holiday gifts

We work with children in a Ghanaian fishing village.We have taught them that instead of begging that they should work for what they want. Their work is to make paper from sugar cane leaves and books/stars from the paper.
Please consider buying a holiday gift from Cross Cultural Collaborative. All proceeds from sales are used for the children's education.
Books - $20.00 includes shipping in US & Canada
hanging stars - $12.00@ includes shipping in US & Canada
contact aba@culturalcollaborative.org for payment options.
http://www.culturalcollaborative.org

Holiday Brochure

We work with children in a fishing village in Ghana. We've taught them not to beg,but to develop a work ethic. The children make paper from sugar cane leaves,journals/cards/boxes from the paper and all proceeds from sales pay for the children's school expenses.
Please look at our holiday catalog and consider helping our kids by buying something from our holiday catalog.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM CROSS CULTURAL COLLABORATIVE

Where will you be this summer?

We are looking for a volunteer to work with some awesome kids in a fishing village in Ghana.
Available dates are July 18 - August 1.
Instead of coming as a tourist you can be part of the community.
http://culturalcollaborative.org/volunteers.htm
http://culturalcollaborative.org/abakids.htm
http://on.fb.me/1fGLfee
aba@culturalcollaborative.org

summer in Ghana

We'll be there from July 6 - August 29. We always have several projects and this summer I plan to concentrate on "Books by Girls", a creative writing program with the Aba House girls. Our goal is to encourage creative thinking and by self publishing the stories our girls will also learn computer skills.
Our plans include donating the books to schools in Ghana so that students can read culturally relevant
stories.

                      Here is an excerpt from my book "HARDSHIPS and GOODSHIPS in GHANA"
       There is a rythm to life in Ghana, both literally and metaphorically, and once you get into step, you
        fit right in. It's difficult to explain, but it's something you can feel. The people, the traffic, even the
        fishermen who are sometimes accompanied by drums as they pull in their nets. Weavers hum as  
        they work to keep the rythm ....... it's a slow dance. "No hurry in life". No straight lines. To follow
        the beat it's best to circle around, do a few back steps and slide right in. Then visitors start to
        dance...........

 Like to dance? Think about joining us in Ghana.  aba@culturalcollaborative.org
       

service learning

We offer a summer learning program in Ghana. We have a cultural center where authors, story makers and teachers, as well as Ghanaian artisans and local children, can converse through art and language, and create things together. SERVICE LEARNING programs can last from 2- 8  weeks during July and August.
Our programs explore the cultural,artistic and historical connections in Ghana through experimental learning and reflection.

Don't want to bring a group of students? Then come by yourself. You'll meet interesting people from all over the world. You can volunteer to work with local kids or artists or just sit on our deck and watch the fishermen.
http://www.culturalcollaborative.org

activities at Aba House Jan. 2013

A generous donation allowed us to cook lunch for the kids and another donation brought 50 pair of sneakers.
We had a batik workshop and Sharon collected stories. Ghanaians all have stories to tell.

If you'd like to signup for our infrequent newsletters contact aba@culturalcollaborative.org

If you'd like to come to Ghana as a volunteer, workshop participant or tourist just let us know. We are planning our summer program.

RECYCLE GHANA

Here are a few images from the kids gallery show in Philadelphia.

The Aba House kids ROCK!

YOU ARE INVITED

RECYCLE GHANA

Holy Family University Gallery

9801 Frankford Ave.

Philadelphia , PA

USA

I will be at the opening on Feb. 22 6-8 p.m. and would enjoy meeting you.

The work in this show was created by children in Ghana who come to Aba House where they learn that there are no limits to creativity. The children make paper from sugarcane leaves and then books, calendars,cards and other products from the paper.

All proceeds from sales are used to pay school related expenses.

Reading between the lines

I was flipping through one of the women’s magazines and was struck by the content of some of the articles.

What a window on American culture...well, a segment of American culture.
Even with my body in America, my mind is usually in Africa, so I really chuckled at how an African woman would react to the survey about whether the father-in-law should be consulted for his blessing by the future son in law. Most American women said, “No way. It’s none of his business.”


And the article about how to improve your posture. They suggest walking with something (like a book) on your head. Or maybe just grow up as an African woman and carry everything on your head. (no, that wasn’t their suggestion).


And then the article about whether children should sleep in the same bed/room with the parents. You’d have to pick an African women up off of the floor she’d be laughing so hard when she read the American answers. Give the child his own room...ha,ha. Child abuse..ho,ho...let the child decide..OMG, what will these Americans think of next......

VIDEOS

If you'd like to see how we make paper at Aba House:

http://www.youtube.com/abahousekids

If you'd like to be in the picture, come volunteer. We are interested in all of your skills that can be taught to our kids.

We have some donated computers..would you like to come do a workshop on how to use them for self publishing? aba@culturalcollaborative.org

Want to see some more videos? On the VIDEO page at http://www.culturalcollaborative.org see how to make glass beads, print adinkra cloth and drum without drums. It just takes imagination.

The new year

In typical African fashion we are bit late with our first blog of the new year. It's our goal to get one out each month.....I am in awe of people who manage to write one everyday!
Ghana has a new president, John Atta Mills, and America has a new president, Barack Obama. Last year when President Bush came to Ghana, I asked a Ghanaian why he thought that he had come and the Ghanaian said, "I think that he's selling mosquito nets." Let's hope that when President Obama visits the expectations are higher.

The Aba House kids are participating in One World-Many Papers, an exhibit being assembled in Tawain and traveling around the world until the end of 2010. It will open at the Distillary Gallery in Boston, MA USA on April 3,2009.
The exhibit is a map of the world made up of handmade paper from 42 countries. The Aba House kids were asks to represent Ghana and are the only children in the exhibit. As always, we are very proud of them.

Aba will participate in a conference, also to be held in Boston, entitled "International Opportunities in the Arts" to take place April 3-5,2009.

We have put together a teachers kit ( grades 1-3) that contains everything needed to teach a unit on Ghana. The feedback from teachers using them has been positive. Among other things the kit contains a DVD of various craftspeople working in Ghana and a DVD of Ghanaian music. If interested, contact us and we'll send more information.

For a fun diversion go to http://www.adinkragame.com/ and pass the cursor over the symbols.
And if you want to buy adinkra stamps, we'd be happy to sell them to you.

As always, we will be working with the Aba House children this coming summer and have several volunteers to teach papermaking, bookbinding and other creative skills. We are looking for a volunteer to teach computer skills. Aba House has 6 donated computers and many, many children who'd like to learn how to use them. Know any geeks who'd like to summer in an African fishing village?

And we'll end with a poem by GOETHE:

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genious, power and magic in it.
Begin it now.



aba@culturalcollaborative.org

Gallery opening

The Aba House kids had a show of their work at the Phoenix Gallery in NYC.
We have posted a few photos of the opening at http://picasaweb.google.com/abatours
We'd like to thank everyone who joined us for the opening.

If you couldn't attend, but would like to make a purchase, please go to http://culturalcollaborative.ecarter.com

All proceeds from sales are used to pay school related expenses for the Aba House kids in Ghana.

Summer newsletter 2008

As I write this President Kufour is receiving a 21 gun salute in Washington, DC. Last Feb. his friend George Bush visited Ghana. I was in Ghana then and am in the States now. I wonder if they're timing thier visits with mine.

Aba House is quiet now. In July we had a full house of tourists, teachers, artists and assorted visitors. One of our visitors was a BBC reporter who was impressed with our program. Another visitor, a teacher, wrote a blog: surdnaghana.blogspot.com

In August our volunteer from Australia returned and we got down to some serious book and papermaking. We also had a volunteer from Swarthmore College help for a few weeks.
The Aba House kids came everyday, a few very early to sweep the yard. Dividing into groups, more or less by age, they made tons of paper, blank books, calendars, diaries and greeting cards.
The kids are always enthusiastic, but the incentive this time was preparing for their first NYC show. They are very proud of themselves and rightly so.
The show will be at the Phoenix Gallery in November, 2008. We are working on an invitation and will be sending it soon. If you're in the NY area, please come and say hello.

One of our volunteers will be selling our books in Hawaii next month at the Friends of Dard Hunter Conference.

We have been invited to participate in a world wide paper map to be assembled in Taiwan. There are 30 countries represented. Guess which one we represent....I'll write more about this project in a followup post.

We had a very generous donation of 3 computers, so in our next session we'll do some creative writing and illustrating.

There are times when I scratch my mind, as a Ghanaian once said to me, about customs in Ghana. There really is no rhyme or reason to some of them. Now a Ghanaian has writen a book that doesn't necessarily explain them, but it makes for amusing reading. The book is "The Imported Ghanaian" and her blog is http://tigb.blogspot.com

We are working on our plans for 2009, so be in touch if you want to come to Ghana. We are also considering a trip to FESPAC, a film festival in Burkina Faso at the end of Feb. Interested?

We like to hear from people and are always open to collaborations.

I'll close for now with my favorite quote: Trust in God, but tie your camel well.

Aba

Fundraising

Not always the most fun part of the job, it's necessary. We did have fun and great success at one of our fundraisers. Go to www.rainydaymagazine.com and find the archives for May 25.

On a Friday in June , the shop called Ten Thousand Villages in Brookline, MA made us their non-profit de jour and donated 15% of sales to us during a 4 hour period in the afternoon.

We have also had in kind donations of a camera, 2 computers, a printer and household items.
We might just get everything to Ghana because our volunteers are each taking a suitcase for us.

We've also had a solar cooker donated and will use it this summer to cook the sugarcane leaves for the bookmaking. Reports on that will be in our next newsletter.