July 8

Today while the other attendees of the Ghana Studies Association Conference were going on tours, I had the pleasure of visiting Ebubonko Basic School.

Madam Felestina, the Headmistress, was so kind to pick me up, and the students who had been writing were well prepared with intelligent questions.  We had an interesting discussion comparing Ghanaian and American schools.  The students immediately pointed out that the U.S. was more developed than Ghana.  But they also noticed some Ghana strengths, from better handwriting to knowing a greater range of languages to close friendships.

So often the differences between the West and Africa are defined by who has the tallest buildings and the largest military budget.  We hope that the letter writing gets at less obvious but very important social and cultural features of life in which Ghana shines.

The students then presented me with place mats that they had woven, which was a wonderful and generous surprise.  Mr. Wisdom has been a very active coordinator for the school, assisted by Madam Lucy.

It was also exciting to see what the school had been doing with its computer laboratory.  Yo Ghana! had provided two laptops a year ago, which the school had augmented with ten additional ones from other sources, as well as providing internet access.  This year we provided some of the materials for strong tables and benches for the room, and the school provided the rest of the materials as well as the labor in putting them together.  Now the school is working on additional improvements to make the building cooler and more secure before adding additional computers.  It is this sort of steady, community initiated improvement that Yo Ghana! loves to collaborate with.