On Saturdays, the KCC truly comes to life. In the Nea Onnim learning centre’s kitchen, Harriet, Rita and Engineer are preparing tea and bread for the over 200 children who are playing outside. Inside the centre, children are reading and chatting, despite Engineer’s best efforts to keep the volume down to a level acceptable for a library. Many of these children also come after school on school days to read, finish homework and play football with their friends.
Today I am filming interviews with the children in the run-up to the KCC Christmas party – each year, over 2000 children attend for gifts and a warm meal. Kofi is very enthusiastic to be the interviewer, and we walk around the yard finding small groups to interview while avoiding being hit by a football. The one thing that the children seem to be most excited about for the Christmas party is the food – jollof and fried chicken. I don’t blame them – in my time in Ghana, I have already been introduced to so much new food. From the midwives inviting me to try their waakye (rice and beans), to eating tilapia and rice with my friends from school, to sharing light soup, cassava fish and fufu with Rita during our lunch break at the San Kofa centre. I still am not very good at picking up my soup with the fufu without ending up with soup all over my hands, but hopefully I’ll get better at it. I make a mental note not to forget to have one more red red stew with kelewele (fried plantain) and gari (fermented cassava root powder) sprinkled on top before I leave.
Filming some more footage through the arches on the terrace, I can see groups of children chatting, drumming on chairs, and helping to tidy away tea mugs. I remember sharing meals with my friends from school out here on my very first trip to Ghana, learning how to drum, and dancing with a local dance group. This yard is truly a place of joy and life.
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