Thornhills in Ghana, 2004 - Letter 7

Hi All,

Happy St. Patrick's Day next week. I am sure that Joan will find a green dress to wear to school. The "Big Event" last Saturday was really impressive. There were probably over 25 schools that marched for the Independence Day Celebration. We guess that there were over 10,000 students marching from Pre-school (really, really cute) through the Teacher Training College. All were decked out in their school uniforms, slicked hair, white sox and black shoes for the girls and dark sox and black shoes for the boys. They were judged at their grade level for their marching and appearance. Akuffo-Tom Primary came in First for their category and Akuffo-Tom Junior Seconday came in second for their category. We were very proud!!!

The day started with military cadets (kind of like an ROTC) from three different schools marching onto the soccer field. They served as an honor guard for the dignitaries who were seated on the far side of the field under canopies. The District Educational Commissioner--a woman--rah, rah--gave the Independence Day talk which was the same as that being delivered by President Kufour in Accra. The cadets then marched around the field twice--once in a slow march and then in a quick march. After they finished the quick march they exited the field and the schools began their marches. The marching part took about an hour and a half. The speech was an hour before the marchers. The waiting time for it all to begin was about two hours in the hot sun. Students had to stay in formation with their schools throughout the whole program. Mr. "Cane" would keep them in line. If the student was not very good at marching--they did not march on the day--some came and watched their peers. We stayed with our school, but the adults did not march. Of course we took lots of pictures. There were venders selling water, food, and other drinks. It all ended by about 12:30. They presented the winners with certificates and announced them over the loud speakers.

In the afternoon we walked back to the Teacher Training College for a soccer game (football game). We did not stay to the end but it was tied at 0 when we left. Sunday we went to Mass. It was 25 minutes late getting started as the priest had not yet arrived. He did seem very nice once things got on the way--he even had a dialogue homily!! Mass lasted about 2 1/2 hours. We had visiting students from the Teacher Training College--they go out the firstSunday of the month to other churches in Akropong. Monday was the official holiday so we did not have school. We went to Aburi Gardens with Vera for the day. These gardens are about 20 miles from Akropong. There are trees from around the world planted by heads of State including Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles at the time of their visits to Ghana. Because it is the dry season we did not see alot of flowers. The grounds were beautifully kept. We had lunch in the restraunt in the gardens. Vera had done her internship for catering there and knew the cook and several other people. We walked through town to the roadside where they have several woodcarver shops. We did a little shopping.

Tuesday when we went to school we encountered several of our students heading back up the hill for home. They had been sent away because they had not paid their school fees. Somewhere between 1/3 to 1/2 of our students were not in class--which makes teaching a bit of a challenge. By Wednesday more were back but large numbers were still missing. Because this is a private school they receive no government or extra funding so the fees pay for almost everything at the school including the teachers' salaries. (Teachers do not get paid on a regualar basis--they need Tony McCann!! Some-the lucky ones- got paid today for February!!!) We are not sure just how the whole system works--it is difficult to get a straight answer. We think that the teachers are making about $30 to $40 a month at this school. We understand that the government schools pay about twice as much but require a special certificate to teach.

No water again. Here is an assignment--try your morning wash-up with a cup of water. We do have a bucket of water for our evening bath which we share. The water went off Wednesday but came back on again about 2:30 this morning. We know that because the Poly-tank is right outside our bedroom window and we heard it start to fill up. We still feel that in the choice of electricity or water we would take the water!! We constantly lose electricity--even for short times during the day.

Next week is our last week of regular teaching. The week after is an exam week with a special schedule. We will give our own term exams and will monitor others. Of course, we don't know what yet--maybe by next Friday. The week after exams is a "correcting week". Evidently, students help to correct the test. We want to plan some lessons that are not part of the packaged lessons. We will have corrected ours before that week, anyway.

Thanks Barbara for your support. We know that you will be a big help to Ann when she gets moved. Are there any retirement parties coming up after we get home that we should know about? We get home April 10--the day before Easter if Ghana Airway cooperates. Joan has resumed her Yoga at 5-6am because the floor is clean now. She did not want any scorpions crawling across her mat. The Harmattan is back!! It is very dry again and hazy. We can no longer see the towns or hills in the distance. It looks like heavy fog but it is dust from the Sahara. With the rains we thought that we were getting past this but we are back into it.

We will be in touch next week.

Love, Prayers, and Nameste,

Joan and Harry