I suppose a little background is in order. I am working with an organization called the Adaklu Youth Education Committee (AYEC.) Those of you keeping score at home will realize Adaklu is not the name of the village I am living in. You would be correct; Adaklu is a larger area encompassing 54 different villages. AYEC specifically works in nine of these villages. The goals of AYEC are to provide four scholarships a year for qualified students to go to high school (which is not free here) and also to provide school uniforms, which are mandatory, to orphans in the nine different villages. I know I have promised to give information on how to give but that will have to wait a little while some logistics are sorted out, but I promise that information will be coming!
On Tuesday Dela and I traveled to Adadome Senior Secondary School where three of the scholarship winners will be enrolling for this school year. Adadome was about a forty minute ride from Helekpe but definitely worth the trip. When we arrived we went to see the headmaster who is from the village next to Helekpe. He told us that he was very pleased with the scholarship program and would personally meet with the three girls to make sure that they worked hard in school. From there we went to the bank to actually pay the school fees of one of the girls. That process was quite long but eventually we made it back to Adadome and were able to look around the school grounds. I cannot tell you how taken aback by the school I was. It was by far the best school that I have seen in Ghana. The grounds included a science center with full labs, a girls and boys dormitory, houses for teachers and the headmaster (provided by the PTA), and a large cafeteria where boarders will eat. The campus was really beautiful and on our tour we learned that Adadome has 53 full time teachers. Most schools around the mountain have about four full time teachers and a few more that occasionally drop in. To have 53 full time teachers sold me that this school can really make a difference in our scholarship winners lives.
To date we have two students enrolled out of five. This year there are five students because one was awarded a scholarship two years ago but the committee ran out of funding.. In the next week we should get the remaining three students enrolled so that they can be in school when classes for first year students start. I must say there can be a lot of frustration in getting things done here, but when you give the chance for a gifted student to go to school, well, that is truly a good day!
P.S. The beard is six weeks strong!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
My Friend Dela
In my last blog I mentioned that my counterpart is named Dela and was probably deserving of a blog in his own right. Well not to keep all my readers in suspense I figured I would deliver on that promise in my very next blog. I did not intend to write this blog until much later in my stay but I think Dela's story is rather indicative of some of the problems I am attempting to tackle here in Ghana.
On Tuesday I had my first meeting with my class, yes I am apparently teaching while I am here, and was telling them a little bit about my past. At some point I mentioned that I was 22 and that received a huge amount of laughter from the class. Afterward I asked Dela why there was laughter and he explained that the class had assumed I would be older since I was a university grad. He told me a lot of the class was older than I was, himself included.
Now I know that Dela is around 38-40 (age appears to be a little bit shaky here) and I also knew that he was attending high school and in fact was in my class. I also knew this was not Dela's first attempt as high school. Dela had told me before this rough outline of his life but I thought this would be a good time to fill in the blanks. It turns out Dela first enrolled in high school in 1988, the year I was born, and he was only 17 or 18 at the time. At that time high school in Ghana lasted for five years. Dela was progressing along well and was in his third year in 1991 when his father died. Dela's father had been a government worker and was paying for Dela's school fees because high school in Ghana is not provided by the government. Unfortunately Dela was forced to drop out and began supporting himself. It was at this point Dela told me, "They say in every tragedy there is a blessing." When I responded that at times it appears hard to find such a silver lining Dela laughed and said, "Yes, but what other choice to we have."
Dela is a farmer, like pretty much everyone in my community, and has been since the death of his father. In 2000 he worked with a Peace Corp volunteer in order to establish the committee I am working with, Adaklu Youth Education Committee (AYEC.) I will tell you more about AYEC next week but as the name implies they work to further education on the local villages. Dela understands the importance of education a lot. He knows if his father had not died he would probably be working in a city making money. He knows it so well that now that he is married with three kids he allows them to live in Ho, the nearest city, so that the kids can go to school there because city schools here are much better. In fact Dela knows the importance of education so much that at age 36 or 37 he re-enrolled in high school. He will finish up this school year and hopes to rejoin his family in Ho next year and go to university there. He told me he wants to go to school in Ho not only so he can be with his family but also so that he will be close enough to the Helekpe, our village, that he can continue his work with AYEC.
I should also mention Dela does far more than simply go to school and farm to support his family. Almost everyday Dela is asked to help some member of the community. Some days he helps register kids for school, some days he helps bring goods into Ho to sell them for someone. When I asked Dela why people always asked him he said, "I must say I am quite popular because people know I am not in it to help myself."
I know this blog has been long, and probably not many people have made it this far, but I just wanted to attempt to capture Dela and give a little insight in to why getting an education here is a necessity, but very difficult.
P.S. I am sharing the computer with others so I am not proofreading, sorry for typos!
On Tuesday I had my first meeting with my class, yes I am apparently teaching while I am here, and was telling them a little bit about my past. At some point I mentioned that I was 22 and that received a huge amount of laughter from the class. Afterward I asked Dela why there was laughter and he explained that the class had assumed I would be older since I was a university grad. He told me a lot of the class was older than I was, himself included.
Now I know that Dela is around 38-40 (age appears to be a little bit shaky here) and I also knew that he was attending high school and in fact was in my class. I also knew this was not Dela's first attempt as high school. Dela had told me before this rough outline of his life but I thought this would be a good time to fill in the blanks. It turns out Dela first enrolled in high school in 1988, the year I was born, and he was only 17 or 18 at the time. At that time high school in Ghana lasted for five years. Dela was progressing along well and was in his third year in 1991 when his father died. Dela's father had been a government worker and was paying for Dela's school fees because high school in Ghana is not provided by the government. Unfortunately Dela was forced to drop out and began supporting himself. It was at this point Dela told me, "They say in every tragedy there is a blessing." When I responded that at times it appears hard to find such a silver lining Dela laughed and said, "Yes, but what other choice to we have."
Dela is a farmer, like pretty much everyone in my community, and has been since the death of his father. In 2000 he worked with a Peace Corp volunteer in order to establish the committee I am working with, Adaklu Youth Education Committee (AYEC.) I will tell you more about AYEC next week but as the name implies they work to further education on the local villages. Dela understands the importance of education a lot. He knows if his father had not died he would probably be working in a city making money. He knows it so well that now that he is married with three kids he allows them to live in Ho, the nearest city, so that the kids can go to school there because city schools here are much better. In fact Dela knows the importance of education so much that at age 36 or 37 he re-enrolled in high school. He will finish up this school year and hopes to rejoin his family in Ho next year and go to university there. He told me he wants to go to school in Ho not only so he can be with his family but also so that he will be close enough to the Helekpe, our village, that he can continue his work with AYEC.
I should also mention Dela does far more than simply go to school and farm to support his family. Almost everyday Dela is asked to help some member of the community. Some days he helps register kids for school, some days he helps bring goods into Ho to sell them for someone. When I asked Dela why people always asked him he said, "I must say I am quite popular because people know I am not in it to help myself."
I know this blog has been long, and probably not many people have made it this far, but I just wanted to attempt to capture Dela and give a little insight in to why getting an education here is a necessity, but very difficult.
P.S. I am sharing the computer with others so I am not proofreading, sorry for typos!
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