Saturday, May 21, 2011

Do Snakes Poop?

My bathhouse is a cement cube, with no roof, and with a groove along the base wall with an opening to let water drain out. So recently I have found this nice, tidy, pile of droppings strategically placed at the drain. Not sheep or goat, which are everywhere at my site, but kinda similar. Not quite rabbit pellets, either. The night screamer has been back, and locals tell me it looks like a small rabbit, which might be close. They say the screamer is nocturnal and lives in trees. So before it comes down at night to feed it sends out about 20 minutes of bloodcurdling screams, to scare away any predators that might be at the base of the tree. When I first came here it was just terrifying, but I got used to it, And he apparently moves around, because there will be weeks at a time when I don't hear it.

But I wondered about snakes. I've seen only two since I've been here, and they seemed kinda small compared to the size of the pile, but maybe. It's just so damned TIDY, I can't think of an animal so fastidious. Well, actually, we once had a Siamese cat that got locked in the house one day by accident. She very carefully pooped in the garbage disposer in the kitchen sink. But Siamese cats are not like any other animal I know. Needless to say, we didn't lock her in again.!

I'm promising one blog update a week until I leave here, which is in about nine weeks. So this one is short, but it's a start. And I'll have something more interesting next week. In the meantime, if you have any ideas about the mystery pooper, let me know.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Calendar update

When PCVs were working with students for the calendar competition they mostly worked with a few students in their class, a school club, etc. Because I went to so many different schools, and got so many entries, it was easy for me to spot work that was copied. When I got three identical versions of the same piece, I started asking questions, and learned that many students here don't see any difference between original art, a copy, or even a tracing. Many of the pieces that were submitted to me were copies of earlier HIV education materials. One young man did an identical piece of "original" work for himself and two of his friends, and one girl actually traced a picture of Cinderella in a coloring book - but she put a soccer ball in her hands. So I rejected anything that I was sure had been copied. The kids just didn't get it. "But Madahm, it is my hand that held the pencil, so it is my work!" "But it is not your vision, and it did not come from inside your brain." Round and round, but I held firm. If it was copied from an earlier poster, or a teaching manual, it was out.

So time went on, we finally got names of the winners and then the actual calendars. You can imagine my consternation when I saw that at least some of the winners submitted the same copied work that I had rejected! January was sort of a copy, but had enough new detail added that it seems OK. Same with April. July is not only flat-out copied, it might have been traced. Same with December. So I have calendars to distribute to the participating schools, and then the visits began. Students saw that someone won with the same work they had copied and I rejected! The head mistress at my winning student's school agreed that it is a problem she deals with over and over. But, she said, "Some times in Ghana when you do the right thing you make somebody angry." I assured her it was the same way in my country, but I still took a lot of flak. From an angry parent, an uncle who had paid for the photograph that accompanied work that was rejected, another parent, a weeping child, etc. A lot of unhappy campers, let me tell you. And I am sort of cranky, also, because some of the work I did turn in was much better than the copies that won...only nobody realized they were copies.

We were already talking about a different approach next year, so that a nine-year old girl isn't competing with a 20-year old guy, and hope to find a better way to handle the categories. And now this. I don't see any way we can memorize every piece of HIV info that's been published in Ghana over the years, but all the teachers agree that we should not accept work that is copied. Maybe just some sneaky interview with each student, along the lines of What a good idea, how did you ever think of that, etc., etc. But I won't be here for the next competition, so somebody else can wrestle with that one.

We had a similar problem with the applications for the GLOW camp last year. Each girl had to submit an essay about her best role model, and some of them were flat copied from somewhere else, like an encyclopedia, a news article, etc. One of the main purposes of the essay was to determine a girl's English skills; we didn't care about spelling or grammar so much as ideas and comprehension. So this year the essays will be written in the presence of a teacher, a PCV, etc. It sorta makes sense, because almost all teaching here is done by rote and in unison. An art teacher told me that when he gave the kids blank paper and said it was free time, they just sat there. "But you didn't tell me what to draw!"

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Small Victories

There has been a lot of HIV/AIDS education in Ghana, but there is still a lot of misinformation and stigma surrounding the entire topic. There have been cases where someone who tested positive went home and drank DDT because he believed his life was over. Others who tested positive and were open about their situation have been evicted from their homes, driven from their villages, etc. I even spoke with a pastor whose Christian congregation made him leave their church.
There is a US Presidential funding source for HIV education, and last year Peace Corps in Ghana developed a theme and had students around the country design posters or other art to promote that idea. They then chose twelve and published a calendar for 2010. This year the theme is MY FRIEND WITH HIV IS STILL MY FRIEND, and volunteers were asked to help spread that message as part of a national effort to reduce the stigma attached to the condition.
I went to the headmaster of a nearby school, and asked if he would be willing to let me speak to his students about HIV sometime. He called them all into an assembly on the spot, and I just started in. My intro was like, “your pastor, your teachers, and your parents have told you all the different ways you can contract HIV. Today I want us to talk about all the ways you WILL NOT contract HIV.” It was pretty successful, I thought, and the kids seemed interested and involved, but I figured they were also glad to get out of regular classes. However, before long other teachers and schools asked if I would come talk with their students.
Before it was over I spoke at nine schools, including public and private, Catholic and Muslim, with between 30 and 65 kids at each session. I had about a 30-minute talk, which was then translated by the teachers into Twi and Krobo, so the students heard the message several times. They were always quite shy at the beginning, but someone would ask the first question and we would then get into some pretty good discussions about playing, eating, and working together. Then I offered them the opportunity to design a poster for the 2011 calendar. Peace Corps provided the art supplies, and the first version was done with colored pencil and crayon. I got drafts from 82 kids! Last year each student who applied got top quality art supplies, but there was such a good turnout this time that PC let us submit and give poster paints and good quality art paper for only 10 entries. I chose what I thought were the 10 best, and each of those students then did a full-size poster that I submitted.
I don’t know how many students from all over Ghana submitted work with their local PCV, but it was well over 300. I was relieved that a committee in Accra had to make the final decisions, and it turned out that one of the students from my village won a place in the calendar on the month of May. His school is very proud, and for me it is one tangible thing I can look at. I often have to remind myself that whatever we can do, small-small, can make a difference.
The whole topic has some built-in dissonance. You want people to get tested, do the treatments, and live the best lives they can free of hassle and discrimination. The Ghanaian government supplies the anti-viral meds for only five Ghana cedis a month and there are good counseling services available. On the other hand, HIV is damn serious and you want everyone to recognize that fact and protect themselves in all the ways they have been taught.