This was our third trip to Essam village and GS school, and the whole purpose was to see what happened during the dark evening and early morning hours PRE-LANTERN DISTRIBUTION. We therefore went into the community unannounced to see the typical activities. Monday we were scheduled to go to Essam at 8am from the office (so JJ and I left the Anno’s at 6:30am), but that didn’t happen. We waited on the engineers. Then we waited some more on the engineers. I went to buy some kasapa phone minutes across the street and found a mule moving down the road dragging a huge cart of garbage behind it. I asked Solomon what it was for and apparently that is their ‘garbage truck.’ I would have expected this in a rural area, but in the center of a middle-class part of Accra, it was a surprise. When the engineers returned, it was lunch time so we went to Osu, which took more time. Then there was no toolbox so we went back to McCarthy Hill to get one (which is about an hour away). Then, the engineers wanted some fufu, so we finally got on the road at about 3pm. As JJ would put it: “It’s Ghana time!” We ended up getting to Essem at 6pm instead of 11am as we had planned. We wanted to do a night visit so we could see how people use light in the evenings. The trip up through the jungle was gorgeous!
While the engineers were fixing the merry-go-round, I taught the kids duck-duck-goose and ring-around-the-rosy. It was interesting trying to communicate with the village kids because my English wasn’t understood very well. They loved it, but didn’t get it too well when I explained they should get into a circle. They would say, ‘duck, duck, JUICE!’ Also, they didn’t get the falling in ring-around-the-rosy the first four or five times, I think they thought I just kept going plop on the ground because I’m klutzy, but then they loved it.
The short version: We went into the villages after dark and saw many Golden Sunbeam children studying. I couldn’t believe it. I definitely had a renewed vision as well as a sense of urgency about what we are doing (supplemented by numerous experiences at the Anno home in which the electricity went off and I brushed my teeth by light of cell phone). The kids do study at night, sometimes in fairly large groups and with only one lantern. I was previously slightly dubious about the headmaster’s recommendation of sending the lanterns out in groups of kids so they can study together, but now I see that since the kids are already doing it in many cases, it will not be as difficult to implement as I had previously supposed. Following is the long version.
Community near school/Evening: Most people in the nearby community were using either bobos or kerosene lanterns because they were still selling things along the roadside. Many of the houses were completely dark, but others had lights hanging on the porch. The first children we ran into lived very near to the school and were sitting outside on a bench, using a small flashlight between the two of them. Their mother had another light and was using it to sew in the after-dark hours (another of our goals on this trip was to find people engaging in various economic activities after dark). Other family members were wandering around without lights, one cooking, and a few relaxing. The family used flashlights because kerosene was too expensive for them. They also had a lantern. They spend about 80 pesewas for four D size batteries for a lantern and purchased the lantern for 7 cedi (in Oda). Nearby, there was a movie theater, which was one small tv where many were gathered sitting on benches to watch. Two boys had a flashlight and were studying in the back corner during the movie.
Surrounding Villages/Evening: We wandered away from the community and further into the villages. We didn’t see any flashlights in those areas as far as I can remember, but we saw a lot of bobos and kerosene lanterns. The bobos were brighter than the lanterns because the lanterns were very dirty, but used a lot more fuel which becomes expensive to the people. We saw three children studying by bobo. We saw several children using kerosene lanterns while the parents sat in the dark. There were many adults outside or on the porch with a bobo nearby; most were not doing economic activities. We did see a woman braiding palm tree branches by kerosene lantern to make a rope to tie wood together. However, children seemed to be using light more than the adults. We found a group of five children all using one bobo. When we replaced both the bobos and the kerosene lanterns with one of EPI’s lanterns, it was much brighter. The kerosene lanterns simply don’t produce enough light and I’m sure the kid’s eyes are strained, and the bobos are too expensive and still not light enough. These particular children were reading about ‘exotic vegetables’ and there were pictures of carrots and other western vegetables.
I think the most touching scene we all witnessed that night was when we saw a large group of children (8 to 10 I think, but it was hard to tell because it was dark) studying together with one dim lantern. One child had the book and was reading to the others and the others would repeat him. The nearby children could read the book upside down, but some were too far away to even see it. Two parents were sitting right next to the table where the children were studying, preparing palm hearts for making oil. They were basically completely in the dark and doing it by touch. Children and parents like that could definitely use an additional light both to enhance their learning and save their vision! I couldn’t even believe what was going on there. I wondered why they don’t study while the sun is out and realized some go back to work on the farms or help around the house, and they also need a few daylight hours to play because these kids work hard!
Random Parts of Night Visit: For my birthday this year, I asked for stickers instead of presents so I could give them to the African kids. A special thanks to all who contributed. They love them! I’ve given out hundreds. They even like the sticky part between the stickers (that isn’t a sticker) and will stick the whole thing on their face or back.
Selection? All the children we found studying (in the two villages we visited plus the community near the school) attended Golden Sunbeam rather than the public school across the street. A teacher at Golden Sunbeam told us this is possibly because they punish the children through various means, such as making them run around the school if their homework isn’t done. I wonder if we should look at children being accountable for finishing their homework as an additional criterion for school selection.
We went to eat at a place called “Alasca” and I got some rice and veggies, without spice. It was probably the best dinner I’ve had since I’ve been here and I definitely raised Solomon’s eyebrows when he saw the amount of time it took me to wolf it down—I appear to be a very picky eater when eating typical spicy dishes (mostly because it makes me sweat and I need a break between bites). We stayed in a hotel at night. It’s the first time I’ve been by myself in a hotel room and was a little strange. It was nice that there was running water there. I remember at a hotel in Ghana last year when I received a bucket of pool water with floaties in it outside my hotel room door to bathe with. This was definitely an improvement. Cheap, not the cleanest, but not creepy like the place that looked like rebel hideout I stayed at in Thailand.
Morning: We left the hotel at 4am to observe what happens in the villages during the dark hours of the morning. There was a group of children walking to the farms to gather cocoa beans to bring back to their homes to dry at about 4:30am. There were also men collecting firewood to sell at the market (they had a truck). The same seamstress that we saw the night before (she works until 11pm) was getting ready to start sewing again around 4:30. There were a few women cooking banku or other dishes that morning as well, some for their families, and some to sell. One was putting sugar she bought from town into bags to sell and holding the flashlight in her mouth. We saw a woman sweeping the dirt with a small flashlight in her mouth. It was generally much quieter in the dark morning hours than in the evening when everyone was still awake (even though some were just sitting in the dark).
Nearly everyone we saw awake in the early morning when it was dark were women. By 5:20 it was light enough to see fairly well and by 5:40 it was light enough to read without straining the eyes. By this time many children were busy fetching water from the boreholes and more people were up sweeping and cooking. I pumped a bucket, too. It was a workout. My guess is that lanterns will primarily be used at night, by children. However, if we could identify some hardworking parents of students such as the seamstress or others who wake up very early, it could be helpful to them. We saw a lot of wells while wandering around the villages. Most were buckets but one was a purse with a hole in the corner. We were passing along a narrow dirt path through the jungle when we ran into a 103 year old men who was just standing by the path near his house. He greeted us and looked rather healthy for a 103 year old.
MGR: Before school, the kids chop the grass, sweep up the chopped grass, or collect wood. I predict they won’t play in the mornings. They will definitely play on it during break times and after school, though. They love it. The village kids sometimes come and play while Golden Sunbeam is in session, but I got the feeling that the teachers chase them off when they see them. Because the mgr wasn’t fixed by the time we left in the evening, we didn’t get an idea about how long the kids will play on it during the evening time. I figure we won’t know for sure for a while since it’s been locked in the evening and can still be considered a novelty.
We wandered around the village even after it was light, talking to some people about what they typically do in the village. Although palm oil and cocoa are the cash crops, there are actually a lot of rice and cassava farmers as well. Our day interviews were fun and I got to give a lot of kids stickers. They were the sparkly kind, and one very small child was shy and didn’t seem to know what to make of it and went back to her mother to steer clear of the obruni. However, whenever I glanced back she was moving her hand back and forth slowly, I assume to catch the light and see the sparkle. We were all pretty tired by the time we did the day visits, so the late night and early morning visits were much more memorable.
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