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February 23, 2007

Providence teacher bringing school aid to Ghana this week blogs it

Akeba, Ghana

Since 2000 (Meshach) has run his school from the back of his dad’s church, without a roof and without electricity. He has had to rent broken typewriters for his students to use and too often students are forced to share these broken materials. -- About Our Ghana Trip by Shawn Rubin

Longitude's Ghana Trip Blog: Shawn Rubin, a teacher at Providence's CVS Highlander School and cofounder of new Providence nonprofit Longitude, is in Akeba, Ghana this school-vacation week.

He's helping Meshach Bondzie, pictured at right, and his nonprofit Professional Secretarial Academy of Ghana (PROFESA) move to a new facility, as well as bringing equipment and more than $5,000 in donations, collected largely from Rhode Islanders.

Running as a separate track from the words, and worth browsing on their own, are daily photos at Flickr and perhaps video to come, since filmmakers John Lavall and Jessica Jennings came along to make a documentary of the trip and the work.

Shawn, at right, and Jessica, below, are sharing the blogging. The posts contain anecdotes and impressions that range from bedbug worries to concerns about maximizing the money they've brought. Shawn writes,

We want to build for the future so we are working on alternative teaching models so that the 14 students can share the 4 typewriters and the 6 computers that we have currently collected for his school. There are many models and options, but they are all foreign to Meshach so this requires a lot of time and negotiation.

And there's a delicate moment at the Abeka Town Council Meeting in the Chief's palace, when the Financial Director, perhaps plumbing the depth of Longitude's pockets, said, “We would like for you to make a promise to us that you help us with our goals and objectives.”

Shawn blogs,

I responded to the Financial Officer's request by saying that I am committed to finding and securing resources that will help Abeka grow, but that for now the most clear and viable option for this growth is through PROFESA, Meshach’s school. You could feel the collective air being released from the committee’s bubble, but I went on to explain to them that if they want to help Abeka to grow they too can do it by helping Meshach’s school.

Filmmaker Jessica, independent and successful, is troubled by the low expectations of women in this traditional culture: "If you already lack confidence (which these women do), learning becomes slowed and difficult and complicated because you feel that you CAN’T learn it. The door is already closed..."

There are tales of politics and negotiation and, of course, the heat.

But it's not all work. There's also dinner with a family in a strange land:

...We started the meal with fufu (ground casava and plantain that is pounded into a mushy ball that you then dip in a palm oil soup and swallow without chewing), fish stew (complete with all the fish heads you could stomach), egg soup (a thicker palm oil derivitive with even more fish heads), rice, fried plantains and yam. As we finished our yam’s and soup the power kicked in,and the music began...

Their week ends Sunday. I'll be checking in to see how it turns out.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 8:06 AM | Permalink