This is Africa

I tried to upload some pictures but my computer didn't like it. I suppose you will have to wait until I am back in Adelaide to see the photos. Today though I'm going to talk a little bit about my placement in Care at Ghana.

My experience at the child care centre has been both enlightening and disheartening. The children are definitely the upside of the work, while the attitudes, teachers, methods and routines have been the downside. Each day we change the children's clothes once in the morning and again in the afternoon, they are told to sit down and they are kept quiet. Then for about a half an hour to an hour the teachers say the same rhymes to the children, and the children repeat them. At snack time the teachers take half of the students snacks and eat it while the child only gets a small portion of the food their parent has packed for them. They also promise the children if they behave that they will give them lollies or chocolate which they never do. The cane and smacking is used to discipline the kids. Some are treated favourably while others are constantly told off. All of the children and everybody on the street refers to us white volunteers as 'Obroni'- which I've been told means foreign or white. So the kids all call me auntie Obroni. The children are taught from a very young age the difference between white and black. For example, if I go to the markets I have to get Emmanuel to buy things for me because he would get it cheaper, and I would be given the Obroni price. But back to the kids. When they go to the toilet its deplorable. The boys stand in the shower and all pee, basically on their feet. The girls squat out back but when they pull down their pants they pee on their skirts and they don't wipe themselves. They NEVER wash their hands either. And nappy changing is similarly done- the babies nappies are taken off and replaced with no wiping or cleaning of the bottom. This means that all day I'm playing, holding and looking after children who are covering in their own excrement. But they dont know any better, it is the teachers who should be showing them some level of hygiene. If i could get them to not pee on themselves that would be a giant step forward. It is much the same for all the other volunteers too.

A lot of the teachers are also very childlike themselves. They don't help the children learn or play, but do their own thing and hang around with each other while the kids are left to their own devices. They eat in front of the children throughout the day, and make false promises of givng the kids toys or lollies if they behave- which is clearly wrong.

While, it's demoralising to come here and know that while I'm helping, anything I can do for the children is very limited by the ingrained behaviour that has been a legacy of this community long before I came. Other volunteers doing care are facing the same kinds of issues that I am, and are unhappy because rather than care we are ending up doing teaching. Yet, I am enjoying it. I'm slowly learning the names of the 26 children in my class and hopefully the kids are getting something from me being there. Even if it is just learning how to play and have fun becasue they dont seem to do that at the moment.