Achievement of a Major Goal

If you look over my past few blog entries, you can probably see that I have been incredibly busy traveling all over the country to work on projects, and have faced many challenges along the way.  A brief list of activities and challenges include:  shooting, editing, and designing the Sign Language dictionaries over the course of 5 months, various committee meetings, editing a couple training videos, in-service trainings for additional projects at site, pilot trainings and meeting with Ghana Education Services (GES) officials, revising a document for a national program,  and my work at site as a teacher in conjunction with challenges that include: consistent lack of electricity at site, the crashing of my computer (conveniently timed as I was editing videos, effectively leading to a loss of progress and potential to update or change the dictionaries or any other projects), becoming the only remaining deaf art volunteer, having to spend more than 1 month away from site in order to complete some of these projects, and many close friends completing their service in one respect or the other.  Now all of these things began to weigh heavily upon me and I reached a breaking point right about when my computer crashed.  But I received news in early October that not only validated all of the hard work, but led to the achievement of one major goal of mine during my service.

From the moment I learned there was an annual award for education volunteers, I knew I wanted it.  Not only for the title but to back up a lot of the work I do in Ghana in hopes that it will someday lead me to my dream job as an art teacher at a good school (somewhere on the side of a mountain in Colorado). 

The award is a GES-implemented function that is awarded to about 90 teachers in Ghana, 3 at each level (Primary, JHS, and SHS) from each region, one from VSO (the UK’s overseas volunteer program), one from JICA (essentially Japanese Peace Corps) and one from Peace Corps.  The overall winner of the National Best Teacher is awarded with a brand new home and 65,000 cedis.  The 1^st and 2^nd runner-ups are awarded new cars, and the top ranking teachers at each level or area of specialty are awarded large refrigerators and TV’s.  Needless to say, this is all a really big deal for those teachers that win. 

The ceremony was held in Cape Coast, which is a very popular tourist area.  Because of that, everybody thought I was traveling around to see the sights (which gets really annoying as a PCV who has been in Ghana for over a year).  I was also the only recipient form the foreign organizations that showed up which led to the typical phenomenon of becoming the token white guy.  The Vice President of Ghana showed up and gave everybody a figurative hand shake (due to Ebola) before he addressed the teachers.  Then the Minister of Education gave an address that was hard to hear because the other teachers were chatting around me.  Occasions like this are a lot less formal in Ghana. 

They began to announce the recipients for the various awards.  The teachers were really excited for everything during this point, hooting and hollering for the winners and their friends. It felt so nice to be in an area where every teacher was motivated and truly cares about the education of the children.   Eventually my name was called and I had to walk out in the middle of the huge grounds where the ceremony was.  At the podium, I received my certificate and a basket of traditional “artifacts” from some dignitary wrapped in extravagant kente cloth.  I tried to take my stock back to my seat but was asked to come and stand to the side and receive a vote of thanks.  Apparently there was a statement prepared, but because of the heat they didn’t read it and instead just thanked me for my service and then I headed back to my seat.  I was very confused. 

Cue the media.  I was intercepted by a reporter from the major TV station in Ghana and had the worst interview anybody ever heard of.  The whole thing focused on how I “even learned some of the local language during my time in Ghana.” My initial reaction was to be upset that the assumption is we cannot speak our local languages, so I just focused on how I live and work at a deaf school and because of that, speak sign language.  I also mentioned something about how the work was the dream of a lifetime and even threw in a God Bless Ghana for the viewers.  I quickly returned to my seat and tried to repress that memory.

The overall winner was announced last and that was really exciting to see!  The winning teacher works in the poorest region and gave a great speech about the direction of education in Ghana.  He received the model of his future home, which was pretty ridiculous, and the runner-ups received their cars.

The spread of gifts I received. 

After that, the ceremony closed and everybody went to collect their prizes.  Here, I learned that I also received a basket full of enough milk powder to last the remainder of my service.  Once all of the excitement died down, we all went back to our hotel and then on to a reception that evening to celebrate our victories.

Fast forward a few days and I finally arrive back at site, motivated and ready to take on the new school year.  It’s interesting how recognition goes a long way to inspire you.  While it was nice to be away and experience a more prosperous side of Ghanaian culture, I once again realized that I am truly happiest when I am at my little, secluded school in the northern reaches of Ghana. 

 

Upon reflecting on the experience, one can’t help but feel something about being named the “Best” of anything.  Of course, excitement was one of those emotions, but also there was a mixed feeling of why did I win this over any other volunteer this year?  I may never know, but I think it is also important to realize that just because I was on the radar due to the scope of my projects, doesn’t necessarily mean I deserved the recognition most.  This feeling is what will drive me to be more, do more, and truly prove to myself that I deserve this.