Back to work – Paul in Ghana

This week I was finally able to get back to school after such a long break. The school opened on Tuesday, but I did not have any lessons until Wednesday. So on Wednesday I turned up only to find that they were still cleaning the school, so no lessons. On Thursday the children had been ordered to do the weeding with machetes. I don’t think health and safety, or any idea of efficiency applies to Ghana. By Friday there were at least some students in the classroom, but I was told it was too early to begin proper lessons and just do revision. This seems ridiculous when I am only working at the school for 7 more weeks and it seems most unlikely that they will employ another maths teacher to teach the class after that. The students also did not have any of their books so I was forced to do the whole lesson on the board. Apparently no one is expected to work on the first week back at school. When they had 2 weeks of revision and 1 week of exams before Christmas I find this complete waste of time rather criminal. How does Ghana aim to pull itself forward and out of poverty when the culture is so laid back?

On Sunday it was Kirsty’s birthday, but as we had school on Monday morning we decided to go out for the evening on Saturday. We were joined by some of the teachers from Radiant, some of the hockey players Kirsty plays with and Grant, who is now back after spending Christmas in Spain. (As he is a South African he thinks of Spain as a cold country, so it did not seem strange for him to go there when it was cold) We first went for drinks at a “spot” near Kirsty’s house. After a few hours waiting for everyone to arrive, we decided to go back to Kirsty’s house to go to the toilet before going to the nightclub. I don’t normally tell you about when I go to the toilet, but I think this is a special case given what happened next.

I went in and could not get through the door to the toilet. It is a stiff door and requires a knack that I have not learnt let. As I was pretty desperate to go, I was pleased to see Grant emerge into the house as I assumed he could open it. But he was looking very concerned and informed me that Chris had been kidnapped and taken away in a taxi. They were launching a rescue mission and wanted everyone with them. So they all rushed out the door of the house, but I decided I could not possibly go until I had gone to the toilet. They all went and I heard Kirsty’s host family’s car moving off at speed, evidently in persuit. I tried again at the handle of the door, but it was no good. I was by this time very desperate and quite scared after hearing that Chris had been kidnapped. I did not want to leave the house because I was on my own and the some of the kidnappers may have still been out there. I then saw a plant pot and shall I say desperate times called for desperate measures!! Unfortunately it was only afterwards that the plants were artificial and so were unlikely to drink any of the liquid deposited in the plant pot!!

After this I decided the safest place was through another set of doors, in the dining room. I thought I could not attempt to phone Chris because I did not want to antagonize the kidnappers into doing anything rash. I tried phoning Kirsty, but her phone was switched off. I was very much on my own.

Then my phone rang and it was Chris. He said everything was fine and they were coming back to pick me up. But I was not sure whether to believe him. Was he only saying that because he had a gun to his head? Did they want to take me away too? There was no way to tell. When the car pulled up I was unsure about going out. But when I saw that it was the family’s car I was much reassured and it was only then that the real story came out.

When I was in the house, Chris and some of the others had been standing outside waiting for us. Then a taxi pulled up and Chris assumed it was someone friendly saying hello-this happens a lot in Ghana. But then they tried to grab the mobile phone in his hand (which was actually Kirsty’s, given to him for safekeeping!!) He tried to resist until they pulled out the gun. At that point Chris threw Kirsty’s phone in the ditch. As the taxi driver bent down to get it, Chris ran away very quickly raising the alarm. The driver then went into the family’s car and took another mobile and a wallet with money inside. They then drove off. Grant had seen the driver looking threatening and then driving off, with Chris no longer there. That was why Grant came in claiming Chris had been kidnapped. So when they went off in the car they were going to the club and it was me who was missing (as I was hiding in the house). Kirsty’s mobile had not worked because when Chris threw it in the ditch, the battery had fallen out. The thief had retrieved the phone, but not the battery. They have since found the taxi, but are still trying to find out who the thief was. Uncle, who is in his 70’s, has claimed that when found he will make sure he personally teaches the thief a lesson. His son claimed that he did not care about the human rights of the thief and so I shudder to think what kind of punishment will be handed out.

The actual nightclub was rather boring in comparison. Genesiz nightclub is supposed to be the busiest in Kumasi, as place that Mr Squires once claimed was famous for nightclubs. As it was there was only our group and a few Indians in the club. I think Squires got the information from wikipedia, for it was nothing special. It was half past one by the time we got there, so it should have been busy. But there was hardly anyone there, so it was slightly disappointing.

Kirsty had a party held by her host family on Monday evening. Luckily they have not found any evidence of anything in the plant pot yet, so they do not hate me yet. The highlight of the evening was when they brought out the birthday cake. A marks and Spencers syrup pudding imported from England and shared between more than 10 people. Disappointingly they did not have any birthday candles.

I hope everyone is OK in England. Are you all back at Uni yet?
From Paul