Day 30: The Final Countdown

This morning was spent dashing through Kasoa market in the hot sun looking for last minute buys.  Fathers are the hardest to buy for at the best of times, but mine is particularly hard, considering he is African and has his own Nigerian clothing, and our family home has enough wooden African stuff to stock our own market stall, what to get him was a mystery to me. My safest bet was some form of t-shirt, and in the wake of the recent football game I ended up settling for a Ghana football shirt.  I spent my final few cedis at the bead lady, buying up her smaller bracelets and large flashy rings.

Our last tro ride from Kasoa back to the hotel for a cold pizza lunch, a bag of water and a final drink at Marc Beas.  Considering we were the final two, Marc Bea kindly offered us a lift to the airport, this meant the 40 cedi taxi money we’d saved would now have to be spent in the airport.

Once we’d made it safely there, we checked in (after having our bags searched, thanks to Sophie for putting her needles in my bag, I enjoyed explaining that one to security.)  Duty free had a surprisingly vast range, making it difficult for Sophie and I to pick what sweets and chocolate we wanted to spend our last few cedis on.  After a long thought out decision we settled on the standard airport choice of a toblerone and some controversial green cola bottles (both great choices!)  Now all we had to do was wait…and wait…and wait (thanks Ghana airport for letting us know our plane was going to be delayed by an hour and a half…not!) Finally settled, and sitting next to each other, we were on our way home.   12 hours later and we were back on British soil (after a quick pit stop in Brussels.)  It was great to be back, we were greeted by Sophie’s flatmates and surprisingly so, the sun! I was happy to be home, but I knew I would soon be missing Ghana and all its greatness.

Day 29: Murky Market Mahem!

Our last full day in Ghana...shopping and beach time! A snoozy Sophia meant we didn’t leave till 10.30am to Accra, and after the rough and tumble of getting onto a tro, we were heading in the right direction, with our plan of getting off at Kaneshie Market, the stop before Circle.

Kaneshie market was too crazy for us Obruni, and so we quickly got a taxi to the safe tourist filled National Culture Market.  Lots of purchases and trades were made, I bought a variety of bracelets, a painting and a rather nice brown leather bag.  We left Accra having actually spent all our money and headed to Bojo beach, even though the clouds covering the sun we were desperate to at least try and get some last minute tanning in.  We got a brief spell of sunshine at Bojo, but for the rest of the day the sun remained hidden behind the clouds.

That evening we returned to JD’s for our last supper, a surprising new installment had been made; now rather than having only one singular menu they had NONE. Truly award winning service, they are so lucky I knew exactly what I wanted.  With our last day done, we headed to bed knowing tomorrow would be the beginning of an epic journey back to Newcastle.

Day 28: Pathetic Fallacy

On the morning of our last day at school, Sophie and I awoke to a grey and cloud possessed sky. Pathetic fallacy in its element and clearly Ghana’s way of telling us not to go! On route to school 94 picked up my new troos from the tailors, and at only 5 cedis to make from material bought at the market, including pockets and an elastic waist I thought it was an absolute bargain!  The air was naturally still warm, but the breeze had a hint of a chill running through it. It must have rained in the early hours of the morning as the ground was already wet, and with menacing clouds in the background I felt the rain was imminent.

The bad weather held off until we got to the safety of Miss Rebecca’s KG2 class. But halfway through her first phonics lesson, the rain began. At first lightly, then gradually heavier, until it was full blown British style rain (perhaps Ghana knows we are leaving and was preparing us for the weather at home.)  As part of Sophie’s dissertation she wanted to see if Jolly Phonics could be taught by the African teachers, and so today both her and I were observing Miss Rebecca teach her first phonics lesson. Considering the style of teaching phonics is at the opposite end of the spectrum to her usual rote style teaching, I felt Miss Rebecca must have been watching Sophie carefully as she delivered a wonderful lesson. She managed to incorporate letters they had learnt before, while also introducing new letters and new worksheets, managing to avoid falling into all habits of rote style repetition.

After our morning lesson the rain had left us confused, for our last day at school we had planned to relax with Sunday at the tuck shop and watch the day go by.  But with the rain in full flow it wasn’t an option anymore and now that 94 had computers (in the newly and beautifully painted computer room) the makeshift staff room had been moved to the empty classroom at the end of the second floor. With a secure roof over us we spent most of our day in there debating various issues with the teachers (who were all free due to this week being the beginning of revision week.) The conversation changed from Britain to taxes onto education and then to money, all with differing conclusions and point of views, and sometimes a bit tricky to understand when they all started using twi rather than English. Having to say goodbye to all the teachers that we'd been with for almost a month now was quite emotional, and I don't think it'll truly set in that we won't be seeing them everyday anymore until we return home to Britain. Luckily we got some lovely pictures so we can treasure all our memories from the Omega schools, especially 94.

We rounded off our final day in school by making the trip over to Kasoa to once again find out the lights were off. A fitting end to a project which had such high hopes in the beginning.  Luckily I think I have gathered enough data and managed to send a succession of emails in the 4 weeks of attempting to overcome the power shortages in Africa. With just the two of us that evening we didn’t feel like venturing out, so we got some cheeky room service brought up and settled down to watch ‘Who wants to be rich?’ 

Day 26 & 27: Hilarious Malarious

 On Saturday morning, instead of our planned shopping trip to Accra, we took a bumpy car ride with Marc Bea to Tuba Medical Clinic to see if Elisabeth had the dreaded lergy.  Elisabeth had been showing the first signs of malaria after her simple cold had turned into vomiting, abdominal pains and coughing fits, not so hilarious.  Marc Bea had managed to steer us away from the large western looking hospital situated on the main road, and instead took us to his friends clinic up in a small village called Tuba.  The clinic was a basic concrete building, with a clean stark waiting room. Elisabeth was taken to the nurse for her blood pressure and temperature to be taken, before being looked at by the doctor. After receiving a small black bag full of medicines to treat colds, sickness, stomach pains and malaria, we returned to the hotel in hope that something would help Elisabeth’s pain.  Unfortunately Elisabeth’s vomiting meant none of the tablets given to her had a real chance of working and so a kindly nurse named Evelyn ended up coming to the hotel to dispense further treatment. Elisabeth was hooked up to a drip in the hotel room, casually hanging from the curtain rail, just along side her mosquito net (a lot of good that was!)

Having felt so awful Elisabeth had of course been on the phone to her brother who had been frantically searching for flights, calling the insurance people, and calling the doctor for confirmation of malaria. As it all happened very sudden and would have inevitably ruined her last few days, Elisabeth made the rash decision to book a flight home for Sunday evening. That night Ken came round to visit, to check Elisabeth, Sophie and I were still alive. I listened intently to Ken’s stories of the Omega origin; at first the plans fell through, when he was going to incorporate the Omega scheme into an already established school. But in the end he managed to get everything started up and the rest is history.  Although he has achieved a lot in a small amount of time, Ken himself is not proud of the quality of teaching in his schools. His focus is upon the materials which the students are provided with, not the teachers. He actually wants the teachers to move on and aspire to more themselves. With the minimal funds they have, the teachers are not paid much, so it would only be once they got a larger intake of money, that they would be able to take on more qualified and advanced teachers and improve the standard of teaching. But while they do not have those sort of resources, the money they do have is concentrated into providing quality textbooks and equipment (brand new computer labs) for the children.

On Sunday morning Sophie and I ventured into Kasoa market for some Ghana socks and African material while also giving Elisabeth some time to pack and relax.  Both Sophie and I embraced the African materials and after buying a colourful print i took mine to the tailor for him to make me some troooos (trousers).  Once Ken arrived that afternoon I knew it was time to say farwell to Elisabeth, leaving me and Sophie to continue on alone. It was sad to see Elisabeth go, but Sophie and I both knew we had to make the most of our final few days in Ghana.

Day 25: Surprise Inspection

After our painting holiday at 94, Elisabeth and I returned to Galillea to continue on with some serious dissertation work. Luckily Elisabeth’s cold did not slow us down and we managed to arrive at the school in time to watch a whole school uniform inspection. Where each student was being checked for any dirt on their uniform, if the uniforms were not up to scratch they would receive a swift cane on the legs. The scary p2 teacher then emerged and began checking the childrens fingernails for dirt, I was astonished by this as my own nails probably wouldn’t have passed the test, so I was unsure how any of the kids would.

Following the surprise inspection we had requested the primary 6 class to conduct our interviews in. We were given free reign of the class and so went through the register meticulously, making sure each child was interviewed by either Elisabeth or myself. Many of the children i interviewed played football for clubs out of school, which is always positive and great for my study. However I did also have the first child out of 150 to say sport was not important in my questioning. Luckily she had a well justified answer; because she needed to focus on her school work, a fair and worthy reason.

As we had to go to Kasoa that afternoon we left Galillea early, but on our way out we noticed that almost everyone had jumped on the Phonics bandwagon especially in KG2 and P1. The Primary 1 teacher had made her own flashcards and was in the middle of a human word as we walked past. Miss Sofia should be proud! It was truly wonderful to see how quickly and how well the teachers had incorporated phonics, especially this teacher who had managed to create her own resources to enhance the childrens learning.

 Before making our way down to the main road we ventured down to Weija lake, it was as tranquil and calm as everyone had told us, while also providing a lot of fresh fish for women to sell on their heads in the market. Once again we headed to Kasoa, and once again we our efforts were thwarted by the lack of power. The computer teacher who had been helping me throughout was also not there, as his brother had sadly passed away, so I would have to wait until next week to continue on with my project.

Day 24: Energy Matters

We returned to 94 that day as we anticipated there would be more painting for us to do and once back in the computer room, a second coat seemed inevitable. But before the painting began, team Tutu and Elisabeth were requested as substitute teachers for the absent science teacher. The topic today was energy, a part of science that I actually enjoyed as a child, so with the textbooks to aid us did not seem like too daunting a task. The kids seemed to understand our lesson, although there attempts at group work were feeble, so Elisabeth and I both had to actively go round to each group to spur on some sort of discussion. Clearly they are not very used to discussing things in small groups or being allowed to talk amongst themselves, as rote style teaching does not accommodate such techniques. The lesson was running smoothly until we hit the hurdle of how the children could conserve energy from their daily routines. In the UK such a question would be a lot simpler with the hundreds of cars being driven to school and the amount of wasted electricity in most households. But in a slum area of Ghana, where the children walk to school and only use electricity for essentials like cooking, it was hard to see how the children could realistically reduce their already minute carbon footprint.

We spent the rest of our day painting while Sophie began her post tests on the KG2B class, and with a little help from the older primary class teachers, we completed a second coat. Once finished Sunday immediately raced in to obtain the much sought after paint bucket, intending to use the leftover paint for her own bedroom. Job done and we headed over to Kasoa school, but with the ‘lights off’ (a local term used for no power) we could only take some pictures of the computer club. The pictures identify each child so their pen pal in Newcastle can see exactly what their pal looks like, and I plan to carry out the same process when back in Newcastle, so the children in Ghana can see a picture of their pen pal aswell.

That evening we ventured to the chinese restaurant past the toll booth, as a belated birthday dinner for Sophie. The service still cannot be compared to a British restaurant but the fish I had was a welcome change to the mundane chicken and rice that’s usually on the menu.

Day 23: Miss Sofia’s Birthday!

Happy Birthday Miss Sophia! As a special treat for Sophie, Elisabeth and I decided to join her at 94 for the day. This was also a special treat for Sunday, who had clearly been missing mine and Elisabeth’s presence at 94. Although angry at us for our absence over the past week, Sunday was soon happy again and being amused by our childish obruni ways as all three of us attempted to carry things on our head, Ghanaian syle. With a silver tray and a bag of water on our heads we managed to parade around the playground without dropping anything, a great achievement.

We spent the rest of the morning watching Sophie’s phonics lesson, and it was an important day for Miss Sofia as she introduced di-graphs (two letters producing one sound) to the class. The little KG2’s managed ‘ai’ extremely well and also learnt the dancing sound to letter ‘j’(which I thoroughly enjoyed.) And before the lesson was over the class sang an adorable rendition of Happy Birthday, and even the usually sour faced Miss Rebecca was in high spirits, producing a present of a carton of apple juice to Sophie.

Sunday’s party planning skills (only 29.99) began to materialize after lunch as she produced handmade biscuits and minerals (fizzy drinks) in the ‘staff room’ for those teachers willing to miss a bit of class time to join Sofia in a prayer and some birthday celebrations.

After the celebrations were over, it was now time to start painting. Although we had been keen to paint the outside walls with pictures and the school song, Ken had a different plan for us, and had provided us with one single colour of paint intended for the computer room, which is set to receive computers in the next week. Despite the fact it was not what we had originally planned to do, we took on the task and began painting (forgetting to mix water in with our paint...whoops.) Once sorted out by the helpful teachers we were busy at work for the rest of the afternoon.  We managed to complete the room, as the crazy cook lady who lives in the school during the week for convenience, helped us finish those hard to reach places (making a slight mess in the process.) We were sure she just wanted our paint bucket, which Sunday had also be wanting, but unfortunately for both of them, the paint was not finished yet and neither were we.

Although it was Sofia’s birthday, we’d all had a long day, so we only managed venturing to JD’s for a pizza. On our return to the hotel we ventured to the bar and each had a substantial Cardinal shot (a strawberry flavoured liquor) with barman Michael to end Sophia’s special day.