Stories from a Ghanaian e-reader village (pt 1)

...waiting. A genuinely Ghanaian activity. But also a wonderfully social experience.

I was waiting on two students from Senior High School, who were meant to pick me up for our Worldreader case interview at 2 pm outside of Junior High School. By 3pm I had talked to multiple students and teachers I still knew from the morning. Also I had asked a boy carrying a large bucket of coconuts on his head to sell one to me and open it with his machete. Thinking about my appointment with the two students I understood what it meant to be on GMT (Ghana Maybe Time). When the coconut was finished I decided that the students were not going to come anymore so I changed plans and called my contacts from Junior High. Knowing that I was in for another 30 minutes of waiting, I had just settled back into the shade on the school's porch, when I heard somebody hissing at me.

Two little kids, maybe six or seven years old were standing on the other side of the fence, trying to get my  attention. 'Hey Mister! How are you?'. I was happy to confirm that I was just fine and I went back to reviewing some of my notes. Two minutes later the hissing was back and this time four children had assembled outside the fence 'Mister! What is your mothers' name?'. I answered truthfully and the name 'Sabine' had them running off with laughter, repeating the name like a grand discovery. Now minute by minute more kids assembled, asking questions about all my family members' names, father, sisters and even aunty. Eventually they wanted to know my name, whether I spoke any Twee, etc. By the time my junior high school contacts arrived, I had become somewhat of an village wide attraction for the children of the village, and, upon leaving the school yard I was quickly surrounded. Amazing experience to be celebrated by 30 kids, who all want to take your hand, hug you and chat with you. The crowd of children also decided to follow us through the village, a fact somewhat unnerving to my 14year old companions Mabel and Diana from Junior High, whom I was about to interview.

Our not-so-silent escort gradually became smaller, but when we arrived at our destination, we still had six loyal followers. We had arrived at Mr. Michaels house, Mabel's and Diana's teacher. He was an engaged teacher who reported how having the e-reader's had completely transformed his academic possibilities. Now he was actually able to send students home with reading or research assignments, significantly pushing their learning success. Homeworks apparently are something unthinkable for the teachers of other classes in the school, who work with a limited number of textbooks which have to be shared among two or three students and can never be taken home. In addition, students of the e-reader classes are able to follow their own interests in reading some of the storybooks provided by Worldreader and its partners or downloading books an samples from the Kindle Store. Finding out how students use their e-readers at home was a main focus of my case study so we soon went on to visit Diana's house.

Diana's home was near the villages river, where some way upstream gold is being mined, both blessing and curse, as Michael told me, as, while bringing some wealth, the mining practices also pollute the river, which many villagers use for bathing and washing. Diana had a large family, with most members living in the two houses around the yard where we were sitting. Her mother runs a little shop from a shack also on the yard, and smokes fish which she sells to villagers. Her father and two of her brothers work outside of the home, while her younger brothers and the children of the older brothers help with running errands for the shop. Diana also helps out, but is often excused, when she is doing schoolwork with the kindle or reading in private. Her favorite stories are Africa based fairy tales and legends, such as Ananse and the Lizard.

We went on to visit Mabel and her family, a smaller but equally welcoming family, consisting of Mabel, her parents, her sister Millicent and her baby brother Abdel-Asis. Mabel's father is a cab-driver, while the mother stays at home to take care of the family. Both Mabel and Millicent have an e-reader, and they are often seen reading together outside of their house. Their mother had become a great supporter of Worldreader's work and reported how both children had improved at school and in speaking English. They did indeed speak good English, particularly Millicent spoke great English for a primary school student, benefiting from the being in the e-reader class, and reading at home with her elder sister. Together with Diana, we read another of their favorite books on the e-reader: Ananse and the Pot of Wisdom.

With many impressions and amazed by the warmth and openness of the people I had met, I took a taxi to my hostel in the next village. The next day I was going to meet more students and their families, and I was looking forward to the experience.

Stay tuned,

Carl