Mercy is a 13-year-old girl from Kongo village in Northern Ghana. She lives together with her sisters and grandmother. Here is a video of her school day.
Video by: Kaisa Kasekamp
Category: GHANA
A Day in My Life: Lizy
Lizy is a Student in Girls’ Model School in Kongo village, Northern Ghana. Here you can see a video of her school day.
Video by: Silja Mall
Here is an interview with Lizy:
Video by: Silja Mall
Recycling workshop in Yakoti Primary and Junior High School
A group of students from Yakoti Primary and Junior High School took part in a recycling workshop on the 4th of November. We discussed the problems that plastic waste causes in the environment and ways to solve these problems. We came to a conclusion that the most important step to dealing with the waste problem is not to create the trash in the first place. By reducing the amount of single use plastics (bags, bottles etc) we buy and take from the shops we create less waste that needs to be disposed of. We also talked about how we should reuse these same plastic items many times and when they are no longer usable we can recycle them to make new objects.
Groups of students went around our school buildings and collected the plastic trash that was on the ground. We learned how to make yarn from that plastic and used it for weaving ropes, knitting and crocheting different objects. Some students even got the clever idea to make a net for the football goal in our school. All in all we had a fun workshop and learned a lot!
Zanlerigu Primary School and plants in our yard
Classes 4, 5 and 6 from Zanlerigu Primary took part of different school linking activities. From 7th to 11th of November.
Our friends from Estonia sent us a presentation about plants in their school yard. We looked at it with classes 6a and 6b and the Mondo teacher from Estonia was explaining the uses of these plants and some things about the climate and nature of Estonia. For us it is quite difficult to imagine a place than can be so cold at times. We made herbal tree from linden tree flowers and drank it together.
With class 6b we then went around our own school and talked about the ways we use the trees that are found here. The trees that we saw were Neem tree, Kapok, Flamboyant tree, Mahogany, Eucalyptus and Acacia. The most obvious benefit of all these trees is that they provide shade and coolness for us and our animals when the weather is very hot outside.
Some trees also have very special value for their beauty. For example in the beginning of rainy season the Flamboyant tree bears very decorative red flowers that are pleasing to look at. Flamboyant tree and Acacia belong to the the bean family of plants which means that they bear fruits that are stored on pods. These pods of seeds can be used to make different sounds and play music. These trees also have fern-like leaves that are made up of many small units attached to one leaf-stem.
The trees that have medicinal value are Neem tree and Mahogany. We can make tea from neem leaves, which can lower fever, clean blood, support liver function and much more. Around here people often use small sticks of neem tree to clean their teeth (the bark of neem is antiseptic and anti-inflammatory). The seeds inside neem berries can be used for making oil, which is widely used in production of cosmetics. This oil also has a use as natural insect repellent. Because neem is a fast growing tree it is also often used as firewood. Growing neem trees also makes the soil more fertile because the roots can grow very deep and bring minerals back to the surface of the ground.
Mahogany is a tree that is prized for the beautiful colour and texture of it’s wood. That is why it’s often used to make luxury furniture. Mahogany is a slow growing tree. We use the bark and sap of mahogany tree for medicine, especially to cure stomach pains. That is why when you see mahogany here, their trunks have many scars and holes in them. People routinely go to the tree to cut it and get medicine.
The Kapok tree has fruits that contain cotton like fibre. We use it to make pillows.
Eucalyptus is a tree uses up a lot of water from the ground, so people plant it to irrigate very wet areas.
After seeing all the plants and talking about them each student chose one tree and drew a picture of it also stating some of the uses of this tree.
With both classes 6a and 6b we read the letters from our friends from Kuristiku Gümnaasium and wrote letters about ourselves back.
Clean up activity with Kongo Primary School
On 7th of November all the students of Kongo Primary School participated in a clean up activity of our village. The clean-up activity was a part of the program for our school anniversary celebration. In Kongo we have quite a big problem with waste management. The disposal of waste is not so well organized by the govenrment which means that most people are left to dispose of their waste on their own. Some people burn all of their trash (including the plastics) and other people just throw it on the ground somewhere. Because of that there is a lot of plastic trash littering the environment here, which of course as we all know, is not good.
The more than 500 students of our school all came together on Monday to clean as much of the village as possible. Students from Kongo Junior High School joined us as well. We took the road from our school to the education office in the village and picked up trash that we found on the way. The road looked much nicer afterwards 🙂
It’s one thing to try to clean up the litter that’s already around, but more importantly we have to find ways to keep the trash from getting to the environment in the first place. For that purpose we had a discussion with classes 5 and 6 where we talked about different ways to solve the waste problem. Namely the importance of reducing our use of plastic packages, reusing the plastic object we already have and recycling the things that can no longer be used. As a recycling technique we learned how to weave and crochet with yarn made from plastic bags.
We learned how important it is that everbody takes responsibility for keeping our village clean.
Presentation Primary School: Trees around our school
A group of students from classes 1-6 from Presentation Primary School learned about the different trees that are found near our school. Our teacher David was telling us about the uses that these trees have.
The trees that we talked about were: Jatropha, Mahogany, Fig tree, Shea tree, Neem, Dawadawa. Red and yellow berry trees.
Jatropha is a plant that can be used to produce oil. Mahogony tree has very hard and beautiful wood and therefore is used for carpentry, but besides that it also has medicinal value in easing stomach pains. Neem tree is also used as medicine to lower fevers. Dawadawa tree fruits are very nutritious and we use it in many dishes (like soups, stews and rice dishes).
After seeing all the trees we went to the library and everybody chose one tree to draw. We made picture of the trees and wrote uses of them next to our drawings.
Zopeliga Primary School: story “Hawk and Hen”
With class 4 of Zopeliga Primary School we were telling folklore tales about different animals. Children knew a lot of stories and we had a good time listening to them. Then the students chose one story which we translated to English.
The story that we decided on is called “Hawk and Hen” and it’s about two friends: the hawk and the hen. They live together and both of them like to play drums. But the hen is a little bit lazy and doesn’t want to work or bring food to the house, she only wants to play drums. So because she is always lying about being sick to not do any work, the hawk gets angry with her and almost kills her one day. To save her own life hen promises to give one of her chick to hen every time she hatches a new set of baby hens. This is why hawk has been taking hen’s chicks ever since.
After doing the translation we divided the story into sections and each student participated in designing some part of our storybook. Some of us were drawing the illustrations, some were writing and some were making the page decorations.
The book turned out very nice and we’ll send it to our friends in Estonia to read.
Field trip to Pitanga rocks with Kongo Junior High School
Students from Kongo Junior Hight School forms 2 and 3 took a field trip to nearby Pitanga rocks on the 25th of October 2016. Pitanga is a village next to our school which is famous for the big cliffs that it has. ‘Pii’ in nabt language means a rock so this means the village has been named after the cliffs.
We started our trip early in the morning so that the sun would not be too hot on us. On the way there we were singing and dancing. Some of the songs we had created for ourselves and some of them are local traditional songs.
While walking we also talked about the different plants and trees that grow here and discussed the ways we can use them in our daily lives. Some of the plants that we saw were: shea tree, dawadawa tree, burasus palm and the red berry tree.
The tree that has the most uses here is the shea tree. People eat the fresh fruits of it and use the nutty seeds inside the fruit to produce shea butter. Shea butter is widely used for cooking and skin care. In addition to the butter, people also cut the bark of the tree to get a special gum, which can be used for mending things or just as chewing gum. Also the leaves of it have some medicinal qualities so after boiling them in water the liquid can be used for bathing newly born babies. People use the wood that you get from shea tree to make different tools as well.
Cultural performances in Zua Primary School
Boys and girls from Zua Primary School are very good at dancing and singing. On 20th of October 2016 we had a cultural performance day at the school to show different local dances to our friends in Estonia and other countries.
In front of the schoolhouse boys did the traditional War Dance. It is a dance usually performed on funerals. The tradition comes from old times when different tribes of our area were always fighting. When a person who had married to a different tribe died, their family members would suspect that somebody from the new tribe might have killed this person. To make sure if this had happened, they would dress in menacing war costumes, take weapons like bows and arrows with them and go to the funeral. There they would perform a dance to threaten the people of the new family and see if somebody gets scared of them. It was believed that he who shows fear might be the killer. These days the dance is performed as a traditional ritual, not out of necessity and is an important part of every funeral. Of course we did not have a funeral at the school, but because students have seen the dance done many times, they could show everybody what it looks like.
Then we gathered under the baobab tree where boys and girls showed different local dances.
Later in the day Godfred from class 5, who is a very talented musician, built a Kolog (local guitar). To do it he used a calabash, goat’s skin, pins, string and wood for the handle. When the instrument was finished we could sing and dance some more. We also learned to play one of estonian traditional instruments, the Parmupill (Jaw harp).
PS! We will add videos of the dances later, in December 🙂
Field trip with Zua Primary and Zua Junior High School.
On 19th of October 2016 the students from Zua Primary and Zua Junior High School embarked on a field trip to a nearby hill called Amuhizupelig. We were accompanied by teachers from both schools and by a member of our community who knows the area very well. His name is Baga’ant.
Before starting the trip we gathered together, said a prayer, sang a song and listened to instructions by our teachers.
While taking the trip, we collected different edible or otherwise useful plants and made short videos about them. The typical landscape around our school is quite flat, there are no big mountains or valleys. Because of that people can grow a lot of crops here. We saw fields of maize, millet, okra and other plants all around us. Also there are many useful trees such as shea trees or dawadawas. On the way we saw a lot of animals but only domesticated animals like cows, sheep and goats. No lions or elephants or crocodiles 🙂 As we got farther from the villages there were more grasslands, bushes and wild trees.
During the rainy season the trail we took is very hard to pass through but because by now the dry season is starting and there are no more heavy rains, it was easy enough to reach our destination. To reach the hilltop we had to make our own path through the high grass.
The view from the top of the hill was very beautiful, it’s possible to see all of the surrounding area from up there. We spent some time on the hill relaxing and playing games and then returned back to school. The trip itself was not so long: alltogether we walked for about two hours, but because of the hot weather and the sun we felt a little bit tired afterwards.
Back at the school we watched some videos of the field trips taken by our friends from Kolga school and wrote letters to them.
Food for Thought Mondo 