 "Photo: Jordan Brown")
Senior Jordan Brown felt goosebumps creep up and down his skin underneath his khaki pants and green polo shirt. He stepped onto a concrete foundation littered with dirt and walked into a bare, tin-roofed classroom lit only by the sunlight pouring through the door and window-shaped holes in the tarnished concrete walls. From behind the pew-shaped desks of the Obo Methodist Junior Secondary School, 15 bald children of the small African mountain town in Ghana rose to their sandaled feet. Their bright yellow, hand-washed uniforms and white-toothed smiles contrasted sharply against the bare concrete backdrop. In unison, they all said, "Mache, Sir Brown," which means, "Good morning, Mr. Brown." The developing students of the poor nation quietly sat back down and eagerly opened their tattered notebooks.
"Today we will be learning about the internet and e-mail," Brown said as he grabbed a nub of chalk and turned to the chalkboard, which was merely one wall with dripping smears of black paint.
"In-ter-net? E-mail?" The confusion was written clearly across the children's faces. The government-issued curriculum dictated that Brown teach the children English, math and a computer course. Most of the children had never seen a computer before, and as much as he tried to explain what a computer was, Brown quickly realized explaining the internet was a lost cause. As he sighed, Brown wondered how much he could really do before Fall Semester 2008 started and he would have to return for his senior year at the university. Little did Brown know, that summer he would learn how to become their god.
The Republic of Ghana is a small, developing nation about the size of the state of Oregon, located on the Gulf of Guinea coast of West Africa between the nations of Côte d'Ivoire and Togo. According to black American studies professor Howard Johnson, most black Americans can trace their heritage back to the Gold Coast, and therefore America has deep cultural ties to Ghana.
Daniel Green, associate professor of political science and international relations and specialist on Ghana, says, "Ghana is one of Africa's biggest hopes."
While Liberia is plagued by civil war, Nigeria has slums that cover the landscape for miles and Mali has been transformed by desertification, Green says, "Ghana is one of the few islands of stability in Africa, and deserves all the help we can give it."
Ghana rewrote its constitution using the United States as its model in 1992. It is American policy to encourage strong democracies throughout the world, and Ghana is seen as a possible role model to the rest of the continent.
However, Ghana has many obstacles in its way to catch up with a globalized modern world. According to the CIA's fact sheet on Ghana, the nation has been declared an area with a "very high degree of risk" for infectious diseases and the CIA warns that Ghana has a "widespread crime and money laundering problem." Ironically, the country is so poor that its broken financial infrastructure "limits the country's utility as a money laundering center." Approximately 59 percent of children over 15 years old can read and write. The average student only makes it to the equivalent of eighth grade.
Brown saw the need for Africa to evolve in this changing world but for years had been too afraid.
"I know the point I decided to go to Ghana," Brown says. "I read this book, 'Who Moved My Cheese?' "
The book is a children's allegory of changing times and learning to evolve in a changing world.
"Throughout the book there is this writing on the wall. There was one quote that really stuck with me," Brown says. " 'What would you do if you weren't afraid?' My mom always told me, you have to step outside your comfort zone to learn new stuff. So I finally decided if I wasn't afraid, I would go to Africa. Community service is my passion. I've always felt if you have the time and skills, you have a moral obligation to do it."
In June 2008, Brown, a senior finance student, stepped off the plane in Accra, the capital of Ghana, and met Fred Frempong. Frempong started the Salormey Volunteers Group in 2001, and Brown had gotten a political internship at the Kwahu South District Assembly.
He says he spoke with Frempong for months and researched the internship beforehand.
Despite the preparations, when he first arrived in Ghana Brown was overwhelmed.
He didn't find what he expected at his internship. Although Green says district assemblies were an innovative initiative of effective local government, at Kwahu South District Assembly, Brown realized just how ineffective the local governments in Ghana can be.
"They didn't really do anything," Brown says. "They just sat around and listened to gospel music all day. I was not happy."
Brown talked to Frempong and got relocated to the nearby tiny mountain town of Obo where he could make a greater impact teaching 11- and 12-year-old students.
Obo is a poor town of huts with a few large summer homes owned by richer city dwellers who, according to Brown, never lived in them. Brown lived in one of these relatively upscale buildings with a host family. Despite it being one of the best homes in the village, Brown struggled to adjust to the new culture in which he was immersed. When he walked down the street, everyone would yell "Obrunis" meaning "white person." Though Brown is a quarter black, he has a very pale complexion. At first he was frustrated. Everyone, even children would yell at him. Then he realized it was sociably acceptable to yell back "Obibini," meaning "black people."
"It was so childish," Brown says, laughing. "Hey black person! Hey white person! Hey white person!"
English is the official language of Ghana, however, everyone in the town of Obo speaks broken English at best. They are thrilled when anyone attempts their native language of Twi, pronounced "chewy."
"When they saw me walking home in the rain they would yell, 'What are you doing?' " he says. "Then they would pull me into their homes and give me food. Even if they didn't have any food they wanted to give you what they could. I eventually realized it was an insult not to take whatever they offered." Despite the barriers Brown had to overcome, he still became an asset to the teaching force. The churches built the schools in Obo because the rural areas recieve no funding from the government, even though school is mandatory through middle school. The schools themselves have little to offer with few materials and small staffs. There were only three other teachers in the school who were paid almost nothing.
Brown prided himself on being able to make the kids enjoy learning through laughter, whether by trying to speak butchered Twi or making a hollow sound by knocking the top of his head.
He tried to use a lot of hand motions and drew pictures in class to help break down the language and experience barriers.
"I would draw a picture [of a computer] and try to explain there is this thing called a mouse, and I don't mean the animal," he says. Eventually, Brown found an old broken computer in another school's library, which had destroyed tables and books, so he could at least show his students the parts of a computer. Finally, he took them to a functional computer in a town a 20-minute walk away. Brown found challenges in teaching English as well. The children did not want to read in English because they were so afraid of getting it wrong, but Brown kept reassuring them, "I don't care if you mess up. You need to learn this."
Brown admired their determination and ability to focus under such difficult circumstances. When it rained, the tin roof of the school amplified the sound of the drops to a deafening cacophony making it impossible to teach.
"They wouldn't go crazy," he says. "They would just patiently wait for up to, like, three hours hoping they could get a chance to learn."
Trying to teach in the rainy season was hard enough. Kwami Osei, the headmaster of the school, explains a much deeper problem that plagues the children of rural towns. One day, when Osei was talking to his student, Abraham, the boy suddenly collapsed at his feet. Osei fed Abraham some porridge and the student was immediately fine. Recalling this incident, Brown looks bleak, even pensively mournful. He looks down at his feet, leans forward, and nervously twirls the bits of beard growing under his chin.
"How are these kids supposed to learn if they are starving?" Brown asks.
He doesn't look up as he considers the children's future. He just shuffles a bit uncomfortably.
"The future," Brown says. "I don't know. That's the thing."
Brown's favorite student was named Giften. Giften was a gifted student.
"He had an attitude where he wanted to make everyone laugh and run around the room and help everyone with their in-class homework assignments," he says.
Giften, like so many other kids, often couldn't come to class. Obo has almost no stable jobs so children are often needed to help sell items in the street. The town has almost no money and although first and secondary schools are required, high school is not, and it costs approximately $100.
"The smartest kids can't go to high school," Brown says. "They can't afford it."
He finally picks his head up and says, "I saw a real noticeable difference, especially in math. The kids got better. Most of the kids finally passed, and when I bought these kids laminated notebooks, their eyes lit up."
Back in the United States, Brown remembers the famous words of the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, "Nothing endures but change." He wonders what he had really helped to change. He asks, "How much can you really do for a whole town in two months?" The infrastructure in Ghana still has insurmountable flaws. The children were most likely to slip off the map, still doomed by the lack of a quality education.
He knew what he'd do if he wasn't afraid. There was one lasting legacy he could give these children. He told Osei about his idea of fundraising in America to buy the school an entire computer lab, where the students could gain the IT knowledge they so desperately need, and the school could raise some money for education by opening an Internet café. He discovered that it would actually be affordable in American terms. Five or six computers as well as all the wiring and equipment for all of them could be purchased for $1,000. Osei said, "Oh my, you would be a god here if you did it."
So far, Brown has raised $680 by canvassing different student organizations, churches and fraternities. He is on his way to providing a godsend to a town in America's fledgling pupil Republic of Ghana.
"Everyone," he says, "sometime in their life just should ask themselves, what would you do if you were never afraid?" To donate or learn more about Brown's journey, email him at jpbrown@udel.edu.
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