Die Hard

Africa “was” pretty far from me and finally I was invited to His land by “the God of Ghana”. However it would be “still” faraway, as I was feeling, from most of you in actual distance and psychological recognition. Thus I’ll talk about basic information and understanding of this country.

Ghana is located in West Africa where she enjoys the Gulf of Guinea with neighboring countries, Togo and Côte d’Ivoire, and an inland country, Burkina Faso, covers them up like a cap. It used to be said that this region was the place of diseases such as Malaria, Cholera, Yellow fever, diarrhea, etc., but today it’s safe and hygiene enough for Ghanaians and foreigners to live life in peace, though we, outsiders, need anti-Malaria medicine. And AIDS seems one of medical issues but I hardly hear about it in everyday life; in my impression, it isn’t that bad as statistics and reputation say.

And speaking of statistics, the population of Ghana is estimated 24.2 million in 2010; it is said that there are 79 languages spoken (2 sign languages used) and that 52 ethnic groups live in their own tradition, which is totally a multi-cultural society. Actually in my school, some teachers can’t speak the local language, Dagbani, and English and “Twi”, the major ethnic language, are spoken as common languages. Some tribes, mainly ones living in north, have a custom that they make their own scars by cutting baby’s cheek to distinguish themselves from other tribes. Some people might think that it is “barbarism”, but it would be dangerous for us to judge other culture thoughtlessly by our norms. The custom “Eating meat” is completely barbarism from the viewpoint of vegetarians. Differences are something that we respect and our world is fruitful thanks to differences of people.   

And Ghana has a relatively good electricity supply in Africa; although there are power outages frequently, especially in dry season, it doesn’t last for a long time, half day at maximum. The power is mainly, 70%, generated by the Akosombo Dam forming “Lake Volta” in southeastern Ghana, which is the biggest artificial lake by surface area in the world. This dam was completed in 1965 under the president, Nkrumah. Today people enjoy night with light throughout Ghana thanks to it.

Ghana has got its independence in 1957 from British imperialism under the leader, Kwame Nkrumah, who is the first president of Ghana. His job was very meaningful for Africans because it was the first independence in the African Continent; Africa was silently sleeping in dark until the Black Star start shining in the night sky of Africa. It was the dawn of independence. He gave a very meaningful speech on January 8, 1960, Accra: “We believe that the independence of Ghana is meaningless, unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African Continent”. There is something that you should not forget in life. Today we know whether his job was meaningless or meaningful, but is that true? He also stated in the same speech: “(…) the enemy is intangible, invisible and impersonal, (…) Imperialism and colonialism die hard, and what they fail to achieve in one form they try in another. We must therefore, be on our constant and vigilant guard against any form of subtle domination by whosoever and from wheresoever”. So what does it mean?

 According to Wikipedia, 20% of Akosombo Dam’s electric output is provided to Ghanaians and the remaining 80% is used for the American-owned Volta Aluminium Company. The things is, Ghana  paid, by contract, for over 50% of the cost of its construction and can use only 20% of it. Some people regard it as “Neo-colonialism”. In truth, this word was made up by Nkrumah himself. So what does it mean? Did he know what the contract meant when he signed it? Or was he tricked by “them”? 

Dream lives in Dream

 The road to Ghana was long, and long, and long in my impression. My first encounter with Ghana was at the age of 10 when my class teacher said in a class: “You know ‘Ghana chocolate’ sold in Japan, but children in Ghana can’t eat chocolate.” I don’t know whether or not, it was true or not at that time. He was trying to explain that in some places on the same planet at the same time, there were people living in poverty, so we had to appreciate our environment in Japan. It was the time of conflicts in the African continent after independences. I questioned myself why I could eat it but they couldn’t in my mind. And throughout my childhood whenever I complained to meals, my mother used to say “People existed on starving and struggling in Africa caused by famines. So you must eat it up!” It was the time of famines in Ethiopia and some other places in Africa. I questioned myself if I could send my meals to Africa in my mind. I became aware of Africa in a negative sense.

On the other hand, I really liked to watch the TV program called “Kaoru KANETAKA’S The World Around Us”, in which a lady goes around other countries and comments on what she saw there, and was so excited about traditions and folkways of indigenous Africa that I became yarning and longing for Africa. And I was so attracted to black people in sports seen on screen, like in Olympic Games, who were muscular, stout, powerful, tireless, and tough that I wanted to become black. And I was so enchanted to the beauty of black women who were joyful, mysterious, sacred, energetic, and transparent that I wanted to meet them to perceive their mystery with all my cells. My image of Africa and black people was rather positive and the color of skin “Black” became the symbol of beauty of mankind in me, and I created an ideal and dreamy image of Africa in my mind.

It was a long journey to come to my dreamy Africa; years are piled up 30 times to step on the soil of my reverent Africa. Now I am on the earth of my Dream! Needless to say, “my Africa” is an artificial and fictitious image of Africa, and the real Africa is totally different from my dreamy Africa and real black people might not be as beautiful as the ones living in my reverent Africa. I know the Africa that I saw on TV no longer exits, and I know it is my reminiscence. Nevertheless now I am luckily in the land of African and can see black people walking on the road, hear birds singing in the air, and feel wind blowing through me. Whenever I see people, hear birds, and feel wind, I talk to me in childhood, imagining my Africa, just then I can see my Africa vividly, overlapping the scene beyond my sights, and my imagination brings me to the dream that I saw when I was child. My Africa is fictitious but it does exit before my very eyes and is visible to my eyes with the innocent heart of childhood. We can’t see our dream in reality but we can see it if we imagine. Just close your eyes and make your heart pure like 5-year old child. Voila!! You resurrect it as it was ever in your childhood.

Some years ago, when I had a little chat with a Ghanaian friend that I met in France, she said: "Quand j'étais petite, Japon était mon rêve! (When I was kid, Japan was my dream!)", and I answered: “Really? Ghana was also my dream!” Happily, now I live in my dream! Even if Ghana is not the same as my Ghana, my dream keeps living in my heart. Dream lives in Dream. Dream is invisible unless you imagine; Dream is visible if you imagine with the heart of child. It’s just simple.

 - Adieu, dit le renard. Voici mon secret. Il est très simple : on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.

Goodbye, - said the Fox. - This is my secret. It is very simple: you can only see with your heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes.)

From "Le Petit Prince – The Little Price"  

Savelugu School For The Deaf

As I said, I was supposed to start writing much earlier, but I am running late. I’ve already spent for 1 year and 3 months in Ghana and finished 4 terms in the school. I have lots of things that I want to write about, but I can’t talk about everything, so I must leave some out and might have to compress and condense my stories. If you feel too messy or unclear, you can put in some baking powder to puff my words out and make it suit your taste with a help of imagination. I would expect that you will be a visionary and dreamer from time to time. “You may say I am a dreamer but I am not the only one, I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.” 

Let’s start with my school, Savelugu School For The Deaf. Brief. The school was established in 1978 for deaf children from kindergarten to Junior High School, and there are almost 300 students studying and living in this boarding school. And the school is located in a village called “Gbanyeli”, which is a part of the town, Savelugu in Northern Region, Ghana. There is the 3^rd biggest “city” called Tamale about 30 km away from the school. Although it is the 3^rd biggest “city” in Ghana, there is no big construction in the center of the "city", but just several two-storied buildings in Tamale, so it sounds a “big town” in my impression. And students come from the entire Northern Region, which has the largest area in Ghana; some students come from Savelugu, some from Tamale, some from far towns, and even students from other regions, though there is at least one deaf school in each region. Naturally their cultural backgrounds are so various and different from each other. And they belong to either Christian or Islam. Ghana is a Christian country (69.1% are Christians), yet it is said, more Muslim population in north and more Christians living in south. Yet as far as my school is concerned, roughly the majority Muslim would be 70% and Christians 30%.

When I saw the request information on the Internet before applying in Japan, I was a bit surprised by the fact that there was deaf school in Ghana, because I didn’t know that this country was affluent and fruitful enough in terms of food, education, health service, materials for everyday life and social life; everyone carries mobile phone and every family has TV, fridge, motor cycle at home. And you would be so surprised if you see Ghanaian Madams walking down the street, who are chubby and fleshy in beautiful Ghanaian dress with accessories. And above all, wherever you go, everybody is smiling merrily and joyfully; you would never feel gloomy atmosphere in Ghana. As a matter of fact, Ghana is rich enough to provide decent education to children with disabilities.

However it is true that there’re many schools that don’t have enough equipment and environment for studies like science, computer, especially in north of Ghana because it is said that north is much poorer than south in Ghana (some say it’s discrimination). As for my school, thanks to deafness ironically, NGOs or some people bring funds to the school, so we have a computer lab and computers, unlike other hearing schools where students learn computer without computers. “World Vision” has supported our school to found water system in campus; “Right to Play” built a volleyball court and playground with full of equipment like Seesaw, Slide, Swing, Jungle gym, etc. However classrooms, desks, and chairs, are tired, worn out and broken because the school doesn’t maintain and repair them when they start going bad, but remains them untouched, naturally they will be broken sooner or later. In a little conclusion, I would say that Ghana is rich enough materially, but people’s attitude toward things is problematic. Well, I live in Ghana with sufficient things comfortably now. 

 

JOCV (Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer)

I’ve been working in Ghana as a volunteer in a deaf school since November, 2011, and must explain the background of my current situation. In October, 2010, I applied for a post of volunteer and in September, 2011, officially became a member of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), which is a national organization and distributes Japanese volunteers to developing countries all over the world. And my official status is called JOCV (Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers) and I was assigned as an ICT teacher for 2 years at “Savelugu School For The Deaf” in Ghana. Although my position in the school is a teacher, the official name of post in JICA is called “Youth activity”, whose expected duties include not only assigned work itself - to teach ICT, but also cultivation of children’s aesthetic sensibilities, moral education, and disciplines. Therefore I must contribute to humanize children; sadly enough, some parents don’t give proper education and discipline in family.

And then I must refer to the status of my passport. I've got a diplomatic passport for this occasion, so my existence has become, in my understanding, not only private but also “public” automatically. Namely regardless of my will, I represent Japan; in other words, people regard my words and behavior as Japan's. Although it might be a bit heavy for some volunteers to shoulder it, I am very happy with it and feel honor to take responsibilities in Ghana as a representative of Japan.

Now let me talk about my work and assignment place. Although my primary job is to teach ICT (Information and Communication Technology) - computer skills and knowledge, in the deaf school, I have no experience of teaching Computer beforehand. Yet almost 10 years ago, I learned “IT (Information Technology)” skills and knowledge in Australia, but I was a student, not teacher. And what’s more difficult is that I must teach it in sign language to deaf students from primary-4 to JHS-3, 7 classes, about 160 students, so this is a big challenge for me. And when I came to the school for homestay last year, I checked computers in the lab, which had been abandoned for a long time, and only 4 computers out of 18 were working properly without problem, and what’s worse, 2 newly bought computers were destroyed by mice, not computer “mouse”, but animal mouse, due to the bad maintenance of environment. This was the start. And I repaired more than 10 computers little by little, including one for office use, and currently 13 computers are working (3 computers were broken again in the last 6 months because of the heat, dust, or excessive use of computer etc.).

And there is no Ghanaian ICT teacher sent by GES (Ghana Educational Service) in the school at the moment, though there used to be one. This is problematic because whatever I do in the school, it will be lost after I leave the school, which means that my work is, as a result, not constructive and continuous; there is nothing to be shared and connected to the future. I don’t say my work will be in vain but it is sad. JICA policy requires the host organization to provide a counterpart, who helps and collaborates with volunteer, but the former principal (since November, the new head has been replaced) was not helpful at all, so she didn’t make sufficient effort to set up the basic environment, which is supposed to be talked about and understood when the school made contract with JICA. Anyway I'm the first volunteer in Savelugu School For The Deaf, so it is me who should make efforts to build up basic environment for future volunteers following. Things don’t change overnight.

Well, I talked about a bit of background and my situation in the school. Although there're so many things to talk about, that’s enough for today. Anyway I'm very happy to write to you, thank you.