Let's Read!

I have just realised that I have not really explained what my job is here in Ghana. Now that I know what I'm meant to be doing, I thought I would also share it with you...

VSO works through partnerships with local organisations. The local organisation has to request the volunteer - vols are rarely placed without this request. I am working for the Bolga Municipal Education Service in a project started by 4 English head/depute head teachers. The project is called Let's Read!

LR have produced laminated cards with words, letters and pictures, which teachers are given and are then trained in how to use them. I am working in 16 schools in all - 6 in Bolga district, 5 in Talensi Nabdam (south and east of Bolga) and 5 in Kassena Nankana (north of Bolga). I am observing teachers and advising them on their lessons, team teaching (my favourite way of training), organising workshops, trying to find lead teachers (good teachers to train others), work with Circuit Supervisors (like Quality Improvement Officers), make alphabet friezes on the wall, assess children and most importantly, not get lost on the motorbike! So far I've been focussing my efforts in Bolga but am trying to expand to the other districts just now. Lots and lots to keep me busy!

The pictures - an alphabet freize in one school, and children using LR cards in another.

:-)

Rachael came to visit (in November!)

My first guest - and the first guest of any VSO in Bolga and possibly Ghana - was Rachael!! Here we are in 2 photos - outside my house and in a restaurant. I had a great week with her! The first few days were in Bolga - unfortunately I had to work but Rach seemed to spend most of the time sleeping, and joined my friend Jason for a tour of the market and also came to a VSO lunch. We had a trip to Paga, to visit the slave camp which was really interesting, though we walked the longest 2km I've ever come across to get there and then 2km back again. We then went to Tamale and spent 3 days there, swimming, eating nice food, wandering in the markets and going to a random concert that lasted a few minutes!

Sorry it's taken me so long to post this Rach - must do better!

Yeah! finally worked! Photos are - all of us outside my house with my bike, Mum and Dad eating at Mole, Sonia and me on a safari walk at Mole and Mum, Dad and me having a meal at my house!

Happy new year!
A quick update - my new year's resolution - or one of many - is to do my blog little and often rather than stupid long emails once a month!

The photo is of my family, outside my house. I had a lovely time with them, in Mole then Bolga, and I think they also enjoyed themselves. It is strange to think it'll be months til I see them again but I'm not going to dwell on these things at the moment!

Back to work tomorrow which will be fine - schools are off for another week so a slow start.

Biking in Bolga

About a month since I updated this properly, so a wee update.

I have being spending the last week doing my motorbike training – not quite the ordeal I had built it up to be! There are only 4 of us doing it, me and three volunteers from the Upper West Region, which makes for a good sized group. We spent the first day in a “field” (more of a dirt area – a Ghanaian field) practising going round and round in circles, speeding up, slowing down etc – just whatever we fancied really! The instructor is a local mechanic who was more supervising than actually teaching us. My bike had three falls on Monday – I, however, only had one! My bike (who is still looking for a name – suggestions on a postcard!) fell over onto the concrete somehow – I think perhaps I was leaning on it or something. The bike’s second fall was when I was on it – I miraculously leapt off and stayed standing while the poor bike fell over. Bike’s final fall of the day was a real “You’ve Been Framed” moment – I parked, attempted to put the stand on and thought I had succeeded, got off the bike, smiled smuggly at how well I had done... and Bike promptly fell over, knocking me to the ground too... if only we'd had a video camera.

We started day two practising in the field again, where I did two quite spectacular falls, both my own fault! We’d been warned about the sandy bits of ground but we had decided to practise on it! It was good to get used to falling in a safe environment where Cam and Aaron could come along and pick up the bike and I’d almost got the hang of it after several falls! We then rode to Bongo, a small town 15km from Bolga, mainly along a dirt track. The ride there was not so enjoyable – I found it hard to see/tell what was sand and what was just dirt road, so arrived a bit achy from sitting so still and rigid. The ride home was fine and I had no further falls in the morning! In the afternoon we went to Shiragu which is about 7km out of Bolga – only one fall on a sandy, stony slope.

Wednesday was spent at the DVLA. 7 hours, many games of I spy and hangman and most of a book later we left with our temporary Ghanaian driving licences – success!

Thursday was probably my best day so far = no falls! We went down a very long dirt track to Siragu and visited the Siragu women’s pottery centre (name….) we then went to Paga to see the sacred crocodiles, sit on the back of one and watch it being fed it a live chicken! After a nice lunch in Navrongo, we rode the 30km back to Bolga along a lovely tarmacked road!

On Friday we learned about bike maintenance and I can now safely say that I know more about how a motorbike works than I do a car! After a slightly hairy ride around town, including the tro tro park, I got to take my bike home, which was much easier and less scary than I imagined. Bike is now safely in the house waiting for it's first trip to work on Monday.

Anyone got any suggestions as to what to name my motorbike? Here are the suggestions so far – some are good, some are bad and some are absolutely ridiculous!

Cooper
Hullio
Macbike
Nessie Loch-bike
Lewis
Hamish
Haggis (notice a theme here)
Yoko Biko

Jon Bon Jovi
Na (Fra Fra for chief)
Shakira
Owlet
Dan

Any suggestions welcome... please, otherwise it’s going to get stuck with Yoko Biko forevermore!

An old post that I forgot to put up... 1st November

Dear friends and family

Another wee update from Ghana!

That’s me been here six weeks now – the time is flying by!! I’m really starting to feel settled now. My flatmate’s back in the UK for a month, so I am making the place feel like my home as well… got my photos up in the bedroom, stocking up the kitchen cupboard with… well rice and pasta and various beans and pulses. I am eating well – and very healthily – but the selection is not huge – lots of tomatoes, egg, onions, garden eggs (like wee aubergines), and tins of meat and fish from the tiny supermarket in town. It means you have to be creative! I’ve discovered a recipe for a chocolate tray bake, which made me popular at the Halloween party the VSOs held last night (I was a tortoise – thanks for that one Sonia!!)

Two ladies from England, Jo and Lyn, spent the week with me last week. They, along with two others, set up the Let’s Read! project, which I am working on. They have produced a set of primary school resource cards, which they have given to various schools, alongside training courses. I am now the on-the-ground person, continuing the training, working with teachers, producing extra materials if necessary from time to time etc etc.

This week, we spent two mornings training P2 and P3 teachers in games and activities to do with their classes, making sure they are teaching the phonic sounds rather than the letter names. We visited 4 schools to see how teachers were getting on. We also spent two mornings at a school called Grace International, which is partly funded by a Ghanaian charity called Afrikids. Let’s read have been doing work to make the school into a model school, so I envisage I’ll be spending quite a lot of my time there. On Friday, I did some team teaching with P3 and P4 teachers. Both are quite new, and I think untrained, so they were struggling with aspects of teaching phonics. I did some team teaching with them. I’m now very much more aware of what my day to day job will be, and have a huge to do list!! It’s very exciting to see how things fit together, and to get a feel for what I’ll be doing in the coming months. Lyn and Jo left behind lots of resources for me to use, including a brand new printer! (I’m easily pleased!)

I’ve had some nice day trips over the last few weekends. Two weeks ago we went to Zebilla, which is very near the Burkina Faso and Togo borders – in fact I think you can see all three countries from one spot (a little like a place in Swaziland where you can see South Africa and Mozambique). We spent some time at a local spot, and went to the house of other VSOs in the area, Pat, Iona and Andrea. The following day, I went to the Tongo Hills with some other friends. There are huge big rocks scattered around the area, making small caves where traditionally people would meet to discuss local business and make decisions. We visited the chief and compound as it is today. The chief here has 13 wives and 40 children, all of whom live in the compound – a maze of passages and homes. Very interesting.

Last weekend we went up to Navrongo and Paga, which is another border with Burkina Faso. We visited Sam, who is teaching at a teacher training college, and went to Paga Pio’s Palace, which, similar to Tongo, is a chief’s compound. Going to Navrongo makes you realise how lucky we are in Bolgatanga in terms of shopping!!

I still haven’t made it to Burkina Faso yet as my visa/work permit/resident’s permit is still being processed. (I can’t remember which, just know I don’t have my passport!)

Rachael arrives on Monday in Bolga for a week’s visit, which is VERY exciting!! I have to work a couple of days, then we can go off and explore the country!

Halloween party

Saturday was the first VSO party, courtesy of Jillian and Jason! It was such a success that we've started planning the next one already!

You have no idea how difficult it is to come up with a costume when all you have with you is shorts, tops and skirts! Though I considered taking the green crocodile lying in my living room, I decided that being Crocodile Dundee was a bit of a cheat since someone did it last year! So we had to be very creative with the costumes. After much humming and hawing - someone in their PJs, someone with their clothes on backwards etc etc, I finally decided to go asa tortoise - khaki trousers, green top, back pack covered in African material to look like a shell. Many people thought I was an African lady with a baby on my back, but I thought it was a rather convincing outfit! I took a Ghanaian friend along and dressed her as a Christmas tree - tinsel, origami birds, the usual! Other costumes included: snow, bottles of this nice juice called Alvaro, a flipchart, a clueless man (i.e. a guy dressed in the clothes he wore when he got married), London man, Organisational Development (you have to be VSO to get that... its both the funniest and most boring thing you could be - it was hilarious!), a Ugandan marathon runner, a spider... it was great fun. The powercut halfway through didnt really matter either since it was Halloween!

Our hosts made watermelon lanterns, and we ate vodka-watermelon, toasted seeds (I'm not quite sure what...) crisps and my homemade chocolate biscuit tray bake thing - a little alternative, but so much fun!

I'll put up some photos when I work out how!