Ghana

I took pictures all throughout my trip to Ghana. These were a few singles from all the different places I went to. I traveled all around the southern part of Ghana and up into the central area a bit but did not make it north. I would love to go back and see that part of the country as well, but I really enjoyed the places I visited and the people I met on my first trip. They showed me so many amazing things. To see some more singles of the places I saw in Ghana, visit the "Singles" set on my Flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kdalrymple/.

Woman putting print on cloth at the Cultural Center in Kumasi

Father Biney getting ready for a canoe ride. During the dry season you can walk across this area that was filled with water.

I visited a village that was completely on the water. You could only get there by boat (or canoe as we did) and it took about an hour to paddle. The children grow up here and take classes until 6th grade. After that they paddle to land for and hour every morning, and back every night, to continue ther studies.

The beach area where we got the canoe to visit the water village. There were cows on the beach!

Kumasi

Cape Coast

Immaculate Heart of Mary Prep School

While traveling with Sister Joana she also brought me to stay at the convent where she lived for a while in Offinso. The Sisters there were so wonderful and welcoming and there were also a few young girls close to my age staying there to do different types of work. They had a back yard where they hung their clothes and a small shed-like area with two rooms. One served as a cooking area over a tiny stove on the floor and the other was where the many dogs and goats took shelter. (One of my favorite tidbits was that their two adult dogs were named Prince and Princess, and they had three puppies-- but their names were not relevant...)

Most of the Sisters worked a the nearby school, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Prep School (as head mistress and two classroom teachers), or at the hospital across the yard. I had the honor of joining Sister Mary Charity in her classroom for a day and meeting her students.  wish I had more time there, and I hadn't brought my recorder, but the it was a wonderful day and I was able to take a lot of pictures of the children in their classroom and outdoor environments. Below are a few from the day I spent there. To view some of these photos larger, visit the "Stories" set on my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kdalrymple/.

Sister Mary Charity Dorcas Banaman Mensah IHM points her cane stick towards the students in her primary three class as she instructs them to begin singing. Sister Charity is one of the few teachers at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Preparatory School who does not believe in using the cane stick on the students. She finds alternative ways, such as giving more homework, to punish students for bad behavior and keep control of the class. Sister Charity taught primary two and three (P2 and P3) this year during the three different terms at the school, which is located in Namong-Offinso in Ghana. Her current class is P3, ages 8-14.

Bernard Osei Oduro, Tabi Obed, and Ernestina Adu Serwaa work together in groups to complete a class assignment. When they finished they were allowed to leave the room for recess. The children in this class are known as the "pioneers" because they were the very first class at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Preparatory School, which consists of kindergarten 1 and 2 as well as P1-3. The children in Sister Charity's class will be returning for the 2008-09 school year as they implement a P4 class for the new school year. The school also just celebrated its fifth anniversary on the last day of the 2007-08 school year.

A washing bin in the front of the classroom used to wash hands before lunchtime.

Samuel Amponsah rests on a table in the back of Sister Mary Charity's primary three classroom, waiting for his stomachache to subside.

Prince Obeng stands in the doorway of Sister Mary Charity's classroom while other students work on a class assignment.

Prince Obeng, Edward Mensah Yeboah, Joshua Yeltuo, and Tabi Obed laugh together as they work on completing their class assignment before recess and lunch. 

Vanessa Konadu sits on a desk during recess wearing glasses she constructed out of sticks.

Elvis Osei Bonsu picks up his chair to carry to the end-of-the-year assembly practice in the field behind his school.

Immaculate Heart of Mary Preparatory students of all ages exit the school with their chairs to attend their practice assembly held behind the school. The school ranges from kindergarten one to primary three (ages 3-14) and will be implementing primary four into the school for the 2008-09 school year.

Michael Owusu Sekyere, a kindergarten one (KG1) student, exits the school carrying his chair to the assembly practice while Ivans Kusi, a KG1 student, watches from them hall. Kusi will not be part of the end-of-the-year assembly and stays behind while the rest of the school attends practice.

African Funeral

Father Biney not only showed me many different areas around his village that tourists and visitors wouldn't necessarily see, he also invited me to his step-mother's wake and funeral to take photographs. One of the most surprising aspects, besides being asked to come and photograph, was that when I arrived at the wake in the evening, there were videographers there as well.

Everything was beautiful. The family gathered at a home where many visitors were staying and then filtered over to where the wake was being held. We arrived around 10 p.m. and stayed until around 12:30 a.m. His step-mother, who had a heart attack, passed away in June and they had to keep the body until August for the funeral. The family was in all different places around Africa, and some around the globe, and could not leave to come home in June for the funeral. For this reason, the family in Africa decided to notify family and friends who were not at home and hold the funeral until everyone, or most everyone, would be able to attend.

This piece still needs to be altered but for now it's a good 

representation of African funeral services

Their funerals are very elaborate, as are their wedding ceremonies. The clergy men and women that I stayed with were Catholic, so I knew what was going on during the masses, but it was extremely interesting to see the differences between Catholic ceremonies in the US and Catholic ceremonies in Africa. 

At the wake, family and friends gathered outside under a tent while the body was being prepared. When everyone was finally let in, Mrs. Biney was in a wedding dress with beautiful flowers around her and people walked in to see her, pray, talk to her, and place money next to her so she could pay her way to the after life. Many women stood next to her and would yell and cry to her, asking her why she left. It was extremely sad to see but so different from any wake I had ever been to. A few short masses and prayers were given with the clergy around her and a couple different groups and friends and family. After this, she was changed into another beautiful dress, the one she would be buried in, and everyone was invited back in to see her again. Before the end of the night, all the loved ones and supporters were asked to step out so Father Biney and his father could say goodbye.

The rest of the people were outside--talking, dancing, and listening to music. I had remembered when I first arrived in Ghana, passing a group of people dressed mostly in black who were singing and dancing by a home on the sidewalk. Sister Joana explained that they were at a funeral. When I walked outside at Mrs. Biney's wake, this was a similar sight. Family and friends gather to celebrate the life of the deceased and their journey to heaven. Although it seems so different from our normal idea of a funeral, I could understand that it is a way for them to say goodbye and try not to be overwhelmed by their loss--but to wish the deceased a safe trip to heaven and be happy that they are going there.

To view this video in a larger window, please visit my Vimeo site:

http://vimeo.com/kdalrymple.

Father Biney

After this story was done, Sister Joana invited me on a month-long trip to Ghana with her. She hadn't been home in four years and was going home for her brother's wedding. I photographed everything I saw and recorded interviews and sounds along the way and created a few multimedia pieces about the different things I encountered.

When I arrived I stayed in a seminary in a small town not far from Kumasi. I was there for a week meeting and making friends with many priests, seminarians, and other travelers who were living there as well, from all over the world. Everyone there was so welcoming, which helped with being so far away from home.

One of the amazing people Sister Joana introduced me to was Father Joseph Biney, a priest who worked with Sister in Nigeria. Father Biney let me stay with him for a few days while Sister visited her family in her home town a little ways away. Father Biney did an interview for me about his many churches and the work that he does for his people. He travels all over larger towns with roads and through tiny villages where people will walk miles to hear him because it is their closest church (and only affordable form of transportation). It was amazing to see how dedicated and faithful people are, and how they really would travel by foot for miles to go to church.

This piece was one made about Father and three of his churches. The main one is right outside his home in the seminary, the second is in a small village that we took many winding dirt roads to get to, and the last one is a church-in-progress. Each week Father tells the community they need to contribute money to finish the church because right now they are worshiping under unsturdy bricks and a shade. Father talked and showed me many things on my visit but his duty to the church and his people are the most important things in his life and I wanted to share that part of his story next.

Below are three photographs, one from each church we visited, that were taken during my stay with him, as well as a multimedia slideshow I created. These photos, and a few more, can also be viewed in the "Stories" set of my Flickr account: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kdalrymple/. The multimedia slideshow about Father Biney can be viewed in a larger window on my vimeo account http://vimeo.com/kdalrymple.

Sister Joana

So it's been a while since my last post (in December) but a lot has happened since then. I've missed out on posting many things I've been working on and would like to share some old work before talking about/showing the most recent...

Below is a multimedia piece and two photographs of Sister Joana, a Ghanaian nun who lives in Syracuse, NY. She helps relocated refugees from Africa (mainly from Sudan) adapt to their new lives in America through the church. You can view some more photos from this story in the "Stories" set of my Flickr site: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kdalrymple/. 

The multimedia slideshow about Sister Joana can be viewed in a larger window on my vimeo account: http://vimeo.com/kdalrymple, as well as at the Syracuse University website:

http://cmr.syr.edu/nhinteractive/story.cfm?storyid=105. This piece was part of a larger project about immigration that students in many fields worked together to create.