March 8, 2010—Letter 15

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy Ghana’s 53rd Independence Day—a day late.

Yesterday, Saturday, started early as Vera made “Rock Buns or Rock Cake”.  They are very much like a scone and very good.  She made over 100 to bring to the students who were marching for the school for the big Independence Day marching at the Presbyterian Teacher Training College.  We had bought her a large oven six years ago when we were here.  She also made chocolate milk which was tied into plastic bags.

Joan stitched white gloves closed a bit because they were quite large for some students and we were afraid that they could come off while swinging the arms while marching.

We, along with Veronica and a student, left the house by 7:45 and carried the banner (Vera keeps it at the house), the rock cakes, and chocolate milk.  Vera was going to bathe and follow later.  We walked down and up the ravine and caught a taxi to take us to the park for the event.  We arrived about 8 am and there were already several hundred students lined up on the field.  About eight canopies had been constructed on one side of the field for the dignitaries and other guests.   The government officials and chiefs arrived in several cars driven on to the field a short time after 9.

The first order of business was the marching of “cadets” from several Senior Secondary Schools in what appears to be  ROTC type groups.  There was a band set up in the middle of the field which played throughout the entire event.  They had a presentation of colors, the singing of the National Anthem, the pledge to the flag and a few announcements.  This was followed by more marching by the cadets.  A government official then gave the formal address which was a speech from the President of Ghana.  We think that he shortened it.  Two years ago it lasted one and a half hours.

While the official was speaking two cadets fainted right in front of us!  They were carried off the field, given water, cooled down and recovered.  By this time everyone had been standing in the sun for a couple of hours and the cadets had marched a couple of times.  The government official made reference to the cadets dropping and moved things along.

What followed was the marching of the schools—maybe as many as 30 if you count the cadet groups.  The march started with the Primary.  As we mentioned in our last letter, Akuffo Tom was not permitted to participate this year for some unknown reason.  This was followed by the Junior Secondary Schools.  Akuffo Tom slipped in several of the class five and class six students who would have marched with the Primary if they had been allowed to participate.  The kids did a great job and they looked very sharp.  Many had new uniforms.  The boys had black sox and shoes while the girls had fancy white lacy sox and black shoes.  They all wore white gloves.  The marching step is sort of a shuffle with the leg going forward and then back while the arms are flung straight out.  Akuffo Tom added a left hand salute across the chest when they got in front of the review stand while they did an “eyes right” to face the honored guests.  The boys also saluted with the right hand.  Akuffo Tom came in second in the competition.  We were pleased with that result.  They were second last year while two years ago they were first.  We were the only private school permitted to take part this year.  Again, we do not know why.

The Senior Secondary Schools paraded past.  These included the School for the Deaf—which used hand signals to mark time—and the School for the Blind.  The Blind School had people on the edge directing them.  They were both amazing!

All schools received certificates of participation.  This was followed by the announcement of the winners.

The marching ended shortly after 11.  Again, they seemed to be rushing at the end because of the dropping cadets who stood out on the field in the sun through much of the proceeding. 

Joan helped to pass out the chocolate drinks and rock cakes which Vera had prepared.  The officials had distributed sachets of water for all the kids and other water and drinks were available for sale by women who set up shop just behind the students.  We bought several!

When it was over we brought the banner, used gloves, and containers back to the house by taxi.  It cost about $1 to have the taxi bring us across town—a bargain in the middle of the day.

When we got home we took a nap.  Joan was very tired and probably had had too much sun. She had been up at 5:15  to sew gloves.   Our plan was to go to the Internet later in the afternoon.  However, while we napped we had our second very big rain storm in two days.  This one had a considerable amount of wind in addition to the rain.  Veronica lost her computer charger during the Friday storm as it was connected to the outlet when the lightning struck very near by and blew out a couple of our lights.  We decided to rest and to wait until Sunday morning to mail our letter and to send more pictures which Harry put together in the evening. 

Sunday morning we started at the Internet at 8:15 on our way to Mass.  We were able to get out our letter before the electricity went out.  We had started to download the pictures to Picasa so we left the computer with Dixon, who works at the internet and helps us out all the time, when we left for church at 9 for the 8:30 Mass.  We arrived just as the Priest was getting ready to enter.  We spoke to him briefly after church and found out that he is from Poland.  He knew that we had been here before so he must have asked someone who we were some other week.  Church ended by about 10:45, which is the earliest thus far. 

When we got back to the internet, Dixon had completed the downloading to Picasa so we were able to also send the pictures.  The electricity went off a couple of times while we were there this morning both before and after church.

This afternoon we started to pack—or at least survey what we have to pack.  We came with four big suitcases mainly full of school supplies.  We are going to be able to leave in two suitcases with two suitcases packed inside of the others. This will make our lives much easier in England!

We had considered making a trip to Aburi to the woodcarvers but decided to just rest instead.  Maybe tomorrow.

Joan helped Vera wash the white gloves so that they can be put away for another year.

Tomorrow is the official holiday for Independence Day so we do not have school.  We will only have classes for three days this week (two for Harry as he does not have any on Tuesday).  Friday is the excursion to Cape Coast and Elmina Castles.  We plan to teach next Monday but most likely will not do so on Tuesday as we leave that night for London.

It is now Monday afternoon.  We did go to Aburi this morning to the wood carvers market.  They carve most of the items right there and sell a variety of other African items as well.  We finished our shopping!!!  That is a good thing as we are running out of “cedis” and do not want to get many more.  We know that we will need cash for this week but should not need much.  We do not know yet how we are getting to the airport and know we will need some money for that.

Harry took a nap this afternoon while Joan did school work.  We are both in the process of reviewing with the kids the material that we taught.  Harry plans to spend part of his class time on Thursday getting the kids ready to visit the slave castles on Friday.  We both need to get our grades in order to pass them back to the regular teacher who will have to grade them at the end of the marking period in mid April.  (We thought that we would be here until the end of the marking period—it ended just after Independence Day two years ago.)

Water is off again!  Things we will not miss:  the rooster crowing at 3:30 every day—brushing our teeth without a sink and spitting into the toilet, no napkins, sucking water out of a sachet and flinging it into the abyss, the teeny tiny ants that crawl all over everything, sweating all over including behind the ears, and the orchestra of animal noises from frogs, ducks, barking dogs, sheep, goats and mystery sounds.  We will miss the people, the places, the work, the children and all the laughing we do because we are always at someone’s mercy.

We send our love to all and take care!

Love and Prayers,
Joan and Harry