Computer Project Update

We started our second week of teaching the computers today. Our days vary from one to three classes a day. I think the students are beginning to get as used to us as we are to them. We still get smiled at a lot and students will go out of their way to wave or say hello to us, but the initial excitement of seeing a group of foreigners is starting to die down a bit. To this point, we’ve been teaching the students about the word processing application on the mini-laptops. We’ve had the students write letters to kids in the U.S. who helped with the book drives for the library group. However, I’ve noticed that some of the students have written letters to various members of our group. We plan to save these documents to a flash drive and print them off when we get back to the states. The structure of our classes has generally been the same for the past week. There are roughly 45 to 60 students in every class. Alison leads the class with instructions while Roger and I stand by for additional support. When the students begin to work, the three of us (and sometimes other group members) walk around to help the students as needed.

Interaction with people at the school has not been limited only to the students. Many of the teachers, as well as the headmistress, have been very interested in our American lifestyles, especially in regards to education. Roger and Alison have engaged in multiple chemical and electrical engineering conversations (unfortunately, no one has really asked me about financial practices). But we also talk about things like religion, technology, things people do in the U.S., etc.

We have also talked a bit about the Pavlis Institute and how we ended up in Ghana. We tell them about how we’ve been waiting for this opportunity for years and about all the preparation we’ve done in the past year. We also tell them how we hope to send future groups to Ghana to continue and improve on our projects. It’s amazing to hear their responses of passionate and sincere appreciation for all we’ve done for them. The people here really do value education in a way that is commonly disregarded in the states. Every book and computer that we’ve brought is treasured and taken care of with the utmost care and diligence.

Before we came here, I really thought I’d have trouble getting into a routine with things. But I’ve come to find that our days are so full of activities that routine becomes virtually irrelevant. Even with teaching the computers to the students at the J.H.S., no two days are ever the same. We wake up every day without knowing what’s going to happen, and it’s making this trip seem less and less like work.

So to sum up, the computer project is going very well. Students are at various levels of computer knowledge, but most are catching on to the things we’re doing in our classes. We will be teaching for the rest of this week, but will not be at Ridge next week due to final exams. We will most likely return the following week to wrap things up.

Attached are some pictures of the students using the mini-laptops, which have been generously donated by various sponsors. The students are very grateful!