Titagya Schools

Today was the last day of school. The kids are now on vacation, but only for about three weeks, and then school will resume August 21^st. Titagya’s vacations are generally a week shorter than the other public primary school vacations, in order to make sure that the students don’t forget all that they have learned! The new school year starts when they come back, which means some of the older students won’t be returning (instead moving on to primary school), some of the younger kids will be moving up to the older classrooms, and there will be new students as well.

Since today was the last day and all, there weren’t any lessons taught. Instead, the kids got to hang out in their classrooms, eating and playing with one another. They brought fantastic meals, too! Usually the students come to school with a simple lunch of rice or beans or some combination of the two, but today they came with larger-than-usual, extra special local main dishes, biscuits (cookies), juices, sodas, and candy. It’s also tradition for students to bring a little something for the teachers on the last day of school, so each student brought a bar of soap or some matches for the teachers, as small tokens of thanks and appreciation!

As for me, I still can’t believe school is over, and that I won’t be seeing all of my students every day anymore. I’m going to miss them so much! I should be leaving Dalun around Monday or so to head back to Accra, where I will be spending some time with Helen Farley ’14 who is also on a CPGC internship in Ghana’s capital. We will hopefully be exploring Accra and taking some trips to other places around the coast, and then soon enough I will be heading back home to the US! It’s been such an incredible journey already.

When I have more time (and a better internet connection), I’ll upload some pictures of Dalun and the school, so you can see exactly where I’ve been living and what I’ve been doing for the past two months!

This weekend, I finally made it out of Dalun and followed the Danes on their travels to neighboring villages. On Saturday, we went to the villages Kumbungu and Zangbolon (I think that’s how you spell them…) In the morning we made our way to the main road in Dalun to find some bus or public transportation to take us to Kumbungu…and we ended up sitting atop a giant mound of dirt in the back of a huge pick-up truck. It was definitely a rough ride, what with the bumpy, unpaved road, but we called it a typical Ghanaian experience, and it was fun nonetheless!

These Danes attended last year’s sports seminar, and have just been here for the week as volunteers, going around to different villages and leading mini sports festivals, which is exactly what they did in Kumbungu. They basically just played games (both Danish and Ghanaian) with kids for about an hour. There were two groups, one for younger children and one for young adults. The younger kids played a variety of games – I noticed a version of “duck, duck, goose” and they also learned the “head, shoulders, knees, and toes” song, among so many more. The older group played groundball (the Danish version of stickball, I guess) and then Ultimate Frisbee.

Afterwards, we went to Fatawu’s house (Fatawu was involved in both last year and this year’s sports seminars, so was well acquainted with the Danes) to eat lunch. After lunch, we made our way to Zangbolon, only a 5-minute drive from Kumbungu. We went to Napa’s house, another Ghanaian who knew the Danes from last year’s seminar. After hanging around for a while, she took us around Zangbolon, showing us mostly the different farms and crops that had been recently planted, like chili peppers, yams, rice, etc. We also made our way to the home of a gentleman who owned an incubator for hatching eggs. Before we left, we stopped by to say hello to the chief. The Danes brought some gifts for him, including a solar-powered hat with an attached fan that blew into his face. The chief then brought out a bag full of gifts the Danes had brought in previous years – most of them were different kinds of fun hats. It was a nice gesture that he kept them all! After that we headed back home – again on the back of a pick-up truck (although this time sans the dirt).

Unfortunately, the last of the Danes left early this morning, so the Simli Center is as empty as it was when I first got here.

In other news, Ramadan started on Saturday, which means most of the locals are fasting – from 4am to 6pm for the next 29 or so days! I find it very impressive that although they aren’t eating, their daily routines don’t change at all. Azeez told me today that you can start practicing the fasting at age 15, but once you turn 18 years old, it is compulsory.

In other, other news, it’s the last week of school! On Friday, the kids at Titagya will be let out for break, and then the new school year will pick up some time in September. This week is a review week for all the classes; they are reviewing all the lessons they’ve covered since school started, one week condensed into a class session. I still have just over two weeks left in Ghana, but I can’t believe so much time has gone by already, and that soon I won’t get to see these smiling faces anymore!

I got the opportunity to take over one of the teacher’s classes for the entire past week, as he was away attending a workshop. I think it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life –those were five long days. Remember when I said the kids didn’t quite respond to me as they did their other teachers? Well the same was still true, only I wasn’t done after just one day or one class session…I had to make it through the entire week.

I was teaching them two-letter words, like it, as, if, so, go, to, no…etc. To make matters more difficult, I had to do it entirely in English, whereas the other teachers always infused Dagbani, so the young students would understand better.

It was never so bad during the first class session, but by the time 10 am rolled around, most of the kids just didn’t want to pay attention anymore. It was a huge struggle trying to keep their attention on the blackboard, trying to get everyone to respond and repeat the words after me or the student leading the class. It was even harder to try and discipline the students in English, for they couldn’t understand what I was saying, and would just giggle. I thought I’d explode of frustration more than once, but every single time I managed to draw on some last nerve of patience I never knew I had.

At the end of the week, the other teachers commented that it seemed as though the students had finally gotten used to my teaching style, especially teaching in English. I was too busy trying to keep myself sane in controlling the class that I guess I never noticed it, but I realized they were right. In the end, the students actually learned, and they learned a lot. I taught them almost 20 new two-letter words that the students could identify, spell, and read. When on Friday the students read simple sentences like: “So he is to go” and “I am in it,” I couldn’t be prouder of them.

So yes, it was a long week…but it was one of the most rewarding weeks I’ve ever had, and it was a week that reminded me exactly why I’m here, and why I enjoy doing what I’m doing. It was just the week I needed!

Dalun’s Youth Center is a very important hub of youth activity in the village. It is founded and funded by Danes, and there are Danish volunteers every so often who come to help out. The Youth Center is one of the first of its kind in this area, for it is very hard to bring any youth together, what with all of the political, ethnic, religious, or other divides. Dalun succeeded in spite of it all, and now anyone ages 13+ can officially join the organization (even someone 99 years old can join…they are still youth at heart!). The Youth Center essentially aims to create a huge network of communities, hopefully joining neighboring villages together and bringing peace and development.

They put on a number of programs or workshops and activities throughout the year, such as lessons in computer literacy, or sports programs. For example, in order to dispel the traditional notion that females just belong in the kitchen cooking and cleaning, the Youth Center helped form a girl’s soccer team, and they practice every single evening in a field not far from the center.

The Center especially emphasizes sports, for sports has the immense capability of bringing people together. This year marks the third annual sports festival, which is held here at the Simli Center, involving Danes and Ghanaians both from Dalun and other villages. One of the overall goals of this partnership is “Sports as a tool for development,” and so these volunteers are here for a week teaching one another and learning from one another about sports and sports education. They are broken up into groups – a mix of Danes and Ghanaians – and come up with ideas for games and sports activities to share with others, including the community at large. Today and tomorrow, the groups are actually travelling to neighboring villages, where they will be sharing these activities with the local people.

As you can see, the Youth Center is a pretty incredible place. Unfortunately, I haven’t had very many opportunities to stop by, but I hope that in my remaining less than 4 weeks (ah!) I can spend more time there getting to known the youth of Dalun!

A few weekends ago, Habib took me to the nearby Nawuni River. It was a short 15-minute ride, and on the way we passed by some absolutely beautiful, lush green farmland, with trees sporadically popping up here and there. I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again – Dalun is one incredibly beautiful village.

The river wasn’t too wide – I could probably swim from one side to the other if the current wasn’t too strong – but apparently it’s pretty long; Habib said he thinks it leads all the way to the ocean by Accra. There are some villages scattered along the other side of the river, hence the canoe taxi that carries people (and objects) across. They even fit a few motorbikes on the boat!

You can see the water tank in the background (is that what it’s called?) that pumps water from the river into the pumping station that is located by the center where I’m staying. This is where they filter, purify, and clean the water for the villagers to use. They also purify water for other nearby villages as well, and it’s a very important place and job! I’m supposed to be getting a tour of the site sometime soon.

Habib also said that when it’s peak rainy season, the water in the river rises so high you can’t even see the trees you do in the picture! I find it hard to believe, but based on how often and hard it rains here…well, peak rainy season is sure to be quite interesting.

The Danes have arrived!

For those who aren’t aware, I spent fall semester last year studying abroad in Copenhagen, and I completely fell head over heels in love with everything Danish (and not just the pastry!)

So it’s a little bit like fate that Dalun has so many connections to Denmark. 1) The center where I am staying was founded by Danes in the late 80’s. It used to be called the Ghanaian Danish Community Program, but has since been renamed the Simli Center. 2) The youth center here was also founded by Danes and is funded by a Danish rotary club. 3) One of the chief’s sons is married to a Danish woman. He lives in Denmark with her and their kids, and comes back to Dalun every once in a while to visit.

I’m sure there are more examples, but these are the most central ones I’ve heard.

Anyway…the Danes are here to plan and participate in the youth center’s annual sports festival and seminar. It starts next week, so I’ll write more about that once I know more about what exactly it is! I actually just met two Danes who are living in my section of the compound, Michelle and Natalie. They seem very nice and they’re staying for three weeks, so good-bye quiet (and a tad lonely) afternoons and nights!

Three other Danes visited Titagya today, and they brought a surprise…balloons!

I don’t know if the kids had ever seen balloons before, but they were a huge hit. It’s Friday, so class only lasts from 8-9 a.m., and the kids play outside until noon. The hype and excitement over the balloons lasted a good half hour, which in kid time is, like, three hours. The students even abandoned the precious soccer balls to play with balloons!

Due to the wind, most of the balloons ended up flying over the fence surrounding the school, so it would be a mad rush to see who could get to the balloons first. A lot of other women and children walking by thus stopped and watched the whole balloon commotion. I’m sure it was quite a sight!

It’s all dirt and rocks outside the school, so a lot of the balloons popped pretty quickly, but it was so funny to hear the shrieks of happiness every time a balloon popped. You’d think the students would have been scared, but no – they were delighted!

The teachers blew about half the bag – maybe about 10 balloons or so, so we’ll see when and if the balloons make an appearance again! It’s so amazing how much joy a simple balloon can bring to young children.

If you know me, you know that I am very, very, very afraid of bugs. Any kind of bug – big, small, winged, 8-legged. It’s been a challenge getting used to the occasional small flying creature in my hut, but I’ve grown rather skilled at swatting at them with a pamphlet I’ve designated to killing all insects.

So you can imagine my horror, disgust, shock, and complete and utter terror when last night, my hut was swarmed by a bunch of huge flying insects and its wingless brothers. I could hear their wings fluttering against the windows and door, but I didn’t think much of it in the beginning, for the night comes with an endless array of strange, creepy noises.

When the first flying insect came in, I thought it was just a fluke, an isolated incident, and killed it quickly. By number 3, though, I started getting nervous. In total, I must have killed about 10 or more of those huge winged ones, and many, many more of the wingless ones that were crawling under my doorframe. It was like those bugs had decided to wage a war against me. My worst nightmare had come true, and I was trying really hard not to completely freak out.

Earlier that day, I had just put up my mosquito net for the first time. I noticed the flying insects were attracted to the net, so I took it down and put it away immediately…it seemed to have an effect. Eventually, the bugs stopped coming, but I stayed up pretty late anyway, too shaken to sleep.

After some googling, I’ve come to the conclusion that these are “flying ants.” (If you google ‘flying ants Ghana,’ you’ll find a few blog posts that mention very similar scenarios. Don’t be fooled by their pictures, though – my flying ants were bigger and badder!) These insects appear after large rainstorms because their habitat is destroyed. They’re attracted to light, but often lose their wings quickly, thus becoming wingless and crawling on the floor. They don’t live for long outside of their natural environment, though, so I guess that’s a good thing. My friend Francesca hypothesized (and now I think I agree) that the white color of my mosquito net was reflecting the light in my room too strongly, and the insects couldn’t resist.

When I walked out of my hut the next morning, I was just a bit disgusted…one of the other huts has a light outside that is on 24/7. On the floor underneath that light were hundreds and hundreds of those dead flying ants – and even more wings, just lying there on the ground.

Today I put my net back up anyway, and have decided that from now on the light will no longer be on in my room after it gets dark. I will have to resort to the dimmest setting on my laptop inside my net – and I sincerely hope this light isn’t strong enough to attract any unwanted bugs!

Well, then. Last night I may have won the battle…but rainy season has just begun – what on earth will I be facing in the future?? I don’t even want to know.

Since I’ve arrived, I’ve been growing closer to and more comfortable with all of the teachers at the school, and I can only hope that this relationship continues to grow as the days go by. One of the teachers, Madame Baraka, has been telling me about some troubles Titagya faces, particularly with the parents.

Titagya is currently only a preschool and kindergarten – a private pre-primary school (and I think the only pre-primary school in the village!). There are about five public primary schools in the village of Dalun, but I think Titagya does the best job with its students – though I might be a bit biased…I’m already growing so attached to the children, I feel like I can call them my kids! The name of the school means “change,” and Titagya truly is making a difference in these kids’ lives.

As such, you could see how the parents of the students might want their children to stay at Titagya…well, forever. Once the kids graduate Titagya and go on to primary school, I think they get lost in the regular public school system (although there are currently only about 30 graduates or so; the first “class” to graduate was last year’s). From what Madam Baraka has told me, the teaching styles in other schools are obviously quite different and not as successful. The children are not used to learning in that way, and will not thrive as well as they did at Titagya. Parents, especially, are quite upset, and want Titagya to expand to include primary school grades as well – I got the feeling that Madama Baraka strongly agreed with this sentiment.

I asked Habib and Safianu whether expanding Titagya to include primary classes was a possibility, and they said the only problem was securing funding. Since Titagya is a private school, they don’t get any money from the government, so they’d have to pay for the construction as well as the teachers’ salaries and maintenance of the school, supplies, etc. all by themselves, through donations and such. Safianu seemed confident that they could find good teachers in the village for classes, but money is just always an issue.

I guess only time will tell if Titagya ends up becoming a primary school. In the meantime, I’ve finally finalized with Habib and Safianu what exactly I’ll be working on this summer. My first project involves modifying some existing curriculum modules to make them more suitable and relevant to the classrooms, so that activities and lesson plans can be successfully carried out. These modules each encompass a different topic, like hygiene, undersea creatures, weather, etc. In addition, I’ll be spending a few afternoons observing other primary schools in the village, and am very excited to see how things differ. I think my first visit is going to be on Monday, so I’ll report back here soon!

Last Tuesday, Habib took me to the Dalun market. It happens every six days, and people from neighboring villages come to buy and sell goods as well. People pitch small wooden huts and lay out various objects, anything from flour, mangoes, and yams to soap, cloth, jeans, batteries…you name it, it’s (most likely) there!

Habib told me that you also have to haggle prices at the markets here. It seems like everywhere I go in Ghana, I need to bargain to buy! I’m going to be a pro haggler by the time I get back to America.

This is unfortunately the only picture I could snap, just as we were leaving. If you look closely, you can see the different huts. Also note the very ominous clouds in the sky…our visit to the market was cut short because of the rain. It happened quite fast, too – the skies darkened, the temperature dropped rapidly, and the wind started picking up until it was fiercely blowing dust and dirt into my eyes! Rain here is pretty intense, but more on that later!

Last week I got the opportunity to meet the chief of Dalun! This is the man who is basically in charge of the entire village. The chief has about 10 or 11 wives, and lives in a compound (called the chief’s “palace”) with about 50 of his relatives, be it sons, daughters, wives, aunts, uncles, nephews, etc. Before going to meet him, we bought kola nuts for the chief, and had to first go to a sub-chief, who let the him know there were visitors.

The village is very keen on cultural traditions and customs, like bowing before elders (especially important ones like the chief and his “first lady,” aka his first wife) One of the project managers of Titagya, Safianu, acted as translator between the chief and I. We were all sitting barefoot under a large veranda located right outside the chief’s compound. I expected to sit on the ground along with Habib, Safianu, and the sub-chief, but it turns out they had brought out a chair for me to sit on, as I was the special guest!

After introductions, Safianu told me that the chief had just granted me a title: Leader of the Community Women. What I’m going to do with that “title,” I have no clue, but I felt honored anyway. The chief asked a bunch of questions, like how long am I staying, why am I here, what do I expect to get out of the summer…he even asked about President Obama!

The chief then handed us kola nuts as gifts, and we were supposed to crack them open and eat them. I only took a small bite out of mine, as it was so bitter, but Safianu tells me that the people in the village love the taste. After reading so much about kola nuts in my anthropology classes, I was thrilled to finally experience such rituals in person!

We didn’t stay for long, and as we were leaving Safianu said we were very fortunate, for normally the chief wants to talk and talk for hours, asking tons of questions. We were there at 3 pm, however – time for prayer – so our visit was cut short. I do hope that as the weeks go by, I get the opportunity to interact more and more with the community of Dalun!