Life in a remote village in Ghana is literally little bit brighter these days thanks to the efforts of a group of Bermudian dancers.

When Dawn Broadbelt and other members of the Bermuda African Dance Company attended an evening concert in the village of Dagbamete in the Volta region of Ghana earlier this summer, they were surprised to find themselves watching the performance in the dark.

Wishing to shed a little light on things, each member of the group dug into their pocket to help the villagers purchase electric light poles.

"We paid the money and they only needed someone to buy them poles and the government was willing to help them the rest of the way," said Mrs. Broadbelt. "It cost us $115 per pole and we donated 15 poles."

The donation left the Bermudian visitors short of cash, but with a good feeling in their hearts.

"Before we left they were making sure they had the correct type of poles made out of mahogany," said Mrs. Broadbelt. "By the time we go back they should have electricity."

Mrs. Broadbelt and her husband, Ivan, have visited Dagbamete several times before.

"This was the third group we have taken to Ghana," Mrs. Broadbelt said. "We take other Bermudians to the village of Dagbamete because we have the opportunity to live with the people and to experience the traditions of the village. This is one of the few villages that still practise worship at a shrine."

Before the dancers left for the African country, they collected donations from a number of other Bermudians, including t-shirts from Riihiluoma's Flying Colours, exercise books from the Marsden Methodist Church, football jerseys from the Bermuda Football Association and footballs from the Wolves Football Sports Club.

"The Bermuda High School for Girls gave us lots and lots of school supplies and also letters for the students to become penpals with children out there," Mrs. Broadbelt said. "They are really interested in adopting the village as part of their family. We were really happy with that because we went there to the Bermuda High School to perform one day and they surprised us with all these boxes of school supplies."

The dancers who stayed in the Ghana village said they got a lot back from the experience.

"I really enjoyed the village because I think it was an excellent opportunity to see the culture and everything," said Deidra-Lee Bean who recently graduated from the Bermuda College.

"The people in the village were really friendly to us. I didn't know what to expect. They speak Ewe. I would say yeah, okay, because I didn't understand what they were saying. One lady put her hand on my shoulder and said, 'you are supposed to respond like this'. Afterwards I was all excited because I was able to greet everyone. I felt like I was part of the village."

Miss Bean said she has always considered herself a daughter of Africa, and now she feels as though she actually has family in Africa.

"I had to come out of my comfort zone and interact with a little bit of a different attitude," she said.

This autumn she hopes to study industrial psychology at a university in Canada. She went to Ghana with her parents, two sisters and a friend.

Her mother, Angela Ming Bean said the trip was especially good for her youngest daughter who is nine-years-old.

"Here in Bermuda she is used to sitting at a computer," said Mrs. Ming Bean. "She doesn't really get dirty. Out there she got so involved. I would look outside and not be able to recognise her from the other children. They played hard like we used to play. Anything was an instrument to make a toy. They didn't need expensive toys. They were using rubber bands, or their shoes or anything they could find. They made very intelligent games."

Besides the electric light poles, the group saw several ways that they could help the village. "What I learned was a lot of the people die unnecessarily of simple things, especially malaria," said Mrs. Ming Bean. "We have a project in place now where we are trying to help them to develop a malaria clinic to deal with that. Malaria causes a lot of pain and suffering for the people. We are also trying to help them to be more self-sufficient."

Parents have to travel quite a distance to take their children to a malaria hospital. Some mothers who have other children at home, have to bring their sick child home at the end of the day, and make the long journey to the malaria hospital again in the morning for five days.

"We realised how taxing that is on the women," said Mrs. Broadbelt. "The women mainly do everything. They cook all day long and look after the children. The men do their part too, but mostly it is the women with the children. That is why it would be better for them if they had a clinic right there in the village so they could be self sufficient."

The dance group also wanted to help with education in the village. In Dagbamete, education becomes more expensive as the child gets older. In addition to school fees, there are also uniforms, textbooks and food for the parents to pay for. Sponsorship is the only way that some parents can keep their children in school.

The dancers would like to help, not just very young children, but also older students.

"We are trying to get them thinking of having a technical school there," Mrs. Ming Bean said. "We want to help with that as well. I feel that as a human being if you see other people no matter who they are that need help, it would be inhumane not to offer some assistance. It can only work out for the betterment of Africa and Bermuda as a whole. I love the country and the children. I will definitely back."

When the group mentioned their ideas to the villagers, two elders immediately donated two plots of land, one for the malaria clinic and one for the technical school.

"Angela Ming Bean's husband Kevin, a builder, came up with the idea of a technical school so the young men could be self sufficient," said Mrs. Broadbelt. "Many people want to sponsor the little children but we forget that the older boys that have nothing to do.

"We look down there and say we could help to provide jobs for them so we could be self sufficient and they could in turn provide work for the younger ones coming up."

Mrs. Broadbelt and her friends have sponsored at least two young men in the past. One of them is now a tailor and has his own shop and is planning to take on an apprentice. The other will soon become an apprentice to an upholsterer.

"Other villages will come there to learn from these people," said Mrs. Broadbelt. "It is all like a work in progress."

However, she said that although they want to help the people of Dagbamete, they do not want to convert them to a different religion.

"We just want to help them have a better way of life, but we also want them to realise their culture is a rich culture and they should try and preserve it," she said. "We don't want to give them all the modern life ? walkmans and televisions, because the village is very peaceful. When it is dark most times people go to sleep."

One of the strongest draws in the village for the Bermuda African dance ensemble was the dancing.

"We went to a number of villages and people got up and started dancing and started pulling us up to dance as well," said JoAnna Powell. "One of the things that was of interest to us was keeping that culture alive.

"Even in Ghana everyone wants to be Western. The young people don't want to hold on to the traditional drumming and dancing. They are into hip hop and hip life and all that rap stuff."

However, in many of the villages the Bermuda dancers found older people still trying to keep the culture alive.

"So for us it was great to see it still being done and also bring that back here," Ms Powell said. "We are connected somehow to Ghana. We saw faces there that were Bermudian faces. We are connected and we need to keep that culture alive."

Ms Powell teaches dance at CedarBridge Academy, and she is hoping to incorporate some of what she learned into the curriculum.

Alvin Lee, an electrician and teacher of martial arts said Dagbamete reminded him of Bermuda when he was younger.

"It was heaven to be in before dark and have my dinner and go off to sleep," he said. "It reminded me of old Bermuda the harmony and the togetherness, how everyone knew their place and had respect for each other and elders especially."

"I have been to Ghana several times but I always find it interesting and always find something new to get my attention," said Mr. Broadbelt. "I take a delight and seeing people experiencing the country for the first time. So many people have negative thoughts about Africa based on the media's interpretation. When they get over there and see how happy the people are, they are amazed."