Tuesday in Dubai: Visit to the Mosque and coffee with Dr. Hussain

We all dressed as modestly as we could for our visit to the Jumeirah Mosque, the only Mosque that allows non-Muslims to go inside. The Jumeirah Mosque has a program (the Sheik Muhammed Center for Cultural Exchange) specifically designed to increase understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims.

The tour guide (a British born individual who converted and immigrated to Dubai) first showed us the cleansing ritual Muslims perform before their five daily prayers. Mat, one of our students, volunteered to take part of the ritual. They wash their hands, mouth, nose, face, arms to elbow, head, and feet to knees – each three times in that order.

Women have to cover their heads to enter the mosque and everyone must take off their shoes. Inside, the guide briefly explained the five pillars that are the foundation of Islam: Declaring that there is no God but Allah, praying five times a day, charity, making a pilgrimage to Mecca, and fasting during Ramadan. Another guide, Taj, gave us a demonstration of the prayer ritual, which lasts about five minutes.

Afterward, I asked the guide how the Muslim faith regards people with disabilities. She said her religion regards every child and child of God and that it was her view that Muslim mothers of children with disabilities consider such children as God’s gift and God’s test of their faith.

Later in the day, Dr. Hussein granted our students the opportunity to have coffee and informal discussion with him over coffee.

Students with Dr. Hussain

He encouraged them to ask any questions they wanted about Dubai’s disability programs and any other questions they had. He briefly described the efforts of a few dedicated individuals, beginning in 2006, to develop a comprehensive service system for people with disabilities in Dubai across the lifespan. The original plan, called “Takamul” (meaning completeness), includes the following components:

• Early intervention

• Inclusive education

• Employment

• ITAC (technology)

• Research and development

• Accessibility

The plan is modeled after the University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) that are members of AUCD, my association. In fact, AUCD was invited to provide technical assistance for the project and several UCEDD experts from across the country came to help develop the plan. Unfortunately, Dr. Hussein said that for various reasons two of the seven have been eliminated: ITAC and research and development and some are developing slower than he wished. He did mention that it was his authority (Takamul) that made sure that the new Metro is fully accessible and that all new buildings are being built using universal (accessible)design.

Kim, Michael, Dr. Hussain, Laura

Dr. Hussain also shared that he is the father of a 17-year old with autism. I found Dr. Hussain very interesting, generous, and engaging man. He is picking us up on Thursday to visit his brand new early intervention program. I look forward to seeing it.

Monday in Dubai: exploring the city

Boats unloading goods on Dubai Creek

Monday, January 12, 2010

We started the day with a class discussion, where we reflected on our trip to Accra and gave our immediate reactions to coming to Dubai.

We all admitted that our immediate reaction to coming to a nice hotel in Dubai from the university dorms at the University of Ghana was relief to have many of the amenities that we are accustomed to. First, we were coming from a country where a large majority of the population live in poverty to a country that, while in recession, is stillan economic powerhouse of the world. To compound that contrast, we were also going from a university dormatory to a world class full service hotel.

We also reviewed our impressions of Ghana services and attitudes of people with disabilities with what we expect to encounter in the UAE. Michael has visited Dubai on several occasions, therefore, he was able to give us a little history of the country and the muslim culture. He also brieflly discussed how my Association, AUCD, had helped to develop some of the service for people with disabilities that we would be visiting. It was several years ago (maybe 5?) When our executive director, George Jesien, Michael, and several other leaders in our association came to Dubai after beingasked to provide some technical assistance in the area of building a disability service system.

After class we went to a small Lebanese sandwich shop for lamb and rice, salad with yogurt dressing, and fruit shakes. It was a nice change from rice, plantains, and chicken - our staple in Accra.

After lunch, we met with Dr. Hussain Maseeh, who works for the Ministry of Health, who worked with Michael, George and the other AUCD consultants to set up an early intervention service that we would be touring on Thursday (George, he sends his regards and wished you were here!) .

Michael and I then set out to investigate the new Metro system to see how feasible it would be to use it for transporting our group to our weekly activities. The metro is brand new, very clean, accessible, easy to use and fairly priced. However, it was not yet extensive enough to get to some of our destinations.

However, we enjoyed walking around the financial district and ended up at the Burj Dubai (see previous post). We learned that it would cost 100 Dirhams (Dh) or $ 36.00 if we ordered tickets online (400 Dh if we bought tickets in line there). I'm not sure i'll have time to come back but, either way, it was fun to see it up close.

Burj Dubai

Burj at the base. Workers are still finishing the building and surrounding gardens.

The students went to various attractions in the city during their free afternoon. Several went skiing indoors - i can't wait to see the pictures!

After dinner, Michael, Laura, Eric and I explored our immediate area by the hotel: Dubai Creek. Dubai's more-recent history has been founded on its pearl diving, gold trading and trading in all goods due to its strategic geographical location, situated between the mediterraneon Sea and the Indian Ocean. Because our hotel lies right on Dubai Creek where some of the goods are unloaded, our immediate environs seem to be an especially vibrant market place with stores filled with various goods. We wondered back to the Gold section where everyone said they wanted to give me - Kim - a "special price" if I showed even the slightest interest. Indeed, it made me realize that the best way to shop is when you really don 't intend to buy anything - because then you get the best prices. Alas, Gold is expensive even with the "special" prices they were willing to give only to Me - Kim.

Tomorrow, we will visit the Jumeirah Mosque and later in the afternoon, Dr. Hussain agreed to come and have coffee and open discussionwith the students.

Later in the week, we will meet with three different organizations here in the UAE-the Ministry of Health where we will vist Dr. Hussain's Center, the Sharjah Center for Humanitarian Services (a comprehensive disability focused agency), And the Inspire Children's Nursery-to be opened next week.

Sunday night: arriving into Dubai

Sunday night, January 10, 2010


Wow! I can't believe I'm sitting here looking out of my room at the incredible scene overlooking Dubai Creek. The creek is lined with beautiful (and now lit up in the night) fishing boats. Behind them, I can actually see the newly opened and famous "Burj Dubai" (meaning Dubai Tower). It's claim to fame is that it is the tallest man-made structure in the World. It sits among many other very tall, modern business buildings. The 124th floor has a viewing platform. I hope to be able to go up sometime this week.

The Hotel Riviera is also beautiful. My room is nice with a shower with a big tub, hot water, shampoo and fresh towels, and wireless internet! I just want to crawl into my nice bed under the great big comforter and fluffy pillow after that long flight from Ghana.

Our experiences travelling through the Ghana and Cairo airports were interesting.

We left the University at about 8 p.m. for the Ghana international airport. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:30 p.m.

The airport was HOT and very small - only two terminals. Egypt Air has a stringent weight requirement for taking bags on board - 15 pounds. So the first thing the students did was to try to unload some of their baggage onto themselves. This meant that they were wearing several layers of clothing in 90 degree weather!

Getting through customs was aggravating, standing and lines, trying to figure out how to fill out the form, and dealing with customs agents who seemed to enjoy looking stern and intimidating - just enough to make us sweat even more than we already were from the heat.

Because there were only two gates for all the fights, we could not get through security until our plane was ready to be boarded. Then we had to get a lot of people through one security gate in a big hurry. I was the last of our group and it was just before the plane was set to leave so they rushed me through, no time to get my things back together or tie my shoes. The security was light inside. Then when I got outside to get onto the airplane, they were doing spot checks on bags and they wanted me to quickly open it. I had already put my lock back on my bag and couldn't see the combination in the dark. I fumbled for my glasses and flashlight as the impatient security agent waited. Finally, he waived me through and my racing heartbeat began to slow again.

Gender benders

Fortunately, I slept through most of the 6 hour flight to Cairo and woke up to the announcement that we would be landing. As we entered the airport, I felt like we were in Egypt, with all the signs in Arabic and men and women in traditional Muslim dress.

My first stop was the lady's room where I immediately encountered two women in full dress that were very upset that a man was in the bathroom. Immediately aware that they were referring to me, I assured them that I was in the right place.

Then we went through security to get to our gate, my change in my pocket set off the alarm; the security guard proceeded to do a full body search as is required, but when he began with my chest he was immediately and thoroughly horrified to find that I was a woman and he quickly waived me through as he apologized profusely (for feeling me up)!

I suppose the Arab culture is not used to women with short hair! I may need to go out and get a head dress for my stay in Dubai so that this does not happen repeatedly.

Finally, after spending a small fortune on a cup of coffee and muffin, we boarded the plane to our final destination .... For this week.

Friday in Ghana: Kakum Rainforest and Elmina

We were back on the bus again very early Friday morning - this time to visit the rainforest in Kakum national park and then to witness one of the largest castles in Ghana where African men and women waited in dark dungeons (sometimes for months) to be transported worldwide and sold as slaves.

But first, the visit to Kakum was the excursion I had been looking forward to. Kakum is a large rainforest that is home to hundreds of species of vegetation and wild animals. While it was too late in the day (and we were too noisy) to see any monkeys or other mammals, we did go on a hike part way up the mountain and bravely walked over the seven hanging, shaky, wooden plank and rope walkways. The hanging bridges allowed us a magnificent view of the rainforest from about 100 feet above the forest canopy. We also saw deciduous trees, ferns, bamboo and lots of other plants and shrubs that I'm not able to name but could still appreciate. I wished we had been able to hike up further, but we still wanted time to see the castles.

Cool tree trunk and yes, we all walked across that scary looking hanging bridge!

After the hike through the rainforest, we had lunch at the rainforest cafe.
I had "Red Red and plantains" - a popular African dish ... and a coke :-)

After visiting the rainforest, Emmanuel, our fast but talented driver, took us to Elmina Caslte. Elmina lies on the coast in a little fishing village that was just teaming with Viking-like boats and hardy fisherman. The bustle of this little town was amazing. When we got out of the bus, we paused to watch several of these big uncovered boats be guided out to sea.

There were also lots of people milling about trading goods in a big market place. In the middle of the town was a large, dusty red clay soccer field where children were busy playing "football" in the hot sun.

The tour of Elmina was heavy and emotional. We had an guide who introduced us to the history of the slave trade in Ghana and explained what life was like in the castle for slaves, government officials, soldiers, and traders.  Our guide was very knowledgeable and passionate and, therefore, didn't spare us the details about what kind of suffering went on in the place over two centuries ago. The two African-American students among our group later identified this excursion as being the most meaningful one to them.

On Saturday, our final day in Accra, I rested (I was up part of the night with a stomach illness) and packed and prepared for our long trip to Dubai.

Thursday in Ghana: Meeting Emmanuel

On Thursday, we travelled to Koforidua in the eastern region of Ghana to meet Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah  of "Emmannual's Gift." and learn about the foundation he started for children with disabilities.  We were all so excited to meet him in person… or at least I was. The documentary is about his life growing up in Ghana with a disability. It is also about how he motivated himself to overcome the challenges of not only having been with missing one leg, but also the challenges related to lack of educational opportunities (he went to school until he was 13), poverty, and misconceptions about disabilities in his country.

After his mother (who always believed in him) died Emmanuel became inspired to change the negative perceptions of disabilities in Ghana by riding his bike across the country with just one leg! He wrote to an organization in the U.S. (Challenged Athletes?) to ask for a bike. His wish was granted and he became a hero by riding a mountain bike across the country. It worked! He gained recognition not only in Ghana but worldwide. He received a prostheses in the U.S. and one of the best parts of the film for me was when he remarked that he was so excited to wear pants and TWO shoes. Following his prostheses and rehab he literally completed several triathlons!

I was most inspired by Emmanuel not for what he accomplished but how unassuming, generous, and giving he is. It appears that he does not ask much for himself; instead he uses his celebrity to raise awareness and money to help others in Ghana. Emmanuel is currently planning to build a new school in his community that will include children with disabilities.  At the end of our visit, he showed us the land he will use to build the school.

Emmanuel personally greeted each of us as we got off the bus.

We certainly were not expecting the performances he provided us. We not only got to enjoy traditional African drummers, but also various talented performance artists: African dance performances, comical skits and routines, and finally, a fire-swallowing, glass-eating muscle-bound magician.

We were also treated with a beautiful African lunch of Groundnut (peanut) soup with chicken and rice balls. It was definitely my favorite meal that I’ve had in the five days we’ve been here.

Music, dance, and entertainment were provided.

Emmanual showed us his prostheses decorated with the American flag and introduced his children, Linda-Kim and Comfort (named after his mother)

Kevin, a student from our group, presented Emmanuel with a U of Del jersey

On Friday we went to Kakum national rainforest and the Elmina castle.  I will post pictures from that excursion when I get to Dubai and will hopefully have access to faster internet!

We leave late tonight (11:30 pm.) go through Cairo and arrive in Dubai mid-afternoon.  The locals are telling us we need to be at the Accra airport 4 hours early! Apparently, it takes a long time to get through security!

Day two in Accra: Federation of the Disabled, Tour of Accra, and Marketplace

We had a very exciting.... and exhausting day in Accra yesterday.  The highlight of our day was our scheduled appointment at the Ghana Federation of the Disabled.

Part of the Federation building

There, we met with the Rita Kyeremaa Kusi, the executive director of the Federation (seen below in Green), along with several staff and Board members.  They gave us a brief overview of the history of the movement for rights of people with disabilities in Ghana and the mission of the Federation.

Meeting with representatives of the Federation

Their story confirmed much of what we have read in our class assignments. The mission of the Federation is to promote the rights and build capacity to ensure full inclusion and full participation of people with disabilities. The Federation is an umbrella organization that includes six organizations that represent people with individual disabilities. Its current members comprise Ghana society of the physically Disabled (GSPD), Ghana Association of the Blind (GAB).Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD), Parents Association of children with intellectual Disability (PACID), society of Albinos Ghana (SOAG) and Share Care Ghana (an organization of people with neurologic difficulties). The Federation helped to advocate for the Persons with Disabilities Act signed into law in 2006 after ten years of advocacy.  Now, of course, they are working on implementing and enforcing the Act, which is challenging.

Miss Rita explained that the major challenge is awareness.  The different cultures in Ghana and Africa with different beliefs and customs are difficult to overcome, she said.  Many still believe that disability is a curse or evidence of some wrong-doing.  Therefore, many families experience shame and hide their family members with disabilities.  This is especially true for the Albino population, where is some places it is considered taboo to allow an Albino to step on their land.  Miss Rita shared a sad personal story in which one person was hidden in a trunk of a car to prevent him from being used as a sacrifice.

The Federation representatives described a picture that reminded me (at least somewhat) of the situation in the U.S. in the 60s and 70s during which most people were institutionalized (or warehoused) and separately educated, if at all.  The group we met with seemed very determined to work hard to significantly improve this situation but admitted that it is slow and difficult, especially given the context of the economic situation in Ghana.  We offered to provide any informational help that we could and shared our contact information before departing.

Group picture with Federation Representatives following our meeting.

They were extremely warm and gracious.

Following our meeting, Moses, one of our ambassadors of the University, continued to give us a bus tour of the city of Accra that we had begun in the morning.  The City is large but spread out -- no high rise buildings that I could see.  The taxi drivers drive fast and seem to have right of way -- pedestrians beware.

We were able to see the current President's palace as well as the new one one being built and one of the local castles.  We also stopped to inspect Independence Arch, built to commemorate Ghana's independence. The national motto, Freedom and Justice is boldly inscribed at the top of the arch. Moses gave us a brief history of the political structure and history which is nicely summarized on Wikipedia, along with a picture of the Arch.

The Arch lies right on one of the beaches in Accra on the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Ocean).  We were all excited to get out of the bus briefly to put our feet in the warm water and watch locals swimming in the waves. I was able to collect a few pebbles and shells that were a special request of my son, Alec.

Following the the beach we stopped at a highly stimulating (some might say this is an understatement) Marketplace where we were literally mobbed by the local artists trying to sell us their goods.  It appeared that they assumed that we had gobs of money and we were all aggressively pursued and encouraged to buy their goods.  We had some fun trying our hand at the art of negotiating prices on the many beautiful African goods: jewelery, artwork, wood carvings, African wooden masks, drums, cloth and so on.

Dr. Michael Gamel-McCormick being greeting by the friendly people at the Market

Market artist shows me his favorite piece - the one of his village

Yup, that's me in the middle of two local musicians and artists. I was glad that my friend, Felix, had just given me a few pointers on his set of drums at their New Year's Day party!  The drums were hand-made and beautiful... but a little too big for my suitcase.

A boy and his little brother permit me to photograph them at the market.

He is carrying bags of purified water on his head for sale.

Following our short stay at the market, Michael, Laura and I met with Queen Mother Nana Ama Okrakubca, an individual who had been referred to us as a possible contact to show us schools.  However, her main interest and work, is on the issue of conservation.  She is currently working hard to teach her villagers how to build toilet composts and how to personal hygiene to prevent disease (especially hand-washing).  However, she also works on many conservation issues, including trying to save the rain forest and how to better manage waste disposal and other issues designed to preserve the beauty and diversity of Ghana and Africa.  The Queen Mother is a very impressive individual, who seemed to have an excellent understanding of local and global politics.  She mentioned having scheduled a meeting with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the near future, for example.  With her permission, we forwarded her contact information to another U of Del. group of students who are staying in Ghana for the entire month.  They will be fortunate if they are able to visit her Village that is about an hour drive away.

Meeting with Queen Mother Nana Ama Okrakubca

Today we already visited the archealogical exhibit on campus.  Later we will have class outdoors followed by a viewing of the documentary "Emmanuel's Gift."  For this, we will join a newly arriving group of U of Del students.  Tomorrow evening we hope to actually meet Emmanuel.

Arriving in Ghana

University of Ghana dormatory at night

We arrived in Ghana late last night jet-lagged, tired and thirsty. As the students checked in they admitted this morning that they were a little shocked and unprepared for the sparse accommodations. The campus was quiet and dark as many of the regular students are still out for the holidays. The student dorms at the Unversity of Ghana are not exactly what they are used to at the University of Delaware. The rooms are very small with nothing more than two small beds with flat mattress, no sheets, pillows, air conditioning and no hot showers or even toilet paper. Fortunately, things looked much brighter in the daylight today and the students appeared to be in good spirits.

Students get on bus from Ghana airport

When we realized there was no place to get a snack, soda, or even bottled water (its not safe to drink the tap water) our university driver accomodated by taking us to the nearist convenience store ... but it was closed! We tried another store but it was also closed. There were not other options. The students shared what water and toilet paper they had between them.

Faculty dorms where I am staying

Luckily we were all so tired that we just passed out from exhaustion no longer noticing the lack of conveniences we are accustomed to.

This morning we ate breakfast together at a small university faculty cafeteria. We had fried eggs, toast, beans and sausages (really.. Canned hot dogs) and it tasted great! We were able to take a tour of the campus with one of the grad students, named Moses.

The campus is large and spread out with a student population of 29,000, one thousand being international students. University here is publicly subsidized and students can get their loans waived with one year of national service. Moses Gbeku, an assistant in the International Program office of the university, informed us that there are very few students with disabilities. The only ones he could thinks of were students with deafness or blindess. The campus does not look like it could accomodate physical disabilities very well.

The main registraton building of the Campus

We also had time for a small orientation durning which Dr. Michael Gamel-McCormick, dean at the University of Delaware, briefed us on the history of Ghana and prepared the students for what to expect and what questions they might want to ask when they have the opportunity to interview individuals with disabilities or people knowledgeable about the situation in Ghana. We briefly discussed how poverty might impact services in Ghana. Ghana's per capita yearly income is $ 2,600 compared to the average $ 43,000 for residents of Delaware. One travel guide reports that a majority live on about $ 2 per day.

Michael briefing the students on Ghana

Now we are off to find lunch and class discussion of our readings on Ghana and how the history, culture and economic situation impacts how people with disabilities are served.