Election results- final edition!

Ghana's president, John Mahama, who took office in July 2012, after the death of President John Atta Mills, is re-elected.

Ghana's coat of arms.

Yesterday the Ghana Electoral Commission issued its final report into claims of voting inconsistencies by the losing NPP as groundless,  declaring the results as follows:-

The Presidential election was won by the NDC incumbent, John Mahama, with 50.70% of the votes, against 47.74% for the main NPP rival Nana Akufo-Addo.

The clear victory for the NDC comes in spite of a number of "skirt and blouse" results (where one of the two main parties wins the presidential vote while the other, the parliamentary vote) in individual constituencies.

In the Parliamentary elections, the NDC increased its majority and now has 127 seats, against the NPPs 109, with 2 Independents and one PNC. The number of women MPs increased to 29 out of 275 MPs.

Names and symbols of main political parties.

Village life in Tetako 3

Children enjoyed their extended break, but with no play facilities, swung on the water pump around the school bore hole, ran among the foundations of proposed new classrooms, still awaiting completion four years later or gazed at the adults’ meeting.

I admired the patience and dedication of the teachers, the oldest nearing retirement after working in schools in several nearby villages for decades, the youngest two newly trained and maintaining their enthusiasm in the face of minimal resources and a remote, unfamiliar location.

Village life in Tetako 2

Signing the PTA attendance register gave a measure of illiteracy rates, with over 80% using a thumb print. Names of children enrolled but dropping out of school were taken and government promises of future financial grant, once children were back in school, for the necessary uniforms, exercise books and pens were explained. Parents went on to discuss a levy to set to raise funds for school desks for a classroom, with the meeting allowing for full exchange of views.  Older teenagers asked CamFed if they could come back into school, the answer sadly being No. Fathers and mothers nursing young children looked either very young, or very old, as though life quickly wore them out.

Village life in Tetako

CamFed- locally known here as Comfort- is the campaign group to promote female education, expanded- and gender equalized- to include all vulnerable children either not in education or at risk of dropping out.

The roots of current initiatives under Millenium Development Goals, the World Bank, UNESCO and the like are found in the scholarly research of Ghanaian Dr James Emmanuel Kwegir Aggrey, writing in the 1920’s as a result of his research in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) into education,

“If you educate a man, you educate an individual.

  If you educate a woman, you educate a nation.”

Tetako, a poor village, within the poor Upper East region of Ghana, is a sobering example of the grinding realities of rural poverty within a progressing country.  Although only 15 miles away from Zebilla, the approaching road, a rutted track amid dried vegetation, the absence of any power lines, a wide landscape of savannah, scrubby plants, with clusters of huts arranged within walled compounds indicated a tough life with few choices,  isolated from the outside world.

Tetako Kindergarten and Primary school, with a staff of five trained teachers and two youth employment (straight from high school) teachers (rarely paid, rarely show) offers the guaranteed basic education to about 250 children, the majority in the first two classes, as movement to the next grade depends on achievement. The kindergarten class of sixty was not in session as normal, under the large tree, allowing instead the combined Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and CamFed meeting to take place.  A turnout of 80 parents, an even mix of men and women, was impressive, but not unusual in the dry season, when there is no agricultural work to do.

Haruna addresses the meeting

As nominated representatives from CamFed, including me, as a guest from overseas,  we spoke of the value of education as key to better understanding, to more involvement in community life, to better health, to using resources more productively. My interpreter, Haruna, translated into the local African language. He also stressed the importance of sending the “girl child” to school, based, he told me later, on the continuing practices in villages of child brides at 12,13, 14, and of girls kept at home to perform household duties.

Proposing the value of education- Haruna listens then translates

Two bottles of nail varnish and a sachet of face pack 2

There was much hilarity, singing and dancing. Everyone went home looking gorgeous, feeling beautiful and happy with life!

One face pack- seven`faces done!

Two bottles of nail varnish and a sachet of face pack

 Beauty salon- Zebilla style.

One evening, Nicole, Emma and I invited the women, plus one curious young son, from our nearest extended family to come round for an evening of “Ladies’ Pampering” volunteer style. Equipped with a little shower gel, washing up bowl, towels, local shea-nut butter, bottles of nail varnish and one face pack, plus melon, biscuits, cool water, and Bob Marley playing through the speakers, our salon was ready.

Nicole massages Howa's foot, while baby Iona, named after a previous volunteer,  takes her milk. Son Julius looks on.
Note the VSO living room, complete with motorbike and biycle.

One grandmother, two mothers, one son and three daughters enjoyed individual foot soaks, massage, toes painted and a little area of the face cleansed and purified.

Rebecca watches with great interest as Emma paints her toes, with the head torch providing much needed extra light. 

Work for this term 5

With students at Dbeago (pronounced bay-go) School for the Deaf, near Tongo - a boarding school for 250  pupils age from 6 to 25.
Pupils who achieve good grades at the end of the Junior High School level, the school's highest class, go on to St John's Integrated School. Others transfer to a vocational training centre. Pupils learn Ghanaian Sign Language and a full curriculum, with separate adapted timetables for those with additional SEN.

Teachers Paul and Dominic enjoy a training session - using the salt dough, Dominic's attempt  to model a pig causes much hilarity.

Work for this term 4

St John's Integrated Senior High School, at Navrongo, near Bolgatanga was established in 2006 by a Catholic Mission. Many special schools have their foundation through charitable status, and are then adopted by the Ghana Education Service (GES).
St John's educates pupils with hearing impairments (HI) and mainstream pupils, adopting a working ratio of one pupil with HI for every three mainstream pupils. In spite of shortages of trained specialist staff, with many teachers posted to the school with no knowledge of Sign Language, and only two interpreters when fifteen are needed, the school operates successfully, parents give their full support for integration and there is a waiting list.

We watched a lesson in Building and Construction, delivered by the teacher, supported by an interpreter, with hearing and hearing impaired students in the class.
As a model of good integration and inclusion, it also serves as a reminder that Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision does require additional funding, particularly for trained specialist staff.
( The teacher is wearing the traditional smock of northern Ghana's males)

Work for this term 3

Screening- for visual and hearing impairments.

Linking with and further developing  work already researched and initiated by other volunteers, in conjunction with medical experts, Haruna and I have begun setting up routine screening in the district’s kindergarten schools.

Haruna is a trained visual impairment specialist. In Ghana both visual and hearing impairment are understood and specialist residential educational establishments have been operating for years.

We are training nominated teachers, one for each of the 5 local kindergarten/primary  schools we are trialing, to share the screening processes, and to record and maintain data on pupils with any causes for concern before referral to the hospital for full assessment. Screening procedures resemble those used by health visitors or school nurses in the UK, are low tech. and if done carefully, are a useful indicator of possible problems with vision and hearing. Training is a slow process, but the teachers we have worked with are interested and receptive.

 Haruna and I have constructed the screening kit- Blue Peter style- with a Snellings chart (a reading chart using capital E letters) for sight testing the only commercially produced item.

A parallel programme has been operating for three months in another rural district, three hundred children have been screened and useful data collected. The nominated trained teachers are beginning to recognize other possible disabilities and have a better understanding of the purpose of assessment.

Haruna fashions our kit for screening:- the hearing  items are`made from  used  cleaned Ideal Milk tins, with stones or rice added: all very "Blue Peter"

Special schools and units.

In addition, with Haruna, I have visited a number of special schools within a 30 mile radius of  Bolgatanga, linking with fellow Special Education officer Roland, travelling everywhere on a motorbikes. While the same problems of lack of specialist teachers and resources abound, the schools have caring staff, smaller class sizes, have adapted curriculums and are promoting inclusion.  I have delivered training  sessions and demonstration lessons on using motor skills and active learning practices, with more activities planned for January 2013.

A shared demonstration lesson at an excellent SEN unit in Bolgatanga

There is a need for more specialist schools and units attached to mainstream schools around Zebilla town ( as in every population locality) to serve the district and the children with disabilities currently not in schools.

We will be using the list of children registered with Social Welfare as disabled- but not attending school- to conduct sample home visits to investigate reasons and seek solutions.

Work for this term 2

So, I ask myself- what to do?

As always in education- there are teachers devoted to their calling, school and district leaders with vision and optimism.

 There are always people to work with, to share skills with, to learn from and to offer training to. Children are well behaved and respond to an instruction from any adult. Those who remain in school are keen to learn.

In mainstream schooling and in the small number of special needs schools and units I have visited, there is much to admire and respect, while appreciating the difficulties faced.

Ghana passed its Persons with Disabilities Act in 2006, with provision for a ten year period to prepare and adapt. As 2015/16 approaches, and the country prepares to adopt an educational Inclusion policy, which will encompass Special Educational Needs, previously introduced ideas and practices need to be joined together and problems in mainstream schools addressed.

Work- for this term

As I have come to Ghana principally to work as a volunteer with the Ghana Education Service, a summary of what I have actually been doing  would be timely.

My role, in partnership with the local Special Education officer, Haruna, sits against a backdrop of a struggling basic education system in a region of subsistence agriculture. On any trip to Zebilla market, I feel that the same cedis (Ghana currency) are being traded from person to person, with no actual wealth being brought in from outside.

Basic education for all children is the goal. Kindergarten (ages 4 and 5), Primary ( age 5/6 upwards) and Junior High  (age 12 upwards) schools are all free, although each child must wear the school’s uniform, bring their own exercise books and pens and pay a small annual fee to the Parent Teacher Association (PTA). September is the start of the school year (left over from British colony days) and is therefore an expensive month for poorer families.

Although across Ghana there are sufficient trained teachers, posting to the poorer remote northern areas is unpopular. Therefore schools here are short of teachers, classes are large, with 75-100 pupils not uncommon in kindergarten and early primary. While some teachers have a teacher training certificate, and in senior high schools a degree qualification, others have been recruited as low paid Youth Employment or Pupil Teachers teachers on completing successfully high school exams. The commonly, and internationally held, misunderstanding that teaching younger children is somehow easier and needs less training flourishes here.  

Accommodation is limited with some kindergarten classes taking place in the school yard. The less popular, poorer schools lack furniture so children sit on a concrete floor.  Classrooms have thick concrete walls with either shutters covering the window space or decorated aerated bricks for light and ventilation. Many are painted in dark colours (it hides the dirt) and are as gloomy as caves. All have a serious shortage of books or any other learning materials. Basic sanitation regimes have to be imposed (worryingly, not always rigorously). Some schools lack toilet blocks (called urinals) and hand washing is arranged via large water bowls and jugs.

While enrolment into school is high for younger children, attendance rates drop dramatically within the first few years. Market day (every third day) sees typical lower attendances as children are required by families to earn necessary cash selling fruits and vegetables, although repeated campaigns stressing the importance of education are beginning to impact. Pupils are “kept back” if they do not reach the required standard to progress, swelling numbers in the earlier grades.  Beyond primary 2 and 3, class sizes begin to fall.

A primary 1 class- with pupils from 6 to 12 years old

Pupil with teaching and learning aid- the teacher has provided small sticks for counting

Raising awareness of the 10% 2

Wheel chair showroom- Paul's pedal chair- specially adapted for his use, shows the more typical style, allowing the owner some independent mobility

Wheel chair showroom-Solomon- who makes a living selling  phone credit for MTN shows his solar powered /pedal powered adapted chair.

Raising awareness of the 10%

On the 4^th December the Bawku West branch of the Ghana National Federation for the Disabled (NFD) held its road march and rally to mark the Day for Persons with Disabilities, an occasion promoted world wide as part of the UN charter to ensure equal rights for persons with disabilities, to raise awareness and to challenge stigma.

The event in Zebilla gave me my first opportunity to meet, en masse, with some of the local adults and children who have disabilities, as generally, other than the high profile individuals participating in the NFD, they are “locked in” or inhibited by fundamental barriers such as poverty, lack of accessibility, training and education,  hostile attitudes and superstition. (Globally it is estimated that 10% of any population will have a disability, with figures increasing in areas of greater poverty or conflict.)

Marching in Zebilla- along the secondary road towards the meeting place.

About 100 persons with disability, some with an adult or child carer, gathered on the road side in the morning sunshine with an air of enjoyable anticipation. Assembling ready to march, the wheelchair and pedal chair users came first, spearheading the route along Zebilla’s crowded main street, doubly busy with individual traders and street stalls as it was market day. Following behind was a larger contingent of mainly older people who were blind or visually impaired and struggling to use their walking canes, or any sort of stick, effectively, and relying instead on a sighted partner. In and among these were some children and adults with visible physical disabilities, and others, with hearing impairments, signing to each other.

I talked with the school students with disabilities, learning they were supported in practical ways and encouraged to go to school either by family members and/or as a sponsored child through a charity. Educational attainments varied: learning basic literacy and numeracy; preparing to take academic exams with ambitions for a professional career ; undergoing a vocational training, such as learning basic computer and mobile phone repairs. Each had an easy confidence and air of optimism.

Student sponsored by charity World Vision- attends Agatuse  Primary School

Conversations with others would have to wait for another occasion, with access to a translator, as many had little or no experience of the English language, having missed schooling.

The march ended at a church hall, where guest speakers, including one of the local village chiefs, an eye care health specialist, gave messages of support and practical advice- in Kusaal, the local language- including encouraging entrepreneurial use of  the small social welfare handouts available, condemning begging as demeaning, and urging pregnant mothers to use maternity services to minimize health risks, but also to eliminate the old practice in rural villages of killing any disabled newly born baby.

As a guest, and volunteer with VSO, I was allocated time to speak- through a translator- and stressed the value of education in its broadest sense as the key to independence, dignity, self respect and developing personal skills needed to succeed.

World AIDS Day 3

My favourite to win the Azonto competition - sadly Faustina came second.

Peer educators:- although attendance falls as children get older,  schools remain  the institutions within which other social, health and civic issues can be promoted, discussed and learned about. 

World AIDS Day 2

Marching through the road ways of Lawra.

Impromptu dancing throughout the march: a feature of life in Ghana.

World AIDS Day

Saturday 1^st December was World AIDS Day- a focus for health and community action to raise awareness of a disease now treatable in richer countries, but otherwise potentially life threatening and destructive of families.

While Ghana’s official rate for HIV infection is the lowest for West Africa, education, awareness, assertiveness and remaining faithful to one partner are key to preventing growth in transmissions.

Average life expectancy in Ghana is now 62 years, with improvements attributed to better ante natal, maternity and post natal services, childhood vaccination and healthcare programmes and the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in 2004, giving individuals who register, at a cost equivalent of 1 UK pound per year, access to free basic health care, including malaria treatment.

Every Ghanaian displays a contentedness and happiness to be alive, to be grateful for the day, paralleled with an awareness and acceptance of the inevitability of death. And for every Ghanaian one meets through work, through daily life, bereavement is a frequent experience: attendance at funerals takes precedent and commands days rather than hours of time.

The principle causes of deaths, other than old age, appear to be accidents or unexplained illnesses, with specifics hushed as they were in the UK several decades ago.

A reluctance to discuss facts and be open about illnesses allows superstition and stigma to persist and exacerbates the spread of diseases such as HIV. Low literacy rates, particularly among women, (estimated +50% illiteracy among females in rural North Ghana) and a subservient role for women in the family and society, reinforced by ignorance, contribute further.

My friend Jane and I with some of the "dance troupe". Friday evening and Saturday morning  were spent sweating in rehearsals, learning our moves. Watching visitors from other countries trying to dance Azonto- Ghana's most popular dance- caused much hilarity.

This background prompted a number of volunteers based in a small remote town in the rural Upper West of Ghana, joining with local health care staff, to plan and prepare for a day of public awareness -raising. Working through youth groups based in junior and senior high schools, a street march with a six minute dance routine was rehearsed and T shirts ordered for the big day, around the theme of “Get tested”, culminating in social fun activities at the community centre and free HIV testing, using simple 5 minute blood test kits, at the adjoining clinic, supervised by specialist medical staff.

The marchers process along the main road in Lawra- we were moving at jogging pace in time to the beats of the drumming

About 200 joined the march through Lawra, accompanied by drumming, a sound system and local Ghana Police Force officers, and 70 people (including me) took an HIV test.

The street performance of the dance routine was filmed and should be available on You-Tube-link to follow when available.

The general election in Ghana 6

As voting day dawns, the final results remain difficult to predict, with a possible second round of voting needed to determine who becomes president.

Although all parties have publically joined Peace rallies, and urged calm, a familiar pattern of accusations and counter charges of name calling, corruption and false promises has also surfaced. The multiple radio stations have hosted discussions and phone-ins in which rhetoric abounds. The staged TV debate between the two principle and further two secondary presidential candidates lacked a detailed exploration of policies, as prepared answers to scripted questions were traded.

Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlins, former military leader and twice elected president following the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1992, continues to influence and enjoy popular support among sections of the incumbent NDC party and across the poorer regions generally, while sparking criticism from opposition leaders and followers.

Voters worry whether the newly installed system of biometric voter ID will operate quickly enough, or whether long queues will build at polling stations.

Here in Zebilla, the morning of Friday 7^th December, voting day, began well before dawn, as it always does, with calls to prayer from the nearby mosques overlapping with music played through the night by revelers perhaps planning to be the first in place to vote when polling stations open at 7 am.

Later, with the sun setting, we learned the queues did build up at polling stations, and that voting would therefore continue the following day. Any cheering we could hear from the town centre was merely high spirits rather than victory celebrations by a winning party.

sample of biometric voter ID card

NB- VSO volunteers have no political role to play when in placement, and are instructed to stay indoors during election period.

The general election in Ghana 5

A stall holder on the main street in Zebilla shows her support for the main opposition, the NPP.

The general election in Ghana 4

Waiting- at an election rally in Zebilla. Crowds slowly built up during the day, entertained by none stop music.
At about 10pm, the incumbent president, John Mahama (NDC) arrived and addressed the people of Zebilla.

The general election in Ghana 3

Electricity has become a grass roots election issue: power cuts are frequent, as we are now in the dry season, and the country relies on hydro-electric power.

The general election in Ghana 2

Street poster for the main opposition party- the NPP

The general election in Ghana

Ghana enjoys its reputation as the success story of Africa, and a part of that success depends on the continuation of a peaceful election process.

Parliamentary elections will be held in Ghana on 7 December 2012. All 230 Parliamentary seats are contested.  Presidential elections will also be held on 7 December 2012, with a run-off on 28 December, if necessary. Ghanaian elections have been peaceful since 1992 when Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, elected President, but formerly leader of several successful military coups, established the Fourth Republic and a new constitution, and the expectations are that 2012 will continue this established practice. There was a peaceful transfer of power in July of this year following the untimely death of  President John Atta Mills while in office which prompted a period of national mourning.  A further death, of a former Vice President two weeks ago triggered further united outpourings of grief and respect for a politician.

Opinion polls saying the result is too close to call at present- predicting the two main parties (the incumbent NDC and opposition NPP) will each draw about 1/3^rd of all votes with the other parties picking up the remainder. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is a liberal democratic and liberal conservative party, and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), a social democratic party.

Following the discovery of oil in 2007, the late President Mills presided over Ghana's first oil production in late 2010. He transformed Ghana into one of the fastest growing economies in the world in 2011, growing by a record-breaking 13.4 per cent last year, and with inflation falling from to 8.5%, the lowest seen in Ghana for 42 years.

During his term of office, President Mills though widely accused by his opponent for corruption, inefficiency causing economic retardation, adopted tight fiscal and monetary policies to reverse the large twin deficits his government inherited.  

Following the discovery of oil off the coast of Ghana in 2008, the policies of the next president will determine whether the country's petro-dollars will be used for the common good or disappear as in other oil-rich countries.

Though the campaign is intensifying, the political parties, some NGOs and the religious leaders are all calling for peace and calm during and after the elections.

Main campaigning issues are: the economy, primary and secondary education, health care, sanitation, roads and homes.

Locally, election rallies involve loud music, and the townspeople gathering on the large centrally located soccer pitch, where they will wait for hours before a candidate appears to address the crowd. Meantime, T shirts, bracelets, flags and similar items bearing party colours and logos are distributed and worn, while the younger men drive up and down the main high street on motorbikes or crammed into the back of electioneering jeeps and trucks.

Election poster for the NDC- urging double vote for local parliamentary and presidential candidates.
Politicians worry about voters splitting their support- the so-called "skirt and blouse" option.

Malaria

female anopheles mosquito- the carrier

 

Malaria- (technical information courtesy of the internet and Ted Lankester’s “The Traveller’s Good Health Guide.”)

Somewhere around the 10^th to 14^th October I was bitten by a mosquito: a female Anopheles mosquito.

This would not have been different from any of the many mosquito bites grudgingly tolerated, except this mosquito was carrying a single celled parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which causes malaria.

So, as the mosquito took some of my blood, she deposited into my blood stream a form of the parasite called a sporozoite which made its way into my liver. Without any noticeable symptoms, the sporozoite form of the parasite grew in my liver, becoming liver schizonts. This took about 2 weeks.

 On or around the 27-28^th October, these burst, releasing merezoites into my blood stream, while I felt an initial feverish symptom. The merezoites entered my red blood cells- the ones which carry oxygen- developing into trophozoites (which can be seen under a microscope), and then developed further into blood schizonts. Here a cycle was repeated- as blood schizonts burst from red blood cells, releasing more merezoites, while I experienced repeated bouts of increasingly feverish symptoms. Red blood cells are destroyed each time this process repeats- hence the tiredness associated with malaria.

On Sunday 28^th  October, after feeling a little under the weather for a few days, I rapidly began to feel ill- sweating, shivering, headache, total loss of energy, thankfully no sickness etc. Having witnessed and supported a fellow volunteer several days previously, who, in the space of five hours, went from general illness and sickness, through to hospital admission and intravenous malaria treatment plus saline rehydration, I knew I needed immediate medical attention.

As VSO volunteers working with government services or NGOs, we are privileged in having access to a vehicle and driver in case of emergency. It is recognised that for non- Africans, without acquired local immunity, suspected malaria has to be treated promptly. Within minutes of phoning, a car appeared and with my accompanying housemates, bumped and bounced us over the Zebilla tracks and roads to the nearest clinic. Here, facilities may be basic, the queues long, but the actual processing for testing and dispensing necessary treatment for malaria was streamlined and efficient. Happily I was prescribed necessary drugs and able to stay at home in my own bed while I recovered.

5 days later, with a second blood test showing negative for malaria, but in need of some iron supplements, I was feeling much better, and only tired in a post ‘flu sort of way.

Photo credit- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A boy watches his family set up a mosquito net.

Malaria is present in over 100 countries. It causes an estimated 1 million deaths a year, 85% of these being children under 5 years old.  3,000 children per day die from malaria related illnesses in sub-Saharan Africa.  While the proper use of mosquito nets impregnated with insecticide has measurable effects in reducing cases of malaria, longer term studies show mosquitoes developing resistance to insecticides while the malaria parasite becomes more resistant to the drugs used for treatment. Therefore the aim to develop a vaccine remains the only viable solution. That is one of the goals of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which as of 2012, has donated US$1.3 billion to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.

Source- Ghana News Agency

 In 2004, the Ghana government introduced the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), encouraging every adult and child to register and carry an NHIS identification card, for a payment of 3 Cedis (about £1) per person per year. On producing this card, the holder would be entitled to free basic health care at a hospital, clinic or village medical facility, including ante natal, maternity services and treatment for malaria. Although the cost of the NHIS card remains beyond the reach of the poorest, with take up currently at about 65% of the population, it has proved to be enormously successful in saving lives, particularly among children contracting malaria.

Slow wheels

Senior High School students pose with their bikes

For getting about locally, free to use, quiet, flexible, and convenient for exercise, a bicycle is perfect.  Costing around 130 to 160 Ghana Cedis, (equivalent to UK 40-55 pounds), a price too costly for many but within reach of anyone earning a regular wage, bicycles are plentiful and popular.

My purchase was made Ghanaian style, visiting the family home and compound of Martin, the local bicycle dealer, where, within the walled extended family compound, among the chickens and drying piles of maize, surrounded by huts I was invited to make my selection. All bicycles are a similar simple “sit up and beg” style with sturdy frame, covered chain guard, elaborate stand fitted over the rear wheel and parcel carrier-most frequently used for carrying a passenger. Martin checked my machine, added a bell and a locking device, and promised speedy repairs whenever needed.

Martin the bicycle seller-with my new bike

Not for the squeamish. Warning-parental guidance!

On Friday 26^th October 2012 the Muslim population of Ghana celebrated Eid al-Adha and enjoyed a day of religious observation and family festivities.

The state schools and main institutions remained open, but in the predominantly Muslim northern regions of Ghana, attendance would be low and applications for leave of absence high. For the VSO volunteers working in education in the northern areas, as none are Muslim, the day presented an opportunity for a working meeting; catch up, exchange of ideas and planning session.

Opposite our venue ( a volunteer’s house) there is a courtyard housing the accommodation and businesses of an extended Muslim family: a corner shop opening onto the street, a chop bar making and selling cooked food, a fabric store and tailor’s workshop, fish and meat smoking fires, small livestock rearing and living spaces.

We were invited to watch the sacrificial slaughter and butchering of a calf, commemorating the Biblical story of Abraham, who in following God’s command was about to sacrifice his son, when ordered to replace the child with a ram. Why did I go? The family continued their daily routines about the courtyard while preparations for the sacrifice were made. The chosen animal was lead into the yard, lifted and lay on its side and the limbs tied together. It was lifted into a shallow pit, positioned with a small deeper hole next to its neck, dug ready to collect the drained blood. The family and invited guests gathered quietly to watch. The event had a purposeful calm about it.   I was curious, but starting to feel distressed. A sharp cutlass was rested against the calf’s hide. Gently the calf was held in position, and an incision made in the calf’s neck.

I was overcome with a surge of emotion, being present at the ritualised death of a living creature, and left the courtyard in tears. I was helped across the road and back to the volunteer house and offered the standard British antidote: a cup of tea and a sweet biscuit.

I later reflected that every scrap of the calf’s flesh and carcass would be put to good use, and that during its life, the animal would have enjoyed a degree of nurture and roaming unknown to the factory farmed animals, the majority of agricultural livestock, in the UK. Through reading and watching certain television documentaries, I have a little knowledge of meat production and processing in the UK, but no direct experience, and I had given the subject minimal thought, certainly nothing to match what I had witnessed that day. However, I decided that if I was to remain true to my response to the slaughter of the calf, then I should no longer knowingly eat meat. 

Hot Wheels 5

Pit stop at a village

Hot Wheels 4

While the other volunteers picked up skills quickly and were able to practice, my progress was frustrated as I battled with the Yamaha 125 standard VSO moto.  After two days and three tumbles (no injuries bar bruises) I realised this machine was too big and too heavy for me. By good fortune, enquiries revealed that VSO had a smaller scooter in store, which was recovered, hastily serviced and by Friday I was much happier, sitting astride a Yamaha Economy Crypton, able to plant both feet on the ground, move the steering with ease and actually manoeuvre the bike back and forth when in neutral.

I had by then evolved my preferred practice routine, with a trainer “picked” as my pillion passenger, coaching and immediately available when I felt I had “had enough.” Our routes, along the main roads of Tamale, the rough dirt roads of the estates and out through the rural tracks leading to remote villages, were demanding of skills and concentration, exhausting, but exactly what was needed.

 

Hot Wheels 3

On the moto with trainer Abdul

Hot Wheels 2

After needing 7 days, rather than the 3 days suggested by VSO in the UK for initial “moto” (the Ghanaian term for a motorbike) training, I was understandably anxious as I set off on a Sunday with fellow volunteer Nicole to meet with two other volunteers for a week of intensive Ghana-style training.  Leaving Zebilla (population  3,000), travelling through Bolgatanga (population 70,000) to our destination,  Tamale, (population 350,000), some 100 miles by pot-holed roads, the contrasts between  large village, town and city felt stark, noisy and abrupt after the slow friendliness I have become accustomed to.

 As we inserted ourselves into our seats for the second and longer ride on the “tro tro” minibus, I thought, on hearing the sound of small hooves clattered over head, it was “The night Before Christmas”. More evidence of animals later, as the sagging, cracked ceiling above us revealed seepage, and droplets of brown fluid- goat urine and excrement-threatened passengers in the folding centre seats. ( Aisle space is an unaffordable luxury on a tro tro) One gallant man demanded the driver supply a cloth, and he dutifully dabbed and wiped for the three hour  journey to Tamale, while the goats on the roof skidded at every turn and jolt,  responding in nature’s way to their perilous positioning.

And so we arrived in the city of Tamale, found our lodgings, ate, slept, and then reported for a week’s Moto training on the Monday morning.

Goats on the roof

Hot Wheels

There are very good reasons why motorbikes feature as a main source of transport in northern Ghana:- the road network is minimal, with crumbling tarmac or red dirt surfaces; remote villages are linked by tracks too rough for regular cars and often too narrow for 4 wheel drive off- road vehicles; motorbikes are cheap to operate, easy to maintain and repair and respond well to the varying conditions of wet and dry seasons ; they quicker than cycling or walking.

A road in Zebilla

The wheels on the bus go round and round

………….except when one falls off!

Travel, travelling. The words conjure notions of glamour and excitement, fed by newspapers’ colour supplements, blogs from exotic places, endless images on Facebook and personal dreams of escape, of self-discovery, of adventure, of renewal.

A Metro Mass Transit bus

 

The journey from Wa to Bolgatanga, across northern Ghana, a distance of some 125 miles, supplies a little of the above.

A Metro Mass Transit bus

 A Monday before dawn. It is still pouring with rain, though the thunder storm has passed. I rise at 3.30 am to be ready for the taxi taking me to the bus park. On arriving, the driver checks where I am to wait: a concrete shelter housing sleeping bundles of cloth amid a muddy red dirt roadway.

By 4am, stall holders are appearing. Sheltering from the downpour under a MTN Mobile Phone sun umbrella, a woman kindles a fire, adding broken pieces of polystyrene for good measure. The wakening passengers shift to avoid the sickly smoke. Ready prepared porridge, brought in a recycled Dulux paint bucket, is poured into a cauldron suspended over the flames. My choice of breakfast will be “Egg bread”: an omelette seasoned and spiced with fresh tomato quickly fried over charcoal, then sandwiched between a soft baton of bread, split and toasted in the same pan, then slid into a small plastic bag.

The bus conductor appears- identified simply by a shoulder bag and small booklet with numbered tickets.  With patience and politeness, we wait in the rain. “Who is last?” announces a new arrival, checking where to join the queue. Slowly the bus fills with people and luggage.

 At 5.50 am the bus lurches out of the bus park. With 5 seats per row, configured in threes and twos, space is limited. I am nicely wedged between my neighbour and the window, so every bounce is absorbed in unison, as we quietly if fitfully doze.

The road (a generous noun) quickly deteriorates from rough tarmac to red dirt, softened and yielding after a night’s rain, doubling as a temporary stream bed with freshly scoured potholes. The bus creaks like a ship as it climbs over and around each obstacle, with a triumphant acceleration into third gear as a firmer smoother stretch of road is reached. The trip to Bolgatanga, with one break, otherwise stopping only to pick up and drop off passengers, should take about 9 hours, giving an average speed of 14 miles per hour, which is about the pace of an urban bus route in the UK.

However, this journey was destined to take all day and more. A sudden bang, the bus shifts to one side, and I glance through a mud smeared window to see a wheel rolling away from us. As the driver and conductor struggle to raise the bus and begin repairs they cannot complete, passengers are urged to “walk on ahead to the next village for refreshments.” Ha! Men crowd around the slumped bus, offering advice, mothers let toddlers run into the grass. I fall into conversation with a young teacher, Michael. We soon decide to follow others in straggling twos and threes along the road, as though to walk to Bolgatanga.

Eventually it is our turn to be offered a lift by a passing vehicle, one coming along every five minutes or so. After half an hour we pass the first village with the promised refreshments: the “No sweat, No joy” drink spot- closed, a covered stall with fresh local fruits and vegetables, the beaming smiles of candidates for the forthcoming general election plastered across walls and wandering domesticated goats, hens, sheep, cows and donkeys everywhere. After another hour, the replacement bus from Bolgatanga, heading to collect the driver, conductor and remnant passengers rattles past. Michael and I talk of education systems, taxation, religion, main political parties, housing and the differences between rural and urban living.

Ten and a half hours after setting off from Wa, we arrive in Bolgatanga and Michael makes sure I find my bus for the onward journey back to Zebilla, before we shake hands, exchange best wishes and he disappears into the busy crowd to complete his route home to Kongo.

In total, my journey takes fifteen exhausting hours. I try, like the people of Ghana do, to accept the immediate situation. I see that any chance is taken for conversation, for extending the hand of friendship; the funny side of a situation is shared with a full bellied laugh