September 14/15

After a long drive on Sunday we enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. Daniel and

Mr. Limpu at the Dambai Teachers Training College Demonstration School.  They found a lovely hotel for us and spent much of their late afternoon and early evening with us.  Monday morning we experienced the most terrific rain storm I have ever seen.  It lasted about twenty minutes, and the sound of the rain on the school's tin roof was so terrific that any instruction was impossible.  But we had a very good meeting with the students who will be writing letters, from grades 1-8, and were treated to the school's award winning dancers and drummers.  The school already enjoys a very high reputation in the community, in part because students at the training college practice there, but the staff tells us that the partnership with Yo Ghana! had made them even more popular.  The PTA has already begun building two new classrooms for the junior high school, which opened just three years ago.

A long wait for a short ferry ride and then a two-hour drive over roads made muddy by

rain then brought us to John Doeswijck Junior High School in Kete-Krachi.  Our old friend, Mr. Martin, hosted us, along with the new Headmaster, Mr. Anane.  Mr. George, who combats child trafficking, hosted us to a fine breakfast.  We spent a long morning at the school, with a long meeting with both the teachers and the students; in fact the students may have set a record for most questions asked.  It was a good thing that there were three of us to trade off.  There's a lot of enthusiasm here for the letter exchanges; the students are sad to hear that Americans have so many misconceptions about Africa and Ghana, but excited to hear that they can do something about that.  The school's PTA very generously gifted us about sixty pounds of yams, one of the agricultural staples of the region, and a particular favorite of Miss Lucy.

Reflection: We are struck again and again by the tremendous resilience and determination that saturates Ghanaian life.  Climate change is making it more difficult to farm.  When the rains do come, the nature of how the schools and roads are constructed makes things more difficult, at least in the short run.  And the roads are often poor to begin with.  The lights go off regularly, traffic laws are routinely ignored, but one might be pulled over, seemingly at random, and cited for some trivial or contrived offense.  Yet all of these difficulties and more simply seem to make Ghanaians more determined to succeed--in spite or perhaps because of the steep odds.  Now it's Tuesday night, and the rains are coming again, which will  make for an interesting drive tomorrow.  But enough of Ghana has rubbed off for me to feel confident that we will succeed, though improvisations and a lot of help from our many friends may be required.

Elizabeth Power

I first met Elizabeth-Fosler Jones four years ago, when a mutual friend introduced us because we were both interested in Africa.  A few months later, Elizabeth had: organized a group of students to write letters to a school in Ghana; created our name (Yo Ghana!) and logo; created and starting selling more than one hundred t-shirts; raised a bunch of money in other ways; and a lot of other things I can't even remember.  She is a force to be reckoned with.  And unlike most people I know who get a lot of things done in a hurry, she seems to be having a  blast while doing so.  Some people who haven't met her find it hard to believe that a fourteen-year-old could co-found  an organization whose board if full of people with doctorates, but it's true; without her drive, confidence, and competence, we would have stayed small, or withered away.

Elizabeth is spending a lot of time and money to represent Yo Ghana! in Ghana, as we don't pay any travel expenses for our board members or other volunteers.  The days have been long, the rides often uncomfortable.  But she never complains.  Today, after a four-hour wait for a fifteen-minute ferry ride, the captain tried to usher us, the only two white people on board, up to a special seat high above and set apart from all the other passengers.  I found Elizabeth down on the lowest level, among the market women who were standing by their wares and nursing their babies.  As you can see from the photograph above, taken today at Dambai Teachers Training College Demonstration School, she attracts a great deal of attention, and not primarily because of the color of her hair and skin.  She loves meeting and interacting with people, and the children here readily apprehend her interest in them.

Yo Ghana! has benefited from quite a bit of good luck in its short history, none larger than Elizabeth's presence.

September 10/11

Thursday morning brought us back to Winneba, home of Dr. Eric Ananga, our Yo Ghana!

board member and possessor of seemingly inexhaustible energy.  We first visited John Bosco School and then St. Paul Methodist.  Students and teachers at both schools are very interested in the letter writing, particularly the original-research projects, and they posed a great number of questions.  We had a full team: Elizabeth and I and Lucy Dawu, our Accra coordinator, together with Eric and his very able assistant, Betty.  Eric and Betty are pictured here at Don Bosco.  So the students heard from a variety of perspectives.  They are two of three Ghana schools we are adding this year and are participating in a research project Eric is overseeing to measure the impact of the letters on several factors, including perceptions of the U.S.

Friday morning we drove along the ocean to the outskirts of Cape Coast and Ebubonko Basic School.  There we met our very capable school coordinator, Mr. Havor Wisdom, and the rest of the staff, including Madam Dorthy and Mr. Alexander, who will be assisting Wisdom this year.  Elizabeth, Lucy, and I were very impressed by the level of attention and interest shown by the students, and it looks like quite a number will be working on original-research projects, despite the fact that most are still in primary school.  Here is a photo of them, in their library, below, listening to Miss Lucy.

Reflection: One theme that I live to dwell on in my short (by my standards) talks to students is that

Yo Ghana! is relying on them to teach Americans about Africa, because we cannot depend on our media to do that.  Popular images of Africa depict it as a "failed continent" of disease and warfare.  Most of the positive images are of animals.  But these students have many success stories to tell, of lives rich in friendships and hard work and persistence.

Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday brought us back up to Purity Preparatory School for the opening of school.  In Ghana,

students tend to trickle in, and the first days are spent cleaning the school and the grounds.  But the students from creche to 9th level (grade) took a break from their work to welcome us and to listen to us talk about the coming year of letter writing.  Then it was back down to Accra, to the lively streets of Nima, where our friend Mary Jackson joined us.  This was also the first day of school for Anani Memorial International School, but  three classes of students, creche through upper primary, treated us to rousing songs and expressed a lot of interest in the letter writing.  Elizabeth and I especially enjoyed presenting certificates of appreciation from Yo Ghana! to some of the many community members who had donated time or food to the school in order to match our grant.

Wednesday we spent the day at another long-time Yo Ghana! partner: L & A Academy.  Mr. Kankam was, as usual, a very generous host, and we got to talk with six classes, from upper primary (4-6) to JHS (7-9).  Elizabeth and I were delighted to be joined by Mr. Essan Weah and Madam Agatha Weah, his wife.  Essan has visited many Oregon classrooms for Yo Ghana and has spent the past few weeks in Ghana visiting his family, so the Ghana students enjoyed hearing about American schools from a former Ghana student, teacher, and headmaster.  We are very, very grateful to the Weahs for giving Yo Ghana! one of their precious days together.

Reflection: Essan mentioned over lunch that most Ghanaians expect white Americans to show up with a lot of money one time and then disappear.  Yo Ghana! does the opposite of that.  Our grants are modest and require that a community initiate a project.  But we come back every year and hope to be in partnership with our schools for decades to come.  One key to these partnerships is the many Yo Ghana! volunteers who have lived for years in both the U.S. and Ghana.  It is not a "we" and "them" sort of an organization.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday

Saturday Mr. Kwame Akoto took us to visit his family and the family of board member Mr. Brando Akoto in Akalove, a little village near the mouth of the Volta River.  We also had the pleasure of meeting with most of the student body to talk about Yo Ghana!  It is a very peaceful and beautiful place who always treat us with great kindness and enthusiasm.

Sunday we recuperated and caught up on paperwork before heading out to visit Mr. Leonard Annan, the co-founder and President of the Adesua Ye Adult Literacy Program in Berekuso.  Leonard had some great ideas for Yo Ghana! and is one of the most focused persons I know.

Then Monday we returned to Ashesi for a whole bunch of meetings with leaders from several of its many organizations: Sesa Mu Farmer's Initiative; AmoBempa Intitiative (community development); Starfish Aid Program (literacy in primary schools); and Trim Lab Network (mentoring at-risk junior high school students).  Sam and Dan of Sesa Mu took us on a quick tour of their demonstration farm (above).  The pineapple plants pictured have been treated with an application of oil extracted from Neem Tree leaves, which is an inexpensive and nontoxic pesticide, just one of several innovative strategies the demonstration farm is testing.

Reflection: The four sets of meetings we had today reflect the tremendous
idealism, industry, and intelligence of Ashesi University's student body, the reason why I tell students in both the U.S. and Ghana that the best university I know of is in Ghana.  It might seem a bit odd that a nonprofit devoted to transformative letter exchanges would be interested in pineapple cultivation, but in developing countries education is linked to many factors, and we have found that much is gained for the greater good as well as our own organization's well-being when we seek out and collaborate with great people doing great work in the communities we serve.  It has been a particular treat to see Yo Ghana!'s co-founder, Elizabeth, interacting with other young founders such as Miss Miriam and Mr. Maxwell of Starfish, pictured together here.  Starfish works with rural primary schools in which there may not be a single functionally literate student.  But nothing seems to discourage them from recalibrating and reworking their approaches to bring hope to seemingly hopeless situations.  We came up with some exciting ideas on how Yo Ghana! might offer incentives to literacy for their students.  A lot of young adults want to save the world, but these people go about it with a tenacity and joyfulness that is contagious and inspiring.

Thursday and Friday

Thursday morning brought us, with our friend Dr. Richard White, to Purity School in beautiful Akropong.  Yo Ghana! Has worked with this small, rural school with high standards well before we became a 501(c)3, and it was a thrill to see the new library that the school had constructed.  Dr. White had a good discussion with Madame Constance, Headmistress Samantha, and several other school leaders about how the school was using the library to both enhance the education of its students and to increase attendance at and support for this gem in the hills.  "At recess the students used to just want to play," observed one teacher, and "now they want to come here," to the library. We then went down the scenic road back to Accra,  where we met with our good friend Mr. Rashid Hafisu, coordinator at Accra Girls Secondary School and two teachers who will be assisting him with the letters.  It was delightful to again spend time with Miss Deborah, who had completed the service requirement that Yo Ghana! requires of older scholarship recipients by volunteering at St. Bartholemew’s School.  Miss Deborah reported that she had not worked much with children or teaching before and enjoyed it very much and was impressed by the student’s determination to learn.  Thursday night we sat in on Richard’s lecture on how to be a strong student at the Palm Institute in East Legon, a two-year college founded and led by Dr. Peter Okantey, an old friend who has been working for many years to transform education in Ghana.

Friday we toured the Ghana National Museum in the morning and then made the bone-rattling drive up to Ashesi where we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Prince and Mr. Frederick, two of many Ashesi students who are passionate about community development: mentoring junior high school students and developing Ghana agriculture, respectively.  Dr. Charley Jackson, faculty member in the newly opened School of Engineering at Ashesi, then took us home for a delicious dinner and the company of his wife, Mary Kay, who has done development work in Ghana for many years.

Reflection: Many Ghanaians have told us that although they have a very strong tradition of helping an extensive network of family and kin, there is not such a strong tradition of helping people one is not related to.  Our Ghana board members and advisors have been particularly adamant that Yo Ghana! play a role in widening this circle of generosity.  Mary Kay talked about how development workers often forget how empowering it is to give.  One of Yo Ghana!’s tenets is that “everyone can help someone.”  It’s a sad fact, though, that NGOs often expect little or nothing of the people that they purport to help, low expectations that can sap a community of the very strength that allowed it to flourish for millennia long before the NGOs showed up.  So we were delighted to learn how Purity School was already using its library to strengthen the rest of the community and to see how delighted Miss Deborah was with her experience of volunteering with young students.

Tuesday and Wednesday

Elizabeth and I got up early Tuesday morning to spend the day with a third Yo Ghana! Board member, Dr. Eric Ananga, a faculty member at the University of Education, Winneba.  Yo Ghana! Seems to attract people who are really, really busy, and Eric has to be up there near the top of that list.  But he made time to feed us lunch, get us acquainted with our coordinator for Winneba, Miss Betty, and to introduce us to the regional head of education and the headmasters at our two new schools, Mr. Hammond and Mr. Nyarko.  They then took us to their schools, Bosco Catholic (a public school) and St. Paul’s Methodist School.  It is thanks to the connections and knowledge of people like Eric that we get to work with the schools that best fit our mission.  We did some planning for a conference for our coordinators and outstanding letter writers we hope to have at Winneba next June.  Mr. Frank then drove us back to Chez Afrique for dinner with Dr. Williams, who spends many evenings at his wife Afua’s fine restaurant.

Wednesday we went to see our friends at Angel’s Academy, Proprietor Ernest Opoku-Ansah

and his daughter, Headmistress Regina.  They are two of the most joy-filled people I’ve ever met, and we had good meetings with them, the teachers, and then each of the classrooms that will be writing letters.  They quickly lost their shyness when Elizabeth spoke with them and requested the U.S. National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance, among other things. The school also entertained us with dancing.  This was one of our short days,  but still consumed 8 hours by the time you factor in travel and logistics.  Even so, we are getting a chance to recharge our batteries a bit before a long day tomorrow.

Reflection:  Angel’s Academy began in the living room of its founder some twenty years ago.  Today it is a very impressive set of two-story structures, and the school just added teacher offices and spaces for a computer laboratory, expanded library, and a science laboratory.  For years Mr. Opoku-Ansah taught students for free in his living room, and the school continues to offer students from modest backgrounds an outstanding education.  But Mr. Opoku-Ansah comes across as a very humble man.  He seems to be always laughing and smiling, and no one enjoyed the musical program more.  The teachers tell us that they still go to him for advice.  If there are angels in human form, he is one of them.  Elizabeth, Eric, and Michael are also among the people I most admire.  The cool thing about volunteering so much with Yo Ghana! is that I get to spend so much time around cool people who work tirelessly and happily to help others.