March 5, 2010—Letter 14

Dear Family and Friends,

We are going to miss so much when we  leave—the students and teachers have touched our hearts in so many ways.  They are so appreciative of anything we do and we’ve learned the importance of just being with people who live so simply.  There is still much to be done—what gets done does and what doesn’t, doesn’t.  We have enjoyed ourselves!  We do look forward to hot showers and having a sink for brushing our teeth!

Saturday we attended the funeral of a cousin of Maxwell Boafo, the Proprietor of Akuffo Tom School.  He had originally identified him as his brother but that term is used here in a very broad way.

We left home about 8:45 and took a taxi to the location of the funeral as Vera, Veronica, Joan and Harry were all dressed in close to black African clothes.  When we arrived, Vera called Maxwell on the phone and he met us and took us to the church to view the body.  The deceased was in an elaborate coffin and dressed in a black suit.

The man who died was only 46 and left a wife and three children aged from University age to Primary School.  He died December 29 and has been on ice since then to give the family a chance to prepare for the funeral.  We have said before that funerals here are huge!  They had a printed color brochure which gave the order of the proceedings, a biography of the deceased as well as tributes from his wife, children, co-workers, and others.  The brochure included several color photos.

We were brought to the top of the hill where there were several canopies to provide shade.  We sat on the veranda of the Presbyterian Primary School which was at one end of the compound.  We estimate that there were at least 1,000 people present!  During the entire proceedings they continued to construct more canopies and bring in more plastic chairs.  People were sitting wherever they could find shade.  By the end of the service there were at least fifteen canopies, two school porches, store fronts across the road, and several trees providing cover for the people.

The body was carried from the church up the hill and placed on a wooden stand in the sun in the middle of all the people.  The coffin was accompanied by a band which had been in the church.  There was also another band that had been playing at the location of the service..  We were very surprised when an ambulance drove into the compound with a second coffin which was placed next to the original one..  We learned that this was a woman in her 80’s who belonged to the same church.  They placed artificial flowers on both coffins and portrayed pictures of the deceased at both ends.

The church choir entered in black and white cap and gown robes.  They processed past the bodies and were followed by the minister and other church officials.  The choir had organ music in addition to the two bands.  They had huge speakers so everyone could hear what was happening.

The service lasted over two hours with several hymns, memorials to the two deceased, a sermon, and several Bible readings.  Most of the proceedings were in Twi.

At one point a man near the front got very agitated.  We were told that he was upset because the bodies were out in the hot sun without any cover.

At the end of the service the two bodies were carried away to be transported to the cemetery for burial.  Most people, including family, do not go to this.

Following the service we were invited to Maxwell’s home for a lunch.  His home was about a five minute walk.  We were served jollof rice with fried chicken-yummy.  They had a fish dish and a hot sauce on rice dish alternative if you preferred.  There were several locations where people were being fed.  One was at the local bank where the deceased had worked and others were in family compounds around town.  The canopies and chairs were moved several times.  They rented dishes and cutlery to serve the crowd.  We were offered beer, malt, water, and soft drinks.

Following lunch we went back to the location of the funeral where a band was still playing.  There were a few women dancing.  This was the time to make a donation to help defray the cost of the funeral.  We did so and were issued a receipt with a picture of the deceased printed on it.  We sat around for another half hour watching the proceedings and then excused ourselves to go home.

On the way home Vera had a little shopping to do.  This gave us an opportunity to walk around part of the town that we had not visited on this trip but had done so before.  Nothing has changed.  When we got home we took a nap as it had been very hot at the funeral.

Sunday morning we went to the Internet Café where we mailed our last letter and sent more pictures.  We were there for about two hours as the internet kept going off line.

The day was a very relaxing day as we did not go out again.  We read, did some school work, took a nap, and just chilled!

Monday is one of our long days as Harry does not finish until 3:40.  As a result we did not do much that is newsworthy.

Tuesday started early.  The water came on at 3:30 am so we got up to fill the barrels.  We had been without water in the pipes for almost ten days and we were getting very low—down to our last day  of supply.  We finished filling the large barrel in our bathroom by about 4:15 so Harry took a shower—just because he could.  Tuesday is one of our easy days as Harry does not have any classes and Joan only has one double period which ends at 12:30.  The kids practiced marching for Independence Day (Saturday) for the first three periods until their first break at 10:10.  Joan had her class and then we headed to Koforidua.  We had made arrangements to meet the two Peace Corps women with whom we had lunch a few weeks ago.  They were both coming to town so we had lunch with them again.  We also met a much younger volunteer (25) who is working on developing a tourism site.  This location is out of the way and she does not see much happening until there are better roads or transportation facilities to get people to the park.  The two older volunteers told us that the mother of the young woman had died unexpectedly and she had been in the States for about a month.  She had recently returned and they felt that she needed a little “mothering”.  The younger woman did not mention any of this to us.  We had a very enjoyable afternoon just talking and relaxing.  They told us that Peace Corps is going to have a larger Education group coming in June and suggested that we contact them about getting a volunteer for our school.  We’ contacted Peace Corps and they will e-mail us an application—this would just be terrific!

Wednesday most of the students and faculty walked to the Presbyterian Teacher Training College which is located at the other end of town but on the same hill as Akuffo Tom.  We took the back route along a path past several homes and through the college garbage dump.  They also need a better waste management system—the garbage heaps are reprehensible and disgusting!  The college is building a very large new meeting hall.

When we got to the field for the practice marching we were told that our Primary students would not be allowed to march.  Our Junior High Students are the only private school that will be marching.  The Primary students have been practicing and many of the parents have purchased new uniforms, shoes, sox, and possibly gloves—although the school may supply them.  The officials claim that a letter had been sent to the school but the school claims that they never received it.  They have increased the area of schools to be marching so they eliminated several schools for this year.  Because we came in second last year we were invited for this year but may not be invited next year—a different private school most likely will be instead.  Very disappointing!!!  One of the problems here in Ghana is the officials change the rules about a great many things and do not notify anyone about the change until it is too late to do anything about it.  We have discussed the changing of books and not making them available to all the students as another example.  We’ve also found out that the government schools in the northern region have not received pay for teachers in 3 months—no wonder the teachers don’t show up or are always late—they go and work on a farm!

We did meet a couple of teachers from the Okuapemmen Senior Secondary School.  This is where Dave and Harriet Borton—Return Peace Corps Volunteers—taught in the late 1960’s.  We had visited the campus earlier.  We discovered that the average class size is 50!  This is one of the best SSS’s in the country.  We had mentioned that the Mt. Sinai Senior Secondary has class sizes of 70 and above.

Thursday is usually our busiest day with both Joan and Harry having the two forms for double periods -- a total of eight classes.  Joan had none yesterday as the students practiced the marching for the first three periods until break and then for the last three periods after lunch.  Harry did have three periods.  If we had realized that they would march after lunch he would have given Joan one of his double classes.  Oh well, Independence Day is Saturday.

We went to the internet early because school closed early.  A storm was brewing on our way and when we arrived at the internet it was shut down—so we decided to wait.  The storm was unbelievable—we saw lightning hit something in front of us and a very loud crack of thunder.  We were sitting just outside of the and we both jumped—a little scarey!  Veronica was home alone and she said the light in the living room smoked after she saw lightning close to the house and the loud crack of thunder—she was really afraid.  It was kind of exciting.  This is supposed to be the dry season, but we seem to be getting more rain than they usually have at this time of year.

We have the Independence Day hoopla tomorrow—all excited!

Hope that those of you in the Northeast are dug out from the snow!  Thanks to our friend Chris Schultz for the snowman—loved it!

We have only heard a very little about the Olympics.  Veronica, from Toronto, was willing to tell us that Canada had defeated the U.S. in the Hockey game.  She was thrilled.  Whatever happened to the ”snow leopard” for Ghana?  He was doing downhill skiing.

Take care and many, many thanks to all of you for your kind support and e-mails.

Love and Prayers,
Joan and Harry