Seth Owusu is on his second trip to Ghana in 2011 - This trip involves among other things, 3 computer lab setup and donation, one follow-up visit for computer workshop and one photography workshop (Photos and Fun) at a primary school.
"Perhaps the most fascinating part is our "Sowing a Seed of Patriotism (SSoP)" program. There are 3 planned speeches to about 2,000 students and 2 Ghana TV appearances to speak about various activities of EVCO. For the past couple of days, I have connected with 53 people on Facebook. About half are BBY employees. Sometimes I 'friend' an entire store. The idea is that I will document daily activities during the trip (technology allowing) on my facebook page and invite some of my friends in Ghana and Europe to tune in to our interviews on Ghana TV for our SSoP crusade. We may also be joined by a correspondent for CNN based in South Africa to document the trip for a segment on CNN International called 'African Voices.'
By Seth Owusu -
October 29th:
The 10 and a half hour flight to Accra, Ghana was very smooth. I slept for half of the flight and worked on my speeches the other half. After dropping off my bags I went to meet with my staff and volunteers. Everyone is ready for what seems to be a long 6 towns and villages computer donation and various activities trip. We are going to travel 1,090 miles, setup and donate 3 computer labs and interact with 2, 700 K-12 students.
I am checking our inventory and making sure that none is damages or missing. It is currently 10:11 p.m. GMT. I need to hurry up and get some rest because I have to head to the 'transport station' (bus station) at 5a.m. tomorrow morning. We will take a 11-hour bus trip from Accra to Tamale in the Northern Region. It took me less time to travel from Baltimore (U.S.A.) to Accra Ghana than a trip within Ghana!
October 30th:
We have arrived at Tamale in the Northern Region, 13 hours later. Tomorrow starts our computer donation and setup program. Busy day tomorrow; we leave Tamale at 5:30am for Saboba secondary school, a 4-hour trip. We have to complete our various tasks at the school and return to Tamale. Surprisingly, the weather is very cool and breezy. I am getting a better network connection with my MTN Broadband card than I got in Accra, the capital yesterday!
October 31st:
The day did not start well. Since we could not hire our own van, my team and I bought tickets the night before for our 4hour trip to Saboba from our current town, Tamale. We were told that the bus leaves at 7a.m. We trid to get to the station 15mins early. As soon as we reached the station, we saw the bus leaving. Our current driver chased the bus with headlights flashing! It stopped 2 blocks away. “Open the door, we have paid tickets,” screamed George, our Northern Region coordinator who spoke the local language. The driver opened the door and shouted, “get in and let’s go.” The bus was packed to the brim. People were literary stepping on each other’s toes. No one moved but we had to get on that bus in order to complete our various activities for the day. We squeezed our way into the bus.
We stood for the entire 4hr trip. The road was not smooth neither, therefore every twist and turn ( had people falling or leaning on others. There was a poor guy sitting in front of me on a seat. My laptop bag was positioned right at his nose and every turn I believe brought him discomfort. Surprisingly he did not say a word and I had no other place to place the bag. After poking him about twenty-something times, he finally said in broken english; “sir, make I carry your bag for you”! What surprised me was that throughout the entire ordeal, no one really complained or shouted at one another when we were literary on each other’s toes! When we got to Yendi, the first major town, the headmaster of the school brought the school’s pickup truck to pick us up; very nice!
We installed and donated 10 computers and gave a speech to 800 students. In a speech entitles “living in the global village,” I spoke to the students about the interconnectedness of the world, staying in school, achieving your dreams through hard work and not cheating, tolerance and curtesy toward one another (an area with a history of the opposite). Our trip back to Tamale was much better. I don't know who decided to dress the guys in pink but I think they look good in them (photo attached).
On our way back from Saboba, we stopped by 'Yendi Community Learning Center" a lab we donated during our last trip in April. Seeing students study with the computers just made my tired day worthwhile.
Tomorrow, we will work at a school here in town called SPI and later on the day, board a bus for a 8hour trip to a town called Obomeng in the Eastern Region.
November 1st:
Today’s computer setup and donation was done at a school called ‘Standard Promotions Institute (SPI)’ at Tamale. SPI has a population of 120 students mostly in their late teens. 90 percent of the students are girls. In his application to EVCO for computer donation submitted last year, the Principal, Mr. Thomas Sentu explained that in this part of Ghana, girls’ education is not very popular. Girls who drop out of school either because of poor final text scores at high or middle schools, poverty, pregnancy or other reasons are not given a second chance. “The only direction for young girls in this situation is downhill,” Mr. Sentu explained. Later SPI decided to accept few boys since being in the streets only fuels disappointment and other social vises that this area is unfortunately known for.
When my team first visited the school, they reported that SPI uses old-fashioned typewritters to learned keyboarding for their secretariat courses. I thought other typing tutorials on computers with a regular keyboard will save time and aggravation for the students.
Needless to say we were met with singing and dancing! SPI received 10 desktop PCs and for the first time, EVCO donated wireless keyboards and mice (thanks to the exclusive brands team). The computers were also networked with EVCO’s R.A.C.H.E.L. server, an offline educational program equivalent to fifteen thousand books. It was a great occasion with speeches and words of wisdom for the girls from many invited guests from the community.
After the activities here at SPI, we headed back to the transport station for a 8-hour road trip to the Eastern Region where we will spend the next 3 days on various activities on a peninsula called ‘Afram-Plains.
November 2nd:
Wednesday was half-ttravel-half-retool day! We travelled for 8hrs from Tamale to Obomeng. Here we will spend the night and get 2 PCs for 'Te-ase' high school. Although we could not afford to rent our own car for the trip, we planned to have Florence, our secretary send few school supplies and other equipments through a 'passenger car' driver traveling to Obomeng from Accra. She threw a perfect pass!
The next two activities will be performed in the Eastern Region at two towns; 'Te-ase' H.S. and 'Kyeamanfrom' Primary schools tomorrow and Friday. At Tease, we will perform a computer workshop and donate 2 more computers including one R.A.C.H.E.L. to their existing computer lab which was donated by EVCO 3 years ago. This will complete EVCO's 3-year commitment to the school. At Kyeamanfrom, we will perform our famous "Photos and Fun" program (http://evcoafrica.org/welcome/?page_id=390). At this primary school, some classes are still conducted under trees. Please help us pray for no rain on Friday!
November 3rd:
My network reception was bad last night. I could not access my e-mails. In the morning, we crossed over the Afram River on a ferry to a peninsula in the Eastern Region called Afram-Plains. We have donated computers to 2 schools and a hospital on this peninsula. Most of the people here are poor farmers. This is a follow-up visit. The main target here was Tease (Te-Ase) H.S. Although our regular commitment to the school regarding our computer lab donation and setup was 3 calendar years of training and support, we still not only stop by to service the computers but also this time donated 2 more desktop PCs. The school of 300 students has seen a spike in enrollment since our computer donation 4 years ago. Unfortunately, the school has problems retaining teachers; especially those with a little computer knowledge (called ICT teachers). Poor conditions in this villages pushes teachers away even after they are trained by EVCO. This makes maintaining PCs a difficult task.
The headmaster and staff are working very hard with the little resources available to them. They are always very appreciative whenever we stop by. It could be a bit frustrating for kids who are trying to reverse the cycle of poverty in their families through education to go through many challenges. We try to encourage the students through our various activities. It is great to put a smile in someone's face even if for a day!
November 4th:
Nothing excites me more than working with children who have a smile that can light a city even in a very difficult circumstance such as calling a spot under a tree your classroom. At Kye Amanfrom Anglican primary school, I had a great time with the Kindergarten kids. The school has not enough buildings for all its 520 students, the headmaster told me. Somebody had to go outside and the K1 and 2 students being the smallest classes happened to be the lucky ones!
We performed our digital photography workshop known as “Photos and Fun” with Grades 1-3 students. Majority of these kids have never seen a digital camera and almost none has ever take a photo with one. Having them hold a camera and take photos felt like the best thing they have ever experienced in the school all year, in their eyes you could see that instantly printing the photos they just took was magical!
I introduced Photos and Fun 3 years ago. We have had many amazing stories but this was peculiarly exciting. I guess maybe this time the kids also saw on our ‘photo printing desk’ a bag on the table full of pens, pencils, crayons and large markers. Thanks to my store manager Tim Shehane (Store 265, Laurel Md.) who took it upon himself to go on a school supply drive from nearby stores before my trip, we were able to donate these supplies along with the photography workshop.
My favorite part of the activities at Kye Amanfrom Primary was singing and dancing with the K-1 students!
November 6th:
We are back in Accra, the capital of Ghana to retool. We travel again tomorrow to a village called “Obosomase” about 50 miles north of Accra. The morning will begin with an appearance on Ghana-TV ‘Breakfast Show’ with Amankwah Ampofo starting at 7:30am. After the show we will travel to Obosomase for a donation ceremony, computer setup and donation. Later in the afternoon, we will be joined by CNN International who is covering the program for “African Voices.”
November 7th:
The day begun with an appearance on G-TV “The Breakfast Show” (local language edition). I spoke about sacrifice, dedication and the spirit of patriotism. This is part of my ongoing crusade to create awareness about giving back taking responsibility to do even the least possible for rural development. This segment is one of my programs also known as ‘Sowing a Seed of Patriotism (SSoP).’
Right after the program, we left the G-TV studio and headed north to our next destination; Obosomase Primary/JSS for a donation ceremony, a computer lab setup and donation. The computer lab setup went smoothly. While installing the computers, I was watching my phone for our CNN cameraman who plane was cancelled on Sunday and delayed 45mins this morning.
Perhaps the best lucky break ever; we had to run due to rain. The rain lasted for about 45mins. This was just the needed time to make up the lost time from Justin’s plane delay. He made it on time to cover the dancers at the donation ceremony and the ribbon cutting just to mention a few. After cutting the ribbon, the he door was opened for the people of Obosomase to see the computers. The chief who knows a thing or two about computers admitted that he had never seen a cordless mouse and keyboard. Again thanks to the generosity of the Exclusive Brands team!
November 9th:
Computer workshop at Obosomase Primary/JSS was superb today. We had a lot of fun with 20 selected students from classes 2 up to JSS and 3 teachers. We took a computer apart and showed the students “inside” of a computer. The kids asked very intelligent questions. Thanks to Best Buy Co. (U.S.A.), we were able to donate along with the computers wireless mice and keyboards.
During the workshop, two students were discussing why the mouse they were using had no tail contrary to the one they saw in their computer book. One student had a very good explanation; the mouse they saw in the book came from China and Chinese mice have tails however, the mice used during the workshop today donated by EVCO came from U.S.A. and American mice are “tailless”!
This trip has been great. We have accomplished a lot in such a short time. Tomorrow, Thursday is the final day. I have a TV show (Breakfast Show, English version) on G-TV in the morning. I fly back to the U.S. at night!
November 12th:
I am back home safely from Ghana. The trip was short but very successful. I would like to thank everyone who followed us. Please remember that we can all do our part to make the world a better place no matter how little. It all starts with the man or woman in the mirror!\
January 19th:
Check out the CNN news article written about Seth's trip along with some additional photo's:
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/19/world/africa/seth-owusu-africa/index.html
Dorothy-BBY
on:
The Helper: (over)Step
on:
Women’s History Month
