Trip to a School and Travel
Trip Start
Jun 30, 2008
1
17
18
Trip End
Aug 04, 2008
Accra,
Ghana
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Nana attended a private, catholic school that was about a 45 minute walk from his house. He had said that when we were younger he would have to wake up very early to get to school on time. The school was surrounded by a large wall with barb wire surrounding it. Many of the nice houses in Ghana follow this same procedure. There was a guard at the front gate and asked us who we were here to see. After the guard making some phone calls we were escorted into the school.
The school is three stories tall and built around a brick court yard. The children had purple uniform shorts and a printed shirt for the boy and a purple and white dress for the girls. We headed up to the computer lab and were amazed! There were 60 computers for the students, as well as, a laptop for the teacher, and a copier/printer. The 60 computers looked like they were out of the early 90s but the teachers said that they have been updated so that they can run Window's EP. The walls were covered with different posters about computer use. The write board had what seemed to be a quiz asking the students to identify the different parts of the computer. One of the other questions on the board was what is data? We sat down and talked to the two computer teachers and they said that there are just over 1,000 students and each student uses the computer one a week for about an hour period. Many of the students also have computers at home. The school is also equipped with internet. This was the first school that we have seen that actually have the equipment to teach ITC, the computer lessons implemented by the state. Some of the first information that the students learn about is how to correctly type and generals about the computer. By the time they are ready for senior high, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade in the US. They are completely proficient at using a computer.
Going to this school definitely allowed us to compare the different resources available for students. After our walk back to Nana's house we packed up and headed to the bus station. We got to the station around 2:10 and the bus was supposed to leave at 3:00 p.m. The bus didn't even start boarding until 3:30 and didn't leave until 4:30. After the long bus ride back to Kumasi we got in a cab and headed to the dorms.
Marcie walked into her room after a brief conversation and found that there were two mice were sitting in her toilet. After screaming and running out of the room, Mitch and Cory just kind of laughed at the situation and then took care of it by flushing the two mice down the toilet.
