In addition to these two main projects, we will both be involved in the weekly quiz and the general quiz organized for the junior schools of Jachie.
Current situation
Apparently, everything seems to be well organized. Charles is working full time in the computer centre and is in charge of the classes for the children in the morning and for the teachers two afternoons a week.
At any other time in the afternoons, his presence allows anyone to come and use a computer whatever their age, school or goal (game, learn, typing). For the classes, there is a weekly schedule on the wall. However, the week I started to work (1.10-5.10) was the third week of the scholar year and none of the classes had already started to come. This can be explained by a combination of the recent numerous power cuts and a bad communication of the new schedule. Also, the teachers appear to be reluctant to bring the children to the computer centre as:-they often do not know anything themselves about computers and they feel bad that the children know more than themselves.
-some who came with their classes last year think that the children did not improve enough throughout the year.
Concerning the classes for the teachers, they had not started yet neither. And I was told by Charles that last year he started with 12 teachers but only 5 were still coming at the end of the year.
My objectives
-Attendance for the children: close to 100%
-Implementing level groups especially at the beginning of the year: new comers (who have never touched a computer before because they were in a different school), advanced (children who often come to the computer centre in the afternoons)
-Establish a program for each class for the whole year using the software G compris (http://gcompris.net/) but also for the highest classes I plan to use other ones including in ebutu given by David Boateng such as the softwares to practice the percentages or the fractions or a software to learn how to type.
-Encourage more teachers to come to the afternoon’s sessions during the whole year.
-Split with Charles the children’s classes and teacher’s sessions as they are both extremely demanding. The children always tend to play a game and the teachers have a continuous flow of questions (indeed they prefer asking you what to do than finding out by themselves reading the handouts).
Week schedule (to be added)
Summary of the first week
I spent the first two days experiencing quite passively the computer centre daily life. On Monday, class 6 was still not there at 8.45. Fortunately, Charles had the number of the teacher. I called the class 6’s teacher and as a result the children came (30 minute’s late) but at least they came! On Tuesday, same scenario: class 4 did not turn up. This time, Charles did not have the teacher’s number so we just waited for them for one hour. As I realized the school was not far from the computer centre, I walked there to meet the class 4’s teachers and took the opportunity to bring the class 5 which was supposed to come after class 4 to the centre. The teachers seemed very surprised to hear that we were waiting for them at the computer centre. And so was I!! They did not know that there was a new schedule for this year. I must admit I felt a bit lost this first week. There was no written planning for the content of the lessons, and although there was a book to record the work done there was no record for the previous week, as this was but as it was the first lesson of the year. Therefore, without Charles, it would have been hard for me to know what to teach the children as I also did not know anything about the school program per year. So I was more observing the children learning than teaching them and I realized how disparate the level of the children was. This implies that when 3 children share a computer, most of the time, only one (the quickest!) does the work. I thought then we could divide the classes so that we can have a maximum of 2 pupils per computer. Finally, when I asked about the level achieved last year per class, I felt that these children could learn more in one year especially if the classes were not cancelled for power cuts or any other reason and if they were pushed a bit more. That is why I started to think how to plan a year program for them and ask first the teachers for the syllabus (yearly program) for all the classes.
It is true that the unreliability of the power is an important issue for Jachie’s computer centre. I could experience that from Tuesday where the last class has to go back to school without having even started the lesson. Wednesday, no power at all and hence no classes at all. How can you keep some consistency towards the children if every other week the class is cancelled? I found out that TACCO owns a power generator but was not using it due to rather obscured internal reasons. Fortunately, on Wednesday, we had our first meeting and I raised this issue, strongly defending the necessity of using the power generator. I was very surprised that this issue could be sorted out in one meeting as it was decided by the end of the meeting that the generator will be used again as it was the case last May and June. On Thursday, we have to cancel other classes as the purchase of fuel had not been planned at the meeting. But on Friday morning, the generator was ready to use. Of course, on Friday morning, there was no power cut!
This first week was quite chaotic but with encouraging results especially regarding the power cuts issue. I also went during this first week to meet most of the teachers and headmasters so that I managed to fill in a file with all their phone numbers (by chance, they all have one!).
Another encouraging point was the motivation of the teachers. While visiting the school either for the quiz or for the children’s classes, I advertised at the same time the teachers’ sessions. Even if it was first not planned, we had to start on Thursday as some teachers could not wait until the next week to start: quite encouraging.
The second week was also very encouraging. All the classes took place. The generator had to be used only one morning. Only the remaining short power cuts disturbed the good rhythm of the classes, as you have to restart all the computers. This takes unfortunately too much time when the class only lasts 30 minutes.
As the power was no longer an issue, I could focus my energy on asking the teachers for the children lists, typing them up and dividing all the classes into smaller groups. I also isolated the new comers within each class, in order to give them more attention. I made them stay longer and offered them some afternoon sessions for the next two weeks so that at the beginning of the fourth week, I would not have to bother about the gap between the new and old comers.
The teacher’s sessions went very well as well on Tuesday and Thursday. Almost ten teachers turned up and I was already considering some of them as regular members!
After a 3-day recharging week-end, this week started by probably my hardest lessons. I woke up with a mild cold that I had caught a few days ago probably as the fan started to work very strongly in the middle of night when the power came back…I received a text of Charles saying that he was feeling very sick, going to the hospital and hence not coming to work today. So well, I think it is not so bad. Now I know who I can get the keys from, and I have even a telephone number. But no credit and no shop to buy some at this hour! So I had to find his house. Here, everybody knows where everyone lives. So it was quite easy to find him and get the keys. Then after having opened the three massive padlocks, I was on my own to switch on the 15 computers. It was the second time so I knew how to do it. It just takes a lot of patience as with some computer you need more than 10 minutes to get the software interface on the screen (namely some computers are Pentium I). Then, every day, you have some which do not want to work, most of the time because of the doggy plugs! Anyway, at 9am, everything was ready. I had only 2 computers off! I rang the teacher of the class 4A to tell them I was waiting for them at 9.15a.m (as scheduled). Even though I had called beforehand, they arrived late (at 9.30am). The school is at 5 minute’s walking. Anyway, I no longer consider 15 minutes as a delay here. Unfortunately, it was a class that I had not got the children’s list yet (of course, here, teachers have to write the names of the 65 pupils by hand!). Because of that and their delay, I had to squeeze half of them for the first 45 minutes and then take the second half instead of dividing the class into a quarter of class per half hour as I planned to do it for the following weeks, as I found it very difficult to check that every pupil is working when they are sharing a computer between four, especially with the youngest pupils.
Being the only one in the room with 35 pupils and 15 computers is not an easy task, especially when some have not ever seen a computer before and other are coming to the computer centre every afternoon for leisure. But I think with smaller groups, this will be easier to manage. I felt much more prepared than last Monday when I also had to take the class on my own. This time, I had prepared the chairs beforehand according to the number present and made them enter one by one, checking that they were sitting at most two per computer. Then, I shouted at them to wait for my instructions, not to touch anything before…By and large, they did what I asked them to do. This morning, after two hours, I felt so wiped out; I was wondering how I will have enough energy for the next classes as I was told that all the schools had to close exceptionally earlier for a teacher meeting. No one could have announced greater news to me! I went home and had my first nap in Ghana! I need to remind you that I napped for 20 minutes almost everyday during my studies…
I thought this day will be the most difficult of the week. But on Wednesday, Charles was still sick; power was off and there was no fuel in the generator; four classes of JSS were scheduled. Again, I had first to get the keys, then to call Obboy, the person in charge of switching on the generator. He arrived after all the pupils. As he told me the bad news about the fuel, the pupils started to express impatience, I asked him to get some fuel as quickly as possible. Fortunately, I could advance the money and hence, the class could finally start (30’s minutes late). This was much more difficult than with the primary class from the day before, especially as they were numerous and I could not split them as I had only half hour left. And as such, the first class drove me crazy. Many were trying to play a game; some just ran out of the class, others were asking me for some money to buy water. As a result, I decided to nominate a winner for each class whom I rewarded with the usual local prize (thousand old cedis!). I also had to kick the game players out my class. This combination worked surprisingly very well. As Charles turned up for the last class, I felt I was doing quite well. He was indeed quite impressed!
The last two days, we had again power cuts: short during the day (short enough to switch on the generator) and longer during the night. That was definitely the worst week so far. The six hours on Thursday went quite well thanks to the smaller groups. But it was still hard to keep up with the schedule. In the afternoons, the teacher class was cancelled as they were all going to a funeral. Here, funerals are something very important which last very long and where the people dance a lot. Instead of running the teachers’ session, I stayed at the centre to help the children who turned up to the centre in the afternoon.
After this week with very little power (one morning, I had to go running in the complete darkness and very irregular roads…not an easy task!), I needed a morning to cheer me up. That is what happened on Friday morning. The children came by class quarter (group of 22), lined up in front of the door. I call them one by one. They had even brought me the list I had given the day before with the absentees of the day. And I had agreed on the day before with their maths teacher about the program of the day (the multiples)! By chance, Kathryn attended for the first time to one of my class and so could film the ideal class…The week-end was already going to be good as Holly and Pete were visiting us and it was starting on Friday lunch time, but this morning put me in such a good mood!!
This week was again a bad week in term of power and it is unbelievable how my work conditions can be so related to power cuts. With no power cut, my work would be so much easier!
As usual now, the week did not start well but ends up very well!
On Monday, Charles was late (as he is coming from Kumasi whereas the rest of the week he stays in Jachie) and this time he had not left the keys to someone in Jachie so that I could not open the centre for 8.30 and had to cancel the first class.
On Tuesday, the transformer of our village was taken away to get repaired. As a result there was no power at all in the village: day, evening and night! Everybody tried to guess how long it would last. Some thought 2 weeks, others 1 month. As a result, we had to stop buying the fuel one by one gallon as we were currently doing and found a solution for the next month. That is why David Boateng gave me a budget of 50 New Cedis (50 euros) to handle to purchase the fuel but no timescale. Together, we decided to spend this budget on the classes for teachers and for the JSS as the primary classes have still time to learn. Besides I decided that I will pay for the primary classes as for the first time of my life, I had the direct opportunity to contribute financially to the education of my pupils.
Tuesday was a chaotic day as there was no spare petrol and hence, we had to go and buy every time the generator ran out. Consequently, I had to start with the first class by teaching them a bit of French on the stairs of the church: ‘un, deux, trois….Comment tu t’appelles? Joyeux anniversaire!’ Then, I had to cancel one class in the morning as a gallon of diesel had been bought instead of a gallon of petrol. In the afternoon, I had to begin the teacher session in the church again with some French on a blackboard. They enjoyed it so much that when the generator was finally on, they were no longer eager to go back to the centre. But I brought them back anyway to the centre where we had still the time to make a short session about Microsoft Word.
The rest of the week went quite well as all the classes took place. Almost all of them were split into small groups except the last group on Thursday (from 12.30am to 2pm) which arrived 20 minutes late and that therefore could not be divided.
A miracle happened on Thursday afternoon: it was 2pm. The children classes had just finished. The teachers were about to come (in one hour time) and I was just wondering whether I should stop the generator, switch off all the computers or loose one hour of fuel when power came back!!! For the first time in Ghana, power came back before scheduled! Amazing! I was so happy that I start to dance and shout in the street, ‘power is back! Power is back!’ I would have never imagined that one day electricity could make me so happy!
Week 5: a busy week before well deserved holidays!
Second General Meeting 
On Wednesday, we had our second general meeting. We started it in the garden opposite the church, but because of a violent and extremely sudden rain, we had to run inside the church and carry on there. No much was said. We just went through each TACCO projects.
However, the following issues were highlighted:
-the library: we had mentioned at the first meeting that the person in charge of the library, Mr Atta who was supposed to be working there 3 days a week, had not turn up yet, even though it is clearly written in his contract. We already knew before the meeting that Mr Atta could not be found but we were just hoping that TACCO’s General Manager would have found a solution within the past 2 months in order to keep TACCO’s library open.
As a result, we set up a temporary solution, which is leaving the key to the uncle, the eldest of the courtyard, as the library is in our shared house. We also nominated one of the teenagers from the family, Yiao, to be responsible for the management of loans and returns; he is currently recording in the register the books borrowed by the few children who regularly use the library.
-quiz budget: we could not get any rough idea about TACCO’s budget for the Grande Finale of the general quiz for this year and we struggled to get the precise figures from the last quiz.
-annual budget: Paul asked each member to forecast a budget for next year even though no budget has been published for this year. That is why Kathryn and I insisted that this year’s annual budget should be done and presented beforehand. Kwame, Mr Boakye and Charles firmly agreed!
Another chaotic week at the computer centre
We were supposed to have power off only on Wednesday morning as scheduled by the county. But on Thursday we had many power cuts of unforeseeable length. That is even worst than a long planned power cut as we do not know how long they last. Therefore, you wonder: ‘Should I switch on the generator or should I make the whole class wait?’ Despite that, we managed to run the 6 morning classes. In the afternoon, teachers arrived late and I decided to wait for the power to come back while teaching them French as they enjoyed it last time. I end up running a one and a half hour French lesson in the computer centre. I had bought some markers so that we can use the white board in the computer centre instead of using the blackboard in the Anglican Church.
On Tuesday morning, the electrician team stepped in the classroom, asking us to pay for the bill of the last few months which comprised a total of 300 New Ghanaian Cedis (150 pounds), threatening to disconnect the centre immediately if we could not pay. We discussed with them and managed to get a delay until 3p.m. We called David in Holland who sent Kwame to get the money in town; he was back by 3p.m and prevented us from being disconnected. In case of more delay, I had suggested to the electrician team that they come to my computer classes for teachers, which they had accepted. I also wanted to ask them for a discount for the numerous recent power cuts but of course did not dare say it, even as a joke.
Last but not least, 3 times in the week, I had to run in the village to find the keys on time for the first class as Charles could not make it on time, with the unreliable Ghanaian tro-tros. As a result most of the classes which start in the morning often have significantly less time. On Monday this should no longer be the case as I discussed with Charles and the teachers to change the Monday schedule: instead of two hours from 8.30 to 10.30, it will be from now on from 10.30 to 12.30. But I think the future volunteers should definitely have a spare key for the computer centre (as we got one for the library following our request).
On Friday afternoon, I came to work in the computer centre to finish printing all the class lists for Charles and the teachers. I also filled in the notepad I had bought to keep records for each class. Lastly, I printed the new schedule with the different sub-groups (see the chart below). For the first time, I went back home quite late (at 7.30 pm), albeit very happy as I had finished what I wanted to do before leaving for our Mid-Tour. Also I had collected some new clothes from our seamstress!! But above all, we were on holiday and we were leaving Jachie to get some fresh air, sleep, relaxation and rest as we had both felt really exhausted this last week !!
Also we had our first street food judged by Afia as ok for us: fried yam (look like French fries but much drier) with fried salted fish, eaten of course with the fingers in the car! Hum…yummy! ;-) Especially when it is 2a.m and you are starving.
We discovered our new home for the next 2 ½ months: a very cozy flat in a shared house with a courtyard.
I think it is a very good balance to live as such: within a Ghanaian community (one of the families has 7 children) and still having our privacy. We have indeed a lot of space for us two: a spacious dinning/living room, a big room with 2 beds, a bathroom and toilets. 
No kitchen…Here people cook outside in the courtyard. But anyway, we rarely have to cook as Abena, our Ghanaian mum, generally cooks for us. 
This was really good fun and also very helpful as it is hard to get a map of the town. It is just very messy! We also find both good shoes to walk. So far, I have spent most of my Saturdays in Kumasi. The main reason was going on internet. But I actually really enjoyed walking around in Kumasi. It is a city full of life! 
I love its market: it is so crowded, noisy, full of food, shoes, watches, material…and we can negotiate a lot! For that, I had to learn some very useful sentences, such as ‘it is too expensive!’, ‘reduce it’…I start to have some habits such as buying a big coconut which you drink and eat with a quickly made spoon with the coconuts skin. Delicious, refreshing and filling! I now even enjoy being the only white in the whole market! Last Saturday, we went to our first restaurant with Kath, the Baboo Bazar Cafeteria, which is made for foreigners. We enjoyed our Indian food with our first ice-cream in Ghana!!
On Monday 8am, we started our induction course run by CEJOCEP. Basically, we had every morning lessons from 8am to 12am either of Fanti (the local language) or of Cultural and Social studies. During the breaks, we enjoyed playing with the kids who had break at the same time! I think we all hurt our back carrying more than 4 kids non-stop!
It took me so long to start publishing this blog because first I needed to find the right connection internet in Kumasi which will allow me to post one picture in less than 3hours every Saturday, and second I had to find the time to work on it during the week. For that, I had the chance to have a laptop at home but we had lately so many unusually long power cuts that I could not use the laptop most of the evenings (indeed the battery lasted 2minutes!). Finally, I did not want to publish incomplete bits or parts without any picture, assuming that most of you won’t read my prose twice…except maybe David Boateng who very thoroughly follows our work here. 
