Experiences: Ejura

Kate Happell (from Australia) and her British partner Martin volunteered in Ejura for 2 months, leaving London at the start of July 2003.

Martin and I signed up for the volunteer program at the last minute, without a real idea of what we were going to experience. We just knew that we wanted to immerse ourselves in a culture totally unlike our own, to experience the real Africa rather than simply passing through as travellers. But most of all we wanted to help out somewhere where it was really needed - we got all this and much more in Ejura!

Arriving in Ghana was an overwhelming experience despite Didi's kind help and assistance in picking us up and showing us around. Although Martin had travelled to West Africa previously, it was my first time in Africa and I was assaulted by the sights and smells of Accra - little did I know what was in store further on!

We had a few days in Accra when we arrived, staying with Deveraj and teacher Paul at the Nursery. Their hospitality was lovely and a good 'soft' introduction to Ghana. We were also able to watch the nursery classes and spend some time at the Lotus Children's Centre down the road - these are both run extremely well and it is very inspiring to see how Didi Shanta (and previous Didi and Dada's of course) work is making a real difference to the children.

After a few days we made the journey to Ejura with Didi and Dada Haranath. This was our first real taste of Africa time. We thought it was going to be about a five hour journey, but really, it is a hot, hard and long eight or so hours!

the kitchen - ejura We were delighted (and relieved after passing some of the villages on the way and seeing what accommodation can be like) to find that the accommodation was comfortable. We had our own room, with bed, chairs, tables, and lo and behold - electricity in our room which meant we could have a fan! We had not expected this, but having electric light and this fan was a great luxury that we came to appreciate more and more (especially on the odd occasion when the electricity failed and we realised what it would be like without it!). The 'bathroom' was a concrete booth with buckets of cold water. As it was hot most of the time, this was actually not that bad at all - I became quite the dab hand at balancing to scrub my feet!

Accommodation was shared with monks in training and Dada Shiveshvarananda, plus various Dada's and members who are passing through. They were all extraordinarily hospitable. They cooked us all our meals (even when they are fasting four days a month which we gave a try just the once!) and so far have managed to come up with an amazing variety of meals considering it is all vegetarian. We got to try a fabulous variety of true West African foods which was great (the odd dish a bit much for our western stomachs - ie Kenkey, a fermented maizey stuff!) Breakfast was amazing. Fresh bread, fresh milk, fresh honey, fresh peanut butter, pineapple, bananas and sometimes cornflakes when Dada has been to Kumasi! The monks don't drink tea or coffee, but we had some green tea and decaff that we brought ourselves.

Ejura itself was like every African documentary I had ever seem. It was bigger than I expected, but still definitely village-like. Mud huts, brick huts, wooden huts, children dressed in rags, women with impossibly heavy containers on their heads, plus babies on their backs, and everywhere, everywhere, thick red dust.

Selling yams in the market
Selling yams in the weekly market - children help out their parents

Kate and kids
Kate with local children outside their accomodation

School was about five minutes walk away from the home -although this trip could take about half an hour each way as were surrounded every step of the way by children (and often adults as well). There weren't any other 'white people' in Ejura, which will give you some idea of what a novelty we were in the village. The children were amazing - so happy interested in us. They all wanted to touch us and hold our hands, and the minute we started walking anywhere, we hears screams of 'Bruni, Bruni!' (whitey, whitey), and kids came running. We also needed to dodge the goats, chickens and the odd large cow on this walk to work. Woe betide if Martin brought his rugby ball on the walk, or we start kidding around with them! One night when we walked home I counted nineteen kids following us! In fact, as the home we lived in was pretty open, we had a constant group of children waiting for us to open our bedroom door and come outside. At night when we were eating dinner outside, it was pitch black apart from the lantern, so we couldn't see anything, but we could hear muttering and laughing, and as soon as we cleared away our plates, about ten kids would come rushing up to sit with us.

Market day at Ejura Not being experienced teachers, we found teaching was a bizarre and exhausting experience. The hardest part for me was tempering my intolerance with things that don't happen according to schedule. School is nominally from Monday-Friday 9-2pm. However, realistically, Monday is market day, which means most of the kids are helping their parents sell yams or water or maize in the market; Friday is Mosque, which means most of the Muslim kids aren't at school; 9am start time is really closer to 9.30!

The school is just as you might imagine - five or six open air classrooms, dusty playground with some sticks in the ground for soccer goalposts, and a big mango tree with a bicycle spoke and stick for the school bell.

In the morning we taught KG (kindergarten) - who range from 3 to 6. So sweet looking, such a pack of monsters! Despite being an English speaking country in all the books, in actual fact, the tribal/ regional languages are the true communication methods, and up here. Twi is really what everyone speaks, so trying to keep a group of 30 hyperactive kids in hand when they don't speak any English and our Twi is limited to 'hello, you are welcome and what is your name' is quite a task. But, like kids everywhere they pick things up amazingly fast, and we've had most of them saying the alphabet, counting to ten and singing a very odd version of 'If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands'. But we finished hoarse from shouting and sore from picking them up by their arms and depositing them outside the door when they won't stop yelling!

In the afternoons we split up and taught the older classes, which are much easier in terms of discipline, but can be harder. Everything they do is learnt by rote from the national syllabus, so asking them to do anything not in the book is very difficult. The grade sixes can give you examples of antonyms, but ask them to write a paragraph on what they did last night, and you are met with blank stares. We held a sports day which was very entertaining (egg and spoon, sack race, 3 legged races etc), and the kids seemed to love, and tried to introduce lots of craft-y type activities, especially for the younger kids, like making crowns, horns, paper chains etc, which they all loved (we ended up having to make crowns for almost every class as they were so popular!)

There are very few school supplies so we were pleased we had brought some books, papers, pens, posters, etc to help, but I am sure that anything future volunteers can provide will be gratefully received.

Kate painting In the afternoons, we spent some time painting the outside of some of the classrooms in an attempt to brighten things up - the way the school looks is very important in attracting new students...

One of the highlights was definitely closing ceremony day (last day of the school year), where the kids and teachers hang up decorations, bring food and drinks, all the kids, lost of parents, and dozens of locals, come along to the school for one big party. We had luckily had a whole pile of toys and games donated to us, so we were able to use these for prizes (i.e. First in Math etc), and the kids put on plays, songs, games (watching the KG class play musical chairs in front of the audience was one of the funniest things I have ever seen). There are huge speakers blasting out music and all the children dance (and I must admit, we got dragged into it as well!).

Kumasi is about a three hour tro-tro ride away from our village. We became expert tro-tro commuters - basically a minibus which shoves on as many people as humanely possible and leaves from wherever, whenever they are full. They may or may not have doors and windows falling off, and you may be lucky to get a local pastor preaching at the top of his voice for the journey for that added sense of authenticity! Kumasi has many creature comforts which can be essential for some time out from Ejura - internet, running water, shops and western food (we recommend Vic Baboos, which any of the Dadas can point you to!)

Overall, it boggles the mind somewhat when you see the reality of the situation in the village, and the difficulties in trying to run a village school. We did our best with the teaching, but I think probably in reality, our actual presence was worth more than what we taught. I hope we helped to stimulate some of the kids, and give them an idea of the wider world. We were able to see the fee we paid make a real difference to the school - e.g., while we were there, a water pipe was connected and the painting was done, which gave us a real sense that we had made a difference. In addition, it seemed that having us there helped make the school look 'special' - to kids and to their parents. The more popular the school, the more children it attracts and the more money can be put into the school for facilities, books, building etc.

Now that we are back in London, having some time to reflect, there is no doubt that it was one of the most amazing experiences of our lives, and we hope to ensure that we take these experiences and use them in our everyday lives in the future.

Last day of school
End of the school year - August 2003: Volunteer Kate (from Australia) in the centre watching the childrens' presentation