Kitchen

Washing a Goat

Tyo

Tyo

Pictures

Sister Josephine and sister Rita

Back from a funeral

A kid in Sega

A kid in Sega

James, js1

Kids

Princess, js3

Trip to Accra and Cape Coast

I traveled to Accra and Cape Coast over the weekend – from Thursday afternoon until Sunday evening – and had one of the most odd and fascinating experiences I recall having. I learned so much about Ghanaian cultures during these few days and with so much intensity. I will try to share the entire story with you but here are just a few questions to arise your curiosity: Why did I sleep at the house of the Deputy Commander of the Ghana Navy? How did I end up shaking the hands of over 40 Ghanaians in the course of 3 minutes? And why did I watch a drug-king show of women dressed like men on the campus of Cape Coast University? All and more in the following paragraphs…

I went traveling with Richmond, a volunteer who is a Ghanaian and a native of Accra who spent his high school years in a boarding school in Cape Coast. We left on Thursday afternoon, obviously not without an African introduction: While we made it clear that we should leave at 16:00, and head toward Junction together, it was only at about 16:30, after waiting anxiously, that I discovered where Richmond was: he was just getting a haircut in Junction, and insisted on coming back to Sega to take a shower, only so we could leave again to Junction – which is, to remind you, about an hour away by foot. When I asked him if it wouldn’t have been a better use of time to have me wait for him a few minutes in Junction while he gets his haircut instead of going back and forth he seemed to disagree and I took it for what it is, regarding it as a simple, and perhaps harmless, cultural difference.

Only later was I to discover that this was part of a ferocious campaign waged against me by the entire Ghanaian people over the weekend: A campaign that consisted of providing me constant disinformation and having me, a person who is fond of the Yeke culture, learn every possible technique of wasting time. This of course is said jokingly, but I assume I am able to view it humorously only because I had to endure it for no more than 3 days.

As we arrived in Accra we went to what Richmond referred to as his “mom and dad’s house” (disinformation #1), there I was truly welcomed by his sister, cousin and the house staff: a cook, house keeper and driver. I was served delicious dinner and chatted with the people around me. His cousin is a lawyer who studied both in Canada and Ghana. She is extremely sharp and bright and we talked a little bit about legal issues concerning the school in Sega – the implications for instance of the fact that the school is not registered as a charity.

The house is located in what I believe is a wealthy neighborhood in Accra. They have a gate, an electric wired fence, 3 cars (a new Mercedes, Volkswagen and an SUV) and a huge house. Although from the outside the place looks extremely nice, the house from within is poorly maintained and decorated: all the electric plugs are hanging off the wall, the tap water isn’t running in the shower, the walls are peeling off and there are no pictures on the wall other than a few plastic clocks and a big promotion-calendar with pictures of “Frytol” – the leading frying oil in the country. For me, it was truly odd to see a house that genuinely looks like a warehouse from the inside while so much is invested to make the “outside” look appealing.

At night, when we went to sleep, Richmond’s sister, Joan – joined us in the room for a little late night talk. She is in her mid 20’s and I mentioned her before in one of my posts after she visited Sega for a few hours. She finished studying arts in the university (what we call ‘humanities) and now does occasional clothes designing. She is married to Jay a Ghanaian who won the Green Card Lottery, studied in the US and currently lives in Long Beach and works as an accountant. It is very difficult for people in Ghana to procure a visa to the US – most are denied and the others need to wait some time up to half a year so she is now waiting for a visa to join him in the US.

Both Joan and her brother constantly referred to the house as their house and to the adults who lived in it as “mommy” and “daddy”. That is why it was so surprising for me to discover that they are not their biological parents but rather their uncle and auntie – their biological parents live in a different city in Ghana, and they speak with them every day. But for the past 5 years they have been living with the uncle and auntie – Ghana, I was explained, still works by the “extended family system” – which means that people live with whoever they want from the extended family. In most families it means that whoever is wealthy attracts other family members who wish to live on their expense – and this is totally acceptable. So both of them sleep there, eat there, get to use the cars and receive a monthly allowance from the uncle and auntie (the uncle is a lawyer that deals with corporate law) – and this lasts for years. It is a part of the culture. So both Joan and Richmond simply do not have jobs right now – and why should they? Their expenses are covered. Later, on Sunday, during church service I attended, I discovered that this was true to a large segment of the society in Ghana – and this behavior was heavily criticized by the Pastor.

On the morning we planned to leave at about 6am – to head to Cape Coast which was said to be 4 hours away (disinformation number #2 – it is actually only 2.5 hours away) and meet with Richmond’s cousin who was constantly referred to by everybody in the house as an “I.T specialist” (disinformation number #3 – he is actually a student who major’s in agriculture. However, he did work once for a computer company). This was delayed by almost 4 hours – first by breakfast, an egg sandwich, the was kindly served to us (but took about 40 min to prepare), then since we had to wait for everybody in the house and greet him personally before we leave – so we had to wait for everyone to shower and get ready. I spent the few extra hours in the house chatting with the auntie, which was a truly kind and generous hostess – about various issues. Apparently, the uncle is a quarter Jewish and the family is very pro Jewish and pro Israel – she is the only African I know who supports John McCain because she thinks he will protect Israel better (amazing that this is a concern in Ghana!) and she asked me if Israel will attack Iran or not (this is a fair question, what was odd though, is that I seemed to detect a glimpse of surprise on her face when I admitted to her that I really have no clue). When everybody was ready we were driven to the bus station by Richmond’s cousin. A few minutes before we got to the bus station Richmond’s cousin called us and asked us to bring him something from his grandfather’s house in Accra. Now, this house is located almost half an hour away from where we were – but I was told that in Ghana you never say no to a family request, even if it is a complete waste of time and out of your way so we had to go get that for him – and of course sit down with the grandfather for a while. All in all, we ended up leaving at almost 12:00 o’clock, when I was ready and packed to go by 6 am in the morning.

One amazing thing about Accra is how commerce is done in the city. As I was sitting on the “Ford” (a name of one of the methods they use to travel from place to place – in this case service-taxi minibuses that are notoriously famous for speeding on the highways) – next to my window passed tens of merchants, carrying on their heads every possible good and offering it for sale through the window cell, passing through a row of maybe 20 such minibuses. I was offered everything – and a short list includes juice, ice cream, handkerchiefs, batteries, dictionaries, notebooks, packed lunch, sweets, shoes, water bags, fruit, fried meat and the list goes on. Since Accra is a city that is known around Ghana for its endless traffic jams, so much of the commerce in the city takes place on the roads with people carrying their stores on their heads – literally so – and offering everything for sale.

We arrived in Cape Coast and headed to the University of Cape Coast campus where we were planning to meet Richmond’s cousin and where we were planning to spend the night. Cape Coast is the former capital of Ghana, one of the main tourist destinations in the country – a city that lies on the beach. The university campus is fairly decent, maybe because my expectations were very low. We put our stuff in the dorms that are basic apartments at ground level with 2 students sharing a room. Then we went to Cape Coast Castle, one of the main fortresses that were used during the North Atlantic Slave Trade – where slaves were held for months in horrible conditions and we then shipped overseas. It is estimated that some 1 million slaves passed through Cape Coast Castle. What was interesting to learn, however, is what a major role Africans played in the slave trade – chiefs and kings used to bring in the slaves and sell them to the British in return to other goods. Without the willingness and the cooperation of those it would have been hard to maintain the slave trade at such a large scale.

After seeing the castle we walked around Cape Coast – there is really not much to see there. It is basically a city with a lot of commerce going on, and the most of it simply looking like “shuk-hatikva”. In the evening we went back to the campus and showered – I was so proud of myself for being able to shower and deal with the sanitary condition of a common shower in a university in Ghana. Later on, we went to a student festival that took place on campus – it was a big event with about 2000 students around. There was a main stage and a lot of small venues selling goods around – mainly hotdogs and ice cream. The main event of the evening was a drug king show – with female students from the university dressing up like men and trying to be most convincing. This was really funny, and I found myself laughing and screaming in a crowd of 2000 Ghanaians being the only white man there. People around were so kind to me and very nice and nobody seemed to be bothered.

The next morning we got up and headed to Kakum National Park. This is considered one of Ghana’s main tourist attractions which prove what a poor country Ghana is for tourism. This is rainforest which should be fascinating to anyone who is interested in different kinds of tress or butterflies but quite unimpressive for the lay person. The only exciting feature is a rope walk built in the forest and that is set up very high (the highest point being 40 meters) – so you can walk next to the tree tops and if you are lucky you might even meet some monkeys.

After we were done at Kakum we went to Richmond’s former high school to meet his girlfriend. This was very odd. We got there and informed his girlfriend that we were there but she never came out. She was in the girls dorms so he couldn’t walk in there. Eventually, he met her in a classroom, gave her a few presents and spent with her 7 minutes after which we left. He said that they didn’t have really much to talk about.

After we were done over there we headed back to Accra. Joan decided that we should sleep at her husband’s parent’s house so we headed out to there. Her father in law (which she also calls ‘daddy’) is the deputy commander of the Ghana Navy and lives in “Burma Camp” – a neighborhood in Accra that is designated for members of the military. His has is very nice and he too seems very wealthy. There is air condition almost in every room and 3 workers – a cook, house keeper and driver. They were truly kind and generous hosts. For the first time in Ghana I was served dinner like at home – that is, instead of being served a personal portion – sitting on a table where a variety of foods are present and serving yourself. So there was chicken, rice, local fish stew, fried yam, raw salad and a local dish called Bangku – a real variety of foods.

Before dinner I spent some time talking with Joan’s father in law and was truly amazed by how humble he was. He was telling me a little bit about the Ghanaian army and that since they have no wars they serve as the main peacekeeping force in Africa – with their forces working as peace keepers in almost every major conflict in Africa (from Sudan to Eritrea). He was also telling me about the time he spent in Iran in 1989 (during the Iran-Iraq war) and how he was threatened after expressing his opinion against the fatwa issued by the ayatollah against the author Rushdie – who published a book criticizing Islam. He also spent time in Lebanon, Egypt and the US and shared some stories from those times. I really enjoyed talking to him, and again was impressed by his humbleness. Over dinner, Joan said that we should join them for church the next morning and so we did.

Going to church in Ghana was one of the highlights of my trip. The guide book refers to Ghana as the most “flagrantly Christian country in the world” and this might be right – everything in Ghana bears a Christian name – from the minibuses that are named after verses in psalms, the kids names, and the stores that have such names as well – “salvation haircuts”, “By god we stand cement factory” and so on – these are true examples.

We went to “Royal House Church” – which is one of the most famous churches in Ghana. The church pastor is a very famous pastor who appears on TV and has his own TV station if I am not mistaken. This church also attracts the wealthiest in Accra – all the cars that were parked were brand new cars of brands such as Audi, Land Rover, Mercedes, BMW and so on. The church also makes a lot of money – twice the congregation was asked to give offerings during the service, and the staff passed huge bags into which the crowed through bills. At least two hundred people gave special offerings in envelopes – and probably contributed at least 100 Ghana Cede each (=100$). There were about 1000 people in the church, and at least two thousand more outside watching the sermon on huge plasma screens. The sermon begun with loud singing by all the congregation of songs in praise of God and continued with a woman who brought her baby that she gave birth to at ten months – which was born, of course, due to the prayer bestowed upon him by the pastor. Then came Ghana’s ambassador to Ireland to speak and different important people were noted in the audience, such as the finance minister. The message that resonated during the sermon was that of peace and this is especially accentuated now ahead of the general elections in the country.

The highlight of the service however was none of this but a teaching delivered by a visiting pastor. He truly gave an incredible teaching that had very little to do with God and that was directed at the audience and the society of Ghana in general. The past who delivered the speech criticized various aspects of the society in Ghana and talked about how time is being wasted by people, about how much people care about how they are perceived by others, about the general lawlessness in the roads, about the culture of living on the expense of family members and most surprisingly – about how the countries who have the most churches in Africa are also the most poor, and that religion won’t solve anything until people take responsibility over their own life instead of just hoping for good things to happen to them. This was an enlightened speech that was well received by the audience – and he seemed to point out all the problems that I saw in the culture in Ghana during my stay here. So instead of going to church to be assured of their goodness people got a knock in the head, a call to wake up, and that is something I liked. Also during the service people were asked to shake hands so I ended up shaking so many different hands.

After church we went home for lunch and then headed to the mall. Then I got on the bus home and got back to Sega. I missed Sega so much while I was away and was so happy to come back here.

Cape Coast

Cape Coast Castle

In Sega

kakum national park

www.segaschool.com – new web site

After intensive work we finally put up the web site of the Anmchara International School in Sega, Ghana. I am also going to write here the following key words just so it shows up in google: volunteering in africa, volunteering in Ghana, volunteer in the third world, volunteer oppurtunities:
www.segaschool.com

www.segaschool.com

Monkey

On Saturday I was walking to Junction to get a ball for the kids. On the way we noticed a monkey tied to an electric pole, outside one of the stores. The monkey is owned by a little boy named Mohamed who caught him in a forest nearby.

Traditional Dancing

Putting on colors

Putting on colors

Before Dancing

Preparing to dance

Traditional Dancing

Pictures

Josephine and Eben-Ezer, Godwin’s relatives who live with us

Class

Godfred, JS1

Me and Joshua

Joshua, JS1

Me and Josephine

Weekly Report

On Saturday I went with three of my older students to a day trip in Ada Foah, a beach located about 40 minute drive from Sega and that is known for the beautiful spot at the end of the beach where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Volta river, which is to Ghana perhaps what the Nile is to Egypt. This was amazingly beautiful and the weather during the day was perfect. Unfortunately, due to lack of judgment on my behalf, the day ended with second degree sun burns on both my feet – the only part on my body which I forgot to apply sunscreen on. So now I am sitting in the house, unable to wear shoes and walking to school and teaching barefoot, with the inevitable and occasional crumbs of cow and goat excrete being attached to my feet.

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A few days ago I finally got a local name. I was passing through the village on my way to the school’s boarding house, where I help some of my students with homework in the evenings and was stopped by a family as I was walking through their yard. “Do you already have a name in Ada?” a woman asked me, and when I replied “no” they all were running through their heads possible names for me. Finally, the woman asked: “Were you born first or last?” and when I replied that I was born third she suggested the name Teye (pronounced like the English word “ten” without the nasal “n” at the end, or the last syllable in the Hebrew word “me-fa-te”), which was to my liking and which means “born third”. All the names given in the local language refer to the day of the week the child was born on or to the number of siblings who succeeded him. So you will find names such as “born on Sunday”, “first born”, “born on Tuesday” or “Seventh born”.

I also forget mentioning that I am familiar with a few basic phrases in the local language. The language spoken here in Sega is Ada (or Dangme) and is one of innumerable languages spoken in Ghana. The languages spoken in Ghana are divided to basic languages and dialects of those, and I really have no clue as to what that amounts. So far I know how to ask “how are you?” and reply, ask “where are you going?”, “where are you coming from?”, “where are you from in origion?” and reply to those, and also say fat person – “obulo”, white man – “balfuno”, and black man “nomliyumo” – a word which I usually use to call back at the children after they refer to me as a balfuno.

One thing that I find very funny about the English spoken in Ghana, and that apparently was noticed by many others as well, is the indiscriminate use of the phrase “I am coming” in every possible context. Now, as far as I know, “I am coming” indicates that a person is literally about to come somewhere, but here in Ghana this seems to be interpreted metaphorically. I will give a few examples. When I played scrabble with a Ghanaian friend and urged him to put his letters down since he was thinking for too long, he simply said “I am coming” (that is, give me a few more seconds). When I wrote something on the board in class and asked a student to take her notebook out and copy it what she said was – “I am coming” (as in, I am just about to take it out), when Godwin asked the cook when the food will be ready she replied “I am coming” (that is, the food will be ready shortly) and there are many other examples. Another common phrase is “I go and come back” – which means that a person is going now and will come back anytime between two minutes from now and a few days.

Another interesting aspect about Ghana is the genuine tolerance that people have toward another’s religion. Apparently, there is no tension in the country on the basis of religious grounds, and in the school we have children who prescribe to the Christian, Muslim and ATR (African Traditional Religion) faiths. In Ghana people truly don’t judge you or classify you on the basis of your faith and show a frank interest in your religious traditions. This is in stark contrast to many other countries in the world where people are tolerant to other religions because they where taught that intolerance is a sign of ignorance. I ascribe this openness perhaps to the fact that countries in Africa have long and significant traditions of polytheism, that is, of practicing religions that are based on a multiplicity of gods. The monotheistic notion that there is only one god and only one way to worship him is a relatively late idea to be introduced in the African continent, and is perhaps constantly contested by the long lasting polytheistic tradition. A sign of this is that most children in Sega believe both that there is only one god and that there are many spirits. These rather contesting beliefs coexist here in Sega, without anyone thinking that the explicit theological problem should cause one to dispense with one of these beliefs, or the other. The only questionable religious incident that occurred here should be fully ascribed to my Jewish instinct of suspicion. I was asked by a student of mine, shortly after it rained one day, “Would you like to be baptized?” and before I had sufficient time to consider if this was offensive or not, he simply shook the branches of the tree I was standing under and I was washed by the water that clung to the leaves. “Baptizing” here is not a name of a missionary act but of a children’s game common in this rainy equatorial turf.

Mom and dad asked me to talk a little bit about the family structure in Ghana, or at least in Sega, and to be frank, after spending here an entire month, I really cannot give a good answer. I have questioned almost all my students about their family structure – where do they live, how many siblings they have, who performs what duty in the house and unfortunately I see no pattern emerge. Yesterday, for instance, I was helping a student of mine that I believe has a learning disability and asked him about his family – he has 9 other siblings and his father lives with his grandmother. I don’t know where his mother lives. Although I asked him to repeat his family story several times, I still couldn’t grasp what was really going on there.

This problem is intensified by the fact that almost all the people here refer to one another as “brother” and “sister” – even though they might only have marginal familial links. A few days ago Godwin constantly referred to a woman who came over as his “sister” and only later I discovered she would be more appropriately defined as a second cousin or something of that sort. People here are also related to one another by virtue of belonging to the same tribe, that Ada tribe, which also complicates matters.

The only things I can say for sure is that families usually have between 7-10 children, that there are many orphans and that those live with their grandparents, that some men have more than one wife, and that since this community sustains itself on the basis of agriculture – all members of the family work just as hard in their farms, with an obvious extra work given to the women who clean and cook on top of their regular work. There are also many “broken” families, that is, single-mother households. In these cases, the oldest son assumes a great role in caring and providing for the family – one of my students for instance, who lives in such a family, wakes up at about 4:30 am every morning and goes with his little brother to fetch water 40 minutes away from his house because the water in the closer well costs about 5 cents for a huge bucket of water which was so heavy I couldn’t even lift it. After school, he goes and harvests his farm, plants new seeds our weeds around it. When it is finally dark, he goes to a friend’s house that has electricity to finish his homework.

Shana Tova

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Teaching On Monday’s

This week’s post:

Yesterday was a very satisfying day for me as far as teaching is concerned. Mondays are my ‘long days’ where I teach for four hours two different subjects to three different classes.

My first class was Debating taught to JS2. I decided to review our previous lesson so we learned again how to write a proper composition – one that includes an introduction, a statement of the writer’s position on the subject and then a thorough explanation of that position. I decided to put an emphasis on this after reading their initial compositions that simply read as following: “I believe this and that because…”. At the beginning of class I was quite frustrated, thinking that either I failed to explain my point or that there was just some general misunderstanding but this frustration turned quickly into satisfaction, when a few hours after class a student who I thought was never listening to me came and showed me the composition she wrote, that was both structurally correct and creative with some arguments that implied that she actually deliberated before writing.

My second class was Debating taught to JS3. The actual classroom was occupied because a teacher staff meeting was taking place in it, so I decided to relocate the class to an empty room in the nursery and instead of studying what was planned for the day have a “break the ice” session. This was actually very successful and the students of JS3, who were always reluctant to speak up and express their opinions, seemed to open up once we all sat on the floor in a different classroom. At the beginning of class I brought up a question that Rachel (the head of the office where I completed my national service) and I used to ask students from foreign countries we met in order to get some general perception of values in their cultures. The question is as following: “There are 5 people on a boat – a teacher, a baby, a scientist, an old man and a mother – the boat is sinking and we can save only one. Who would it be?” – This soon turned into a heated argument. Some were adamant about saving the baby while others argued that saving the mom will enable her to give birth too many other babies. Later on we discussed the role of woman in Ghanaian society, World War 2 and the Cold War. Their knowledge of western history is very poor and they asked me to prepare a lesson about this. So this was generally a good lesson and I hope that during our debating classes this open spirit of theirs will continue.

My third class was Integrated Science taught to JS1, a class that lasts two hours. Here I was also up for a satisfying surprise. The printer at school isn’t working (it hasn’t worked since the school year begun and will probably be fixed anytime between tomorrow and two months from now) so I ended up writing some exam questions on the board, with the intention of reviewing what we studied last week. To my amazement, without prior notice that class succeeded in answering correctly all the 15 questions I wrote on the board, with but one mistake. Student after student was called to the board and asked to write down the chemical symbol of water, the name of the process that describes that turning of liquid into gas and to sketch the molecule setup of solids, liquids and gases.

On Saturday I went with Godwin to the school’s fish farm in order to plan together an informative video we will take about the place. The school fish farm was established this year with money raised from contributions in order to serve both as a source of protein for lunch provided at school and as a source of revenue by selling the fish in local markets. This was a really special experience. It began with Godwin estimating the distance from our house to the fish farm as merely a “15 minute walk” – and continued with my discovery that it was ’15 minutes’ in African time, which in reality means a 35 minute walk through dried swamps and then a 10 minute ride on a Canoe on a tributary of the Volta River. When I was thinking about a fish farm I was still caught up in my western preconceptions and thought it will be a building with a large aquarium, regulated and maintained by professional staff. Here in Sega a fish farm means a net thrown into a river, enclosing a population of fish, and held at one place with the help of empty oil containers. I took a video of all this and it is worthwhile watching. What is still more amazing is that the children in the video go to the school in Sega, and cross the river daily in order to get there.

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Other than these few stories I don’t have much to add. I have been playing soccer daily with the little kids (6-12), and seem to succeed in the game more by virtue of my size advantage than by that of some natural trait. I will also be going this weekend with three of my older students to Ada Foah, which is the place where the Volta River (which runts all through Ghana) meets the Atlantic Ocean – it is said to have amazing beaches and to hold a beautiful market on the water front. I currently reside in a village that is part of Big Ada, and Ada Foah is only about 30 minutes away by tro-tro, public bus. As I was writing this last sentence (I am writing it from the house in Sega on Monday evening) I heard two huge explosions. After asking Godwin’s cousin I discovered that this is part of a ritual where they blow gun-powder during funerals.

brotherhood

The road to junction

Teaching

I also started teaching this week and would like to dedicate a few words to that. I am teaching Integrated Science to Junior High School 1 (7th grade) 6 hours a week, and Debating and Critical thinking to Junior High School 2 and 3 – 2 hours a week to each. I am very impressed by how disciplined the students are but sometimes this comes on the expense of their ability to participate in class and bring about a genuinely meaningful discussion. They seem to be satisfied when I pour out simple ‘book-knowledge’ material but quite in disarray when I begin a class with questions such as “Should we lie in order to save someone’s life?” or “Is education valuable in itself or only as a means to an end?”. When I do press on them and have they discussed these questions their answers are very moralistic, such as “God will punish that that lies”. Such answers seem awkward to me, and I wonder if this is a result of my cynicism or their exaggerated tendency to obedience. Of course there are exceptions to this rule and I have also very competent students.

In a sense, I find the students in Ghana to be a mirror image of the average Israeli student: while the student in Ghana is unbelievably disciplined and endorses a traditional world view, that Israeli student despises authority and is way too opinionated.

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When I was talking to Richmond, the high school graduate, over dinner last night he seemed to argue that the gap between Africa and the Western world will never be breached. He thinks that the problem lies in the educational system, and gave a few examples of Ghanaians who studied abroad and the success that awaited them. So far I am impressed by the educational system here and think that a lot is done for the sake of the students. Personally, I think he is right in saying that the gap cannot be breached but not because education here is inferior. I think the problem is in their starting point. You can’t win a 100m race when you start with two second delay. The economy in Ghana is developing but there always seem to be setbacks. The recent one, for instance, is the decision of the government of Togo to have all their ports be duty free. The result of this is a flowed of goods from Togo to Ghana along a border that cannot be controlled, and money flowing away from Ghana instead of being invested in its own economy.

New Teacher

Today I was walking again to the internet cafe through about 30 minutes of rugged African flora, and 30 minutes of rural villages, healing and prayer camps. I was accompanied by a relative of Godwin, a high school graduate from Accra, who started living with us just a few days ago and who will work as a teacher at school for some time. He is the brother of the woman I mentioned in the last long post, the one that came from Accra. It is actually the first time he is visiting a village in Ghana – although he has been living in Ghana for the last 18 years of his life. It is fascinating that although I am a foreigner and he is Ghanaian, we both seem to find the ways of life in the village foreign to us. He lives in a residential neighborhood in Accra and is used to wireless internet connection, a shower with hot water and various things to do at night. But here, there seems to be nothing else to do once it gets dark other than watching TV. When the locals in the village watch TV, they admire Steven Seagal and Jackie Chan movies, and seem to be amazed every time a table is flipped over or a gun is pulled. Unlike the villagers, he seems to be indifferent to all this, being used to a new and perhaps more exciting range of experiences. In a sense, living in a city takes something away from us – we are no longer able to be moved by relatively simple occurrences, and impressing us becomes an almost impossible task.

The Afterlife

I have to share with you in amazing experience I had this morning, or put more properly, last night.

As of about 20:00 last night there was loud music blasting all around Sega. At the time I was laying down in my room, getting ready for bed and reading. I assumed the music was coming out of a car that parked just outside my window. It was too dark outside to see what exactly was happening, but since the music was a mixture of American Pop and local folk songs, and since the volume was remarkably loud, I assumed it was played by a car owned by some teenagers who were hanging out in Friday night.

I feel asleep and woke up at about 22:00 o’clock, noticing that the music is still being played and is much louder. I couldn’t get myself to fall asleep again, so I was simply laying in bed, listening to the music. This continued for hours, and flipping over in my bed I was wondering when I will muster the energy needed to get out of bed and tell the teenagers to turn it off. At about 3:00 am, still awake, I decided to give up the idea of falling asleep tonight and just kept listening to the music – hoping it will fade away by itself. But when 5:30 am came around I just couldn’t make sense of all this and decided to get up. As I stepped out of the room, Josephine, Godwin’s cousin was sweeping the house – women in Ghana generally wake up half an hour before the men to pick up the house – and I asked her if she knows why they were playing music all night. She said it was part of a funeral procession. I told her to the contrary that I was almost certain it was coming from outside my window. I stepped outside the house to the look for the source of noise and ended up following it for about 7-10 minutes, crossing all of Sega. At the end of Sega I encountered something remarkable: in front of a house I saw 7 huge speakers, each the size of a 7 year old boy, stocked one on top of the other, so they were far taller than I am, all blasting music in front of an open coffin with a dead man/woman (I didn’t dare get that close) laying in it.

I was latter explained that the funerals in Ghana last 24 hours. Before the coffin is buried, the deceased is dressed in his finest clothes and garments and is put outside the house – so visitors can great him and dance in front of his coffin (apparently dancing was taking place most of the night) just before he is buried and enters his new phase of life: afterlife.

Power Shortage

I wrote a very long post today – but then there was a power shortage and it got deleted. I have been sitting here almost 4 hours but actually used the internet for maybe 40 minutes – the connection today is unbearably slow and there have been two power shortages, the latter lasting for about 40 minutes. So I won’t be sending a long email today – I will try to rewrite it this week and send it as soon as I have connection again. I hope the photos will be satisfying for now.

I also got an email today from the volunteer who is arriving on October 4th – she is a Canadian Jew with close ties to Israel, and we are both very excited about the idea that we will be able to stay together in Sega. We also talked about the possibility of traveling together around Ghana.

Pictures

Prosper and his grandfather

Soccer and Nationality

Well, there isnt that much more to tell I sent my last post a few days ago so I will try to write now a little bit more about the school and what an amazing achievement it is. Before that, Ill just mention a nice experience I had last night.

Last night there was a soccer match between Libya and The Black Stars, that is the common name here in Ghana for their national soccer team. By 9pm, the time the game begun, there were 40 men and children from the village sitting on the living room floor, all anticipating the game, all shouting together when a goal was scored or at any other special event. This was truly spectacular, recognizing how much I stand out in a crowed of 40 men.

It was also nice to see what sense of national pride they have and how much Ghana is truly a nation, with a feeling of national cohesiveness. There was a talk show on TV the other day where they discussed why certain nations in Africa succeed while others dont. One of the speakers pointed out the fact that the nations who succeed have a sense of national unity and that that propels their economies. It is certainly the case in Ghana.

Ill give another example to strengthen this point. On the games break, instead of commercials there was what they define as a call for peace. Following a shooting in a political rally last week, the national TV channel has been dedicating almost all its commercial time to commercials calling for peace and love in the nation. The commercials are followed by speeches of pastors who preach for national unity over partisanship. They say for instance: Most nations in Africa strive for internal peace and cant achieve it, all we need to do is to maintain it. These calls have been made everywhere around the country ahead of the national elections that will take place in November people are predicting that the ruling party will loose, which means a complete political shift of power a major test for a young democracy, and everybody is waiting with great anticipation to see how this will unfold.

Godwin’s friend

Before the match began, a friend of Godwin came over. She is a woman who lives in the big city Accra, and everything about here seemed to disclose this fact: she wore what seemed as designer clothes, had a beautiful golden watch and a womans purse. She looked very awkward in the setting of this rural village, and actually said it was here first time there maybe even here first time in a village like this. Her husband, a dual citizen, lives in Long Beach and she plans to join him later this year. When she was served traditional dinner, she seemed to be eating just as much as politeness required. In her presence, and to mark his birthday, Godwin opened a bottle of champagne (it was actually sparkling apple juice, but I didnt want to be the party pooper) and we drank some together. She left shortly thereafter, albeit constant attempts by Godwins relative, who lives with us in the house to convince her to spend the night in Sega.

Life in Sega

I also never wrote much about poverty in Sega. Sega is a poor village, but not extremely poor. That means that there is no hunger in the proper sense of the term, which means that people dont have enough to keep their bodies going, but there is hunger in the sense that peoples diets contain, according to Godwin, 0% protein. There is food available, but almost all of it is local grown vegetables nutritionally similar to potatoes. People also dont own so many things only what is really required. That is way, and I will expand about it more when I write about the school, Godwin has dedicated some of the schools funds to create a fish farm that is attached to the local water source when the fish get big enough, he plans to serve them for lunch in school, thereby providing protein for the children. As for now, the get a small ration of beans for lunch in school.

Tyo

I also forgot to tell about a specific boy who is constantly around me named Tyo. Tyo is 3 years old, maybe a bit older, and he is an orphan his father died when he was very young and his mother left him, because she needed to make a living in the city and cant carry him over there so he visits here once a year. Otherwise, he is taken care of by his (I think) 70 year old grandmother who still works in the field every day from 5 am.
This morning I gave Tyo a Chewy Gronla Bar an act that caused a lot of stir among the kids of Sega. Instead of eating it straight away, he ran outside to show off to all the other children he was screaming: look what the blfuno (white man, in a different local language) gave me! and he made a point running all across the village and showing it to everyone. He was unbelievably excited by this little present. He also suffers from stomach aches and Godwin believes he has worms in his stomach, so I went to the pharmacy here and bought him medicine. It costs 2$ but his grandmother didnt have the financial means (nor the physical strength) to come all the way to Junction, where I am now and were the pharmacy is, in order to get it.

I was planning to write about the school but I ended up writing about a lot of other stuff. I will dedicate then my next email to the school, there is so much to write about it. I will be finally beginning to teach on Monday I will teach Integrated Science to Kita Zayin (JS1) 6 hours a week, and Critical thinking and debating to Kita Chet and Tet (JS2, JS3) 2 hours to each class, I will be also working with Godwin to search online for ways to expand the schools networks, encourage more volunteers to come, and raise funds.

First week in Sega, Ghana

I arrived a week ago on Thursday, august 28th and was picked up at the airport by my host here and the head of the school, Godwin Augdey. We traveled for about an hour and a half, through several cities and villages until we got to our village – Sega. At first when I arrived I was a little bit concerned. There is no real road that connects Sega to any main highway or city, and in order to get here we had to drive through dirt roads and tropical landscape. At night, the house seemed especially empty and it was quite here to an extent I have never experienced. All this, taken together with the fact that I landed in a new continent, caused me some stress. Fortunately, the next morning I was up for a completely different experience.

As I woke up on Friday we eat breakfast together and soon thereafter practically all the kids of the village flocked into the house. It was raining heavily outside so everyone who searched for a roof found it in Godwin’s living room. The kids grabbed me, touched me, petted me and seemed extremely excited to see the new “Obruni”- white man (in one of the dozen languages they speak). I walked outside and saw what a rural village really looks like – no roads, no cars, and no paved sidewalk. Instead, all I saw was dirt, goats, frogs, chickens, dogs and houses built in no apparent order. Since there is so much more to tell, I will divide it by subjects and elaborate on them separately.

- Living conditions: the living conditions in Godwin’s guesthouse are perhaps the most comfortable in the village. I have a simple room with a bed, a mosquito net and a separate shower. In the first few days the showerhead didn’t work so I used a bucket to shower, which is an interesting experience in itself. A brought in a chair from the living room so that’s where I store all my personal stuff, but other than that I use the floors to store my clothes, books and bags. There is a satellite TV in the living room that doesn’t work when it is to hot outside or when it rains. The living room includes a simple plastic table and several plastic chairs, the kinds that are used in porches. There is a portable stove in the kitchen and a small refrigerator.

- Privacy: one of the most significant things the stroke me about living here in Ghana is that there is not established concept of privacy. People enter Godwin’s house without notice, use the kitchen and open the TV and watch whatever they live. People sometimes walk in at 6 in the morning or stay in until 11 at night. Everybody is welcomed whenever, and no meetings within the village or planned in advance. This has been very special and actually quite beneficial for me because it means that I am never alone, not for one second: there are always new people in the house that I get to know.

- Time: the concept of time is also very unique. People here in general don’t seem to be in a rush. You have adults and children who spend their days simply in hanging out or relaxing without feeling that there time has been wasted. People don’t feel that they need to accomplish something new everyday but simply let the time pass and enjoy it. This has been odd for me and it took me a few days to get used to it. Another aspect of their attitude to time is that punctuality is only suggestive. I will give an example: the last time we went to Junction, the area where the internet café is, we were waiting for Godwin’s brother. He was supposed to arrive in no more than 30 minutes. We ended up waiting for him an hour, and then almost another hour. When two hours were about to pass Godwin called him again and discovered his phone was off. Godwin said that his brother probably just went to sleep. For him, this was natural – people make appointments and don’t bother to cancel them or to show up. For me, obviously, it was striking.

- Religion: In Sega there are Christians, Traditionalists (who prey to gods and spirits), and some Muslims. All seem to be living in complete tranquility. There really is close to no tensions on Ghana on the basis of religious grounds. All the tension in the country is based on ethnic factors. Although there are 3 religions in the country the most prominent and visible one is Christianity. Christian symbols are apparent everywhere. On TV, there are at least 10 different Christian channels: LoveWorld channel, Adonai channel, John Channel and so forth.

- Food: food here is varied. Meanwhile I ate here the following: French toast, omelet, traditional spicy stews, yams and cassava cooked in any possible forms. Oatmeal, rice, white bread, soup and so forth.

- The school: there is so much to write on the school here and I will probably dedicate to it a different email. This is a true and remarkable work of entrepreneurship on the part of Godwin who created this amazing institution with almost no budget whatsoever and which no serves more than 300 students. The most amazing thing about the school is how disciplined the student are. They never argue with the teacher, never disturb during class and do exactly as the teacher says. On the first day of school there were almost a hundred students who came at 7 in the morning simply to clean school – no orders needed to be given, the students simply did what they needed to do. Yesterday I also attended a church service in school – it was unbelievably beautiful. For a whole hour the students were singing in praise of god, accompanied by drums. I will start teaching tomorrow – today we will decided exactly what, but it will be some of the following subjects: creative arts (animation and film included), debating and critical thinking, general science and maybe literature. There is so much more to write and tell about this school … I will try to dedicate to it a different email.

That’s it for now. My experiences here so far have been really magical and I genuinely enjoy my time. I can’t wait to start teaching.

Arriving in Ghana

I’m writing here from a town 7km away from where I live. These past few days have been really incredible and special and it is hard to put it into words, especially given that I don’t have much time – we need to leave in about 10 minutes to go to my host’s family meeting, but I will try to write a longer email as soon as possible.

I landed after a long flight and was picked up at the airport. the town is very remote in very rural, although the volunteer house is really nice and rather modern. I have a bed and a shower attached to my room – although the shower head dosen’t work, so I use the BEREZ and shower with a bucket. there is electricity and running water in the house …

My host has been remarkably kind to me and so have the other people in the community … there is a constant crowed of children hanging out in the living room of the volunteer house where I and my host Godwin live. The children want to be around me all the time, and we play together and hangout. There is also satellite tv in the house although not a variety of channels – we have french channels (due to the proximity of french speaking countries) and christian TV. But it helps me to keep myself updated and I watch the important news .. for instance I saw Obama’s speech dubbed into French.

The food here has been relatively good – I had yesterday Quaker for breakfast, chicken and rice we picked up the day before from a restaurant next to the airport for lunch and an African stew for dinner.. this morning we had an Omlette and white bread with coffee …

The school year begins on Monday and we are already thinking about ideas of what to do during the first semester. There is a lot of sickness among the children, almost all of them reporting on stomach aches, fevers, head aches or even malaria, while most parents in the village cannot afford medicine. Many of the sicknesses are caused by poor hygiene so one of the first things we will do in school is set up a program to educate children to use soap, encouraging to drink more and other related things. we will also set up a first aid area and teach some of the older children what to do in specific cases… I will also probably teach English and art – there are 3 computers in school and with my digital camera I will teach the children how to make animations …

That’s about it for now. yesterday it was raining for hours … there are goats and chickens and frogs and dogs everywhere ….