Weather and Campus

The weather here seems schizophrenic to me - it is warm like summer at home, flowers are blooming like it is spring, and there are leaves, etc. to crunch underfoot because it is the dry season. We are currently in harmattan, when wind from the Sahara blows through West Africa, kicking up lots of dust (or if you are farther north, bringing Saharan sand with it) since it has not rained in a month and will likely not rain for another month or two. Everything I own is covered with the red dust of the earth here. Students walk around with handkerchiefs over their noses and mouths. People moisturize by applying oil to their skin (I am finally having to use the lotion I brought). I am using cough drops to sooth my sore throat.

I have included several photos below of my campus.
Unlike my friend Leslie, who teaches at another school in Ghana, who has goats that live around her home, Achimota is pretty free of what we consider farm animals. Here is a hen and several chicks on campus, but not near my house. I did see a very large pig (maybe a hog) on campus one day over Winter Break, but did not have my camera - blast!

This is the Form 1 (freshman) classroom block. This has been refurbished recently, so there are ceiling fans and working lights, a box to hold chalk and the eraser. These classrooms have no glass in the windows, just lattice work. This allows for breeze to waft through, but also allows sound to travel. Sound travels very well in all the classrooms, I have been chastized by a prefect several times for the noise level in my classroom.

This is me during my first weeks here next to a termite mound on campus. There are larger ones as well, this is middling sized. I have to post a photo of the remnants of the science lab - the lab was refurbished and remnants were simply placed in a pile outside. The wooden drawers are quickly being devoured by the termites.

I believe I talked about the molds for bead making that are created from the mud of termite mounds (it can withstand the very high temperatures of the kilns where the beads are baked) - that mud comes from a termite mound like this. The termites are to blame for some of the road problems here - they burrow through the soil, taking some away, when this happens under a road for a long enough period of time, pieces of the road collapse into potholes.

Updates

On the eve of the inauguration of a new American president, let me update you on the recent Ghana run-off election and subsequent inauguration. To recap: the first election was 7 December, and no presidential candidate received the required greater-than-50%-of-the-vote to become president. There was a run-off election between the two highest vote-getters of 7 December on 28 December. The Electoral Commission hoped to announce the winner on 30 December, however there were problems in one constituency and the vote was too close to call without their ballots. This constituency voted again that Friday, 2 January and the results were announced on Saturday 3 January. The inauguration of the new president of Ghana, John Evans Atta-Mills of the now-former opposition party NDC (National Democratic Convention) was on 7 January 2009. Not much of a transition period! Since I was traveling with my sisters who visited over the holidays, I was not in Accra when the run-off and waiting for results occurred. Check out the blog of a fellow Fulbrighter (http://www.coryellinghana.blogspot.com/) for his experiences.

There was more recording of grades after my last posting. I also had to record the grades for all my students in books that have every grade for a specific group of students since the mid-80s. So all the first year Science students have a book, and all the second year Arts students, and the third year Vocational students, etc. Unfortunately for me, in several cases I was the first person to record the grades for my classes so I also had the privilege of writing their names into the book - boys separate from girls. Why? I have not asked. There is some sexism here that grates a little: women who are doctors (PhD or MDs, I do not know - maybe both) are always listed with Mrs. in their name as well. For example, Dr. (Mrs.) Jane Doe. Additionally, I attended a meeting on campus with some colleagues and was asked to take down the minutes. Sure, happy to do so. The people present at the meeting were introduced as (names have been changed) Susan, Barbara, Rebecca, Lily, and Mr. Smith. This rankled a bit - why does HE get the respect of having himself introduced by his last name, and we all get the more familiar/less respect of first names? Although, I protest too much - it is the habit here to call teachers by Mr. or Mrs. and their last name (I was put on the schedule with a Ms. in parentheses after my initials, why, again I do not know, although I indicated that the Ms. was my preference). People though call me Rebecca or Becky (I am working on breaking people of it), yet seem uncomfortable when I refer to other teachers, my colleagues, by their first names....oh well, just one more enigma of Ghana and the educational system I have yet to decipher.

Oh, and that cholera thing...not a big deal, but all the women who used to sell food to the students (my favorite, homemade spring rolls, and the coleslaw sandwiches were intriguingly good) have not returned as a result of the cholera outbreak. I do not know who imposed this restriction, and if they will eventually return...This is a bummer for me (because everything is about me :P) because the lady I bought fruit from everyday is no longer around, meaning I have to go down to the market more frequently for produce purchases.

Not quite like home...school edition

Grading and reporting of grades in Ghana is very different than at home. At home, I input grades into a computer program all semester long, and then after a couple of clicks, the data is sent data winging its way to a central location where it is put together into a report card. Here, there is no winging data, no computer collation, there is....carbon paper and individual student record books and no instantaneous reporting of grades (it took me about 3 hours, I think to record all my grades).

Here's how it works: the teacher grades the students' end-of-term exams and multiplies by .7 (end-of-term exams are worth 70% of the students' grades - this makes it difficult to convince students that any other classwork is worth doing), then you take the students' grades for the rest of the term and multiply by .3, then you add the two numbers together to get the grade for the term. Don't forget you also have to figure out class rank in your class - luckily I was using Excel for my grades, so all of this was easier for me than I imagine it was for many of my colleagues.

This information is taken and entered into the books (pictured below). Each student has a book. Their grades for all their classes while at Achimota are recorded here. Three copies have to be recorded for each term - this is where the carbon paper comes in. It went something like this: find the stack of books for one of my classes, find two pieces of carbon paper, open the first book to the appropriate pages, insert the carbon paper, record the grades, rank, sign it, remove carbon paper, pick up next book and start over. Oh, and the books are not in alphabetical order which would speed the process up.


Here is what the pages in the books look like:

I do not know if you can read the grading scale at the bottom, so let me reproduce it here:
Scores Grade Comment
80-100 A1 Excellent
75-79 B2 V. Good
65-74 B3 Good
60-64 C4 Credit
55-59 C5 Credit
50-54 C6 Credit
45-49 D7 Credit/Pass
40-44 E8 Pass (no credit?)
39 & below F9 Fail

This is difficult to wrap my brain around - grades that are bad at home are not here. Before I left for Ghana parents in FCPS were in discussion with the County over the grading scale, which they thought was too harsh and therefore hindered their children in college admissions and in scholarship competitions. Maybe they would like something like this? A bit more lenient, yes?

Oh, and just so you know, I was told today that this sign is no big deal. I was a little worried when I saw this posted in several locations on campus, because at home it would be a big deal (and in Zimbabwe, as well).