Teacher shortfall...

I read yesterday that there is a shortfall of 17,ooo(approx) teachers for basic education in Ghana. And that is if all teachers graduating this year teach and no one leaves teaching!!!

But to be honest what can you expect when some teachers can work for a year and not get paid! not much incentive is it?

Beach Life

I have just spent the last week on a really idyllic beach. The reason being a VSO workshop! - nice place to have one i'd say...

The place was about 4 hours west of Accra, so it was quite a feat to get there. The journey started so well with us getting a lift in a NGO Aircon Land Cruiser to Tamale, which took 4 hours instead of a journey which took 1.5 days last time! then the next day we took the bus (no aircon this time) to Accra. This bus was a coach with middle seats so some poor people had to sit on a uncomfortable jump seat for 13.5 hours... Glad it wasn't me.

We then had a day in Accra and then took a aircon Tro-Tro to Takaradi - slight difference to the ones between Tumu and anywhere... and finally a taxi to the beach - in all it took four days to get there!

There is such a difference between the north and south of Ghana. I never really noticed it on the way north, I guess I was overwhelmed by everything new. But looking out of the bus window it is quite ridiculous the size and quality of houses the fruit and food in the shops the total lack of obvious poverty in the towns - its still there but the divide is that much wider. It makes me angry to see the number of children not attending school in towns which are so much more wealthy than the north!

I will write more about this next time when I have had time to sit and think about it more.

This post is about the beach...

Ahhh the beach. I think I overdosed on good food and relaxation. We spent 6 days there in total and now we are on our journey back north. At the moment we are in Kumasi. The second largest city in Ghana. I like it here, much nicer than Accra which is like any capital anywhere.

I am in the British Council using the internet for free - shhhh don't tell anyone! great what the VSO card can do...

Tomorrow we head backt o Tumu so hopefully I should be there for classes on Tuesday...

Then there was rain...

The Sunday night of no electric we had the most amazing rain storm. I have never seen anything like it. The water came down in sheets and the lightning was right over my little house making everything light up pink and white, it made me hope my house is water tight - You may question why - but I know houses where the roofs have come off or swimming pools appear in the living room.

So it is now the start of the rainy season (or should be if the rain came more regularly) and with only 3 rains so far every where has become a carpet of lush green. You can almost see if growing in front of your eyes - amazing!!

Along with the rain the insects come out. My house is right on the edge of town, I seem to have so many more. I look out of my bedroom window at night and the mesh is covered in a blanket of crickets, beetles and moths as they take a rest from flying at the security light. They never seem to get bored of doing this. I think they play games to see how many times the can hit the light in a second.

My little house maybe water tight but it sure isn't bug tight - even with my new screen doors - There is one bug - a little black ladybird type thing that can get through the mosquito nets. These bugs seem to have some kind of vendetta against me. If I switch a light on in my bedroom then my mosquito net turns black with these things they commando down through the net and onto my bed. I now don't put lights on in my room and even on some nights tried sleeping under two mossie nets, but those things still managed to get through the obstacle course. I think they saw it as a bit of a challenge.

Its not so bad now cos I can sit in the living room until late when they start to go to sleep, but when we had no power and it was pitch black at 7pm (which reminds me I think someone has stolen the moon, it hasn't been here for ages!!) There is not much to do but to go to bed, its too hot for candles - droopy candle syndrone!! and my kerosene lamp doesn't really give off enough light to read by. But 7pm is bug rush hour, they are all out!! So I have survived the end of Harmattan and the really hot season now its the start of the rainy season or should I say bug season... What will happen next???

When the lights went out...

Since my last update life in Tumu has been pretty quiet. It has been Easter holidays so I have had no teaching to do, and with the arrival of 10 brand new PC's (still to be set up) the computer centre is going through a refit so the existing PC's are not fully connected, consequently I have not even been doing any ad-hoc training so have made the most of the time to write some user manuals and training courses by taking my laptop to the airconditioned computer centre - absolute bliss!!!!

April in Tumu is the hottest month of the year. The temperature has been in the high 40's for the most part and even reaching 50+ on some days... And then the lights went off... What was the cause who only knows. But they went off early on in the month over night, no sleep those nights that was for certain! If there is no breeze April nights are in the hight 30's (indoors) Towards the end of the month we had an occasional downpour of rain which dropped the temperature to a much more comfortable level. Luckily this is when the lights went off...

It seems so far, you either get rain, or electricity, they don't seem to work together. The lights went off on a Thursday night around 2am. They came back on for a couple of hours on Friday evening but off again until Saturday afternoon, We were lucky to have power all saturday night but it went off agaim about 7am Sunday morning only to finally return Tuesday 4:30pm.

Luckily as I said the temp had dropped cos of the rains so sleep was oj but no power - no fridge, no fridage - no cold water/drinks. Absolute nightmare as all you want to do in that kind of situation is to leave the house head to the bar and have a nice cold beer!!! - NO COLD BEER

Also meant I couldn't do any work - which was a good thing schools were out for easter!