Students visit Ghana
Posted on Wednesday 30 June 2010
20 students have recently returned from a visit to our Partner School: The Presbyterian Secondary Te
Twenty students and four staff have just returned from a 10 day trip to Ghana to visit the college’s partnership school, the Presbyterian Secondary Technical School in Aburi. After two days acclimatising to the heat and humidity by the swimming pool of our Accra hotel we travelled north to Aburi, experiencing on the way the frenzied street celebrations following Ghana’s World Cup win over Serbia.
The group had an amazing time at the school and were made to feel very welcome by the students and teachers. Getting up at 5.30am to be at school assembly at 7.00am was a challenge but it was all part of the experience of life at the school – especially when we found out that the Ghanaian students get up even earlier to carry out cleaning duties. The students found the experience of attending lessons a real eye-opener – the only resource used in most lessons was a blackboard with a few textbooks being shared between students on some occasions. The Ghanaian teachers expected our students to be fully involved in the lessons, answering questions and solving maths problems up the front on the blackboard! They also took part in cookery lessons with an open charcoal fire in the middle of the classroom as well as gas cookers and were involved in the sports afternoon where both our hastily-assembled male and female football teams managed to draw against the Ghanaian students and the handball team only narrowly lost despite never playing the game before!
The students at the school loved getting to know our students and some real friendships developed during the week. Leaving the school at the end of the week was hard for some of our students who were touched by the gifts and cards they had been given. Before leaving the school we were given a leaving ceremony at which our students spoke brilliantly about the week and its impact on them. The students were presented with school tracksuits and the staff some typical Ghanaian outfits. In exchange we gave presents to the senior staff and gave money to pay for a water tank at the girl’s boarding house, IT equipment and footballs to the school.
During our visit to the school we met with Peter Logo, the headmaster, and other senior staff to discuss the future of the partnership and consider ways to further develop and strengthen it. The partnership has a great deal to offer both of the institutions and our visit showed how valuable it is for our students.
After our week at the school the group travelled further north visiting the Volta Dam which holds back the largest artificial reservoir in the world and generates the majority of Ghana’s electricity through its HEP plant. We spent an amazing day at Tortibo, a small village near the dam, doing tie-dying and bead-making and playing games with the local children who loved having the group there and were fascinated by looking at pictures of themselves on digital cameras. After travelling back to Accra in torrential rain the group flew home, taking with them memories of the amazing country of Ghana that will stay with them for a lifetime.
