SLUMDOG SCHOOL

So yesterday we went and visited an incredible school in Nima (a very poor town outside of Accra). The first thing everyone said when we got off the bus and began walking down the narrow winding alley to the school was that we had just stepped onto the Ghanaian set of Slumdog Millionaire (an incredible movie which you all should see). There was no space between houses, few of which had doors or windows. We saw children bathing in medium size bowls out in the open, and the smell of sewage was rampant. Yet we met the most friendly people in the midst of such economic depression. Little children would run up from nowhere and hug us, and adults would wave and laugh at the excitement of the children.

When we got to the school we were welcomed by the children singing multiple songs in English

and French (the school teaches both English and French because the area is full of many

immigrants from neighboring Francophone countries). Some children even performed poems for us. They were all so cute! The principal told us that the

school was founded by his father. His father was an illiterate man, who worked extremely hard at his job and relied on a literate friend to help

him at the bank when

receiving money for his pay

check. One day his friend was sick so he relied on

a stranger. When the stranger gave him his money he told him to give some back that the bank had given him too much. The stranger said no this is what you are supposed to receive. The principal's father quickly realized that his friend

had always been stealing some of his paycheck. He realized that everyone needs to be literate, so he kicked out the tenants of some houses he owned and converted them into a school. The current principal (who went to

his father's school) now speaks over seven languages, and is extremely smart! Despite the school's incredible story and its great works it structurally at least is not up to

Western standards. At one point during our visit I REALLY had to go to the bathroom, when I asked one of the teachers where the bathroom was they pointed to a small shack that had a large cup, and a drain at one corner of the tile

floor-I am extremely happy with my homestay's living conditions now. After the children sang their songs and said their poems we gave them school supplies we had as a group brought from the US (and I also brought a soccer ball).

We had a little time to speak to the children. They got REALLY excited about having their picture taken and taking pictures (you can see the results, the pictures posted [other than those of the environment and the kids in the classroom] are those taken by the kids with my camera).