Akwaaba 9th Graders

Last week the 9th graders from ZIS, Ibi and Maud visited our school in Ghana! The children and the teachers at school were very excited (Mr Joshua got a Welcome poster made)! When students and teachers from ZIS came , they brought a lot of school supplies and toys to play with!

The children of BCS wanted to show the students from ZIS how they have school so, first they showed them their morning routine: we had assembly, sang the national Anthem and other songs. In return the 9^th graders them showed us some other their songs they had prepared (such as old McDonald). After Assembly all the children marched to class.

Now the 9^th graders split into 3 group:

Group one: This group helped the workers continue to build the new dinning hall. They mixed cement, dug and shovel, cement the walls and move earth with the wheelbarrows.

Group two: went to teach and play games with the children- They showed the 2^nd and 3^rd graders some games to play (such as Duck Duck Goose and What Time is it Mr. Wolf). Some of the 9^th grade student went to help in the Kindergarten class.

Group three: This group went to see the village which is right next to the school. In the village they got to visit Clements families house and help them cook a meal , they carried water from the water pump, wash clothes by hand. After visiting Clements family, they went to watch basket weaving.

The 9th graders took turned doing each activity. The children at school really enjoyed the time they could spend with the 9^th graders.

During the 9^th graders visit, they also made a mural on the dinning hall wall! All of the children put their hand print on the wall in different color paint. The 9^th graders and the teachers also put their hand prints on the wall!

One evening the 9^th graders played a soccer tournament with the local children! Its was boys against boys and girls against girls! The ZIS Boys won 2:0 (yay! Go ZIS) and the girls tied. The children at school were really happy to be able to play with the students and teachers from ZIS. That evening there was also drums and a bonfire at school.

The students of BCS were sad to see the ZIS students and teachers go, but want to thank them very much for visiting and bring them a lot of toys to play with and school supplies to work with! After the ZIS students and teachers left the children and teachers of BCS prayed for their safe travel home back to Switzerland. They hope to see them all again!

A Day in the Life of Clement

This is Clement. He is 8 years old and is in 3^rd grade . Clements favorite subject is math and he really likes to play soccer.

Clement will show you what he does on a school day:

After getting up in the morning and putting on his school clothes, Clement walks to school.

At school he will talk and hang out with his friends and eat breakfast. This morning he is having rice for breakfast.

When school starts at 8:00, everyone lines up for assembly. First they pray and then sing the Ghana Anthem and other songs. After the singing there are announcement. When these are done, they walk (or sometimes march) to class.

Now Clement and his fellow classmates will have class with their teacher Mr. Amankwah

At 10:15 he has a 30 min break for out door games. Usually they play soccer or play with the hula-hoops

Then it’s back to class!

At 12:30 it is lunchtime! Now everyone lines up in front of the kitchen and receives a bowl of Jollof rice (rice with tomato sauce and fish (its very good! J)). Clement and his fellow student have Jollof rice every day. But sometimes they have other food (like Fufu).

After lunch it is quiets time. After 20 min of quiet time, it is recess! During recess, Clement and his friends usually play soccer. After 30 min of recess, they all return to class.

At 2:30 school is finished. But before everyone can go home, there is another assembly time. All students pray and sing songs. After this most of the children wait for the school bus. But Clement and some of the other students walk home to near by village.

The Children

The children here at the school are really nice and very friendly. The older children are able to speak English (1^st to 3^rd grade) and the smaller children are learning to speak English (KG 1 and KG2). All of the children get along amongst each other. They all play with each other even though they are in different grades. The children are very helpful. For example, they help us sweep away the leaves for the schoolyard in the morning. Some thing that we have noticed is that the children help each other without being asked by anyone! Not even the person they are helping.

The students at the school all have to wear a uniform. The boy’s uniform consists of an orange button shirt and a pair of blue shorts. The girls wear an orange dress with a blue ribbon and a blue collar. Also, most of the girls have really short hair!

The students here love to play the same games that most of you probably do. They love soccer, playing with hula-hoops, tag and throwing and catching balls. They also really like to sing and dance.

One other thing that we noticed, that is very different is that most of the children eat breakfast at school! Before school starts they sit on the benches under the trees and eat their breakfast. Most of the children have porridge or rice for breakfast.

The School

The school we are at is called the Bosomtwe Community School. It is outside of the city. It is in the country side (around the school there are a few houses, some fields and mainly trees.) It takes about 40 min to drive from where we live to school. We take the school bus in the morning. Either the children use the school bus or they walk to school.

The school itself is very small. There are about 80 students in total. The school has 5 different classes: KG 1, KG 2, 1^st grade, 2^nd grade and 3^rd grade. The main school building has only 2 classrooms and one storages room. Since there are only 2 classrooms, 3 of the classes are taught outside on the porch. The porch is used by 1^st , 2^nd (which are combined) and 3^rd grade. The school has 5 teachers and one principle.

There is no electricity at the school. So there are no computers, lights or Smart Boards at the school. So the teachers write on black boards (they are like white boards, just instead of using markers they use chalk). The children use mainly slates, as they don’t have much paper. Slates are like mini black boars, so the children use chalk to write on them. One cool thing about slates is that you can use it, then easily erase them and use them again, just like a white board!

The school building does not have taps for water; instead, there is a water pump. However at the moment the pump doesn’t work, so in order to get water the teachers walk to the near by village to get water and bring it back.

The children usually sit outside in the schoolyard before and after school as well as for recess and lunchtime. The schoolyard has 2 big trees, which have benches around them. For most of the time the students sit on those.

The other school building is the dinning hall, but it is not quiet finished yet. It’s brand new and is very big. This is where the children will have their lunch. The dinning hall will include the kitchen. Currently the kitchen is a small single room hut. At the moment it is the place where cook cooks. She cooks using a really big pot and cooks over a fire. The new dinning hall will also have the bathrooms as well as storage room for supplies.

This new building is nearly finished. Here is the progress so far:

Location

On December 26^th 2009 we received a warm welcome from Ibi at the airport in Accra. On December 27^th we then departed on our journey to Kumasi. Kumasi is the second largest city in Ghana and is the home of Ibi’s family. Kumasi has a population of 5 million people. That is nearly as big as entire Switzerland!

Our first challenge that we faced here was the adjustment to the warm climate. The average temperature at this time in the year is about 30° C (that’s like high summer in Switzerland). We are loving the warmth and enjoying the sun, which shines every day!

We have had the joy to meet Ibi’s family. They are friendly and open people and live a typical African lifestyle. First of all, most of Ibi’s family lives in the same house we live in, not only his mother but also one of his aunts, two of his uncles and his nieces. They live very differently then we do back home. For example, they wash all their clothes by hand and not with a washing machine. Also, Ibi’s family doesn’t cook with a stove, but over a fire (they use coal and wood). One other difference is that there is not always electricity and there is not always water coming out of the tap.

Buying food here is also very different. Kumasi barely has any supermarkets (meaning there are no stores like Migros or Coop). All the food we buy comes from the central market. The central market in Kumasi is the biggest market in all of West Africa. It’s huge and very crowded. On this market you can find everything you want. You can buy everything from DVDs to fresh vegetables to soccer shirts to art to food.