Me and You

Last week I had the pleasure of doing a book and cultural exchange with the second grade of Alta Vista Elementary School. After reading “The Ghanaian Goldilocks” and “Clifford at the Circus,” I had the pleasure of introducing Ghanaian culture to each class. I was not prepared for so many questions but the children were truly excited to know about children who live in other parts of the world. Each child wrote a letter inside the “Clifford at the Circus” book to a new friend in Ghana. I took all of the Clifford books with me that week as I cross the ocean to Ghana.

As I read each letter, tear began to fall. The beautiful fully accepting innocence of children should be a lesson to each of us. The drawings in the letter above is a great example. Me and you are all alike with are just clothed with different skin.

In Ghana through the years, I have run into a problem with the lack of books that children can enjoy and learn that reading can be fun. Our summer reading program gives every child five books to read for fun. This cultural book exchange gave the Alta Vista children in Sarasota a chance to learn about St. Paul’s school in Ghana and the Ghana children a chance to learn about an interesting fact about Sarasota. We are a circus town.

The Ghana children also were presented with a cultural program about America. Then they began to write their response letters to the children in Sarasota.

Many of children wrote how happy they were to have a new friend. 

Today marked a new high for children in both classes as we held a video chat between the schools. For a small village in the bush of Ghana, this was a major event. Today is a school holiday and yet every child, an at least 50 other children arrived two hours before the video chat. It is 89 degrees in the shade here. There is no air conditioning and no fans to move the air in the rooms. 

Challenges abounded. We needed a projector and someone borrowed one from their work, but when we got to the school, today is lights off. They have rolling blackouts in Ghana. With no power and just a 13″ screen it looked pretty bleak. Another friend, Seth Owsu, sent two of his IT workers to help. They had a tiny battery operated projector. We had no screen. After taping 4 pieces of paper to the blackboard and borrowing sheets to cover the windows we could barely see the image but we were set.

The day open with. . . . . 

Both schools wearing red noses to prove we are so much alike. The Ghana children were treated to a clown performance thank to Sarasota Arts Conservatory.

And Sarasota children were treated to drumming and dancing. The link to the drumming is at the end.

After the excitement of the clowns and drumming, each school had students asks questions of the other school. What food do you eat for lunch? How many are in your family? Does you family own a car? There were 20 questions posed and many high 5’s when the children on both sides found their answers were the same.

All of this happened because of Ghanaian Mothers’ Hope Donors, The Patterson Foundation, The Sarasota Community Foundation, Dr. Barbara Shirley and the staff of Alta Vista Elementary, and the Ghana Education System at St. Paul’s Anglican Basic School, Akramaman.

 

 

Drumming