A Day at the School

Don’t get used to this posting-all-the-time thing, but lucky you, here’s another, while I have the chance!



Yesterday was a busy day. I went for an early morning run with Stephen, who knocked on my door beforehand to ask if I had footwear…and then went next door and was talking in Fante to the other boy, I think borrowing some shoes to run in. He didn’t run me into the ground, so that was inspiring. Granted, he was wearing someone else’s shoes, and they weren’t running shoes, but I’ll take the handicap. After my bucket shower, I checked my watch and noticed that I had run and finished showering before 6:30 in the morning, a new Shawna record by about three hours. After breakfast, I walked over to the Coconut Grove Hotel, to meet with Lankesha (the manager) who is helping me in too many ways to count. I may be staying at a hut that he has built when school starts up, for a little while until I can find somewhere else to live. He is a very nice, very busy man, who immediately informed me that he had to leave for Accra in 20 minutes (this was 8:30am) and then proceeded to do the following: drive me to the hut, but the contractor couldn’t find the key so we looked at it through the window; then we went back to the front desk where Lankesha attended to all sorts of important business for close to two hours; then, the contractor found the key, and we drove back out to the hut to look at it again (it’s one room, looks pretty much the same from the window)… and finally he dropped me at the school on his way out at 12:30.


At 1:00 pm, I was invited to attend a meeting for CCAPSTU, which is an organization started by two of the graduates of Christ Cares school, sort of an alumni club. Their aim is to see to it that the school keeps improving, so future generations can proudly say they have graduated from this school. They are very passionate about doing their part because of what has been given to them – it is very inspiring to hear them speak. Otoo, the president, is an especially eloquent speaker, with wonderful ideas. The headmaster, Ben, and I were the guests, and as such had to sit at the front of the room and periodically give speeches...having not been warned of this little custom, I did my best, keeping it brief, praising them for their hard work, and encouraging them to communicate with me on any issues regarding CCAPSTU and the school. Ben, in turn, gave speeches approaching a half-hour (no joke), complete with parables, metaphors, arm-waving, short stories about the Roman Empire (what??), and audience participation. Guess I did that wrong. Now, this being Ghana, the meeting didn’t actually start until 3:30, because no one except me was there at 1. The meeting was a great eye-opener, I really enjoyed getting to hear what the students think should be done to improve education at the school.


Before dinner I played some games with the kids that gather in the schoolyard every afternoon. They taught me some singing and dancing games that they like to play, and some clapping/hand slapping games along the lines of those patty-cake games you used to play in elementary school. Basically it was a chance for everyone to point and laugh at the ‘Obruni’ (white person). Good times. We had electricity for about an hour at dinner, and then it went off in the middle of cooking so we lit a lantern. After dinner, I was pretty tired, so I went upstairs to write some notes and go to sleep early, but at 8:30 or so, Maxwell and Otoo knocked on my door, and asked if we might talk. So we dragged some chairs outside, and talked in the dark for about an hour and a half – they wanted to talk some more about their concerns, and I tried my best to answer their questions about certain policies, and why they are the way they are. I praised them for asking questions, said that it is good to question why things are being done in a certain way, instead of just accepting it. I also had a number of questions for them – the school system is very different here, so it was interesting to hear what they had to say to that effect. I was very happy that they felt comfortable enough to come and talk to me. I encouraged them to please keep doing so, to keep the dialogue open for the improvement of their school.


Well, my time is about up here, and I’ve got to head back for lunch. I hear we’re having groundnut soup. That’s peanut soup to us Americans. Sounds delicious!