Below are some pictures from our first few days in Okurase!
Right away we learned how to cut the pure water sachet bags into strips to be reused to make soccer and volleyball nets. Ask any of us in the group how to properly cut and tie these strips for this project - we are all now pros! One of the projects that Project Okurase (the NGO with a mission to strengthen and improve the Okurase village and community) had asked us to help with during our visit is to educate and encourage the school children and surrounding community on how these pure water sachet bags can be picked up from being littered on the ground and recycled/reused for the betterment of the community and environment. These small bags are literally all over the ground here - every few feet you walk, if that, you see at least one or more of these bags. It has been amazing to see these discarded bags be picked up, washed, cut, and tied to then become a huge soccer net! Soccer (which they call futball) is so huge here that everyone can get around this idea of reusing the water bags in this way. Plus, when their soccer balls, nets, etc. wear out here, they usually do not have the funds to just go out and buy new equipment like we would at home, so the idea of making a free net to use is a big hit with the kids. You will see pictures of the finished net in a future post.
Our first morning in Okurase, we walked to the village Chief’s home and meeting place. This is where the Chief and village Elders meet to discuss Okurase business, conduct ceremonies, and gather together. Our hosts explained to us that when a group comes to visit the village, they go to a ceremony of welcome and to introduce ourselves, tell them why we’ve come, and present any gifts or donations that we’ve brought with us. Since we brought eight large duffel bags of soccer gear with us, it was too hard to bring all of it with us to this ceremony. So, we brought a few soccer balls with us, and these black trash/recycling bins with us, as well as a lawn mower. The bins and lawn mower were purchased in Ghana before we arrives with our MA funds that we fundraised specifically for this CFE project. Some of the events held at MA over the past few months to raise money include an open mic night, selling concessions at games, and more. It was interesting to see the ceremony and warm welcome of the village Elders that were able to attend the meeting and hear their thanks for the items that we had brought with us. The village Cheif was not at the meeting because there was a funeral that he needed to be at instead.
After the ceremony we went to the main soccer field (which is in back of one of the schools) in the village that we were going to help refurbish over the next few days of our visit. School was in session, so the students came out of their classrooms to help us out. We picked up some trash from the field area (including many, many of the pure water sachet bags) to help us start on the soccer net we would create. We also cut some of the tall grass (with the help and guidance of our SAGE guide, Sarah) and helped re-plant grass in areas of the field that were bald (below).
We also got a chance to introduce ourselves to the faculty, staff, and students from the school and present them with two new soccer balls, a hand pump and an extra set of needles to use for pumping up the balls. They were very friendly, thankful to us for our visit and the donated items, and fun to interact with.
Every school here has different uniforms that the students wear to school. This school has the yellow tops with the brown bottoms - skirts or pants depending on girl or boy. We learned from the Project Okurase staff that Ghana has “free” public education, however students need to provide/pay for/purchase their own uniforms, shoes, socks, books, notebooks, etc., to attend school. They also have to pay “school fees” which include things like paying for the paper that their exams are printed on, etc. In this way, you can see that public school is not truly free, and it can be cost prohibitive for many families to have their children attend school.
If your family can not afford the costs involved in attending “free” public education, then what is your next alternative? It could be just to not attend school at all and work on the farm or selling goods to contribute to the already low income that your family is bringing in. This cycle of poverty, low education levels, low morale from not being able to attend school and learn for the betterment of your future, and more is a real problem of concern for many in this country.
I have heard many of the MA students say that after seeing and learning about the things they have experienced on this trip, they have a newfound appreciation for things at home that are often taken for granted, such as the access and opportunity to receive an excellent education, the fact that 99% + of MA students will be going on to university level education or greater and no one really thinks twice about that not being an option, and really the possibilities for our futures are more or less endless. We learned that maybe 1% of children here in this rural village will make it through senior high school and go on to attend university, and that is a rare occurance and something that is really celebrated if it happens. It really puts things into perspective for all of us. Parents, I encourage you to ask your student about their gained perspectives when we get back home. This trip is truly making a deep and profound impact on our group members, and I have also encouraged the group to not just leave this experience in Ghana as a one and done trip, but rather to bring home to family and friends the stories, images, new perspectives, and hope it has impacted their lives - it is all very powerful!
Every day Project Okurase puts out a daily schedule of what we’ll be doing that day. Coming from a very scheduled American lifestyle to a much more laid back culture, it is kind and helpful for them to do this for us and have a visual for our daily schedule.
Mosquito nets on the beds where we are staying at Nkabom House. These pictures are from the dorm style room that the boys are staying in together on the first floor of the house. The girls in our group are staying in 2-3 person rooms on the upper level of this house and have similar style beds and nets.
A large photo of the late Queen Mother of Okurase that is in the commons room at Nkabom House. I believe she passed away less than a year ago, and was in her 90s. Ghanaians believe that after their loved ones and prominent community members pass away, like the Queen Mother, Chief, and Elders, their spirit and wisdom remains and watches over, takes care of, and imparts wisdom to those left on earth. This idea is part of the traditional and ceremonial beliefs held by most Ghanaians and often is in addition to the strong Christians beliefs that are held by the majority in the country.
Back at one of the local schools over the weekend (they have a M-F school schedule like we do in the U.S.) - the one that is located behind the Nkobom House where we’re staying while in Okurase. I noticed this chalk board sign on the outside of the front of the school. I asked one of the school children what the last two “Punishment for the Last House…” lines meant, and they said that each “house” (i.e. classroom at the school) had weekly jobs around the school building to clean/maintain things around the building. Examples might be to sweep the floors, wash the chalkboards (most rooms I saw had very old and somewhat crumbling chalkboards in front of the room), take out &/or pick up trash from the school rooms, etc. This past week, the “last house” did not do a sufficient job sweeping, so their punishment was to scrub the urinals for the entire week. Whoa! Yet another of the many, many things we at home take for granted… we have an excellent team of custodians at MA who work hard to keep the school neat and clean on a daily basis. Not the case in Ghana, at least not in this village.
As a teacher and someone very invested in the education of students, I found myself to be particularly interested in and drawn to the village schools. What was the teaching style like in these schools? What kinds of subjects and topics did they focus on in school? How common was it to attend school, and for how many years? What did an average classroom look like? (Hint to the Ghana group parents: ask your student what the answers are to the above questions - we learned all about the education system and more.)
As I was walking by the classrooms on the outside of the building, I noticed some of the classrooms had wooden shutters on the windows and some did not. This particular room had no shutters on one of the windows, so I stopped to really take a good look and soak it all in. I don’t think that this picture quite does the reality justice… the picture makes it look a bit less dire than it actually looked to me in person. If you look closely, you can see a few books in the small shelf inside the desks. These are the books that the students must purchase in order to attend and particpate in their “free” education. If they don’t have the needed book(s) or workbooks, then they have to look on and share with another student(s) (which is not a good long term solution for real learning to take place, in my opinion). Sometimes there might only be one book in the whole room and all of the children in the class have to crowd around the one book to look at it and try to learn. Also, this room has a white board attached to the decaying chalk board, which would be considered a rare luxury. And that’s it! That’s all. The picture is basically showing the whole room. There may be a small teacher's desk in the corner that is not much bigger than the student desks and in the same shape - very old and rickety. There was a small added area in the back of the classroom the approximate size of a closet. When I asked a few of the school children that I was walking around with later what that back room is used for, they said that is where you can go lay down if you are sick (like a nurses office with no nurse present? I’m not sure). Later when I was in the classroom, I poked my head in to that back room area and looked inside - pitch dark, completely bare, no lighting, with a dirt floor.
I don’t think I even need to explain in writing how this contrasts with the school facilities we have at home. I realize that in my head I am comparing and contrasting apples to oranges, but even so, it is an unbelievable difference to process. Our group learned that the majority of teachers are so frustrated and many are burnt out on these daily conditions. They do not often have the support they need or desire to carry out their very important jobs well, and that is really difficult for all involved. Many of them even have to buy their own supplies, such as the chalk to write on the chalkboards, which cuts into their already very small salaries. Many teachers might not get paid on a consistent basis by the government (for public schools), sometimes going for months without pay. If it comes to that extreme, often teachers will strike for up to a week (with the children then not being able to attend school) until the government pays them again.
The above descriptions add to a bigger picture of the education problems in Ghana, and it is very frustrating for those that care about the progress of the country (like our new friends at Project Okurase). As a passionate educator who holds a deep sense of pride in the nice facilities that we have available to us at home and the excellent education we are supportively able to provide to our students, seeing and learning about the education system in Ghana made a huge impact on me and is something that will always stay with me from this trip.
Back to work at the soccer field behind the school, where we spent a lot of time during our days in the village. At different points in the days at the field, some of us would be working on the pure water sachet bags goal net, others may be measuring and helping to mark the field lines, others may be kicking a soccer ball around with people (kids or adults) from the village, others might be sitting with children and talking with them, etc. It was a fun and satisfying mix of tasks, and we all worked hard during the week to make progress on our soccer field refurbishment and recycling goals we wanted to accomplish.
Usually while we worked on our projects in the morning after breakfast and then again in the afternoon after lunch, the late afternoon and evening time was scheduled for some kind of fun and memorable cultural learning. This evening was time for a dance workshop! It was such a blast to participate in, even for those that normally don’t dance, and our MA students did impressively well! One of many things I really appreciate about this group of students is the positive attitudes and willingness to have new experiences, no matter how much it was out of our regular comfort zones. For example, this dance workshop could have caused some nervousness - to dance in front of a courtyard full of talented Ghanaian dancers and musicians could have seemed daunting to some, but our MA students rolled with it and really embraced the fun instruction!
This last picture is of one of my special buddies, named Prince. As you can see from the picture, Prince was a special buddy to several in our MA group. For whatever reason, the first time I laid eyes on Prince I felt what can only be described as a motherly love for this little guy - his smile, shining eyes, and outgoing personality instantly grabbed my heart. Prince and I walked around hand in hand, reading books together (I brought a Where’s Waldo type of book with Mickey Mouse and friends as the main characters, and he was particularly fond of that book), taking pictures and videos together on my camera and then watching back the results of the photos and videos, reading more books, playing Fruit Pop on my phone before bedtime, and more. Everyone in our group had a Prince and often more than one… we all made strong friendship connections with many of the village children. Parents, please ask your student about this and have them tell you stories - we all had our hearts touched by the very caring and special people we met (of all ages)!
I don’t know if you can fully see his physical size from this picture, but Prince is pretty small… and he is 10 years old. When he first told me his age, I thought he might of not understood the question, or maybe he was joking around with me by saying he is 10. I then asked him and some of his friends a few more times what his actual age is, and the answer remained the same - 10 years old. I have a 5-year old preschooler at home named Calla, and she is considered on the smaller side for her age - she has always been our “peanut”. I would say that Calla is actually physically bigger than Prince is, who is twice her age. I actually asked our hosts about this (and they too confirmed he is 10 years old), and they said that this is a common problem in Ghana and other parts of Africa as well.
What is the problem exactly? It is a basic lack of nutrition. If a growing child is not receiving the nutrition that they need to grow properly, then their growth can be stunted, and they can end of looking quite a bit younger and smaller than their actual age. The following idea kept coming into my mind while on this trip: if the world has enough wealth to properly feed everyone on earth, then why are so many people hungry and not having access to their very basic, bottom rung needs… at home and abroad? Needs like clean water, adequate and nutritional food to eat, basic healthcare, basic infrastructure like somewhat smooth roads to get you from point A to point B… and the list goes on. It is a simplistic yet extrememly complicated issue that I for one don’t think about very often because I am more than comfortable in my nice home, with my two thriving kids that are receiving a world-class education at MA, busy and very scheduled with my many daily activities, driving my nice cars every day to enjoy my wonderful job that I am very blessed to have, and on, and on, and on. The phrase “out of site, out of mind” rings true for me in this situation.
The above issues have profoundly affected my life after seeing and learning about what I have on this trip, and I know the same is true for all of the other group members as well.
