More About Hohoe & My Placement

Okay, so I left off the last post talking about sewer issues. To continue along these lines I will now admit to something I am really ashamed of: I litter here, every day. Although those of you who know me may be rather shocked (I know I lecture anyone I spot littering back home), you need to understand that there are no garbage cans in the towns. The garbage goes on the ground and then blows around the roads and alleyways and gets stuck in the barbed wire fences. To try and counteract the problem the Ghanaian government has started a new program called "Zoom Lion", which consists of men riding around on bicycles with bins attached to the back and picking up litter. Apparently it has been working wonders in terms of keeping towns clean, but conditions are still comparable to Toronto during the city workers strike last summer. The sad thing is, once the litter is off the streets it is just added to one of Ghana's many massive landfills. Recycling does not happen on a large scale here because there are no government programs or recycling plants to send materials to. Recycling largely relies on individuals who clean up waste, like plastic, aluminum, and rubber, and use it to make new products to sell.
Don't worry though! By a stroke of luck I ran into the new Tourism Representative for Ghana at a restaurant in Ho last night. He gave us his card and asked us to email him feedback about areas where we feel the country is succeeding and areas with room for improvement from a foreigner's perspective. I will definitely be writing to him about improved sanitation and waste management because not only does it poorly affect the health of the people here but it also acts as a deterrent to tourism and potential income from this.
On a lighter note, I am thrilled by the arts and crafts I have seen so far! The Ghanaian people are skilled weavers, tailors, woodworkers, and jewellery makers! The cloth you can find here, especially the local kente cloth, is absolutely stunning (mom, this place is wayyyy better than Fabricland)! It seems like every other woman is extremely talented at sewing and clothing design--you simply explain to them what you want your piece of clothing to look like, they take a couple measurements, and two days later you have a beautiful dress, skirt, or suit to walk away in. It's quality clothing too, with every attention given to perfecting the details.
I guess I should probably say something about my placement now. In Hohoe I am a "nufiala", or teacher, at the Gbi School for the Intellectually Disabled. It has a large campus situated down a dirt road away from the rest of civilization, which I think may have something to do with the strong stigma that still surrounds the mentally challenged in this area. Within the campus is a school house with 7 classrooms, a washroom (proudly built by Canadians!), a water pump, a girl's dormitory, an open air eating area and weaving area, a boy's dormitory/administration offices building, and a cleared area for a grains shed. There are approximately 100 students that attend the school, although many have not yet returned from break, which ended two weeks ago. Apparently most of the students come from single mother families without steady income so they can only come to the school once they can afford to pay their school fees. During the school year the students live in the dormitories and are cared for by their "housemothers", but during break they are expected to return to their families. At first I was thrilled to hear the children still have connections to their families and communities, but I was soon informed that many parents only take their children back because they have to, which broke my heart.
When I first arrived at Gbi the headmaster was no where to be found and had left his assistant in charge, so Makafui had to explain who I was and why I was there before I was able to do anything. I was placed in a classroom with Miss Priscilla and six older students who particularly need one-on-one assistance with learning. Miss Priscilla introduced herself and the students and then told me to just help whoever I wanted, so I walked around to see what everyone was working on. I had only been there 15 minutes when I was informed that there was a staff meeting and I was being left in charge of the school! There was no room for argument, so I simply said "okay" and watched as the six other classrooms turned to chaos. I tried to stay calm and continued working with one student, Sampson, on his math lesson until Sampson's friend walked in and informed me that they were "going to town". I tried to protest, but they simply got up and walked out. Meanwhile, the teachers and administrators were all sitting in a circle right in front of the school watching this take place and not doing a thing to stop it. All I could do was move onto another pupil, Akpene, to help her with her math. I was shocked to observe that Akpene is brilliant and very proficient in both math and writing. The only "disabilities" she seems to have is slightly slurred speed, an awkward gait, and a malformed hand. I can only imagine that being around non-verbal peers is slowly making her speech worse than what it might be were she attending a regular school.
Eventually an assistant, Michael, appeared and showed me around the grounds. One of the perks about Gbi is that they offer weaving, batiking, and tying lessons (to make doormats) to the students alongside regular instruction to ensure that they have marketable skills once they leave the school. The weaving instructor is a local artist that volunteers all day long at the school and helps to sell the fabric the students create.
Once my tour was done it was snack time so I joined the students under the eating pavillon while they ate. There only seems to be one cook at the school and I can not even imagine cooking for 100 people all by myself! Afterwards my ride showed up and I was whisked back to homebase.
During my second day I met with the headmaster to discuss my experiences and placement. We also chatted about Canada as he enquired about my "Make Poverty History" t-shirt and my religion. He was shocked to hear we have poor people in North America and also surprised to hear about the prevalence of atheism and the corruption of many different churches. After our meeting I returned to the classroom to teach.
I again attempted math with Sampson and realized he does not understand place value, even though he was being given complex addition and subtraction questions that required carrying and regrouping to get the correct answers. When I spoke to Miss Priscilla she did not seem very concerned and said he would never get it--not a very good attitude if you ask me. I moved onto working with Selase, who was attempting to count objects and record the right number. He never got the answer right and I quickly realized he does not even know how to identify numbers. Again the teacher did not seem concerned. On top of this, my presence seems to be an incentive for her to stop working. She sends all of the students to me for help, new lessons, corrections, and complaints, while she chats on her cell phone. Trying to teach six different lessons to six needy students is bizarre and very difficult, especially when you have no idea what they know and what they don't.
On Friday I arrived at the school to be informed that it was "Special Olympics Day" for the whole school and I was in charge of running it. I had no supplies with me for outdoor play and very few ideas about how to entertain an entire school of children for four hours. As soon as I stepped outside I swarmed by children. They were disappointed because I had failed to bring the ball needed for a game of "football" (a.k.a. soccer). I tried to divert their attention with skipping games, limbo, songs, stories, Red Rover, Duck Duck Goose, and races but the language barrier and different levels of understanding made everything very hard. Luckily one teacher was nice enough to come out and translate the things I said into Ewe so the children would understand a little better. I was exhausted, sunburned, and drenched in sweat when I finally announced "break time". This was a huge mistake. The kids immediately started fighting, hitting, and kicking eachother for no apparent reason. One student kept stealing the shoes of his peers and then an older boy grabbed his arms and dragged him face down through the mud. My attempts to break up the fights were pathetic because they were happening everywhere I turned and the students simply laughed as I scolded them. The teachers and housemothers stood at the windows of the school and watched. I lifted the boy out of the mud and screamed at everyone to just stop! The students were silent as I took the boy to a tree in the yard and made him sit by himself on "time out" for bugging the other children. I took the sticks and rocks away from the kids and looked for refuge in my classroom.
Akpene and Edem followed me and asked for lessons, so I obliged them. All of the students have a bad habit of cheating and disciplining/hurting one another so I going to attempt to find ways to improve this over the next couple of weeks. If anyone has any suggestions it would be much appreciated.
Anyway, despite all of this, I still love the kids and want to do everything in my power to help out while I am here. Please send everyone at this school your prayers, we really need it. My ride back to Hohoe will be here soon so I have to run! Back to placement tomorrow! Wish me luck :)