Two in One:
I thought I ought to
take a few minutes to write a blog entry and catch up on the last few weeks,
which have been an interesting mix.
First there was the Worldreader trip. For those of you have
never heard of Worldreader they are an organization who provide e-books and
digital readers to schools in the developing world, in my case the ones I know
about are n Ghana. The idea behind it
being that by helping these children gain access to books and resources they
have the opportunity for a better education and the chance to change their
future.
At Adesio Primary School the students in Class 5 and Class 6
take part. These are pretty big classes
by any standards, with the students telling us how they either go to school for
the morning shift (7am -12pm) or the afternoon shift (12pm -5pm) with each
shift containing 45-50 children. All of
these children are in one classroom, with the teacher at the front, the desks
set out in rows and one blackboard at the front. Having taught classes of a similar age before,
I do not relish the prospect of having 45 students squashed into a small, non
air-conditioned space for either a morning or an afternoon, the idea of having
90-100 papers to grade for each task set is also more than a little
alarming.
All the students in the top two years of primary school now
have access to their own kindle. These kindles have school-books, text books,
grammar, and reading activities on, as well as having local stories, local folk
tales and stories about events and experiences that the student can identify
with. The students all seemed to have
read all of these books before and could talk about which were they favorites
and why they liked certain aspects of the fairly simple stories. One of the girls I was reading with told me
all about how she gets her twin brothers and younger sister ready and helps to
feed them and look after them, and carry them on her back when she isn’t at
school. It is a world so far removed from any I can imagine, I did wonder about
how much help it actually was being involved there. Was I imposing my values and beliefs on an
aspect of society for whom they actually weren’t going to be of any practical
value? You only have to look at what I do for a living to know that I hold
education and continued learning and development in high regard. But for a girl
of 11, who was the second oldest of six children and who already says that when
she finishes school in a few years she will be working, cooking food and
looking after her family I am still not sure that reading stories about Kwame
driving a taxi to town are going to be much help. Then again, everyone needs to start somewhere
and maybe for the girl who told me she wanted to be a nurse in the future this
was a good stepping-stone on her way to achieving her dream.
When it came time for the break it was time for the kids to
teach us something and so we found ourselves learning some azonto dance
moves. This is a type of Ghanaian dance
that has evolved from the Apaa dance created and performed by the people of
Bukom. It involves lots of knee bending,
hip swiveling, and includes what seem to be depictions of ironing, washing,
boxing, praying and swimming to name but a few. It also relies quite heavily on
rhythm and coordination- both are skills I lack in abundance.
Luckily I was marginally better at ampe than I am at azonto,
although I feel this may be more down to luck than anything else. Ampe is a playground game that involves
jumping up and down and clapping. Much as the students tried to tell me it was
a game of skill and judgment I am skill inclined to think it is luck. Basically you do a shuffle and a jump step
before landing with one foot pointing toward your opponent. Depending on where your feet land and where
your opponent lands points are awarded.
If you both have the same foot forward player one wins, and if you have
different feet forward player two wins. As I have no control over the other
player, I definitely think luck plays a bigger part, although I think the idea
is that you start to read the body language and reactions of your
opponent. The game is so energetic though;
that by the time I would have been able to start reading reactions I was well
and truly ready to stop playing.
The contrast to this was a weekend trip to “Blue Diamond” a
beach resort on the way out toward Cape Coast, just before Saltpond. It came
highly recommended and was, as far as these places go, an enjoyable place to
spend a few hours. Full marks fr effort,
a drink upon arrival, a clean stretch of beach, nice food, and a pleasant bar
area.
However, it was $115 a night, which by any standards is not
cheap, and there were a few things I would expect to be slightly better. The room did have AC but the plug attaches on
the fridge and the bedside light were not the same as the sockets in the wall,
meaning that neither of the appliance could be plugged in. The room also came
with a kettle, but upon arrival we were told that we could not bring our own
food or drink without paying $50, so no tea or coffee then!
Maybe I am being picky but for US prices I am expecting US
customer standards. This was a nice enough place to be for the weekend but $50
might be a more realistic price.
