Ghana 2012 - Week 4

Week number 4 is our first week in Bolgatanga, which is a city in the very north of Ghana. The place seemed not to be as densely populated as Kasoa and people here were a bit more relaxed. The schools appeared a bit more organised and classes scheduled more carefully though. As a result, from the first day in schools we were presented with a timetable and we had a discussion with teachers about when we are going to teach. After meeting teachers in both schools we ended up having either 1 or 2 classes a day. Because both of the schools are government run and are both mostly attended by Muslim students, we were also informed that one day a week they finish school early so they can go and pray.

The first school we taught in was TI Atimadija. This school is very close to the Youth Harvest Foundation centre, so it is convenient for us. As in most of the schools kids have to wear uniforms. Kids wear red uniforms here so it is easy to distinguish which kid belongs to which school in case we meet someone in town. Because we have our timetable, we do not need that many assistance or coordination as in Kasoa. The teachers are generally very helpful and friendly and during our first class we even had the principle of the school observing our lesson. Although he seemed not to be extremely impressed, we appreciated that. In TI Atimadija we were impressed that kids are quite smart and behave very well. Hopefully, we can maintain this until the end of our stay.

The second school we taught in was Aswaj. Again, this is a government run school, mostly attended by Muslim students (purple with brown uniforms). We felt very welcome at this school. Science teacher Gloria showed great interest in our project and our classes from the beginning. She always comes in and helps us with the class, which is very much appreciated. We hope to get some feedback from her as well. The classes are a bit smaller in this school, so it is slightly easier to teach. However, there is a great interest from smaller kids from primary school, so towards the end of the class we are usually surrounded by curious and sometimes a bit noisy crowd.

For the workshops we decided to run towers and levers again, because we think that these two are slightly easier so they help kids to get confidence from the beginning. The big change we made is that every time we start our class with a short test. These tests are made so that we could see if kids are actually improving.  In addition to this we are asking kids if they could find the materials we use at their homes. This is mainly because teachers in schools say that they would like to have experiments and practical works in classes, but they do not have the money to buy the equipment. By doing this we expect to find out if kids could bring the equipment themselves for workshops.

Another interesting aspect of our stay is that our bikes keep breaking down. During the last week we already had 5 flat tires, 3 of which just popped. Others had punctures or were in such a bad condition that we had to change them. So far the guy who repairs our bikes does that for free (we do not pay, but the owner of the bikes does) but we do not know for how long this is going to last. It looks like our bikes are just falling apart. However, there are not many options in this case, because taxis are not that popular here and are generally expensive and we live too far away from the schools to walk. Hopefully, these break downs are going to stop, because we are already a bit annoyed by them and it takes time to get bikes repaired.

Over the weekend we decided to let our bikes rest for a bit. Our plan was to go to Paga, which is very close to the border of Burkina Faso. It is famous because of the crocodiles that live in these ponds in Paga. Unfortunately, when it was time to leave it started raining very heavily, so we had to wait for a few hours until it stopped. After visiting the place and taking some exciting photos of crocodiles we went to the border. We were surprised that we were allowed to cross the border without our passports or bags checked. Everyone seemed to be chilled about us walking around and taking photos. We event went to Burkina Faso and no one was actually worried. It seems like it is enough to be white and you can go wherever you want. Although it sounds a bit weird, this is how it is here.

That is it for week 4. I hope the internet connection is quick enough today so I can upload some photos as well.