Yo Ghana: Last Year and Next

Yo Ghana! in 2014 and 2015: Exchanges for Transformation

2014 has been an inspiring year for us. We are now working with 16 schools in Ghana and 18 in the U.S., from second graders through graduate students. Fellow board member Brando Akoto and I spent September visiting the Ghana schools. Since school started in the fall we have facilitated the exchange of more than 2,300 letters. We added two new board members: Dr. Eric Ananga, a Lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba, and Harriette Jackson-Vimegnon, the Assistant Principal of Beaumont Middle School in Northeast Portland. Both are passionate about education and opportunity for our children. Thanks to the efforts of co-founder Elizabeth Fosler-Jones, the FRANK Creative Group donated to us a state-of-the-art website: http://yoghana.org.

Most important of all, we have a better sense of our mission. At a summer board retreat we arrived at the term “transformative exchanges” to describe what we do best. I am repeatedly struck while visiting schools in both Ghana and Oregon at how vulnerable our students are. Those in Ghana often feel or believe that their schools and lives are “less than” those in the U.S. We tell them that their new friends need them not just to learn what Ghana and Africa are really like, but also for inspiration and encouragement. Many of our Oregon classrooms are populated by a lot of students who are struggling with school and life.  We tell them that their friends in Ghana need to learn that not everyone in America lives in a mansion, that their lives in fact are much more similar than they might have thought, and that simply receiving a thoughtful and warm letter from a student in the U.S. is an act of respect in a world of staggering inequalities of status as well as wealth.

In fact part of what Brando and I learned in Ghana is that relationships are more important than financial support. Again and again we found that our Ghanaian hosts insisted on giving us the best accommodations and meals that they could while expecting little in return—except our friendship. Don’t get me wrong, all of the schools we work with have acute needs. But we learned that the best way to meet those needs is slowly, through partnerships in which local schools and communities lead. Our goal is not to send over a wad of cash to plunk down a new computer lab and then move on, but rather to augment and stimulate local initiatives, including ones in which students in both places collaborate to serve students less fortunate than themselves. We are in it for the long haul.

That said, we can make good use of monies donated to us.  Projects for 2015 include helping schools to: create a plan for how to pay its teachers while serving many students from impoverished homes; finish classrooms so that kindergarten students are taught in groups of 50 rather than 90; make books available for students to use during and after school; expand student access to computers and other technologies.

Our plans for the coming year also include establishing and measuring desired outcomes for the letter writing in both sets of schools, to further refine what exactly we are trying to do and how well we are doing it, a task made easier by the fact that our board already features academics who do that sort of research. We will also be having a dinner in the Spring to celebrate the dedication of our teachers in Oregon and to raise a bit of money for our projects in Ghana.

More important than money or expertise or research, though, are deepening the roughly 1,000 friendships that we’ve helped to get started.  We are an all-volunteer organization in which relationships, not money, are the driving force. The teachers and administrators in Oregon and Ghana get nothing tangible from Yo Ghana! except for maybe a shirt and certainly a whole lot more work. Mr. Nantogma has worked so feverishly at organizing more than 100 writers at his senior high school that the staff and students now call him “Mr. Yo Ghana!”  Ms. Julia in North Portland is routinely at work several hours after her students leave school, but she somehow makes time for Yo Ghana!  Mr. Brew in Sampa not only insisted on feeding us three times a day and taking us to the town’s chief, he painted our logo on the side of his school.  When we return to Ghana we’ll be paying our own way to fly there and to get around—but also relying again on the hospitality of friends.

And that, I think, speaks to our ultimate goal, that twenty years from now the paint may have faded from the side of Mr. Brew’s school, but that the friendships it signifies will endure and spread, that a generation of people in Ghana and the Pacific Northwest will have grown up thinking of each other as cherished friends rather than exotic or mysterious strangers, that thousands of students and hundreds of teachers will have learned not just about each other, but to care for each other.

I’ll close with the words of a student at a school in Northern Ghana that is mostly Muslim: “If we choose to, we can make the world a smaller place.”

Let’s do that.

David Peterson del Mar,  Yo Ghana President and Gofer

delmard@pdx.edu    http://yoghana.org

Christians and X-Mas

I've recently been reading Philip Yancey, who could perhaps be best described as an Evangelical Christian who irritates a lot of Evangelical Christians.  Yancey argues that Christians' primary responsibility is to manifest God's love rather than trying to force their moral code on unbelievers.  He in fact suggests that Christianity does best in situations in which professing Christians are not in control of the government or culture.

I believe that this sheds some light on why Christians' determination to turn "X-Mas" back into "Christmas" are misguided.  Every December Christians often come across as "Pharisees and hypocrites," self-righteous and legalistic bullies who hector and lecture defenseless check-out clerks who wish them "Happy Holidays."  The rest of the year many of us focus on denouncing abortion and same-sex relationships--two issues which (conveniently) don't much affect the straight men who run most Christian organizations.  What if we instead focused on the much more difficult task Yancey speaks of, the endless and exhilarating work of seeking to reflect and embody God's love to a broken world?

Our Debt to Our Ancestors

I'm at the Oregon Coast for a few days to rest and recharge. After spending September in Ghana, I returned to my teaching duties about 12 hours later, and it's been a wild 11 weeks.

While riding the bus to Tillamook I passed near where my maternal grandmother spent her early years. She dropped out of school after fourth grade because her parents couldn't afford the books for fifth grade. Plus, like many impoverished African parents today, they needed her to go out and earn money. While working as a domestic servant in a house in Netarts she met a young man who grew up on the land shown in the photograph, above. His parents rented the poor farmland, and his father, too, had a drinking and an income problem that drove him out of school at a young age. So they fell in love, got married, and worked and worked and worked to give their children (and therefore their grandchildren, like me, and all those who came after) a better life than what they had.

In Ghana I meet a lot of people who probably would have gotten along well with my grandparents, students and adults who are very earnest and serious and hard working, who are fighting steep odds to create a better life not just for themselves, but for the generations who come after--and their neighbors and their nation. Of course there's always the danger that those who come later, with much easier lives, take the prosperity that they won for us lightly. Easy come, easy go.

That would be a travesty. A very small proportion of the world enjoys the sort of choices and advantages that my grandparents passed along to me. Most or even all of the people reading this are probably in the same boat. So, then, the question becomes: what are we going to do with those choices and advantages?

Some 80 years after my grandmother's death, I am grateful to her. Will anyone be grateful to me, to us, 80 years after we are gone? Will we give them a reason to remember us, and to remember us with gratitude?

Why I Love Teaching at PSU

This photograph of Portland State University always makes me chuckle, as it is so generic, could describe most any small-town college campus.

My PSU is much grittier than this.  I have a little office in Cramer Hall, which looks like it was designed to survive a nuclear attack.  Let's just say it's short on charm.  The ground floor of our Student Union does not exude luxury.  We still have a lot of wooden desks that are bolted to the floor.  When I am teaching 3.5 hour classes, I am always thankful to be standing up rather than sitting down in such classrooms.

A very small percentage of the students live on campus.  Most of them seem to be always coming or going, not just hanging out.  They are coming to and from work, or rushing home to pick up their kids from daycare, maybe caring for an elderly parent.

It's the students who make PSU beautiful.

For starters, they are truly diverse.  Even a small class is apt to have students from several different countries.  Unlike certain colleges which will remain unnamed, PSU is not dominated by white students from privileged backgrounds who are trying to outdo each other in being more radical and sensitive than thou--not that there's anything wrong with that.  Rather, at PSU you find thoughtful students who are Mormons, Muslims, radical feminists, evangelical Christians, evangelical atheists, Socialists and Libertarians and everyone in between, and, of course, the guy who believes that hemp is the solution to every problem.  They usually listen to and respect each other.

And there are so many amazing stories, from the young woman who was a pregnant gang member at fifteen and is now headed off to law school to the guy who dropped out of high school and almost drank himself to death for years and is now getting an education to help others avoid those choices to the innumerable mothers and fathers who are somehow going to school and working one or two or three jobs and raising children and volunteering in their communities and turning in amazing papers and thank you at the end of the term.

Thank you for the inspiration.

Sankofa at Ashesi

Since returning from Ghana at the end of September, I've been working on a chapter for a book on educational achievement in Sub-Saharan Africa.  My chapter, if all goes as planned and hoped, will be on how Ashesi University incorporates African as well as Western motifs.  The Akan Sankofa bird, pictured here, turns back to the past to pick up selected traditions to use in the present.  I argue that Ashesi does the same thing, that although it uses elements from the liberal arts tradition of the U.S. that its founder, Dr. Patrick Awuah, picked up at Swarthmore College, it also embodies African ideas about social and religious commitments--though it is a secular institution, I should add.

Doing the research for this piece was a lot of fun, as it mostly entailed interviewing students and faculty at Ashesi, and they are an exceptional group of people who share a strong sense of mission, a commitment to transforming Africa through raising a new generation of innovative and ethical leaders.  I think my favorite quotation on what education is for comes from a young student who, like a lot of Ashesi students, spends much of her free time helping impoverished Ghanaians: "you have to give back, you have to give back, you have to give back."

At a time when so much of college life in the U.S. has devolved into narrow specializations and the cultivation of what Swarthmore's James Kurth terms "the imperial self," this sort of earnestness is refreshing and inspiring.

Big Moment In Peter's Life

Saturday was a big day in our young son's life, as he played right back the entire game in Central Catholic's 3-0 win in the state championship game and,  as you can see, was first into the stands after the game.

Peter started playing soccer year round in second grade, ten years ago.  So it's been a decade of 6:00 a.m. indoor soccer games and wet, late-night practices.  I think what he's most enjoyed about soccer is his teammates.  Whenever a choice came along as to which team to play on, he always chose to play where most of his buddies were, and I've always appreciated what a good leader he was on the field in terms of encouraging teammates or breaking up fights before they got started or endeavoring to enlighten referees who had wronged a teammate--at least in his view.

He's also not been afraid to fail.  He'll jump in to take a penalty kick, volunteer to play keeper or center back despite having no experience, and keep playing hard even when a game seems out of reach--all good life lessons for his overly cautious father.


One of Peter's other strengths is that he knows how to have fun.  As Coach Sean put it many years ago: "he has the biggest smile when we win and the biggest frown when we lose."  Saturday it was time to smile, and no one had a bigger one.


Peter's a senior, nearing the end of a transition from a life of play to one of work.  Saturday provided a wonderful exclamation point and will be a benchmark that he'll always look back to fondly.

We are so thankful to the many people who donated their time and patience to help him over the years, a long list that includes Coaches: Dave, Sean, Parke, Reggie, Erik, Mike, Adam, and Tim.

In Praise of Crazy Middle School Teachers

Mr. Essan Weah and I had the pleasure of spending today at Briggs Middle School in Springfield Oregon.  What a delightful place!

Essan taught for several years in Ghana before becoming the headmaster of Morle Junior High School, a Yo Ghana partner, and he has a wonderful rapport with students here in talking about what life is like in Ghana inside and outside of school.

Teaching in the U.S. is in some ways more difficult than teaching in Ghana.  There are, to be sure, lots of books and often computers, and many other learning aids. But our children are often scarred by modern life, and by middle school it is considered uncool, in most early adolescent circles, to express enthusiasm for learning.

How blessed we are, then, to have so many teachers like the ones at Briggs, people who both exude and command respect, who so manifestly care so deeply about the children we entrust to their care, teachers who when faced with the unworkable demands of the modern classroom say "yes" to additional challenges and opportunities.

Thank you.

Four Principles of Yo Ghana!

Yo Ghana! is always thinking about how to define its mission more precisely.  Here is the
most recent version:

Exchanges for Transformation

We believe that becoming friends with and learning from students across the globe transforms lives by breaking open new possibilities and opportunities.

Partnership

Schools in the U.S. are not above schools in Ghana.  Each set of schools has its own strengths and challenges.  We work together, as equal partners, to learn from and help each other.

Local Initiative

Yo Ghana! does not simply give money away, and we don’t want any buildings named after us.  But if your school has started a project—from a library or computer lab to visiting your partner school—we would be honored to help.

                         

Service

We believe that everyone is in a position to help someone.  Yo Ghana! students encourage and educate each other.  Yo Ghana! projects offer people on both sides of the world an opportunity to improve the lives of others.

Secularization, Education, and Drift

I've been reading and thinking about secularization lately as part of my research on Ashesi University and its blending of Western and African motifs.

In Ghana schools, as in the rest of life, religion is a deeply ingrained part of the routine.  Religious and Moral Training is part of the state curriculum.  The photograph here is of students and staff worshiping as part of the school day.   Religious beliefs are diverse.  Christians are in the majority in most parts of the country, but there are also many Muslims as well as followers of Traditional beliefs and practices.  But a belief in God is widely shared.

Americans of course no longer share that assumption.  In fact at most universities it's safe to say that professing strong religious beliefs will lead, at best, to people regarding you as quaint.

The shift toward secularism has been going on for a long time in American universities, but for the first two thirds or so of the twentieth century the ethos of most campuses--like the culture as a whole--was still strongly informed by Protestantism, broadly defined.  So when professors or administrators talked about serving the public interest, there was a general understanding of what that entailed. In the past several decades academic and mainstream culture have been dominated by an emphasis on what is commonly referred to as expressive or radical individualism, or what some critics have described as a shift from a focus on one's social responsibilities to a focus on one's personal rights.

This expressive individualism has led us to become more sensitive than before to injustice.  But since the alpha and omega of life is the pursuit of individual rather than collective happiness, universities have become much better at deconstruction than reconstruction; we excel at identifying oppression but struggle at advancing positive alternatives, in part because to do so would be to impose, we assume, constructed and arbitrary beliefs on radically free individuals.  The result, as Columbia University cultural historian (who identifies himself as a secular Jew) Andrew Delbanco puts it, is a sense of "drift."

His solution, (advanced in College; What it Was, Is, and Should Be)  is to recapture the sense of mission that U.S. colleges once articulated: "to serve others is to serve oneself by providing a sense of purpose, thereby countering the loneliness and aimlessness by which all people, young and old, can be afflicted."

As Portland State's motto is "To Serve the City," I think we have an excellent foundation from which to build a sense of shared purpose.

What Do You Do When There Is Too Much To Do?

One of my pet theories is that the great majority of people who live comfortable lives in the U.S. try to arrange our lives so that we can remain more or less ignorant of human suffering.

Father Mawusi, shown in the photo to the right, does not enjoy that luxury, as he lives in a place, Kpandai, where the needs of his parishioners and the rest of the populace are staggering.  Brando and I sat one night over dinner with him and listened to a litany of classrooms without teachers, families without money, women in labor having to travel over a deeply rutted road for thirty miles on the back of a motorcycle or even a bicycle to the nearest health center.  "And it's getting worse," he concluded, cradling his head in his hands.

But after a pause he looked up, smiled and said "we are grateful to God" to be able to serve and make some differences.  The next day he and Father Richard toured Brando and I around St. Kizito Basic School, where we saw part of that labor, teachers and students hard at work, such as the junior high school class Brando spoke with, to the left.  There are many success stories, students who graduate and go on to the neighboring high school and beyond, parents and teachers who make great sacrifices so that their children and students can have better lives.

Brando and I were particularly struck by the four kindergarten classrooms, which accommodate over 300 students.  Currently there are three teachers, including one volunteer.  Father Mawusi is optimistic that they will soon find another.  In the larger scheme of things, it's one small need among hundreds or thousands.

Accomplishing a Lot with a Little

It is easy to pick on Ghana's education system. Teachers lack the sort of resources that their counterparts in more prosperous parts of the world enjoy, which is one of the reasons why Ghana teachers often rely on a system known as "chalk and talk" or "chew and spew" that emphasizes memorization.

But reading through the several hundred letters from Ghana students have recently contributed to their Yo Ghana! partners reminded me that in some respects the current system is very effective.  The great majority of letters are well written.  This is true in the literal sense (the letters are very legible) and of the prose more broadly, in terms of sentence construction and clarity of expression and clever turns of phrase. Students from Ghana who come to to college or university in the U.S. may at first struggle with assignments that require independent thinking rather than rote learning.  But most adjust quickly and then thrive.

This is all the more impressive when one considers that for the great majority of Ghana students, English is a second or even third language.  Indeed, even pre-teen students commonly remark that they can read or speak or write in two or three languages.

Clearly, then, a thirst for learning and access to dedicated teachers counts for a great deal.

The Face of West Africa

If you travel to West Africa, you'll find many people like the girl here: friendly children full of laughter.

Such people are rare, though, in mainstream U.S. media's treatments of West Africa.  Here you'll find Muslim extremists, blood-crazed child soldiers, and, now, Ebola.  And why are Americans paying so much attention to Ebola, as opposed to diseases that kill far many Africans?  Well, in part because unlike malaria (or starvation), the disease may "break containment" and come to the U.S.  That was the message of the Hollywood movie "Outbreak" from the 1990s, that a mysterious, deadly disease could move from the steamy and sinister "Heart-of-Darkness" jungles of Africa to ravage innocent American communities.

Ebola is a very serious problem in parts of West Africa that requires our attention.  But its presence should not lead us back into tired stereotypes about the continent and its people.

Unsettling In

Brando and I have been back for about six days now.  After a month in Ghana, it's been hard to "settle in."  Part of that is jet lag.  But part of it is trying to wrap my head around the juxtaposition between life in Ghana and life in Portland--or, at least, my life in Portland.

Here's a photo of part of what I was missing while in Ghana--watching my son play soccer. Thursday night his defense helped vaunt Central Catholic High School to the top of the 6A standings with a tough 1-0 victory.  As it was for me back in the first half of the 1970s, sport is at the heart of Peter's high school experience.

But I had just spent a month around people who seemed to have much more pressing needs: university students trying to figure out a way to help schools be able to graduate sixth graders who were literate; technology teachers grappling with how to teach the subject without computers; school administrators trying to decide whether to turn desperate students and parents away or to fit still more children onto the floors of classrooms that were already crammed way beyond capacity.

My first impulse is to try to fix all of these problems.  And of course that is impossible.  So my second impulse is to try to forget them.

I think that at the heart of what Yo Ghana! means for its U.S. participants is how to live in a way that is poised between these two impulses, to struggle to figure out how to live in such a way that is honest both to what is beyond us and what is not.  I don't know what that means in practical terms, and I may never know.  But I am pretty sure that it begins with the realization that the cocoon of wealth and comfort in which many of us live is both highly exceptional and that it offers us the possibility, if we proceed thoughtfully and respectfully, to help others whose lives are much more difficult than they should be.

Days 9-10

On Tuesday morning we left the warm hospitality of Sampa and Mr. Brew and his staff.  They not only fed us, they also put our logo on the side of their exemplary school!

Not far out of town is Morle Junior High School, where we had the pleasure of meeting with Mr. Albert, our tireless liaison at the school, and the rest of the staff as well as very enthusiastic students.  Then it was a very long drive to Kumasi.

Wednesday morning dawned bright and early, and Mr. ["what a road!"] Anthony, our driver and now friend, got us to Awisa Presbyterian Junior High School about two minutes early, more than three hours later.  There Dr. Eric Ananga from the University of Education, Winneba, joined us for a rousing session with the entire student body, which packed itself into one classroom.  We also had a strong meeting with the staff.  This village school has been one of our strongest members for some time and, under the guidance of Mr. Moses, did an exemplary job on their grant application and report last academic year.  And they do a great job educating students from modest backgrounds.

On the way back to Accra we stopped off for an emotional meeting with the leadership of Purity Preparatory School, one of the first schools we began working with.  Proprietress Madam Constance and Headmistress Madam Stella, who volunteers her time, keep the school thriving against great odds

Thursday I rejoined our Accra taxi driver, Mr. Frank, who somehow manages to stay serene and generous no matter how bad the traffic gets, and we visited four schools before a last dinner with Dr. Williams, Yo Ghana! board member and self-appointed head of security and public relations at Chez Afrique, his wife's wonderful restaurant in East Legon.  Then Friday we were off to Mr. Brando's home village, Akalove.  More on that later--we are laying over in London after a very hectic Friday night at the Accra Airport, so we are a more than a little dazed and confused after trying to do far too much in four weeks, operating regularly on a couple of hours of sleep a night, surviving Northern Ghana's roads and Accra's traffic, all punctuated regularly by meetings with inspirational educators whose challenges make you want to weep and whose dedication can't help but make you have hope for Ghana education in particular and humanity in general.  Thank you.

Day 8

We had a busy day today. 

First was Nipaba Brew School, where students like the one pictured here surrendered a good part of their holiday to listen to us talk about Yo Ghana!  The school is particularly innovative in helping children to read at a very young age.

Then it was off to Nafana Presbyterian Senior High School, where a roomful of another group of students willing to come in on their day off awaited us.  Enthusiasm was high among staff and students at this school, too.

Then we wrapped up the day meeting the Chief and Elders of Morle, a village outside Sampa and the home of Morle Junior High School.  Some mentioned that they had not seen a white man up close before, but I think I did a good job of demonstrating that white men are nothing special.

Day 7: Linear Man Meets Ghana

As my students can attest to, I pride myself on being organized.  So throughout this trip I've been trying to lay out every day's schedule well ahead of time, and my good brother Brando has done his best to accommodate the plan.  But the days have seldom gone as expected.

Take yesterday, for example.  The original plan was to meet with the leaders of the three schools in the area that we work with on Saturday night or some time on Sunday, then visit the schools on Monday and Tuesday morning.  But Monday is a holiday (though it is not listed as such on any of the lists of holidays I had consulted before planning the trip), and two of the people I had hoped to speak to before Monday were  not available, and so forth.  So when Sunday dawned, our dance card was looking pretty sparse.  After three weeks of trying to fit too much into too little we had time on our hands--which, given our general state of exhaustion, was perhaps not a bad thing.  Resting is seldom part of my plan.

Anyway, part of the dynamic here is that Ghanaians have been promised so many things by visitors from the West--and so many problems can come up to interrupt a trip--that they don't take our stated plans very seriously.  Until, that is, one actually shows up.  So Sunday was punctuated by a series of visits from friends of friends, meals that we had neither asked for nor expected, and offers of help.

The one big event of the day--which I had not anticipated when planning the trip--was a visit with the Chief, but that kept getting moved back 15, 30, 60, 90 minutes as everyone assembled to greet us.  The meeting itself was conducted in Twi, so most all of it went over my head, but there was no mistaking the fact that the Chief and Elders were delighted by our visit and stated purpose, which Brando confirmed, and by the time the meeting was over doors that had before been slightly ajar were now opening quickly and Monday was going to be a full day, indeed. 

But there was more to Sunday.  The day ended with an extremely emotional and inspiring meeting with a man who has devoted his life to redeeming the pains of his own childhood.  I had no idea of and no plan for that.

Day 6

Today was a long drive from Tamale to Sampa, on the border of the Ivory Coast.  Soon after arriving we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Gilbert Brew, Headmaster of a remarkable school, Nipaba Brew Primary, that we'll be visiting on Monday, and his hospitality was outstanding.

Passing by dozens and dozens of schools as we have driven across much of Ghana has prompted Brando and I to think and talk a lot about what sort of Ghana schools Yo Ghana! gets involved with.  Here's a list:

1) A liaison or intermediary.  All of the schools we work with have at least one person who is comfortable in both the western and African worlds.  Mr. Dominic Fordwour, for example, was taught at one of Ghana's teaching colleges, was a head teacher at several schools and a supervisor of an educational district before moving to Oregon, and he has a very detailed knowledge of many Ghanaian schools.

2) Serve many children from (economically) poor families.  There is a very close relationship between income and educational access in Ghana as elsewhere, so we love working with schools that are trying to do something about that, even when it hurts their bottom line.

3) The schools are not waiting for someone like us to come along and solve their problems.  They are doing a lot with a little, so that Yo Ghana! can become a sort of junior partner in their efforts.
St. Kizito Basic School in Kpandai, shown above, hits all three points hard.  Dominic referred us to the school as one with outstanding leadership.  Shown above are the kindergarten buildings which house over 300 students.  Classroom size approaches 100, and some of the teachers are volunteers.  Yet the people who oversee the school  are relentless problem solvers, even knowing that the problems are most likely going to outnumber the solutions by a healthy margin.  A cynic would look at the situation and turn away.  A romantic would try to solve everything at once and soon burn out, or perhaps focus on one narrow problem among many.  The compassionate realists who are so common in Ghanaian schools do what they can on multiple and shifting fronts, an approach that takes a special sort of courage, and we are more than pleased to do our small part in encouraging and supplementing their efforts while offering them the opportunity to teach and learn from their counterparts in the U.S. through letter writing.

Day 5: Brando Magic

One of the best parts of this trip has been watching my friend, Mr. Brando Akoto, in action.  Brando is one of the kindest and most generous and perceptive persons I have ever met, and one of the most passionate, too.  He managed to make a living as a merchant in West Africa, an occupation that requires a great deal of mental dexterity, and then he worked for many years doing grass-roots development in Ghana before moving to the U.S.  The first time we met, we sat and talked for a couple of hours about education and development, and I immediately knew that he would be perfect on Yo Ghana's board.

When speaking with students, Brando shows them affection while commanding their attention and demanding their best.  He challenges them to work hard and dream big, laughs with them, inspires them, tells them that their schools and their communities are strong places, that the quality of their lives is measured not by their material possessions but by their character and their determination.  He insists that they respect themselves and carry themselves with dignity

even as they care for others.

The above photograph is from the Evangelical Church of Ghana school in Tamale, a place where very focused learning takes place, an institution with high standards and low tuition rates.  Then, in the afternoon, we travelled north of town to Savelugu Senior High School, where we also found an outstanding staff--and an audience of several hundred attentive students.  There is in these meetings a tone of formality and earnestness that is most refreshing after so many years of being immersed in the world-weary and ironic ethos of American culture.  These students and the adults who lead them are truly, as they like to say in Ghana, "serious."  And so is our friend Brando--though he has a very ready laugh.

Day 4--Don't Show My Wife this Photo

This morning Brando and I toured St. Kizimo Basic School in Bandai.  It's quite a remarkable school, as it is woefully under-supported but has an excellent reputation and is turning away students at the beginning of every school year.  For example, there are three teachers for about 350 kindergarten students who are in four classes.  But the schools is the top district performer in its exams, and students walk up to ten miles a day, passing many other schools, to attend it. To the right is Brando Akoto inspiring the Form 3 students.
Then it  was off to Tamale, which turned out to be a harrowing four-hour ride, with plenty of mi

niature lakes to negotiate (see below), along with the potholes.

Ghana's horrible road system is a major drag on its economy and life  Goods in isolated regions (where the standard of living is relatively low) routinely cost twice as much as they do in Accra, as the great majority of goods have to be hauled across roads like this one.   Getting to school or work is often time consuming.  NGOs commonly flock to the Accra Area  because travel in the North is so difficult.  A massive loss of time is inflicted  by the inefficient road system.

Anyway, we arrived safe and sound in Tamale, where we'll meet with Mr. Chris and his fine staff, who head up the Evangelical Church of Ghana School there.


                                                        

This morning we had the pleasure of meeting the students and teachers at John Doswijck, including the letter writers who are paired with St. Andrew Nativity School in NE Portland.  Madame Caroline is the teacher who works with them.  The students were very, very attentive and respectful, and I complimented them highly on the quality of their letters.  Meanwhile Brando was working with Mr. Daniel, the new ICT (technology) teacher to ensure that the letters could flow smoothly.

Then our driver, Mr. Tony, negotiated a very challenging road to Kpandai, where we have been hosted by Fathers Mawusi and Baafi, who have treated us very well, indeed.  Tomorrow we will visit the Junior Secondary School that the Parish helps to run. Father Mawusi also oversees the other schools in the district and spoke movingly of classrooms with nearly 100 students and pupils sitting and taking notes on the floor.  It's both very hard and very inspiring to hear these things. 

Ghana Road Trip Days 1-2

Mr. Tony, our very capable driver, has been negotiating some very muddy and potholed roads with great skill and care.  The first day we left Accra for Dambai, where a friend (Mr. Issahaku) of a friend (Dominic) is the Principal of the Training School.  We had very good meetings with him, his staff and the town's Chief, as well as the leading teachers of their Demonstration School.  Dambai College of Education is devoted to preparing young women and men to teach in Ghana's basic-school system (up to grade 9).  Yo Ghana! is linking them to two classes of students in PSU's Graduate School of Education, so we hope that this partnership multiplies into many more, as the teachers go out into their schools with first-hand experience of the transformative exchanges that we facilitate.  Mr. Issahaku's hospitality was matchless, so we left town fat and well rested.  The Demonstration School is also very impressive in its own right, has any more students applying that it can handle, and will also be partnering with a school in the U.S.

Then it was a short ferry ride across part of Lake Volta and on to Kete-Krachi, located on a scenic spot overlooking Lake Volta, and John Doeswijck Junior High School, which our own Dr. Kofi Agorsah (Yo Ghana's Vice President) attended some years ago.  Mr. Martin, who has spent many, many hours facilitating this exchange, greeted us warmly and took us to see Headmaster John and other school leaders as well as a few students, then led us to a filling dinner of banku with goat soup.  Tomorrow morning we will visit with the staff and students some more.  Here is Brando at the end of the day at our technology center at the very nice guest house that the school has provided us with.

Angels Academy

This past week fellow Yo Ghana! board member Mr. Brando Akoto and I had the pleasure of visiting several Ghanaian schools within a three-hour drive of Accra.  One of the high points was certainly Angels Academy.  The school came highly recommended by Susan Addy, who had lived across from the school with her husband, the legendary musician Obo Addy.  Yo Ghana! is always looking for schools that: have outstanding leadership; have done a lot with a little, serve many children from low-income homes.  Angels Academy fits right in.

We had the great honor of meeting Mr. Ernest Opoku-Ansah, who founded the school more than two decades ago when he decided to start educating five local children for free.  He only started charging tuition once he retired, and under the leadership of his very capable daughter, Madam Regina Opoku-Ansah, a large percentage of children attend on scholarship.  We enjoyed listening to and talking with this remarkable pair, as well as the school's fine teachers, and we look forward to many more visits to and thousands of letters from this very special place.

Helping Liberians

A few days ago I asked Kpetermeni Siakor, a computer scientist from Liberia, how Americans who wanted to help stop the spread of Ebola could best help.  True to form, he told me that he'd research it and get back to me.

After speaking to his many friends in Liberia Kpetermeni concluded that Doctor's Without Borders is the best place to send your money right now, as they are turning people away from their containment centers due to a lack of resources.  Here is a link to their website: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/our-work/medical-issues/ebola .  The donate button is easy to find, and please consider a contribution.

Thank you,

David

Meeting Our School Prefect

Today Brando (Akoto, Board Member and Friend Extraordinaire) and I had the pleasure of meeting Miss Jasmine, the student at Accra Girls Senior Secondary School that Yo Ghana has had the honor of assisting with her education.

It was a treat to sit down and spend some time with such a mature and focused young woman and to hear of her plans for college and beyond.  Not to give anything away, but Miss Jasmine aspires to join a very elite group of medical professional in Ghana--and the rest of the world.

Miss Jasmine is part of a growing and powerful group of gifted and determined young Ghanaians who refuse to be deterred by any barriers and who are already thinking of how to give back to their nation and the world.

Meet Some (Incredibly Inspiring) Ashesi Students

Part of what I'm up to in Ghana is spending a week working on a book chapter that entails interviewing Ashesi University students.  My piece is on how the remarkable little university reflects African as well as Western motifs, and one of those motifs is a passion to care for others.

Kpetermeni Siakor--pictured here in a photo taken yesterday -has worked for and is now a board member for ilabLiberia, an organization working to speed communication regarding disasters, such as the ebola crisis in Liberia.  He's also set up a platform for enabling students with little access to books to connect with the best educational sites on the internet.  And more stuff I don't have room to cover.

Sam Norman Sali and Charles W. Jackson are Dalai Lama Fellows who head up Sesa Mu, an organization devoted to helping local pineapple growers figure out how to make a sustainable living.  They hope to play a role in Ghana some day being able to feed itself rather than importing so much food, a fact that drives much of the poverty that affects rural Ghana.

Benedicta Amo Bempah founded the AmoBempah Initiative last summer after taking a bus to Tamale to find out for herself what conditions were like in the North and finding a village that seemed to need some help.  They started with a literacy program and have plans for improving people's access to health, drinking water, and improved education, as well.

Chris Haruna co-founded Upper Progress to help schools in Ghana's remote Upper Eastern Region, a place where educational resources are particularly scarce.  For three years he has has persuaded a dozen or more Ashesi students to spent sixteen hours (one way) on a crowded bus and a week volunteering.

What these brief descriptions can't capture is the great joy all of these people express in having the opportunity to serve, to make the world better through working with and for others.

2.5 Days in Ghana

Well, the first thing I learned on our trip is that my good friend, Brando,  has a lot of friends in Portland and Ghana!  The photo to the right is from the Portland Airport.  Upon landing in Accra late Sunday, we were met by three friends of friends before we even got through customs (one soldier and two airport employees), then another six or so in the lobby.  And Brando had arranged for me to have a modem, phone, and several shirts, plus a drink, ready to go.  Ghanaians inside and outside of Ghana are incredibly hospitable.

The hospitality has continued at Ashesi University, where I am working in an office about three times the size of the one I have at Portland State.  I've talked with a lot of inspirational people and sat in on several classes.  President Patrick Awuah spoke Monday, the first day of school, about the Ebola outbreak, a talk that sort of encapsulated how Ashesi approaches the world, as he kept coming back to the themes of knowledge and leadership, that the disease's spread had been due largely to failures in those areas.

I'll introduce you soon to an inspiring Ashesi student from Liberia who is on the front line of containing Ebola in Liberia.

The challenges that the students and staff face at Ashesi are daunting, though, and frequent reference is made to "the road" (the photo to the left shows a portion of it, taken from my hotel room) which most staff and faculty traverse daily to get to the university, a commute that consumed well over 2 hours a day for most, largely because the road is unpaved and badly rutted much of the way.
 Our personal introduction to Ghana's infrastructure came right after our plane landed, when it took 2.5 hours to unload the baggage.  I suspect that these hardships are part of what prompt Ghanaians to rely on each other so much.  But I also suspect that Ashesi graduates and others are solving these problems while remaining, as President Awuah would emphasize, their traditional emphasis on community and hospitality.

The Number One Thing I Learned in Ghana

Before I set out for Ghana the first time nearly five years ago, my wife Wendy gave me two pieces of advice: 1) Stay open, without preconceptions; 2) Realize that you will learn and receive more than you will teach or give.  As usual, she was right.

What I learned in Ghana started to change my life in small and then large ways.  If I had to boil all the insights and realizations down to a single point, it would be this: life is very difficult, but that's OK.

In the U.S., most of us are raised to expect a pretty easy life, even to feel entitled to it.  We are therefore often surprised and bitter when life's inevitable problems and heartaches arise.  The great majority of Ghanaians, by way of contrast, assume that life is a struggle.  This assumption leads to a sense of gratitude for even life's small gifts, and life's challenges drive people to God and each other for comfort.

As I began to realize that the proper attitude toward life is gratitude rather than resentment and that accomplishments and hardships are to be shared rather than celebrated or endured on one's own, a whole new world of possibilities unfurled.  What if our lives are not some sort of entitlement to be defended, but rather a gift to be spent for and enjoyed with others?

So Yo Ghana! heads off for Ghana on Saturday knowing that at least some of our many and detailed plans are bound to be amended or discarded in the face of unforeseen problems but also that our month there will bring unpredictable joys and innumerable friendships.

I'll Be Missing My Wendy

With just three days to go until Brando and I leave for Ghana, this blog will soon be filled with photos of dedicated teachers and enthusiastic students from across that joyful nation.  Indeed, a few nights ago when I told Brando of how challenging it had been to find a quiet place to record video interviews in Ghana schools two years ago, he replied, "it's hard to find a quiet place in the entire country!"

But before that chapter starts, I want to tell you about my amazing life partner who encouraged and pushed me to help start this young organization and who has fully supported my donating so much time and money to it.

Wendy has blown my socks off ever since she warmly welcomed me into the house she shared with her room mates in SE Portland nearly twenty-four years ago, when I was working on my dissertation.  She is the kindest and most generous person I know, relentlessly optimistic, supportive, and caring.  I can't imagine a better life partner, and for all the Yo Ghana! teachers and supporters who may run across this blog, please know that much of whatever success we have had and will have is because of her.

And if you see me driving in Ghana, please don't tell her!

David on The Learning Channel Wednesday Night

I'll be one of the historians interviewing Kelsey Grammer on the Learning Channel's "Who Do You Think You Are" show this coming Wednesday night at 9:00.  And then there are bound to be many re-runs.

I hadn't met a celebrity before, let alone sat down and talked with one about her or his ancestors and how to make sense of their lives, so it was very interesting.

And I had the pleasure of honoring Rick Harmon, a dear friend who passed away much too young, by telling Mr. Grammer how much Rick loved his work.  Rick was the long-time editor of the Oregon Historical Quarterly and a loyal and valuable ally to most anyone in the field.  Rick loved the characters that Kelsey Grammer played, men much like himself--smart and often melancholy, but determined to make a contribution in a world that often didn't seem to make sense.

Helon Habila's Measuring Time

I just had the great pleasure of reading Helon Habila's Measuring Time.  Set in post-independent Nigeria, the novel traces the life of a sensitive twin brother as he comes of age.

Habila approaches his subject with a realistic yet generous and positive tone.  The protagonist and his friends and family struggle with corruption on many levels.  Political campaigns are shallow personality contests.  Politicians are leeches.  An effective school is shut down to make a political point, and the children have no place else to go.

But Measuring Time features a protagonist who learns from his brother to stand for something, and many other people in the book live that way, too.  This sort of life brings vulnerability, pain, often suffering; but it is the only way to live.  As his uncle, who is in his seventies, puts it to him when he persists in trying to find a way to re-open the school: "This is life.  There's nothing more.  The trick is never to give up."

Measuring Time is a thoroughly African book.  So much of what Americans read or watch about Africa has little to tell us about Africans.  A few white people appear in the book, but they are neither saints nor sinners.  Most important still, they are very much in the background.  For those of us raised on Tarzan and his legion of successors, from Peter Beard's the End of the Game to Meryl Streep's Out of Africa, understanding Nigeria or the rest of the continent requires a healthy dose of books like this one.

The Contradictions of Youth Soccer

A few nights ago we had a little end-of-the-summer party for the soccer team that my son plays on--and that I'm the manager for.

Now that Peter is down to one year to go in high school, the flaws of organized youth soccer seem more and more manifest to me.  Rumor has it that John Calvin arrived at his theology of the utter depravity of humans after observing parents at youth soccer games--though experience with church politics may have sufficed to drive him to such a pessimistic view of human nature.

Yet the great majority of us at the PCU (Portland City United) party were happy.  The  '96 teams are coached by two men of very high character, Tim and Travis, and we have benefited by being overlooked by the more intense parents and players.  We have therefore attracted players who love the game and enjoy each others' company.  There's very little drama among players or parents over playing time or who is on the "A" team or the "B" team. Our players routinely put school before soccer.  They aren't all warming up one hour before the game starts.  The coaches discourage players from playing when they are hurt, even if it's a big game.  They don't yell at each other when things are going poorly.  Those who could play for "elite" clubs stick with us because they enjoy playing with their friends.

Not only do our players seldom burn out, their unselfish, low-pressure, team-oriented approach to the game enables them to often beat or tie the elite, teams full of players--and parents--who are much more ambitious.

Dogs, Blackberries, and Homeless Men

While walking back from taking our dog ,Harley, to his weekly playgroup, I spied a neglected blackberry bush to he side of our local school and found several ripe ones--and was reminded once again of what a bizarre relationship I have with nature, money, and my own history.

We had a succession of dogs and plenty of blackberries when I was growing up in the late 1950s through the mid-1970s in rural Clatsop County.  Most of our dogs wandered off.  One was hit and killed by a logging truck.  They all got plenty of exercise without us sending them to a play group, so their social skills were rough, and their lives weren't exactly sheltered.  (Come to think of it, this description also fits the boys of that time and place, one of whom hanged himself, and two of whom were soon sent to Maclaren's School for Boys.  But most of the rest of us took care of ourselves pretty well.)

As for the blackberries, some of my earliest memories are of spending hours at our extensive blackberry bushes, filling silver buckets and my belly with the dark fruits.  You could sell the berries to a buyer at Miles Crossing for what even then seemed like a small amount of money for all the work it took.  Now, unless I find a neglected bush, I pay what probably amounts to a dime a berry at our hip little local grocery story.

Outside New Seasons Grocers, homeless men sell newspapers for $1.00 each, the price of about 10 frozen blackberries, or the equivalent of about 10 minutes of Harley's play time at his doggy day care.

When I ponder these incongruities, I think there is a very good chance I'll be spending eternity in hell.  And I wonder what the grandmother I never met, who left school in 4th grade and died young, in the 1920s, would make of this life.

Reflections on the World Cup in Ghana and the U.S.

Ghana and the U.S. have very different reactions to how their national teams did in the World Cup.

For Ghana, the "Black Stars" are the source of great pride.  Two years ago a very deferential university student became expansive when our conversation shifted to soccer.  "In that sport, we are the big brother, and you are the little brother," he enthused.  "We always beat you."  In school yards all over Ghana, like the one picture here, boys dream of leading the Black Stars to international glory.

Of course that didn't happen this time around, as the Black Stars compounded poor performances against the U.S. and Portugal with bickering with the coach and reports of corruption off the pitch.  Several opinion makers have identified "indiscipline" as the key problem, which commentators link to the broader failings of youth in general and politicians in particular.  The national team's shortcomings prompt a sort of national soul searching.

The U.S. not only beat Ghana; it advanced out of the group stage and put up a good fight against two teams that were clearly much better--Germany and Belgium.  People who follow the U.S. team closely are generally pleased.  But more casual fans are irritated that the U.S. is still so far behind so many teams.  Why is it, they wonder, that the U.S. can field a military about the size of the rest of the world put together, dominate sports such as basketball and American football, then be such a minor player in the world's most celebrated sports event?

I am sure that this irony is not lost on Latin Americans.  I have been especially intrigued by the American fan who goes to matches in Brazil dressed up like Teddy Roosevelt, the quintessential racist and vulgar American expansionist.  Given the wide gap between the state of soccer in Brazil and the U.S., I suspect that  if the actual TR were somehow pulled out of the grave and restored to life he would stay away from soccer.  As a commentator on a sports radio station put it: soccer can't be that important if we aren't much good at it.  The rest of the world cannot help but smile.

A person is not a palm tree, that s/he should be self-complete

Last night we had our first meeting of  (most of) Yo Ghana's Portland-Area teachers.  Eight local educators and three board members/volunteers got together.  And it dawned on me again--before, during, and after the meeting--that Yo Ghana! is primarily about relationships.

In our living room was Jane, who three years ago decided to take a chance on an organization that was little more than a vague idea.  Now she is offering advice and encouragement to teachers contemplating sharing letters with Ghana classrooms.  And Julia who despite putting in twelve-hour days jumped in with unmatched enthusiasm with her second graders a few months ago.  And Brando who talked with me about education and development in Ghana for two hours straight when we first met a year ago and has been devoting himself to Yo Ghana! ever since.  And Essan who is going to school and working two jobs to support himself and his family back in Ghana but is always there when we need to work out an issue with the Ghana school he was once headmaster of or when a teacher calls on him.

I am accustomed to approaching non-profit work as a series of tedious tasks to be performed so that some greater good will eventually result.  Yo Ghana! is prompting me to re-think that assumption.  Last night one of the teachers asked about the role of development in our work.  Brando replied that if we took care of relationships, of learning about and caring for each other, the development would take care of itself.

"A person is not a palm-tree, that s/he should be self-complete."  Akan maxim.

Teju Cole

Teju Cole's profile rose considerably a couple of years ago when he was one of the main critics of the "Kony 2012" youtube video.  In a series of tweets widely re-published, he criticized the "White Savior Industrial Complex" that the viral video expressed, the widely shared belief that Africa is a blank slate on which western humanitiarians can self-actualize and sentimentalize without much consulting the people they are purporting to help, let alone examining their own motives or privileges.  Cole is part of a growing number of African intellectuals living in the U.S. contesting our stereotypes about the continent.

I'm well into Cole's 2011 novel, Open City, in which an Nigerian-born protagonist records his impressions of New York City.  Part of what makes the novel so intriguing is its relative lack of concern with race and ethnicity.  To be sure, race matters to Cole's protagonist.  But he seems more deeply concerned with birds, music, architecture, and other features of urban life.

Cole's cosmopolitanism is, in and of itself, a critique of the notion that the U.S. and Africa are completely different from each other.

"Captain Phillips" and Crazy Africans with Guns

I watched the film "Captain Phillips" with a certain amount of hope.  The trailer suggested that the film would feature some empathy between the white American (played by Mr. All-American Tom Hanks) and the Somali pirate who took him captive for several days.  Alas, it was not to be.

"Captain Phillips" is merely the latest in a long installment of recent Hollywood Films depicting young African men as unhinged maniacs waving around semi-automatic weapons.  In fact in some respects "Captain Phillips" represents a step back from "Blood Diamond," which featured a noble if crudely rendered black African protagonist among blood-crazed Africans.  Of course the deeper problem with these films is that they aren't about African men at all; the black men are just props for the journeys of white men (Leonardo DiCaprio or Tom Hanks).

Kaiser Matsumunyane is a film maker interested in redressing this imbalance.  He is proposing to do a documentary of the surviving Somali pirate who held Phillips captive: Abduwale Abdukhad Muse.  Matsumunyane's film would explore aspects of the episode and of piracy more generally that western media seldom addresses: that Muse may have only been sixteen when captured; that the pirates were shot and killed while trying to surrender; footage of his mother addressing his determination to help his younger siblings; the role of the West in devastating the Somali fishing industry.

None of this will necessarily exculpate Muse.  But it is essential that white Americans, especially, begin looking at Africa through new lenses, that we learn fuller and more complex stories than those featuring crazy Africans with guns.

But we may wait a long time to see the "Smiling Pirate."  The fund-raising website stalled with the total raised to support the film at $886.

The Smiling Pirate Trailer.

Why Writing Letters to Ghana Appeals to Struggling Students

The (all volunteer) staff at Yo Ghana! have been somewhat surprised that the schools in the U.S. most interested in working with us tend to be those with students who are struggling in some respects and who often come from families living below the poverty line.

Having done a fair bit of tutoring with struggling students over the past decade, I of course have some theories as to why this is the case.  Children whose families are struggling with poverty often feel as if they have no sense of agency, that they live in a world that is beyond their control--and beyond the control of their parents.  They may also be reluctant to show vulnerability, as that is likely just to bring more pain.  It often feels unsafe to hope or to care, much better to adopt a "cool pose."

Sharing letters with a pen pal in Ghana offers a way out of this.  First of all, many Ghanaian students are also struggling with living apart from one or both parents.  Most have far fewer material resources than their counterparts in the U.S.  In fact Ghanaian students are often stunned to learn that students in the U.S. routinely fail to take advantage of reading the many books most are surrounded by.  So the Ghana students commonly model determination and optimism in the face of adversity, a point of view in which school is deemed to be a prized opportunity, not some sort of refined torture.

Ghanaian students also tend to be more earnest and less guarded than their American counterparts are.  West Africa, to be sure, is changing fast, becoming more urban and saturated with media.  But it still a part of the world in which most people reside in a dense network of interpersonal relationships in which a "cool pose" is not necessary.  They therefore offer American students a venue in which it is safe to be vulnerable and to care.

Professors, Publishing, and Teaching

One of the great mythologies at public universities, especially, is that students benefit from taking courses from scholars who are involved on the cutting edge of their fields.  I can't speak to the sciences, and I think there is much merit to this argument when one is talking about graduate students, perhaps even majors who are headed off to graduate school in that particular subject.  But I have become convinced that the greatest service that most professors could provide for the general public, let alone their students, would be to focus on their teaching.

The problem with researching scholarly articles and books is that they take a great deal of time.  So does excellent teaching.  The best teachers at universities I know are always reading or re-reading in the fields they teach in and actively seek out new technologies or practices or readings.  They have a relentless desire to figure out what it is that their students should be learning and how to help them to learn it.  They also think about how to spend more time with students, from requiring them to come in for one-to-one attention, coming to class early or staying late to hang out, even calling them at home.  This adds up to a lot of time--leaving little for researching and writing the specialized scholarship that bring raises, promotions, and status.

It also seems to me that the sort of research that universities most esteem, original research, is much less useful for teaching than more synthetic or "popular" articles or books are.  My first two books were specialized monographs that consumed many years of research in scattered archives.  I occasionally use that research in my teaching.  But I am constantly drawing upon the research I did for three books that took much less time and no travel to research, general overviews of Oregon, nature loving in the western world, and the U.S. family, books that in fact largely flowed from (and were tailored for) my teaching.

Of course the field of history, like any discipline, needs scholars who focus on researching and writing materials that are not intended for a broader audience.  But do not the students who are paying more and more and more tuition money deserve to be taught by professors who are primarily devoted to their education?