A weekend at Big Milly's

The weekend at Big Milly's, Kokrobite continued through until Sunday.  Saturday was spent mainly on the beach. Mid-way through the afternoon when we were thinking of looking round the shops, an older obruni lady and her bibini friend brought the shops to us.  The obruni had been in Ghana for around 40 years and was selling jewelry to raise funds for an NGO preserving African traditional music.  Her friend, Bernice was also selling beads, and they both spread all of their items across the sand before us so that we could choose what we wanted- how convenient.  It turned out that the bead lady, Beatrice, had four children and no husband, and was selling to raise the funds to send her children to private schools, which three of them were in already.  We mentioned Omega and she knew of the school in Bortianor.  Later in the day we attempted but failed to visit the local monkey sanctuary in Bortianor (which is very close to Kokrobite).

We were joined by Ken, Lisa, Nevis and Abigail (who stays with them) for dinner, a farewell get together for Simiao and Paul who were to be leaving on Sunday.  It was interesting to hear Ken talk about his schools and how he likes to run his business, in particular, he mentioned keeping the schools of a high standard, so that they do not appear cheap, and I think this is reflected in the standard of the buildings and resources that he provides.  His plans to extend are vast, six more schools this year, which will complete the area around Kasoa, and then he will begin to move into new clusters along the coast.  These will then be extended as he hopes to reach a total of fifty schools by 2015, I hope he manages this, as it will be a huge accomplishment, especially if standards are maintained, and continually improved (as he strives to do).  After they left it was reggae night and we enjoyed the music in the compound.

We were awakened by the hotel staff on Sunday morning as someone had come to take us to the monkey sanctuary at a suitable time (optimal viewing opportunity), and me, Simiao and Paul headed out with the Rasta to his sanctuary.  Things looked positive as we saw a monkey as we arrived, but unfortunately this was the only one, and after a while wandering and waiting we decided to head back.  On returning to Big Milly's it was farewell Simiao and Paul who headed back to MarcBeas alone to go from there to the airport.  Me, Tutu and Sophie spent the rest of the day relaxing around Big Milly's and looking over the stalls before we headed back ourselves.  The taxi back to the hotel however took us on the most nail-biting road so far- in fact, I don't even think that it was much of a road by Ghanaian standards, but it did bring us out right next to the hotel!

Simiao and Paul leaving brought it home that we were really going into the final stretch, and with lots of data already gathered it was set to be a good, relaxing week.

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.