My school, Sirigu Senior High School, let me tell you about my school. First let me tell you about the educational system in Ghana. ok, here we go...
Ghana Education Services (GES) is a the branch of the gov't that we deal with and the system is very centralized, overall. There are very few private schools, especially at the primary and secondary levels. Students go to Primary school for 6 years, starting at about age 5 (depends on the parents, if they need them at home). Some kids don't go to school at all, but Primary is free except for some school fees, cost of uniforms, books, pencils, etc. (There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.) Each year is called a "Form" instead of a grade, so we say a first year student is a P1 student. Uniforms for Primary School students is usually brown on the bottom, yellow/tan on the top. There is also Nursury for little kids before Primary, but that seems to be mostly in more urban areas. Little ones wear cute checked uniforms in different colors.
After Primary, students go to Junior Secondary School (JSS). JSS has 3 forms, and the Form 3 students help organize things with a prefect system (like in Harry Potter!). Their uniforms around here are blue bottom and yellow top, except the prefects, who wear tan bottoms and white tops. It's a day school, so the students go home at the end of the day, as in the US. At the end of JSS, the form 3 students take a standardized test called BECE that determines which Senior High School they will go to. They list preferences and if their scores are good, they go to a good school. If their scores are okay, they come to a smaller, not as good school (like mine) and if their scores are not so good at all, they go and work on the family farm and don't go to SS.
They have just added a fourth year to SS, making it SHS, so I teach Form 2 and Form 3 Integrated Science. Prefects, seniors chosen by their peers, keep the other students in line and do a lot to keep the school running. Around here, uniforms are tan on bottom and light blue on top, prefects wear pink on top. Most SHS schools are boarding schools that house and feed the students as well as teach them. Usually, students want to go to a big school that is at least a little ways from their home town. The attitude is similar to HS seniors in the US looking at colleges-they want to move away from home and all that. Boarding schools have higher school fees, more students, and more buildings. Sirigu Senior High School is a day school, which is uncommon for SHS. It has no electricity or running water; a borehole to fetch water is a 5 min walk away. It is not as expensive (annual school fees are about $50) and there are many fewer students than other schools. Many of my students are from the area, and still live at home. Others rent rooms in the village and have to feed themselves. They want the school to become a boarding school, but that will take a lot of development at this point.
In Ghana, the students normally stay in the same classroom and the teachers move from room to room. The rooms are very sparce, at my school, there are only desks for some students, so the rest have to bring their own. I teach in a open air classroom, tin roof, cement walls and open windows with shutters. (That is actually a basic description of a lot of buildings here) The blackboard is smooth cement on the wall. The students occasionally paint it with battery acid (not a joke) to make it black, but it comes off on my hands and only lasts a week or so. The classes are small at my school, 10 to 25 students. The school offers different "courses" similar to majors in college in US. Sirigu SHS offers Business, General Arts, and Agric. Students sit with their form mates who are offering the same course and a class captain keeps track of the class.
At the end of 3rd year (will soon be 4th year) the seniors, or candidates take a massive standardized test for all of English-speaking West Africa called the WASSCE. Basically, it determines weather they can go to university, technical school or any other tertiary ed. We spend a lot of time teaching to the test, as it is so important.
Looking back at what I've just written, it is informative but fairly dry. I'll write some more interesting and detailed stuff another time. Overall, I like my school and I am happy to be there. The students are what really keep me going. They are eager to learn and try hard, even though their obstacles are many.
Love,
Toby
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Vacation is over
It seems like it's been a long time since I've been on a normal school calender. That's because it has been. School is finally starting again and I'll get my groove back and do even better than the first term. Just give me a bit to remember how to teach.
Anyway, the break has been relaxing and interesting for the most part. The elections all happened without incident, although PC did extend the standfast because one district had to revote. Eventually the Electoral Commission announced that the NDC had won and that John Evans Atta-Mills would be the next prez of Ghana. That's fine with me, and I'm glad to see that most Ghanaians are happy or at least content with it. Change is good, right?
I celebrated Christmas small with Bismark's family, but didn't do anything too exciting. It didn't really feel much like Christmas in the states, no snow, no Santa, no commercialism, no lights. Plenty of Jesus, though. Overall, it seems that people here don't celebrate Xmas (that's how they say it) as frantically as we do in 'merica, even though there are lots of christians. One church did have a camp-out sing-a-long near my school. For about three nights in a row, they sang and danced and preached, and people came from other towns to participate. It was fun to see, and a bunch of my students were there. They were impressed that I could speak Frafra. One thing that was interesting is that in Bolga, there were groups of kids roaming around and wishing people merry christmas. They were all dressed up in their best cloths and had their hair slicked or fancied with pomade. It was sort of like a cross between caroling and trick-or-treating. They were expecting to be given candy after delivering their holiday greetings, but since I wasn't prepared, I just wished them merry christmas back.
New Years was cool, too. I went to a festival in Natugia, a nearby village. There were lots and lots of people there and different groups danced and drummed and recieved monies. People were selling candy, balloons and little cheap toys, and there was plenty of kids running around. There was also plenty of alcohol, but that's how you celebrate around here. The party went late, but I didn't stay too long once it got dark. I usually go to bed pretty early here.
Finally, after standfast ended, I went to visit my friend and housemate Robert's village. It was very nice and I met all his family and friends and the family of his fiancee. We visited his alma mater, watched crazy Nigerian movies, and drank pito (locally brewed from millet, it's good) with some old men. Then we traveled together back to Sirigu for a day and then left for In-Service Training in Kukurantumi.
Getting to IST was a bit of adventure. We stayed over in Tamale, and left on an Accra bound STC bus in the morning, but the bus broke down outside of Kintampo (3 hrs out of 10). We ended up waiting for 7 hrs as they tried to fix the bus and failed. It was a drag, but some kids kept me company as I finished my paperback and started writing my own. Finally, another bus arrived and we got on that one and continued our journey. The original plan was to drop at Bunso and get to Kukurantumi from there, but that wouldn't have worked to well at 2 AM, so we went all the way to Accra, slept a few hours in the bus terminal, and got up at 5 AM to travel back up to Koforidua and then to Kuku. It worked out alright in the end, only that we arrived a day late to the training conference. I was hungry, tired, and stinky when we got there, but all three were remedied eventually. The conference was good and it was nice to see friends again, even though it had only been a month since All Vol. We even got a chance to play a little of my GRPG (dorky fun).
Now I'm en route home again and have to start thinking about Integrated Science. I'll post some pictures soon, too.
Love,
Toby
Anyway, the break has been relaxing and interesting for the most part. The elections all happened without incident, although PC did extend the standfast because one district had to revote. Eventually the Electoral Commission announced that the NDC had won and that John Evans Atta-Mills would be the next prez of Ghana. That's fine with me, and I'm glad to see that most Ghanaians are happy or at least content with it. Change is good, right?
I celebrated Christmas small with Bismark's family, but didn't do anything too exciting. It didn't really feel much like Christmas in the states, no snow, no Santa, no commercialism, no lights. Plenty of Jesus, though. Overall, it seems that people here don't celebrate Xmas (that's how they say it) as frantically as we do in 'merica, even though there are lots of christians. One church did have a camp-out sing-a-long near my school. For about three nights in a row, they sang and danced and preached, and people came from other towns to participate. It was fun to see, and a bunch of my students were there. They were impressed that I could speak Frafra. One thing that was interesting is that in Bolga, there were groups of kids roaming around and wishing people merry christmas. They were all dressed up in their best cloths and had their hair slicked or fancied with pomade. It was sort of like a cross between caroling and trick-or-treating. They were expecting to be given candy after delivering their holiday greetings, but since I wasn't prepared, I just wished them merry christmas back.
New Years was cool, too. I went to a festival in Natugia, a nearby village. There were lots and lots of people there and different groups danced and drummed and recieved monies. People were selling candy, balloons and little cheap toys, and there was plenty of kids running around. There was also plenty of alcohol, but that's how you celebrate around here. The party went late, but I didn't stay too long once it got dark. I usually go to bed pretty early here.
Finally, after standfast ended, I went to visit my friend and housemate Robert's village. It was very nice and I met all his family and friends and the family of his fiancee. We visited his alma mater, watched crazy Nigerian movies, and drank pito (locally brewed from millet, it's good) with some old men. Then we traveled together back to Sirigu for a day and then left for In-Service Training in Kukurantumi.
Getting to IST was a bit of adventure. We stayed over in Tamale, and left on an Accra bound STC bus in the morning, but the bus broke down outside of Kintampo (3 hrs out of 10). We ended up waiting for 7 hrs as they tried to fix the bus and failed. It was a drag, but some kids kept me company as I finished my paperback and started writing my own. Finally, another bus arrived and we got on that one and continued our journey. The original plan was to drop at Bunso and get to Kukurantumi from there, but that wouldn't have worked to well at 2 AM, so we went all the way to Accra, slept a few hours in the bus terminal, and got up at 5 AM to travel back up to Koforidua and then to Kuku. It worked out alright in the end, only that we arrived a day late to the training conference. I was hungry, tired, and stinky when we got there, but all three were remedied eventually. The conference was good and it was nice to see friends again, even though it had only been a month since All Vol. We even got a chance to play a little of my GRPG (dorky fun).
Now I'm en route home again and have to start thinking about Integrated Science. I'll post some pictures soon, too.
Love,
Toby
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Long time, no write?
Hey all,
It's been a while, and I'm fine. Here's an update
The elections went well, there was almost no violence or problems. Unfortunately, the vote was too close and no candidate got over 50% so they need to do a run off vote for the two leading candidates. The vote is scheduled for Dec 28, so for safety, PC has put us all on standfast during the holidays around the vote. (Standfast=stay at site). It's a drag for people who had plans to travel, but I didn't plan anything, so I'm okay. We'll see how the next one goes, I'm pretty confident that it will be a good election.
The All Volunteer Conference was the week before last. I prepared end-of-term exams for my classes before I traveled down to Bunso to hang out with all the other PCV's in Ghana. It was really fun, and I met lots of great people, and even learned some stuff at the PEPFAR workshops. The best part was the PC Prom. I made myself a bowtye out of water sachets and since the theme was "Ghana Fabulous" everyone wore their best/worst Ghana garb. We drank and danced and had a blast. Check out pics on facebook, Ming "the Real Man" took some great ones. We also had an entertainment night, sort of like a talent show followed by another dance. Kyle and I sang some Steven Lynch songs. If you know anything about Steven Lynch, you know that they were funny and vulgar. Good times!
After the conference, I traveled with Kyle and Katharine to his site and then to the beach at Adda Foah. We met Jen, Sara, and Caroline and had a great time. It was beautiful, although not too clean. There was plenty of trash on the sand and in the water, and in places, we saw people "praying" on the beach in a squatting position. I think you can figure it out. Overall the beach was awesome and relaxing and I only got minorly burnt. We took a long walk along the beach, and encountered some fishermen and women pulling in a huge net. They had all sorts of fish in there, I wish I knew the names. They also had some cool sea snakes, pufferfish, small lobsters, and lots of trash. Nothing got out alive and even the smallest fish was collected. The fishers gave us two small lobsters and we took them back to the "resort" and had them cook them up for us for supper. We also caught a bunch of little crabs who wanted to hide in holes on the shore but weren't fast enough. We put them in a plastic bag and ate them, too! It was really fun and I realized that I really needed the break.
After a few days, I made my way back north and am now settled back in Sirigu and getting to know my new neighbor Shauna, who is a Small Enterprise Development pcv who lives just close to me. She is way cool and we are learning how to play the guitar together.
I send my good holiday vibes to everyone, If you see someone I know and like, give them a hug for me. (I hope this will facilitate a lot of hugging, as I know and like a lot of people). Thanks especially to my family in Seattle for all the awesome care packages! I have now amassed a substantial supply of cliff bars, candy and powdered cheese. It's just what I wanted for Christmas!
Also, new random pictures here.
all the best,
Toby
PS. I love you.
It's been a while, and I'm fine. Here's an update
The elections went well, there was almost no violence or problems. Unfortunately, the vote was too close and no candidate got over 50% so they need to do a run off vote for the two leading candidates. The vote is scheduled for Dec 28, so for safety, PC has put us all on standfast during the holidays around the vote. (Standfast=stay at site). It's a drag for people who had plans to travel, but I didn't plan anything, so I'm okay. We'll see how the next one goes, I'm pretty confident that it will be a good election.
The All Volunteer Conference was the week before last. I prepared end-of-term exams for my classes before I traveled down to Bunso to hang out with all the other PCV's in Ghana. It was really fun, and I met lots of great people, and even learned some stuff at the PEPFAR workshops. The best part was the PC Prom. I made myself a bowtye out of water sachets and since the theme was "Ghana Fabulous" everyone wore their best/worst Ghana garb. We drank and danced and had a blast. Check out pics on facebook, Ming "the Real Man" took some great ones. We also had an entertainment night, sort of like a talent show followed by another dance. Kyle and I sang some Steven Lynch songs. If you know anything about Steven Lynch, you know that they were funny and vulgar. Good times!
After the conference, I traveled with Kyle and Katharine to his site and then to the beach at Adda Foah. We met Jen, Sara, and Caroline and had a great time. It was beautiful, although not too clean. There was plenty of trash on the sand and in the water, and in places, we saw people "praying" on the beach in a squatting position. I think you can figure it out. Overall the beach was awesome and relaxing and I only got minorly burnt. We took a long walk along the beach, and encountered some fishermen and women pulling in a huge net. They had all sorts of fish in there, I wish I knew the names. They also had some cool sea snakes, pufferfish, small lobsters, and lots of trash. Nothing got out alive and even the smallest fish was collected. The fishers gave us two small lobsters and we took them back to the "resort" and had them cook them up for us for supper. We also caught a bunch of little crabs who wanted to hide in holes on the shore but weren't fast enough. We put them in a plastic bag and ate them, too! It was really fun and I realized that I really needed the break.
After a few days, I made my way back north and am now settled back in Sirigu and getting to know my new neighbor Shauna, who is a Small Enterprise Development pcv who lives just close to me. She is way cool and we are learning how to play the guitar together.
I send my good holiday vibes to everyone, If you see someone I know and like, give them a hug for me. (I hope this will facilitate a lot of hugging, as I know and like a lot of people). Thanks especially to my family in Seattle for all the awesome care packages! I have now amassed a substantial supply of cliff bars, candy and powdered cheese. It's just what I wanted for Christmas!
Also, new random pictures here.
all the best,
Toby
PS. I love you.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Elections and Churches
Greetings Friends,
Things here in Ghana are just fine, thanks for asking. I'm getting into a groove with my teaching schedule, although I still feel I have a lot to learn about Ghanaian culture before I can say that I truely understand the rhythm of life here. I've been here for over 5 months, now. That's the longest period of time I have ever lived outside the US, longer than my study abroad experience in Ecuador. It seems like the time has simply flown by. In reality, I still am only beginning, 5 months out of 27 to go. wow.
I hear that the weather is getting colder in Wisconsin, some snow even? Here it is getting dryer and dryer. The plants are turning brown, trees are starting to lose their leaves. No exciting fall colors here. The harvest is mostly over it seems, and the fields of millet that normally surround everything have been cut down. The stalks get used for cooking fuel. It seems that suddenly a lot of buildings and things have appeared where they weren't before. Really I just couldn't see them. Now I can see for quite a way, and when all the grasses and plants are gone, and all the trees are bare, I will see for miles and miles... The land is mostly flat here, so it really opens up when everything is dead. It's getting dustier. Now, rather than setting, the sun just sinks into the red haze on the horizon. I'm told it will get much worse, and when the Harmaton winds come from the north, there will be dust everywhere. A good thing though, is that they will bring cooler air with them. I'll let you all know how "cold" it actually gets here. Ghanaians tell me it gets really cold, but my descriptions of frozen lakes and snow in the US are amazing to them.
I'm happy with the results of the Presidential election in the US, and Ghana will soon be having its own Presidential election, on December 7th. There is propganda all over the place for the major political parties, the NPP and the NDC. The situation is similar to what the US had: the incumbent president has served for two terms, totalling 8 years, and cannot run again. The two main parties have candidates that have been campaigning all over the country, and one of them will win the election. The challenge here is that Ghana is a very young democracy. There is a real danger of violence if a change of power doesn't go smoothly, or if the elections are not transparent, and foul play is alleged. The radio is constantly playing messages of peace and encouraging people not to cause violence or problems. It is quite different than in the US. We don't really consider the possibility that the Republicans won't give up the White House in January, they will because that's how the system works. Here, the system is young and not as established. The worry is that the incumbent party will not hand over power if they are not reelected. Everyone is pledging to be fair and transparent, including the incumbents, but it will be a real test of the system to see if Ghana can have peacefull elections this year, or if problems will erupt like they have recently in other African countries. The Peace Corps is taking no chances with us volunteers. We will all be together at the All Volunteer Conference during the week of the elections. We will be secure there, and if neccessary, they can wisk us away to safety if a crisis happens. I really hope everything goes well, it would be a shame to have to leave so soon after establishing myself here. I am growing to like this place a lot. All of you at home: don't worry about me. Follow the Ghana elections and hope for the best.
Churches. I'm not a particularly religious person and never really have been. I don't go to church in the States, but here I visit once in a while as part of the cultural experience. Ghana is very strongly christian, and in the north here, the is also a large muslim population. I've been to the large Catholic church in Sirigu a number of times, and the familiarity of the ritual is comforting, even though I'm not Catholic. Most of the service is in Gurune, but they translate some of the sermon for me when I come. Mostly I go because it is an important part of community involvement, and I want to interact with my community. Last Sunday, I went to a smaller church called "Assemblies of God." It was really fun because the first hour was all singing and dancing with drums. I love to dance, so I had a great time. Many of the church members are my students, and it was really neat to see them talking in front of the congregation and leading songs and prayers. Church is much more fun here than I've experienced in the US. It's also a lot longer. 3 hour services are not uncommon. Another cool thing is that when someone is singing or dancing, if you really enjoy the performace, you can go and stick a coin on their forehead. The money goes to the church and it shows how much you appreciate their effort. It also looks funny to see people with coins stuck to their foreheads. I'll continue to visit other churches in my community, and I want to go to a mosque as well. People here are very religious, and I'm learning to go along with that.
I hope everything well with all of you. Thanks to everyone who has sent me mail and packages. I really, really appreciate it.
Love,
-Toby
Things here in Ghana are just fine, thanks for asking. I'm getting into a groove with my teaching schedule, although I still feel I have a lot to learn about Ghanaian culture before I can say that I truely understand the rhythm of life here. I've been here for over 5 months, now. That's the longest period of time I have ever lived outside the US, longer than my study abroad experience in Ecuador. It seems like the time has simply flown by. In reality, I still am only beginning, 5 months out of 27 to go. wow.
I hear that the weather is getting colder in Wisconsin, some snow even? Here it is getting dryer and dryer. The plants are turning brown, trees are starting to lose their leaves. No exciting fall colors here. The harvest is mostly over it seems, and the fields of millet that normally surround everything have been cut down. The stalks get used for cooking fuel. It seems that suddenly a lot of buildings and things have appeared where they weren't before. Really I just couldn't see them. Now I can see for quite a way, and when all the grasses and plants are gone, and all the trees are bare, I will see for miles and miles... The land is mostly flat here, so it really opens up when everything is dead. It's getting dustier. Now, rather than setting, the sun just sinks into the red haze on the horizon. I'm told it will get much worse, and when the Harmaton winds come from the north, there will be dust everywhere. A good thing though, is that they will bring cooler air with them. I'll let you all know how "cold" it actually gets here. Ghanaians tell me it gets really cold, but my descriptions of frozen lakes and snow in the US are amazing to them.
I'm happy with the results of the Presidential election in the US, and Ghana will soon be having its own Presidential election, on December 7th. There is propganda all over the place for the major political parties, the NPP and the NDC. The situation is similar to what the US had: the incumbent president has served for two terms, totalling 8 years, and cannot run again. The two main parties have candidates that have been campaigning all over the country, and one of them will win the election. The challenge here is that Ghana is a very young democracy. There is a real danger of violence if a change of power doesn't go smoothly, or if the elections are not transparent, and foul play is alleged. The radio is constantly playing messages of peace and encouraging people not to cause violence or problems. It is quite different than in the US. We don't really consider the possibility that the Republicans won't give up the White House in January, they will because that's how the system works. Here, the system is young and not as established. The worry is that the incumbent party will not hand over power if they are not reelected. Everyone is pledging to be fair and transparent, including the incumbents, but it will be a real test of the system to see if Ghana can have peacefull elections this year, or if problems will erupt like they have recently in other African countries. The Peace Corps is taking no chances with us volunteers. We will all be together at the All Volunteer Conference during the week of the elections. We will be secure there, and if neccessary, they can wisk us away to safety if a crisis happens. I really hope everything goes well, it would be a shame to have to leave so soon after establishing myself here. I am growing to like this place a lot. All of you at home: don't worry about me. Follow the Ghana elections and hope for the best.
Churches. I'm not a particularly religious person and never really have been. I don't go to church in the States, but here I visit once in a while as part of the cultural experience. Ghana is very strongly christian, and in the north here, the is also a large muslim population. I've been to the large Catholic church in Sirigu a number of times, and the familiarity of the ritual is comforting, even though I'm not Catholic. Most of the service is in Gurune, but they translate some of the sermon for me when I come. Mostly I go because it is an important part of community involvement, and I want to interact with my community. Last Sunday, I went to a smaller church called "Assemblies of God." It was really fun because the first hour was all singing and dancing with drums. I love to dance, so I had a great time. Many of the church members are my students, and it was really neat to see them talking in front of the congregation and leading songs and prayers. Church is much more fun here than I've experienced in the US. It's also a lot longer. 3 hour services are not uncommon. Another cool thing is that when someone is singing or dancing, if you really enjoy the performace, you can go and stick a coin on their forehead. The money goes to the church and it shows how much you appreciate their effort. It also looks funny to see people with coins stuck to their foreheads. I'll continue to visit other churches in my community, and I want to go to a mosque as well. People here are very religious, and I'm learning to go along with that.
I hope everything well with all of you. Thanks to everyone who has sent me mail and packages. I really, really appreciate it.
Love,
-Toby
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Seasons
It is starting to get drier here. It hasn't rained in about 3 or 4 weeks, and the locals say that we might get one more good storm before the real dry season happens. Already the grasses and fields of millet are looking brown and some have been cut and harvested. the stalks get used for cooking fuel or animal fodder. When everything is really dry, all the plant life dies and you can see far far far. I'll take some pictures. The change is coming surprisingly fast, and I'm excited about it mostly, except for the whole dryness thing. My nose feels funny in the low humidity, and my heels are dry, but I'm taking care of myself, so I'll be fine. I'm told that the borehole nearest my house dries up in the driest dry season, so that is not so good. I'll survive, I have students do fetch water for me!
I am working with a teacher in Wisconsin and we are doing a pen-pal letter writing project to connect her students to mine in Ghana. I sent the first package of letters from my students today, so they will be arriving in WI in a few weeks, i guess. It will be exciting when we get the responses. My students where happy to write to their "American friends."
I bought a guitar today. I don't know how to play it. Yet. I'm going to teach myself, so if you, my friends and family, have any songs you would like me learn and play for you, let me know. Send me tabs, i guess.
I stepped on a 3 inch scorpion with my bare foot the other night, it was outside my bathroom. Surprisingly, it didn't sting me, just crawled along the wall. My housemate, Robert, was pretty scared of it, and he wanted to kill it, but I wouldn't let him. I examined it for a while and then let it outside. It will be much happier there. It had really cool long claws like tiny hemostats and a big curled barbed tail. cool, cool.
Love to you all,
-Toby
I am working with a teacher in Wisconsin and we are doing a pen-pal letter writing project to connect her students to mine in Ghana. I sent the first package of letters from my students today, so they will be arriving in WI in a few weeks, i guess. It will be exciting when we get the responses. My students where happy to write to their "American friends."
I bought a guitar today. I don't know how to play it. Yet. I'm going to teach myself, so if you, my friends and family, have any songs you would like me learn and play for you, let me know. Send me tabs, i guess.
I stepped on a 3 inch scorpion with my bare foot the other night, it was outside my bathroom. Surprisingly, it didn't sting me, just crawled along the wall. My housemate, Robert, was pretty scared of it, and he wanted to kill it, but I wouldn't let him. I examined it for a while and then let it outside. It will be much happier there. It had really cool long claws like tiny hemostats and a big curled barbed tail. cool, cool.
Love to you all,
-Toby
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Life goes on
I'm still living in Ghana and I'm still teaching science in the middle of no where. I'm doing well, keeping busy mostly and still adjusting to a culture that is very different my own. I posted a bunch of pictures on facebook here.
A story: One night, i was up late reading or preparing my lessons by candlelight when I heard a big commotion, barking, whining, puppy crying. When it didn't stop right away, I rushed outside to find out what was going on. Kraman Baa sleeps out on the porch and it sounded like she was being attacked or something. I struggled with the door longer than I should have, it was locked, duh. When i finally got outside, I found three of the watchmen from the school standing over the body of a dead dog...(dramatic storytelling, huh?).
The dog wasn't my puppy, she was hiding in the corner crying piteously and appeared to be wet. I comforted my dog and was able to make her stop crying. She was very scared, but fortunately she did not appear to be injured. She had peed on herself, she was so scared. Poor thing! The intruder dog must have come in the night and attacked Kraman Baa and scared her, waking up the watchmen. These guys are just local farmers, but they didn't hesitate. They carry wooden clubs and they literally beat the dog to death in front of my house. When I got there the strange dog was already looking very dead, but the men were giving it the occasional whack in the head just in case. They were very excited, but concerned for Kraman Baa, saying that the strange dog was sick and that she needed to get medicine. I explained with relief that Kraman Baa had gotten her rabies vaccine and everything should be fine.
The watchmen were also excited because it meant that they were going to have a party the next night. They dragged the dead dog away from my door aways, gutted it, and hung it in a tree in my front yard. There it stayed all the next day until the evening when they butchered it and cooked it in a really big pot over charcoal outside. Eating dog here is actually pretty common. People even buy dogs at the market to have a party and eat it. It also didn't seem to bother these guys that they didn't know whose dog it was. I don't know if the dog really had rabies or not, but it didn't matter to them. Kraman Baa seems to be fine, now.
Eating dog, or cat for that matter, sounds strange and horrible to us, but it's only our culture that says there is some difference between a dog and a cow, pig, or chicken. People here don't treat their dogs and cats like we do in the States. Dogs are animals, not part of the family. And it's hard to get too worked up about animal rights or excessive cruelty to animals when there are people here who are so poor they can't always eat. It's just the way things go in Ghana I guess. Life goes on.
A story: One night, i was up late reading or preparing my lessons by candlelight when I heard a big commotion, barking, whining, puppy crying. When it didn't stop right away, I rushed outside to find out what was going on. Kraman Baa sleeps out on the porch and it sounded like she was being attacked or something. I struggled with the door longer than I should have, it was locked, duh. When i finally got outside, I found three of the watchmen from the school standing over the body of a dead dog...(dramatic storytelling, huh?).
The dog wasn't my puppy, she was hiding in the corner crying piteously and appeared to be wet. I comforted my dog and was able to make her stop crying. She was very scared, but fortunately she did not appear to be injured. She had peed on herself, she was so scared. Poor thing! The intruder dog must have come in the night and attacked Kraman Baa and scared her, waking up the watchmen. These guys are just local farmers, but they didn't hesitate. They carry wooden clubs and they literally beat the dog to death in front of my house. When I got there the strange dog was already looking very dead, but the men were giving it the occasional whack in the head just in case. They were very excited, but concerned for Kraman Baa, saying that the strange dog was sick and that she needed to get medicine. I explained with relief that Kraman Baa had gotten her rabies vaccine and everything should be fine.
The watchmen were also excited because it meant that they were going to have a party the next night. They dragged the dead dog away from my door aways, gutted it, and hung it in a tree in my front yard. There it stayed all the next day until the evening when they butchered it and cooked it in a really big pot over charcoal outside. Eating dog here is actually pretty common. People even buy dogs at the market to have a party and eat it. It also didn't seem to bother these guys that they didn't know whose dog it was. I don't know if the dog really had rabies or not, but it didn't matter to them. Kraman Baa seems to be fine, now.
Eating dog, or cat for that matter, sounds strange and horrible to us, but it's only our culture that says there is some difference between a dog and a cow, pig, or chicken. People here don't treat their dogs and cats like we do in the States. Dogs are animals, not part of the family. And it's hard to get too worked up about animal rights or excessive cruelty to animals when there are people here who are so poor they can't always eat. It's just the way things go in Ghana I guess. Life goes on.
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