Long Time ! !

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 6^th 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.