Religion

Most Ghanaian people are very religious. It is automatically assumed that everyone believes in a god and belongs to a religious group. Across the country as a whole, 62% of the population are Christian, 15% Muslim, and 23% follow traditional African religions, many of which focus on the presence of the spirits of the ancestors. The traditional beliefs usually recognise a “supreme being” that is thought to be remote from daily religious life and is therefore not directly worshipped. There are also lesser gods that take “residency” in streams, rivers, trees and mountains.

In Wa, the percentage of Muslims is much higher, at about 70%. This is due to the influence of, and trade with, Arabs from North Africa. However, there are also churches and schools that are Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and evangelical “Church of God”. Religion features in virtually all conversations. For example, on a recent visit to a school with one of the circuit supervisors (advisors), a teacher was admonished for not completing the register correctly, and it was made clear to her that if she didn’t do it properly in future, then she will be “harshly judged by God at the gates of heaven”.

Virtually every shop, business, bus, taxi and “tro-tro” carries a quote from the Bible or Koran, or makes reference to God. Some examples of these shops are pictured.

It appears that every meeting or activity begins and ends with a prayer. Religious tolerance is very high. We recently attended a meeting of representatives of school management committees (governing bodies). This meeting took place under a mango tree. At the start of the meeting a request was made for a volunteer to say a prayer. One of the Muslims said a prayer and everyone took it very seriously, the Catholics crossing themselves etc. At the end of the meeting, there was a request for another volunteer to say a prayer. This led to a great deal of laughing and good humour, as people joked about equality and the need to make sure that we should end with a Christian prayer, because we had started with a Muslim prayer. This resulted in a prayer from one of the Catholics present and, again, everyone took it very seriously.

Last weekend, we took a cycle ride to a nearby village, Nakori, with one of our housemates, Cathy. She is a social worker who is working with street children for a Ghanaian charlity called Youth Alive. We were told that the village has a particularly ancient and beautiful mosque. It is only 5 kilometeres from Wa, so we set out very early in the morning to avoid the heat of the day. The cycle ride was a fantastic experience. We only saw one motor vehicle and a motorcycle all day. Everyone else on the road was walking or cycling. The people were carrying water, wood for their fires and a whole variety of different produce for market on their heads. (It’s interesting that animals are not used to transport things in this area.) Everyone was welcoming and friendly and, of course, we went through the traditional greetings with everyone we saw. A white person is still a very unusual sight and many people find us very amusing. The children often shout “nasalla” after us. This means “white person” or “foreigner”, and it is shouted as a friendly greeting.

At Nakori, we were met by the village elders, and the Chief then took us on a personal tour of the mosque. It was built in the 14^th century out of mud and sticks and it really is a fascinating building. The sticks were used to enable builders to climb the mosque wall to add higher layers during it’s construction. The mosque is used regularly today, although it is not big enough to hold all the villagers, so many of them now use the larger, modern mosque nearby.

In Nakori, we also visited a tiny factory, where corn was being ground into corn flour. Corn flour is used to make the staple food, “TZ”, which is usually eaten with a vegetable soup, often containing okra. The other main staple food is “fufu”, which is made by pounding yam or plantain. We have not yet been able to develop a taste for either of these, but we will keep trying! The picture below shows one of our local shops in Wa, where the woman is pounding yams to make fufu.

On the work front, things are gathering pace. We have interviewed many district education staff. We have started to meet the heads of the 9 schools we have been allocated, and we are planning a series of meetings to discuss a development plan that would enable the education service to access grants. It is a fact of life in Ghana that education is almost entirely dependent on NGOs for any innovative or development activities. In fact, UK DFID finance is the main funding that enables education service staff to carry out their normal duties. If the funding doesn’t arrive they are unable to visit the schools, carry out training or fulfil their regular duties.

By the way, thanks to everyone who has sent an email in response to our blog. We love getting them!

Living in Wa; Town Life

Last Saturday we were in the centre of town at the “beauty pageant”. 70% of the marks were allocated for “intellect”. This was all part of the empowerment programme to develop more gender equality in a very male dominated society. Needless to say we had difficulty relating to this type of activity, even though we strongly support the emphasis on helping to empower women. The 300+ crowd had a wonderful time. There were young women dressed in their Saturday night finery and young men dressed as young men do worldwide: hipster jeans, flashy trainers and a range of T shirts and jackets with every designer label you can think of. The incredible difference from a western event was the absence of any alcohol – and everyone was having a great time, in a really warm and friendly atmosphere.

Unfortunately, the sound system was so poor, that when the young women told us their “philosophy of life”, we couldn’t hear what they were saying. We have to admit to leaving before the end and walking back to our house through the African night, in the company of vivid stars, the sound of crickets and the scavenging goats. Not a single vehicle passed us once we were off the main street. Our house is about 35 minutes from the centre of town, at a brisk walk.

There is a market in Wa on every day of the week, with local farmers bringing their produce to sell. There is a huge market every 6 days, with clothing, material, utensils and shoes, as well as food stuffs. We have noticed that the stalls all seem to stock similar produce. In our first week, there were pineapples everywhere. This week there were none. Suddenly a lorry load of apples

from South Africa appeared this week and it was possible to buy apples everywhere for a short time. Oranges and bananas have been consistently available. On the vegetable front, cabbages and carrots can usually be found. Yam, plantain, okra, tomatoes, onions, garlic, green peppers and chilli peppers always seem to be about. We are only just beginning to understand the pricing. Last year Ghana revised its currency. The new Ghana cedi (GhC) is worth 10,000 of the previous cedis. For example, market stall holders are still asking for 5,000 cedis, when we actually have to pay half a new Ghana cedi.

The shops in town are stocked with what comes in from Accra on lorries. We had difficulty tracking down a toaster, but there were many liquidisers available, due to a recent delivery. Most of the electrical goods are very cheap and from China. In buying a kettle we had to choose between a Chinese one at 15 GHCs (£6/7) and a Japanese one at 50GHC. (£22.00) – both way beyond the reach of local people. We went for the Chinese version, couldn’t make it work and returned it to the shop. We’ll probably get a kettle that heats up on our gas ring. We did celebrate last Saturday when we found a new toilet seat. At the equivalent of £3 we do not have high expectations of its future long service.


The taxis are another amazing feature. Virtually every car has a cracked windscreen. They are all battered and bruised. No electric windows here. A few do have a window winder that still works. Many of the vehicles are Japanese, although there are a good number of European Peugots, VWs etc. As for the NGO, aid-sponsored vehicles, they tend to be 4- wheel drive, new vehicles; many are pick-ups. The local people use mini-buses called tro-tros. They are old, battered, overcrowded and travel far too fast for the road conditions. We will do all we can to avoid using them. Coaches travel between the main cities, like the one we used to travel from Accra to Wa. This was a well maintained vehicle with air-conditioning and a professional driver, albeit overloaded with people and luggage. The picture shows our friend. Amino, who has started up his own taxi business.

In Wa, there is one set of signposts at the main roundabout in the town. No streets are named and no houses or public buildings have addresses. Everyone uses P.O. box numbers. There is no map available to find out where to go. We have to rely totally on asking local people. For example, the road where the school for the deaf is located is known by everyone locally as the “deaf road”. When Linda was getting directions to a particular primary school this week, she was told by a senior education officer to go to the roundabout, keep the police station on her right and continue straight on until coming to a baobab tree on the left. It all seems to work, although it takes some getting used to, when we have been so map and address orientated for so long.

We have spent much of this week visiting local schools with the “circuit supervisors”. This has been really enlightening. The most shocking sight was a kindergarten class of 115 children, crowded into a small, baking hot building, with flies everywhere. It would be very easy to become completely overwhelmed by the sheer scale of what needs to be done, but we are gradually finding small ways in which we can support people.

Education in Wa

Our role is to support the development of leadership and management in the Wa District Education Service and in a number of schools. We have to focus on the development of self-evaluation and planning.

We have now interviewed the senior staff of the Education Office. All have been most welcoming and willing to tell us about their roles. We have posed questions to seek out what they see as the strengths of the service and the areas that could improve their effectiveness. Coming from a privileged country, it is humbling to find that virtually all said the greatest strength of the service is the teamwork and willingness to support each other. The greatest challenge is securing fuel that allows them to visit the 60+ schools for which they feel really responsible. None was concerned that every pen, pencil or piece of paper, has to be applied for and justified. Whilst most are eager to have training on computers, it is clear that the infrastructure to gain benefit from IT is not here yet.

The Ghana Education model reminds us so much of the UK in the early 20th century, with a little layer of 90s centralised government and a pinch of 21st century. Virtually everything is prescribed by central government. The responsibilities of officers, heads and teachers are laid out in handbooks sent from Accra. Central government also determines every proforma used for budgeting, lesson planning, monitoring etc. There is very little autonomy in the system.

Education is compulsory up to the age of 14 years, although school attendance is very low in comparison to the West. At age 11, students transfer from primary schools to junior secondary schools, and they take final examinations at the end of their third year. A small number go on to senior high schools up to the age of 18 years. The primary and junior secondary schools are referred to as basic schools.

Teachers apply to the district office and are placed in schools where they are needed by the local officers. They can be moved around at any time. As well as teaching, they are expected to keep the school clean and grow and distribute food. Teachers also have a key role in setting up and maintaining “latrines”. Health and hygiene form a central part of the curriculum. Teachers have classes of 60+ students. Some classrooms have a blackboard and chalk. Text books, distributed from Accra, are often out of date or non-existent by the time any are seen in the Upper West. Some schools have no buildings at all i.e. they meet under a tree.

Local inspectors, called circuit supervisors, have very clearly defined monitoring duties to carry out with each school, but they have to use the limited supply of Education Service motor bikes, and the frequent fuel shortages limit their capacity to carry out their duties. Whilst there are some old computers donated from the West, there is no capacity to maintain them. They are not networked and the skills to use even basic software are not yet in place. Some of the officers do not have electricity in their homes, so the idea of email or planning from home is clearly impossible. The education offices don’t have access to the Internet either.

A little tale: A teacher came to the office yesterday to see if he could bring 30 students to see a computer. The nationally prescribed curriculum states that he must teach students how to send an email. Even if he gains access to a computer, none of his students will be able to access the internet, and clearly will not be able to have an email account. Like other teachers, he has to teach IT using a blackboard and chalk.

Everything we are learning is absolutely fascinating. We are having to think very carefully about how to use our time to best effect. As far as the education service is concerned, we will be using a self-assessment tool, which will also be piloted in other parts of Ghana. Our role with schools will hopefully become clearer when we visit a number of schools next week.

On the home front, water has now come through the shower on 2 occasions – yippee!! It is a delight to be able to ride to the education offices, shops and market on our bikes. Linda is acting as the local bicycle ambulance for other volunteers, now that they have picked up that she has some medical knowledge. She has just returned from removing a large insect from the bed of a volunteer, as well as getting her to the pharmacy for treatment of shingles. We’re thinking of getting a blue flashing light for the bike.

Daily Routine

We have now been in Wa for one week and we have managed to sort out a daily routine in the house, as well as gain much understanding of the education system. We have interviewed a number of senior members of the education service and visited our most local school, “Our Home”, which is next door to us. The proprietor, Khalid, built this school himself. He is a professional driver and decided to start the school in 1992, using the porch of his house. He has personally built the school bit by bit, so that it is now a school of over 500 children. He has recently built a new section, which will become the secondary school next year. His own house is on the school premises and we feel he will be a great neighbour. He is a well respected member of the community and is full of helpful information and advice.

Our routine this week has gone something like this:

· Get up about 5.30 a.m. We are usually woken before the alarm by a range of noises like cockerels crowing and children chattering. Go to the tap in the garden and transfer buckets of water into the storage barrels in the house. Ensure all the water filters are filled. Get breakfast, which has been bread, banana and fruit juice this week. Take a bucket shower. Apply sunscreen and insect repellent.

· At about 7.15 a.m., walk to the education offices. This takes about 35 minutes. It is a really pleasant walk in the mornings, as it isn’t too hot and the walk is interesting. There are goats, chickens and pigs all along our route. No idea how anyone knows which animals they own. There are also really colourful birds and butterflies. We pass people walking to market with all sorts of bundles on their heads, people walking, cycling, motorcycling to work or taking their children to school. Greeting people is a very important part of Ghanaian culture and there is a standard set of responses used by everyone, including us now. The translation from Waali goes: good morning; good morning and how are you and did you sleep well? I’m fine; how are you? We repeat these exchanges with virtually everyone we meet. The local people clearly find our Waali very amusing, but they show appreciation for our attempts.

· Spend the morning in the education offices, having gone through the greetings procedures with everyone we meet. At lunchtime, we buy some food from local shops or street sellers, but we eat very little, as it is so hot. We might have a banana or some fried plantain, but the priority at this time is continually drinking water.

· In the afternoon, visit Barclay’s bank. This has been the same routine all week, as there is a very long, bureaucratic process in setting up a bank account. This is all very tedious, but at least the bank has air conditioning. This is the only place we have found so far, that does have air conditioning. We now have an account and should be receiving a chequebook and ATM card soon. This part of the routine may change next week!!

· Visit the market and shops to buy food for the day and various bits and pieces for the house. Our real treat last Friday was to find the only toaster in Wa. We then spent a (comparatively) huge amount of money on a jar of strawberry jam.

· Finish various activities at the education offices and then start the walk home. This walk is during the hottest part of the day, so we have to drink bottled water the whole way. We always pass children at the local bore hole, pumping water into huge containers. Very young children spend large amounts of time collecting and carrying water.

· At home, we sit under the fan, drink more water and make notes and plans related to our work. Just before 6.00 p.m., it starts to go dark, and this is the worst time for mosquitoes. We bucket shower, put on clothing to cover us as much as possible and apply insect repellent. We also light mosquito coils in various parts of the house. It’s now time for checking all the water filters, boiling water to store in the fridge for drinking, and preparing the meal. Although there is a limited range of food available, we are managing to eat a fairly balanced diet. If there is time, we read, play music and use the Internet.

· We try to get to bed before 10.00 p.m., but haven’t yet managed it. It’s important to get as much rest as possible in this climate. We have a fan in the bedroom and we keep it on for most of the night. We go to sleep to a whole cacophony of different sounds, especially crickets.

Overall, we have had both ups and downs. The local people are wonderful and really welcoming. We are deliberately not bringing out our cameras for some time, as we need to be seen as members of the local community, rather than tourists. The poverty and hardship in the area is beyond what we imagined. It is going to be really hard to work out the most useful contribution we can make. There is very little infrastructure to aid development. People’s lives revolve around getting clean water and it is no wonder that education is not seen as a priority by many. It really brings home the preciousness of water, and we will never think of water in the same way again.

It is now Saturday and we have employed a local woman to do our washing and cleaning. She works 7 days a week to try and put her children through school. The other VSO volunteers employ her as well. We are spending time relaxing, reflecting and reading, and we hope that we will be able to buy bicycles soon. Planning variety in our meals is challenging, but our toaster offers a new range of possibilities. We’re even getting excited about the idea of poached egg and beans on toast!