Thanksgiving - Ghana Style

Thanksgiving was last Thursday, and it turned out to be rather interesting. A number of the Peace Corps volunteers were invited to have Thanksgiving at the US Ambassador's residence, so I headed down to Accra Thursday morning. Before going anywhere else, I headed to the Accra mall for the first time. I had heard that it was really nice, but was still surprised when I got inside. I would put this mall up against any modern US mall. It was bright, modern, clean, and had great air conditioning. The bathrooms were exactly what you'd expect in such a place. I mention that because the public bathroom situation is a bit different here. Most stores don't have any bathrooms. Tro tro stations will usually have some sort of outdoor urinal, or even possibly an indoor bathroom complex that you pay to enter. But you generally don't just stop at a gas station for a bathroom. Instead, you'd most likely be led to some area behind a building where there's some sort of wall shielding you from public view.

Anyway, back at the mall, while it wasn't a huge place, one would have honestly thought they were in the States while they were inside. They had several electronics stores, a Nike store, designer shops, and even a couple Target-style stores. The only problem is that the prices were also of the US flavor. $20 for a pair of pants (they call them trousers here) is a bit too much when you're only getting $6 a day. It was interesting how quickly I got accustomed to the mall and all the modern conveniences. It was as though I had never been without them. It was also interesting to see how many other white people were at the store. I saw more non-Peace Corps white people there than I had ever had before in Ghana.

When I finally arrived at the residence, there were already quite a few people there. After a warm welcome from the Ambassador, we all started dinner. It was an excellent spread, and had a lot of the traditional favorites that I've grown accustomed to. The Ambassador has a beautiful house, so it was interesting being in a luxurious setting after "roughing it" in the village life. After relaxing a while after dinner, a group of others and I went swimming in the pool. It was the first time I had been swimming since arriving in Ghana. Most of the water here simply isn't safe for swimming.

Following the dinner, three other volunteers and I headed out our host house where we would be spending the night. We learned that our hosts were out on a Thanksgiving party of their own, and we were invited to join them. On the way to the house, we passed the US Embassy. It was actually quite a large, modern, and somewhat foreboding complex. I had no idea that it would be been so big.

When we arrived at the house, we found that most of the people there had finished eating, but we were invited to help ourselves to our second Thanksgiving dinner. The food there was also quite good. It was quite interesting to be in the house though. It was a nice house by US standards, and had a big TV, speakers, couches, carpeting...the whole works. It was the first time that I had been in such a place since I left the States, and it was strange realizing that I was still in Ghana. There were quite a few expats at the Thanksgiving party. Most, if not all, of them were involved in aid work in Ghana. It was interesting hearing their stories, because many of them had done aid work in quite a few different countries. At the same time, I was glad to have the opportunity to live outside the comfortable confines of their home, and live on a level closer to most Ghanaians. Truthfully, even my place is quite nice by most Ghanaian standards.

Once we finished at the Thanksgiving party, we headed over the host house where we were to spend the night. This house wasn't quite as modern, but one would have thought they were living in the States once they got inside. They had the Armed Forces Network on the TV, and all the familiar US shows were playing. There were a couple kids that lived with the host family, so of course they had the electric guitar and Nintendo Wii. The family also gets shipments of US goods to their house, so the pantry was stocked with all the familiar foods that we have the US grocery stores. We spent the night in an honest-to-goodness bedroom with two beds, posters on the walls, toys scattered on the floor, and a closet.

The following morning we headed out after being treated to coffee and some of the leftover Thanksgiving food. The host, who was a former Peace Corps volunteer herself, took it upon herself to pack each of us a lunch to go. I spent a good part of the morning at the Peace Corps office getting some paperwork taken care of, and sending and receiving pen pal letters for my students. My two classes are in contact with two US schools. I headed back to the mall to take care of some cell phone business and finally started heading out of Accra.

On my way out, I thought that I would be able to stop at a bank and withdraw some money because my funds were getting a bit low. I stopped at the bank, and requested the money the same way I had always done before. I was denied this request however, because I had opened my account at a different branch, and the other branch hadn't gotten my withdrawal slips to me yet. This was never a problem before, and it was a bit frustrating. I was told that I would have to go to my "home branch", which was only "few minutes away". Due to the heavy Accra traffic, I knew this wouldn't be the case, and I tried to press my case. They didn't give in though, and I had no alternative but to find my home branch.

After getting directions, I located an appropriate taxi and got inside to wait on one of the two remaining seats. It was uncomfortably hot inside though, and my seat was directly under the sun so I got out to wait under the shade. I chatted with the driver for a while as I waited. Two people saw the two remaining seats in the car, and jumped right on in. I indicated to the driver that I was short on time, and actually needed this ride. He knew I was waiting for the car, because we were chatting and discussing where I was going. He walked toward the car, and I thought he was going to make the necessary arrangements, but instead he just drove off leaving me standing there. I was both surprised and a bit angry with this development. Most Ghanaians are incredibly helpful and welcoming, and this was quite out of character. I learned a couple things from this though. First, how I had come to expect the "preferred treatment" that I nearly always get while being here. It would seem that a lot of that preferred treatment is due to people hoping to establish connections with people from the "Promised Land" aka the US. The second thing, is that I need to remember that not all places view Americans with such regard as most do here in Ghana.

The next taxi ended up leaving only a few minutes after the first, and I was able to get the necessary work done at the bank. It the end, the bank trip was a good thing, because it had to be done at some point anyway. Unfortunately, this "few minute jaunt" ended up taking nearly 2 hours.

The next task at hand was getting suitable attire for my headmaster's funeral on that coming Saturday. Red or black are the only appropriate colors here, and I wasn't able to pick up the black shirt that I was having a tailor make back at my site. I started looking around the various streets shops near the main Circle station. The Ghanaians refer to second-hand clothing as "obruni wayroo" which means "dead white man's clothes". Because the clothing is still in good shape, they seem to think that the only reason it was discarded was because the "white man" died. I looked all over, but wasn't finding a whole lot. Finally, I found a suitable black shirt that was XXL, but seemed as though it would do the trick. (Note: I also ran into a Ghanaian who "helped" me find the shirt, and wanted to exchange email addresses and phone numbers. I later got an email from him, letting me know that our meeting was a "divine connection" and that we had some "matters to discuss" so I should give him a call. I think someone wants an invitation to the Promised Land! Best strategy here is to "forget" the meeting ever happened.)

Having finally finished all my business in Accra, I boarded a bus to Kumasi, the site of my headmaster's funeral. Kumasi is Ghana's second largest city, and is about 5 hours from Accra. The bus was quite nice inside, and had big reclining seats and footrests. I could tell most of the people inside were the more well-to-do Ghanaians. On the way up to Kumasi I met a Ghanaian who was living in the UK and had come back to Ghana for an engagement, and a man who was the founder of a Ghanaian NGO. It sounded as though he has just secured some rather substantial funding, and was rather happy about it. Aside from three stops due to mechanical trouble, the ride up was mostly uneventful, and mostly comfortable. Stay tuned - the Kumasi funeral is coming up next!

Soccer and netball tournament

This past week, the school participated in a soccer and netball tournament. I didn’t know that it was coming up until I heard on Tuesday that the junior high school girls and primary school boys had to make a 30 minute walk to the next town for “scaling” or weighing in. This was to make sure that all the students were of comparable weight in order to play together. There can be quite a difference in size between students in the same “form” or grade. If a student doesn’t pass a grade, he or she must repeat it. From the sizes of some of the students, it appears that they’ve repeated grades several times. In the senior high schools, there are quite a few students in their 20s that are still attending class. At least they haven’t given up on education!

Because the girls had left the school, we closed early because the other teachers didn’t want to teach only the boys. The schedule for this tournament called for us to go to the next town over for the next three days – Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I was actually hoping to get some good teaching in during this time, but there wasn’t anything to be done.

The next morning, I walked to the next town with the students and several of the other teachers. It was about a 30 minute walk, but the sun wasn’t too hot at this point so it really wasn’t too bad. The mood was fairly light and festive among the students.

When we arrived at the next town, around 8:30 AM, I met with several of the other teachers and we waited for the games to begin. The only problem was that the soccer field or “pitch” was still being prepared. Lines were being established with chalk dust and the nets were being attached to the bamboo goals. These preparations lasted until roughly 12:00. One would have thought that this could have been done beforehand, but we all dutifully waited for things to finish up.

Just a bit of background on the general outline of what’s going on. There are three terms at the junior high schools. The first term roughly corresponds to a typical first semester or term at a US school. The second term follows Christmas break, and the third term extends into July. The primary school boys and junior high school girls play soccer and the primary school girls play netball during the first term. More on netball later. The boys and girls play volleyball and netball during the second term, and the junior high school boys play soccer during the third term. With this being the first term, this three-day tournament was the only time the students would be playing against other schools. The students had been practicing and training for some time before the tournament began, but this was the first time they were actually going to play another team. The teams were from the surrounding villages and a town. The town has about five schools in it, and was the host of the tournament.

During the morning, the primary school girls and the younger junior high school girls were playing netball. Netball is similar to ultimate frisbee in that once you catch the ball, you can’t walk any further and you must pass the ball. The ball is shot into a basketball hoop with no backboard. I was surprised to see the intensity of the girls as they played. They were completely serious as they played, and it almost seemed as though there was a sense of desperation and urgency. There were times when they would essentially tackle one another in their pursuit of the ball. Quite a crowd had gathered around the field, and goals were loudly cheered and celebrated. It was getting rather hot out, and people started taking out umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun.

This was the first time that I had seen netball played. It’s likely played here because it requires very little equipment. A grass court, two elevated metal rings, and a ball constitute the requirements.

Once the preparations were finished on the soccer field, the first game started. Although the boys were primary school boys, I was surprised to see how skilled they were. Soccer is the game of choice here, and I could certainly see that even these young players had had quite a few years of experience. It’s common to see little kids moving around the village, kicking a little rubber ball around. It’s not common to see actual soccer balls though, because they are rather expensive by village standards.

The soccer games continued until it was nearly dark. There weren’t any stands or bleachers to sit in, so I just joined the crowd that lined the field. I started getting a bit sore after standing all day, but I wanted to participate as a teacher. I was surprised to see how many people were there. Quite a crowd of adults from the surrounding towns and villages had gathered to watch and cheer. In addition, students from the surrounding schools also gathered to watch. The spectators were really into the game, and stormed the field and carried players around with loud cheers whenever a goal was scored.

One thing that was interesting was the eligibility of the players. Although all players over a certain weight were not supposed to play, it seemed that the players were getting bigger and bigger as the days went on. It was appeared to be common knowledge among the spectators that certain schools were playing over-weight players. Some schools were countering this by adding small players from the junior high schools. If the referee would have simply rigidly enforced the rules, there wouldn’t have been this problem, but as it was, the referee was letting things go, and the schools were taking note and making adjustments as they saw fit. When the competing schools noticed that the other schools were playing over-weight players, a large group of people would storm onto the field and have a rather loud and animated discussion full of shouting and threatening hand gestures. Once when things really started getting loud, more and more people rushed onto the field, and it got pretty interesting. I was documenting these happenings with my camera, and my students quickly told me to put my camera away. I noticed that they weren’t teasing, and realized that things might have been a little more heated than I initially understood. The camera stayed hidden after that. These confrontations happened at the start of nearly every match. During the final games, they weren’t able resolve all the differences, and a potentially offending team simply left the field after not being allowed to play allegedly over-weight players.

I’ve heard that the people from my village and those from the town really don’t like each other a whole lot. There have been incidents in the past with the people getting “involved” in the past at sporting events. There was even some talk among the teachers at my school about pulling out of a later match due to concerns about violence. Due to the way Ghanaians perceive people from the US, I don’t feel that I’m at a great risk, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind and keep my eyes open.

Although I lost three days of teaching, it really was rather interesting to see the students outside the class. With the crowd of people at the host school, our small school started feeling more like a family than a school. We usually stayed together during the matches and walked back and forth together in the mornings and evenings. If I only see the students at the school, I only see a small part of their lives. But when I see them outside the school, I see a person with unique interests and perspectives. When we were walking back from the field one evening, I felt a hand grabbing at my hand and I looked down and saw one of the students. I was thinking, “Hang on, what about the teacher-student relationship, ahh, let me think here…ok, here we go.”, and got a better grip. People here hold hands pretty often. It’s just a sign of being friendly. Girls with girls, teachers with students, guys with guys…you just get used to seeing it. And, due to the age differential, I’m less a friend than a sort of “mentor figure”. So, as I was walking along in the growing darkness with a crowd of students, holding hands on each side, and speaking with them in the local language, I couldn’t help but just smile, and think, “Yup, here I am!”

Photo Update

I’ve added some new photos of the action here in Ghana.  I’ve posted pictures of my school, my village, and a soccer tournament that the we participated in last week.

Water

While I have electricity here, I don’t have any running water.  It’s actually not that hard to get used to not having running water.  I have a water barrel for the water, and I have small buckets in key locations that function as portable water faucets.

One of the most interesting things about not having running water is the change of perspective that I get regarding water. It really does start to seem rather valuable. When my water barrel starts get close to being empty, I start planning my activities around the remaining supply until I get it refilled. When it’s empty, I start feeling very handicapped, very thirsty, and the air seems to feel hotter. But when the water barrel is full, it feels great. It feels as though the shelves are full of food and fire is blazing during a cold winter storm.

I experimented for a while with gathering rainwater from my roof run off. This seemed to be a great idea for a while. I was feeling very independent and satisfied as I dashed around in the pouring rain moving buckets under the “drip line” and dumping them into my barrel. “No more relying on others for my water! It was a great time. Finally the water barrel was filled to the top, and the rain continued to pour in, causing it to overflow. It felt luxurious in some way, just seeing the water stream down the sides of the barrel. Water was plentiful.

This temporary exultation was short-lived though. I looked down into the barrel one day, and noticed that my water barrel had been transformed into an aquarium. If it weren’t for the fact that I was actually trying to use the water, it would have been interesting to let it go and see what sort of creatures the barrel would support. But seeing an assortment of little water creatures moving about in my soon-to-be drinking water was a bit unsettling. I do filter all my water with a high quality filter, but I still don’t want to be filtering and drinking the same water that the creatures were using for their swim meets.

So, my rain water collection adventure ended. I did make several more attempts to filter the water by using a cloth, but it didn’t seem to be adequate. I now rely on the students from the school to provide me with water. This is an extremely common practice with all the teachers. It’s actually culturally inappropriate for me to collect my own water. I wouldn’t mind the freedom to go out there and collect it, but it’s just not allowed. So I call various students in the morning and let them know that the water barrel needs to be replenished. Today I sweetened the deal with some toffee, and was rewarded with a completely filled water barrel. Quite a fair trade!

Having running water would be convenient, but would I really want to miss out on all this excitement?

Trip to Accra

So this past Friday I ventured down to Accra for some business. It was an interesting trip. Here's how it went:

0600 Friday morning
I received a call from the States checking on how I was doing. A fellow teacher stopped by to see if I could help him install a CD drive. A senior high school student stopped by to chat about school and three junior high school students came to sweep my courtyard.

I walked for 30 minutes to a larger town so I could board a taxi to the nearest city so I could board a car to Accra. The taxi was just leaving the station when I got there, so I ended up waiting for the next one. I bought my breakfast as I waited - a light porridge called "cocoa".

I arrived in the city and discovered that the car to Accra was nearly full. I bought my ticket and hopped on board. Many of the cars have sound systems that emphasize the role of the subwoofer. The experience that screams "Ghana" to me, is cruising down the road in the close quarters of a tro, swerving all over the road to avoid the potholes, and listening to happy Ghanaian songs with pounding bass. None of the passengers seem to mind the music though, so we just bounce along our merry way.

We arrived in Accra 2.5 hours later. I "alighted" from the tro, and boarded another tro to another station in Accra called Circle. The traffic was heavy, and I was starting to get concerned about time. After I arrived at the next station, I inquired around to find a taxi to my destination. A tro would have been cheaper, but also slower. After being directed to a "taxi station", I saw a number of taxis that were filling with people. I needed an empty "drop taxi" though, not one of these cheaper "line taxis" so I looked around until I found an empty one. I awoke the the sleeping driver, and indicated that I was interested in getting on board. I asked him how much it would cost to get there. He said it would be GHc3.00 - about $3. Considering my lack of time, this sounded reasonable, but I countered with GHc2.5. He paused for a moment, then motioned me into the car. On our way, we passed the new $50 million presidential residence that had just opened. By the time I finally reached my destination in Accra, I had been in Accra traffic for 1.5 hours.

I took care of my business at the PC Office and headed off to another part of Accra. I was told that it would only be a short walk, but it ended up taking about 30 minutes to get there. The sun was bearing down quite heavily, and I was starting to get pretty hot by the time I reached the place. After taking care of business, I asked how to get back to the Circle Station. I was told by a security guard that a taxi would be my best choice. He told me it would cost about GHc3-4. He waved down a taxi for me, and asked for the price to Circle. The driver wanted GHc9. He later came down to GHc7, but this was still too much. Two female security guards came over, and agreed that the driver was charging too much. They suggested that I join them to take a tro to the Circle Station. I followed them down a trail to the main road where we walked for a minute or so. One of the women recognized a driver in a passing car, and waved him down. We all climbed in and started driving. The driver was a graduate of the University of Ghana - Legon, which is one of the best universities here. He dropped me off at a mini-station where I boarded another tro headed toward Circle.

Another white person boarded this car. Because a lot of the white people I have encountered here don't seem interested in talking to other white people, I approached him cautiously with a Twi greeting. (Possible explanation: They don't want other whites tainting their epic adventure in the the "African Heartland"?) If someone understands a little Twi, they usually aren't only here for tourism. He responded in Twi. It turned out he was a British journalist, and would be here for several months. We chatted for a while until we reached our stop. I alighted from the car at Circle, and headed out to find another car to my final station - Kaneshie Station. I boarded a car heading to Kaneshie Station and got there 20 minutes later.

When I got to Kaneshie Station, I made a beeline for the car heading to my city. I went to the "ticket office tent" and asked to buy a ticket. It turned out that this time the tickets were being sold on board the car. I joined the "queue", but noticed that it appeared as though there were more people in the queue than would fit into the car. Once the doors of the car opened, people started shoving and pushing there way into the car. I tried to maintain my position in the line without having to resort to overtly physical means, but a few people pushed their way in front of me. One man climbed into the back of the car through a window, partially dislodging a fender in the process. As I waited to board the car, it became increasingly apparent that I wouldn't be able to fit. Just as I had predicted, the car filled, and I wasn't on it.

I headed back to the tent to find another car heading to my city. I found that another car close by was heading out up there, so I boarded quickly. I didn't have any lunch, so I started buying lunch from the many sellers that were surrounding the filling car with their goods. As cars fill, more and more sellers will surround it, trying to sell their wares until the entire car is surrounded by a moving convenience store. I bought something resembling a cupcake, a bag of chilled kenkey (a local food), a bag of fried plantain chips, and a bag of sliced local fruit. The car didn't take long to fill and we soon headed out.

As we neared our city, the car started stopping frequently and dropping off passengers. There are no aisles in the car, so if a person in the back of the car needs to get off, a line of passengers ahead of that person will need to fold up their seats, get off the car, let the person off, and then get back on the car.

The station had closed when I arrived, so I looked around for a taxi heading to my village. After asking around, I found a waiting line taxi. I chatted with the others waiting with taxi for a while in Twi. When enough people had arrived, we headed out. The taxi was the size of a small car, simliar to a Honda Civic or Chevy Cavalier. People really pile into these cars. I was sitting with another guy in the right front seat, and five more people were sitting in the back - some on each others laps. It was similar to the games of "how many people can we fit in the car", but we weren't playing around - we were all paying customers trying to get somewhere.

I finally arrived at the friendly confines of my home, and took a much needed bucket bath to freshen up. Traveling in the tight quarters of tros and taxis makes me feel rather sticky after a while. After traveling, I really do enjoy having a familiar place to relax in. Essentially everything I need is here, so I can just sit back and relax.

And there you have it - a trip to Accra.

Teaching

With all the pictures of different places in Ghana, it might look like I’ve just been vacationing and exploring. However, I actually have a job to do here – teaching.

Our term here started out rather tragically with the death of our headmaster the day before school started. The primary school teachers, and my counterpart went to visit the family the following day. School still opened, but no classes were held during the first week. Instead, the students were assigned to clean the “compound” or school grounds. This primarily consisted of weeding. Weeding mean both the traditional weeding, and simply cutting the grass. There are no lawn mowers though, so the students use cutlasses (they look similar to machetes) and hack away at the grass with big sweeping motions. The compound also needed to be swept. The grounds immediately next to the school building consist of gravel and sand. Leaves and trash accumulate so the students sweep the ground with hand brooms made from local plants.

The first week was challenging because there was only one other teacher at the school. With only two teachers at the school, the students had a tendency to get rather rowdy and loud.

During the second week, more teachers started filtering their way into the school, and the schedule started appearing a little more normal. If the students don’t have a teacher, they will just sit in their classrooms, and start talking. This talking gets louder and louder until a teacher comes into to quiet them down. Ideally, the students will always have a teacher in their classroom, keeping things under control.

Initially, I came to Ghana to expecting to teach math. My late headmaster expanded that to become math and computers. Due to the shortage of teachers at our school though, I also need to to teach science. So, for the first 7 weeks of school, I was teaching Form 1 and 2 math, science and computers. This was a little more than I wanted, because nearly each lesson needed an individual lesson plan. Of course, each class needed their own homework assignments and grading. Another teacher has taken on the Form 1 Science class, which makes things a little bit easier, but I would still like to have a little more time. I would be able to focus more on each class, instead of just juggling a bunch of different ones.

Each class lasts 70 minutes. Math classes meet three times a week, science two times a week, and computers class one time per week. On Mondays and Tuesdays I teach three classes. After these days, I need to sit back a while and relax to allow my energy levels to build back up.

Teaching consists of preparing lesson notes, delivering the lesson, and grading any assigned work. I refer to the national syllabus to know which topics to treat, and ensure that I’m staying on schedule for the year. So far, I’m on schedule in nearly all my classes, so that will be a big help to the students.

One thing that I didn’t realize about teaching at this Junior High School was the amount of discipline the students required. For the most part, they will take as much room as one gives them. If one is a soft teacher, they will respond by being loud and disruptive. This isn’t to say that they have poor intentions, but the school has adopted a certain mind-set about education. The problem is worst with the Form 3 students. At times when I’m teaching my Form 2 class directly adjacent to the Form 3 class, I need to walk over and quiet them down. Left alone, the students will start “fooling” as they call it, annoying one another, hitting each other, walking around in class, talking amongst each other, sleeping, not paying attention, writing notes for other classes, working on homework, leaving the classroom, engaging other students outside the class, reporting other students misbehavior to me, counter-reporting misbehaviors to me, or simply just sitting there and not writing any notes at all.

I’ve found the best strategy is to be firm, and eliminate brewing problems as soon as possible. Ideally, the students will come to naturally give this sort of behavior in class. All the other teachers discipline their students by caning them. This essentially means spanking them with a one half inch diameter stick. This practice is extremely common in nearly all school here. The Peace Corps doesn’t allow its teachers to cane students. This puts us in unique position. If the students become accustomed to more aggressive forms of punishment, they will be less sensitive to less aggressive punishments. This could even result in a loss of respect (or fear?) for those people who don’t use caning to punish students because “he’s not tough enough”. If no teachers caned students, I think the students would start to become more sensitized to the other forms of punishment.

What else can be done to punish students? Sending them from the classroom, moving them to a different location in the classroom, having them sit on the floor, and having them kneel in the corner of the classroom.

Caning has been used in the past as a punishment for answering questions wrong in class, and the inappropriate application of it has certainly misdirected students. Ghanaian law actually requires that only the headmaster can cane students, and there are a specific number of “lashes” that can be…applied, if you will. In practice though, all teachers cane the students. However, there have been incidents where the teachers have injured the students through caning them. This occurred when the caning was done improperly. Things have gotten heated when the parents of the injured student approached the teacher.

Teaching has been quite interesting. Some of the students show a lot of potential. Even while are somewhat rowdy in class, they are still mostly respectful. Men are addressed as “sir”, and women as “madam”. At times my Form 1 class gets quite involved in the lesson, and shouts the answers to various questions out in unison. I’ve had some students explaining their work on the board, and it’s rather interesting seeing them using the identical phrases that I’ve used. “Emmanuel knows, George knows…who else knows?” I taught one class the French version of “Good bye”, so as I’m leaving from the class, they all shout it out at me. The phrase “Good job” isn’t used here, so they’ve all picked up on me using it. They actually use it as a form of greeting for me. A student can be walking by, see me, and say “Good job” with a little fist pump.

Well, I obviously have a lot to say regarding teaching. Lately, it really has been almost all that I’ve been doing. But writing further will turn this long post into the start of a book, so I’ll close here.

Education in Ghana

Before I start describing my teaching here in Ghana, I’m going to give a brief overview of education here so you have a better understanding of what I’ll be talking about later on.

Education starts in kindergarten, and leads into primary school.  Primary school consists of Classes 1-6.  Upon completed Class 6, the student will enter Form 1 of Junior High School.  Junior High School consists of Forms 1-3.  In Form 3, the students take (write) their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).  This exam is essentially the only factor dictating whether or not the student will enter Senior High School.  The BECE tests the students on core subjects.  Each subject is assigned a score, with 1 being the highest.  Six subjects are combined to give an aggregate score, with 6 being the highest score possible.  Primary and Junior High School are free.

When students enter Senior High School, they generally move away from their hometown, and board at the school.  In Senior High School, the students are required to select a study track.  These study tracks range from Home Economics, General Arts, Business, General Science and so on.  In Form 4 of Senior High School, the students will take the WAECE.  In large part, this exam will dictate whether or not they will go to the university.  Students must pay to attend Senior High School.

If the student does not get a good score on the WAECE and is denied admission to the university, they may opt to attend a Teacher Training College.  This course will take roughly three years to complete.  The newly trained teacher would then teach for 3-5 years.  At this point, the teacher may be eligible for admission to the university, and may continue to receive their teacher’s pay during their time in the university. A student may also attend the Teacher Training College if they initially don’t have a enough funds to attend the university.  

With this arrangement, there are many young teachers here.  At my school, nearly all of the teachers are younger than 30 years old.  Last year two of the previous teachers left our school to further their education.  In several years, several of the teachers here are likely to do the same thing.

Admission to the university is competitive due to the large number of applicants.  There are a number of universities here, and international students can do a study abroad program at the University of Ghana – Legon.  Unfortunately, a student’s options are somewhat limited following their graduation from the university – especially in fields of science and engineering.  This is one of the reasons for the “brain drain” that people cite here in Ghana.  However, if a person studies and does well in the business field, the chances are good that he or she will find reasonable opportunities here.

So, there you have an introduction to education here.  I’m teaching at the Junior High School level, so no students have been weeded out by exams yet.  My goal is to adequately prepare as many students as possible for the BECE (Not through teaching to the exam of course, but through inspiring them to discover the joy of learning and education.  At least, that’s what I’ll try to say without smiling.), and boosting them up to the Senior High School level.

Picture update (EDIT: Captions added)

I just added some new pictures of the end of training and beginning of my service. I was only able to add one caption, but it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out what's going on. You'll see pictures of the Water Satchet Olympics, the Peace Corps swearing in ceremony, a trip to Accra, an HIV/AIDS awareness soccer game, a visit to a palm oil production facility and some pictures of me getting things set up at my site.

EDIT: I've added captions to the photos to explain the activities.

Settling In

I'm at an internet cafe in city that is relatively close to my site. The internet here is frustratingly slow, and is paid by the hour so I'll have to keep this relatively short. I actually have internet access at my site through the cell phone network and my laptop. It's great for keeping in touch via email. It's too expensive to receive pictures and browse the web though. This might not exactly sound like roughing it in the Peace Corps, but I'm not intentionally going to go avoid available conveniences. I'm here to teach, not live two years of isolation and meditation.

So I'm now all finished with training and am an official Peace Corps volunteer. School will be starting in about 1.5 weeks, so I've been using the free time to get settled in. I'm planning on doing some painting and organizing. I also got a gas stove. I was using a coal pot which works quite well once it's hot. I've really enjoyed having the gas stove for breakfast in the mornings, or for heating up some water for a bucket bath. I'll still use the coal pot for making dinners that require a lot of boiling and simmering time. The coal is quite reasonably priced.

Aside from that, I've still been working on learning the local language. All of the villagers speak the language, so I have practice everyday.

Things are going well right now, and I'm just waiting to get started with the teaching. Right now it feels like I'm just sitting around on vacation, but the teaching will give me that purpose for being here.

I have a lot of pictures that I'll be posting soon, complete with illustrative captions.

Take care...

Stephen

Picture update

Hey...I just posted some new pictures. I added captions to most of the pictures, so there's no need to say a whole lot here. In summary though, I visited my site, and am now in the process of finishing training. I'll start teaching in about a month. That's it for now!

Current Address

I can be reached through traditional methods at the following address:

"My Name", PCV
Peace Corps
P. O. Box 5796
26 West Cantonments
Switchback Lane
Accra, Ghana West Africa

First Stages

Hello,

This is the first time in about five weeks that I've had access to the internet, so the following is a rather lengthy review of what has taken place in the last 7 weeks.

My flight was originally scheduled to leave early in the morning. I spent the previous day packing all my luggage and getting all my other things put away into boxes. The evening and night came surprisingly fast though, and I found myself working late into the night. I arrived early for my morning flight, only to find out that the flight had been cancelled due to fog. I was fortunate however, and got a seat on the afternoon flight.

The staging was held in Philadelphia. Staging consisted of meeting the group of teachers that were going to be volunteering in Ghana, filling out registration forms, and learning about some basic health and security guidelines, and getting the necessary vaccinations. Due to flight reasons, I arrived in Philadelphia one day early and met with my brother Anders and cousin John. We were able to spend some time that night and the following morning visiting and looking at the various historic sites such as Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. It was a particularly hot time in Philadelphia, and one needed only to walk down the street to get rather sweaty. We consoled ourselves by saying that we were only preparing ourselves for Ghana.
Following the staging event, we chartered a bus to Newark International Airport where we toured around waiting for our 8:00 departure. We were delayed as we taxied to the runway, and it started getting rather hot inside the cabin. Fortunately, it wasn’t long before we took off and the cabin cooled down. I stayed awake for a while and had some snacks in the cabin, but soon fell asleep. When I awoke, we were a good part of the way across the Atlantic, and it was bright and clear outside. Before long, I saw land and we started descending into Amsterdam. The airport was had an interesting layout, but was very clean and modern. I got some lunch there, and was surprised to find out that the Euro-USD exchange rate brought my meal of a small sandwich and drink to nearly $10. Admittedly, it was excellent though.

The flight from Amsterdam to Accra, Ghana was through KLM. I’ve never flown KLM before, and was pleasantly surprised once I boarded the plane. There was plenty of space inside, and they had music playing some music as everyone boarded. Unlike the Northwest plane we took over the Atlantic, this plane had the TV screens in the seatbacks that had the GPS, movies, music, and games. The service on the flight was excellent and I occupied myself with snacking, taking photos from the window, and watching movies. I tried to see the Sahara desert when the GPS indicated we were over it, but the cloud cover only allowed me to see a faint brown surface. The sun was setting as we neared Ghana, and I kept my eyes on the clouds, trying to find some interesting cloud formations lit up by the sun. When we landed in Ghana, it was completely dark. There wasn’t a gate that the plane pulled up to. Instead, the plane stopped near the airport, stairs were brought alongside it, and a bus took the passengers to the airport. We met the Peace Corps Ghana Country Director at the baggage claim area and started finding our baggage. Fortunately, both my bags arrived and appeared to be in good shape. Two of the volunteers’ bags did not show up though. One of the volunteers didn’t end up getting his bag until several weeks later.

We made our way through the immigration area without any difficulty and walked outside of the airport to the clapping and cheers of the Peace Corps Ghana staff and volunteers. I was pulling two suitcases so I could only smile and nod as I walked by. Having been in the air for the past 16 hours, I wasn’t up to doing a whole lot more. We put all our baggage in a box truck, and boarded busses heading toward our initial training site. Traffic in Accra is highly congested, so we were given a police escort through the city. It was a wild introduction to Ghana - police sirens, horns honking, and people staring. It felt obnoxious in some ways, but it would have likely taken several hours otherwise. It is one of the interesting things working through the Peace Corps. We are actually working through the host country’s government, so some things can work out very well such as the police escort.

We arrived at our initial training site about 90 minutes later. The site was a university, but classes weren’t in session so we were nearly the only ones there. We were all split up into rooms and put our stuff away and finally got together in the mess hall for a brief welcome. We then all got some needed sleep. The schedule on the following day was rather light, but had some brief informational sessions.

The following week was spent with more sessions and allowed everyone to get settled after the flights. In order to learn how to move around in Ghana, we needed to learn the tro system. A tro is a small bus/van that moves people from place to place. In addition to the driver, there is also a mate that collects fares, and watches for people alongside the road that need rides. As a learning exercise in using the tro system, we were all split into groups and sent on various missions into Accra. My group was sent to find the Makola Market in Accra. We walked out to the road, flagged down a tro heading into Accra, and jumped on board. After getting off at an unknown station in Accra, we started asking around to find Makola Market. Ghanaians are very helpful, and in no time we were directed on our way to the market.

The next step in the training was visiting a current volunteer at their site. I was assigned to meet with someone near the center of Accra. It was a great opportunity to see the countryside and get a better understanding of what it’s like to serve as a volunteer here. My host was involved in an environmental project, so I didn’t get to see a whole lot of teaching, but I enjoyed seeing the village and looking around the site.

All the trainees then moved to the PC training site in southern Ghana. We’ll be remaining here for another 5 weeks. One of the first things that took place during this time was getting assigned to a site. Everyone was interviewed and the education directors got together to decide where everyone was going to be placed. There are a number of things that go into site placement such as medical concerns, technical abilities, teaching experience, and knowledge. It was interesting to wait for this announcement because we’ll be at these sites for two years. My initial preference was to be placed in the northern region of Ghana. I also wanted to teach at a junior high school. Even though this will be more challenging, I also see the potential for effective teaching to have a greater impact on the students. When the wait was over, I learned that I would be teaching at a junior high school, but in the southern region of Ghana. Even though I was initially hoping to be placed in the northern region, the southern region will be quite all right. It’ll also be closer to the major cities of Accra and Kumasi. Because it’s also quite a bit closer to Accra than the northern sites, it’ll also facilitate the arrival of the many visitors that I’m expecting to host. You do want to come to Ghana, don’t you?

The second interesting thing that happened during training was getting placed with a host family. Families around the community volunteered to host us, and were given some information on the types of food to make and what to expect from the volunteers. They are given a generous amount of money to provide food for us. The family placement was interesting though. All of the trainees and all of the representatives from the families were all gathered together under one roof – trainees on one side, families on the other side. One by one, names of the trainees were called, and the corresponding names of the families were called. The trainee and family then met in the middle of the room, exchanged greetings and walked out for introductions. The entire thing was arranged to build anticipation. When my name was called, I found that my host father had come out to meet me. He’s a farmer and a painter, and we started visiting about the local farms. Later, his wife arrived and together we took a taxi to his house right in the middle of the training town. There are quite few children, relatives, and boarders that live in the housing complex, so there is never a shortage of activity.

During training, we’re learning the local languages, customs, and the like. We’re also undergoing technical training. As part of this technical training, we spent two weeks teaching classes at the local schools. We started by teaching our peers, then small groups of students, and finally taught the actual classes in the schools. It was an interesting experience. I have a lot of ideas when it comes to teaching, but it’s another thing to put all the ideas together into a cohesive, effective lesson. As I neared the end of the practicum, I started feeling as though I was reaching the level of competence that I was looking for. My reviews from the observing teachers were all positive, and I’m looking forward to teaching at my actual site. One of the biggest benefits from this would be that I will know what the students have already learned, and I’ll be able to build on that.

Now that we’ve finished training, we’re continuing with our technical and language training. I’ve been learning Twi, which is the most commonly spoken local language in Ghana. It’ll be useful knowing Twi when I visit the market towns and the cities.

So, that is the rather long recap of what has generally happened since I got here. The questions remains though, “How is Ghana?” I would actually have to say that one of the things that I’ve been surprised by most here has been the lack of surprises. I’ve just gotten used to the way everything has turned out here, and it really doesn’t feel that strange. Looking at a map, I still have to realize that I’m actually in Ghana out in Africa, but my surrounding are starting to feel very familiar. I know that it will be more challenging when I reach my site though. At that time, I’ll be completely on my own, without any Americans to rely on for immediate support. I will have a number of volunteers that are going to be within a couple hours of me, but no one else will live in my village. I am looking forward to getting to my site though and getting my place set up the way I want it. There will be some time before school starts, so it would be nice to see if I can get some painting done. Of course, I haven’t been to the site yet, but I’d like to make it look the way I want it to. There is also the issue of simply having my own place. There is a certain advantage with living with a host family, but I’ll have more flexibility when I get to my own site.
So far, everything has been going quite well. I’ve been learning a lot and have been enjoying what I’m doing. I actually wrote this message back at home, and just uploaded the text at an internet cafe. Today was market day in the town, and I got some material that I'm planning to have made into shirts and a pair of pants.

I'll keep in touch!