Mon-Wed Nov 14-16
Tuesday Nov 15, I got my hair, well my scalp. washed at Delali‘s shop because it was itching really badly. Luckily, I got some jojoba oil that Forgive (the girl who actually put my braids in) put on it after she rinsed my scalp with shampoo and warm water. It felt much better after she did all those things. Now I know how to manage the itchiness on my scalp, thank goodness!
After that Delali and I went to lunch…well it turned into more like dinner. But I took her to Hutchland Beach where we ate at probably about 3:30 or so. I was supposed to go to DrumGhana practice in the evening but her stuff went a lot longer in the morning than we thought so I just wasn’t able to make it to DrumGhana today. I will go to DrumGhana on Friday. But today, it was worth it to have a really fun hang with Delali. The time is so limited now! I only have 2 more weeks to spend with everyone.
Wednesday, I went to a ceremony for faculty members who have gotten a research grant from A particular funding organization. I went because Delali is getting a grant and she invited me to come. The speaker was actually quite interesting, talking about how we don’t just need to do research that sits on the shelf. We need to do research that matters and actually do something about it after we do the research. I think that’s very appropriate for the time especially in Ghana. There is so much need here and just doing research to put on a shelf or even just to publish is not useful. I get so frustrated with that because there seems to be so much grant money for people to do research. But there’s not grant money for practical things: like to get instruments or put together a community program or learn how to teach better, things like that. It’s really something that could be balanced out more to make the institution even stronger than it already is. All the while they’re talking about how we need to get better at things other than research. It’s a very weird and mixed message. And also, what I thought was ironic is while they were talking about how the University of Cape Coast is number one in Ghana, and in West Africa, and number four in Africa, they had some major problems with technology that it took about 10 or 15 minutes to work out. These are the things that baffle my brain. It seems that they could stop focusing quite so much on research (but still do research) and start putting NEEDED money toward things like better technology around campus. That’s my two cents…
Anyway, after the speakers, they gave the awards and then we left because Delali was going to go with me and John-Doe to Ghana National College! This is a high school in Cape Coast where my friend Tuffour teaches music. This was the first time I’ve been able to go to a public school since I’ve been here and I was excited to see it. So we got there and I thought we were going to watch a class being taught. But that was not the case. I don’t really understand what happened but they brought in a group of students who were in some other classroom. Instead, JD, Delali, and I talked with the students and asked them things like why are they in this class and what they think is important about music. And then we had a bit of a conversation. The three of us each gave some form of a motivational speech to the students and that was it. But then after class was done, school was out, and the other music teacher (I can’t remember his name – there were two music teachers at this school) went and got the principal. We had been talking amongst ourselves about the music curriculum and how it’s quite problematic in what is required to be taught. (I could go on about this all day. Suffice it to say that the only curricular music in elementary through secondary school is a music theory-type of class in senior high school. There are no curricular performing ensembles. Just a music class that is taught much like a regular classroom class and is quite uninspired, when you think about what could happen. Why don’t they have African ensemble? Band? Choir? All of these could be during the school day and students would LOVE it! Instead, the music curriculum is such that most people who are interested in band or African ensemble don’t take the music elective. It’s not only sad to me, but also infuriating that this is the curriculum that is offered. Much less, there is no, I REPEAT ZERO music curriculum for students in elementary and junior high school.) So anyway, the principal came to chat with us for a few minutes, and we just started chatting with him in a very nice way about how important music is. Clearly, he’s a politician and was being quite diplomatic in his answers – he was very supportive as we talked with him. But when he left, one of the music teachers was saying he doubts that he will do anything to help. It just makes me incredibly sad, the state of music in Ghana’s public schools, when I know it could be so engaging for students! After we left school, we all went to have lunch by the beach because I wanted to talk to Tuffour a bit more. It’s really interesting to hear the three of them (Tuffour, Delali, and John-Doe) talking about music education in Ghana and all of the problems inherent within it. There are a lot of frustrations because the government seems to be actively getting people not to do music or cultural things, which is extremely disheartening. The general gist is that it’s also frustrating for music teachers as well.
In the evening I had dinner with the graduate student who taught the African Studies course that I took…his name is Samuel. The course was called The Cultural Impact of Tourism. I promised Samuel we would go out and have dinner to celebrate the end of the semester at some point, so tonight was the night! So he and I went to my favorite place…Hutchland Beach and ate. I was definitely not hungry because we had just eaten but I had already canceled on him one time. So me and Samuel had a lovely chat over dinner. He said he had never been to Hutchland Beach even though he’s lived here for about 13 years. People who are locals just don’t seem to go here because I think it’s very expensive. So, we talked a lot about real estate and hostel ownership and owning land and things like that because I wanted to get his opinion on all of that. Also a homeless guy came up to us and asked for some money. He basically demanded that I give him some money. It was kind of scary so I finally agreed to do it but while I was getting money out of my wallet, he almost couldn’t stand it and we kept getting closer to me even though I had Samuel standing in between us. So the guy grabbed a 10 out of my hand and finally went away. I was pretty shaken because he was so forceful and invasive. I feel very bad for people like that though because clearly he is in need of mental health care and some basic needs that are not being met. There are several people have seen around like that. I know we have homeless people in the US too and it’s a very sad situation in every country.
This is just a pic of Hutchland Beach. I realize I did not take very many pics the last few days of actual people...
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