexpensive, completing it with roof and interior is more pricey. Please do not relax your efforts.
Thanks again to many students at TWGGS and their families, Brian Gibson, loyal ‘Friends of GEP' and Trustees of GEP, we are now in receipt of a container of valuable goods. This was achieved with a lot of hard work in UK, generosity from UK and from Ghana based OLAM company. We ran into problems this end as was expected. I had some difficulties with getting tax exemption. The procedure is complex. I have to go to Min. of Social Welfare who look after NGOs armed with many documents, then take the paperwork to Min. of Manpower to approve, it is sent back to Soc. Welfare to write a letter that then goes to Manpower for ministerial signature.(4 days) I then take it to Min. Finance. Here I was told to return at 2.00pm, at that time the letter was not ready so I waited, at 4.30 the letter was there but all documents needed photocopying. The copier was broken and none could be found in the whole ministry, return Monday..(4 days) I came back Monday armed with several copies of all the documents to take to VAT. Here they were quite helpful and I could collect letters just in time to whiz them to Customs. ‘Come back Thursday" the man to sign them was away until then!!!(4 days) By chance I called into Customs Tuesday, they said the documents had to go to Tema, because there were computers on board. At this stage I had to leave the work with OLAM to complete.. Enough is enough!
Olam completed exemption, so Nelson comes to Tema to deal with the port side. After one week he returns!!! The packing list has not said what brand the computers are, what the stationary is and other queries. Customs insist that we open the container for a thorough inspection, but we need a permit to do this. After applying, customs refuse the permit as they do not have enough information about the container!!!!!!! Finally, after much hassle, we can leave the ports and bring the goods to Nkwanta.
Also ran into some trouble with Electricity Co. Gh. (ECG) they had installed a temporary connection to our Centre in December, since then they have been making many excuses why they could not complete the job. Finally I hit the roof and threatened letters to ministers etc. I was called in to their office. It seems that they had miscalculated the bill last November.. We needed 1000m of wire at GHC 1.34 a metre, they had made this 134 not 1340. I had no copy of the estimate only the final figure. Before they would complete the work we had to fork out GHC1400 ( +VAT etc). They started the work but I was not at the Centre so they became ‘too tired' and left for three days!! They wanted me there so that I could give them some bribe to continue the work, this I refused to do. Next thing I know they are at my door while I am in Accra claiming that I had not paid my bill and they had come to cut me off. Luckily my watchman told them to wait until I returned.
Having attached all the right wires, there was a massive tropical storm that burned out lots of wires and plugs, so much for earthing the place. When I returned from Accra, the electrician who installed the wiring was called. He was a bit confused about this and said I would have to install ‘thunder absorbers'. I interpreted this to mean lightening conductors; of course these cannot be purchased in Nkwanta, only in Accra!!
Life is not easy here!
On the domestic front, the consultant from Holland, working with Wildlife, has finished his term and had to off-load animals. To prevent the cats from being eaten, he persuaded me to take one female and two kittens. He also gave me 6 geese, but they need special feed so they will lay eggs. This is only available in Accra and is costly, let us hope that they lay ‘golden eggs!!' Also have new monkey at the Centre, named Suzy in honour of my niece who has done a lot for GEP. She may not be thrilled at this, but her name lives on in Nkwanta.
Could write lots more but not sure how much now gets read. Please write back, it is nice to get mail.
All the best to you all
Gill
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