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Dennis van der Heijden writes...

...about his experience while volunteering in Ghana.

Ho, Ghana, 20 December 2002

Mede kuku gagbloe blewuu...

Please, could you repeat that slowly.... Oh, I say it a lot every day... I am trying to learn Ewe, the language of my village Tokokoe, in the Volta Region in Ghana. But it is difficult... People speak so fast! I have a study book, but speaking is something different... But at least I'm trying... Mele agbagba dzem! And the people love it! If I speak to words of Ewe they already say to each that I speak Ewe FINE! Akpe... Thank you!

I'm teaching in the Junior Secondary School of Tokokoe. It is really a small village on the road from Ho, the regional capital, to Nyive, the border with Togo. I teach in form 1 and 2, English, Math's and P.E. or physical education... They were very surprised when they found out that there is more to P.E. than soccer and volleyball... But they really love to do push-ups... An would you believe the girls beat the boys at it?! Really!

I have been here now for four months and it has been great so far. I'm the only IOVO, which is the Ewe word for 'white man', in the village and that is something you need to get used to in the beginning... People, especially children, shout it all the time: IOVO IOVO GE YIBO, TATA GE YIBO (White man with your blackbeard, black hair, black beard). They don't mean it in a bad way at all! Probably in my country the reaction of most people would be quit different... But here it is no problem! Celebrety status is not something I'm used to back home...

If you look at the books they are supposed to study, the level of education looks really promising. But in fact the level of the children is not very high... This has to do with a whole lot of factors... But hey, you have got to work with what you got! As long as we go slowly, it is ok! So I try to use simple English, be practical and involve the children as much as possible in the lessons. For instance in form 2 we talked about fractions... But what is a fraction... Let's chop up a yam and see!

Before coming to Ghana I had been to Africa, South and Southern Africa that is. Ghana is somehow different. One thing is the weather... it is really humid out here! It feels like being in a greenhouse al the time! But you'll get used to it. Right now harmattan is coming, dry wind from the Sahara. It is actually quit nice now! Especially in the mornings! People here think that is really getting cold though... But hey, in the Netherlands they are ice-skating at the moment...

Everyday is a surprise in itself, you never know what is going to happen! Of course you have your lesson plans, but that is not what I mean! For instance Thursday... It turned out that a 116 year (!) conflict over chieftaincy came to an end! The chief of my village is the one and only paramount chief of Tokokoe. For the people in my village this was reason for a week long celebration! Everybody went crazy! In a good way though! Dancing, singing, dressing in white or being spread with white powder... Nobody escapes the powder... Not even me...

I will stay for 8 more months... So if you ever want to visit me, feel free to come to Tokokoe!

Miagadogo! We'll meet again!

Dennis
(a.k.a. KOFI, because I'm a Friday born!)