Closing Ceremonies and Ghana Night

Modelling what can be done with recycled plastic bags.

Big Thomas, the course director and the President of GNAT with Lyle

 Friday July 18^th

The national president of GNAT paid us a visit at the school this morning and addressed the participants and encouraged them to implement what they had learned in these workshops back at their schools.

The morning was taken up by surveys and finishing up work. When there was a lull I took the group to the back on the floor again and explained to them my Time Capsule. This is an assessment tool I use at the beginning of the year to find out what my students can or cannot do, and then I implement it again in June to see their growth. I'm not sure how they can use it with their limited resources, no photocopiers or paper, but they seemed interested in the idea and the rationale so maybe some will make use of the idea.

We had to wait for the main hall to empty for the next activity as they were running late so they served us lunch first. After lunch the participants presented little dramas representing various issues with gender equity: girls not able to go to school, girls not able to take math and science, teenage pregnancy, family gender roles, etc. They were all pretty good and some quite funny, for example when a dad suspected his daughter was pregnant and kept saying “look at her breasts”.

Next came the closing ceremonies which were interminable. The protocol and pecking order was very parliamentarian. Everyone spoke for too long and there was a prefect for the meetings who gave us a blow by blow of everything we had done during the week! Gotta love the way they sing though. Their rendition of O Canada blows the barn doors off ours. At the end there was a huge scrum as they all wanted photos of us. It was amazing! Then our co-tutors presented us with gifts. Lyle and I got Ghanian shirts. Mine is gorgeous and fits me perfectly. I love it. I was going to wear the one I bought in Accra for Ghana night but now I will wear this one.

We went back to the hotel for an hour. Barb and I had a quick dip after ordering dinner. Then we went up and changed and came down for dinner. After that it was back to the school for Ghana Night. This was similar to Canada Night with the snacks, drinks and dancing. They loved it when we walked in with our Ghanian clothes. Thomas Musah was the MC and after a couple of dances by the locals he announced that he was going to see what we were made of, so we all had to get up and dance. You should have seen the cellphones that came out then!

They even had an amateur comedian who was booed off the stage with “away away” and a poor man who tried to talk about HIV and AIDS to an audience that had just danced a few songs and that was awaiting the drink and snacks. He was set up for failure, but GNAT was trying to fulfill their commitment for an AIDS workshop, because part of the CTF funding has to do with providing this information and the presenter had not showed up on Tuesday.

Again there was lots of picture taking at the end of the night. Everyone wants their picture taken with you and asks for your e-mail. Then we went back to the hotel for the night. A very long but fun day.