Many things....

Quite a few things to ramble on about today.

A few funny notes from Cape Coast that I forgot before. The canopy walk was built by a couple of rock climbing canadians or something like that with bows and arrows to get the ropes up around the trees. They told us because it's rainy season to be careful not to shake the trees because snakes might fall from the water-filled canopies. Also, in the town of Cape Coast Saturday afternoon, with Ghana playing S. Africa in the world cup qualifiers, a huge chear went up that we could hear reverberating throughout the town when Ghana scored. Kind of cool.

Yay, looks like my Sox have gone on quite the winning streak. Sort of. All green on the redsox.com week schedule. This keyboard sucks though. Also the screen is way too magnified, it's quite annoying.

Monday was World Refugee Day and so all our classes and work were shut down for the camp holiday. We got notice fo this Friday and then Monday morning we found out that Semeh Roberts, the CBW director, was to speak at the ceremony. We went to part of it, but it was quite hard to understand everyone with the microphones misbehaving and all of that. There was some sort of rehearsed coming together of the elders of the 16 Liberian tribes to make peace which was the most chaotic thing I've ever seen, a typical African ceremony I joked to someone.

That afternoon I decided to do my own laundry, or washing as they call it here. I was doing it just inside the screen door of the kitchen and of course with all those kids always staring into the house, two girls started making fun of me for doing it wrong. They invited themselves in to show me - except, despite my attempts to explain the concept of teaching and lettign the student practice, they'd keep snatching each item of clothing from me to do it themselves. I explained that we do our washing in machines and push a button and they said that's lazy. Funny, I always thought laundry was a pain in the ass, but it's true - and these girls were so used to scrubbing each item of clothes that they said it was nothing. I bought them each dinner and a soda.

Yesterday one fo the little candy/cookie shops I walked by had cadburry!!!! Here the chocolate is awful, though I have sampled a variety of cookies and do really enjoy the ginger cookies and a certain kind of shortbready-cookie filled with chocolatey-hazlenutty paste. The cadburry expires this month, which is probably why it was there, and it was only twice as much as a local chocolate bar (30 cents for cadburry!) but damn it is good.

Last night was supposed to be the goodbye ceremony for two girls who have been here 4.5 months and are leaving today, one of whom is the pioneer/shaper of the new GVN rep. position to maintain and facilitate the relationship between CBW and the international volunteers. I guess there's been a lot of turmoil and then improvement in the relations over the past three or four months. Anyay, we found out around the time it was to start that the administration (director, treasurer, volunteer coordinator, etc) had taken the CBW car (that's another story of problematic beuraucracy witout accountability) itno Accra and it had broken down. So the ceremony never happened, which really angerd both of these girls and rightfully so. There was one today at noon but their energy had gone out of it having done their personal goodbyes and speaches amongst themselves last night. I am writing this as sort of a launching pad into a rant about CBW in general. And my experience here. I mena, I'm hear for six weeks, nothing I do is sustainable in terms of leaving a lasting effect like those two girls have done. I can hopefully positively effect some of my students, teach some kids a little more math than they would have known otherwise, and get them through the schoolyear to next year when the new building and attempt for accredidation by Ghana will raise the standards for teacher hiring. But you really do have to be hear that long because things move so god damned slowly here. It is definately a cultural thing - people late to meetings, late on deadlines, casual about carrying out any sort of plan. And this adjustment is especially hard for me, with my direct, get-to-it approach. Even the saying hi and stopping to talk on the street is a problem for me - I've written about my reasons for not responding to many people, but a lot of the time with kids or women I'll wave but still rush on, maybe calling back "how are you" over my shoulder. Which is normal at home. I'm in such a habit of rushing from one thing to the next, which I will blame paritally on my northeastern, rushed boston upbringing. I like to walk fast, I like to approach tasks directly. In only 6 weeks here I just can't adjust to the "African way" of doing things. It's very foreign to me, so when it comes to getting things done it's so hard to see how little gets accomplished in a period of time. And my god all of the formalities at meetings, the thankyous and opening and closing prayers and all that - I get it, htat's the culture, but it drags on and on. Not the most efficient way to run an organization - at the same time I know that the more efficient way would work even worse here because of the culture we are in, becuase you do have to work with it. I'm not sure how much sense this is making, but I guess I'm trying to convey a sense of frustration about getting things done. I'm not frustrated at the culture, or CBW, becuase that's the way things are here, and I'm not frustrated with myself for not adjusting, because I know I've adjusted quite a bit (and more than I've shown in this little rant here) but there's only so far my habits and customs will go and my training and education and background has done that to me. Were I here months or a year I think I would make the adjustment to fit in, if only because I'd be forced to not to go insane. But in three weeks I'll be in another culture (thast will be quite interesting to compare) and then a month after that, back at school where I have to get things done bang bang bang.

Anyway, CBW. Despite cultural differences, there are certain basic failings within the organization. This car that they allegedly bought to pick up international volunteers, that didn't pick me up, that is often seen wasting fuel money driving around camp because it's a status symbol on camp to be driving a car. And driving it around the ditches of dusty camp puts it in horrible shape. In terms of money, they cut corners on picking us up and dropping us off and even our food (which has gotten miserable lately, but we're going to try and fix it tonight) and meanwhile where is this money going? International volunteers are like 95% of their budget, but we see little to no accounting of how it gets spent. I'm sure most of it is legitimate, but there's stuff like all that show-off fuel when they claim they can't drop us back at the airport. And they've made this beach day manditory saturday for all employees - yet everyone has to pay their own way, 25,000 cedis which is one sixth of most of the local volunteers' monthly salary, regardless of whether they want to go or whether they are going, and with a trip on your own costing half that.

At the same time, with my long list fo gripes about the management of the organization and finances and what's going on in school, I've on and off been totally amazed at what they are doing here. The sanitation programs are incredible and so needed, the aids education, the school that costs somehting like half of what other schools on camp cost. To persevere, to work for so little money at jobs many are overqualified for (clearly that's not most of the teachers, but many administrators have degrees, one worked in a hospital, one has a business degree, etc) serving their own people and tirelessly organizing various projects to improve the life of the camp. It's quite impressive, quite incredible, desperately needed, despite my complaints aboiut the slow pace of thigns they've managed to accomplish quite a bit and I know that many things just are slow here, it's just the way things work.

Another frustration today was in trying to go over the final exam drafts Mr. Johnson made. He drafted the four grades with 20 qurestions, 22, 25, and 30, then tells me there should be 15 or 20 for a 60 point score. Some of the questions were terribley confusing, had more than one right answer, or no correct answer. Given that they've only got an hour to do the test, I'm going ot shorten them all to 20 questions but I've got to rewrite much of it and to make half multiple choice like Johnson wanted but didn't do himself. That he took weeks to do this and then it's all wrong just depresses me so much - this is what the kids have bene getting. And now that I can see what I think is the curriculum for the year (though he left things out I know they've done that I had to add) I know why, for example, the third grade had such trouble with measurements: they hadn't learned multiplication and division and decimals, sequentially earlier in the curriculum for a very, very good reason. Meanwhile I'm suppo\sed to be typing all 50 or so exams for the whole school but the teachers haven't given them to the principle so he can't get them to me.

But life chugs on, I'm starting my little reading/geography class tomorrow and attendence should be good, I've gotten some nice clothes back from the tailor's, I do enjoy the kids, especially those around the house, and it is overall a good experience, just all of these frustrations come out on the blog. The same culture that seems so restrictive to progress within CBW and school is also one that gives much liesure time, cool music and clothes, great food, and though I may walk quickly, the politeness and friendliness is refreshing and nice.

One more complaint, though. This week has been terrible with the loudspeaker that goes on at 4 or 6 am and blasts on about religious stuff so loudly you wake up and can't get back to sleep. I go to bed early, but it's not an uninterupted sleep by any means.