First Day of Workshops

Monday July 13th.

After a decent breakfast in the hotel we loaded up in Eric's van and headed off to the Tamale Polytechnic for our first set of workshops. The school is old and tired and the first thing I noticed was the cows wandering around. First up was opening ceremonies which as usual were really long. I spoke on behalf of CTF and our two teams. Then we divided into our groups. There are lots of workshops happening here and the participants all left to go to their designated rooms. Diane’s team and my team are both located in the assembly hall which is old and worn down. We are separated by a wooden movable wall, but there is still noise between the two sections what with their using a microphone and the motorcycle traffic outside our windows. It is very hot here and the only air we get is what comes through the glass-less windows. Thomas addressed our group first and talked about the expectations of GNAT and the timetable. Then he turned it over to us. I outlined our rules, no cellphones (or I would confiscate them), move the chairs quietly and please attend and be on time. We also asked permission to take photos and they agreed. Then I walked them through the CTF survey of participants. Vanda led them through Simon (Abu) Says. They loved that. We had a couple of the participants take turns leading it. During these workshops we always introduced the teachers to ice breakers and energizers as a way of breaking up their instruction in order to give their students a break. Then we grouped them and had them identify their needs or worries at the beginning of the year. I asked what they would do the first day of school and they said have the students clean the room – duh, they have no caretakers! We heard from one first year teacher who has 115 students in her kindergarten class and she is not getting paid! We also learned that GNAT deducts 2 cedi off their pay checks for ‘cancer’, a kind of insurance policy. Then we had a snack break (yeah FanIce! Ice cream in a little bag) and before we could get them all back lunch was announced! Badly timed. We were directed to a separate building where we were ushered into a room where we were to eat alone and not with all the participants. They served us way too much food, a pile of brown spicy rice, some cabbage and three pieces of chewy overcooked meat. There was also some watermelon and little bananas which were green but actually ripe. After lunch we continued our discussions with the groups about their expectations at the beginning of the year. The power had gone off (an ongoing issue here) and the room which was already dimly lit before became quite dark and very warm because the ceiling fans went off, so we took them outside with their chairs to continue. They liked that. There was supposed to be a GNAT official come and do a workshop with them after our session but we were told he wasn't coming so we were to continue. So Pascale stepped up and started a session about “what do you want from these sessions?” or why have you given up part of your summer to be here? After we finished that we wrapped up and I had the remedial group (three guys who could not figure out the last Vanda energizer) carry our stuff to the resource room as their detention. Meanwhile Brenda and Marie took it upon themselves to sort all my purchased resources into three piles, one for each of the schools we are to visit. Really appreciated. Back to the hotel where we immediately headed to my room for a debriefing meeting. We wanted to hear about any issues they had and we had a couple of issues that Diane wanted to address around the roles of participants and team leaders. Then we had showers and met again in the restaurant for dinner. It was short this evening as everyone is tired from the heat and the work. Off to bed early.