Ghana September 2007

Back to work (19-23 Nov)

2007-11-24T07:28:00.000-08:00

We both feared our return to work after 2 weeks of holidays, as it was a kind of trial before our final departure. What happen to the changes you had implemented within your several weeks in Jachie? I think every volunteer must have this question in mind during the last days spent in Jachie. Are the changes still put in practice? Or has the situation go back to its initial stage? These are the questions I was asking myself when I was walking to the computer centre on last Monday.

As the first class starts now at 10.30, I started my day in the library typing the books into the system as my objective is to finish the capture of at least all the children stories books. When I arrived at the computer centre at 10.15, the centre was open; Obboy was sitting at the desk. He helped me to switch on all the computers so that everything was ready when Charles turned up at 10.30am sharp. Then, the first half-class of children came on their own without any teacher. Charles did the register and there were no absentees (no child had been lost on the way to the centre). The 3 next half-classes came by themselves too. All this made me happy.
Charles had started to teach some theory about the computer. For that, he uses the white board and the children are writing the taught definitions on their exercise books. After the theory, the children used the computer to learn how to read the time – as most of the children cannot afford a watch, most of them do not know how to read the time.
I spent the class listening, helping Charles in this class and reading Charles’ report notebook which was quite well updated. I could read that only that a few classes had to be cancelled in the last two weeks, because of Charles’s delay or a breakdown of the generator. In general (for the last two weeks but also for the whole last year), Charles records were just missing some details about the content of the classes to help me to define a year program I am working on.

In the afternoon, I wanted to spend more time in the library but I felt not really well and spent most of it in bed. In the evening, I was really feeling headaching and feverish. Fortunately, I had a sore throat that made me think that it was not malaria. Anyway, on Tuesday morning I called Paul who drove me to the local hospital. I had already been there when Kathryn got her glandular infection but this time I choose not to jump the queue as it makes me feel bad to be treated as a priority because of my skin color. Maybe I should have cheated as I wait 2 hours to have my temperature and my blood-pressure be taken by the nurse, and another two hours to see the doctor who examined me in two minutes. Anyway, at the end, I was happy because my fever was due to an infection in the throat. Thus it is possible to get a throat infection when it is dead hot! After having swallowed all my pills at lunch time, I had to turn up for the teacher sessions in the afternoon as I was just coming back from holiday. Also I had read in Charles’ records that none of the teacher sessions happened while I was away. Charles told me that they need to be pushed in order to come. It is true that it is quite hard for them to come after their lessons without any lunch when they wake up at 5am. It is also true that I am constantly advertising the afternoon sessions by calling them or mentioning it when I meet them on the street. For the future, I will make sure that the organization provided Charles some phone credit so that he can call teachers for the children and the afternoon sessions. This day, only the 3 teachers who need to learn some theory quickly to write an exam soon turned up. As the other ones (the regular ones) did not turn up, I was jobless and could go back home to sleep.

On Wednesday, our planned power cut weekday, the four classes could have classes for once in normal conditions thanks to our generator which luckily could be fixed by an acquaintance of Obboy. I was very pleased to try two new programs: one about fractions with the JSS2, one about Hangman with the JSS1. I felt quite down when I had to teach them how to add (1/2 + 3/2), but feel full of hopes when I saw some coming back on Friday to practice. For the Hangman, it was less a challenge to make them understand. They all got the objective quickly but whereas some were impressively good, other were struggling to find the missing letter in the word INFOR_ATION.
On Thursday, I put another piece of software on trial. The more I test during my classes, the better I can design the year program. Indeed when I have experienced software with them, I have an idea of how difficult/easy it is for this class and how long it takes them to get to grips with it. I tried a maths game with the primary school that we were so far using mainly using for the JSS classes, or at least not with the youngest. A success! Of course, I had to explain very thoroughly how to proceed with the keyboard, the mouse and the calculation, but they all got the point even if most of them did not go over the level 1.
In the afternoon, the teacher session was cancelled again because of a football tournament. For this same reason, I won’t have any classes the next Thursday and Friday. That is good a ‘farewell price’ as it was supposed to be my two last days of work. More seriously, this is a perfect coincidence as I will use this time to write precise reports and guidelines for the organization, above all for the next volunteers who will arrive in Jachie next January.

On Friday, the Grande Finale of the Big Quiz happened despite the football tournament and was quite a success which makes both of us very happy as we really wanted the children to enjoy the quiz.

Mid-Tour: second week in Northern Ghana

2007-11-24T06:44:00.000-08:00

For our second week of holiday, we had decided to go the North whereas Pete and Holy choose to go to Togo and the Volta Region. We based our choice on the reports of the former volunteers; for all of them, Mole National Park (located in Northern Ghana) was the highlight of their Mid-Tour. We also wanted to discover another part of Ghana with different landscapes (mud-huts), culture (influence of Islam), food (almost no fish and chicken has been replaced by the guinea fowl) and climate (much drier).

Construction of a mud-hut in Larabanga

We had planned to leave on Monday but as the Barclays machine had kept my card on Saturday evening, I had to go to the bank on Monday morning and we had to postpone our departure to Tuesday. Thanks to this incident, I could work on the blog in the British Council on Monday where I end up being gently kicked out as I am supposed to stay on internet only 30 minutes a day (I had never been informed about this rule before this day).

Tuesday was the Jour J: at 7a.m our STC bus to Tamale was leaving, almost on time. Our objective was to reach our final destination (Mole National Park) in one day without paying any taxi. As on the way to Accra, we really enjoyed the reliability and comfort of the STC buses but also its numerous stops because of police control, or a personal purchase by the driver or a mysterious unexplained cause.

View from the front of the stc stopped

As planned, we got off before Tamale at Fufulsu, ‘Mole junction’ (in the middle of nowhere). We felt quite confident, especially as we had convinced two German medics (Stefan and Johannes) to do so. So in case we could not get any tro-tro to the National Park, we could always share a taxi with them, as a back-up.
But everything went very smoothly: we only waited 30 minutes for a big tro-tro which was going to the closest main town and which, for a bit of extra money, dropped the four of us at the entrance of our motel in the National Park.

Alone in a big tro-tro!

After long and tensed discussions, we managed to have 2 twin-rooms. The European standard was there: air conditioning, private toilets and bathroom in the room, swimming pool, European food menu and real milk with the coffee. However, everything was quite old and a bit broken. Anyway, we were no longer used to European standards and the amazing view upon the Park was so unique and relaxing that we were beyond happy to stay 3 nights here to recharge our batteries.

Kath admiring the view from our hotel

On our first day, we woke up at 6am for the morning safari. At first, it was really pleasant with a cool breeze, but the more we walked the hotter it got and the more disappointed we were as we could not see any elephant on this day by the end of the 3 hour-walk. However, we had fun and we saw some baboons, many antelopes, some vultures and warthogs. In addition, the surrounding landscape and the gun of our guide made us feel as adventurous walking deep and deeper in the unknown savanna, which was wicked. Even though we had to keep quiet for the animals, Kathryn and I (as very talkative persons ;-)) manage to talk and laugh during the walk!
Picture of our guide and a warthog

Group pictures at the end of the safari (Stefan, Kath, our guide, myself, Johannes)
It was only 10am when we finished the safari but we were all sweating and hence jumped into the pool immediately after the walk. Le pied! Kathryn and I taught a Ghanaian guy, Koni, how to swim. We were so impressed that after his first hour in water, he was swimming the length of pool.

Teaching Koni how to synchronize legs and arms for breaststroke
In the afternoon, Koni brought us to his home village, Larabanga. This is the second main ‘attraction’ of the region, thanks to the concerted efforts of a village ‘Eco-Tourism’ board, represented for us by a fixed 2gh entrance fee and a request for donations.
We were told that this is the only fully Muslim community in the whole of Ghana. This village speaks a distinctive language [‘Kanawa?’] that is not spoken anywhere else in the country. Historically speaking, marriage outside of the village tribe was not condoned until relatively recently.

To reach the village, Koni took Kathryn on his motorbike while Stephen, Johannes and I rented bikes.

Biking under the beating sun…
After having walked around the streets of the village, looking at mud huts and taking pictures of children who were dying to see their face on my little screen, we had a look at the famous Sudanese-style Larabanga mosque, the oldest mosque in West Africa.

The guys in front of the mosque men door
The girls in front of the mosque women door
We were all very happy with our day and spent the evening by the swimming pool overlooking the national park, enjoying our beef steak with some drinks. We went to bed around 11p.m, which is very late for Ghana.

On our second day, we did the same morning safari but this time God was with us. We saw 2 elephants. The first elephant was seen in the bush from a distance of a few hundred metres. Our party went in search of it. Although we found traces of elephant activity, such as broken branches and uprooted trees, we could not find the elephant itself and the guide announced that we may have lost it. Yet a few minutes later we suddenly came upon it amongst the trees; it was less than 15 meters away when we saw it. It was so impressive. We stay a while looking at the way it was grasping and stripping the trees. Unfortunately, because of the branches we could not take very clear pictures but I have a pretty good video (to be uploaded in France with a quick connection!)
We saw the second elephant, an even larger adult male, making its way across open ground towards the watering hole. It drank and then bathed in the lake, making it easy to take some souvenir pictures.

The safari was far better than the day before as we saw a large group of baboons crossing the path right in front of us. It was apparently mating season; the females’ bottoms were flushed bright red, contrasting with the white of the males.

We were so happy and spent the rest of the day at the pool where we met some French people (the first since we have been in Ghana) and a Guinean girl (also francophone).

Practical advice for tourists or future volunteers
The best season to see elephants is definitely the end of the dry season, that is to say February, March and April. At this time, the water hole near the hotel is one of the only ones left in the park, artificially sustained by means of water pipes while the other ones dry up, there can be up to100 elephants taking their bath just opposite your window. In our case, it was the beginning of the dry season, or rather the end of an especially long rainy season. Therefore we felt very lucky to see some elephants.
We were told it was not necessary to book in advance. If it may be true for this time, it is definitely not true for the best season. Here is the number to call for a reservation:
When we tried to book the day before our departure, we could only book for one night; we were told that the twin rooms were full on the second and third nights and we could only book for dorms. But surprisingly we managed to keep our room for the 3 nights. At first, the receptionist asked us for a tip but as we noticed that people who had not booked in advance could also get a twin-room, we claimed our tip back and were successful.

The return went as well very smooth. We left the hotel at 4pm (sharp!!) to Tamale where we discovered that a bus was leaving in the middle of the day, even if it was not written on the information desk as it was coming from Bolgatanga in the north and just stopping in Tamale. As there were some free places, we could get in and so avoid a night in Tamale where there was not much to see. Once more, we had to discuss to avoid sitting on the back seats; as whites, we are always being told to sit in the back seats!!

The big quiz

2007-11-12T03:08:00.000-08:00

Presentation
This big quiz was set up for the first time this year by Laura Caruso and Francesca Gregory (Africa Trust Volunteers – Jan-Jun 2007) This was a very popular and successful project which saw local junior schools pupils initially competing with their schools and the winners going on to represent their schools at a grand event where prizes for the schools and the children were awarded.

This project aims to improve basic literacy levels through a challenging competition which would provide adequate motivation to increase the use of TACCO library and computer centre. It is easy to organize as you have only to schedule the dates with the schools and then define the quiz questions. Initially there were 2 written sections: Spelling and Grammar. For the second edition, Kathryn and I designed a new format with 3 sections described below:
-Spelling: a first part written and a second part oral whereby each of the participant has to spell out one word loud so that the assembly can judge by itself if the answers are correct or not. In case of mistake, Kathryn was calling for someone on the floor to give the correct answer. That is why this was probably the most lively part.
-Grammar: exclusively written part with 5 sub-sections: irregular verbs, antonyms, plural, synonyms, and nationalities.
-Comprehension:
*visual: we show them for one minute about 10 flags; they have one minute to memorize them; then, we select 3 flags that we show them; they have to write the name of which corresponding countries.
*reading: a text is read to them; they are given the text on paper to follow better; then, 3 questions about the excerpt were asked them.
*listening: an article of a junior encyclopedia was read; this time, they do not have the article written so that they have to listen up very carefully; then, they also have to listen carefully to the questions as they are not been written.

Visit of the 3 Junior Schools of Jachie
Even though the quiz is opened to every Junior School in Jachie, the private schools do not want to participate. The reason is very simple: they do not want to take the risk to lose against a public school, as it can make the parents think that free public schools can be better for their children than expensive private ones. But of course, in every school, they are outstanding pupils. And it is therefore such a shame that the private schools dread this kind of competition. We can maybe hope to convince them in the near future.

Let’s go through the 3 public schools we visited with some pictures:

Anglican School: First one for us. As a result, we were a bit impressed by the numbers of spectators (all the classes of the school). Also we were hoping that our questions were well adapted to the level of JSS pupils.
DA2: we would particularly like to thank the teachers of DA2 as they were very interested by the quiz and very nice with us. One of them asked for a sample of the extract from Nineteen eighty four from George Orwell which was used in the reading comprehension. At the end, they offered us drinks (Malt Guinness) which is here really a treat as you can feed two persons for the price of one bottle (25p).
DA1: first quiz outside under the trees!

23rd November: be ready for the Grande Finale!!

Mid-Tour: First week in Accra Region

2007-11-12T02:56:00.000-08:00

My notes

We had bought in advance our tickets for the 9am STC bus from Kumasi to Accra. Surprisingly our bus was almost on time (only 30 minutes late) and the journey was very pleasant: air conditioning, T.V with some crappy Ghanaian cheesy movies and a rest stop with proper toilets and take-away shops. Also it was not that long (5 hours) and a perfect timing as we arrive at the same time than Holly and Pete who were coming from Cape Coast. Our week with European standards had just started.We met Marion at one of the two westernised supermarkets in Accra (Koala) where you can buy many imported, albeit extremely expensive goods. But first let’s introduce our Good Samaritan, Marion: she is a very good friend of Cecile Varin, one of my best friends from Centrale. They lived together in Valencia in Spain where I had met Marion twice very quickly and where Marion met her Spanish boyfriend, Salva, whom she followed to Ghana. Marion and Salva, who have both been working and living in Accra for a while, suggested accommodating the four of us while we were in Accra. I found it so generous from them as I hardly knew them. I admit that I felt quite embarrassed but she made us feel immediately at our ease. I must confess I was more than happy to accept their invitation as they live in a beautiful and very comfortable house with air conditioning, 2 hot showers, 2 toilets, internet…I think we just felt as if we had came back home. Around 8pm, we walked to a very posh French restaurant, Le Tandem, where we had an amazing French meal. I had a beef carpaccio as starter then a sole meniere with puree and ratatouille, last but not least we all had an excellent moelleux au chocolat that Marion had especially ordered beforehand from the French chef. We also had some nice wine (the first one since I left), an aperitif (Martini) and even a digestif (Limoncello). Of course, I really enjoyed the food despite the European prices but I also really appreciated having a very long meal and chatting in French with Marion’s friends, maybe the only thing I was really missing.

Experiencing Marion’s flat and life, I asked her what she was missing from France. Her answer was very spontaneous: shopping malls and cinemas! Also, she finds it a bit excessive to buy cereals which cost 6 euros a pack. Concerning that, a brand new huge supermarket has just opened in Accra; the prices are supposed to be reasonable and consequently it is going to revolutionise the expatriates’ lives.

On Sunday, after having done some food shopping at Koala (I am ashamed I bought one Lindt dark chocolate tablet for the equivalent of 4 pounds!) and trying many banks to finally be able to withdraw some money, she drove us in her company car (a pick-up truck) to Kokrobite where thanks to Holly’s parents and their architect friends, we were all invited to stay in a paradisiacal house with a swimming pool and a deserted beach.

Front entrance of the house

Backview of the house

Under these conditions we could only have the most relaxing days we ever had in our lives. Therefore I would like to send many many thanks to Holly’s parents and their friends. I wish I could find such deserted gorgeous places in the future to make a break from the city life. I completely recharged my tired batteries within these few days.

I spend most of the time reading, admiring the beautiful view from the terrace of my room and jumping into the swimming pool once a while for a refreshing bath.

View from my room One morning, I went to buy some fresh fish on the beach just opposite the house. I waited one hour under the beating sun in order to be there when the nets came out. I even helped the 20 Ghanaians to pull the net out as a Ghanaian woman encouraged me to do so. It was worth it; I bought a few very big ‘kassava fish’ (a fine white fish) and I even got a small lobster for free (because I had helped them!). We ate half of it in the evening grilled and we saved the other half to cook it for Marion and Salva on our last night in Accra. We went out for dinner twice in very nice local restaurants with reasonable prices (3 pounds the main course). For lunch, nothing was really planned. As the only French in the house I felt obliged to prepare one proper set lunch for the four of us. Whereas I was quite missing the set lunch with everybody, I think the other are not that used to these long meals where you chat for hours... For instance, Pete was enjoying his early brunch at 11am with eggs, toasts and beans. One day, Pete and Holly tried to eat the local cheap food (Kenkey) but did not eat much of it.
In the early mornings and late afternoons, I was taking pictures with sunset and sunrise lights. By the way, we had a really good shooting session with Kathryn. The photos speak for themselves.
In the evenings we watched some movies on a centered screen which was a change from our Jachie television.
In the nights we just all enjoyed the air conditioning in each of the four rooms and the calm early mornings without the roosters’ calls. For once, I was waking up after 6am!!!

When we went back to Accra, we stayed again at Marion and Salva’s place and we cooked a lovely dinner for them on Friday night with fresh fish served with some English mashed potatoes and a French ratatouille. I also did a moelleux au chocolat loved by everybody (thanks to Marie’s secret recipe, so thanks Marie!). We also used this night as an excuse to celebrate Holly’s birthday, as we won’t be with her on November 20th.

To sum-up, this week definitely surpassed my expectations in terms of food, comfort, landscapes (and prices).

For once, Kath finished writing her prose before me so that I feel I do not have to be exhaustive as she is telling many other details and thoughts about our first week of holiday near Accra.

Kate's notes

We have had beautiful few days in a stunning location near Kokrobite, as well as an interesting if brief stay in Accra itself. Many, many thanks are due to Holly’s family and Virginie’s acquaintance Marion. I was glad that we were able to thank Marion with the present of a web-cam, as well as cooking a full dinner (including chocolate cake and wine) for her and her boyfriend on the final night.

I have to say that I found the first two days extremely difficult. My reaction to the luxury supermarket we went to on the first day was more one of shock than of delight. I wandered round the aisles looking at prices, unable to stop myself from reverting to Jachie – ‘that 8-cedi pack of Special K could feed the family we live with for weeks’; ‘that 4-cedi yoghurt could purchase 7 pairs of shoes and Susannah’s have holes in’ etc.
In the end I bought a few packs of biscuits, thinking they were priced at 1700 cedis each (0.16 Ghana cedis, about 8 pence and equivalent to a Kumasi street price).. When I got to the till I realised they were 16000 (1.6 Ghana cedis). It’s ok if I force myself to think in terms of sterling (that’s 80 pence) and compare it to Europe, but still… Thankfully, Virginie was purchasing the communal food, to split the price later; otherwise I would have been unable to do anything.

On the first night we went to an excellent French restaurant. Had this occurred a couple of days later I have no doubt that I could have enjoyed it whole-heartedly, but the slight unease persisted as I ordered my (delicious) rabbit and chocolate pudding for 25 Ghana Cedis, which would have been 35 if I had had alcohol. That is only 13 pounds to 18 pounds, very cheap by European standards (as I kept reminding myself) but almost obscene by those of Jachie.

During the next couple of days near the tourist resort of Kokrobite I started to get used to the higher cost of living and relax in the tropical sun (slathered in factor 50 and regularly forced back into the shade.) The house was on the beach and there was a lovely pool in the courtyard. Unfortunately on the second day I got 6 mosquito bites, my first bites since the first week in Ghana, having trusted what everyone says about no mosquitos coming out before late afternoon. I got mine 2-3pm. I guess the pool is responsible. I hope my prophylactic drugs work well; I know doyxycline is not supposed to be even close to 100% effective.

The exchange rate is getting better and better for us. When we arrived it was perhaps 1.83 cedis to the pound; now it is virtually 2 to 1. I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that the cedi is pegged to the dollar, so I guess that provides some indication of how far the dollar has slipped in the 2 months since we left? At least it will be good for Ghana’s exports, though the products in Koala Supermarket will probably get more and more expensive, unfortunately for the expats! I miss news.

I rather enjoyed our day shopping in Accra, despite the bustle of the market. It is surprising to see the difference in the reaction we get here: in Kumasi we cannot move without being touched, grabbed and shouted at - ‘Bruni! Bruni! Come!!’ Here they seem to take our presence in their stride. The market itself was not dissimilar to the Kumasi market in terms of what you can buy. We then went to an expensive tourist souvenir shop called the ‘African Market’. I bought a fertility doll. The most wonderful section of the store was the small room devoted to some wooden carvings from Zimbabwe, particularly the ghoulish wooden masks with distorted features, real hair and an ‘authentic’ smell of decay. I wish I could have afforded one, but I have been told that these wooden masks crack once you take them into the British climate so maybe it is lucky that the price was prohibitive.

The trip home was slightly less luxurious than the trip there. Coaches to Kumasi had been cancelled, and when one did come (2 hours after our scheduled time) many people were fighting for the limited places. It is incredibly fortunate that we got ourselves near the front of the queue; we got the last two seats. These were uncomfortable and at the back but we felt lucky to be going back that morning.

Report about Ghanaian food

2007-11-08T17:29:00.000-08:00

When someone asks you what you would like to eat tonight as our Ghanaian mum often does, the answer is not: “I would like some fish or some pasta”. You have generally 3 options: yams, plantain or rice to what you add some stew. Then, the yams or plantain can be fried, boiled or smashed into a dough as the following schema shows you:

By and large the food is very good even though I think it is just too much based on carbohydrates. Sometimes we wish it was a bit more diverse or had a bit more of chicken (the only meat we eat).

Our favourite meals
Mine: palava sauce (mixed spinach, onions, tomato sauce) with fish, boiled platains and yams, with a malt Guinness (does sound alcoholic, but it is not. It is just thick, a bit sweet, filling and just delicious!)
Kathryn’s: Friday lunch at the crèche: little samosa-style pastries filled with a black-eyed bean dough – I have it with a little plastic bag of warm cocoa milk. (it is also my favourite because it is the first meal the kids have started to receive that is NOT rice – a big achievement!)
Peter’s: red-red (tomato stew with black-eyed beans and onions) with deep-fried plantain, + 1L Club beer.
Holly’s: groundnut soup with a canned diet coke (if available, that means here almost never!)

What I am missing:
-dark chocolate: although Ghana is well-known for its cacao, it is nearly impossible to find some manufactured dark chocolate in Kumasi.
-balsamic vinegar, red bleeding meat, fresh yoghurt.
-ice-creams: although you can find some inexpensive ‘fan-ice’ in some Kumasi shops.
-milk: the most usual is the canned concentrated milk. Lately, we discovered powder milk, which improved the taste of our coffees and teas! However, we found one shop in Kumasi where we can get UHT milk.

My work at the computer centre (in progress)

2007-10-27T06:48:00.000-07:00

Whereas Kathryn will be working at the crèche, I will spend most of my time working at the computer centre.

The computer centre

The crèche

Also, I plan to save some time to put the Tacco library back on track!

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.

Summary of the second week

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!

Third week in details

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!!

Summary of the fourth week

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 !!

Introduction week in Jachie (24.10-29.10)

2007-10-26T07:55:00.000-07:00

After the quality of the introduction week in Capecoast, we were expecting the same kind of standard for our first week in Jachie. But this time, nothing was really scheduled beforehand. We had to visit the Tacco sites and meet the person in charge of the various projects, but on Monday, we did not know when we will go where and who we will meet during the first week. The first three days, except a brief visit at the Computer centre, we spent most of our time walking around at the crèche, playing with the kids whereby Kathryn really impressed me: she could sing kiddy songs (such as ‘A Lion has a tail, it has a big head, and a very small waist…’) for hours and still keeping the same vivacity of voice, meanwhile doing the mimics, dancing energetically…After several times, I felt already tired…it was so hot in the classroom! After this, I thought that I will much feel much more comfortable with teaching the teen-agers and the teachers at the computer centre than entertaining 30kids of 1-2years old at the crèche. Kathryn thought exactly the opposite, so that was easy to split the tasks at the end of the introduction week! At this time, I did not realize that teen-agers were also very noisy and hard to make them stop shouting and laughing at you!!

On Thursday, Afia introduced us to the priest of the Anglican Church. In the afternoon, she brought us to the lake Bosumtwi with an American who had a big interest in TACCO and so we had a nice afternoon sightseeing.

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 finally managed to have a meeting on Friday with TACCO education coordinator, Mr Boakye, who is in charge of both the weekly quiz and the big quiz. As a result, we scheduled our first quiz for the following week in his school (the Anglican Junior School). This was just after having met the chief of Jachie as it is the custom here to be introduced to the chief of the village you are staying in.

Unfortunately, we could not visit the disabled centre as they were on holiday. And we had to wait for Monday to visit the hospital and meet our medical contact. However, we end up on Saturday morning in the hospital as Kathryn scared us (Afia and me) at 2am on Friday morning: she was shivering with a fever of 39.5 degrees. Kathryn and I were worried that it was Malaria and hence petrified the rest of the night. We went to the hospital early in the morning and felt so relieved when the doctor told her that a bad glandular infection had caused the fever. This ‘visit’ of the hospital was very reassuring as we found out that it was the main hospital in the region and our contact was actually the head officer of this huge hospital which is located 5 minute’s drive from Jachie!

I thought this introduction week was not really appropriate to my tastes as it was centred around the crèche and I spent only 15 minutes in the computer centre where I am now spending almost all my time. But I was told only on Thursday by David Boateng (calling from Holland) that I will have to assist Charles in the classes for the teachers on Tuesdays and Thursdays and that I will have to structure the classes for the children in the mornings. At first, I thought that for the second task, I will just have to define a programme per class level for the whole year based on the existing software’s. I had never thought I would be teaching with Charles 6 classes of 30 teen-agers from 8 to 2pm without any break (even not to eat or go to the toilets…anyway there are no toilets!) or have to take on my own the classes during two following days as Charles happened to be sick! And at this occasion, I had to kick 6 pupils out of the class in less than an hour in order to be listened and respected. I came up with another trick to capture the children’s attention: I gave 1000 old cedis (10cents) to the winner …that works so well!!

About our life in Jachie (19.10)

2007-10-26T07:26:00.000-07:00

Traveling and arrival

To get to Kumasi from Cape Coast, there is unfortunately no STC bus, so you HAVE TO take the Tro-tro, which is a mini-bus filled with 22 passengers (4 per row), with fish, pineapples or babies on the lap and not a tiny bit of spare place!!…I forgot to mention the systematic broken windscreens and the complete absence of seatbelts even for the front seat! We were of course the only whites, and were quite happy to use the local transport even though the driver scared us a few times. Fortunately, I sat next to a nice Ghanaian student and Kath managed to sleep a bit. Therefore, the 4 hours of journey went pretty fast for both of us. After a quick taxi, we arrived in Jachie.

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.

We could not believe that TACCO has just got an old TV and a DVD-player, and put new fans on the ceiling so that volunteers can feel more like at home! Even if we felt at the beginning: it is such a luxury and we don’t need that at all. I must confess that we really appreciate watching a bit of TV in the evening even though we cannot see the eyes of the actors (as the screen is not centered), especially after tiring days of work and when you cannot really go out for a drink in town as you do not want to travel by night because there is no tro-tro by night and anyway you do not want to end up in a taxi on a dark countryside road with a tropical heavy rain that prevents the driver from seeing anything!! (that what happens to us on our first night). And even a walk here is very tiring here as everybody stops you and wants to know how you are doing, where you are going, etc…therefore TV is here a good way to relax and escape the animated Ghanaian life.

Our daily life

As I have mentioned, we do not go out in the evenings as we are pretty scared of the roads by night. However, we will find a way to experience the night life in Kumasi, probably next Saturday, since Holly and Pete are coming over for the week-end from Cape Coast. Anyway, when you get up at 5a.m and you teach from 8am to 5pm, the evenings seem very short. We enjoy having our early dinner at 6pm following by an hour or two of reading or TV (when there is no power cut). Also, I have started since this week to go running in the dark Ghanaian countryside at 5am 3 times a week with Tony and Pati, who live in our house. It is a 35 minute’s jog on the way in and various funny exercises on the way back. I am using my torch to not fall because of the bumpy roads.

After two weeks spent here, we got used to:
-sleeping under our nets
-the heat
-the roosters singing their ‘cocorrico’ and the children crying just next to our windows from 5am (because here everybody goes to bed at 9pm and wake up at 5am!! Like the sun…)
-the religious meetings just in front of our windows where people sing and shout very loudly some evenings. When they happen, you just have to stop your phone conversation or watching TV as you cannot hear anything.
-filtering and boiling the water
-spraying with our magic anti-repellant
-taking the water from the well for dish washing and washing-up.
-flushing toilets with a bucket to spare our water tank!
-washing teeth with a bottle
-washing our clothes trying desperately to whiten our whites!!!
-the apocalyptic storms
-and last but not least the numerous and hazardous power cuts!!!

Thus, once you get used to these and helped with the unexpected extra comfort (fans & TV), we now feel very well at home and enjoy our quiet evenings even in the darkness! J

Week-ends

The first Sunday, Kwame, the young TACCO volunteer whom we see almost everday as he nicely takes care of our well being, brought us to Kumasi to show us around.

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 Sunday here, everybody goes to church and everybody get dressed very smart!! I mean everybody. And God is present everywhere. Bible extracts are written on the shops, houses, buses… So far, I experienced a Pentecostal church (a charismatic church) which was very different from any church I have been so far: a small assembly, lots of dance and songs (and shouts!), extremely long (more than 3h and in Twi, the local language!). I have now found out that most services last more than 3 hours in Ghana whatever the community. Last Sunday, we went to the main Anglican Church in Jachie: long as well but similar to the one I used to go in Cambridge. I think we will keep going to this one. I could wear my shirt-top-hat made by the seamstress of the village. I had bought myself the material in the market of Kumasi. I like the ensemble a lot and will probably make more clothes as it is very cheap (around 10euros everything included).

First 2 weeks near Cape Coast

2007-10-26T06:55:00.000-07:00

CEJOCEP and Kakumdo

After a relaxing and acclimatising week-end in the wonderful guest house on the heights of Cape Coast, we moved into our new home in the village of Kakumdo.

Main jonction in Kakumdo

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!

Breaks with children at CEJOCEP's school

In the afternoons, it was sightseeing at the beginning and labour work from the end of the first week onwards (making cement blocks, uprooting a tree, carrying woods, cleaning the playground) at CEJOCEP’s school, as they planned to replace the actual foundations (entirely built by CEJOCEP and former volunteers) of the school where the classrooms are completely packed by a new edifice with 4 floors.

Labour work

As CEJOCEP school is far from the cheapest school in the region, the number of children is growing every year. This implies for CEJOCEP lots of work, lots of ambition to keep up but I have faith in this very dedicated team!!

I really enjoyed my time in Kakumdo. It is a lovely village where everybody is so friendly, sometimes even a bit too much when you are in a hurry and that you have to stop 10 times in a 2 minute-walk because every child is asking you: "Bronii, Bronii, How are you?" I think I have heard in 3 weeks maybe nearly 500 times someone calling me bronii. It is the name they use to call a white person. The team at CEJOCEP is definitely beyond all my expectations: young people who get along very well, who are really passionate, amazingly well managed by Lawrence who quickly communicates his will to achieve to you. Namely, I think every volunteer felt really motivated by their project around the school concerning both the education and the building work-in-progress.

Relax, Fun and Sightseeing

As I have already mentioned, the guesthouse where we stayed the first week-end was absolutely lovely and surpassing our expectations: very comfortable rooms, good food, quiet, a marvelous view and nothing to worry about! I really enjoyed my first week-end in Ghana doing nothing apart reading and chatting. During the first week, we were more than happy to go back to the guest house for lunch. I think now, Holly and Pete, still enjoy escaping there for a quite evening with some drinks. Also I heard they watched all the England games during the Rugby World Cup.
Joe stayed with us the first week and took us around Cape Coast, region which owns most of the Ghanaian sights with its well-known Elmina Casttle and Cape Coast castle where most of the slaves were kept and sent away, places full of history and emotions, albeit very beautiful; with more ludic places such as the Kakum National Park and its canopy walk or the wonderful, completely deserted coconuts beaches!

View from Cape Coast's casttle

On the top of Elimina casttle

First coconut in Kakum National Park

Walking on the canopy walk in Kakum N.P.

Beach near Cape Coast: paradisiacal, albeit desert...

I should unfortunately finish this paragraph by some bad news. Our funny, lively Helen decided to go back home at the end of these two weeks. She really enjoyed the place, but she just missed home a lot and felt she was probably a bit too young to live this experience (she is 18). Of course, the malaria which hit her did not help her at all to overcome neither homesick, nor the power/water cuts! Unfortunately, the Malaria also attacked Pete’s body very seriously as he ends up on the drip in Cape Coast’s hospital. Even if he had completely recovered after one week, this malaria really frightened me at first as most of the white people catch it and that Malaria stays in your body for your whole life. Here I need to point out that most of the whites do not take any precautions, especially among the young, who go out for many drinks (alcohol is not recommend with these pills) in short skirts, vest tops and no repellent! Our impression after almost 2 months spent in Ghana is that the Malarone pill, which Holly takes, apparently protects you very well. They are 4 times more expensive than the Doxycycline which seems to protect you well too if you follow the indications: wearing long sleeves shirts and trousers in the evenings, spraying the uncovered parts of the body with strong European repellent, sleeping under a net (unlike Helen). Anyway, I am not a doctor so will not talk more about this subject as you should consult your GP before coming to any risky country. I keep taking as many precautions as at the beginning but they just became parts of my daily routine so that they do not bother, nor stress me anymore.

Kathryn's notes

2007-10-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

I am currently spending every day at the new crèche, working with the children until the day ends at 4pm, and then painting etc until nightfall. It is a tough and absorbing project, particularly as the 90-child crèche has a strong feeling of being a ‘work in progress’. This applies not only to the visual appearance of construction work, but also to the internal processes and management of the children’s care. The advantage of this on a personal level is that I have seen changes occurring on a daily basis. Issues such as hygiene and the degree of child supervision [in the absence of Afia or the General Manager] caused me some serious concerns, but after a few conversations with Afia and her lengthy meeting with the teachers, there were some really positive changes.

The children, formerly scattered between two large rooms and unsupervised outdoor areas, have now been divided into three groups: the older children who are almost ready for nursery school (JSS), the younger children and a small third group for the very young, the difficult and the unmanageable. These groups are now being kept within the classrooms more rigorously, although this means constant and difficult battles with children who want to escape, and there is now always at least one childminder in each room, as two have been assigned to each group.

Efforts to escape

A small third room, formerly a food store, was opened up for the use of the small group. (I painted it green and pink the next day). The children are now being encouraged by the childminders to use the area of ground behind the crèche for urination, rather than the playground and veranda. The classrooms are now being cleaned or swept daily, and the children are now kept in the playground in the morning, divided into their groups, until the rooms are suitably clean. The younger children now eat outside the playroom, near the kitchen area, rather than in the room itself. This has made cleanliness a lot easier as the thickly scattered rice from fifty bowls is now being kept away from the main play area. It seems to me that some of the childminders were a great deal more motivated after their long meeting with Afia. There seems to be less sleeping in the corner and fewer times when no childminder is in a room. There is also perhaps greater attention paid to cleaning up when children pee in the play area. I suppose that as long as building continues I will have to get used to grabbing rusty nails away from children.

The work of the childminders in the crèche is long, underpaid and strenuous. There is little entertainment for the children, except what is physically provided by the minders in the form of songs, rhymes and dance. A few toys are provided, but due to the absence of strong direct adult supervision, those that are given are bitterly fought over and soon broken or confiscated. Playing together, sharing and allowing another child to use a toy you like the look of are not natural to a 2 year-old: like so much else, it has to be taught and supervised!

Playing with some letter/number foam pieces I brought to the crèche last week

Priorites: Creating a stimulating space, simple unbreakable toys that are easy to share, a daily structure that stands half a chance of being maintained after I go, sticking to hygiene and supervision protocols hoping that they eventually become ingrained, and devising activities that cost next to nothing in terms of materials (and don’t overstrain the childminders).

I am happy to have found two local boys who are very talented at art (particularly graphics and cartoons). They will help me with some painting this weekend, now that I have done the emulsion base.

WEEK 5

Painting continued this week, albeit slowly, as I am leaving the (wonderful) 17 yr old ‘boy’ Kwabena to complete his artwork at his own pace around his school hours.

I managed to get all the equipment to the crèche that I need for showing films, but my attempt to use it failed: despite covering the windows, without a proper ceiling the room was not dark enough for a projector to work.
I talked to Kwame about getting a wooden ceiling put up, but he said there was not enough money to do it in the near future. David had provided good equipment and strongly wished the projector to be used. ‘For the want of a nail a shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe a horse was lost’ etc… Thankfully, David agreed when Kwame talked to him; the ceiling will be constructed this weekend.

Incomplete ceiling

I was entirely on my own with my class of 35 small children this week as ‘Madame Felicia’ was attending to her ill husband. This would have been difficult enough on its own, without the additional complication of a bad cold that meant I lost my voice! As my day relies heavily on shouting and singing, this is a bit of a crisis for me!
However, the week actually went surprisingly well – I was able to implement the classroom structure and routines I wanted: regular toilet breaks, nap times, division of the playroom, drinking water in the classroom, a routine of sitting misbehaving or agitated
kids on the step outside (without having them run off around the place unsupervised).

Children sitting properly on the step outside

The behaviour of the kids with me improved now that I had sole charge of them, though I really missed Felicia’s songs and warmth.

I am discovering that nothing is more rewarding than seeing changes in individual children. One 3 year old boy who used to be particularly impossible, violent and angry has utterly changed since our clashes and struggles in the first weeks and now, though not a paragon of good behaviour, he has become warm, cheerful and even gentle. I have to say that, though like everyone I adore the ‘cute’ well-behaved children, I love some of the ‘problem children’ most of all. (Maybe I feel an affinity with them; I was probably a ‘problem child’ mdddyself!) Seeing them respond and change in small ways and start to love you means more than all the adorable good behaviour in the world.

The Food has started to improve, with some variation on the rice theme. We have had yam once and every Friday the teachers do small fried pastries filled with bean dough.

Picture of teachers cooking pastries

Playground construction continued: the swing is in progress, as is a see-saw and some small picnic benches with shelters constructed above.

See-saw in construction

I made some efforts to construct cheap music instruments, as the kids are so used to strong rhythmic rhymes and songs. I filled tins and pringle boxes with rice, stones or pasta – the teachers liked it and have started to make more every day with the tins used in the cooking and stones in the yard!

The 3-class division implemented 2 weeks ago is increasingly successful. – although I feel too often that I’m having to instigate the morning division myself. This involves rounding them up outside, splitting them into groups, saying a morning prayer and marching the groups into class – at which point the little ones get so excited by marching that they a run along to join the bigger children and we are back to square one!
The babies and difficult children are much happier and quieter in the small class.
The older children are more well-disciplined and able to be in a room with tables/chairs without treating them as toys to push around!
Because of this improvement in the older kids’ behaviour, I was at last able to bring in some art supplies – paper, coloured pencils etc. I was surprised to see how difficult these 3-4 year olds find drawing compared to kids of the same age in England, simply because they aren’t used to it. Most of them aren’t inclined to draw anything, preferring to hoard the pencils in their laps! It is an important thing for kids to do in an educational sense; it improves dexterity and makes handwriting easier later on. I would really like to see the kids get more accustomed to this.

WEEK 6

Felicia is back, making my life ten times easier!
The ceiling has been constructed in Room 1. On Tuesday I nailed some dark material over the windows and used the projector successfully. Hooray! The kids loved it, but I think the teachers actually enjoyed it more.
On Monday I talked to David about getting a curtained division in the playroom. He agreed and instructed Kwame, who talked to me about what I wanted where – he will complete it while I am on the mid-tour.
I am concerned about leaving for the tour. I want to get the timetable and structure I’ve been trying to push for institutionalized, and without being here personally it just may not happen.

I spent Wednesday morning in the Computer centre observing Adua (Virginie) imposing discipline with the help of a loud voice and a cane. Very impressive! ..I also enjoyed the fan and the absence of screaming babies.
…Actually I have fallen in love with the screaming babies and have also reached the point of being completely fine cleaning baby messes off babies/self. A distinctly unglamorous personal milestone.
A couple of weeks ago I had my first experience of losing a baby that I had grown close to. On the Thursday I had been feeding him his rice; on the weekend he died. It shouldn’t have been surprising, I am aware of the high rates of infant mortality here, but in practice I forget where I am and find it difficult to accept things like this on a personal level.

Introduction

2007-10-13T06:40:00.000-07:00

I am going to tell you about my 3-month experience in Ghana. Being here as a volunteer is something I really wanted to do before starting to work. And even if nowadays it can sound quite banal to do it (especially in the

), I think it is really a unique experience in one’s life and I am glad I took it!! You may think: ‘Well, 3 months, it does not seem long enough!’ But everyday, there is a small thing (meeting some people, a clever pupil, a smile of a baby) that makes me feel: it is so magic to be able to get into such different culture and way of life! To sum up, I would like to advice anyone who has this opportunity to take some time off, just to go for it!!!

Kumasi's market: the biggest in Western Africa

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.

My first picture in Ghana: from the taxi in Accra

The UK organization

Of course, one of the hardest parts in volunteering is to find the organization that will bring what you are seeking. Again, I feel lucky that I met David Denison last February in Cambridge (at the Works), director of Africa Trust Networks (http://www.africatrust.org.uk/site/). I made up my mind very quickly as they were almost the only organization at the fair which was offering a 3-month experience on the field and a focus on teaching. In addition, David definitely convinced me within the 30minutes I chatted with him. Also I found it quite attractive to share this experience with 4 other (English) students. ATN is represented in Ghana by the General Manager Joseph ‘Kwame’ Yawson, and through 2 partner local organizations with which the volunteers work:
-CEJOCEP (http://www.cejocep.org/) : a very dynamic organization started by 3 young friends based in Kakumdo, a small village at 20 minute’s drive from Cape Coast.
-TACCO (http://www.africachild.net/) was started in 2002 by Antwiwaa and Jan to help the community of Jachie, Antwiwaa's homevillage at 30 minute’s drive from Kumasi (if there is absolutely no traffic!!). David Boateng joined them in 2003 and is currently the TACCO Projects Coordinator & UK Director. Since this year, it has been registered as a UK charity.
I will present these two Ghanaian organizations more in details below but just wanted to point out here that so far, I did not have any big bad surprises with these 3 organizations. Everything has always been well managed and clearly explained.

The volunteer team

Let’s introduce the team. I had met the girls once beforehand, at the Pre-Departure meeting London one week before the flight. Holly and Helen are both on a gap year before starting the university. Helen is going to medical school whereas Holly will study English at Oxford. Holly loves speaking French and she is very good at it. Helen speaks with a very strong accent and a specific slang from Liverpool to which I had to get used to!! Kathryn has just graduated in history from Cambridge and speaks very fast. I had the opportunity to meet her in May. Pete, the only boy, arrived straightaway after his 3-month volunteering/traveling in South Africa and has also just graduated from Birmingham University. What a coincidence: he is also going to start working within Procter & Gamble!! But he will start in Leeds whereas I will be based in Geneva.

Pete, Helen, Holy and Kathryn

Arrival in Ghana

We flew from London to Accra. Joe was waiting for us outside the airport with two taxis. The first things that struck me as soon as you step out the airport are the stifling heat and the unbelievable traffic (one line, completely packed!). Of course, you feel that because of your skin, everyone knows you are a stranger and gazes at you. And all this is also true in smaller towns like Kumasi or even Cape Coast. For our first night, ATN made sure we were not completely deprived of our European comfort. Namely, we were given a welcoming bedroom with air conditioning, and a private bathroom. The English volunteers even have their evening beer … ;-). Only one hiccup: there was running water in the evening, but none in the morning. Who would have guessed we had to fill up the buckets in the evening to have a morning shower. Of course, we did not…J In the afternoon, we took a big bus (company STC) to get to Cape Coast. The bus was quite ok except that all the windscreens were cracked and the driving was far from the safe English one (but maybe safer than the Argentine one!).

View from our bus STC