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

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.

In the afternoon both the medical team and education team got together to feedback our respective preliminary recommendations for projects and links. After this as it was our last evening together, Padma started the ‘last night’ celebrations early by serving some ’special’ pineapple juice. Shortly after this our productivity began dropping for some reason so we called it a day.

The following day we returned to the Blue Skies factory where we had a useful follow up meeting with the District Director of Education, whom we had met at the start of our visit. We thanked her team for all their help and support and fed back some outline ideas of how and where we would like to link and support. The discussions of the previous day had outlined a need to revisit one of the schools we had seen in Nsawam. Knowing it was a public holiday we wanted to have a more through look at some of the facilities the school has. It is not far from Blue Skies so we returned there to find a teacher with a group of advanced pupils enjoying some addition study even though it was a holiday. With their permission we had another look around the grounds and interviewed four students on camera. We put the questions suggested by Yewlands pupils to them amongst some others of our own. I will edit this footage soon and the Family of Schools pupils can ‘meet’ some Ghana pupils first hand.

On our return to Blue Skies we had a final meeting with the Blue Skies management team, feeding back to them our ideas and findings and most importantly thanking them for all their help and support, without which our trip would not have been impossible.

After a quick freshen up and pack, we headed towards the airport for our long overnight journey home. An eventful trip to the last; heading back into Accra for one last time on the now familiar duel carriageway, suddenly somehow both our drivers knew that the road ahead was blocked by an accident. Swiftly and to our grave consternation both drivers swiftly did a U-turn in the middle of the road and proceeded to drive down the carriageway in the wrong direction into the oncoming traffic! Amazingly it appears this is a common occurance in Ghana so most of the other cars seemed unfazed and got out of our way, many following our lead of swapping direction. This only lasted a few hundred metres before there was a chance to swap to the other carriageway and get on an alternative road to Accra.

Other than a brief chance for us to spend our last local currency in a local market our journey to airport was less eventful.

The overnight flight to Amsterdam luckily passed very quickly and we all returned safely to Birmingham early this morning, slightly dazed from lack of sleep but happy to be home.

In the coming days and weeks in conjunction with our colleagues we will begin to develop our ideas into projects, but for now, to use a cliché, I feel rather than the end of the trip, I feel it is the end of the beginning.

On behalf of the UK team, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all Blue Skies staff both in Ghana and the UK for all their help and support during our visit. We look forward to continue to work with them in the coming months.

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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!

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.

None of us paddlers had quite considered the power of the Atlantic Ocean along the Gulf of Guinea as Padma was lifted off her feet by the waves and strong current. She arose from the ocean resembling a small but scary sea monster! Morag, incapable of rescuing her as she was laughing too hard, fought to remain upright herself. Meanwhile Michael made his way back to the beach and safety from the sea. Mr Dawson was very pleased that he had opted to look after the bags and remain a safe distance from the water.

On the way back to our lodgings we stopped off at the main Accra shopping mall to pick up some emergency rations. Although not as large as some British malls such as Meadowhall, this was very well stocked and frequented by seemingly wealthy Ghanians. 

We reflected at the stark contrast to what we had experienced in the ‘Central Region’ communities the previous day and tried to imagine what some of the villagers would make of it, if given the opportunity to visit.

We arrived back to our lodgings at 9:00pm and were greeted with the sad news of the death of Morag’s bat. We were informed that the probably cause of death was the intense heat. We were saddened by the news but reflected that Morag could now sleep safely again.

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.

This was a ceremonial event as we were not allowed to speak directly to the chief but through our ambassador Issac. The chief responded by speaking to his aide who then relayed this information to Issac and then Issac to us.

Once we were allowed access to the village, the chief then communicated directly to us all. He showed us around his village pointing out the various areas of specific needs.

Question: What do you think these may be?

Upon departure the chief explained that he “liked my hat” and “would like it”. I explained to him “I will not survive until monday without it” but he could have it then. “Thank you” he replied (I had been well and truly ‘taxed’.)

Our second village was Ekumfi and here we met the chief and his entourage in the ‘Community Centre’. (This was an open structure which resembled a park band stand.)

Issac once again talked for us, we were then shown to the proposed site for a new school. (A Junior Secondary School) We felt quite uncomfortable as there was an air of expectation in the sense that we would deliver exactly what they wanted. This expectation appeared to be embedded in all age ranges as small children asked “Where is my gift?” and “Give me money”. Our response to these requests were simply “I have no money to give you.”

Village 3, Budukwa, was the smallest village of 300 inhabitants. The chief and village elders had waited for 3 hours for our arrival. Issac apologised for our lateness explaining that we had had much to see and take in. The elders accepted our apology and made us welcome.

They told us of their plans which included:

• A drainage system
• A community centre
• A two classroom kindergarten
• Latrines

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. 

The pupils were taken from the age of 4 years, some still there at 23 years old. The school terms lasted 4 months and many did not see their parents for that length of time. Even at term end some parents did not collect their children.

Question: What do you think could be some of the reasons for this?

The school has support from two international groups, one German and one American. At the time of our visit there were six American students fully trained in ’signing’ who acted as classroom assistants and mentors.

On looking around Agnus’ office other donations were in evidence, these included a large unpacked fridge freezer and washing machine. We all wondered how long these had been their unused, unpacked and likened them to a wooley jumper grannie had bought for Christmas or an unwanted pair of socks.

Agnus carried on to tell us at the time she was barely able to feed the 300+ children twice a day because the government funding of £1.50 per child had not come through for the current term.

We all left with a feelign off having arrived at the school totally unprepared for what we experienced.

On the way back from the school we stopped briefly at the botanical gardens, obvious colonial influence here we soon discovered a tree planted by Queen Elizabeth in 1961 to commermorate her visit to Ghana after they got their independance from Britain in 1957.

One interesting observation about our group here was the intense air of reflection linked to the visit to the school.