Mary and the Cooking Crew

Monday, July 20th.

Woke up to one hell of a rain storm! A down pour with wind, lightning and thunder. It lasted for a couple of hours and then settled into a pattern of rain. We got up, had breakfast, met with Eric and drove about 40 minutes from Bolgatanga to Navrongo and St. John Boscoe College of Education where we are going to be working this week. The assembly hall is much better than in Tamale. As soon as we arrived Ernest showed us the e-mail he sent to Alex back in April about the room rates in Tamale, so perhaps the mistake was with CTF. We gradually assembled for opening ceremonies, which went fairly smoothly, but were still too long. The new national president of GNAT was there. (Interesting side note that the national president from last year has been impeached because he lied about his age in order to avoid mandatory retirement!) I made my speech and forgot the protocol thing again, but I was happy with what I said. Then we broke off and headed to our individual rooms. Both groups have their own classroom this time which will make things less noisy and the rooms are brighter and have cross ventilation. Thomas Musah talked to our group and explained the purpose of the workshops then he turned it over to us. After we introduced ourselves I led the first part of the workshop about 'what do you do to prepare for the first day/week of school’. After lunch we continued with ‘what are your expectations of the workshops’. We had the participants work in small groups to discuss the topics. In between Vanda led them in Abu Says and Pascale did Johnny Oops. We were trying to show them how to divide up the day and keep people focused. During the day I wandered around the campus and came across the cooking facilities and met Mary. She is very friendly and one of the cooks. She showed me around and told me about the food preparation. The logistics of preparing food for several hundred participants and eight Canadians (who are given different food to protect us from illness) are amazing. They cook outdoors in large pots using wood for fuel. Fascinating to watch. We worked right until 5:30 as the GNAT workshop was cancelled again. We have a student named Anass. I asked him how to pronounce it and he said 'An Ass', oh well. Then we drove back to the hotel for dinner. Diane and I split a pizza and a beer. Again getting the bill divided into two teams was a big problem. It is amazing how these people can't figure this out and it causes all sorts of confusion and delay. After dinner Diane told me about some stress happening in the group and the fact that some people don't want to do the activity that GNAT has suggested for us on Saturday. We are also trying to figure out the logistics of driving back and forth between the two towns for the HIV workshop, Canada Night and Ghana Night and how to co-ordinate the co-tutor evening. As Diane and I sat outside discussing this we were buzzed by large flying insects like ants or termites that are attracted to the light and are also in our hotel halls. Bed by 11.