ICT or PTA ? ? ?

I’ve had a few eye openers this week which have made me reflect on my experiences so far in Ghana.

We were asked if we could visit a primary school in the district to show the P6 children what a computer looks like, how it works and what it can be used for. (Most children in Ghana have never seen a ‘real’ computer, just a chalk drawing on a blackboard or if they are lucky a photo in a text book.) Then the idea was to let the children have a go for themselves. The Deputy Head phoned the night before to check that we were still going and that we should arrive for 9am.

We were up early as it was expected that the school was about a one hour moto ride away. I knew it was quite far and down a dirt road, but I wasn’t prepared for the challenge I faced. Not only was it a dirt road but it was VERY uneven and parts of it resembled a huge sandpit. Me, the moto and sand don’t go together well, I was sliding around everywhere. The track went on for what felt like an eternity, the school was out in the middle of nowhere. (a large whisky at this point would have been welcomed  – and I don’t drink ! !)

When we eventually arrived and had parked our moto’s, there were children’s desks all set up in rows outside, it was obvious that we had arrived to find a PTA meeting was about to start. (not mentioned in the phone call the night before) We headed over to the Head’s office to find he was busy chatting to a parent. We sat on the step outside and waited for him to become free. When he finally appeared he introduced the man covered in thick dust, ripped trousers, no shoes and muddy hands, as the PTA chairman.

 We looked around to see if we could see the Deputy to confirm what we were to talk to the children about. He hadn’t arrived at school yet. By now it was 9.30am and school starts at 8am ! ! We were invited to sit in on the PTA meeting which was all conducted in Dagaare (the local language) The Deputy arrived just in time for the meeting to get started at 10.30am. The parents were split into women on one side and the men on the other. The Head addressed only the men throughout the whole meeting, while the women just sat and listened.

The children busied themselves, playing football, wondering around, sitting listening to the meeting. I sat watching while a child played with a pair of scissors under the tree in the shade. This was big surprise to me as the only pair of scissors I have seen in Ghana are the pair I brought with me from England. Ghanaians tend to use razor blades for similar tasks to where we would use scissors. Then suddenly we heard a smash and a child had dropped a glass bottle which smashed all over the floor, this was quite frightening to see as most children walk around bare foot. Glass bottles and unsupervised scissors are a British teacher’s nightmare ! !

After we had sat for 2 hours, the meeting ended and we were ushered into the P6 classroom, only to find that the whole school had crammed into this one room. Kindergarten right through to P6. (about 200 children) They were all eager to see what a computer looked like and to see what it can do. We showed them all our laptops and what they can be used for, when I turned around to speak to their teacher, he was asleep on the desk . . . . .

I hasten to add we didn’t stay much longer and suggested that next time they invite us, there is no PTA meeting and that the Deputy Head stays awake.

Trainings

Well I’ve been back in Nadowli now for a few weeks and surprisingly I’ve been quite busy.

In my first week back, I spent most of my time in the office catching up on things I had missed before Christmas. I visited a few local schools to say Hi and welcome the New Year in. The office was very quiet, most people are reluctant to turn up to work in a morning now that the harmattan has set in. The temperatures in Nadowli have now dropped to about 25^oc in a morning (which for me is quite pleasant) and for the people in the office this is positively cold ! ! Those that do turn up, come togged up in sweatshirts, a thick coat, ear muffs, gloves, a bobble hat and scarf, of course I’m still turning up in my blouse and ¾ length trousers. One officer made the comment that he’s lucky, as it’s too cold to get up if you haven’t got a wife to heat some water for a wash . . . .

My housemate returned from England the second week which was nice as it’s very quiet without the company, she brought lots of goodies with her from home, (chocolate, Christmas cake, sweets, mulled wine sachets, spices and herbs)  which we’ve been enjoying sparingly to make them last. Also this week I had my first real request for support from a Head teacher out in one of the villages. He came into the office and asked if I could go into his school and do an INSET on lesson planning as his teachers didn’t know how to write lesson plans. A challenge accepted, although with an air of apprehension, I have been writing lesson plans for the last 11 years in England but had never seen an example of the Ghanaian way. I later discovered they are very similar.

Last week I spent most of my time making phonic resources and planning my INSET. I completed my first ‘full’ day in the office (I went back after lunch) making a handout to give to the teachers explaining how to set out a weekly plan and what information to put where. I also added a few tips and examples to get them started. The INSET went really well and the nerves soon settled, lots of questions followed and I surprised myself by how experienced I felt once I started answering their questions. I was really touched when the Head invited me to share a mineral and some biscuits with him and his staff to thank me.

Today was a day and a half, I was invited to a meeting involving VSO and NAWAG (an assembly women’s group set up in Nadowli that help with educational issues) it was held at the District Assembly, they had invited a selected number of teachers, children, parents and the NAWAG members, all representing their own group interest. The meeting was given a 9am prompt start time, which meant I was there for the obligatory fashionably early 8.50am, only to find that no-one else actually turned up til 9.30am and the meeting didn’t actually start til around 10.30 ! !

The afternoon raised some interesting thoughts for me, the teacher’s group were asked to rate on a 4 point scale a number of issues. One being professional development, from my observations of training here, teachers are given the date and time of a training and are expected to turn up regardless of whether the training is appropriate of their personal professional needs. They were asked to comment on the appropriateness of training and the consultation the training staff have with teachers about their professional needs. They all felt that training was appropriate and that they were consulted about the topics covered. I’m afraid I couldn’t sit on my hands for long and had to throw my spanner in the works and challenge their responses, eventually after some discussion they actually came to realise that they all have differing professional needs and that these are not met on an individual level, oh dear, I’m sure I’d have been shot at dawn had someone in authority heard me sway the vote.

Glad to say I’m still alive to tell the tale ! !

The festive season

Happy New Year ! ! (Sorry it’s so late)

I had a fantastic holiday with Tim over Christmas and New Year. Christmas was very different this year as you can imagine. My first hot Christmas. It was amazing that Santa still managed to find us in Ghana and we had lots of presents to open on Christmas morning. We sat in bed and opened our pressies before taking a trip up Mount Gemi, where we could experience a 360^o view of the whole of the Volta. We met up with some other volunteers who were travelling around the Volta Region for a ‘Christmas Lunch,’ before phoning home to wish our families a Merry Christmas.

We visited all the places mentioned in my last blog and more. Some of my favourites were, the Wli waterfalls, a trip to the Atome monkey sanctuary and a stunning boat ride on the Volta itself. The walk to the waterfalls took around 45 mins, we were accompanied by a guide who was on his Christmas break from school. He was very knowledgeable about the falls and the surrounding area. Along the path we saw hundreds of different species of butterflies which unfortunately wouldn’t keep still long enough for us to take any photos.

The monkey sanctuary was set in  beautiful rainforest, our guide took us along a short path to go in search of the monkeys and this is where I encountered my first Ghanaian snake. We continued along the path while the guide made calling sounds to alert the monkeys we had food. It took a short while for the monkeys to respond but eventually they came bounding through the tree tops to greet us. Armed with bananas we waited for the monkeys to come close and sit on my shoulder to take the banana out of my hand.

The boat trip on the Volta was spectacular, we were taken around the lake in a huge canoe shaped boat and shown the magnificent scenery of the mountains and inlets along the way. We stopped at a few beaches to pick up some travellers and to drop off some stowaways before stopping to learn about and sample some local rum distilled on one of the small islands. It was very tasty although very strong, I hasten to add we didn’t purchase any stored only in second hand water bottles ! !

We moved down to the beach for New Year, where we visited Elmina castle and learnt about the slave trade along the coast over 200 years ago. We then  spent a few days taking a well deserved rest sunbathing on a beautiful sandy beach, swimming in the sea and reading our books. We returned to Accra where I had to say adios to Tim at the airport  and spent my last few days catching up with some shopping and attended a meeting with VSO.

A two day journey of taxi’s, buses and tro’s followed with an overnight in Kumasi before I finally hit home for a good night’s sleep in my ‘own’ bed ! !