what does it say?

..when i confess that i don't really miss much between life in the U.S. and life in rural Ghana? Oh, i miss family big-time and to some extent, friends, but most of them are e-friends now so, apart from connection frustrations, that is no different.

My 'sporting' interests are running..and that's still get out of bed, go to the loo, put on shoes, go out the door.. and the rest are best followed on-line, i'm sad to say...tho i do get to follow Man U up in Anloga with my 50 new best 'Red' friends every weekend.

And the rest..food is food..books can always be found/or i find them.

I miss conversation..but i probably actually meet more new people here than anywhere/anytime in a comparable period..so maybe that's not so much to miss?

Comments?

I used to think...

..that this PCV stuff was something I was doing...now i begin to understand it is who i've become. Now it isn't important what that 'become' is..old guy working in far-off places trying to help?...but it is quite real and it (I?) can go on and continue to develop as opportunities arise. After all what i've become is slightly different/more advanced/helpful/useful/confident/ comfortable than the person that i was six months ago and there is no reason to think that this graph angle can not continue upwards for the next ten months...and then?

Well, part of it is understanding what it is i can actually do to help..that is really actually useful..and continuing to learn form all of that ..and part of it is continuing to accumulate good contacts for the present and my work here and now, and for the future also.

Just sayin', you know ( ..and that's the last time i use that phrase.)

You're trying to do too much..No, you're not, you're just pushing ahead..leading..and however far Y'ALL get is good!

..and why not? after all, i do have oodles of relevant experience and most people that i interact with here don't..and once you find some folks who really do want to improve things/resolve things, then it's OK to lead as long as you make it 'we' and not 'me' ..and you recognise and smilingly accept that this is indeed Ghana, and rural Ghana at that, and so some limitations on expectations have to be understood....and you have to be patient, etc.

A time ago, when i was waiting and waiting on PC to decide that i wasn't really too olde and decrepit to come to Africa as a PCV, i would tell myself that PC was '.. just a platform..' and that if they finally said 'No' then I would find another platform to come to Africa on. I would tell myself that whereas PC would give me some good training, some financial support, some contacts..and GREAT Medical support, what i could do here would be entirely up to me..and Lady Luck..and that once i was placed then it was always going to be a question of what i could make of the situation...PC or not-PC.

Now i recognise that, for me, that is exactly the right 'attitude'.

There is no such thing as the ideal, the perfect, the 'normal' PCV..but i was never going to be interested in PCV group activities or committees..partially because...hmmm..partially because...emmm, partially because 'younger' PCV's don't have much respect for (much) older PCV's (the U.S. youth worship thing?) but also because it never seemed to be a real part of why I came here as a PCV and i was never willing to fake it. I would have 'joined up' if I'd thought that there was a real desire to share across the generations but there isn't and there wasn't. Does it hurt a little..sure..and one is conscious of it at all PC functions to some extent.

But I knew coming in (coming back) that my PC life was always going to be what i could make of it, what i could make of the opportunity.

Easily then the best part of my current 'situation' in Whuti-Srogboe is that i'm working exclusively with Ghanaian people whom i can begin to call 'business associates or community-development partners' and to that extent then having to go up to Accra next week for a 2-day Mid-Service Health Check seems like a pain in the ass and negatively impacts (only really a very small amount) our progress here. ..although now that i'm here and editing this post, it seems like a nice little break where i can work on some other aspects...like a SPA proposal to fund the Primary School Library. And it's done and delivered to the new SPA co-ordinator, basically in two days..and it's good and the timing is good too ...and, and... there are two other possibilities for getting funds for the Primary School Library..which is great because we can't do it without funds.

Overall hereI may end up being disappointed (...and that may have happened in my life before!!!) but I feel very optimistic about the broad potential of our efforts now AND most encouragingly the feeling of real support and enthusiasm from some community members, some teachers AND some students. What we're doing if we can fully realise it, not just in terms of setting up the two Libraries but in actually developing and operating them as Learning Environments with student Library Volunteers ...is a low-cost replicable model for many schools and communities in this area and perhaps at 3-4,000 GH cedis per Library there could be organisations with deep pockets (like Nivole's Hong Kong bank ) who could fund us/them.

Of course, too, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and it isn't as important what we or other 'elders' think of the work, etc ..what is important is the effect on student literacy at the Primary and the JHS. This has to be measurably improving by next year's exams..and then has to continue to get better. Then we won't need to worry about justifying ...just pushing on, widening, improving.

I have to control my excitement and expectations but this all makes me feel very good about being here, coming here...and staying here.

I will add some JHS Library-Work in Progress pictures..and some Whuti Primary Library..this is the space we start with pictures also.

Food for Thought...about Libraries and Learning

For a while now, I've tried to find the famous Osu Children's Library in Accra on my trips down there..but the directions that i had were vague. Embarassingly, as i now find out, the start point or the directions was a bar called the Honeysuckle which 'all PCV's know'...except me, so i could never get the start point and direction right. Address?-sure but that is of limited, make that very limited, use in Accra because most streets have either no name or no street signs. And City Maps are not very detailed, and there is no handy grid pattern like Manhattan, etc. Eventually by locating a building that showed up on Google maps and guessing where the Library might be from there, i used my first afternoon in Accra last week ( in town for the big 50th Anniversary of PC Volunteers arrival in Ghana) to determinedly strike out for the Library. A couple of tentative turns and some confusion but i found it at last.... and it is a good 30 minute hike to get there from the top of 'Oxford Street' in Osu.... but five minutes after it had closed for the day! No matter...it looks interesting, formed as it is by putting three big shipping containers together. And now i know how to find it.

So next day, after our PC celebrations in the plush surroundings of the US Ambassador's Residence, which turned out to be quite close to the Library, i headed back there.

The Library was started on a shoe-string by a Canadian lady in the mid-90's and has been very successful and the NGO now has many (how many..?) children's libraries in Ghana.

I spent a couple of hours there and was warmly greeted and treated.And it was VERY ENLIGHTENING AND THOUGHT PROVOKING!

Ever since i came back from my trip back home to the U.S. over 4th July, I've been struck by the fact that my time in Whuti is halfway done ..and that now i have to consolidate the work here and leverage it to really reach and help the community's children.

Putting together the Library and running it for the last ten or eleven months has obviously been a learning experience...for me and for the community. Initially, of course, i thought that once we opened the Library, children of all ages would come, would 'discover' the library and books and make it a regular part of their lives. And some did, and we're happy about that and the number of users has steadily grown and we have quite a few regulars. But many children don't come, aren't encouraged to come..and none of the schools, churches, or parents seem to be pushing them towards the Library.

That is addressable and with the start of the new school year, we will aggressively reach out to children via the schools and teachers and the churches..and via the not very activist Library Advisory committee. We should be able to get three or four times as many users as we had at the end of the school year.

But the other part of the resolution is to use the Library to actually help children...and simply having a nice place and lots of books isn't enough.

I can't radically change the literacy levels of the community's 1000+ students but we can use the Library to establish an alternative process (group-based remedial reading?) that will immediately improve literacy for some students and if we catch them young enough, we can really begin to solve the problem over time. The Library then needs to become a Learning Centre and we need to find older students who are willing to work with small groups of younger children to help them in their reading. That is doable but difficult and i should point out that it isn't easy for me to figure out how to put that together ...it surely involves pedagogical skills that i don't currently have (and that are so far from the teaching model in Whuti that there is no point in asking)

It was in this uncertain frame of mind...am i on the right track, can the Library be put on the right track?...that i visited the Osu Library.

I will try to attach some pictures but the first thing one notes is that it is quite small, has a free-form feel and uses covered outdoor space to extend its area. Small...it is built round three big blue shipping containers (..not unusual in Africa!) ...two end-to-end and one across the way from the 'other' two.

But it works..or seems to.

The Library is run by one Ghanaian lady, Joanna, who has a few volunteer helpers (high-school students?)...and it probably doesn't run without volunteers.

When i was there there were probably 20-25 children present..doing a variety of things and relatively few sitting reading.

There was one group of ten or twelve younger children, (aged 5-10? guessing. )who were sitting mostly on mats on the floor, 'working' with two young volunteers. They were practicing spelling with a book that they were clearly familiar with. It wasn't a sophisticated process but it was working and most children were eager to try to spell the words and success was greeted by rhythmic applause, which i've seen/heard before.

Then there were a couple of smaller groups in the other container and they were playing board games... Scrabble was one. These students were older but maybe 12-15..so JHS level? Hmmm.Scrabble..can't imagine Whuti-Srogboe children having that mental dexterity or confidence yet..but it would be a very strong improvement indicator...note to self...take a look at this..get Scrabble sent over plus other similar games.

Additionally there was another group or perhaps two working outside ...art and crafts, putting together ...emmm,stuff, you know, gluing bits of paper to a a sheet, etc..children's play stuff!!! Maybe it was finger painting?

The children seemed happy, were enthusiastic and were learning and gaining confidence.

Cute stuff...they had simple 8-12 piece wooden jigsaw puzzles made...African animals, a country map of Africa (wow!) to engage the 5- and 6- year olds. They had slots of educational stuff on the walls

And they publish their own books!!! There is a serious shortage of African/Ghanaian children's books here ...a shortage of titles that is. And so the Osu library has published their own. They have 20-30 titles, and they're really nicely produced..and cheap at 3-5 GH cedis each (so $2-$3.50) I bought 8 and the kids here really like them

Duh, yes, richard..to really teach children you need to engage their minds in a collaborative fashion. You need to make it fun..and supportive..etc, etc, etc

I sort of reeled away after a couple of hours...and headed over to 'Honeysuckle' to listen to 'my site sucks, they don't love me or let me love them ,etc '. In truth, after Romania, i can easily enough identify with this ...but i don't want to.

So now i'm back in Whuti..where over the last two weeks, 'we' have committed to renovate a space at the JHS as a Library (and possibly a Computer Lab) and inspired by generous donations, we've also committed to finding and renovating a space at the Whuti Primary as a Library also!!! Yea, don't ask....i don't know where the money will come from. Maybe a SPA grant?

But here's the thing...i somewhat despair of turning the Community Library into an interactive Learning Environment. The physical set-up is not conducive at all and i really don't know how to do it there....maybe... yet?

But with the two school spaces, we start from scratch and it may be less expensive in terms of set-up and furnishing to make them less-formal Learning Environments?

And the children deserve every little tweak that we can make!

so..no wonder my little head is spinning. Libraries 'R Us..sure, but where's the money going to come from?

all ideas cost money here..some cost less than others and are way more cost-effective...i think

Fun though and having three libraries here would be cool and get us noticed