First Day of School

Monday July 14

Barb was still feeling really poorly and could not participate, so the rest of us headed down for breakfast at the outside bar. When Lyle came down we found out he had been sick too, but felt okay now and was ready to go.

We loaded up in the van for our trip to our first set of workshops at the Holy Child High School compound. We were met by all the exec of the union and about a couple of hundred teachers.

The first thing they did was sing the 'Teacher's Song' and then the Canadian national anthem followed by the Ghanian anthem. Then there was a series of speakers. The opening ceremonies were formal in set up but very casual in reality. In some ways it resembled more of a roast as the MC, who was introducing all of the facilitators from Ghana, made several comments that had the audience laughing, as when he introduced a catholic teacher in habit as Mrs. Christ and another member who was bearded and in a tribal outfit as Mr. Ugly. Apparently it was all in good fun. Next Lyle spoke a bit about the project,  introduced all of the Canadian team and we each came up on stage and made a short speech about who we were, what we taught and anything else we wanted to add. The audience was warm and friendly and laughed at our jokes and applauded us.

When the ceremonies were finally over we had a snack of a muffin and frozen yogurt. There are numerous workshops going on here at the same time and we were lead to where ours was going to take place. Ernest, Peter and our co-tutors are in charge of running this session which was about community building and creating a school action plan. We have groups of teachers from six different schools here. They had prepared a school and community report which each presented to the whole group. Then there was time for questions, suggestions and fine tuning.

At one point Ernest misplaced his iPhone and was obviously upset about it. He couldn't call it because he had it turned to silent. He went away and brought back an iPad and connected with his phone which beeped to signal its position. He tried to get everyone quiet while he tracked it in the room. It sounded like it was in a garbage bag, but no, so he moved away. He couldn't locate it and it seemed to be following him... ah ha, he reached into his back pocket and there it was! It was between his wallet and his cheek. Very funny and everyone had a good laugh. To his credit he turned it into a teaching opportunity and told everyone how you can lock an iPhone remotely and then they are useless to the thief.

At lunch time we were lead downstairs with hundreds of participants to a dimly lit large room and sat at tables in groups of ten. The table had ten peeled oranges on in under a wooden and wire cage to protect them from flies. The meal was banku (a cassava based paste), served warm in a tightly wrapped plastic bag, a small amount of pepper tomato sauce and half an overly grilled fish (either the head section or the tail half). No utensils. Tear a piece of banku out of the bag, dip it in the sauce and eat it while tearing the fish apart and avoiding the bones. Cindy and I sat together and Lyle went back upstairs because his stomach was off from last night. When the other four came down the union leaders intercepted them and told us we were all being taken out for lunch. This caused some confusion and we were worried we wouldn't be back in time to continue our work, so we decided on take out. Cindy and I went with Big Thomas and Eric to the restaurant. We decided to order everyone something simple and hopefully cheap, so we ordered chicken sandwiches. It took at least 40 minutes to have them prepared. I stupidly thought that he would have chicken slices and maybe some cheese, but they cooked chicken pieces and cut them up in the sandwiches with mayonnaise.

While waiting we had a great conversation with Jacob Anderson, a retired union exec. He was forced to retire at 60 because of some union political business where they were trying to get rid of older members to make room for newer members. We asked lots of questions and he told us that:

1) He didn't want to retire because there is no room for savings on a Ghanian teacher’s salary.

2) A new teacher makes about $200 US a month, the highest level, which would be teacher-director makes about $800 US a month.

3) Some people falsify their age when approaching retirement so that they can work longer, because they get a pension buyout at retirement and it doesn't last long.

4) They used to have big families who were raised by the community as a whole, so that they had lots of kids to support them when they got old, but now with all the kids going to school and families taking care of their own children it is too expensive.

5) So, now they are having smaller families with two children and invest in their education in order to get them a good career so they can take care of their elders, but it doesn't always workout.

6) They have no savings, or investments or property to fall back on, so retirement is fraught with problems.

We brought back the sandwiches and resumed with the afternoon sessions. We listened as the six schools read their individual reports, which highlighted for us the challenges these schools face, inferior buildings, not enough furniture, no toilets, no water or electricity, etc. It helped to put in perspective the difference of the haves and the have nots. I wondered why they wouldn't have two groups talk to each other and compare instead of all listening to each one after another, which took a couple of hours.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a gas station and bought some basic supplies: laundry soap, beer, cookies and snacks. When we arrived I was the only one who went for a swim to cool off. We gathered again for dinner outside at the bar. Barb was still laid up. We all headed off to bed shortly after.