Stories
Consultants
On the Ground: Consultant Update after Month 1
As our first month in Tema comes to a close and we look back on how we’ve spent our time, it seems as if we’ve been here for much longer. We’ve settled into the community and have enjoyed learning how to navigate the public transportation system (minibus taxis called tro-tros), how to eat the local foods (banku really sticks to your fingers), and how to communicate some basic greetings in the local languages (Ete sen? – How are you in Twi; Akbe – Thank you in Ewe; Mekeche – What’s up in Hausa). Our comfort here has greatly facilitated the beginning stages of our consultant work here at Manye. Especially during the first two weeks, most of our time was spent gaining a deeper understanding of how Manye functions. We’ve observed countless classes in all grade levels and all subjects and have interviewed teachers, students, management, and community members. We’ve also been able to observe the day-to-day activities, and day-to-day challenges, outside the classroom that determine how the school functions. With September coming to an end, and hopefully the rains with it, we’re looking forward to beginning more structured data collection about Ghana’s education system, other schools similar to Manye, and the specific experiences of students and families in the Manye community. Every day we learn more, and are thrilled to have this opportunity to make a difference in the students’ educations.
-Catherine and Jamie, Manye Consultants, September 2010-August 2011
Volunteers
“The History of the World According to Georgia”
After dinner, a good bit of power-reading, and some refreshingly cold bucket showers, Dornuki told me she wanted to start History. I had told her I’d teach her lessons at night if she wanted, but assumed she wasn’t interested because she hadn’t mentioned it in over a week. Evidently I was wrong, however, so I got out a piece of paper, pencil, and the maps of the seven continents that I’d brought, applied lots of bug spray, and we began in the weak light on a wooden table outside the kitchen. I decided to shamelessly entitle the course “The History of the World According to Georgia,” and so it began. We began with the Big Bang and the Dinosaurs, and probably covered more Geography, Archaeology, Biology, and Biblical History in our first lesson than typical history itself, but it was really fun. Dornuki particularly enjoyed learning what “latitude” and “longitude” were, and how Tema, our home, is also the closest human settlement to 0° latitude and longitude, and therefore to the center of the world.
-Georgia, Manye Volunteer, Summer 2010 (check out for more stories)
“The Teacher Who Can Sing Anything”
(photo courtesy of Georgia Travers)
About four weeks into term, the teachers decided, due to understaffing, that the volunteers should teach JH English. It was an incredible opportunity, I thought, so I eagerly volunteered. However, right as I was about to enter my first class, Sir Gabriel, the former JH2 English teacher, laughingly wished me good luck with them. But his attitude only made me more determined to listen to the students.
In retrospect, some of my most rewarding work was teaching this group of 14 so-called miscreants. As a volunteer at Manye, I was allowed to take liberties with my students that I could never have done anywhere else. The staff soon came to know me as “the teacher who can sing anything.” The first day I taught them “The Helping Verbs Song,” sung to the tune of Jingle Bells. They were skeptical and mocked my accent at first, but when they realized it was the best way to memorize 23 auxiliary verbs they sang so enthusiastically that the rest of the school crowded around my classroom to watch. Over the course of a month, my class somehow went from not knowing subject-verb agreement to gaining a mastery of complex verb tenses. Amazingly, they came to ask questions in class, something typically discouraged in the Ghanaian education system. I worked with each of them individually on their writing and organized debates on whether caning should be abolished. In class I was their teacher; after school, I asked them about their hobbies, their chores, everything from football to Shakira’s hips. And each day they let me into their lives a little more. I was fortunate enough to befriend Rose, shy and soft-spoken but with an enormous heart and intellect where one’s ego normally goes. She told me of her dreams of studying social science and becoming a Pan-Africanist. If any student could pass the high school entrance exams, it was Rose; and I vowed to myself that no amount of tuition was going to stop her from attending high school.
-Connie, Manye Volunteer, Summer 2010
Creative Arts Show
The kids from JHS gave speeches on their families, as a cumulative part of the project I did with them on photography. I was able to visit most of the students at their homes, where we took portraits of their family members. Then they each wrote compositions about their family members and why they are important to them. Seven of the kids opted to give their speeches at the Creative Arts Show, and the conditions were not ideal. The kids watching were all twittering about, and the wind made it hard to hear, combined with the fact that the students all spoke very quietly. I was standing to the side, and I was so disappointed that their words weren’t getting heard. When Hammond finished his speech, he walked off looking like he’d just won the lottery. These students all have so much potential, and the look on Hammond’s face is the reason the four of us worked so hard to put on that show. I know that it was highly imperfect – sort of boring, hard to hear, started late, but it at least mattered for Hammond.
It was also largely for us, to be honest, as it gave us a clear goal for our Creative Arts classes and a date to look forward to with our students. The whole day felt like a carnival though, and the crowning jewel was when Faisal and the drummers showed up and the kids got to perform what they’ve been learning after school. The whole crowd got involved and the students all looked so amazing in their traditional garb. They were rocking out.
I’ve never felt so exhausted, it was like every muscle of my body was involved with the whole production.
-Martha, Manye Volunteer, Winter 2010 (check out for more stories)