Practicing for NaWriNoMo...eh??? A Piece on Peace.

'I come in Peace', he said. 'Peace..' she nodded and smiled her crookedy, sad, hungry smile. But she didn't get the attempted humour. Not very surprising, no-one did here, difficult when it's delivered by a strangely-accented yevu in a language, English, that isn't what most people think in.

Ask a question..'Yes', they say which means ...ummm- i heard you speak. Ask it again..'Yes' which means ...i'm trying to understand what it is you said. Ask it again....'Yes' ...which means, i don't really understand what you're saying but is this the answer you're looking for?

He had gone out running as usual that Sunday morning on the scrub-land that bordered the beach. As it wound round, his path intersected with teams of fishermen hauling ropes attached somewhere out to sea to their nets.

They had their rituals...no fishing on Tuesdays and he had his...helping the fishermen at weekends after his run, showing 'solidarity' with an unspecified 'cause'. He did it because it felt good, looked good, gained him some unnamed respect though they'd never figure out why, at his age he would run every morning..even on Tuesdays!

There were fewer crews out today than yesterday..he could never figure out why it varied and so when he finished he had to walk down the beach before he ran into the crews.

It was always the same..he just went to the head of the line, wrapped his black running top round the rope and started digging in and hauling. They probably never knew or cared whether he actually pulled hard - they just appreciated the gesture - but he did and it felt good to haul and feel the different muscles pull. Not so old, not so past it all , he would say to himself.

He would generally share out his efforts amongst as many crews as were close together. Maybe they'd care if he didn't!

Over time he'd come to recognise a few of them. Weekends were different because kids and even out-of-towners would be on the ropes too but the regular guys were recognisably different. Older, generally..but certainly harder and,despite acknowledging him, they rarely smiled. Not hard to understand that really.

He worked that day with two crews.he did one shift on the net that was closest to him as he walked down the beach. A small crew, a lot of grunting, but not much talking. He joshed with the older women who were coiling the rope as they pulled it in. sometimes he would wonder what they thought of this strange person, this topless yevu hauling on the rope...surely he didn't need to do this..he's a yevu, he's rich. Likely no-one could imagine that he did it for fun and to show support.

The other crew were in the final stages of bringing up the fish and that was always the best time..the most fun. He'd taken off his shoes and parked them up on the beach near a buoy ...he'd find them again, he always did, tho rarely where he expected. Pulling in the nets always moved them much farther and faster down the beach than he thought.

He liked splashing into the surf, grabbing and wrapping the net, pushing the young boys out of the way..let a man do this!

Despite the number of men on the net, sometimes he'd get knocked down by the drag of the net when a big wave came in, and they'd all be yelling and pulling and laughing.

He supposed that after 3 or 4 hours of hauling on the net, there was a giddy anticipation when the sac that was where the fish had been trapped became visible. There was for him, though he had no stake in it.

The end always came quite quickly as everyone ran and grabbed and pulled and lifted.

He could never tell initially whether the catch was good or not. The men, especially those who'd been out on the boat and those who'd been swimming with the nets as they brought them in, stood around the end of the net where the catch was trapped.

He didn't push in. He had no right. But they'd let him in to look.

He looked at the catch..silver, flapping, twitching mass. Then he looked at the faces. He supposed that they'd been doing this for so long that they'd hardly be surprised.

This day, however, he could read the disappointment in their faces. They didn't say anything. They just looked. Each in his private thoughts.

There was almost a resigned expression as if to say, who could expect anything different. He knew catches had been bad for a long time now but still to see the disappointment etched on their faces was sad. He didn't know where to look so he looked at the fish like everyone else.

She tugged at his elbow. 'Fish', she said. Though it sounded more like 'Feesh'.

'Peace', she'd said the last time he'd seen her. 'My name is Peace.'

He'd run into her on the streets a few times in their community. He assumed that she lived there also but she was mostly on her own, wasn't carrying anything on her head to sell and no infant on her back.

She was a little different. it seemed as if she would make fun of or with him. She didn't speak much English so he didn't really understand but she would grab his arm and look fierce and then laugh at him.

She always looked hungry. To see her made him sad. For a Ghanaian she was probably skinny and he had wondered if indeed that was hunger.

She reminded him of a street woman that he'd tried to help when he lived in Manhattan.

She whispered in his ear and tugged at his elbow again. She had her tin basin with her to get fish but she would be at the generous mercy of a crew who had brought in a poor catch.

'Feesh, you give me!'

Once before he had seen her at a catch and that time a good one and the fishermen had offered him a couple of fat fish for his help. He'd turned the offer down..their need being much greater than his and she'd been stunned and argued and pulled at him.

This time she was making sure that he knew what was expected of him and he said 'OK, OK...fish' but he knew it wasn't going to happen. He hadn't helped that much this time and the catch was not going to make the fishermen feel at all generous.

He hoped for her and so he helped her find some scraps and her bowl had some fish - small fish, tiny really, and small shrimps but he knew that it wasn't going to happen.

He moved around to the other side of the net...he felt bad for her as if he'd let her down.

He slowly turned away and started to look for his shoes. He turned and looked back and she was watching him with her arms folded. He shrugged and waved and she turned away with her sad, hungry eyes.

Peace.

Library musings..

..one of the nice things for me (surprisingly..and surprising you!) is that one always chats with and is chatted to by fellow yevus that one comes across out in rural Ghana. And the conversations seem to happily cross nationalities and ages which too is unusual and ..ummm, nice!

But the same is true of meeting visiting Ghanaians ('visiting' as in visiting the community or just passing through ) and that is equally nice.

I am the person, the yevu, the volunteer who operates the nice new Whuti Community Library. Fair enough..that is who and what i am here. It is my credibility, my standing. I am the Library, the Library is me.

Of course, now i'm also the person that they see getting the JHS Library up and running ..and that's a little different. It puts me in a slightly different light.

People i meet or people i'm friendly with here ask me when they hear about the JHS Library efforts..getting a school library up and running in less than two months!...don't i feel very proud of my efforts? It 's a nice question, of course, but it surprised me the first couple of times..it wasn't what i felt.

It wasn't and isn't what i felt/feel because i've come to understand that opening the JHS Library and running the Whuti Community Library for 55 weeks now are not, in and of themselves, achievements.

In a sense i learned that the hard way..i had naively thought that simply opening the community library would immediately change things around here..and be of immediate direct benefit to all the children here. My guess is that lots of 'library-openers' think that too!

I now understand that opening the Library is only the first part of doing something meaningful.

And that there is much work to do in making the Library popular, useful, fun, important in children's lives...and actually beneficial in helping to raise children's literacy levels. In fact, maybe opening the Library is the easy part!

How, in the short-term of a PCV's time here, for example, do you 'sell' the Library, how do you get children to develop a Library Habit, how do you convince them that improving their command of English has to be their number one priority ..RIGHT NOW...and that developing the Library Habit is how they achieve that? Especially, if you're pretty much the voice in the wilderness?

Well, in the case of the Whuti Community Library, perhaps you achieve this indirectly by banging on those who seem to have influence in the community- the chiefs, the elders, the ministers/pastors, the head teachers, the teachers - really, anyone who will listen, and 'encourage' them to use their influence and positions to get children to come to the Library AND THEN,THERE ..make it a fun experience for them if you can so that they will want to come back again.

And maybe it is working..in this last week, we have had 476 ' Community Library visitors' and they have 'read' for 422 hours. These record numbers are big and the impression is that indeed the children are having fun. Now we have to make sure that this momentum continues. These numbers are twice what we had in May and June. So, highly encouraging!

Our Libraries are still works in progress but having almost 500 users in a week is HUGE!

And, i believe that as long as we make visiting the Library fun then we will be able to get many more Library visitors for whom learning is fun.

And the JHS Library, the 'son of the Whuti community Library' is progressing well also!

Now, exactly two months since we started working on the project..and started sorting through the book donation that we had received from the U.S. ..the JHS Library..VERY MUCH a Work in Progress and mostly lacking in tables and seating for the students ..is up and running and being used by the JHS students.

In the new curriculum, each class has two scheduled Library periods, and as of Thursday, 13th October, since the library isn't quite ready enough, and the students can't come to the Library, then the Library comes to them with a selection of the Library's books delivered to the classroom for their use!

AND...we've started training the Student Library Volunteers who will be responsible for and who will run the Library in its After-Hours mode (MON-FRI 2.20 - 4.00 p.m.) such that we can open it in this mode next Wednesday or Thursday!

Exciting.

The Student Volunteers, two per class, were elected by each class.

We haven't the faintest idea how the JHS students will actually respond to this 'opportunity' and i'm sure that the process and procedures will have to be modified and improved..but it's a real chance, a real opportunity.

Emmmm..occasionally, i realise that i seem to be doing most of the work here..both in the WCL and the JHS Library..and i wonder sometimes. And i say that i 'wonder' because that makes thing less sustainable, at least in theory..and i'm conscious now of the fact that i only have 9 months or so left in my scheduled Ghana effort. (And i worry about and would be truly heartbroken if what i did here collapsed after i left)

But..i recognise the difference between efforts that have real support and those wherein you feel that you are pushing against community habit (inertia) and i have very real support in the JHS Library and there is no way that we could have made this progress without that support!

And even the very best people here are unused to people working with them, stirring their community improvement spirits, setting the right examples, and making things happen and so it takes time to become a team and share responsibility and direction. I've been very lucky here in finding some people to work with ..and i must continue to take the long view. It has been an amazing learning experience.

How do i put all this learning to future good use? I don't know but i can and will learn over the next nine months and if the result is that we have three libraries up and running- the Whuti Community Library, the Eastridge JHS Library, and the Whuti primary School Library- and we have applied the lessons we learn to improve our process in each place, then i believe that we will see improved exam results in all the Whuti-Srogboe community students!

And i also believe that these results and the processes that we have developed will enable us to make the Libraries self-sustaining and -supporting.

And it's fun doing this shit..it really is!

Why do i get so bent out of shape..don't i know better by now?

I've been on a 'mission' for the last week and a half...button-holing whomever i meet..strangers or the 'weel-kent'..to get them to 'see' that part of the solution, if there is going to be one, to the crisis of the awful, disastrous exam results at the Primary and the JHS this summer, has to be improved English Literacy and that therefore ALL the children should be encouraged/pushed/driven to develop the Library Habit. And since we're still the only Library in town(s)- that means coming to the WCL (Whuti Community Library)...right?

(Maybe i have that crazed, driven 'Ancient Mariner' look about me now?)

I can see that the logic doesn't get through..they understand the 'bad' part-the exam results but not the potential improvements that imbuing the children with the Library Habit could achieve. It is as if, and it probably actually is, that they hear the bad news and they start looking around (..in their minds/in the discussion) for someone to blame or some political advantage or prestige to be gained.

So today, after another conversation with one of the chiefs, who shall remain nameless (..and it isn't as if they act differently..they tend to all play and know the rules of their 'game' much better than i do) it was in fact suggested that the failure to get more children to the Library on an everyday basis is in fact, partly my fault.

The Library is not 'officially open', i'm told..this despite the fact that it has been operating Mon-Fri 0915 t0 1730 for 54 weeks now! What does 'officially open' mean to the children..ABSOLUTELY FRIGGIN' NOTHING. Parents, etc don't encourage their children to develop the Library Habit because the Library hasn't been officially opened..they didn't notice it was there??? Or is it that the chiefs and elders-the (self-) important people haven't given their blessing for use of the Library because not having held the naming ceremony/the inauguration, they have not been sufficiently 'acknowledged' for all their work in making this happen and in operating the Library for the last 54 weeks? Wot a joke!

But nonetheless it is real..because it has come up before....so is it a reason (a cultural requirement, a historical/tribal relic)..or just an excuse for not really caring, a cop-out, for not getting off their (mostly ample) back-sides and actually doing something to help.

Well, yes, we know what i think but why couldn't it be that the 'cultural' bit is to not actually care about the community and the children (cos there's so many??) and to downplay and not endorse the benefits of education (because it is a threat??). And the 'cultural' bit is still just the same old male power struggle?

The other 'reason', quoted second-hand, was that that the Library is of doubtful benefit because we don't have copies of all the Ghana curriculum text-books available. I'm willing to bet that if there are 100 community libraries in Ghana..and there aren't..there is not a single one that has all the current curriculum textbooks..and in the WCL, wherein i have been diligently and aggressively trying my damnedest to work every person/every avenue to get these damned textbooks, we will have them some day.. if our new Accra friend, Fui Segbedzi, comes through!

But these excuses, for such they are, are so transparently false.

I don't honestly know why the people, who could and should, don't 'support' the Library and why they don't aggressively encourage the children to develop the Library Habit...and yes, my frustration is because I recognise that i never will know..and therefore can never change.

It seems so obvious..the children are always the losers..why don't you people see that and accept it and swallow whatever it is that sticks in your throats to prevent you from HELPING AND ENCOURAGING YOUR WON DAMN CHILDREN!!!!

I got angrier today, as a culmination of a number of things about/like this, than i've ever been here. Writing helps because i can better put things in perspective..Africa's tribal structure in place for so long; the impossibility of layering globalisation, etc on top of this centuries-old culture; the here today-gone tomorrow nature of most aid to Africa; and, by definition, how we must always see things differently. mine through a prism of Western 'process, society and civilisation' and theirs through??

Africa, perhaps, flatters to deceive..and (Arghhh...No! Can this be true??) i've always been a sucker for that kind of flattery and deception!

I'll add some pictures of progress to date on the JHS Library. We're getting close...next Monday perhaps. It doesn't have the same political football problem ...perhaps because of Noah..but also because it is just a school!

..so, as ever, thanks for listening. What would i do without you!

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