1. We now have white wipey boards in almost all classrooms (replacing the unusable blackboards)
2. Our school is conveniently located…from our district capital; go towards Oda and take the first (paved) left, branch left at the filling station, take the right at the top of the hill; turn left at the T-junction, go straight through the 4-way junction, make your first left at the signboard and you're there! (Note: these are the real directions. Street names, if we had any, would only make things more confusing)
3. Our uniform colors are off-white and burgundy, so if you're into that…
4. There is minimal asbestos in our roofing
5. For a limited time only, the school has a white computer teacher (from America!)
6. We're consistently ranked among the top 5 secondary schools in the district (yes, there are only 5 total)
7. Our school is getting a significant upgrade. When completed, we will have new facilities and programs (or programmes)!
8. We have pretty flowers around campus.
9. Our science lab is filled with dangerous chemicals.
10. Come for the Christian Religious Studies. Stay for Religious and Moral Education (two subjects taught in most schools in Ghana).
11. The students! The teachers! The administration!
I am still alive and well in Ghana. Since I last wrote anything here, many things have happened. I went to America (the embassy in Accra to take the LSAT), school fully re-opened, the new students have begun to show up, another group of Peace Corps Volunteers arrived in Ghana and another group went home, I've almost entered my 18 th month in Ghana, the first supermarket in Ghana opened, construction has been delayed all over town, and I saw something funny.
First, the construction delays. Sometime in April/May, workers started digging ditches in the part of town where I live for a new drain system. They created much havoc. Apparently the drains had to be situated where people already had various sheds, fences, and even walls of their houses. Much property had to be destroyed. About six months later, the drains are still under construction. Workers don't show up for weeks at a time. Mounds of dirt and concrete have been left in the middle of my street making it impossible for cars to maneuver (it was fairly difficult before the construction).
Also in April, the street light outside of my house went out. I assume it still works and only needs a new bulb. Six months later, it has yet to be replaced.
There is a major construction project happening at my school. It's a $500,000 renovation that will build new classrooms, a new computer lab, a new administration building, new toilets, and more. They are also scheduled to renovate some existing buildings.
The project has come to a halt due to lack of financing. Eighty percent was to be paid by the African Development Bank and the rest was coming from the Ghanaian national government. Apparently, ADB stopped sending money, so work has been stopped for more than a month. No one here seems to know when/if it will continue. The entire project was scheduled for completion in June.
Side note, my house is surrounded by three half-built houses. One has sat in its current state since I arrived. One has seen little improvement. The other is actually progressing. The mostly-built house across the street is most upsetting because it has sat unoccupied since I moved in. If it did not exist I would have a beautiful view of the town and the surrounding lush hills. Instead, I get to look at a concrete block.
Now for the funny thing I saw.
Second-hand clothing from the developed world is pervasive in Ghana. There are designer shirts from Armani, apparel from Nike, licensed jerseys, and I've even spotted bar mitzvah shirts and a London 2012 tee. I assume, and I think this is backed up by the scant evidence I've collected, that most people have no idea what their clothing "means." In other words, the Nike Swoosh, recognized by the vast majority of Americans, is meaningless here. And it goes without saying that no one knows what a bar mitzvah is. I'm not sure how Ghanaians choose which second-hand clothing to buy, but I would guess it has a lot to do with price and color.
I was recently in a tro. The man sitting next to me had a pair of locally made khaki pants and a brown shirt. Maybe it clashed, but I'm not sure. Regardless, on top of the brown shirt he was wearing a royal blue vest (I'm almost certain it clashed). The vest had two red stripes across the top. In one of the top corners there was a large patch. It was the Rite-Aid logo. The man sitting next to me was wearing the Rite-Aid employee vest.
I have no real issue with Rite-Aid or with people who work there. I just would not expect anyone, employee or not, to wear their vest around town. In all likelihood, he has no idea what the Rite-Aid patch means. For all he knows, Rite-Aid could be the most fashionable and expensive designer in Europe. I imagined that he was some businessman and was traveling to America for some meeting. He walks into a meeting full of Americans with his Rite-Aid vest on. If you were to try to explain to him what a Rite-Aid is, he probably would not quite get it. Stores like that just don't exist here until...
The supermarket!
Something called the Accra Mall is slowly opening. The first store, called Game, opened in May. It's like Target or K-Mart. Since I make about $200 a month, I don't have a lot of money to spend on the kind of things that one buys at a big retailer like that. It was entertaining to walk up and down the aisles, but that's about it.
Other equally useless smaller stores have opened. There's a Sony Store, a cell phone store, a hair salon, a shoe store, etc.
Last week Ghana's first supermarket opened. Of course, Ghana has places to buy food, but stores are small, cramped, and do not have many products for sale. This is the first real supermarket – 25 aisles, a bakery, butcher, fruits/vegetables, etc. They don't carry American brands. Mostly, I think, products are made in Africa and Asia. I bought a bag of ziti and a soya mince (aka textured vegetable protein)…
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