Volunteer reports » Volunteering in Ghana

The kids are starting to respond to positive reinforcement

admin — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 17:29:42 +0000

By Kelsey Wolf

The best part about working with the kids here is making them smile. For the past five weeks I’ve been working with four kids from stage three who were very far behind on reading. We started out with the alphabet. The first two weeks went very slowly and I was easily frustrated. The kids didn’t always listen to me and they never did the little homework that I assigned to them.

With perseverance and some help from the kids everything clicked one day. All four of them did their homework and they were excited to start our session. I was so excited that they were excited they thought I was weird because I couldn’t stop smiling and yelling "good job!" at them.

They fed off of the positive feedback that I gave them and they started doing even better. Everyday at the end of our session I talk about how they did for the day, what they need to work on, and, my favorite part, that they did well. I go around the table and give all of them a high five then I say "good job guys!" and give them two thumbs up. They think it’s funny that I give them thumbs up so they started doing it too. Whenever I do it they all drop their pencils, put their thumbs up, and smile.

The high fives and thumbs up have moved outside the classroom. Whenever I see the four kids outside they give me a high five and two thumbs way up.

Note: Kelsey is volunteering at the Bishop Forson School for 8 weeks. She is tutoring and conducting a workshop.

Shifra’s Journal – December 15, 2009

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:07:31 +0000

There are no signs leading to Airfield Community. From the main road you would not know that anyone live in the bush. An airport was planned for the area, but will probably never be built. Land was available and 400 people settled in the area. They came from the coast, from the north or escaped Togo, in search for farming land. They have small farms, mostly for the family consumption.

Last Sunday we went to visit the homes of the people of the Airfield Community. I got on the back of Eric’s motorcycle, riding in the "bush", following narrow paths through cassava and corn fields. We stopped at ten family compounds. Each compound had about seven mud homes with straw roofs.

I walked into the “homes”: Clutter of wood, boxes, baskets, dry corn and cassava, and not much inside. Adults were separating the corn kernels from the cob, removing the stem from the chili peppers, removing the beans from the pods. It was special to meet the kids at their homes with their families. They were shy. They call me “Madam Benny”. I found out that Eric, 11, the brightest child in school, live with his grandparents. His parents and the rest of the family are in another village. Lizzy, 12, in torn clothes live with her mother and younger sister. Lizzy asked me for a school bag. With Judy’s donation we are getting seven school bags. Beautiful babies and toddlers, future students at the new school.

At the compound of Kofi Gama, the 75 year old who is at the construction site every day, we met the community secretary. He did not speak English, but a young man explain to me that they are discussing what to do regarding the five community members who refuse to participate in the construction. They have communal labor law, and if a person does not participate in the community project, the fine is 5Gh Cedi per day, but those five families refused to pay.

It is a new reality (which I tremendously enjoy), to experience Ho from the Aku Sika sewing shop.

It is a busy place. African artwork and jewelry beside all the clothes that Sister Aku sews . Many locals, missionaries, volunteers shop here. Local women with the baskets on their heads stop at the shop: banana, coconut, papaya, oranges, tomato, onion, and I buy most of the food at the shop.

My first week production: a shirt for me and Benny.

There was a celebration in Aku Sika’s daughters’ school. “Sanitation Day”, a Foundation from Finland funded toilets for the school…

Benny hopes that he will have enough money to install toilets in Airfield School, so that the teachers and students will not have to go in the “bush”.

Building the Airfield School – update from Shifra Raz 12/5/09

admin — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:02:59 +0000

Friday was a national holiday, "Farmer’s Day". Farmers compete for the best crops, livestock, fishery, and can win tractor, bike or farming equipment. In 1997 Bishop Forson won first place in his district for his Timber (teak wood) and Palm Oil Farms.

Due to the holiday, work was not scheduled for Airfield Community, but they all decided to work anyway. I counted 40 community workers. Foundation blocks were already cemented in the trenches. Women running back and forth, large cement blocks on their heads. "blocks", "mortar", shouting form the site and the women ran to deliver the goods.

75 years old Kofi Gamo does not have kids in school and his grandkids graduated years ago, but he is the first one in the morning and the last to leave. He does not walk, he runs. He does not stop to rest and is a great inspiration for all of us. He is also the leader of his church.

The mayor of Ho and an assembly member visited the site on Thursday and spoke to the community. This is something they all do very well in Ghana: talk, big words, promises, cheering… but deliver very little. We were surprised when a member of the parliament paid us a visit and actually offered a real help, starting with 200 bags of cement. Morale was high at the site, but the week did not start this way.

Update from Shifra Raz on Thanksgiving 2009

admin — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:32:13 +0000

10th day of construction: excavation of the foundation in the hard clay soil was completed, marking the outlines of the two long classroom buildings connected by the administration building. Steel pillars (all handmade by the steel bender) were cemented into the ground, supported by the poles that the children cut and carried to school. The women were pouring mixture of stones, sand and cement into the ditches from head pans and wheelbarrows. More trucks unloading sand and stones and cement bags.

Gary, 50, from London, is traveling Ghana on his bike. A challenge with all the pot holes on the roads. He came to Ho for one day, and decided to stay for a week and help build the Airfield School. He was digging alongside the community, his white skin shining among the dark bodies and clay. Back in the hotel, sore body, he collapsed on the coach. On Friday he declared, "I am done with physical labor, I am too old for that." We miss "yavu" company. It was nice to have him around for a week. He wrote me a sweet card for my birthday.

On Monday, Benard, the contractor, informed Benny that the community decided to split into two groups and work on alternative days. That would cut the work force in half. That was not the original plan.

Benny called a meeting and tried another approach with the community. Benard will post daily manpower requirement, transferring the responsibility to complete the school on time to the community. John, the hotel owner, was our translator. The community was very supportive of Benny and promised to keep up with the schedule as planned so that we could leave by the end of March and join our family for Passover. We took the opportunity to talk to the parents about education, sending their kids to school, sewing school bags, clean clothes, bathing, ring-worms and caning.

At the pharmacy, we bought ointment for ringworms and treated five children. We also bought capsules for one girl who had a boil. The mothers took the medication and were very appreciative.

The shelves at the pharmacy are loaded with various Malaria tablets. Malaria is regarded as a common flu and medication is inexpensive. In-spite of it, many children die from malaria in Africa, especially in the villages. Most school textbooks include stories about kids who were sick with malaria. Sounds so simple: boy was hot and tired, mother took him to the hospital, the doctor sent them to the laboratory for a blood test, boy had malaria, the doctor prescribed medication, the boy took the medication. End of story.

In the market we bought yellow and green thread and will ask the mothers’s help in mending the children clothes. I heard a child screaming the other day. Benny was racing from the construction site to stop a young male teacher who was forcefully caning a three years old boy. "What are you doing?" Benny yelled. "I am caning him" he replied grinning, "this is Ghana, this is not America." "If I see you caning another child, I will cane you", Benny told him. I hope he got the message this time. We sat with all the teachers. God fearing people. Trying to speak their language. "Jesus treated people with love, not canes" So we got a Bible lesson "Jesus was whipping people who were cheating in the market" And what was that to the three year old did? He was crying for no reason.

Two girls from my early bird group wrote me nice letters. One of them asked me to buy her ‘school bag’. It is painful to see 12-14 years old kids who cannot read. How do you train or influence teachers to be dedicated and care? We will try to meet someone at the board of education very soon.

We did not expect this trip to be problem-free. We anticipated that there would be set-backs and disappointments. However, when one of us is down, the other lifts him/her up. We are a good team.

On Friday we celebrated my 63rd birthday. We went out for a nice dinner at the Kekeli Hotel, where I ordered a dish of Red-Red, fried fish and fried plantain in spicy bean stew. Benny bought me a sewing machine and I will try to fulfil another ambition, sewing my own clothes. On this Thanksgiving, so much to be thankful for: our loving family, friends, country, health, our education and the opportunities that were available to us. ***Thanks to Karen’s friends for their generous donations