School is for CHUMPS!

“Darren, I’ll need some of the students to help build the urinal during first period. We can finish this project in 30 minutes.”

“[Laughing, but not in the good way] For Christ’s sake, why didn’t you tell me this yesterday while I was planning my lessons? I need my students; we need to finish this unit. I haven’t finished one unit yet and we are in Week 7.”

“I’ll only take some of the boys. You can still have your class.”

“I can’t. I need everyone there. Common.”

“They will be back before you know it.”

· Marching
· Urinal
· Sports
· ??????

Above are some of the things getting in the way of my lessons since the start of Term 2 of the school year. We are now just finishing Week 8, and we are way way way way way far behind, as in, I’m still teaching Form 1 material. Why is that? For starters, so many of my classes are cancelled. Apart from that, most of my students are still not studying at home (no thanks to their parents), I have to go over the basic math for most of them to understand the science we are doing, I’m at a loss for how to keep my class in order, and I’m still coming to grips with just moving on and letting students fail my tests until they get it in their heads that I’m not going to do all the work. But this is me effing and jeffing. Many days, my students are on the ball, and even impress me at times when they recall material I taught them in Term 1 and tie it in to what we are learning this term; or they would critically think about a question I pose to them (i.e.- If there are such things as non-reactive metals, why wouldn’t it be normal for, say, a machete manufacturer to strictly stick to non-reactive metals?). Some days, my students are angels. Other days I want to walk out of the room and shoot myself.

I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how being so far behind with my Form 1 and 2 students will affect their ability to pass the BECE to get into a good high school. Daily, I try to comfort myself by thinking, knowing, that I am putting my all into my job, that I am new and that my first year as a PCV is more of a learning experience; it is in my second year here that I will really be able to make a difference, this first year is just a test run. But I am not comforted by this at all. Mostly all the students are doing well on my tests and when I ask them questions in class, mostly all of them put forth a genuine effort to participate; but we are going so slow in class they damn well better know the material. I can’t go so slow anymore, but will this be to the detriment of my students? I mostly talk to the headmaster and the nurse across the way, though I’ve been having teachers over more often to get them thinking about this quandary.

Sadly, I’m consigning my PCPP project for another, far off time- too many hurdles and dead-ends. My headmaster and I have done everything we could- we talked to the chief, the assembly man, and people at the district education office. After talking to all these people, we learned that what we make from donations cannot be spent on the Science and Computer building until Phase 1 of the project is complete- the contractor must finish roofing the building. Since my headmaster and I both agree that the people responsible for finishing the building are a bunch of assholes who lied that they finished the roof even though they left the wood frame in shambles and never even started putting on the metal part, we are pretty sure that Phase 1 will not be completed anytime soon.

I’m still writing and sending out letters to potential STARS donators located in Accra, which might show more promise. In fact, that’s why I’m in Accra now. I will try not to think of the world economic crisis and how it might affect past contributor’s benevolence this year. The good news is I now have a laptop, which means I can type up things like this very blog entry, STARS fundraising letters, PCPPs and other grants, End of Term Reports, and suicide notes. I miss owning a Mac, I loved that computer, but I’d like for my students and staff to benefit from learning how to use windows, and I no longer have to use caveman-like chalk drawing to teach ICT. Now I can just go, “you see this?” and they would.

This is not to say there’s no school computer- there is. The students saved their own money and I got one in Kof for about $180. But that broke. And my headmaster, bless his ‘eart, has allowed students to use his while the other one is getting repaired. First hurdle cleared. Second hurdle- no electricity at the school until the street lights come on later in the evening. We are tapping the power from the street lights to get power to our school, and the only students who benefit from this are those living close to school, which is about a little over half the school; the other half lives about 45 minutes away in a town called Anwiem. Night classes start at 7 and go on until around 9. About 40 students show up, but since there is only one computer, things get pretty hectic. Students are anxious about being next, even though we have a number system; to curb hostility, I have them practice typing sentences on keyboard printouts so that during the typing challenge on the computer, they can get the best time. Usually, the challenge looks like this:

Darren Fleischer- Practice typing everyday! Kwaebibirem Model JHS is the best school in Ghana. I hate it when classes are cancelled. (Time: 39 seconds)

Enoch Djobo- Practice typing everyday! Kwaebibirem Model JHS is the best school in Ghana. I hate it when classes are cancelled. (Time: 2 minutes 14 seconds)

Priscilla Aseidu- Practice typing everyday! Kwaebibirem Model JHS is the best school in Ghana. I hate it when classes are cancelled. (Time: 2 minutes 8 seconds)

So I time students as they type something like what’s above, while the rest of the students are typing away on paper. One student, Charity, used to never speak English, only Twi. Recently, to these sessions has really opened her up, and she speaks all the time.

The first and last time I tried having night classes without the headmaster present, things fell apart. While my headmaster was out of town one night, I got his permission to carry on night classes. The usual group showed up at the usual time, collected the headmaster’s computer from his home, and set everything up at the school. Alright, so far so good. Then students quickly realized that I was the only adult in the room, and taking advantage of this, started fighting over the computer. Those not fighting over the computer were running around the classroom, wrestling around (one student was pretending to stab a student with a pairing knife), and disturbing the hard working Form 3 students in the next room. Just as I was about to shut the computer off and end my nightmare, things got worse- a huge lightning storm came, knocking out the power (so I no longer had to manually shut the system off) and creating a deafening sound of rain against the roof amidst the cacophony of boisterous students. Rain leaked into the room, threatening my headmaster’s computer. I came just short of crying, though lots of whimpering came from me; thank god not a soul could hear anything in the din of rain and yelling. When the rain stopped, I quickly dispatched only my most trusted students to return the computer to my headmaster’s house, freeing me of the horror that was night classes. Might I add that students carrying the computer equipment to Master’s house were walking through deep puddles in near total darkness, with lightning and thunder still overhead? Never again, folks.

It’s good that now that I have a laptop, I can inclued all students in on learning ICT, and soon, when I get internet from a wireless service in the area, my students can type to their peers in the US. “But Darren, you just wrote about that awful experience you had during night classes.” I know, but I am using an external monitor so students can poke and point at that screen, and a USB mouse and keyboard so I don’t have to worry about fatal mashing fingers on my own laptop. So far though, I’ve invited the teachers to come and use it; one of them were just about to pay for computer courses before I urged everyone to see me before or after school for free lessons. This might be my chance to get closer to the teachers.

I lost the list of things I wanted to mention in this blog, so winging it here:

A few weeks ago I went to the Kumasi Sub Office (KSO), the home away from home if you’d like, for a STARS meeting. Never mind all that. The important thing is a bunch of us made fajitas. Real fajitas. As in filled with meat. There are so many food items I miss here and fajitas are high on that list.

My parents sent me a package recently with those Jelly Belly Beans, black licorice, and Cadbury Milk chocolate bars. Upon getting these at the Accra office, I made a pact with myself that I will go slow on these, save them for when I really need them, maybe a bad day or… and they were gone before I finished my thought. Literally, I ate everything in two days. To compensate for this, I’ve been making chocolate milk with my cocoa powder, and recently adding candy canes to the mix (hats off to Danielle for that thoughtful, haha, package). To my isolated mates in the northern regions of Ghana, I have no idea how you do it in terms of food. Talking about food, I've noticed that my neighbor’s dog relies on a staple of incredibly spicy Ghanaian food. I laugh to myself thinking back to the days when I’d see little pooches in purses being chauffeured to the local gourmet dog food shop.

It was also fun trying to explain what a candle was to my Togolese neighbor. I had just finished making some pineapple jam, and I needed wax to seal a jar I was leaving in one of my friend’s boxes. I said “Wo wo candle [Do you have a candle]?” As anticipated, they gave me a quizzical look. So I took my right hand, made a striking-a-match motion onto my left palm while making a “fwissssssh” sound, then raised the invisible match to the invisible candle. My neighbor quickly went to the house and brought me matches. Ok….. Same motions, this time with candle in hand while making dripping motions. Another quizzical look. I never got the candle, but I finally traced out the object of want into the ground, and they got it. KyƐnere (pronounced chyanere). KyƐnere- candle. KyƐnere KyƐnere KyƐnere KyƐnere KyƐnere KyƐnere!

On to strange insects entering my home: One night I was walking to my kitchen when I see this huge millipede traipse? its way into my home. It looked like a black tentacle emanating from the space under the door. Creepy for some, though I was mildly joyous about my visitor. I was not so happy about the other insects that came in the night- One night, as I got up to go to the bathroom (it must have been 2AM), I felt like something was not right, though without my glasses on I couldn’t tell. In the bathroom, I felt some fairly large ants flying on me, which was gen rally unusual, and as my eyes, as terrible as their vision is, adjusted to the light, I noticed that my white walls were a large, moving black mass of, I kid you not, the largest ants I’ve ever seen. Not termites. No, those are fine, they are not bitey. These were huge, like an inch and a half, with huge mandables, and worse yet, quite functional wings. And the ants seemed ill-tempered. The scene in my bathroom and hallway leading to my room was something out of a horror movie,the walls were supposed to be white, but instead it was COVERED in ants attracted to the hall light. Thank god I’m not afraid of insects, though I still tucked my mosquito extra tight into my bed.

As for games, Parker Bros. has its Risk, Milton Bradley has Jenga, and Ghana has Rice n’ Rocks- the game where you sift through rice (or beans or maize), otherwise CHRUUUNCH, chipped tooth and a swallowed rock. Last week I thought I chipped my tooth; I bit down so hard on a rock. Whenever I get rice or beans, I always have to make sure to separate the occasional rock, beetle, or stick from the good stuff- if not, it’s Russian roulette with ever bite from a home- cooked meal.

A few weeks ago, while doing laundry, I noticed out of the corner of my eye th wooden poles holding up my drying clothing and towels were beginning to fall, and quickly running over to them, scrambled to catch at least one of the poles and salvage at least some of the clothes from a trip to the ground. I was not successful with this, and had to start all over with the wash. Before that though, I needed to get those poles back into the ground. The shallowness of the hole was only half the problem; termites had eaten away at the base of the wooden poles, and I was left scratching my head over this one. One of my students, Samuel, happened to be riding by my house when, to my great relief, he offered to help me dig the hole with the only crappy tool I had in my possession for digging, thusly saving me from a stress-induced heart attack. He advised that I paint the bottom of the poles to keep away the termites, and made a DEEP hole where the poles now snuggly lay. Afterwards, he hung around for a bit, and observed how I washed my clothing. I don‘t think I’m too bad with washing my clothes in a bucket, but he claims otherwise.

I also got a bike, but I’ll that for the next post. Bikes Not Bombs is the bomb though.

A more touchy subject involves one of my coworkers- the other day I broke up a serious fight between him and a Form 1 student, then end result being an urgent staff meeting. I was in my office working, when I heard a student getting beaten, but louder than normal. I went outside to check on what was going on, when I saw one of the teachers dragging a student by his collar into one of the staff rooms. I followed from behind. The teacher told the student to get on the floor- he didn’t. The teacher kicked the back of the student’s leg hard enough to knocked him to the floor, whereupon the student got up and put his face in the other teacher’s. I got between them, and the teacher went back to class while I stayed with the student in the office, struggling to hold him back while he tried to go after the teacher. I finally got the student to sit in a chair and just cool it while I headed outside, apoplectic and needing to cool it myself. And right when I left, the student was outside running towards the teacher with a fairly large rock. To make a long story short, I recounted the story to my headmaster, and demanded we have a staff meeting right then about all the quotidian violence that makes our school more like a prison than a place for learning. I was careful to make it clear that I was not imposing my ways, that I was not telling the teachers what to do- I’ve only been teaching in Ghana for a few months- but we needed to identify the problems at our school and think of ways to address them without mindless violence.

A second fold raison d’ Coeur for the meeting was to stress how we teachers need to lead by example, and this constant coming late or not at all behavior was at the head of the problem, is what I thought. The teachers put in their own thoughts, including how I was new and I didn’t know how things worked. I responded that I’m working hard to learn, and my only concern was giving the students a good education. In Ghana, there can be visible contention between teachers and the headmaster. I made it clear that everything I did at the school was not for attention or anything, that I did everything for the students’ advancement in education, and I couldn’t do it without the cooperation of all my fellow teachers. And it’s true. If the students get beat everyday for stupid things like dirty fingernails or coming late while the teachers themselves came late and left class to talk to friends, it undermines what I’ve been telling students about the importance of education, coming to the school, and working hard despite difficulties with English, the basics, and family responsibilities.

I’ve seen some slight improvement with cooperation between myself and the other teachers. I had the teacher who kicked the student to the ground (and accidentally caned me in the hand to my vexation) over to my place to teach him how to use the laptop. The only way I can be successful here is if I work closely with the teachers. Trust me, I’ve thought long and hard about this.

The question now is what does it mean to be successful here? Classes are still cancelled daily. I’m still way far behind. I surprised myself talking to my parents one day when it slipped out that maybe I should go home. I work incredibly hard here, and for what? Cancelled classes? I set up labs, get everything together, only to have the class cancelled without anyone telling me until the START of my [non]class. And so in my discussion with my parents, all this hard work can go much farther in the States, where I might have more sanity. But no. I’ll stay. Before, while working to get that PCPP project underway, I was even making plans in my head to stay a third year here. Everyday it’s an up or down for me. My headmaster, though absent a lot of the time, mostly for semi-legitamate reasons, was right: The grand problem at my school stems from many small things in my town that I’ve not entirely explored and understood: the parent’s lack of interest in their child’s education, a local prophet spouting out nonsense to students about praying instead of going to school, the District’s terrible handling of schooling in Otumi, and the teachers’ lack of enthusiasm at school- all these amounting to a pernicious effect on the students’ morale.

Even today, classes were cancelled even though we were absolutely supposed to have classes- I taught only 2 of the four I was supposed to teach. The rest of the time, students were marching and taking an unnecessarily long time on break, a daily occurrence. A student is supposed to ring the bell, but is consistently late ringing it. And this seems okay to the teachers and headmaster- more time to rest or eat or talk. I hate it. I hate being the one responsible for raining on everyone’s parade in the name of having students see the value of their education. All the students are full of mirth outside, they have no restraints- total freedom. All the adults are saying it’s okay. We are in a small town and it’s expected that this school produces students that mostly don’t go anywhere. No. Not on my watch.

During my last class, my headmaster walked in, said he was tired (he didn’t look well) and said he was dismissing students early. No teachers were in either classes flanking my own, and students had a hard day of marching. I begged him to let me just finish this class, stressing how far behind we are. He said he would dismiss the other form and let me keep my class. My students, seeing this, were restless. Defeated, I told them all to go. I was physically upset. It was nice to see that almost everyone stayed back when they saw this, they were doing so well in the previous class and they knew how much we needed to finish this work. But I told them forget it- what we were doing was a bit difficult and I needed their FULL attention, which was not there since everyone else was free as a bird outside.

I didn’t mean to end this entry on a sad note, but that’s where I am right now. I wouldn’t call it solace, but I don’t feel so alone after reading other PCVs’ dispatches from their sites, and how they are having similar problems. My situation pales in comparison to at least five of my friends’ situations. Visiting Martin, a Peace Corps trainer who works close to my site at the District Education office, also helps a lot. He was once a teacher at a public school very similar to my own, with the same difficulties I am now facing. The difference between Martin and the other Ghanaian teachers I’ve encountered in my town is that he is dedicated to the students he taught, and he and my headmaster I think be my most important resources in turning things around at my school, because right now I have absolutely no idea what to do except get smart and forge on.

Wine:
2005 Tocai Friulano

Music:
If I Can’t- 50 Cent
Al Vaiven de Mi Carreta- Afro-Cuban All Stars
I Stay Away- Alice in Chains
Say This Sooner- The Almost
Battle for Who Could Care Less- Ben Folds Five
Play Your Cards Right- Karriem Higgins
Fluorescent Adolescent - Kate Nash
School's Out- Alice Cooper
Just Might Be OK- Lupe Fiasco
Annie- Our Lady Peace
Where is My Mind?- Pixies
What You Need Is Jesus- Public Enemy
You Don’t Understand Me- The Raconteurs
Mama Said Knock You Out- LL Cool J
I Suck- Mark Ronson
Mutha’uckas- Flight of the Conchords
Fortunate Son- Creedence Clearwater Revival
Under Pressure- David Bowie

Mantis

Millipede

Kumasi Sub Office

Matt V making fajitas

Rice sorting: Fun for the whole family

Up in Nkwatia, where my friend Alicia resides

Two good books- Read them!

An Upright Disposition

First off, let me just say that I haven’t been neglecting writing a new entry for this blog or anything - twice now I’ve typed up this same entry only to have both computers cease cooperating with me; my first attempt at posting ended with me grabbing hold of the monitor and vigorously shaking it because the internet went down at such a crucial moment when I tried to post my text. The second time I typed it up, I managed to post the pictures, but just as I was posting the text, the power went out and that was that. Since the closest computer with internet (tentatively speaking) is about 45 bumpy, dusty minutes away from my site by tro, I’m usually hesitant to make the journey; my trips are usually made in vain because of the computers’ capricious behavior to work/ not work. I’m currently at my friend Stephen’s site doing class observations and unwinding from such a stressful week, but more about that later.

Soon after posting my last entry, which was about a month ago, my counterpart (a fellow teacher at my school) and I went to an in-service training (IST) conference in Kukurantumi. A few months after swearing in, Peace Corps volunteers and their counterparts are supposed to attend a five-day IST meeting in order to increase their effectiveness at site. At this IST conference, there were about 17 of us volunteers, about 17 counterparts, and several Peace Corps trainers (four of them being veteran volunteers). It only took me about two hours to get to IST, about a day and a half less than it took for other volunteers coming from the northern regions of Ghana. Volunteers stayed in the bunk house at the hub site while the counterparts stayed in a hotel just down the road.

During IST, we would wake up early for breakfast at 7, spend about 8 hours participating in sessions, and end the day with heavy drinking and debauchery. Some of the sessions involved how to write grant proposals, HIV/AIDS education, safety and security at site, student discipline, and teaching techniques. One session in particular allowed us to pose questions to our Ghanaian counterparts (i.e.- Why do [some] Ghanains blast their music for everyone in the vicinity to hear? Why do [some] Ghanaians call our phones 15 times even though we are not picking up?); likewise, our Ghanaian counterparts had their own questions for us (i.e.- Why do [some] Americans like to cry? Why do [some] Americans refuse any help?).

In another session, a Ghana Education Service (GES) official showed up to field questions about the science and math syllabi as well as answer any other questions we teachers had for him. Unfortunately, our guest seemed to offer nothing but double-speak and insouciant excuses for the education system’s lack of clarity and understanding. Granted, we came off as overly critical of the education system, but all in the name of making schools better for our students. I brought up the point that the GES is out of touch with what is really going on in Ghanaian schools- the syllabi for the primary and middle schools are too difficult, especially considering that English is not the primary language for most students; the science syllabus concerns itself too much with minor facts instead of major concepts (for instance, they want middle school students to remember the names of different digestive enzymes in the human stomach); from what I’ve observed at the primary school across from me, the reading level is set too high for the students, and they are caned if they make any mistakes reading aloud. Other PCVs brought up the lack of clarity and accountability with GES when it comes to allocating funds, resources, and transportation for schools. Towards the end, the GES official pulled out a medium-sized sword and performed seppuku in front of the crowd of teachers. Before he did this though, he told us that Ghana was a developing country, and they were trying to improve things gradually. I’m hoping that as time goes on, we could create some sort of dialogue between PCVs, teachers on the ground, and GES officials to sort out those things that need major improvements in the education system.

On three occasions during IST, a few of us went to play basketball with the locals at a pretty nice court. Our team consisted of 2.5 Jews (Jack, Corey and I), Serena, Jeff, Kyle and Beth with Matt making a cameo appearance. Some of our competitors attended high school, and almost all of them looked chiseled and ready to bench press buses. We did well in our first game (I get no credit for this because I suck). The Ghanaians played way too rough at times, made several fouls, and we got on them about their roughness with the girls, though all in all we had a good time. How did I play? I think if you took a decent basketball player, got him plastered on booze, spun him around in a chair upside down and clocked him in the face while shouting how insignificant he was in the grand scheme of the universe, then told him to forget everything he ever knew about basketball, you would have me.

After IST sessions, Jack, Toby and I (along with the occasional passerby) got some target practice in with our slingshots. As targets, we used a Michael Crichton book, a Newsweek with McCain’s and Palin’s mugs on the cover, a piece of paper with Hitler drawn on it, and a milk jug we named “Big Birtha”. We spent hours shooting rocks at these targets, and we probably kept people up with our mirth and the ting of a rock connecting with Birtha’s protruding belly.

One night several of us hunkered down to watch a movie, and I finally got to see The Departed- an excellent movie as many of you know. In Ghana, you can purchase a disk for about 3 bucks with about 13 movies brand new or old. I’ll try to get a picture of the 13-in-1 movie covers (with titles like “Major Explosive Action” – Die Hards 1,2, and 3, Rambo, The Hulk, etc.)

The best thing about IST was visiting my host family. It took about twenty minutes to walk to their house, and when I walked up their driveway, it felt incredible to see everyone again. I talked to my host family about once a month at my site since the end of training, and it really was like a reunion seeing them in person after four months of being away. The whole family was there- Nana Boat (father), Mama Agy (mother), Kwazi, Ema, Kwaku, Brayn (children). I think my father might have broken my vertebrae with his crushing hug, but no matter, I was too excited to see them to care about my own mortality. We ate dinner, and I got to impress my mom with the new Twi I picked up at site. After catching up with my host family, my host father, his brother and I hit up the bar across the street for libations and further talk about this and that. By the end of the night we made plans to have them come and visit me in Otumi.

My counterpart was not able to make it to our little family reunion, but he eventually met them on the last day of IST when all of us were to head back to site. After saying bye to my host family, my cp and I continued on our way to Koforidua, where I both met my cp’s parents and boarded a tro to get back to site. My cp’s family seemed very nice, one of his sisters was actually very easy on the eyes (she is attending one of the top schools in Ghana right now –KNUST [Kwame Nkruma University of Science and Technology]- so brains and bod). Meeting my cp’s family also gave me the opportunity to get a bit closer to my counterpart, which was an objective of mine at the beginning of ICT. As you know from my earlier posts, there was some contention between us, and I felt that resolving our issues might benefit our students in the long run.

Before leaving Kof for my site, I had to stop at this film shop to make a major purchase- prior to IST I bought some film for my headmaster’s camera so I could snap pictures of my host family, and while there I noticed a nice looking film camera in the window (a Nikon F601 [N6006]). Since I was on edge the entire trip about not breaking my headmaster’s camera, I felt that maybe it was time to have a film camera of my own. The owner wanted $200 for it, and after headbutting him, I left the store. During the five days at IST, I wondered whether or not I should purchase the camera, and I knew from experience that I could talk the man down drastically in price. After IST and meeting my cp’s family, I went to the internet café to research the specs, reviews, and price range of the Nikon, and it turned out to be a decent camera with the average price of $120. I went to the shop, spent an hour haggling down the price, showing him my Peace Corps volunteer card as proof that my pockets are not lined with money, and finally convinced him to give it to me for $105. When we agreed to this price, I went to my bank, where I took out all but five bucks from my account. Now I purchased the camera, leaving me with just enough money to get home; when I finally got to my site, I thought I had about $50 stashed away. I was wrong. I had half that, and with maybe 15 days left in the month, I had to get by with my meager savings. Mind you that I could still eat three meals a day, but I had to cut back on the frozen chocolate milk I’m addicted to at site, among a few other extraneous food items.

Talking about money, I recently filled out my cost of living survey for Peace Corps, which is used to gauge how much Peace Corps volunteers spend and is the deciding factor for any subsequent raises in the future. Now some people spend hardly a thing at their site because, well, they are isolated and have nothing to buy. Other volunteers, on the other hand, have the opportunity to spend their money on a number of things, and it comes down to having the will to save. I unfortunately lack any mechanisms in my brain to put away money for future use. Case in point: In filling out my cost of living survey, I found that on average I spend about $290 a month. We get paid $230 a month. Looking closely at my cost of living survey, I spend a ton on travel expenses, phone cards, and food. Frozen chocolate milk goes for about 40p here (about 40 cents). At 2 a day, that comes to a lot of money at the end of the month. So in submitting my cost of living survey to Peace Corps, I am outright saying “Darren Fleischer fritters his money away on shit like ice cream and trips to Accra.” That needs to stop. Soon.

On to my current situation:

About a month ago, I wrote in my last entry about how I was spending my school holiday. The holiday is over now, and we are currently in the fourth week of classes for Term 2. Unfortunately, the term is going ludicrously slow. I spent the first week of school with my counterpart at IST while my students cleaned the school compound. During week two,, the students were busy taking their Term 1 exams (ridiculous!), since the District failed to deliver these during Term 1. Instead of resuming the regular class schedule, students spent the third week mostly collecting bamboo and palm fronds from the forest and building a fence for the coming sports events in Otumi. And now we are just finishing the fourth week, with even more classes cancelled on account of the actual games going on in my town. Since there are about 13 solid weeks in each term, I’m a little distressed at how far behind we are; and I seem to be the only one concerned about this. All the time I spent planning for Term 2 during the school holiday turned out to be redundant. Of the classes I managed to teach, my lessons suffered due to students’ fatigue from forest work and constant interruptions from teachers for school funds or more workers. It was plain to see my irritation to all this and I must say I’m a bit panicked- which leads me back to my original comment that I am stressed and currently unwinding at Stephen’s site.

Aside from the painfully slow pace of the second semester, caning has become much worse at my school, I’m working on a major secondary project at my site- the Science/ Computer Center, my headmaster and I are trying to get power for my school, and I’m in the midst of fundraising for STARS.

During the second week of this semester, we had a PTA meeting, where many of the parents showed up. Among the topics discussed during the meeting was the lack of discipline amongst the students. The parents and teachers agreed that students were not performing well in school, and felt that the solution should be more caning. My headmaster and I disagreed with everyone else, and I openly objected where this conversation was going; I stopped short at implying that the teachers were mostly to blame for the students’ poor performance, but I did recommend that parents play a larger role as facilitators of their children’s education (not exactly in those words, of course). I explained that I noticed a lot of my students out and about after school, and that parents should make sure their children use a bit of that time, at least 20 minutes to an hour, reviewing notes, reading, or doing homework. Being at site for about four months now, I understand that a lot of household work goes on when the child returns home from school, but talking with a few people around town, I’m confident in saying that before nightfall, the parents have at least 10 minutes free time to make sure their children are doing their school work.

At the PTA meeting, I told parents that instead of caning, I will hold those students who are acting up or doing poorly in class after school, and if any parents had a problem with that, I’d be happy to work something out with them. I experimented with this during my first term, and I learned a lot about those students I kept after school. During the first few weeks of this term, only a few students stayed after school, and so far it’s worked out pretty well.

One teacher was going nuts with the cane one day because some students did poorly on a test he gave; I almost got hit with the cane when I had to physically remove him from my class since he was eating into my class time to hit these students. We had a teacher’s meeting, but I needed to use that time to persuade the teachers to use a chunk of school funds for a new computer and electricity. GES policy states that only the headmaster can cane a student, and only for extreme conditions; I’m thinking about threatening the teachers at my school that I will report them to the district, an damn them if we lose a teacher or two—trust me reader, it’s for the better. First though I need to talk to my APCD [my boss] about this.

I’m so close to purchasing a computer for the school- the students saved about $120, and the one we want is available in our main market town, though it is $80 out of our reach; but if I could get my hands on at least some of the school money, we’d be good to go. Now, all I have to do is convince the teachers that this is a good use of the money. When we had a staff meeting yesterday, I thought all the teachers would be all about getting the computer. Instead, they seemed reluctant to give up the money on the grounds that our school did not have power, a valid point. But we had power line poles sitting outside the school, and I assured the teachers that our headmaster and I have been petitioning the assembly man and the chief to hook power up to the school, and with a new computer we could put even more pressure on them. Since I teach computers, I made the point that this term I need to start teaching the students about launching and using different Windows programs, and that it would be ridiculous to do all this sans computer. Also, I had them bare in mind that the students were able to raise over half the cost of the computer. The teachers reluctantly acquiesced to handing over the $80 so next Tuesday I’ll go to Kade to buy the computer.

Not only have my headmaster and I been busy trying to get power to our school, but we’ve also been trying to disentangle the bureaucratic nonsense that surrounds the half-built, dilapidated ICT building just outside our school. We’ve talked to a few people about what it will take to finish construction on the building, which has been in the same sorry state for about two years now. Pretty much, the building just needs a new roof, some windows installed, furniture, computers and other accessories. With grants and perhaps outside contributions, I think we can finish the building in a few months if we can hire a new contractor and round up the much needed cash. I’m hoping to raise money from people in the States using funds from a Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP) grant I’m trying to write up. I haven’t applied for a PCPP yet, but when I do, I’ll provide a link to my project where you can read more about it and if you can, donate money. I know a few people and organizations that can donate books for a small library at the center, as well as some science equipment. Pretty much, the bulk of the money will go to new computers, a projector, internet, and furniture. The walls are up, and when completed it can be a beautiful structure. If we get internet, we could use the computer lab to generate money for the school by using it as an internet café after school hours. To get the ball rolling, I would first have to submit a project proposal to Peace Corps, and once approved Peace Corps would contact the people I suggested might contribute to the project, while I refer people to the link. I would need the community to contribute to 25% of the project, but since the walls are up and the sheet metal is available for the roof, much of the community’s share is already covered. Note that all tax-deductable contributions go directly to the project.

Aside from the Science/ Computer Lab, I’ve also been gearing up to do STARS fundraising in the Accra area. Briefly, STARS stands for Students Taking Action Reaching for Success; it is held once a year at KNUST, and PCVs teaching at the high school level select 2 of their top students (preferably Form 2 students- a male and female) to go to the conference to meet students from all the other regions of Ghana. Some of these students have never travelled too far from their own towns, and to be exposed to new surroundings and meeting students just like themselves, it creates an incredible atmosphere. The 5 day conference covers topics like leadership skills, HIV/AIDS, tertiary education, and female empowerment; on top of this, incredible Ghanaian speakers, some PCVs and counterparts are invited to the event. This weekend I have a meeting in Kumasi with everyone directly working on this year’s STARS conference, and I figure after that, I’ll begin typing letters to old and new supporters for the event. I have until June to raise as much money as I can, and last year’s conference cost about $5,000- mainly for transportation, food and lodging.

Any other news?

I got lost in the forest one day while trying to avoid all the dust from the main road leading to my house. I took a footpath through the forest that I could have sworn would eventually lead to my home, and unfettered by time as well as looking for a brief respite from the bullshite at school, I continued to walk farther and farther away from the general direction of my home. I had hoped that the path would eventually wind its way back at least parallel to the road, but I kept going deeper into the forest. Sheer stubbornness kept me from retracing my steps, and I kept pressing forward, curious to see what was out there. I sometimes followed a few side paths to come across a small mud home or two, but the main trail got thinner and thinner, to the point where I was just walking in the forest. My main concern was stepping on any of Ghana’s extremely poisonous snakes, like the spitting cobra, black or green mambas, vipers, or puff adders. I decided to just walk in a straight line until I hit road, and maybe an hour after making this decision, I finally made it back to my house, disheveled and dehydrated. The funny thing is I can look out on my porch and pretty much trace where I got lost using the trees I passed along the way as landmarks.

Over the past few weeks I made a few jams and marmalade using the free or cheap fruits in my town, since spending money on sweets was not an option for the month of January. I first attempted to make marmalade using a ton of oranges I plucked from the trees around my house. The recipe called for oranges, some water, a ton of sugar, and some of the rind from the oranges. Unfortunately, I added too much rind, ruining the marmalade and creating an awful smell of barf to waft through my house. I tried to swallow the stuff, but I almost wretched every time I ate a spoonful of the stuff. I succeeded in my second attempt at making marmalade, and I am doing well with pineapple jam.

Ever since IST and Big Birtha, I’ve also been honing my slingshot skillz at my site. Everything in my field of vision has now become either a target or a projectile, and like Bart Simpson, I’m usually found with my slingshot tucked in my back pocket. I even have tournaments with my headmaster and a few of the children in town shooting rocks at small targets around my school. I seem to be getting quite good at the activity.

Yesterday, it was my turn to speak at the weekly worship deal at my school. I’m not religious, so I stuck to asking students why they think they go to school. Is it because their parents make them? Is it for the pursuit of knowledge? Perhaps they want a good job or advance to SHS and college. I explained for a good while why they need to think about these things, and not let anyone tell them what they should think. I went on to tell them why I became a teacher, what my thoughts are on hard work, and my belief that people can make good things come about in the world. This little spiel was received well, and afterwards, instead of breaking for sports, a lot of students stayed after to talk more about the day’s worship speech. They even showed me ways they were remembering the first 20 elements and their electron configurations.

Today I just made it to Stephen’s last class, and I have to say he did quite well teaching his Form 1s. Among the differences between my school and his school, his class size is half my own, the roof has a huge hole in it, and classes get out an hour earlier from my own. We chewed the fat for hours, and I’m feeling a lot better after a long long week.

That’s about it for now. A month’s worth of drivel. Usually I try to get at least two posts in for each month, so check back whenever. I will also keep you informed about that PCPP, when I have the time to write that proposal and finally get it approved. Please email me if you think you can constribute money to the Science and Computer Lab; donations would be greatly appreciated when the time comes. My email address is darrenfleischer@hotmail.com. Etre yibehyia!

Music:

Back 4 U- Jurassic 5
1700 Run Outside- The Kleptones
Headlock- Iomega Heap
Flagpole Sitta- Harvey Danger
Sabatoge- Beastie Boys
I Was There- Cabin
Amor de Loca Juventud- Buena Vista Club
Yellow- Coldplay
Glosoli- Sigor Ross
The Bee- Starlight Mints
Big Mistake- Natalie Imbruglia
One of These Things First- Nick Drake
Dedicated Follower of Fashion- The Kinks
Sugar Water- Ciba Matto

Wine:

Ravenswood 2006 Teldeschi Vineyard Zinfandel

Various slingshots

My new toy

The partially built ICT/ Science Center...

...with detachable roof

Slingshot action

Jack, awake and alert at the in-service training conference

Ronald Tschetter, the director of Peace Corps (center in black jacket)

with PCVs and staff

A Sweltering Winter Wonderland

Most people don’t know this, but those pictures NASA comes out with from Mars missions- fake. The real deal is all those photos came from right outside my home, where almost everything coated with a fine layer of rust red dust. What those scientists are really spending our tax dollars on is anyone’s guess.

Yes, it’s the dry season at my site, and that means desiccated streets, parched animals, and the occasional dust storm. My snot is red. Nothing is white. My lungs, too, are probably red- down to each individual alveolus. The only upside to this- dust angels. Merry Christmas there!

Speaking of Christmas, things went very well over here- Chihiro and her friend Yasuko came over, bringing gifts and some Japanese food to cook. In fact, they brought one of my favorite dishes in Japan- mochi. I haven’t eaten real mochi like this since about 3 years ago when I lived in the outskirts of Tokyo. Things got so bad, I used to have to go to mochi dens to wean myself off the delicious rice treat.

Yasuko brought the dry mix with her from Japan, and all we had to do was add water, roll them into balls, and boil them for a few minutes. Easy enough, right? Unfortunately, no- we added too much water, and when it came time for rolling, it was mush (see below). I don’t think me cracking up, practically on the floor laughing, helped matters. The girls did the best they could and put our sad, limp-looking creations in the pot of boiling water. They managed to get two perfect balls towards the end though.

We boiled them up, mixed them with a brown sugar sauce traditionally mixed in with the starchy treats, and topped it off with mochi poweder, kind of like brown powdered sugar. Despite the mochi coming out nothing like the picture from the package, I gave it all thumbs up.

We exchanged gifts afterwards, and despite my shitty wrapping job (think pieces of notebook paper and duct tape), I think I did well with gifts this year. Earlier that week I went Christmas shopping at the Cultural Center in Accra to find Chihiro a gift. Among the gifts was a stretch of fabric with a woodblock print of dancers from Northern Ghana, as well as two Mad Libs I tore out of my Worst Case Scenario-themed Mad Libs book- one with how to survive a snake bite (for Ghana), and the other for how to survive an earthquake (for when she returns to Japan). Yasuko got a bead bracelet I picked up from Koforidua. Both seemed satisfied with their gifts, and guys, it is al;way propitious to know a girl's favorite color before getting her a gift.

They also brought their computer, and when I placed my pen drive in the computer to lift some files, I found out the drive was riddled with viruses. And then the Great Deletion happened. I lost all of my files, including some important ones dealing with STARS among other documents. Are they backed up? We’ll see next time I go to Accra. Luckily, I didn’t infect Yasuko’s computer….

Earlier Christmas Day, I went into town to exchange afehyia pas (pronounced afishyapa- think happy holidays and New Year’s combined), and gave gifts to those I’m tight with. In Ghana, getting gifts for people is relatively easy-

“What do you want for Christmas?” ‘Biscuits’ “No prob”

For my headmaster, I found a really nice leather frame, and placed a photo of the two of us shaking hands inside it. I’ll never forget his elated smile when I handed it to him. I didn’t bother wrapping it for him after the previous night’s fiasco of wrapping gifts.

It was bothersome when total strangers or people I didn't know very well asked where their gift was. I would tilt my head slightly to the side and just stare at them, befuddled, until they got the point that I had nothing for them. Asking them "Where's MY gift?" or saying “It’s right over there [point in some direction, then run away when they look]" also proved effective.

Among the gifts I got was a huge, I don’t know, stalk? Of bananas, and while carrying this behemoth back to my house, I noticed but was not surprised by an enormous spider, like the one mentioned in my last post, residing on the bananas. Inured to living amongst a plethora of biting and stinging animals, I shrugged and continued to walk to my house, clutching my bananas w/ spider.

All Peace Corps Volunteers either spent Christmas at their site or out of the country- traveling around Ghana was prohibited by Peace Corps due to run off elections taking place at the time. Under stand fast rules, we were to stay at site until January 2nd, a few days after elections in case of any violence. A few of my friends went back to the States, while others spent their holidays in other West African countries or Europe. I forgot to ask for Necco wafers to those friends who did go to the States.

For the most part, elections went well (depending on who you ask); Ghana could account for no major violent outbursts in any of her 10 regions, and it looks like the NDC party (the opposing party in Ghana) won by the skin of its teeth (about 51%). There was just one tiny gaffe in the election process, a certain district botched something and now elections had to be extended to Friday. I found this out from an irritated Grant, who happens to live in that very district. I raised the question about whether or not this would further extend stand fast for PCVs. This seemed to irritate him more.

Sure enough, a few hours after our conversation, Peace Corps texted us that stand fast will in fact be extended to January 6th. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy damn!!!!!

So I got to sulk with mostly everyone else in my town, though their sulking came from the election outcome- NDC's win. Only a few people in my town were staunch supporters of the NDC, and for them it was kind of amusing for me to see the look of satisfaction on their faces. It’s like seeing the lone Dolphins fan in a room packed with Jets fans (if you know what I mean). I can care less about either party; I don’t see any difference between the two, and in talking with people around Ghana, I’m further confused. They both sound the same. I liked the CPP, but they , like America’s Green Party, got a scant number of votes during the first elections. A lot of people liked the guy running for the CPP, but every single one of my interlocutors, being cab drivers or the women selling vegetables in the market, said they liked the main guy, Nduom, but the rest of his party “didn’t have it together”.

Over the school break, my students and I finished the Periodic Table Project- It took three days to complete- first we chalked an outline, then painted with the black, and lastly touched it up with some color. Even Chihiro and Yasuko stopped by to help, though many of the students were at church that day and so we didn’t work on it. The finished product was a beautiful site: A periodic table, some examples of electron configurations, and a model showing protons, neutrons, and electrons.

All JHS students have to take a high stkaes test to get into high school, and keeping in mind that most of the questions on the science portion of the test come from their chemistry units in the syllabus, I thought it would be a good idea to have a visual aid for them. On top of this, the students are responsible for memorizing a heap of insignificant information, such as the names of several inorganic compounds. Looking at the syllabus, a lot of what the students have to learn was taught in my college chemistry class; I think the painting will help boost interest in chemistry, and make them feel smart when they can explain to others information not readily available on the now painted wall. For instance, I want students to be able to look at the table and know what the numbers at the rows and columns stand for.

Elections in my town were held at my school, so many people got to see our painting. With great aplomb, I expounded on some of the concepts of the painting to onlookers. My counterpart, on the other-hand, frowned at our creation. He pretty much expressed that that the painting was unsightly, and it shouldn’t have been done. In my head, I imagined me and a reanimated Mendel knocking my counterpart’s jaw loose with a double punch. My façade though was that of stoicism despite my cp’s obvious affront.

Things have been steadily going south with my counterpart ever since I started work at my site, except that recently, after making the comment about our school's painting, he's been lightening up and being more friendly with me. In fact, just the other day we had a congenial conversation about leaving together for the in service training event on the 12th. He and I, along with all other education volunteers and their CPs, will meet up in Kukurantumi for a five day workshop. I'm hoping that by Term 2, we will have worked out our differeneces.

Since stand fast has left me stuck at site during the holidays, I needed to find some kind of analgesic for my boredom. Aside from tutoring students in the morning, reading books in the afternoon, and talking to people around town in-between, I would find myself restless, needing to do something less mundane. My answer to this quandary took the form of my headmaster’s Minolta SLR film camera. My headmaster had showed me the camera before, but up to that point I was totally ignorant about all things dealing with film cameras. Fortunately, as a youth my headmaster used to be a professional photographer, and showed me his collection of brilliant photographs he took years ago. So my headmaster spent a day showing me the parts of the camera, how film works, and explained some of the jargon that comes with taking pictures. Mr. Donkor showed me how to focus, read the light meter to make appropriate adjustments, and eye a situation to get good light balances.

After giving me a few pointers, he let me borrow his camera, and with a full roll of film, set off to practice taking some shots. I did a nice little walkabout around my town, snapping pictures either of the forest or of families and children excited to get their picture taken. I’m sure I looked like a fruitcake just wandering around the fringes of my town snapping pictures of what seemed like absolutely nothing to my fellow Otumians.

During the holidays, I’ve also been unnerved by reports coming in over the radio about Hamas and Israel’s bloody conflict in Gaza. It is a shame that innocent people are killed on both sides, and as convoluted as the situation is, it hurts to overhear in the rhetoric that many nations are condemning Israel. Coincidentally, about three days before any news of Israel’s retaliation on Hamas, something else that is Israel related had also stopped me in my tracks:

Before leaving for Ghana, I downloaded several episodes of my favorite podcasts on my iPod so that while in Ghana I could hear the sound of Americans conversing. I held out listening to my favorite show, Keith and the Girl, for over a month so I could hear new conversations while stuck in a crevasse of boredom. Last week I was in just one of those situations, and though the show was about 7 months old, it still retained its entertainment value. I was cooking, and while listening, I heard my name mentioned on the show. I nearly dropped what I was doing, I was so shocked.

A while back, I had sent a letter to Keith and the Girl in New York expressing how good I thought the show was as well as how the show should provide some entertainment for me whilst in Ghana; along with the letter I included some pictures of Israel (the Girl is from Israel, and her boyfriend Keith constantly rips on how brown everything is over there). I half-heartedly hoped that my non-brown subjects in the pictures would set things straight. Since I sent the letter in the midst of finshing up grad school and getting ready to move to Ghana, I forgot all about my letter to KATG.

Fast forward to me cooking dinner 7 months after downloading the show, and stopping dead when I hear Keith mention how he just got a letter from “this dude Darren who sent pictures of Israel- the place is brown.” A very weird experience indeed. If you at all you want to hear it for yourselves, just go to KATG.com, click All Episodes and do a search for show #724- Brother Love’s Mother (skip ahead almost exactly one hour into the program to find it).

As fantastic as that all was, three days later came the news of Israel’s most recent major conflict since 2006. At the same time there have been hundreds of Ugandans killed because of war, and close to 2,000 dead in Zimbabwe because of a cholera outbreak. I wonder how many of my students are remotely aware of these events.

During the holiday, I also got sick, a first for me since coming to site. I had some sort of cold, leaving me with the beeps bleeps and creeps for a few days. Looking back, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to get out of bed and tutor some of the form threes, but I didn’t want to just languish in bed all day, and I have it in my head that being sick= losing the good fight. So for about 4 or 5 days I forced myself from my home, stumbled into class, and looking all a mess, continue with math lessons. It got to a point where I had to quit. One lesson proved to be interesting though- In teaching about exponentials, I used an example of multiplying bacteria in, say, a sickly human being, and then I began coughing terrribly. As pallid as I must have looked, I think I was able to drive home the point of the efficacy of learning maths.

One day my headmaster even called to see how I was doing. Even though he was out of town, he knew I was sick and wanted to know if he should come back to take care of me. I turned down his incredibly generous offer, and was left greatly appreciating his and the rest of the town’s solicitude whilst I was sick.

I need to wrap this up… so quickly:

For New Years eve, I went to sleep well before midnight because, well, I was tired, sick and alone. So ladies, save any kisses for when I get back. For New Year’s Day, I went to the Presbyterian church after being urged by so many people to go; I hadn’t gone for several weeks, and I was getting the feeling that maybe now would be a good time to go. I was wrong.

The service was interminably long- over four hours, and I remembered why I stopped going in the first place. I must have said "Jesus Christ" at least 50 times, but for all the wrong reasons. The last hour and a half seemed to deal only with money and accounting, and I wanted nothing more than to leave the place. But I just sat there, and in time it became worth my while- at hour four people started to openly object to having to sit through the procession, and to my amusement, instead of leaving people were up in arms about the service's length. Admittedly, I like the first hour or so of church- people are dancing, there is great music, and I’ll talk to people I usually don’t often get to see. The women wear outfits quite pleasing to the eye (and it’s amazing to me to see all that white when right outside is a storm of red dust). Everything the women wear are tailor-made, and if not white, the outfit has some other color, along with an interesting pattern that is very much Ghanaian in style (I’ll try to get a picture up next time). Also, some cute girls go to church, but again, no deal. I am not starting anything in my town. Bad idea.

Other news?

A mouse not once but twice entered my room; the first time we both freaked out and it ran out of my room. The second time it had entered my room, I was less shocked and more focused on chasing it out of my room, where I found the hole it was coming from and proceeded to occlude its only means of getting back in the house with some wood and a bag (I was like a beaver, sort of).

I read in the NY Times that they may have found a cure for giardia, that cursed intestinal problem caused by paramecia. It’s rather interesting how they plan on preventing illness, something about making the paramecium express all its proteins at once and allowing the body to recognize it, instead of it tricking the body with a different protein coat..never mind. Read it for yourself.

I forgot to mention that the other week my friend Megan and I found a sushi restaurant in Accra; we were full off of Indian at the time, but vowed to try the place next time we’re both in town. We'll also go to an actual movie theater in Accra, the first movie I've seen since I left for Ghana about 7 months ago.

Lest I forget: I also failed to mention in my last post one of the most amusing things I’ve ever seen in my life: During my finals, while one of the students was taking his test, he seemed to furtively put the entire paper in his mouth and chew on it. I don’t think this individual student was trying to be funny, because he did a double take when he looked up to see me staring at him with the most bewildered look on my face. He swallowed it.

I tried making a bloomin' onion, then got very sick because I ingested too much palm oil.

That’s it for now. I’m in Accra saying bye to Chihiro...and I just found out the director- the commander in chief- of Peace Corps, is here (with food) so I think I'll stay. There are a ton of people at the office today, many of them coming back from the States, one from Morocco, another from Egypt... uuurrr! I need to travel more! Enough!

To my friends and family in Israel: Stay well and stay safe.

Music:

Winter Wonderland- Diana Krall
Blue Christmas- Elvis Presley

Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah- Jews
Country Gramar- Nelly
Face-to-Face- Daft Punk
Raining- Dandy Livingston
Unity- Operation Ivy
Blue Skies- Ella Fitzgerald
Don’t Touch My Bikini- The Halo Benders
Hooligans- Hepcat
Don’t You Just Know It- Huey “Piano” Lewis & the Clowns
Oh Lately It’s Been So Quiet- Ok Go
The Past and the Pending- The Shins
Rudie Can’t Fail- The Clash

UA- 赤いあなた

Wine:

Masi Campofiorin Ripasso

Mars

Soccer

Yasuko making mochi

Close

Not bad

One of Chihiro's gifts

My headmaster's gift

Periodic Table Statge 1

Periodic Table Project- Stage 2

Periodic Table, Finished

Mr. Donkor's camera

Some photos I took

More photos...

My Form 2s

Home For the Holidays (Part II)

I’m in Kade again, this time to pick up more paint, stock up on food from the market, and type the second part of this entry. Since I’m stuck at my site until January 2nd (remember, stand fast), I’ll have to get plenty of food not available at my site, though I’m sure that if I run out of food, I could count on Chichiro or my students and neighbors to pick me up something while in town.

I need to add that I'm at the internet cafe near my town typping this up, and there is a huge argument going on over politics and the coming run off. It's kind of exciting. I'm amazing and impressed by how concerned people are about the elections; almost a 70% turnout in the first elections two weeks ago!

Today my students and I continued painting the Periodic Table and some chemistry-related pictures on the wall of our school, and though I took some pictures, I’ll try posting them another day. We had a good turn out- about 12 students came; keep in mind that students are on holiday and are probably working, going to farm, relaxing, etc. We finished with the black, and tomorrow we’ll use the colored paint- the students wanted to use red, gold, and green for the metals, metalloids, and nonmetals, as well as the electrons, neutrons, and protons (think Ghanaian flag colors).

All in all we’re having a good time; the students are learning chemistry, and afterwards the students teach me how to use the school drums and speak Twi. Some people in town periodically stop by to watch us paint the school, and some of them even ventured to name some of the elements (only the abbreviated version of each element is on the Table so that we could use the painting for science trivia).

So in my last post I stopped at me just leaving Bunso for my site. That was a good place to stop. I left a ton of stuff out in my last entry, but maybe I can cover it today if I don’t forget. Anyway, coming back to site….

The back to my site wasn’t too bad, the typical tro ride. I left early enough to get back to my school around noon so that I could see my students and tell them all I saw and did while at Bunso. As we entered Otumi on the lorry, I was happy to be home; having people wave to you and see all too familiar buildings and faces has an exciting effect on the soul.

I told the driver, whom I know all too well by now, to go past the school and head for my home first so I could drop off my stuff. As we passed the school, I noticed many of the students were outside getting food or lounging on the bamboo benches. When they saw me in the tro, keep in mind I am in no way embellishing this story, almost all of them immediately chased after the tro; it must have been a mob of 70 students. Man did that feel good.

I got home, quickly shed myself of my luggage, and headed to school, where I told my students about everything I came away with from the All Volunteers Conference. We talked about the need for HIV/AIDS education in our community, the USAID poster contest (which I’ll get to in a minute, what we will do for Term 2 as well as our plans for the remainder of Term 1.

It was a Wednesday when I got back from Bunso and gave my spiel to my students. I learned that day that the District term exams will not be ready until possibly next week, and when I asked my students what they had been doing for the time being, they said "nothing," which would explain them being outside while my tro was pulling into town. Although this frustrated me, I told them they are still responsible for taking my own exams (the ones I wrote myself) on Thursday, Friday, and the following Monday. All were fine with that. Like I said in my last post, I gave the exams and my students, to my satisfaction, did very well.

The following Monday I gave my last exam, Form 2 Math; unfortunately on that same day it was announced that the District Term Exams will not be issued this term, and will instead be issued the following term. I maxed out my pejorative comments about the education system in my last post, so for now we’ll leave it.

So Thursday and Friday I gave students 4 out of the five exams I had in store for them, leaving Monday open for the Form 2 Math exam. I intentionally left math for last so my students could come to me over the weekend for help. That Saturday I showed up early to the office and a few students came by for tutoring. At around 1 though I got a call from one of the Peace Corps Leaders (PCL) in Kumasi that the country Director had been trying to get ahold of me that day- it turned out that a Florida Senator was in Accra as part of a small tour of Africa for intelligence gathering, and he was planning a brief stop over to the Peace Corps office to meet some Peace Corps volunteers. Peace Corps needed me as the token Floridian…the next day. Since Sundays no bus comes through my town, I needed to leave for Accra that very moment (traveling at night is disallowed by Peace Corps and strongly advised against because of a number of dangers).
I apologized profusely to my students, told them I would postpone the test to Tuesday, left the office, swept my room for anything I needed to bring with me to Accra, and legged it for a ride. Unfortunately, when I hear the bus coming and had the kids run out to flag it down, the bus kept on going. Since that was the last bus to Accra, I had to resort to taking the inefficient, costly, and dangerous method of transportation- tro. Not only that, but I waited an inordinate amount of time waiting for a tro to come through my town. I talked with some of the townspeople before eventually catching a ride, and I was on my way.

When I reached Accra, I saw that a few other volunteers were there to meet the senator- Ira, Carolyn, Cheri, and others- a nice diasporas of about 10 volunteers for the senator to meet. We had one water sanitation PCV, some educators (most of them in def ed), and others belonging to the business, agriculture and environment sectors. All of them had been in Ghana for at least a year, making me overly conscious about my nascence.
Before meeting the senator, we were briefed about his background, the people who would accompany him, what we might want to talk about, as well as the senator’s name- Bill Nelson. Two interesting things about him: he went into space on the Challanger (the launch preceding the one where the shuttle and its crew met their end), and he went to the University of Florida as an undergraduate. Great, I thought.

"So you grew up in Florida, what university did you go to?" ‘Florida State.’ "What was that?" ‘Florida State’. "Haaaaaa haaaaa."

It was explained that the senator was going to be a bit late and that his wife would arrive first to field questions and ask what each of us did. A little before the wife showed up, all of our eyes followed what looked like to be a delicious cheese board, followed by other hours-de-oeuvres. When the wife did show up, we were given the green light to go and eat cheese- something PCVs must pine for throughout their two years of service here. When the wife did arrive, we introduced ourselves and the discussion went into full swing. We told her what we did at our sites, and I was deeply impressed by what all of my fellow PCVs had to say. One, whom I’ve known for a while now, surprised me when she said she worked at a halfway house for women banished from their towns as a result of being accused of being witches. This PCV would work with the women to undertake business ventures using art as an income. Every other volunteer seemed to have an equally interesting role at their site.

Each of us were also prompted by the senators wife to provide any improvements Peace Corps should make, or anything that can make our jobs and lives easier there. My fellow PCVs came up with several good points: having an extended period of prioritization in government jobs for returned PCVs- many of them go on to graduate school after Peace Corps, and the one year priority benefit doesn’t seem to cut it; US military postage rates- we have to go through the Ghanaian postal service, and sending mail home costs an absolute fortune; higher readjustment pay for returning volunteers, especially for those living in major cities.

I was the last person to speak, and when it came my turn, I felt slightly embarrassed about my greenness as well as nervous to speak in front of my peers; also keep in mind that by this time I was at the 5lb mark for cheese consumed. With a surfeit of nervousness, I explained that I am a middle school teacher in charge of about 80 students, teaching math science and computers. When I explained to her that I pay close attention to gender equity since this is something I studied extensively in graduate school, she asked what the male to female ratio was at my school. At this question, I locked up; even though I well knew that it was about 2:1 in both forms. I didn’t bother to ask my peers later how I did when talking to the senator and his wife, but I think I sounded like a nervous ignoramus.

Overall, our conversation with the senator’s wife went well, and in turn we learned that she herself did plenty of humanitarian work. She showed a genuine interest in our cause, and seemed to be well versed in outside humanitarian organizations.

Eventually the senator did show up, and again we briefly introduced ourselves. He asked us what entailed a typical day at site, and again I locked up. I don’t even want to go into it anymore. I did get cheese though. And a photo with the senator. Ira drank the untouched coffee once belonging to the senator.

So that’s about it. I went back to site the next day, and held classes in order to review for the Math test. the next day students took the test, then we took class pictures (see below?). Other highlights:
Wednesday I got sick off of bananas that two students separately presented to me. Living off the land in Ghana is great- I get to eat plenty of the sweetest (and free) pineapples, bananas, oranges, watermelon, and mangoes, not to mention avacados, cucumber, tomatoes, onions, carrots, chili, okra, and spinach. I could just ask for one of these items, and not ten minutes later a student would be back with said item after pulling it from ground or tree.

This next story is told with much chagrin: Thursday was the last day of school, and I wanted to use it to get students interested in a USAID poster contest discussed during the All Vols in Bunso. In a nutshell, two representatives from USAID came to Bunso with enough paint, paintbrushes, pencils, pencil sharpeners, and posters for everyone; these items were to be used for a contest that had ten people or groups design a poster 11x17 inches with the theme "Celebrate Life". These would be submitted to USAID located in Accra later in March.

I described as best I could the details to my students on Thursday, and several of them wanted to get started then and there. I figured I would do it during Term 2, but the enthusiastic look on their faces made me reconsider when I’d hold the contest. Half exhausted from the day, I said to myself what the hell and broke students into groups and passed out the art supplies.

Just after I handed everything out and everyone got to work, my headmaster said he wanted to have a staff meeting about the extra money we collected from the students over the course of Term 1. Extra class money is given to teachers from students for classes they teach after school. Teachers usually use this money to compensate for their meager pay, using it to pay bills or purchase DVD players (I’ve been to a few of my teachers’ homes, and if what they say is true, they are spending upwards of $600 on entertainment equipment- a lot here). I was in charge of collecting and keeping track of the flow of extra class money from teachers, which is why I needed to be present for the conference.

Peace Corps disallows us to use this money on ourselves; we can however alow the money to go back to the school. The meeting was about divvying up the money, and in all I got 40 bucks from the deal- enough to purchase paint for the Periodic Table Project, with the remainder to be go towards a computer the teachers and students have been saving up for.

While this meeting was going on, and unbeknownst to me at the time, pure chaos transpired as students began fighting over the art supplies and forgetting to make their posters 11x17. In retrospect I should have both held out till Term 2 and written instructions on the board. During the meeting, several students came into the room complaining about the scene in class. When I entered the class, it quickly became apparent of how much of a disaster the whole project became. Some students went home with their posters; others used the paltry amount of paint on their practice sheets I gave them; some students even stole other students’ posters or pencils.
Trying to remain indefatigable about the situation, I collected what posters and art supplies were left, took down the names of the owners of these items, then had the students get as much info as they could on those students that broke the rules/ left school with their supplies. To this day I still trying to put things back on track with this poster contest.

There are other stories, like the one that deals with a lone kitten, but I left some food with the woman I usually buy from in the market, and it’s getting late. My next post should be up in early January, around the time I am allowed by Peace Corps to travel outside my site again (remember, stand fast), so you can use your time learning to ice skate (or if in South Florida, roller skate), sculpture your abs, hang glide, get over a fear, etc.

As for me, I have a 25-day holiday. My plans are to paint with my students the periodic table and chemistry pictures on one of the school’s walls, raise money for STARS (an onus I volunteered to do during the All Vols), plan for Term 2, tutor my students, write up my quarterly report for Peace Corps, and spend some time with Chihiro before she leaves Ghana for good. I’ll report to you in January about how my break went and whether or not I was able to fix the disaster that was the USAID poster contest.

Happy Holidays!
Happy New Year!
Happy Birthday Avi Jamal!

Music: Holiday themed (a Jew can enjoy the occasional Christmas song too)
Drink: Eggnog
Game: Dreidel