Beginning of the Second Week

Monday July 21^st

Off to school for the first time by 8:00. We drove for about fifteen minutes along the coast where we could see the pounding surf, the beaches and the palm trees. It was very beautiful.

The morning was taken up by the opening ceremonies, the school plans and the CTF survey, all the things we did last Monday.

We are housed in a high school beside the Cape Coast University, which is a teacher's college. Large area and nicely laid out. Our group is working in the large assembly hall.

I had a long talk with Peter Mabande (Executive Director of Pan African Teachers Centre located within the Education International Regional Office located in Accra fighting for trade union rights, teacher wages and professional development of teachers in Africa) about conditions in Ghana. He told me that the biggest problem is illegal mining. This is mining for gold that is performed by foreign companies and sponsored by foreign countries, which circumvent the official government of Ghana. They bribe government officials, or local chiefs and strip the environment and poison the water supplies by processing the gold with cyanide. The rich and powerful get richer. He told me too that the Chinese are fishing illegally in Ghanian waters and  ignoring quotas and harvesting everything. He said their ocean is becoming empty and the fish that the fishermen depend on are getting smaller and harder to find. We also talked about the national airline which went bankrupt three years ago because airline employees and government workers were flying free and not enough revenues were coming in. The rich get the perks and the common people lose out. He told me the rich here do not pay taxes, and property taxes are hard to collect as there are so many poor people living in shacks and essentially squatting on the land.

We had lunch in another large space with all the participants. In the afternoon the participants were given time to review their school plans, focus and update them, particularly focusing on things that they can change, as opposed to things they cannot, for example: buildings, roads, water supply, etc.

I talked to four teachers working at a rural school about 30 km from here. I read their plan, asked questions and found out the school is made of bamboo and was built by the community. It leaks and when it rains they have to close the school. They want a permanent school with a concrete or wood floor. They have no toilet facilities or water. Water has to be carried in. There is no teacher accommodation so they have to commute from Cape Coast. Also, if there are any, materials have to be taken home daily as there is no way to secure the school. There are no books or paper. It’s amazing how different school conditions are even within this country. The rural areas definitely have less resources.

At the end of the day we headed back to the hotel and had a short rest before dinner at 7:30. After dinner Barb, Angela, Owen and I began to plan Canada Day. We have decided to work as a group of four instead of pairs and present on both weeks because it is to two different audiences. We all retired about 11:00.