Ghana be Fun

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.