Koforidua and the Presby Basic School

Thursday, January 19

Early Thursday morning Doug heads up to Koforidua with Kwame the friendly cab driver. It’s only a couple hours away and the roads are good. We came across Kwame when our friend Eddie recommended him for any all-day or half-day trips where we wanted a taxi to wait while we conducted our business and then take us to the next stop for more. He is good, friendly, helpful and the A/C is appreciated along with a very clean and well maintained car, one that even goes UP hill.

The school in the village of Okorase on the north side of an escarpment of say 500 feet in height is the Presby Basic School consisting of Kindergarten 1 (4 year olds) through 9th grade students. In Ghana that’s Kg through form 3. A recently retired headmistress (Janet Adu) and I have been corresponding for a while so she meets us out on the highway and directs us through some narrow places and gullies to the school.

The physical buildings are in pretty good shape, but none have the suspended ceilings below the pitched tin roof and rafters to stop the direct radiation of the sun’s heat onto the students below. The classrooms are hot, even during Hamatan. I meet all the staff at work in their rooms and cause disruptions in each case. The kids uniformly jump up and stand straight behind their desks to give the choral greeting, “Good morning sir. How are you today?” as I enter.

I have lunch brought in from the local market consisting of rice and chicken with a tomato based sauce reduction for a little spice. Then the staff assembles while the students are on break for a Q and A session where their most pressing needs for equipment are expressed. The list is long and includes science equipment for measuring quantities and for identifying unknown substances through chemical analysis (beakers, graduated flasks, test tubes and a Bunsen burner); drawing equipment for the study of geometry (protractor, ruler, right angle square and a compass); Dominoes, puzzles and alphabet tiles (3D letters of plastic); reading textbooks and library books; footballs (that’s a soccer ball to Americans) and sports jerseys; musical instruments like flutes and mouth organs; globes, atlases and wall maps; metric measuring tools for cooking and a digital scale. There are many more items than I care to list here!

We pause for the exchange of cards and email addresses and a photo or two and then Kwame and I depart. The staff is already waiting for our return with reading textbooks sometime this year. There are three guest houses in town, a couple with A/C and within walking distance of the school for those of you wondering about accommodations while you volunteer your time here. :-)

Kwame and I visit the Koforidua market and I do some successful bargaining for which Kwame compliments me saying that Doug knows his way around a Ghanaian market. First time for everything I guess! The products here are mostly beads, many from the village of Krobo where ceramic beads are made, plus an assortment from India, China and neighboring countries.

We head home in A/C comfort stopping for fresh, sweet pineapple on the way. Dinner tonight with our hosts Philomena and Alan is Doug’s favorite Ghanaian dish, ground nut stew with vegetables and chicken. It is fantastic—the best he’s ever tasted! Instead of a ball of fufu, Philo uses smashed rice which is not so heavy for obroni’s stomach. Dessert consists of a shot or two of Knob Creek Kentucky bourbon served either on the rocks or neat. (Yeah, I’d never heard of that term either—neat means straight, plain, no ice). No one knows how the Knob Creek came to Ghana, but somehow there it was on the shelf!

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