Yewlands FoS : Global

I mentioned at the start of this blog that I would be experimenting with a neat bit of kit that tracks where you take photographs. Well with a bit of work I have now dropped a selection of photos onto Google Earth.

Although it is quite straight forward it is a bit time consuming and requires a few stages, however I think for a trip like this it is very useful. Many of the places are we visited are remote and individual photos somehow do not always give a good idea of a location. Being able to see pictures on a map allows you to see places in context, how close they are to major roads, other communities, the coast etc.

What do you think?

You will need to download and install Google Earth which you can do for free from

http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html

It does require a reasonably new computer so apologies if it doesn’t run on your machine.

Once installed download and open the file below

http://www.mediafire.com/?vyijhwzoyi2

Edublogs won’t allow me to upload this type of file so I have had to use an external file host called Mediafire. It is perfectly safe to download and run from this site (apologies for the ads and pop ups, try and ignore them!) [just found out that mediafire is blocked in some schools, so if you would like a copy of the file please post a comment and I will email you a copy]

Use the controls to zoom in and out, some areas have higher resolution than others, the school for the deaf, pineapple farm and fishing beach are quite clear.

This is the first time I have tried to do this, how do you think it could be used in schools?

When I get a moment I will write a briefly explanation of the process on the techy page

Now back in the UK, the last couple of days of our visit weren’t quite so hectic as the previous days.

After our ‘rest’ day in Accra, we decided to let our drivers have a day off and based ourselves at our accomodation for Sunday. After a later start for some of us, we used this day for processing ideas and thoughts, reflecting and gathering ideas of how we can feedback and progress all that we have found out during our stay in Ghana.

We knew that we would all be busy upon our return so thought it prudent to do the majority of the planning for the Yewlands Family of Schools Carnival before we returned home and whilst we were still together as a group.

I did a draft edit of a short film of the Blue Skies factory which will be shown to assemblies and school staff once Blue Skies have given me the green light.

Derek and Morag have planned several elements of our stall for the Carnival so we can get straight onto putting it together on our return.

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Blue Skies Newsletter May 2008

Dr Julia Piper was interviewed on the BBC Radio Leicester programme ‘Into Africa’

Talking about both their foundation and our involvement on this trip Julia was on the programme two weeks running.

You can hear her first broadcast here: julia-piper-on-into-africa-wk1

and her second broadcast, this time from Ghana here julia_on_radio_wk2

ps: We have checked, and Julia does know what continent she is on, she blames a slip of the tongue!

The next morning all our party bar one reported an incredible storm which had woken them at 3:00am. Torrential rain and almost continuous thunder and lightening continued for about an hour. Morag had wanted to observe the storm but was afraid her bathroom lodger (the bat!) would spring into action. She decided her best course of action would be to armour herself with her sheet! Toby tried unsuccessfully to capture the event on video. Meanwhile in the adjoining room Mr Dawson remained sound asleep and dreamt of the forthcoming eviction of Morag’s bat.

Day six had been assigned as a rest day and a chance for us to visit the capital Accra. We were accompanied by Gloria (Anthony Pile’s Personal Assistant) and a couple of other employees of Blue Skies who made us very welcome and proved to be great company. After a late lunch a visit to the town beach allowed Toby the opportunity to rent a surf board and catch some waves whilst the rest of the group opted for the more leisurely British pursuit of paddling in the sea. (more…)

• Reflection
• Contrast
• Accra Mall
• Friends
• Relaxation
• Surf
• Storm
• Powerful
• Gulf of Guinea
• Colonial
• Barter
• Meadowhall
• Sea Monster
• Death

Blue Skies April Newsletter

We apologise for the lateness of this blog. This can be put down to the following:

1. Day five, the longest and most exhausing day
2. We arrived back to our accomodation at 10:00pm having survived a journey which can only be likened to ‘The Wacky Races’

Our mission was to travel to the ‘Central Region’ which is central in terms of East to West, but actually very near the south coast. David Piper had spent the previous 12 months researching the needs of four villages. These villages have commercial links with Blue Skies and one of the needs for some of the villages was a new school.

We met up with Issac who had done much of the research with David Piper. He was to prove a fundamental and invaluable ambassador for the day.

In the village of Abro we were invited to have an audience with the chief in his ‘Palace’ as it is customary to gain the chiefs permission to have access to the village. (more…)

School for the deaf

First impressions as we arrived was that the journey from the village to the residential school made it quite remote and almost hidden from sight.

The children were very excited to see 2 jeeps of white faces, as we got out of the cars we were surrounded with many little hands trying to communicate as they scribbled on their arms with their fingers to write their names.

We had to think really quickly of how to manage the situation as the excitement had the potential to cause some conflict between the children as their enthusiasm and lack of verbal communication skills but more importantly our lack of non-verbal skills could potentially turn our best intentions into a disaster.

This was a visit which really tested our interpersonal skills.

A teaching assistant (who we later found our to be an ex-pupil) showed us to the head teacher, Agnus’ office. Many eager faces looked through the open door, the more physical pupils pushing their way to the front.

Agnus held her arm out, the children immediately calming down.

She introduced us to a sample of different pupils with multiple needs and explained what the school did to help. Some of these disabilities were caused through diseases such as meningitis or accidents. 

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