Another full day in Accra.  Today consisted primarily meeting with a regional director for a collaboration of schools as well as meeting with directors of various education programs across the country.  It has been interesting to compare the differences between the teachers' views of the great challenges that public education in Ghana faces as compared to what the more bureaucratic side of things is.  From my discussions today it seemed that the biggest challenges were as follows:

• Most teachers make about 400 Cedi a month here (less than $300) and are assigned a school to teach at.  This means that many have to teach in places hours from their homes.  Often times bare accommodations are provided for these teachers making many unwilling to stay.  Although there are many teachers in the US who see their profession as a calling, being a public school teacher here would be one of the hardest jobs I could imagine.

• Many of the more innovative educational things in this country are supported by NGO work from other countries (especially the US).  Although this is important to build diplomacy, it seems to me that this is really an unsustainable model for educational systems.

•  Many of the rural schools in Ghana do not have electricity or running water.  As well, some of the students have to walk great distances even to get to school.  This prevents many students from attending regularly.

Below is a short video where I pose a question regarding the traditional red soil you will find in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Given the hot and humid conditions, my classes should determine why the soil is this color.  Watch the video for a clearer description of this.

As in my last post, I am still seeking US students who will create a short video to explain what a typical life for high school student is in your town.  Tomorrow and all of the next week I will be sharing these with Ghanaian high school students.  The first 3 who submit are eligible for a prize....

Happy Independence Day!!!  At least in Ghana.    On March 6th 1957 Ghana declared independence from British rule. Today I spent the morning watching the official parade and festivities since it is a national holiday and students did not have school.  I can't say there were a lot of fireworks but it is clear that Ghanians are very patriotic.  It makes me realize how much I often take for granted living in the US which has been under democratic rule for such a long period.  Many people in the world don't have this freedom.

In the afternoon, I attended a lecture of the history of the Ghanaian Educational System.  Although school through 9th grade is free and compulsory, attending secondary school in this country is not free.  It costs anywhere from $500 to $1000 US dollars of tuition a year.  This doesn't include the fact that many students actually have to travel away from home to attend secondary schools and have to pay boarding fees.  Given that Ghana is one of the most progressive and safe countries in sub-Saharan Africa, it is amazing to think how many students simply don't have the opportunity to attend secondary school at all.

Ending the day, I had my first taste  of Ghanian Blackberries.  See the video below for more details of this tasty new treat.

Hello everyone,

     Day 2 in Ghana has been a full one.  It started off with a 2 hour lecture on the history of Ghana.  Not that one can actually talk about the history of any country in such a short period of time, but given the fact that most schools teacher very little about African history in high school, it was fascinating!!!  After this I actually got a chance to visit the US Embassy here were we were led in a panel discussion about differences between Ghana's education system and our own.  This panel was fun because my 2 host teachers were both leading the discussion, both having spent some time on exchange programs in the US.  I will be  visiting the school for the first time on Wednesday. 

   From what I can tell the average class size is about 50 students.  Rather than the students moving, the students in the high school actually stay in the classroom and the teachers move between classes.  My assumption is that it would be pretty difficult to do any substantial lab work in science classes.  This is something I will learn more about later this week when I am actually in the school.  Tomorrow and Wed. are both holiday here (Ghanian Independence Day).  I should have some good footage of the Independence parade for tomorrow.

    My evening tonight was spent learning about some of the traditional African dances that at one time were practiced by the tribes in this country.  Below is a video clip that I shows a little of the energy found in such dancing.  They did convince me to do some dancing as well which I will try to post tomorrow (it is on another person's camera).  I am not sure how well the video upload will work given the relatively slow internet but we will give it a try.

      So here is a little incentive for my students or any Oconomowoc students who may be following.  When I go to the school, the students want to know what life is like for the average American high school student.  The first 3 students to post short video clips on youtube discussing their life at OHS are eligible for a gift I will bring back from Ghana.  Please just post them on youtube and then in the comment box of the blog just comment with the link.  If you can post your own questions, I will have some of the Ghanian students respond back with video as well.

Akwaaba!!!!   I just learned today means "welcome" in the Akan language.  This language is native to Ghana and is spoken by about 1/2 of the population.  One of the most surreal things for me so far though is that almost everyone here speaks fluent English with a British accent.  This make sense since the country was at one point a British colony.  I have been many places but few so foreign in which English is the primary spoken language. 

The group (10 teachers and myself from all over the country) arrived today at about 2 pm Ghana time.  It is pretty hot and humid (32 deg C which is about 90 deg F).  We are 6 hours ahead of central standard time which means I have basically been up for 36 hours since I slept little on the 9 hour plane ride.  Below is a picture of my first meal.  Sorry of the low quality picture.  The meal was referred to as red-red.  It can best be described as a fish that has been cooked in a slightly spicy tomato sauce and served with fried plantains (basically across between a potato and a banana but not sweet).

To my students I am posing the following factor label problem.  Mr. Holzmiller, I would appreciate if you could see they tackle this one.

The currency in Ghana is the Cedi (see picture below).

So 1 US dollar = 1.67 Cedi.  If the cost of gasoline here is 1.71 Cedi per liter, and there are 3.78 L in 1 gallon, figure out how much money it would cost to fill up a 10.0 gallon tank of a Hyndai which tends to be a popular car model here.  Please respond as a class with the correct answer to this.

Tomorrow I will try to give a video blog update.  I am pretty jet lagged today

I am getting very excited about the opportunity I have in the coming weeks to travel to Ghana.  I will be leaving this Saturday from Milwaukee and meeting up with 10 other educators in Washington D.C.   We will then travel on an overnight flight to Accra, Ghana where we will be meeting our host teachers.  Although I have always prided myself on being a fairly globally minded person, I have to be honest in that I really know very little about Ghana or Africa in general.  The chance to immerse myself in a completely new culture is something that I cherish.  I am even more excited to that I can bring my students (at least metaphorically if not physically) along with me.

While in Ghana, I am going to focus my anthropological research on trying to find ways that my students can work with science students in Ghana on projects related to energy development and energy conservation.  I have chosen this question primarily because energy is huge topic in science that can be explored from many perspectives.  As well, I have an assumption that in many ways, students in Ghana have a more conservatory lifestyle than in the US.  Again though, this is an assumption.