Shepherd and cattle.
Horse tied under shed.
Man with machete and coconuts.
A lot of Ghanaian shops have religious names. Such as "Christ Saves Hairdresser" or "Faith Grocery."
I'd like to take a moment here and lament something I've been thinking about. I debated for a while whether or not to bring my Canon 50D. I'm glad that I did now. What I am a little annoyed about is whether or not I brought the right lens for the situation. The 50 mm f/1.8 gets a lot of good shots and takes in a lot of light, which makes it useful for indoor handheld shots. But it's not very good for wide angle shots, especially on the 50D which isn't a full-frame camera. Although it's heavier- and approximately cost me 10x as much money- I'm thinking I might have done better to have brought the 24-70 f/2.8 L lens. I could have gotten some good shots of my classmates as a group listening to lectures, taking tours, and going on hikes. I'm glad I did decide to bring the "good camera" though. And when both of my batteries died in it I switched to using my iPhone camera anyway. I bet you guys can't tell what photos were taken on my phone and which were taken with the SLR. I post process both with Photoshop CS4.
Time to get back on topic: the School for the Deaf. The school was established in 1965 and it was the first of its kind. It is currently the only public non-boarding school in Ghana, although they are currently in the process of constructing dorm buildings. There is a curriculum similar to "normal" schools (see my last blog post). There are 325 students ages 4-18 years. There are 20 to 35 students and 2 teachers in each classroom. Muslim and Christian children are given separate spaces for worship in the school mornings before breakfast is served. Some of the teachers are deaf, but most are not. The government pays the students tuition, and students pay a fee for the PTA. Students get picked up by buses and are brought to school from distances as far as 20 km.
American Sign Language (ASL) is used, but there is also Ghanaian sign language. I learned how to make a few signs today, including "Good morning", "Thank you", "I love you", and "What is your name?" I should probably clarify here that not all of the students are deaf. Some are hard of hearing, and a portion of those have access to donated hearing aids.
School is held from roughly 9 am to 2:45 pm. Only one or two students from the entire school each year complete tertiary (college) education. The school helps the parents to learn sign language, and life skills are taught here, but it seems like there is no one to serve to assist the students in transitions outside of the school (such as communicating to a coworker or boss, taking a trotro taxi, etc.). This seems like a good opening for a physiotherapist or occupational therapist. There are children who have physical disabilities here as well, who could also benefit from services these professionals would provide.
The school identified that outreach programs are the thing they need the most - beyond books, computers, or supplies. They have access to computers and televisions, although it is semi-limited. There is only one private TV station in Ghana that has an interpreter and there is no closed captioning on TV. As far as computers go, there are donated ones and a computer lab which students come to twice a week. However, 20 of the 40 computers are currently broken due to the clay dust which gets into the sensitive electronics. Internet connectivity is also an issue.
On the left, a girl signs "I love you" and on the right, the boy is signing "Thank you"
We were given some time to talk with the kids before departing for our next destination. I don't know very much sign language, and could only remember small amounts of the alphabet, so I just wrote a greeting in my notebook and in return got some autographs from the students. They were very friendly, hospitable, and excited to write down their names.
Our next stop of the day was at Shai Hills Wildlife Sanctuary. While we were there, our tour guide Michael got on our bus to give us some background information. There are three types of baboons in the sanctuary, ostriches, some gazelles, bats, and more. While we were driving out to our hiking spot some baboons jumped down from the trees to see what we were doing. I saw a whole family! There were two mothers with babies who were clinging to their backs and one lead male. They all came very close (I suspect some of them were lured by the trail mix some students had) and I got a really good shot, even with my nifty fifty lens. This would have been a good circumstance for the zoom lens. We also stopped to say hello to an ostrich. I asked and was given permission to put my hand up against the fence, where it got pecked at. I can now say I've touched an ostrich. They are so huge and intimidating up close. I really felt like I was face-to-face with a dinosaur. With the lineage of birds to ancient reptiles, the truth is, I was.
We got out of the bus at a spot a good distance into the sanctuary (it must have been another half hour from the entrance) and proceeded up the trail after spraying bug spray on. The trail didn't have very clear-cut steps; at some points we had to climb up some jumbled rocks. Some of our group had sandals on which must have made it difficult. I wore long pants and long sleeved shirt and some leather boots. Wearing socks here isn't the greatest, but it was better than sandals. Anyway, at the summit of the rock/mountain we climbed, we saw a cave entrance and the ever-increasing smell of guano.
Another time it would have been good to have the 24/70 f/2.8.
Only a few students ventured inside the cave. I was one of them. It was dark, smelly and slippery, and my shirt stuck to my back. When I ducked under an overpass and leaned against the edge of the cave I cared not to think about what I was touching. I used my popup flash (better than nothing) to get a couple of shots of the bats. There were hundreds! They were all chirping, and it was a kind of sweet sound, like birds. I wasn't nervous at all. One negative: flash photography really drains my batteries. I switched one out for the other at this point to realize I had picked up the incorrect backup battery. I had brought another low battery with me instead of a fresh one! However, it still had a little juice left.
We ate a packed lunch on the bus on our way to the next stop, which was Cedi Bead Factory. It took about an hour to get there. I had a really good time here! We learned from Mr. Cedi that there are five types of beads that he makes. They are 1.) recycled from glass, 2.) recycled transparent from coca cola bottles etc., 3.) recycled glass beads that are pounded into powder and pigments are used for coloring, 4.) glazed/painted beads (glass mixed with H2O) where the design is painted on and its fired twice, and 5.) bodom beads (special beads for the chief or God).
Raw material.
Women in Ghana wear beads around their waist. The beads are fired for 30-45 minutes in kilns which can reach temperatures of 600-800 degrees Celsius. The right hand of the worker pierces a hole in the bead, and the bead is shaped into a sphere while it is still hot. While in the kiln beads shrink about 2 mm. Cassava leaves are used in the center of the beads (for the string).
To work as a beadmaker, you have to have very good fine motor coordination skills. You'll need to have good vision as well and be able to distinguish figure from background to tell what beads need to be polished and what are complete. You would need to be able to tolerate the heat from the kiln, and to be cognitively aware of details such as time being fired, the temperature of the firing, and stringing beads into coordinating sequences as jewelry. When polishing the beads during the last step, a worker needs to not mind getting their hands wet and hearing the grating of the beads against the clay and each other. You would need to be able to cross your mid-line and use your hands independently of one another (bilateral asymmetrical movements). This would be a difficult job for someone who has spasticity in their hands (such as a person with cerebral palsy), someone who is sensory sensitive (such as some people on the Autism spectrum), and for someone who has a learning disability (such as someone who struggles with rules and sequencing). You need to be fairly high functioning in order to work as a beadmaker. Additionally, it takes someone with a creative mind and an appreciation for art to craft the beads into the finished products on sale at the showroom.
The showroom was amazing. Prices ranged from 1 cedi a bead to 1000+ cedis for rarer, more intricate jewelry. Our whole class of 20 students crammed ourselves in the little space and helped contribute towards the Ghanaian economy. We also met a US college student who was doing an internship abroad there who was working on his degree in Fine Arts (sculpting).
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