Katapor: I didn’t see anything unique or especially desirable about the school, but I didn't see any red flags, either. There are 212 kids in the primary school and KG and they were not able to give us the numbers for JSS. A lot of NGOs work with them already, and they do have a bit of the “give me” entitlement attitude. They have two PTA meetings per term and it is hard to motivate people to attend. Often, kids stay after school to do homework and then go to quarry. Many don’t do their homework. They have a library built by an NGO but it was locked when we got there even though the kids were on break and could have used it.
Akatoshi: This school was nuts! We went on a Friday and apparently on Fridays in Ghana it’s often a free for all. But this one was especially out of control. There are perhaps 700 kids at this school and they were all running amuck with only one highly apathetic teacher sitting in the shade halfway supervising them. There were lots of kids climbing the trees, spinning around for fun until they fell on the ground, playing football, or even rolling in the dirt for fun. There was a library with a solar panel, which wasn’t being used at all.
Some kids were jumping from one tree to another.
We asked the kids how many of them had homework the night before, and even the whole week, and only a few had been assigned homework—all in math. So I suppose there is one teacher that assigns homework anyway.
On the upside, if we did install playground equipment, the kids would have something to do besides jump from trees... It actually could be a good school to put playground equipment in as a test to accelerate the technical problems that we might have in the future. Though that wouldn't be the best reason to put a mgr there.
Ayawasu: This school was heartwarming because the kids immediately came running down the path and swarmed us (see photo) and grabbed my hands—I had about five on each hand and twenty following behind me and another ten in front of me all through the field towards the school.
However, it is only a primary school and it would be good to get some variety and have more equipment at schools that include JSS. It was funny because the kids had swarmed me so badly that Solomon and JJ had already reached the school and I was having a hard time keeping up because kids were clamped onto me everywhere. So I yelled, “Wait for me!” This was the only thing the kids heard coming from my mouth, so they all started chanting/mimicking in unison, “wheyfahme, wheyfahme” the whole way up. They must have said it at least fifty times in a row. It was the funniest thing! The kids really grow on you fast! As far as being a place where lights will be helpful, I kind of doubt it.
The final schools selected, both using the selection criteria and looking for variety are: Dedenya, Minya, Katapor, and Adenkrebi. The fifth is a toss-up between Koni Kablu and Akotoshi (gulp!)
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