I miss you...

I have already been at home for more than a week, but somewhere I feel that half of me is still left in Ghana, especially at the school…

I miss getting up early in the morning so that I still have some time alone with my thoughts in my room… Then I miss having my bath with that bucket of water that was so strange on my first day, but became so natural in a very short time… I miss being at class by 7 o’clock and starting to clean the louvers while the four-year-old kids are coming to school, proudly showing me their homework and also while teachers are saying good morning smiling through the window… I miss learning the alphabet, numbers and maths with the kids, and also drawing cats, houses and buses on the board so that they can copy them… I miss them calling my name just about hundred times a day, asking for eraser, pencil or telling me about who beat or pinched them… I miss them shouting ‘Me, me, me!’ when we asked who could answer a question…  I miss telling them stories and also when they were telling stories to each other even though lots of times I could hardly follow these stories… I miss telling them so many times to keep quiet… I miss sitting on the bench after closing when kids would come to me chatting… I miss all of them asking me to draw boardgames for them and teaching some of them how to make dice out of board paper… I also miss learning twi, the local language and trying to figure out what they are all talking about when they are speaking twi… I miss watching TV together with the kids while they are asking all kinds of questions from me… I miss when they hide under the table while I’m eating and pretend that they are some kind of small animals… I miss all the good Ghanaian food and I don’t know what I’m going to do here without eating fufu or banku… I miss everybody calling me obruni when walking on the streets… I miss all our great excursions with Richard… I miss squeezing into trotros and I also miss going all around Kumasi in trotros to get home since all the straight trotros were too busy… I also miss all the evenings spent at prep at school helping the kids with learning and being called to at least three places at a time…

I guess I could continue this forever, but the point is: I MISS YOU GHANA, I WILL NEVER FORGET YOU GHANA, I LOVE YOU GHANA!!!!!

Goodbye Emmanuel School

Unfortunately nothing can last forever and the end of this great four month that I got to spend at Emmanuel School came to the end too. Honestly I knew that saying goodbye would not be easy, but I didn’t think that it would be this hard. I guess somehow I thought that four month would be a longer time, but believe me, it’s way too short if you are spending it at a place like this.

But before leaving I still had a great day that I spent together with the kids and the teachers as well!! On the last Wednesday before I left, we had no classes in the morning, instead we had a program so that I could spend some more time with the kids. It all started with some speeches: at first Richard, my volunteer coordinator talked about what volunteering means and how I got there at all, after which two students speeches as well to say goodbye – one of them was talking in the name of all students and the other one in the name of the boarders – the kids who are staying at the school, so they were the ones who I spent most of my time with. They were so great, really, I just felt like that I cannot leave yet, it would be absolutely impossible. Because I love all these people so much… I was just struggling with crying and I couldn’t even talk when it was my turn. Ok, part of the truth is that I’m really bad with speeches in front of a lot of people, but the other part was that I was really touched by all these speeches…

After this I got tons of letters and presents from all the kids and we still had some time just to party together. All the kids and teachers were dancing together to real nice Ghanaian music (I got a CD full of this music, too before leaving! :)) and we really had great time together.

In the afternoon I had some time with the teachers too, when I got an amazing citation from them in which they are appreciating my volunteer time at the school, and I also got a beautiful banner with the school’s and my name on it, written with famous Ghanaian kente weave. We also had good food and drinks together. Right, and later I got an amazingly beautiful real Ghanaian dress, too to wear when I’m leaving Ghana. They are just so good to me that sometimes I’m not even sure that I will be able to pay it back…

I guess the point is that it’s really hard to leave a place like this, but this day we still had a great time together and I’m also sure that I got such experiences here that I will never ever forget these people!

The Roles of a Queenmother

The last time we went to Ghana’s Most Beautiful (a poplular TV show in Ghana that I have already written about earlier), the topic was the roles of the queenmothers in their community today. The contestants had to act as if they were the queenmother of their region and explain what role they were playing there.

It seemed to me that the role of a queenmother pretty much represents the role of a woman in today’s community. The point is that she can show and teach her people how a woman is supposed to behave, mostly as an adviser of the men (and the chief), as she represents the women’s side in all discussions. The women’s role is reflected in her behavior also, when she sits down by the left hand side of the chief so that he can protect her. It’s also her job to empower her women by ensuring their education (which is supposed to be a right and not a privilege and in which the parents have a great responsibility, too) for example by providing scholarships that will make it possible for them to be successful in their own business, while she also encourages them to believe in themselves and ‘make an impact on somebody’s life’. Girl child education seems to be a problem though concerning several regions, since traditionally a lot of girls dropped out of school so that they could help their mothers at the markets. Besides the queenmother is to be a royal mother to all of her people who takes care of good food, and health issues as well, for example by organizing cleaning projects, or by educating people about how to maintain good health. She is also the one who deals with marital problems – in this regard she plays the role of a psychologist of the European world by trying to find solutions for disputes between wife and husband.

Besides all these she deals with several current issues of her region. In lots of cases hospitality, taking care of touristic attraction and preserving culture is a very important point that she keeps in mind. One of her most important tasks is connected with the annual festivals of the region which is based on traditions and also an important opportunity to keep in touch with the people of the region. In the Upper West Region for example the queenmother considers herself to be the ‘ears and the eyes of the chief’ who is able to communicate the people’s problems to him.

She is also the one who can deal with such current issues as reducing the cost of funerals, which are way too expensive at the moment (e.g. Ashanti Region), arranging water storage for dry season farming, improving the safety of the rivers or getting involved in such projects as packing salt more attractively in order to get more business out of it (e.g. Greater Accra Region). She can work on water projects in order to provide good drinking water (e.g. Upper West and Bong-Ahafo Region), as well as she can fight against women violation (e.g. Upper East and Upper West Region) and teenage pregnancy by health and sex education (e.g. Brong-Ahafo Region)

Obviously the queenmother doesn’t work on all these projects just by herself, but together with different nongovernmental organizations and foundations. By fulfilling all these roles she doesn’t only help her community, but also greatly represent the women’s role in this developing country: which is to support the men with advises representing the women’s side, while also ‘believe in herself’ and ‘make an impact on other’s life’ by getting involved in all important issues that she is capable of helping with – but still remaining a sensitive and submissive WOMAN in the meanwhile of all these.  

Art at Emmanuel School: Children's Drawings

Let's get back to some of the things happening at Emmanuel School again: besides all the serious subjects, paying attention on how the children develop their art skills, is very important, too. Beginning from the youngest kids, up to J.H.S (Junior High School) level, they all have some kinds of arts in their timetable as well. For the samllest kids this might mean only scribbling, or let's say, pasting a leaf in their book, but for the older kids there are some more serious drawing lessons as well.

The children also love drawing out of school time. One day for example I drew some animals on the board since we were learning about domestic and wild animals. When the bigger kids saw these drawings at the end of the day, before I could have realized, I found myself locked in the class with 5-6 older kids (alright, older than my four-year-olds) teaching them how to draw elephants, horses and all kinds of things.
Since the kids don't only like drawing, but they also love it when a picture is taken of their drawing, I have quite a collection of children's drawings, so I thought that I would share some of them with you here to make your virtual experience at Emmanuel School more alive. :)

To see this collection, click here.