Malaria, Accra and malaria

Charlotte doesn't feel well enough to go out of the house on Monday, but on Tuesday we get her to hospital. One again our neighbour George comes to the rescue and takes us in.(For the record, the first picture is the drain that George's car fell into on the scorpion sting night, 22nd April).

The (Cuban) doctor rapidly diagnoses malaria, even though the blood test doesn't show anything. Charlotte's prescriptions are shown here, with the pills out of the bag being the ones she had to take straight away.

I am due to go to Accra on the 4pm bus on Tuesday, and Charlotte insists I should go because she has company and care from Andrea and Fati. So it's a 4 am arrival at the Sun Lodge where our in-Country Training took place in September. Below you can see Aidan's response when Terry had said "hands up who wants to volunteer for..."

Actually everyone volunteers for something. This is a meeting for those who want to tailor the organisational development tool/process further  (re-branded as Guided Self-Assessment Process) and/or take on, part-time the role I've been fulfilling of OD support. Present at the meeting are Aidan, Emily and Michael Pitt from Disability/Inclusion; Krista and Olke from Secure Livelihoods; Jemimah for Participation and Governance; and Michael Rubindayo and myself from Education. Michael R has experience from VSO Cameroon.  Plus of course Terry who is co-ordinating.

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Conclusions from the meeting are reviewed later that afternoon and evening. This is also a chance to meet up with newly-arrived volunteers, including Dorien who will be Management Support Officer in Wa, so I fix to visit Wa in a visit to Upper West I'm planning in two weeks time.

I can't get a lunchtime bus the next day, but a great discovery is the OA VIP bus which has wider seats that recline more, for only 30 cedis (£15) rather than 24 cedis. Above is "Circle" (Nkrumah Circle,i.e. roundabout) in Accra. Next photo shows the view in Tamale at 5am - the world will end 21st May 2011, you heard it here first.

The bus arrives Walewale at 7am, which suits me much better than the typical 3 am arrival.

Charlotte is still not well, and I manage to fix transport to Tamale to the VSO-linked hospital there, Kabsad, and we both go expecting to stay. (The picture shows cattle crossing the main road North through Ghana). At Kabsad the test shows malaria parasites present, and some residual typhoid, so the little blighters have survived the first wave of drugs, which Charlotte has completed. So it's a new wave of prescriptions, but back to Walewale to recover.

An (extra) ordinary Monday morning at the office

Charlotte is unwell and has had a sleepless night, and I go in instead of her for the regular Monday morning meeting at the West Mamprusi District Education Office;  I have a couple of messages and notices from Charlotte e.g. she has been working with the GES  (Ghana Education Service) staff for some time on resurrecting the District Teacher Support Team, and there is a meeting on Wednesday people may need reminding about.

The Monday morning routine is very different from 6 months ago.

Then people would drift in, solemnly record 7.59 a.m. as their arrival time irrespective of the actual time, buy breakfast or other stuff from some of the traders who plied their wares in the office, and chat about the weekend.
Now people are in place for the morning meeting before it starts, and it starts early. After a prayer and a short moral message, the Assistant Director Finance, John,  who is chairing the meeting announces we are looking at the core values one by one. (The Director is in Accra). Last week it was Professionalism. This week it is Sharing Knowledge.
He gives some examples, and others do too. This gives me a great opportunity to fulfil one of my instructions and plug the School Management Committee / Parent Teacher Association Training Manual developed by VSO, and I refer to the SMC/PTA  trip by Charlotte, Robert, Ramatu and others to "Overseas" (see http://www.charlotteinghana.blogspot.com for late March). I'm able to plug the manual as an example of sharing knowledge across organisations. (I have copies for people if they'll pay for them to cover the photocopying costs).
Here are a few examples of other points covered. A.B.Mahama (Head-Teacher Adviser) gives a good briefing about the District Teacher Support Team meeting. (I was primed to remind people about this, but it's all in hand without my reminder, which is great). He explains there are still problems reconciling which school is in which cluster, but the group has worked on this and outstanding questions are with AD/Sup (Assistant Director, Supervision). A funding proposal has been submitted to TENI (this is what I was helping Charlotte with on April 22nd - the night of the scorpion sting). Next meeting will look at how the revitalised DTST will be re-launched with Head-Teachers - this is important and the DTST will co-ordinate all in-service training. Sirina, the Pre-School Development Adviser  explains some ideas from a teacher-training workshop she has been to about key development areas for kindergarten children. There is talk about sharing ideas with teachers more, and strong encouragement for "cluster-based in-service training" - i.e. take the training to the teachers in their own "clusters" of schools. Charles Sumani the Basics Schools Co-ordinator raises questions about teachers not at school which generates some useful discussion for Circuit Supervisors. There is an encouragement to Schedule Officers not to "entertain" teachers in the morning in the office when the teachers should be teaching - if teachers have problems and need to come into the office they should do this in the afternoon after classes. Someone observes that the Schedule Officers need to be in the office promptly in the afternoon in that case - recognised by the Chair as a very good point.
So the culture of this GES (Ghana Education Service) as a whole still has some way to go, sure. But this meeting sets a great tone for the week. It's purposeful, open, interactive, no-messing (someone starts to have a mobile phone conversation in the meeting and is summarily sent out - that's a change!), and has some real problem-solving going on. It is taking the values and making them real - I'm pleased about this, I'd suggested this to the Director and he's taken it up. And this purposeful meeting has become part of the new routine - and it happens like clockwork even though the Director isn't here. There is some way to go, but the impact of the Organisational Development is already very evident.
This is (now) an ordinary Monday morning meeting, but it's extraordinary what a change we have seen in 6 months.

These aren't the greatest pictures because I was trying to be unobtrusive taking them, but hopefully they illustrate the meeting. The Values statement with everyone's signatures is behind AD (Finance) - John -  the Meeting Chair. (The Director has now had the values added to the Office's letterhead).

But just as a reminder of the challenges the District is facing, here's another school with the roof blown off in the recent storms (see April 22nd and 30th entries).

By the end of the day Charlotte is feeling a little better, though not eating yet ...

Visit to the Kukoa at Gambaga

We make a last-minute decision that this weekend we will visit the Kukoa ("witches' camp") at Gambaga. This is mentioned in the Ghana Bradt guide, and you can read more about it by Googling "Kukoa Gambaga". Also Canadian Maggie, who came to see us February 20th, wrote a great article in "The Advocate" in April after a visit to another kukoa out past Bimbilla (website for "The Advocate" - the development newspaper that Mar and Mark work on - is http://rumnet.wordpress.com and Ghana phone 0244-218898).

A quick summary is that women are sent to the kukoa after being used of witchcraft on a very arbitrary basis, e.g. illness or death of a child in the family. They are sent there for life. This 'imprisonment' has been challenged on humanitarian grounds, but when many of the women were 'freed' they refused to leave, as this has become their home.

We often meet new people on tro-tros. This time it's Agnes, from Norway, working in an orphanage in Nalerigu. We head east on a packed tro, but after Langbinsi there is more room. Charlotte was sitting beside what you would call a window if there was any glass in it. It gets dusty and she swaps with Fati. The part of the roof that's dangling is a little obtrusive. The seat in front of me tips forward rather readily, because although the seat is welded to the vehicle floor, that section of floor has broken off. 

The party is (left to right) Charlotte, Jacob, Mandina (who is Mashood's friend), Fati and Mashood. We're given a bench in the shade while waiting to see the chief. The kukoa is not separate from Gambaga as I had thought, but is right next to the rest of the town. Children as usual are delighted to see us.

We meet and pay the chief. Apparently the traditional gift of cola nuts is not really wanted any more, and hard cash is preferred. We compromise with 5 cedis in a handkerchief. This is supposed to benefit the women. However we give some more when we meet the women leaders of the "witches". They are very friendly and apparently happy people. I explain that we respect old people and recognise their wisdom - the women reply that they are happy to be alive. The stripy green shirt (see photo) is "South Africa 2010" so I  mime a little Ghana vs England football which is much appreciated.

Our "tour" seems to end rather rapidly, so I ask about the cultivated front gardens that I have read about. We don't see these, but we do get more of a walk around the kukoa. The place seems very well organised, a working community. The yellow nuts are dawa dawa nuts - spread out on the ground to dry. Firewood is neatly stacked. The whole area is tidy and clean - more so than most communities that we have seen in Ghana.  

As we head back we see a blacksmith making ploughshares and a goat being skinned.

Lunch in Nalerigu is fufu or rice balls, made and eaten under a tree by the side of the road. I opt for 3 rice balls (10 pesewas each) and 2 pieces of meat (20 pesewas each), total 70 pesewas (or about 30 pence in UK currency). The meat is guinea-fowl - there is a cage of more guinea-fowl awaiting their turn.

There is time for a look around the main square in Nalerigu and a drink in a local 'spot' (bar).

Then we find another decrepit tro-tro for the bone-shaking journey back to Walewale. Some local children are fascinated to talk to us "Sulaminga how are you" while we wait for the tro to fill.

Back in Walewale, look at the picture of the school (behind Charlotte in the photo, to the right of Mashood's Community Information Centre). The roof blow off in the storms of 22nd April (see blog entries April 22 and 30). Nothing has been done to fix it yet. The children will come back to school this week. The last time this classroom featured in this blog was December 16th when we taught each other a song in this room. We think that the children will be taught in the classrooms without a roof but be sent home when it rains - however they will have no protection from the sun

The view of the sky as we headed home.

TENI Launch

National launch of TENI project (Tackling Education Needs Inclusively)
and storms in Walewale as per the 22nd April blog entry - see Mashood's great write-up at
http://www.cic-walewale.blogspot.com/
(We take a little credit for this - Charlotte proof-read the story, and Mashood made some of the changes she proposed; I taught Mashood how to blogspot back in October in a candle-lit session as the power was off).

Ouaga - do go!

Well, after Charlotte's semi-sleepless night enlivened by Facebooking including a long chat with my nephew in Japan, Charlotte feels sufficiently recovered that we could after all conclude our holiday with  a long weekend in Ouagadougou with Mar and Mark. Above are 2 of the 4 back-seat passengers (including a new friend, Antea, of Mar & Mark's) heading for Ouaga.
On Saturday we see masks and other artifacts at the Museum.

Quite a good shot of all three I would say.

Then in the evening to the Ouaga jazz festival.

Before we go in I tell the story of arriving late at Romeo and Juliet and fining the front row of seats free. We go in to the concert and history repeats itself

This is the absolutely delightful Toumani Diabate from Mali, the "Jimi Hendrix of the Kora". World-famous, grammy-winning, and gives us a splendid masterclass in his 24-stringed kora.

The audience join  in - some on stage, some just from their seats.

This guy reminds me of my brother-in-law. I have eight brothers-in-law- none of them will think it's them. Afterwards we go for a drink with Mar & Mark's Belgian friend living in Ouaga. Later I ask "Why is he called Radar?" (remembering the TV series MASH, for the over-50s) but he is actually called Reda - because that's his name, and by now you should be able to work out how to pronounce it.

Now perhaps the boys should be more sporting, and desist from playing a 7-letter word first turn, but I have to tell you that we don't resist that temptation. 

Gondwana restaurant. Recommended. Quite appropriate, since Gondwana is apparently the now-severed Africa-Australia super-continent.

Heading home. Coming North the taxi driver filled up in one go, but going South there are 3 stops to put about 6 beer-bottles  of fuel in (or siphon a similar amount, sucking it from a big pitcher) each time. We have had a guess why - what's your theory - answers by blog comment only.