In the Childrens' Home

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Thursday 29th July

Originally I had hoped to do some teaching in a state school again in Ghana as I did in Nepal last summer. I had a contact at a school not far from the Childrens' Home where we delivered the shoes last week but when I went to visit the school at the end of last week I discovered that most schools in Accra (and presumably the whole of Ghana) were either in the middle of their national exams, or had just completed them and would be finishing for the annual holidays last week or this week. This was dissappointing but there was still the possibility of doing something useful at the Childrens' Home. Kids from the home do not start to attend a state school outside the home until they are about 7 years old, but there is a building within the the home campus where the 4 to 7 year-olds are taught. Today Dorothy and I went to spend the morning in this in-house school. Again, there was very little practical to do as the children were basically just playing and getting ready for their graduation ceremony (to celebrate that they were going to be starting state school in August/September).

However, the Chidlrens' Home does also have a library room where children can come and read books or have some extra help if there is anyone available to open and man the room. The guy who has this amongst his responsibilities does not always have the time to do it because he has many other jobs to do as well so today it had not been open. However the manageress of the home said that if I came back at 4pm I could meet this guy and see if there was anything useful I could do.

I went back at 4pm as arranged, met the guy and he left me in their with the key. For the next two hours various kids just turned up and came in and I was able to do some constructive work listening to them read, giving them dictation (at their request!), doing some simply maths work etc. Most of these kids were aged around 10 to 13. At 6:15 they went off for their evening meal so I locked up and arranged with the guy that I would come back and spend the whole of Friday there.


Friday 30th July

I went back to the library as arranged about 9am and stayed till 5pm. Again I did a variety of mainly English or Maths task with kids from aged 10 up to about 16 with a wide range of abilities. We also played a bit of Jenga and some noughts & crosses!


Saturday 31st July

Today was the graduation ceremony for the 4-7 year-olds who had been taught on the Childrens' Home premises but who would now be going to a local state school in September. The whole thing lasted about 2 hours with speeches from various dignitaries, but there was also lots of singing, recitation and dance performances from the kids in the 4-7 age group


Sunday 1st August

Dorothy will by leaving this evening to fly home tomorrow but I have planned to be here for another 2 weeks. I am intending to set off on my own travels around Ghana tomorrow (Monday). I'm not sure how easy it will be to find Internet Cafes in some of the places I will be visiting so I've no idea when the next blog entry will be.

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