Week 7 (Final Week) Update

With one week left in Ghana, I actually don’t have very much to report. I had a relaxing weekend. I read a good deal and spent time with some kids on Saturday. On Sunday, I went for a nice walk around Community 25, which covers a much larger piece of land than I first thought. I could be a small town in itself. I was surprised to see dozens of really large houses and two enormous schools popping up on the other side of the community. It’s a big contrast with the area around Manye. Technically, we are located in “Community 25 Annex,” although the houses built in the Annex were here first. But it seems Tema’s development plan is kicking into gear and Community 25 will mostly be home to wealthy families in the future. That seems a bit sad, but hopefully that will come as children attending schools like Manye are able to get good jobs and have a better standard of living than their parents’ generation.

Also of note, Dana Charles (Dartmouth’06, currently in graduate school at NYU and a friend of Ben Schwartz - WPE’s founder) is here in Ghana doing research about what motivates people to send their children to school. We hosted a survey here at Manye yesterday so that Dana could collect data for her research. Turnout was unimpressive, but Dana was encouraged by the data she’s been collecting at NAP, the other WPE partner school. So it’s nice to help contribute in some way to the work she’s doing and hopefully she will be successful.

That’s about all I know. Exam week has finished for the kids, but they still have to come to school while the teachers finish their assessments. They basically get to do whatever they like during the day, and I’ve enjoyed hanging out with them. I will miss them a lot when I leave. 

I fly home one week from today, on a late night flight that arrives in NY on the morning of Tuesday 8/9. I will definitely miss this place and everyone here, but I am also looking forward to coming home. So I hope you all are well. I’ll probably send one more blog update later in the week. Talk to you all soon.