Adventures and drumming in Bongo

Baskets, chiefs and drums in Bongo Feb 24th
Sunday
Kim and I spent the morning with Fuzzie and Alnal in Bongo, a small town north of Bolga.
Alnel is a volunteer with VSO working on sustainable livelihoods in Bongo. He is having amazing success working with local women promoting their basket making and ensuring they get a fair price for their work. They would not have the skills or confidence to negotiate with the ‘middle ‘ men in Bolga. Their baskets are really beautiful with vibrant colours. It can take 5 days to weave an intricate basket which then they then sell at 8 cedis (about £4.50). Better to buy at the workshop before the stalls add their mark up- so we did.
I really enjoyed meeting the weavers and telling them about our basket makers from Somerset who weave baskets of willow- all translated by Fuzzzie. They said they would also like to use willow. The process looks very similar; the weavers sit on the floor and use water to soften their materials.
The Bradt guide book suggested that local chief might grant an audience so we set off to his palace. We were really fortunate that he was in and agreed to meet us. We had to remove our shoes in his presence and courtesy when we were introduced. We were shown to nearby chairs but when I explained that I would love photos to show the children at school he invited me onto his platform where I nearly sat on his mobile phone and BlackBerry! It was lovely to watch his wives, children and dogs relaxing and going about their daily chores.
From there we walked in the hot sun through an amazing rocky landscape and climbed up to the special rock that sounds like a drum when it is hit. A bongo drum in Bongo! We had to dance to the rhythm of course.

Teaching!
Just to reassure you that life is not all holiday here.
For the past five weeks I have been working with the head and teachers of another local school mostly observing and discussing learning .I decided to model my ideas through teaching and showing how we make learning more interactive, how to differentiate the activities and use Assessment for Learning strategies.
I taught 64 children in P5 yesterday for 2.5 hours and the same time with 73 children in P4 today. I had forgotten just how much I love teaching and also how exhausting it is- especially in this heat.
My lesson focussed on the similarities and differences between Ghana and the UK. Fortunately a returning volunteer had left me a large world map which was invaluable- especially when explaining about the equator. Initially the children were most reluctant to share their ideas with their neighbour as talking in class is simply not allowed, however they soon got the hang of it and by the end of the lesson could see its value as could their teacher Beatrice. Beatrice was most complimentary and fetched the headteacher to watch the lesson. Beatrice said she is going to use my ideas and that I should be a trainer for others. This positive reaction is great because none of these ideas extra money to implement. The teaching in this school is already good, the classes are well disciplined; everything is in place for the next step.

It is difficult to know how to proceed next and have the most impact. I am meeting the circuit supervisors tomorrow to discuss the options but I shallask to go to more'deprived' school.