Holidays and other challenges
Within in the next weeks, the TCB crew (Julian and Ina) will attend four schools in Ghana that have been equipped with computers during earlier projects over the last five years. This time, it is our aim to evaluate the impact that has been achieved in the meantime and provide all four schools in Ghana with a specialized server called the “knowledge box”. As an internet connection is not always available, this server provides learning material for all students – offline.
Currently we are in Agona Abodom, visiting both the Catholic Basic School and the Methodist Basic School.
4th March to 7th March
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| Bild 1: Welcoming at the Catholic School | Bild 2: Ina has been promoted to a queen |
This week has been a bit of an organizational challenge because of the Independence Day festivities. On Monday we attended a meeting of the local schools’ head teachers where we were introduced to the community again. Later at the Catholic School, another kind of introduction took place: The students welcomed us with drums and dancing and Ina has been promoted to a queen (even with her own crown!). In the afternoon we could start our work and we took a look at the state of the ICT room. Most of the laptops were functioning, only some that have been provided by the government had a lot of defects. After the work had been done, we let the day end by having dinner with our Ghanaian partners. The next morning we visited another school – the Methodist School – and also inventoried their equipment. In the evening there was a lot of paper work and organization to do. In addition to that, we tried to prepare some software for the next day, which did not work out so well. After some unsuccessful attempts, we went to bed a bit frustrated.
Wednesday was a big day: Independence Day, which is traditionally celebrated with a procession of the schools through the town of Abodom. Unfortunately we couldn´t watch for long, because we wanted to use the time to go to the next city and order some spare parts for broken laptops. But when we came back, we were able to absorb some of the event´s atmosphere. Afterwards we were finally able to solve some of the remaining software problems. This day’s evening was rather calm, only the weather showed a foretaste of the heavy rainfalls that take place in Ghana regularly.
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| Bild 3: Welcoming at the Methodist School | Bild 4: Inspection of a broken charger |
The day after the Independence Day is a holiday for the schools, and the teachers often use it for a little excursion (without the students 😉 ). This time they went to the Winneba beach and we also joined. On the way back we picked up the spare parts we have ordered before and hopefully the workshop for the teachers can start tomorrow.
For more information about TCB, check out: https://www.teog.ngo/arbeitskreise/arbeitskreis-tcb/ For more information on the project, check out: https://www.teog.ngo/teog_project/teog-knowledgebox-fuer-vier-schulen-in-ghana/
Text: julian.deyerler