Well it has been a very long time since I blogged,(poor
internet, power cuts, general lack of patience with the computer) I’m not sure
if anyone will remember to log on and read any more blogs but I thought I’d
give it a try.
The beginning of March saw the celebration of Independence
for Ghana. The lead up to the March 6th was very busy. All school
children - no matter what their age - must learn how to march. This can start
as early as 6am with drums banging out the beat for miles around. Marching is
taken extremely seriously and children compete to get a place in the
Independence Day team. I was asked if I could train a Kindergarten school team
in the skill of marching, I nearly fell over and explained that in England we
do not teach marching to this degree in schools. On the day itself all the
schools turned up to the field with there teams all in brand new uniform, very
white socks and SHOES for the occasion, (no flip-flops today ! !) each team
then paraded around the arena being graded on a number of different criteria’s.
The overall winners were awarded with their prizes at each level, Nadowli town
schools taking first prize at KG, primary and JHS ! !
March was also a very busy month of very long and extremely
hot days. Having been fairly redundant for the first 6 months in terms of jobs
from the office, I was issued with one of the most important, sort after jobs
going. The distribution of both exercise books and FREE school uniform to some
of the poorest, remotest local communities in Ghana. This job is literally
fought for - pushing, shoving and elbowing to get themselves seen - by most
people in the office, it’s often the only way to get out of Nadowli for a day.
In fact I can see why, it was a very rewarding job.
Giving out the books made me smile on a whole load of
levels. First we have to count how many children are actually registered in
each class, easy for most teachers you would think, especially when we have to
count our children for so many reasons on a daily basis. MOST if not ALL the teachers
had to get out the register and start counting. Most classes here have between
60 and 80 plus children in each class. Once this figure was reached WE or
should I say ‘I’ had to then
multiply this by 4 or sometimes 5 to reach how many books each class was
allocated. Easy I hear you say, simple maths, that was the easy part because
then you count out the books for each teacher in front of them and they then
count them out again to make sure you can count and then the Head does the
same, heaven forbid if you didn’t count correctly ! ! Finally the books are
given to the children and one by one no matter what age or literate ability,
each individual has to sign to say that they have received their books. 80 plus
children in each class, 6 classes, you do the maths ! !
The FREE uniform is done on a similar basis, only the
uniform only comes in S, M, L and XL. Quite a good set up until you actually
get to the school and realise that actually we have a huge amount of size small
girls uniform and mainly only size XL boys uniform with a few bags of the
others thrown in. Each class lined up in a line of boys and a line of girls, I
was grateful for this as unfortunately all children in Ghana have to have their
head shaved to within a inch of their scalp so for me it’s quite a challenge to
distinguish between them L This again was an
experience as children are not in any way measured to see which size uniform
would best suit, they are given a set of uniform – brown shorts and a orange
shirt for boys and brown pinafore and orange shirt for girls – if it is too big
which invariably for most 4 – 7yr olds it was, tuff you’ll grow into it, that
is if you haven’t tripped over it enough times to do yourself a serious injury.
A bit of rope will hold your shorts up lad ! ! On the other side of the coin,
you get what size we have and if you are a 16 yr old and we have only size M
then you have to squeeze into it or do without.
This experience actually made me sit up and take stock of my
time in Ghana so far. I really began to realise just what poverty means and how
special these children are. Most of these children only have the uniform that
they stand up in or some ragged clothes that they have acquired or bought for
pennies in the market. (often clothes we have put in doorstep bags back home)
The way some of their little faces light up when you take the time to help them
put on their new uniform is heart melting and very tear jerking. Thank you is
not a word that I hear very often in Ghana but the one of two Thank you’s
really were very special.
Something to make you laugh ............ as I said the
children were lined up in separate lines depending on their sex, well one
little one was in the girls line and I handed her a set of uniform and she took
it off me. Then like most of the tiny ones, she waited for me to help her get
dressed, I took off her other clothes and started to dress her and she was
scowling a little, once dressed I heard an uproar from behind where I was
standing only to realise that I had actually dressed a boy in a pinafore a
blouse !!! (stupid Nansala) I later was given a pointer, if they have earrings
its a girl if not it’s a boy. I didn’t make that mistake again ! !
April was taken up with a trip home to England to see my
family and friends. I managed to squeeze in some of my favourite or shall I say
foods that I’ve missed since being here in Ghana . A trip to Legoland
discovery, day out at the national trust, visit to friends in Doncaster and of
course for anyone who knows me well, lots of shopping days in various places.
Seeing how my sister’s children have grown while I’ve been away will stay in my
memory too.
Since I’ve been back most of May has been taken up with
visits to schools, some workshops and time spent on the office catching up on
things I’d missed. A dodgy tummy thrown in has also taken up a week or so of my
time but I’m glad to say I’m back to my healthy self.
Hope to blog again soon.
