Another week ends

Today we returned to the original government school, less than prepared for our bible quiz, but managed to get 22 interviews done within an hour, bringing my grand total to 145- not bad! After the interviews I took the time to find out a little more from the Headmistress about my research and the schools in general.  The two government school are very close to Omega 94 and this is reflected in the data and it's trends, many of the children working, and approximately 50% of them doing so independently of their parents.  I also noted that the students at the government school, in JH2 were a couple of years older than those in Omega's JH2 classes, averaging around 18, compared to 15/16.  If they are going to complete their education (which most students say they would like to), the Omega school students will be old, but the government school students would have to remain in education well into their twenties, as Junior high has another year, and then there are three years of Senior secondary, and four years of University.  The prospect of staying in school until university must therefore not work out well for the students economically, as it is unlikely that their parents will want to continue to support them, but attending school means foregoing the income they could obtain by working all day, and means further costs for school fees and materials, meaning that achieving a degree must be quite an achievement in many ways.  I do feel however that the work that children do after school is done in good heart, as the students are generally aiming to help their parents, and are not doing it out of greed.  The Headmistress refrained from asking me any religious questions, but I did find out that the children at the school have to buy their own books (if they can afford them- if not they go without?) a stark contrast to Ken's well resourced classrooms.  I imagine that buying a number of these books would be expensive and out of reach of most of these children, particularly as most of them are likely to be required at the beginning of the school year- Ken's system of spreading the cost as 1 cedi per day is much more manageable for poor families surviving off low wages.  The children are not provided with food or water either (bags are available at cost), where as Omega provides one hot meal and unlimited water for all of its children.  The students also have to pay a PTA charge, and I don't doubt that the costs extend further than this, but the Headmistress was not willing to disclose any more.  Interestingly though, the primary school, offering a shift-system due to over-subscription (regardless of the other government school next door), did offer a 'Food for Education' programme, which the Headmistress believed was a good incentive for children to attend school, and a good way of promoting good health.

Following this, we headed to Big Milly's Backyard (on Kokrobite beach) for the weekend.  We were served a lovely meal by the beach, which was followed by a cultural dancing and drumming show.  There were some random acts, including fire-eating, glass eating, and other crazy things, but there was also some great dancing and music.  The dancers (one in particular) however enjoyed some Obruni shaped audience participation, beginning with Tutu and I (individually of course), and returning to me for a second round later in the show, I am not sure I have the rhythm of an African but I feel I gave it a good shot!

"The end of the world is coming"

Today we took a later start, but attempts to sit outside the hotel and top up the tan were confounded by the lack of breeze/insane heat.  We set off to find some government schools in the slum area of Kasoa, as we had previously seen one near to Omega 94.  After a JT-esque stroll through the slum in the heat we stumbled upon the government school (thanks to a Junior High student from 94 who was off school sick and offered to take us).  We met with the friendly headmistress who agreed for us to return the next day to do our research, but in return we had to sit through a lengthy lecture about religion, all the time agreeing wholly that we were Christian and had bibles- our plans were thwarted however when she gave us a verse of the bible to read before our return the next day- eeech.  She believed that the end of the world was coming, and this was indicated by Japan's earthquake and tsunami, and the fighting in Northern Africa/the Middle East- a bold statement.

We also managed to fit in some chat about private and government schools, and it was her belief that once the students got to senior secondary school the private school students would be ahead for the first term, but that after this the government students would overtake them and maintain the lead through to the end.  Surprisingly, there was another government school right next to this one, and she directed us there for research purposes.  Why there is a need for two schools operating at the same levels in the same place I am unsure, surely locating them separately would mean serving a wider proportion of the local community! We found the Head-teachers office, complete with sleeping Head-teacher (very Beautiful Tree) but once awakened he kindly directed us straight to the staff room to conduct our interviews.  Sixteen students later we were ready to leave, particularly because one of the teachers kept repeating what we were asking the children very loudly to them to instigate a response, even though most of the time they had already answered in a normal volume.  Her presence also made me suspicious that the children were not answering entirely honestly.

To round off the day we headed to Omega 94 to assist with Sophie's Phonics training, which went down very well with the teachers, and should hopefully be a wide improvement on their current methods of teaching children to read, which generally involves rote learning of passages of text, and doesn't seem to be greatly effective.  The fact that Ken and Andrew are so keen to implement the phonics method also provides another example of their high levels of innovation and efforts to improve.  After training we were acquainted with Ken's son, Nevis (not sure on the spelling), who although shy at first did enjoy my chasing him round the playground/office for a marker pen! On our way out of school Ken also informed us that lovely Lisa, who works in the office at 94 is his wife, she is expecting another baby as well, which made this much more exciting!

An early start

Today began at 6am, as Tutu and I had to leave at 6.30 if we were to stand any chance of getting to the government school in Oblogo by 7.30.  We got a tro relatively quickly (compared to the past couple of days) but witnessed our first "near-miss" on the roads, whereby a young girl crossed over the side-lane of the road to get to the tro, almost being hit by a motorbike which was scooting along the side of the road, and had to skid, causing it's riders to fall off! Luckily though no one was hurt and we continued with our journey. We did however make it to school on time, only to discover that the headmistress who we had spoken to yesterday was not even there! Luckily though a nice male teacher called her and then arranged the interviews for us himself, supplying us with a class full of students.

Whilst we were waiting for our interviewees, I observed that the conditions in the school were certainly no better than the private school, an interesting point considering that this is a common argument against private schools for the poor- that they are of a low standard with regards to building quality and facilities in comparison to the well funded government schools. They did however have a couple of tent/marquee's and a large sound system in the middle of the playground- flashy, but how useful? I am unsure.  We had also heard, from Simiao, that the school was only open until 10am (perfectly believeable, and a good argument in favour of private schools which at least provide a full day's education), but we did notice that there were some lessons going on even when we arrived around 7.15- making for a shorter day than the private schools, but slightly better than if they were only starting at 8am.

The interviews went over relatively smoothly and quickly, we asked for older children to be sure that they understood English, and this was not a problem. I found a similar proportion of the students I interviewed to be working, but in comparison to Omega Oblogo there were more students working independently of their parents.  In Omega Kasoa and Omega 94 there were a few students who worked their own jobs, and several who worked with their parents, but in Bortianor and Oblogo most of the working students were just working with their parents.  My economic background question also indicated that some of the students at the government school were the poorest that I have spoken to so far (having none of the items off my list of household posessions).

The morning went over rather smoothly, and three schools worth of data in three days does not seem to be bad going so this afternoon I spent some time looking over my data and contemplating what more I have to do. I have done 105 interviews altogether so far with students, and also a few with teachers (something which I need to do more of!).  The plan is to attempt to get into the government school near to Omega 94 on Friday to look at another government school, in another area.  We rounded off the day by broadening our horizons and ordering something other than chicken for tea- kebabs of an undefined meat, and obviously some jollof rice.  Very tasty, if not a little spicy, and served on nicely carved twigs as skewers.

Epic Journey Number 2

This morning me and Tutu discovered that getting a tro to 'Weija Junction'- the stop for Oblogo school was no easier than getting to Bortianor, in fact, less tro's seem to go as far as Weija, and after 30 minutes of trying and failing we got into a shared taxi and were on our way.  It turns out that although we thought that Bortianor school was a long way from our hotel, Oblogo is actually even further, and after getting out of the taxi we faced a lengthy walk! Mid-way there was a government school, so we went in, aware that Simiao had done some research there last week, and introduced ourselves, asking if we could return tomorow to do some interviews.  The less than friendly headmistress eventually obliged, but has demanded that we be there by 7.30- no simple task with a journey like that standing in the way!

We finally arrived at Omega Oblogo around 9.15, and the school manager ordered us to rest- we clearly looked exhausted! I went into the form 5 class and observed the end of their Language and Literacy lesson, and then some French, wowing the French teacher by introducing myself in French! Mid-way through the lesson there was outroar among the students who could see two lizards peering over the wall into the room, making me think how students in the UK would react just the same to a bird or wasp intruding on their lesson! The teacher handled it as any would though- taking a stick from the playground and throwing it at the lizards, never mind the children sitting below! The French lesson was somewhat monotenous, involving "chorus reading" or chanting of  a passage to ensure that the students could read it- whether or not they knew what it meant I am not sure! I do however feel that I continually criticse the teaching methods used at Omega, but they are not all bad, I have seen some wonderful lessons, particularly in Kasoa school, and the older years, I think perhaps that newer schools with less experienced teachers just need time and more guidance, and that it must be incredibly difficult to teach large classes of younger children with minimal resources.  The schools are generally well equipped with textbooks, even though these are almost always shared between two or three students, and each student has plenty of exercise books, something which must be hard for the school to achieve when charging such low fees (45p a day).

After break time we arranged to do some interviews in the computer room, the system started slow with a Junior High teacher sending in four students at a time, and having to be prompted to replace them, but perhaps he got bored, as all of a sudden we were surrounded by most of the class, all of whom were keen to answer our questions.  This meant for another successful data collection day, and so on the way back to Kasoa we treated ourselves to a trip to the supermarket- Shoprite.  During our visit however we bumped into some students from Gabon, who wanted their picture taken in the supermarket- random, and then obviously wanted their pictures taken with the friendly Obruni's- celebrity lifestyle much? I bought a french stick and some laughing cow cheese- pretty great lunch/dinner!

If I get bitten by a snake, you're sucking out the poison!

Tutu and I decided to try to get into a few schools this week to get our research done, starting with two other Omega schools.  So today we headed to Bortianor- a journey which we thought was relatively simple! However, when we went to get a tro, in the opposite direction to normal, we found it was much busier, and more stressful than normal.  Every tro that had spaces only had one or two, and all of the potential passengers were in a crazy rush to get a place- we held back, and eventually go onto one without a fight (25 minutes later).  We made it to the correct junction, but then had to navigate a second tro to nearer the school, this was fairly easy, except for getting the tro to stop when we saw the Omega sign- for this I had to ask the lady next to me (and her beard) to ask the driver to stop! The journey was not however complete yet, as we then had to walk up to the school, we took what we thought was the second left, but this turned out to be wrong, and we ended up in a rather grassy area, at which point I warned Tutu that she would have to suck the poison out if a snake bit me- I don't think that she was impressed! After this we passed a house with a number of locals sitting outside of it, and one man told us off for not greeting them as we passed, and then proceeded to give us the worst directions possible- go straight apparently means go right?! We finally arrived at the school much later than normal.

We began by getting a group of ten children for interview- the school manager kindly arranged this in a room for us, and we were able to work our way through them, so we both interviewed the same students.  Prior to this I asked the school manager if she thought any of her children worked after school, she said none, of the 22 I interviewed altogether, only 6 did not work!  The trends seem to be fairly similar- most of the children who work do so with their parents/mothers, who are also traders.

Following this I observed a primary 1 class for a while.  They were doing the incorrectly named (on the timetable) 'Langauge and Literature'- I think you mean literacy! Their homework for this lesson was to "learn to read" a number of sentences.  The learning to read process began by the teacher getting them to recite the sentences in class.  When asked what a specific word said I could see them mouthing the sentence and counting along to te right word- not sure if this counts as learning to read, and provides another great example of the failures of rote learning!  The next lesson was Maths, and when asked to do simple addition sums the children managed no problem.  These questions were followed by problems (which should have been simpler) whereby they were asked to add a number of shapes to another number of shapes, and draw the new number of shapes- with this they struggled, and had to use counters.   The children had a maths textbook between two or three of them, but the teacher still copied the problems onto the board, and the students still copied them into their books- a waste of time, which meant that they did not cover much material in the lesson! It is disappointing to see time being wasted as I am sure that they could cover so much more if they did not have to do so much repetition of activities, and copying things out!

We were taken from here by the school manager to observe some Ghanaian language lessons, as we had said we would like to learn more, but Junior High was clearly not the place to start learning our third Ghanaian language- Ga.  We then followed the teacher into P6 which was slightly more relevant.  Here we learned that in Ghana you have a name based on which day of the week you were born- mine is Akua.

We were offered lunch by the school which we accepted- rice and fish in tomato sauce.  Then we went back to P6 who were not being taught at the time and did some more interviews to round off the day.  The journey home was much less stressful than the journey there- lets see how we get on tomorrow in Oblogo.

Paradise

Today me, Tutu and Sophie decided to hit the beach near to Kasoa, planning to head for Bortianor (the location of one of the schools) and find a beach near there.  Marc Bea however, the hotel owner, directed us towards 'Bojo beach'- the best advice I have received since arriving in Ghana.  We took a tro to the supermarket to pick up some picnic items, and then a taxi to Bojo (which unfortunately would not let us enjoy our picnic goods- no outside food allowed)- the most beautiful beach ever! We were taken across a small lagoon to a huge sand embankment in the sea.  There was a restaurant/bar, Ghanaian music, lovely white sand, and blue blue sea- idyllic.  The day involved a considerable amount of sunbathing- leaving me brown with a hint of pink (exaggerated by our strange bathroom lighting- which makes me look red most of the time).  The views into the sea and over to the palm-fringed shores, with large numbers of small wooden boats passing by and moored off-shore were a perfect depiction of just how beautiful Africa can be.  We stayed until the sun had set then went back over on the boat and took a taxi to the hotel.  An all round relaxing and perfect beach day, which we rounded off by eating our picnic (a little worse for wear by this point) in the hotel.

Accra

Today began in a fairly standard way- the girls were all ready promptly for the planned departure time to Accra of 10am, Paul however was on "Ghana time"/ his holidays, and so rocked up at 10.30.  We managed to get a tro from outside the hotel straight to Accra which was relatively simple, and a small traffic jam later we were in the centre.  Amazingly we managed to track down David (another student from the course who is spending the month nearer to Accra) amongst the hustle and bustle of Accra's circle transport hub!

We then made a lengthy walk, in the burning heat, to the culture museum, which was an interesting stop-off, with lots of information about the cultural background of Ghana and West Africa, including slavery, jewelery, dance, woodwork and much more.  From here we took taxi's to the mad Makola market area, and attempted to find somewhere for lunch- not an easy task! We ended up in a 'breezy' restaurant which boasted a range of dishes on offer, unfortunately however the cook was not there and so we were only able to have rice and chicken- standard.

From here we took another walk down towards the sea front, locating a rather dirty beach- covered in rubbish, and then ending up at the National Centre for Culture.  Here there was an extensive market, and it was our first opportunity to exercise essential haggling skills- grasping ourselves some good deals, although obruni pricing was definitely out in force! I managed to bag myself a Ghanaian football shirt- bring on Ghana vs. England at the end of the month!  There was a lot of pressure to buy, and the shops, all selling similar items really had to compete- one guy impressed us with his ability to name any capital city requested, and so lured us to his wood carving shop.  Another guy taught us how to play some small instruments, which consisted of two rattling balls in either end of a piece of string, but then obviously wanted us to buy them- declined.

We left the Culture Centre and said goodbye to David, before taking a taxi back to circle, from where we would get a tro to Kasoa.  The first taxi drivers however insisted that this would be 10 cedis, we crossed the road and flagged one down, getting the journey for an easy 5 cedi!  At the tro station however things were a bit hectic, and a very English queue for tro's to Kasoa went into a mad scramble as soon as the doors were open, we were directed to a different tro so that we did not have to participate (thank goodness!)!  The tro took a random off-road detour which was hilarious as we weren't all too sure what was going on, but we were soon back on the main road and into Kasoa in no time.  We ended the day with some Ghanaian super-noodles and Harry Potter.

Average

Today was again spent at 94- my regular start to the day is to watch Sophie teaching phonics- the kids are getting quite good at the sounds now, and are even managing some words! Then I did some more interviews at break time, another 10, meaning I have plenty from 94 now, and will try to get some from another school next week.  Both today and yesterday I have found myself surrounded by students whilst I am interviewing, all keen to answer my questions.  I am not sure how many of them have been specifically selected by Berlinda and Lisa, but anyone I talk to seems to sell after school, so I am thinking that the phenomenon is fairly widespread!

After this I gave out the teacher questionnaires that I had printed for my mini-project in the teachers lounge (a.k.a. the future ICT lab) and got a couple back on the spot.  Therefore my mini-project data collection is pretty much finished, and I can focus solely on my dissertation data and painting next week.  The general plan is to try to visit two Omega schools- Oblogo and Bortianor, and two government schools- one in Oblogo, and one near 94- time permitting of course.  The time is going by so much faster than expected, and we have arrived at another weekend.  We are planning some sight-seeing in Accra tomorrow, and to meet up with David, another student off the course who is staying there.

On the way back from school we took a stroll through the market- which mainly consists of kiosks and general stalls set up on the side of the street.  This shows the lack of security that many of these sellers have, as they do not have any rights to their plot on which they may sell every single day, and they could easily be moved on at any time- not that this seems to happen!  Sophie also pointed out, as we walked through the market on the way to school one day, that there are plans to build a bus station- what will happen to the stalls if this goes ahead is another matter.  The plans for this are in the main market area, in which many many people set up shop everyday, selling everything from clothes to jewelery, cosmetics to fruit!

On returning to the hotel this afternoon, the electricity was once again off, but luckily a generator is powering the computers, meaning that I can get some essential work out of the way.  The lack of air-con when I get back upstairs will be the ultimate disappointment however!

This evening we decided to trial a different restaurant, at the New Timers hotel in Kasoa- the service was however low, even by Ghanaian standards, and the choice of chicken and fish with rice was nothing special! Then on returning to the hotel they were just about to lock the gates- a curfew that we were not aware of!

The Hokey Cokey

Today I returned to 94 and successfully managed to interview 11 children about the work that they do after school.  It seems already that looking at the jobs that their parents have, and the amenities that the children have in their homes, they are somewhat poorer than the children in Kasoa school.  So many children at 94 seem to sell after school, it is doubtful that I will get to speak to them all, but I plan to return to do some more tomorrow. The work is generally always to sell, and a lot of the time they are doing it to help their parents, as they are usually selling the same products that one or both of their parents has been selling during the day.

Following this success, I went up to the eldest class in the school- Junior High 2, to hand out the questionnaires for my mini-project on career aspirations, and chat to them about the types of work they would like to do in the future.  My dissertation questionnaires have informed me that almost all of the students want to complete their education by going all the way through to university, indicating that they have hig aspirations.  The students eagerly completed the questionnaires, and a number of highly prestigious occupations seemed to come up as preferred, including doctors, nurses, lawyers, journalists and footballers! After they had finished they taught us some Fante (a local language), we attempted to teach them Spanish, and I even cracked out a little bit of Swahili!!  They then asked me and Sophie to sing our national song- with no other ideas we broke into a beautiful performance of the Hokey Cokey, with full participation from the students, and even managed to pull together a few lines of our national anthem, which was then put completely to shame as they recited all of theirs! The girls then attempted to teach us a game called 'Ampe' which they play against each other- it essentially involves clapping and jumping before putting one foot into the middle.  If you both put the left foot one person gets a point, and both right feet the other does, I don't quite know if this is a foolproof system, but it seems to work for them so I wont question it!

Following this bout of activity we popped down for a chat to Sunday, the tuck-shop lady at 94 who told us a lot about the local area and it's history- Kasoa is named after the man who started the market I think, but Kasoa also means market, so I don't know if this all fits in! Sunday seems to know a lot though, and today she was with her brother, who has apparently been scouted for an Italian football team, and was videoed playing- he is now waiting to get a call to go over there! The story seems a little bit too good to be true, but you never know, perhaps it will work out for him!

The afternoon was filled with a lack of electricity, which meant that I could not get much of what I wanted done, but it was restored in the evening, and so some time was made up. This is Africa after all!

What a Palava

Today I returned to 94 school, and on the way witnessed a rather brutal altercation between two men at Kasoa market.  This involved a relatively young man beating an older man with a large wooden stick- we swiftly walked in the other direction, as even some of the locals were making a speedy exit! The plan was to attempt to gather some data at 94, but Lisa (who we used to think was called Berlinda- turns out we had the two the wrong way round!) who I had spoken to it about was not in, so I spoke to Berlinda, and planned to do some interviews during break and lunch.  Until then I attended Sophie's phonics lesson.  I was impressed by how engaged the children were, and they seemed to be enjoying the lesson, especially learning the actions that go with the letter sounds, and I hope that this helps them to improve their reading skills.  It had gotten too late to conduct any interviews at break-time, and we seized the opportunity to visit an Omega school that we had not yet seen, as Ken was going there and offered to take us.

The new school- with a name I cannot yet pronounce, was quite large and nicely spaced out, with a separate area for the really young nursery and KG children- a nice addition which was not at any of the other schools.  We were offered lunch by the cook, who was the nice English teacher from Kasoa school's wife.  Lunch was palava sauce and rice- palava being a leaf, similar to spinach.  It was nice, but as usual very spicy!  Following this we helped Ken to organise the children's enrollment sheets by their parent's occupations so that he could gauge the backgrounds from which they came- this revealed a large number of artisans and traders, and only a few of anything else.  I was surprised however that one child's address was stated as "Liberia camp", and apparently there is a refugee camp in the area.  This was unexpected for a few reasons, firstly because Liberia does not even border Ghana, and secondly because the civil war in Liberia has been over for a while now, so I was surprised that their are still people living in refugee camps, especially if they have been in Ghana for a few years.  I would be interested to see how the people live their, and whether what was a refugee camp has actually evolved into a permanent settlement.

We also informed Ken of our idea to paint 94 school, as it has no pictures or painting, but Kasoa school has lots, for example, the school song and national anthem on the walls of the playground area. Ken seemed pleased by the idea, and we are hoping to begin next week- should be an exciting project!

We eventually made it back to 94 around 2pm, so all opportunities for data collection had passed, and I decided to return the next day to catch up.  We took the tro home to Marcbeas, and the evening was relatively uneventful, apart from the continuous lightening which we could see for some time before the storm finally hit later on in the night, throwing down some serious rain, thunder and lightening and of course causing the electricity to cut out!

Getting the dissertation ball rolling!

Today I finally managed to collect some data for my dissertation.  I had planned to come to Kasoa and work with an NGO to gather the data I needed, but since arriving, and spending a lot of time in the Omega schools I decided to narrow my focus slightly, from a general study of child labour, to looking at children who combine work with schooling.  Therefore I decided to interview working children at some of the Omega schools, and I also plan to do some interviews in government schools.  I will also be focusing more on the effect of combining the two on a child's education, and plan to give teachers and school staff questionnaires about this,  In the Omega schools, despite their being private, the students are generally quite poor, and many of them work after they finish school.

Today I was finally able to do my first interviews, and managed to speak to 17 children, many of whom worked after school at the Kasoa branch of Omega schools.  I conducted the interviews in the school's ICT lab, and Mercy, the school manager kindly provided me with the children, until break time when a number just came in to talk to me anyways!  The initial findings indicate that most of the children sell, and a lot of them do this with their parents, but some do it alone.  The main reasons for doing the job are to get money for their parents or to help their parents.  I am looking forward to looking at how these findings differ from those in other Omega schools and in the government schools- it may even be interesting to compare the different locations, as I imagine that there are differences between the backgrounds of the children, based upon the area in which the school is located.

The big achievement of the day was actually getting some data, and the plan is now to get some more from the different schools and see how it goes!

Literally the longest day ever!

Today me and Tutu were to go to a new school (still Omega) in Kasoa, so Ken picked us up at 8 and took us there. The school is much more compact than 94 but is nicely painted with the school song, the national anthem, and various pictures of animals, birds, colours and so on. We have decided that we want to replicate this in 94, and so plan to talk to Ken! I spent the day with Junior High 2 observing their lessons, and filling in Andrew's observation sheets- something I was concerned about as I did not want to criticise too much, however the lessons were all great and so I could write lots of praise! I watched French, Basic Design Technology, Social Studies, Science and English. The English teacher, Mitchell, was my favourite, he had been testing his students, and was calling them out on all of their mistakes- very old-school! He also took the time to chat to me about my time in Ghana which was nice, as some of the teachers did not even introduce themselves! The social studies lesson was also interesting, as the teacher was telling his students why they should not be lazy, because this leads to poverty, and poverty apparently then leads to prostitution and armed robbery- a simplistic but motivational speech!!  I think that when I hear discussions of this nature it brings to light the importance that these people place on education, and their desire to improve their own destiny- something which is lacking in English schools!  During the lesson I also browsed the social studies textbook (which was not being used) and found a whole section about ways to end poverty, why democracy is important, the benefits of capitalism and various other developmental strategies.  This was very similar to what we had been learning about in the Economics module, and I was surprised that the ideas were closely matched by what we agreed upon.   The girls in the class also asked me to sing for them, but I managed to dodge this opportunity all day, phew!

For lunch we tried out a very "local" cafe down the road, which offered three meals, so we went for chicken stew and rice. This was actually really nice, and really cheap! A basic tomato sauce with carrots, cabbage and peppers, with a fried chicken leg and some rice! We returned to the school to complete the observations.

Andrew had told us that we could do our research after school finished (2.45pm), for Tutu this involved getting kids to send emails to her school in England, and for me, interviews. However Mercy (the school manager) said that I could not interview after school as the children had to catch the bus, so I helped in the ICT lab with the hope that I would have more luck tomorrow. The computers were a semi-nightmare though as the connection was very slow and they regularly crashed. By the time all of the children had got email accounts a lot of time had passed, and it took even longer for them to send their messages! By 5pm we were frustrated and tired, but had managed to get at least a few emails sent, so called it a day!

There are no tro's in Cape Coast

Sunday was another fairly early start but the temperature in our non-air-conditioned room made this acceptable! We began by taking a taxi to a tro and then a tro to Kakum National Park, home of Ghana's famous Canopy Walkway. I had done this on my last visit to Ghana as well, but it was just as good the second time around- essentially crossing seven rope bridges through the different levels of the forest canopy! This was followed by true luxury- a cheese and tomato sandwich, which was actually cheese spread and tomato ketchup (with a little fresh tomato) but the bread was not sweet (which seems to be the usual) and it was a nice change, especially as we miss lunch most days when we are at school!

We took a very cramped taxi (for the 4 girls in the back) to Elmina, during which the taxi driver was stopped by the police as the car was overloaded.  He was questioned and asked for his licence (which he didn't have with him- a fact which the policeman took to mean that he did not have a licence at all), and after some slightly nerve-wracking discussion we were allowed to continue, soon arriving in beautiful Elmina. The town is mainly famous for it's slave castle, which we visited, but is also really beautiful. It had gorgeous palm-fringed beaches and fishing boats. We managed to grab a quick blast on the beach before setting off back to Kasoa. The current in the sea is really strong here though, so swimming seems to be off the cards, however playing in the waves/getting splashed was nice and refreshing! The castle tour was very interesting, particularly hearing about the slave trade and seeing where it took place and the conditions in which these people lived. In the shop on the way out there was also a copy of a book called "The Black Man's Burden"- coincidental after our studying the "White Man's Burden".

We took yet another cramped taxi, on Paul's suggestion, although he was fine with his whole actual seat in the front! This took us to a tro station in Cape Coast where we were forced into taking an air-conditioned minibus back to Kasoa, because apparently "there are no tro's in Cape Coast"- doubtful as we arrived on one, and saw many! Me and Sophie managed to secure ourselves the luxury (although slightly scary as you can see the road) front seats again which was great until about 20 minutes in when the air-conditioning began to make us cold, by the time we got back to Kasoa I was probably the coldest I have been all trip!!

Back at the hotel (now home) and some standard rice and chicken was long over due!

Pigs on the Beach

Feels like a while since I have blogged- lots to catch up on, starting with the weekend! On Saturday we made a semi-early start to travel to Cape Coast, getting there in time for lunch. The journey involved the usual tro to Kasoa, and then another to Cape Coast (a much longer journey). The second tro seemed as though it was going to be a nightmare, fuller than one could imagine, and squashed between people and bags in epic heat, but as it got moving and a few people got off it improved.  At one point, as it was overloaded, and a police checkpoint approached, the tro-mate (the drivers assistant) lay down completely under some of the seats to hide from the police! A little further along at a station the driver took pity on me squashed under some guys huge pack of material (which I assume he was taking to market), and invited me to sit up front. This was great as after about ten minutes I had the whole two front seats to myself, and the windows down, making for a rather pleasant trip- definitely the way to tro! The driver even arranged for his brother, a taxi driver, to collect us from the tro and take us whereever we wanted to go once we got to Cape Coast- handy as we had no idea where we were going.

Due to our lack of plans we asked the taxi driver to drop us off at the Castle, and a short walk later we stumbled upon a cafe at which to grab a drink.  The cafe also had some vacant accommodation which we claimed for the night before heading to the beach. The beach was beautiful, but still very African, despite the large number of Obruni's (westerners) sunbathing, with a lot of Ghanaians hawking.  Whilst chilling I also casually interviewed a couple of the kids who were selling to see what type of school they went to and why/when they worked. At one point I looked up to see a pig and two piglets wandering across the sands, casually eating anything they found and just generally strolling, not what you expect to see!! Lots of people kept stopping to chat to us, and one in particular, Knowledgeable John, stayed a very long time. Generally in these situations as a white person, you expect to be asked for some kind of cash or sponsorship, but John just wanted to share his wisdom. It turned out that he knew a lot, and was very wise to the ways of Africa. Sophie had him engaged in a discussion of some of the key concepts that made up part of our economics module, and he seemed to share very well thought-out ideas. He also taught us the Ghanaian handshake whereby one clicks fingers with the other person as they move their hands apart- I am getting there but apparently our "soft white skin" makes it difficult for us to do!

The owner of the hotel we were staying in was closely affiliated with a school near to Cape Coast, which was sponsored by selling things that the children had made in the hotel's shop, and by giving some of the cafe's profits to them. Unfortunately however he told us that just that morning the school had burned down and there was nothing left- a sad story, but fortunately the people were all OK.  It is sad to hear stories of such devastation when people are working so hard for something, and an uncontrollable event stops them in their tracks.
In the evening we went to the Castle restaurant, and I had Chicken (standard) stroganoff and chips (a change from rice) although everything here seems to be spicier than it would be in England and it was more like a creamy curry than a stroganoff, but good all the same. The menu there was the biggest I have seen in Ghana, I am used to having the option of fish or chicken, and fried, plain or jolloff rice, or occasionally chips, banku (not sure what this is), fufu (doughy strange thing) and red-red (plantain and beans).

Tro-pro's

Last night was spent eating Pizza and playing cards in JD's Fast Food.  The ever-competitive Tutu was in her element, except for when her order arrived incorrect and she was unable to eat her usual epic portions... Teaching Simiao to play English card games was highly amusing, particularly her overly-obvious grasping of the essence of the game "cheat"!

Today began with another casual tro ride and walk to the 94 school, arriving just in time for the singing of the Omega school song.  This is my favourite part of the day as the children line up in their class groups to sing, whilst marching on the spot, and then each group individually marches to their class, some of the students really put their all into it and it is such fun to watch!! After this it was another morning of reading tests, with one superstar student coming out and bashing through the word list in total style- so cool, and clearly so far ahead of his peers.  I wondered if perhaps he had had some extra tuition as some of the students could barely pronounce letters.  I also found that a number of the students knew words but had no idea what they looked like, I feel that this is potentially caused by rote style learning, common in developing countries, as the children seemed confident that the answer was a certain word, but it was incorrect.
The KG2A class, which we have been sitting outside of to conduct the tests have provided us with a great example of rote learning in action, as they have been completing the exact same activity for language and literacy for the past three days.  This involves chanting (very loudly) a story about "the animals in Amidu's house" - a line which now makes me want to claw my eyes out.  It is doubtful that the students are learning the individual words, and no background information about the text is given, they are merely learning to recite it by heart- I am sturggling to see the benefits that this can have for their education.  Last night I was talking to Simiao about education in China, which I think draws some (perhaps minimal) comparisons to this style of non-questioning and non-participatory learning!!  Although I feel that the UK's education system is far superior to this is many ways, there are still elements of this style of learning, particularly through teachers "teaching to the test", as students are still essentially memorising information with a lack of understanding.  I wonder whether these elements will gradually water-down in developing education systems, and whether they will persist in the same ways as they do in developed countries today.

I began today to seriously think about the potential of my chosen dissertation topic and how I was going to go about my research.  The curriculum manager for the school chain, Andrew, said that he will arrange for some of the school managers to introduce me to children who work as well as going to school, so that I can interview them.  I was concerned that it was going to be difficult to find any children who did this, but on discussion with Belinda, the 94 school manager she suggested that around half of her students do this, of all ages.  She is going to introduce me to some when I return to 94 next Wednesday! I was amazed by how many children she believed to work, particularly as it is a private school and so it may be expected that the children and their families value education more highly.  However it may also be that they work to pay for school- we shall hopefully find out!! She also suggested that children are regularly absent on Tuesdays and Fridays, which are the market days, so I may peruse her registers to check this phenomenon out!!!

When walking back from the school to the tro I spotted a couple of entrepreneurs working in the slum and considered their businesses to be very sustainable and well thought out- considering the searcher/bottom-up approach discussed by William Easterly in 'White Man's Burden'.  Essentially these entrepreneurs have bought a sewing machine (low start up cost) and then set it up (possibly in their homes).  This can expand into a profitable business with more sewing machines and employees, or can remain with only the owner of the first machine working.  There is plenty of business as Ghanaians appear to wear many home made clothes, made from the brightly patterned cloths which can be bought throughout the markets.

On the journey home we became ever more the experts on travelling and living in Ghana- the achievement was buying fan-ices (a daily treat/necessity) through a tro window from a hawker!  Tonight we are planning to put our expertise to use and attempt to get to a Chinese restaurant that we spied on the way back from the supermarket yesterday- clearly becoming a local (ish)....

I swear on my honour to be loyal and faithful to Ghana my motherland

Today started on a sour note when the hotels/local dog whom we named "rabies dog" was found lacking vital organs on the main road.  Our trip to 94 school starts with a very dicey crossing of the dual carriageway which runs outside our hotel, the main road between Accra and Cape Coast.  Myself, Sophie and Tutu were making the journey alone for thr first time today, and we managed to successfully navigate a tro-tro ride from opposite the hotel to Kasoa.  From there we made the lengthy (because its hot!) walk to the school through Kasoa market and the slum.  The school day begins with a huge gathering of all of the students from P1 to JHS in the courtyard to sing the Omega school song, the national anthem, and repeat the national pledge, along with other hymns, songs and prayers.  This ritual ends with the students marchign class by class to another song into their classrooms.  The kindergarten and nursery classes then come out to do this seperately.  The local area consists of a mixture of Muslims and Christians, who appear to live in relative harmony, although the songs and prayers at school appear to be quite Christian oriented, and I am not sure how this would be perceived in the UK, particularly by the parents of the non-Christian students.

This morning me and Tutu conducted the Burt Reading tests for Sophie's phonics research.  It was shocking how little the students could read, and although many knew their letters well, they struggled to convert this knowledge into full words.  However there were two stars who did much better than their peers, suggesting wide disparities in attainment within the group.  The tests were however interrupted when the KG1 and nursery classes took their break and literally mobbed Tutu and I- when we got out a camera this situation escalated and there were many children on top of us, this was casually dispersed by a round of heads, shoulders, knees and toes!

We were served a lunch of plantain and beans (with some chicken) by the school- not entirely great for my plantain allergy but I ate what I could! After this, and a chat with Ken and JT (by phone) we were fixed up with local sim cards and Omega t-shirts (although mine is still to come as I politely let the others take them first).  **Good News- Tutu has just informed us that rabies dog is alive and well- but potentially lacking a brother/friend/cousin.** Then we headed to 'Shoprite', the supermarket on the way to Accra and picked up some essential supplies (including magical elves?!).  On the way I also noticed a sign which was fantastic, and definately worth noting- 'For Sale- Grasscutter/Rabbit'.

One thing I noticed today about Ken and the Omega school chain is their constant strive for improvement and innnovation- for example the 94 school is soon to get a computer room and he seems to want this for all of his schools.  They are also attempting (with Simiao's help) to introduce Chinese into the curriculum- an idea that appears more advanced than English curricula.

This evening we have been to the local JD's Fast food restaurant, and I had pizza- the first day since I arrived that has not included at least one meal of chicken and rice!!!! We are certainly becoming tro-pro's as we seem to be making our way successfully to all of these varying locations!  Tomorrow is my last day in 94 school so I am hoping to pick up some Ghanaian language lessons, but shall aim to return for research purposes very soon!

TIA- we have arrived!

 

Day 1

The journey to Ghana was long and not entirely enjoyable, starting at a freezing 4am in Newcastle and ending at a boiling 11pm in Kasoa, Ghana.  The rustic trotro ride to the hotel, lack of electricity and aircon, and lack of a shower/flushing toilet left me very much focussing on one of my favourite phrases- TIA (this is Africa).  Tutu began the "continuous and competitive eating" apparently attached to Ghanaian customs before she even knew about it, and carried it on throughout the day!! Overall though the journey was a smooth one, and the stop-off in Liberia was incredibly interesting and my first experience of linking things learned on the masters course to reality! Around the airport there were tents for aid from UNHCR and the World Food Programme, although there was little activity around them, and a lack of people living in the area to warrant them anyways- although I should not criticise without knowing too much about why they were there, or what they were doing!! There were also a large number of UN helicopters and a UN plane at the airport- aid money wasted or misused? It certainly got me thinking about the troubles of aid that we hve discussed and highlighted the potential reality of the situation.

Day 2

On the morning of our first official day in Ghana we were collected by Ken (the owner of the Omega schools chain that we are linked to) and taken to three of his schools.  The first, in Oblogo was a fairly small school but appeared to be incredibly well organised, and the students all seemed to be working hard.  The second in Bortianor was the first school that Ken had opened, and the third, 94 was in a slum in Kasoa, and was very new.  The children pay only 1 cedi (45p) per day to attend an Omega school, and it seems incredible what they get for their money, considering they get a hot meal and their education, among other things.  However one major reflection was that the expansion of the chain had been so rapid- the first school has only been open around 18months and there are already 7, with 4 more planned to open in September.  The business is clearly working well.  Another factor that I picked up on was that the biggest of the three schools that we visited today, was the one in the slum- where you might expect to find less children able to pay for their education.

As we travelled around the schools there were signs of development and of the things that we have been learning about everywhere, for example a sign suggesting that "You should register your property" - very DeSoto-esque, and signs advertising savings accounts, microfinance, and many many private schools.  There are certainly many more private schools here that I have ever seen in the UK, and it is impressive that so many people must have caught on to this incredible entrepreneurial opportunity but that the market is clearly still not satisfied.

Day 3
By the third day I had  completely acclimatised to Ghana, and I have actually surpassed my expectations in how quickly I have slipped back into the African lifestyle that I have grown to love so much on previous trips.  Today I was observing the KG1 class in 94 school, so children aged around 4 and 5.  Much as I appreciate that the lessons are a far improvement on the government schools that, on passing, always appear to have children running wild and never appear to be doing anything educational, I still feel that the schools could potentially do much more than they do currently.  Based on my observations today, much time is wasted, as children are completing one very small activity on the board and then the teacher is copying it into each individual exercise book and getting them to fill in the answers (in the UK I suppose children this young would have workbooks, making this unnecessary)- so the first few are finished well before some students have even go their books.  I am definately interested to see whether this is isolated to the early years, or whether it extends to older classes. 

All in all it has been an enlightening first few days, and I hope to expand my ideas and find out more over the coming month.