Q&A with Pen Pals

The Peace Corps has a program that arranges for US pen pals for my students. We've already had an exchange of letters, and the US pen pals had a group of questions for my students here in Ghana. I'm going to give the questions to my students, but I also answered the questions myself. I wanted to be sure that the US students got all their questions answered, and I also thought it would be interesting for the US students to compare my responses with my students' responses.


What subjects do you take in school?
At our school, the students learn Math, Integrated Science, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), English, Ghanaian Language, Social Studies, Agriculture, Basic Design and Technology, Religious and Moral Education, and Pre-Technical Skills.

How do the grades in school work?
Students start in nursery, and progress to kindergarten and primary school. In primary school, the students progress from Class 1 to Class 6. Class 1 is equivalent to 1st Grade. Upon completed Class 6, the student will move to Junior High School. The student will begin in Form 1 and progress to Form 3. Form 1 is equivalent to 7th grade. (So the Form 2 students you are writing to are in 8th grade) The student will then take a standardized exam and gain admission to a Senior High School. Students often live away from home when they attend Senior High School. Senior High School is divided into Forms 1, 2, 3, and 4. Form 1 of SHS is equivalent to 9th grade. After completing Senior High School, the students will take another standardized exam, and gain admission to the university, teacher training college, or a technical school.

How many kids are in each class in school?
Form 1 has 25 students, Form 2 has 23 students, and Form 3 has 35 students.

How many kids are in your school altogether?
83 students

How many teachers work at your school?
Five teachers.

Does your school have electricity?
No. Some of the houses in the village have electricity though.

What is a typical family in Ghana like?
I will let the students expand on this on their own, but in my village, the mother and father generally work on their farm. Some people work as diamond miners. They don’t have a large mine though. It’s more of the mining style that the gold prospectors used to do during the Gold Rush. The students often work with their parents on the farm. Many families live together with aunts and uncles, grandparents, cousins, and other relatives in one house. Families don’t do a lot of traveling as a family because they don’t have the money for that. There also don’t appear to be a lot of family outings in the village. There aren’t any parks or places to go relax as a family. Family members seem to be fairly independent. There are also wealthy families in the cities, and they live similar lives to American families.

How many kids are in each family?
I have observed as few as 1, and as many as 7. The average seems to be around 4.

What do your parents do for work?
Farming, mining for diamonds, driving buses, carpentry, sewing clothes, and selling food and supplies at the market.

Are you rich?
I will let the students expand on this, but my observation is that most of the families in the village are quite poor. Essentially none of the families have cars, and they generally only travel for business. Many families don’t have electricity. Those that do have electricity would likely have a TV. They get three stations on the TV. Very few people have computers, and no one has access to the internet in the village. Most of the clothes people wear are clothes that people in the Western world gave away. During church though, you will see people wear very nice clothes made out of bright Ghanaian fabric. Many of the kids don’t have nice shoes. Most of the shoes they have are already used. Some of the kids play soccer barefoot because they don’t have soccer shoes. Most people wear flip flops unless they are going to school or church.

Have you traveled outside of the country?
Most Ghanaians don’t travel very often because it’s too expensive for them, even when it’s within Ghana. When they do travel, it’s usually for business or to visit family. Ghanaians generally don’t seem to travel to simply see the sights in the country. The majority of tourists at tourist attractions are foreigners. International travel is quite uncommon. Travel to developed countries is even less common.

What are the foods you eat in Ghana?
Rice with fish or chicken, banku, kenkey, fufu, rice balls, egg sandwiches, bread with butter, beans and fried plantains, crispy fried plantains, meat pies, FanIce (a icecream-like treat), FanChoco (frozen chocolate milk), FanYogo (frozen yogurt), and fried yam (think fried potatos),

Do you have any American foods?
Other than the American foods I mentioned in the list above, there aren’t any other American foods, unless you go to the big cities. There are no American restaurants in the cities though (not even McDonalds)

What is fufu like?
Fufu is made from boiled plantains and cassava. These are then pounded together in a large mortar and pestle until they reach the same consistency as bread dough. The fufu is then placed into a spicy “stew” which may have fish or meat in it. The fufu is eaten by hand, and really isn’t meant to be chewed. You’re supposed to simply swallow it. Fufu is extremely common here in Ghana. During the late afternoon, the one can often hear fufu being pounded in quite a few houses. Banku and kenkey are similar to fufu, but are made a different way, and have a different taste and consistency.

We found a recipe for fufu on the internet. Should we make it?
There are recipes for it online, but I wouldn’t recommend making it because it takes a while to get used to eating it. There is also the pounding process that’s done in the mortar and pestle that would be hard to replicate unless you’ve been trained in it. If the fufu is not pounded correctly, it’s not going to have a good consistency, and consequently won’t be appetizing. I’ve come to like fufu now that I’ve tried it quite a few times. I didn’t like it when I first tried it though.

Catching up

Well, in the past several blog posts, I've been covering what has happened in the past couple months. In current news...

Today is the beginning of the final funeral rites for the chief of the village next to mine. All in the surrounding areas have been closed because of this. It's likely for two reasons. The first is that funerals here are rather busy events, and it might be better to allow the students to remain home while all the events are happening. Some students may need to be walking to and from school while people are participating the funeral. I say "participating" because things can get lively. Ghanaians traditionally don't drink often, but they do let loose a bit during funerals. So, loud blasting music, dancing, and drinks - all good reasons for the students not to be underfoot. In addition, the late chief also held a rather high title, and dignitaries will be visiting. The NPP presidential candidate will also be in attendance. It's interesting to think that the presidential candidate will be in the village next to mine.

The second reason that the schools are closed is because in the old times, Ghanaians had a tradition of killing people to bury along with chief. I've been told this no longer happens, but the other teachers at my school still seem to think that it bears some truth. From what I can gather, it did happen at one time, but is now something of a legend. But, no one is taking any chances. I've been told that my status exempts me from any consideration as a candidate. That's always good to know.

We did have the final exams for the students during the second week of class here. It was something of a mess. The exams had unintelligible questions, multiple or no correct answers, and had material that wasn't part of the original outline. It was challenging dealing with this because some questions had point values assigned to them, but others didn't have any value assigned to them. I needed to determine the point value of the questions, and grade the papers. It wasn't a whole lot of fun at all. I just tried to move through it with as much of a semblance of fairness as possible. Of course, when it was all said and done, under the direction of the acting headmistress I ended up scaling the exams by as much as 40 points. And this was in order to get a mean score around 50. I couldn't say it was all the students' fault though. Working through the exam as a student would have been a mess.

But, it's done now. I'm planning on doing my own thing this term. I'll teach the topics from the syllabus in the order I feel is appropriate, and I'll write all my own exams. Things should be a lot better.

Home for the holidays

In the months leading up to Christmas I had made the arrangements necessary for a visit home for about three weeks. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to leave with the elections happening around the same time, but fortunately everything worked out. It was interesting because they don't allow the tickets to be purchased online here. I needed to go to the airport in Accra and purchase the ticket in person.

It was interesting arriving at the airport for my flight out because there was such quick change in the people that I saw. In many places, the people at the airport appear to be just the same as the people you see in the streets. Here though, you can tell that the Ghanaians at the airport are from the smaller, wealthy group. There was also quite a high percentage of foreigners among the people leaving the airport. The truth is that Ghana is still a developing country, and there really isn't the money to be buying tickets to places. It's also not easy getting a visa to foreign countries as a Ghanaian. It's very difficult getting a visa to the USA from here. In many parts of the world, if a person studies hard in school, and either goes to college or takes work seriously, this person will be able to visit foreign countries. Here though, there aren't that many well-paying jobs for college graduates. A teacher just starting out could be getting as little as $70 a month. It'll take quite a while for that teacher to save up $1200 for a ticket!

The departure area in the airport in Accra has a nice, modern appearance. I got there quite a few hours in advance just because I didn't have a whole lot else to be doing at the time, and I didn't want to run into any traffic trouble, or problems with tickets at the last minute. So I passed through security and waited for a quite a few hours for my flight to leave. Boarding the plane is interesting because the airport doesn't have a jetway. Instead, we take a bus to the plane, and walk up a set of stairs to board it. Getting on the plane after riding around in tros was interesting, but not bizarre. It wasn't that long ago that I had just arrived on a similar plane, and I don't forget things that quickly. We left at 10:00 pm and it was roughly 87 degrees on the runway. We arrived in Amsterdam the next morning, and I started feeling rather cold. My Ghanaian batik shirt that felt so normal in Ghana started to seem to stand out a bit more as I stood among the others waiting for the flight to Detroit.

Arriving in Detroit was nice. Being back in the US after being overseas for a while felt great. Things were just as I had been accustomed to for all my life. Things did start to feel really cold though. I only had a fleece jacket with me, and it wasn't doing too great a job of keeping me warm. When I walked down the jetway to the next plane, it felt extremely cold. I was literally trying to to hold myself relaxed, because my muscles were starting to get tight. It was actually difficult to move my arms smoothly. Once I got on the plane, things warmed up again and were fine.

I spent a couple days at home and then headed out to the east coast for a cousin's wedding. On the way there, my family stopped in Vermont where we all went snowboarding for the day. The conditions were a bit icy, but the weather was gorgeous. Sitting on the slopes of a snow covered mountain should seem like quite a shock after sweating it out in Ghana, but it felt like the most normal things ever. At the wedding, it was great to be able to see a lot of my extended family and catch up on the latest.

We headed back home and I enjoyed relaxing and seeing more family and friends. I got out and played some hockey as well. The day before I left, my dad and brothers headed out for a day-long snowmobiling trip. With it being a weekday, the trails were empty and we were all free to cruise along. The sun was out and the conditions couldn't have been better. It had gotten dark on the way back, but it was fun to cruise along through the woods, seeing the trails illuminated by the headlamps of the snowmobiles.

Then, all too quickly, it was time to head back to Ghana. This wasn't because I didn't want to go to Ghana, but as they say - time flies when you're having fun. But I had also grown to like my situation in Ghana, and was looking forward to getting back and picking up where I had left off. It felt a bit strange leaving my leather coat and heavy hat with my family as I boarded the plane, because it was -3 degrees out. Back in Detroit I checked up on some compensation for a late luggage problem. I got some frequent flier miles, and a couple vouchers that could be used at the airport. The vouchers actually worked, and I had a great lunch at Chili's and a dinner at a Mediterranean place.

Then, I was deboarding back in Ghana, stepping down the stairs and into the warm humid air. The trip went by quickly, but I certainly enjoyed seeing everyone back home. The modern convenience and luxuries were great, but it wasn't too hard for me to leave them. It could be that it's because I've only been here for 6 months now. It could also be that I have a pretty decent setup here. I've got the internet at my place, a 5.1 speaker system, two fans, laptop, plenty of movies and music, a quiet road for jogging, a soccer field, a bamboo pull up bar, BBC radio, weekly podcasts and I could go on. I think it's going to feel rather strange getting onto that plane leaving Ghana for the final time as a PCV.

Ghanaian Election and the PC All Volunteer Conference

December 7th was the date of the Ghanaian elections. This was roughly two weeks before the school term ended. There are two main parties - the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC). All signs indicated that it was going to be a tight race. There were some conflicts in the country leading up to the elections that resulted in a number of deaths, but these incidents were isolated. Kenya had also long been considered a stable country, but after their elections were marred with widespread violence resulting in the evacuation of the PVCs there, it was decided that some precautions were going to be taken for the PCVs in Ghana. Accordingly, all of the volunteers were gathered together in one place for an HIV/AIDS conference for a week during the elections. It was interesting getting to see all the PCVs in Ghana, because we don't usually meet together as a group. While we were there, we were continually informed of the progress of the elections, and we learned that things were progressing peacefully. The Ambassador and representativies from USAID came to the conference and gave presentations on HIV/AIDS topics. After the sessions, quite a few of the volunteers got together and played soccer and ultimate frisbee. I had neglected to bring my athletic shoes, so I figured I'd try out barefoot soccer. It sounded a little rough, but the grass was great, and kicking the ball isn't a problem as long as it is done properly. We had some great games.

As the election results came in, we were told that it was quite likely that there would be a run off election. The run off occurs when one candidate doesn't have more votes than all the other candidates combined. In the run off election, only the top two candidates will receive votes. When the final totals came in, the NPP had roughly 49% of the vote, and the NDC had about 48%, and the other parties split the remainder. This called for a run off election between the NPP and NDC. The run off election was going to be held roughly 20 days later.

Aside from a few minor incidents, the elections had been completely free of violence, and the majority of the volunteers were given the "all clear" to head back to site. Volunteers whose sites were near the locations of the election-related incidents needed to wait a couple days before returning, but were soon on their way.

Back at site, the students were supposed to be taking their final exams. As it turned out, the district education office hadn't even finished printing them yet. I wasn't too pleased about this. When the term started, I was teaching sequentially from the beginning of the Ghana Education Service (GES) syllabus. During the 8th week of the term, we were given the "scheme of work" from GES outlining the material that needed to be taught in order to prepare the students for their final exam. The material was selected from wide range of topics from all over the syllabus. It didn't appear to have any logical order to it, but at the time, I quickly rearranged the topics I was teaching in order to prepare the students for the final exam. But, after these efforts at preparing the students for the exams, we learned that the office simply hadn't printed the exams yet and would need to take the final exams during the first weeks of the second term - about 4 weeks later.

My Headmaster's Funeral

I believe I've mentioned that my headmaster died the day before school opened last fall. I had only met with him several times prior to his death, and didn't know him very well. In the days following his death, there were no official events or remembrances at the school. Instead, the students simply went about their normal duties. There never was any sort of event that marked the passing of the headmaster at the school. It seems a little strange because the headmaster was a well-liked by the students. But he passed on, and school kept moving right along as though nothing had happened.

Following Ghanaian tradition, family, friends, and acquaintances of my headmaster met in his village (he lived in the village next to mine) to discuss his funeral plans. Tents and chairs were set up when we got there, and people were filing into the area, greeting the family, and sitting down. Loud music was being played from a stand of rented speakers near the center of the tents. Women passed out water and beverages to the new arrivals. After a while, people started to dance in the center of the tents. The dancing was something of a slow, rhythmic shuffle. Women waved white handkercheifs over their heads. Whenever an elder got up to dance, he would quickly be surrounded by other younger dancers who seemed to be supporting him. When he was finished dancing, those around him sat down as well.

At this initial visitation, it was decided that the headmaster's funeral would be held in his hometown near Kumasi several months later. (Kumasi four hours from the capitol city of Accra, and is the second largest city in Ghana). This is where my story fits together with my Thanksgiving at the Ambassador's residence in Accra. The day after Thanksgiving, I finished up some business in Accra, and started looking for an appropriate funeral shirt. People must wear clothes in either black, red, or black and brown combined. The part of Accra I was in at the time only sold used Western clothes, and I was having trouble finding a black button down shirt. After searching numerous shops, I found one that seemed suitable. It was XL, but I wasn't in a position to get picky.

After getting the shirt, I went to the station and boarded a bus leaving to Kumasi. The fare of 12 Ghana cedis was a bit more expensive than I was accustomed to. The bus was quite comfortable though and we left shortly after I got on board. I did notice that those on the bus seemed to be a bit more wealthy than the average Ghanaian. I chatted with a woman who was from originally from Ghana, lived in Europe, and was coming back to Ghana for her engagement party. I also met another Ghanaian who was the president of a Ghanaian non-governmental organization (NGO). Our trip was a bit delayed by three stops due to mechanical difficulties on the bus. By the time we reached Kumasi, it was dark outside. I had been to the PC suboffice in Kumasi before, but with it being dark out, everything was looking a little different outside. I told the mate of the bus where I wanted to get off the bus, and he seemed to be familiar with the spot. When I did get off the bus, I started to see more familiar sites. It still was a relief when I saw the familiar PC sign outside the suboffice.

There were a group of people that had come to the suboffice to celebrate Thanksgiving. These people lived too far from Accra to go to the Ambassador's residence. I left early the next morning for the funeral with Darren, a PC teacher who lives in the same education district. I had some vague directions to the funeral, but needed to do a lot of asking along the way. Fortunately, nearly everyone here is willing to help people find places, so after a tro ride and a taxi ride, we found ourselves at the funeral site. People were gathering at the family house when we arrived. A large tent was set up in a courtyard, and people were circling the open coffin for one last time before they sat down. Darren and I were given a place to sit in an enclosed porch overlooking the courtyard. We spent most of the morning sitting up there and the people file into the courtyard. This courtyard was also blasting loud music from a rather impressive-looking stack of rented speakers. After several hours, everyone moved from the family house to a large area in the village where more tents and chairs were set up. People went up to a microphone and spoke of their memories of the headmaster. My school counterpart also read a message written by the teachers from my school.

Following this, the coffin was taken to a cemetary. The cemetaries that I've seen here are quite small and are often among small clearings in trees. There aren't long rows of gravestones like the US has. Instead, there are just clusters of gravestones. Many people had strips of red cloth that they carried to the cemetary. Tradition calls for these strips of cloth to be left at the burial site.

After the burial, we had lunch at the family house. The funeral was going to continue later that afternoon with quite a bit more dancing and donations for the family and cost of the funeral. I had already donated earlier that day, and both Darren and I were starting to feel a bit tired so we decided to head back to the PC office.

Back at the office, we discovered that there still was a lot of Thanksgiving dinner left over. It was an excellent dinner most of the traditional Thanksgiving dishes. They didn't have turkey, but they more than made up for that with a gigantic container of fried chicken. So, we started off on our third Thanksgiving dinner that year. One at the Ambassador's place, a second at a Thanksgiving party that our Accra hosts were attending, and the third there in Kumasi. Following dinner I went into the central market in Kumasi where I bought a few things. Kumasi has an excellent market with a huge selection and excellent prices. It's so big that it's quite easy to get lost. I needed to ask for directions just to get out of the market.

The following day I headed back to my site and started preparing for the final weeks of the first term.