Gigdev greatness and Burkina

Ouagadou dou dou, try banana its tasty , to the left to the right.....

In Ouagadou now and it definitley feels very different to what i am used to in Ghana, we are staying near a cathedral, more on that later

I have only done two days in Gigdev this week which is a shame because the teachers are really starting to come on, in my opinion. The education of english and maths is only a small but necessary part of Gigdev, frankly I don't think i am needed in the other areas because Gigdev has them sussed to the best of their ability at the moment. Of course more computers would be great and we urgently need them but there is a plethora of other tools Gigdev are also desperate for. Anyway what i am trying to say is that I think Gigdev is doing a brilliant job considering the tools at our desposal and when I get home I would like to help them out further.

More to follow on Burkina soon...

Africa's hospitals, illiterate kids, and an upcoming trip to Burkina Faso

I think I'm probably one of the laziest people in the group when it comes to updating this blog, but what's the need, normally Joel says everything I ever want to before I get there anyway!

So I've (and Dan, who kindly accompanied me) spent the morning in a lovely (read appalling) Ghanaian hospital before discovering I have a mild bout of malaria - we always knew one of us was going to get it! The hospital was such a bureaucratic nightmare you had to take about 8 tours of the whole building just to get anything done. Nonetheless, I can't complain, 5 hours wait isn't really so bad, and the doctor took great pains to show me the World Health approval on all the needles! There were a ridiculously large number of women and young babies in the hospital, all who looked far sicker than me (and I'm pretty sure I was ushered through much quicker than them). So, now armed with a vast amount of tablets I'm all ready for our trip to Bolga tomorrow (after which Joel, Dan and I are going to Ougadogou in Burkina Faso for a few days! It's all very exciting!

School is also going well, although I've been getting so frustrated with the differences in ability in my class - It's impossible to teach 20 kids - some of whom can't read a word and other's whose reading is perfect!) it just means that invariably half my class are bored (and therefore behaving terribly) all the time! So, for the summer school that we're putting on for them next week I've come up with a solution that will hopefully solve this. The stronger (re: smart) kids will be coming daily from 8-10, and the weaker (re: stupid) kids will come from 10:30 until 2! I'm really excited about this plan and really hope that it'll make some difference. I've also decided to hold half of my class back (10 kids) to repeat the year - I honestly don't know what they've been doing all year because they can't do simple addition or multiplication, and when they are reading they think that every word that begins with c must be cat, and every word that begins with f must be father! It's very infuriating!

Well that's enough of a rant now - I'm actually really enjoying myself and despite the malaria am loving africa!

xx

Go Gigdev

The teachers are finally understanding why little classes that are more focussed work better.

-

As soon as I saw Olivia, I showed her the Wachi place (because food is more important than everything else).Olivia does not like the idea of drinking water from a bag, we shall see how long it takes her to convert.

I've ACTUALLY made a difference....

...a small difference, but a difference all the same.

Since I've been here I've been stressing (quietly) about the fact that i really don't seem to be helping. I'm teaching, yes, and it's great that these children can see a new culture and hear English how it should sound (yes, even though i'm from manchester). But so what? Who cares if they're never going to see an english person again except for perhaps next summer when another voluteer comes. BUT, today i made a breakthrough. I did something that's going to actually help these children!

So, the lazy teachers that i'm working 'with' (read: he sits on his phone all day whilst i teach the class - with a 40 minute break ALL DAY!) filled in their reports today (by making up the class marks so that everybody should be moved to the next year) and i disagreed aboput 2 students.

Suabira: I met Suabira in my second week of teaching, she was ill the first week. She's a quiet girl who's sweet enough but lacks the confidence to do anything. On top of that, she finds the work exceptionally difficult and can't do her times tables (even when i spent 3 hours getting her to learn the 8 & 9 x tables) and her reading is a little shaky. She failed her maths and english exams miserable (amongst others) yet my teacher recommended she move up to P4 (i teach P3). What a joke? I found out today that her attendace is poor because she suffers from sickle-cell anaemia, and as such has missed a lot of work. I made the executive decision to keep her back in P3 (which the school is entitled to do) so that she can catch up the work. If she were pushed forward, she wouldn't cope.

Gifty: I met Gifty on my first day. She's one of the most beautiful girls i've ever met AND she has a personality (if only she were 10 years older a jewish :(....). We start lessons and i can't quite put my finger on what's not right with her....after about a week, it hits me - She's super intelligent. She gets all her work right and then disrupts the class because she's bored. She got 98% in her english exam , 96% in science and 89% in maths. I found out that she'd already skipped straight from P1 to P3 last year. My teacher felt (or should i say, didn't think and was just lazy) that she should move to P4. I would normally agree, especially for the emotional development of a child that skipping years isn't a good idea but in this case i've made an exception. Gifty is intelligence, articulate, full of personality and is at least as mature as any other child in the class (or the class above). So Gifty is moving to P5!!!! She needs to be challenged otherwise her brain will rot.

I know how insignificant that sounds but for me, it's HUGE! I've helped somebody progress at the right pace for them.

More good news on the school front, THEY'RE GETTING NEW TEXT BOOKS! The ones we use at the moment (that only the teacher has a copy of at the moment) look so tattered and old and are in fact, rubbish.

The biggest problem (i think) with ghanaian children (from an academic POV) is that they have no imagination. They don't have money to buy books and schools don't place emphasis on it so they can't do anything. If anybody can think of how i can instill imagination in these children OR know where i can buy cheap school readers for the school library (that doesn't exist) then please let me know - i really want to help these kids!

IN OTHER NEWS:
a) Olivia is arriving tomorrow morning
b) We're going to Bolgatanga, Gambada (the witch camp) and Paga from Wednesday to Friday.
c) On Friday myself, Sasha and Joel are going to Burkina Faso (the country that is north of Ghana). We will be staying in the capital: Ouagadougou. It's francophone so i can practice my (sadly neglected) French.

Oh, i knew i had something else to say! In the village yesterday, i felt really embarassed and unworthy. We came to this village (2 hours late) and all the villagers hadf come out to celebrate our arrival, i thought i'd got used to that but apparently not. We went to the chief's palace (read: slightly harger mud hut than the others) and he welcomed up. We went back to the square and there were women and children carrying these seats for us to sit on. The CHIEF (FYI: Chief is a BIG thing here) was sat on a bench yet I could sit on a cushioned seat. WHo am I? I'm an anaonymous uni student, why should I get the nice seats when the man who has earnt the respect and who leads to whole village must be demoted to a wooden bench. I don't feel worthy but i suppose that's the curse of having white skin :(

I think that's it. I can always write more later or tomorrow

Ciao for now

[Sorry for the rant, again]

The one with the weekend

Another weekend has gone!!!!

Saturday was Saturday, some people saw the car we shall be travelling in throughout the second half of the week, fanta was drunk by the majority, Perudo was played and Sam was going off on one about something the rest of us could not comprehend. Yes, twas a normal Shabbos.

Sunday morning, we were up early in church by 8 ready to congratulate Madame Cecelias daughter who had graduated from a small course (something in the name of Jesus). Pnina and Jo both prayed very hard together and said it was just like praying to Jesus at home, what with the singing of hymns and testifying to the audience. At 10, Jo and Pnina decided they wanted more church and so Madame Cecila showed us another more busy one with more singing this was followed by Lunch: macoroni salad and then more food and more dancing.

We then got in a mini bus on took on a bumpy journey to another villiage where we met the chief and watched Peter sordidly dance behind younger womens [*ahem*] behinds. We took loads of photos especially of one kid that I have decided looks more badass than the rest of them. It was good. By six o clock we were home and knackered. We all went to bed fairly early

Aron, Aron go away, come again another day....(maybe)

The weather this week has been a particular talking point in the Tzedek household. On Thursday Abi, Sam, Sasha, Joel and Dan decided to go out for dinner and Pnina and I planned to go and use the interent. About 30 minutes after they left we were about to take the short walk to the internet cafe when the heavens opened. Now in Ghana when it rains it really pours! I ran outside to bring all the bikes into the garage (the great housemate I am) and in that 1 minute of being outside I got absolutley soaked. We then spent the next 5 mins running round the house shutting the windows, trying to control the garage door which was being flooded by water only to find that the roof had started to leak a little! One bukket later and wearing rubber shoes (I'm terrified of lightening!) all was fine. The others though had to shelter in the restaurant (with no walls!) for the couple of hours that it rained for! Never again will I complain about English rain!

Work is still going very well. There is only one week left of school before the holidays and then Dan, Sasha and I will be running 2 weeks of summer classes. I'm really going to miss my kids! Even though I complain on a daily basis that I've taught them how to read a clock for nearly 3 weeks and some of them still say half past instead of both quarter past and quarter to!!!

This week though I have found a new level of frustration with the Ghanian school system. All our classes are taking thier end of year exams and they are causing the teachers no end of stress. Firstly we spent a fair amount of time going through the exam papers and correcting all the terrible English in them which our school teachers ignored and printed their own versions which don't make any sense at all. Secondly some of the questions on the papers are truely rediculous, for instance: Environmental Studies paper - 'Name 4 animals that do wonderful things?' WHAT DOES THAT MEAN??? Maths Paper - 'Which of these is a multiple of 7: 22, 43, 69?' UM NONE OF THEM!!!!!
On top of this I spent an entire day recalculating all the percentages from their entire years worth of work as they had all been worked out incorrectly! I just can't believe the teachers at this school and it's really making me wonder if anything can be done to help the school when their teachers are so terrible.

Officer's log, stardate 02/08/08, Northern Region

On Tuesday, I got food poisoning. This was probably due to the rice and beans I had for lunch on Monday. I was feeling fine when I got up in the morning, but during my motorbike ride to work I began to feel a bit strange. Just as I arrived at work I felt very ill, so I stopped just inside the SCC yard and promptly vomited onto a pile of rubbish. I immediately felt much better, but decided that just in case this was the beginning of something more serious, I should go to the hospital. So I told Mr Sulley, and he took me to Tamale Central Hospital. I registered, and got an appointment, when a doctor came up to us and said that he would see me. I was stunned, as he had a London accent! Turns out he was trained at George's. Anyway, he examined me and concluded that I had food poisoning, and should rest for the remainder of the day. This I did, undertaking only such unstrenuous activities as a trip to the market to get supplies for the others in the house.

On Wednesday Abi came to work at Nfasimdi Development Association. Since then we have been into the field several times and tried to fill out a proposal with Mr Sulley.

I think that's about all for now. I'll report again when I have more material of interest.