I only have a few minutes to write and Peter will hopefully post a little about our experience in the school so far shortly. We've had a busy week as we began teaching in a local school in Kongo, outside Bolgatanga, run by the Presentation Brothers. It's a very different to a school in Ireland needless to say!
We're teaching the equivalent of 1st and 2nd years, but the age ranges from 12 to over 20, as so many students begin school at a much later stage. The students are extremely eager to learn for the most part, so even though some classes have more than 60 students, the majority of them listen to you and want to learn as much as they can. We have both found that the teaching methods that are used here have reinforced certain bad habits such as taking down lots of notes but failing to understand or learn any of them. For instance, I asked the students if they had covered anything about the heart or blood, to which they said yes, but when I asked a few simple questions it soon became clear that they had very very little understanding of the basic concepts.
Peter has had similar, if even more pronounced, experiences. He began some Geography and intended to cover some countries in Europe and a little about each. However, most students didn't know the capital of Ghana, or couldn't even pick out Ghana on a map of the world. They didn't know what a continent was, what a desert was, or an ocean. The world they live in is extremely confined and their homes and local market is all they really know. We're trying to give them a sense of their place in the world, what's outside it and the possibilities education holds for each of them.
Teaching the computers is really enjoyable because it's obviously a huge novelty for them. It's been great to see how pleased with themselves they are when they learned to type a few letters and use Microsoft Word. It's also really rewarding to see how far they come so quickly. I've been amazed by the ability of some students. A few are clearly so intelligent and it would almost break your heart seeing how hindered they are by the education system in Ghana! I think Peter has a more difficult time trying to teach them some French, because the standard of teaching in this subject to date has been pretty abysmal. I'll leave him fill you in on this himself!
Driving around Kongo, where we are staying, we also get a sense of how difficult the lives of some of the students we teach can be. We see them walking home from school, which may take much more than an hour. I have seen some of the girls carrying water or food home to their families, so they must immediately help with the housework and farm when they return home from school. Their dedication to getting an education is admirable. To get an education, they get up extremely early, walk a great distance in the sweltering heat as well as having to work hard with the land at home. Everybody here farms the land to eat and make a living.
We've also managed to do a few trips to a few places around Kongo. We visited the 'Tongo Hills' and climbed a few of the rock formations here. We met the local chief who, incidentally, has 17 wives! The chief set-up is a common and bizarre one here in Ghana, and presumably a lot of Africa. The chief is in charge of the community and for the most part seems to live a pretty lazy and sedentary lifestyle sitting in the shade, with many locals or one of his many wives (!), tending to his needs. We walked around the villiage, which is a series of mud huts and the people here really do live an extremely primative life.
We visited Paga crocodile pond yesterday where we got up close and personal with a crocodile! We both held its tail and it was thrown a live fowl which it ate alarmingly quickly...hopefully will get a few pics up soon! Made it across the border to Burkina Faso for a short walk and we're spending the weekend in nearby Navrongo. Back to school in the morning!
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