Disappointing day

Had a heated discussion today with the Head Teacher of one of the school. Was really disappointed with his attitude and demands. He was asking us about financial incentives for the school or teachers to compensate them for the time spent assisting us in the project. He said that his teachers complained to him that they had to spent their own money to go for the opening ceremony of the project and that there was no food only light refreshments provided. He went on to say that if this continues, the teachers might not be so willing to cooperate and the project will end in failure. He feels we are not being fair to the school or the teachers! What a load of bullshit!

This is not the first time he had brought up the issue of money. Every time we go to the school, he will never fail to bring it up. I seriously had enough of it. I have repeatedly explained to him that we are having problems finding sponsors. If we can reimburse the school or teacher for the time or personal money spent, we will but until we get money in, there's nothing we can do about it. But this man doesn't seem to trust us and was persistent in badgering us to do something about it. And so let my emotions got the better of me and went into a heated discussion with the Head Teacher. I have to admit there was a period during the discussion when I was struggling really badly to control my anger. So much so that I had to stop myself from speaking.

In hindsight I really should have controlled myself better. It was unprofessional of me to did what i did. But the thought that we spent so much time and effort to run this project in a faraway place because we care about the issue and this is the kind of appreciation we are getting is really upsetting. 

To be honest, after today, even if the project have the money, I would not spend it on the school or teachers. Every single cent that we have raised so far and is continuing trying to raise should be spend on the students.

Food

Finally the much awaited posting on food in Ghana! Generally the food here tends to be starchy as their staple consist of mainly rice or root vegetables like cassava or yam. The variety of food available is also limited. For rice, its usually fried rice, plain rice with stew or jollof rice (rice cooked with tomato, tomato paste, onions, salt and pepper), giving it a red colour. Have yet to see a pure noodle dish though they have a curious habit of mixing some spaghetti with rice and eating it. So far I have yet to find any green leafy vegetables and also no fresh milk is available here.

So what is Ghana's national dish? I believe it's fufu. Basically its boiled cassava and plaintain, pounded into a glutinous mass. It is then served with gravy, which can be made from groundnut, palm nut or light tomato soup. The texture of is a bit like muah chee. And yes you eat fufu with your fingers.

First class

This ASK project officially starts this week! The first and second class was done yesterday by Hannah and Eric. Went to observe their lesson and to ensure that everything went smoothly since Tomoki and I were the main point of contact between the schools and the ASK team. Had my first class this morning and another in the afternoon. It is exhausting having to stand in front of a class for an hour and teach about HIV/AIDS. But at the same time it was fun too! The kids here are unlike Singapore students. Here they enjoy participation and if you ask a question, generally you can find people willing to raise their hands to answer it unlike in Singapore. Having said that, I find myself being very careful with my choice of words as I wasn't sure of their English standards. Having been here for a while, I'm beginning to find that the older generations generally speaks better English than the younger ones. Hope that is a wrong assessment and that things are actually better than I thought. Anyway back to the classes, some of the questions asked by the students were really challenging and I find myself unsure of the answers. So I guess I better read up more on the topic!! And to all my teacher friends out there, you guys rock!

Mole National Park - Part three

Pictures of insects

Mole National Park - Part two

Only managed to see 4 variety of animals at the national park. They are the elephants, antelopes, wild hogs and baboons.

Pictures of Mole National Park - Part one

Sceneries

A series of unfortunate events

Was up in Kumasi at the AIESEC house over the weekend as they had planned for a integration trip up north for the interns and the new members. The original plan was to leave Kumasi at 2am on Friday and travel the night to reach Yeji by dawn. At Yeji we will take a ferry to cross lake volta and travel on to Salaga which was formally a slave camp. After that we will journey on to Bolgatanga where we will spend the night and leave early the next day to travel to Paga. At Paga we will take pictures with crocodiles at the sacred lake and travel onwards to Wa. Not sure what's to see there but after that to Mole National Park to see the elephants before dropping by Larabanga to see the oldest mosque in Ghana after which we will head back to Kumasi and hopefully reached the house before midnight. Sounds crazy? Yup it is. I wasn't convinced that the plan will work especially since it usually takes longer than expected to reach anywhere in Ghana. For example, I was told that it would only take 45mins to 1 hr to travel from Kumasi to Obuasi and in the end it's more like 3-4 hrs. And they didn't want to spend another night up north in order to keep the cost down. But in the end, as things goes here, the plan didn't work out. Quite glad of that actually as I wasn't looking forward to spending so much time on my bum travelling on lousy roads. Some how everyone overslept and we left Kumasi at around 6+ in the morning. And lo and behold, some of the members that were suppose to come on the trip changed their minds at the last minute and we were left with a bus, a few of us interns and some members wondering whether we should still carry on the trip. But I guessed everyone wanted a short break so we decided to take a day trip instead to Tamale, Mole National Park and Larabanga which are all near each other before heading back at night. But the delay meant that we only left Kumasi at around 9+ and the trip to Tamale will take around 6 hours. We reached Tamale at 2+ in the afternoon and became worried that we might not make it to Mole in time before it closes for the night. So we took a short spin round Tamale and left for Mole. The road to Mole was atrocious even by local standards. The road were unpaved, full of potholes and stretches to nowhere. And when we reached Mole at 4.30pm, we were told the park is closed. So we went to Larabanga and took some pictures of the mosque and stayed the night there even though we did not plan to do it. But was glad that we did as we saw the most beautiful night sky. Stars, moon and the milky way. Gorgeous! The next morning we went to the park and if you are picturing those images you usually see on National Geographic or Discovery, forget about it. Those wide swathes of Savannah are only found in east and south Africa. Furthermore we visited the park at the wrong season. It's the rainy season now and the best time to visit is in Feb when its the dry season and the grasses are shorter and water more scarce forcing the animals to congregate at watering holes which makes viewing easier. Anyway we left for Kumasi and after what seems like eternity we finally reached the AIESEC house again at 3 something in the afternoon. So there you have it, this is Africa for you. Unexpected surprises are always around the corner waiting for you. Just in case you're wondering if I enjoyed the trip, I did. The great company made up for the rest.

Crazy!

Saw this piece of news on yahoo 'Epic African roadtrip aids poor ahead of 2010 WC'. Basically the plan is to raise money for charities by getting people to pay 1,250 dollars to join the organisers on a roadtrip through Africa driving "the cheapest, worst, lightest cars' from Berlin to Cape Town. "We want to show that you don't need a four-wheel drive vehicle to go across Africa, that having a smaller car makes it half the adventure of getting there." Knowing the state of roads in Africa, I can only wish them good luck!

Get the full story here
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20091020/tls-fbl-wc2010-us-travel-charity-aeafa1b.html

ASK opening ceremony photos - part two

Guest speakers

Q&A session

Organising Committee with invited guests

Others

 

 

 

The children

Can you do that?

Reporters

Machine-washed vs hand-washed

Shall recount a conversation I had with Yaw (Phillip's third son) a while ago which set me thinking. It was about the lack of washing machine in Ghana. I remarked to him that while Ghanaians have laptops, fridges etc it is rather odd that they do not have washing machine. To me technological progress comes as a package and I was surprised to find it not so here. He's reply was that they prefer to wash by hands which I take to mean that they are used to washing by hand and see no reason to change. I thought that wasn't a very good reason and said that perhaps it's because washing machine are expensive and it consumes unnecessary water and electricity. He agreed and added that washing by hands is cleaner (which I disagree) and the clothes last longer. I left it as that. A similiar conversation took place when I was at the conference in Takarodi. The reply I got was that God gave people hands to use it. At which point I replied that why then are you using a laptop and not a pen? God gave people brains to use it too. As a economic student, I look at it from a economic perspective. Most women here are housewife and the marginal cost of washing to them would probably be the time spent. But time here is cheap generally and especially so for housewife. Why do I say so? Unemployment here is generally high. Most people here are self-employed (i.e. you will see many small stalls by the side of the road selling similiar products like drinks or snacks). So time is theirs to use as they wished. Also, whenever I go to the Obuasi's Municipal Office, most of the workers there are doing nothing but reading newspapers. On the other hand, the marginal return from hand washing is the savings made from having to purchase a washing machine and the extra electricity and water cost which would be substantial by local income levels. So what would change the equation to tilt it in favour of washing machine? When time is no longer cheap. That would require economic progress and Ghana certainly has the conditions and natural resources to achieve that. So who wants to bet against washing machine becoming the norm here in the future?

Pictures from ASK project opening ceremony - part one

Some pics on the preparation of the opening ceremony.

The venue

NTMS part 3

Last group of pictures from NTMS 09

People I've met

   

 

NTMS part two

More pictures of the conference

Meal times

Bedroom

 

NTMS 09 part one

National training and motivational seminar (NTMS). My feelings for the conference is kinda mixed. On one hand, I think the whole conference was badly organised. The hotel was crappy, the food was always not enough, the program too boring etc. But on the other hand, I was quite glad that I went for the conference too. The conference was held in Takarodi which is a nice coastal town. So instead of attending the plenary sessions which, by the way, was meant for new members to get to know more about AIESEC, I went to explore the beach and city center instead. Will upload those photos in another post. In the meantime, here are some photos of the conference.

Arrivals

Pictures!

Wow took me ages to upload these few pictures! Anyway got a bit bored of typing so decided to spice up the blog with some pictures. These pictures were taken at the AIESEC house which is where I stayed at when I first reached Kumasi.

The room where I slept is on the 2nd storey of the building on the right.

Toilet

  

 

 

My bed is the lower one.

 

The other room.

 

Kitchen