• Story books suitable for children of 8 – 12.
• Children’s summer clothing.
• Men’s shirts & trousers but no jeans please as too heavy to carry!
• Ladies’ summer blouses / skirts / trousers.
• Children’s spectacles (only children’s as we have a link with NGO that are providing school pupils)
• Ballpoints / pencils (Not coloured pencils)
• Old but working Mobiles and Laptops if you had a better one for Christmas! Mobiles can be unlocked there.

Thanking you for reading this,
Ian and Diana [Bosman]

Any good condition men’s shirts, lightweight trousers, t-shirts and children’s summer weight clothing, non-fiction books or toys would also be useful.

Please either give such items to Kate or Luke in mid-February or give them your details so we can collect when we are around between 18^th and 22^nd February.
Many thanks,

Ian and Diana Bosman, ex-Mission Partners in Ghana

The fearfulness was fully justified as so many things had been allowed to slip in my absence, many of which were tasks which had to be completed and vetted by GES. It took me three weeks to start to understand the book keeping for the Capitation Grant and still could not explain to anyone the May and June Monthly Returns but in the end I decided it was not my problem. Nursery Fees collection was in a bad way, no school-based INSET had been held and the library was still not ready for books to go in or even the lists typed up. With only four hours, supposedly, in school on three days and two free days the outstanding tasks were impossible so though, except for the last week, I managed two days away from school, school work happened in the house. I did at least have six hours on those days by the sea forgetting totally about school so that was great and essential. I realised that it is only by being away from the school and house that I truly rest.

The hoped-for holiday arrived with an enormous backlog of work and me panicking as we need the holiday but the work must be done as worrying about it is as stressful and bad for me as doing it. The day we broke up saw me in bed by 10.45pm and Ian by midnight and both of us working from 6am until 1pm on the Friday instead of leaving at 11am with Kate, Luke and Hannah. We could do no other as the Circuit Supervisor had handed Ian a set of marked test papers on 2^nd August to be analysed for return ASAP. When, on the Friday I met another Head Teacher, she said “The work is too tedious”, meaning that she too was overwhelmed. However, things are not all bad.

The classrooms over the workshops are going up rapidly and all being well should be ready for use by September except we have not received any furniture as yet. We are told that it should come before the start of term. We are not sure what we are supposed to do if it doesn’t or if a lorry turns up with the furniture in the holiday as there will not be anyone around to receive it.

The visit of four pupils and two staff from Prittlewell Technology College near Southend-on-Sea went well with both sides hoping it can continue. SMC and PTA are certainly in favour of it continuing but I still have to discuss it with GES and the Regional Manager. Having heard that the British Council is involved in such projects, contact with them will also be made. The difficulty is that every “bright” idea leads to more work. The hope is that in 2007 a similar group will again visit and perhaps two JSS teachers may go to, the newly renamed, Chase School and then in 2008 a two-way exchange could happen but lots of planning needs to be done.

We now know, from her first Newsletter, that the new Mission Partner will be totally in charge of N1 and N2 which will help me greatly: with two additional classes in September at the “top” end of the school, the loss of two at the “bottom” end will mean no increase in work load. As I am supposed to be following doctor’s guidelines for next term, I hope to reach the end without a backlog as at present. I shall also need to do some JSS English teaching as we are lacking a teacher in that area.

Someone asked me if I was glad we had come in spite of the recent health problems and the answer is a resounding “Yes” as I feel we could have done no other. Leaving in December will be a heart-breaking wrench though we shall also be pleased to be able to spend more time with family and friends, particularly our grandchildren. We hope to be able to keep in touch and visit annually starting in 2008.

On our return to the UK we know we shall be homeless until at least early March or maybe longer but once back in Leigh-on-Sea we plan to give ourselves a few months to sort out the house before looking for one in Aldridge, West Midlands.

Once back in the UK we shall be happy to visit churches, schools, etc. to talk, give presentations and take services if wished so others may learn about life in Ghana and Nkanfoa in particular. Any invitation should be directed through Margaret Michelmore at Methodist Church House, 25 Marylebone Road, London.

We have had problems with the French teacher who, in my absence, stopped teaching BS4-BS6 French classes and had not taught them all term so in fact his full-time teaching had consisted of 2hrs 20mins per week unnoticed by the Deputy. He also informed Ian that Ian had no authority in the school so any message from me to him had to go via the Deputy and any reply also via the Deputy. This was despite Diana’s explicit instruction to him to accept messages direct via Ian. Both the Regional Manager and the Circuit Supervisor are investigating the problem. He is also refusing to teach any BS classes from September which is an impossible situation and we await further developments.

When I returned one teacher immediately remarked on the fact my colour had changed but recently an Afro-American said, “Are you an abruni?” (white person) so I guess it must be coming back.

As I reflect back through our journal for the last month I think I am amazed I am still upright!

A few difficulties:

• One day I was told at 9.45am that the Head Teacher had to be at a meeting at 8.30am with all teachers’ May pay slips so the morning was spent frantically making phone calls to school re: this, Ian taking staff home to collect, etc. and me filling in very lengthy forms.
• National tests in Maths and English had been organised for BS2 and BS4, papers to be delivered to the school early for tests to start at 9am prompt. 9am came and went as did 10am but no papers. Ian and Sister Felicia, the Catholic School Head, went to GES to enquire and Ian phoned at 10.30am stating there was one word to describe the situation, chaos. He returned later with some of the papers and spent until 1.30pm getting them photocopied and driving back and forth for both schools. Initially there were insufficient papers and in one case only one copy! Those invigilating were kept waiting hoping for Ian to return with sufficient papers to continue with the next batch. The tests finally finished at 3.30pm with exhausted, hungry and “brain dead” pupils as all had been there for eight hours by then.
• BS4 upwards were to do bought exam papers at the end of term so that comparisons between schools could be made across the municipality. We were told they would be delivered and some were at 8.50am, a week before they were expected but with a revised timetable so that they should have started at 9am that day! We had no BS4 papers at all. As that week we had the National tests due on the Wednesday and the PTA meeting on the Thursday I made the decision to stick to the original schedule so we would start on the Friday. There were no Fante or French papers, some others were insufficient and there were no mark schemes. After many visits by Ian, he succeeded in getting all the papers just before the appointed time but then we realised that the Fante mark scheme did not belong with the Fante paper set. The General Science paper, though clearly marked “JSS1″ was the JSS2 paper so that had to be returned and set another day. One teacher commented that “Us Ghanaians have a long way to go”.
• This year as well as the 7 page Staff Appraisal Forms for GES it was now necessary to do different ones for the Methodist Unit. One question required me to say whether each teacher was (a) of good standing in the church (b) of good standing in the community (c) not respected. I felt for most staff I could not judge them.

Variety is the spice of life and challenge keeps us on our toes so we should be going on tip-toes full of life.

On 30^th July we met Kate, Luke and Hannah (3 years) in Accra, so Tuesday saw Hannah in N2 in her uniform. Everyone was delighted to meet Hannah and it was certainly an overwhelming day for her as the tinies just followed her everywhere but she ate her ¢1000 (sixpenny) lunch with relish which pleased them greatly.

2^nd August was the staff meal for 30 at “In Thee Lodge” while the 3rd was the end of term, but not of school work, and farewell to Annette, hopefully “Au revoir” and not “Adieu”. How we shall cope without our typist and Girl Friday next term is something not worth considering but have a number of friends with flights booked so some help will be arriving for various tasks.

The fence started by Prittlewell still needs to be completed, the Pre-School fence needs re-erecting in parts and though the land for the staff housing has been cleared no other work, as yet, has been done on the site. This is a major frustration as if Sam Ekunoo had been able to do the work it would be completed well before we leave. However we have been told that it has to be done by the workers the church uses so there is slow, very slow and no movement at all and we are having to deal with the latter. Staff are desperate for housing, the money is there and this has been on the agenda since November 2003. Yes that is almost three years so pray pretty hard that it may be underway within the next few days, not weeks or months.

Please continue to remember us in your prayers and our main needs:

• The staff housing to be completed by December.
• The last two weeks of this vacation to be a real holiday for us.
• A JSS English teacher for next term.
• A roof over our heads for early next year.
• Diana’s health to stabilise and improve.
• Emily and her leadership rôle in N1 and N2.
• A new Head Teacher to take over the school in December.
• Strength for us both to persevere to the end, still smiling.

Love to you all,

Diana and Ian Bosman

The holidays were great but unfortunately at the end both Michael and Diana ended up with severe stomach bugs which meant a seven day course of antibiotics for both of them which then resulted in a bad ME flare-up for Diana from which she is still trying to recover. In temperatures of 33°C, high humidity and in a country where ME is unknown folks cannot understand why Diana cannot just take something and be fine. She knows she will get through this but rather it was sooner, not later.

Recent highlights

Work has actually started on the Pre-Vocational and Pre-Technical workshops (see photo) and, so far, is going well at a decent speed which is mainly due to the oversight of Sam Ekunoo, a leader at the church and a pillar of the community. We have decided to abandon the plans to put in a pitched aluminium corrugated roof and go for a concrete roof with deeper foundations for a two storey building so that if there is, at some point, sufficient money for extra classrooms built over. We envisage a single large room for JSS Assemblies as even BS1 – BS6 have a job to fit into the present BS2-BS3 with the screen back. The large space could be divided with wooden dividers into 2 or 3 rooms but we doubt if we shall have enough to complete this before we leave. It could mean that JSS could have two streams which would benefit those at the top who can be accelerated and the weaker ones who need extra help. Any new money in the next few months will go towards this.

The library looks like it could be finished before Easter, we had hoped for September 2004 but, well, we are on Africa time! More shelving needs to be made but at least some of that can be added after the library comes into use and more books are organised to be sent by the M-bag system when we are in the UK at Easter.

Sadly, for staff housing and the land we are still stuck in the legal stage so we are fearful that not much will happen in the near future.

We will mention needs now but only these things below as we know for certain other items are already collected for us and now that Steve and Ruth have a trailer tent in their garage they have no room for more of our things. If we exceed our joint 70 kg baggage allowance we will store in our caravan and gradually bring it over with us as we are sure we shall be back.

• Blackboard rubbers if you can find a school that no longer has a use for them.
• Board books, up to date, non fiction books and children’s books in cartoon format.
• Fit-in wooden jigsaws – no others please.
• Small toy cars etc. and small toys for 2-6 year olds.

Never buy new items as it would be cheaper to buy them here!

We can only collect around SE Essex, Surrey, Lancashire and Birmingham areas. Any letters in April should be sent via Steve.

One of the JSS teachers, Alfred, is doing a lot for Games since, as he has a light timetable, he also helps with BS4 – 6 games among their three teachers two can hardly be described as athletic but with Alfred’s help things are happening.

Sadly, Vivian the BS1 teacher, has been absent for most of this term suffering from high blood pressure. Juliana, the BS3 teacher, has been absent more than she has been present. She would like a transfer but no Methodist school in the area has a vacancy and with her 90% lateness record, poor or non-existent lesson plans I would not be sad to lose her but we need a replacement.

At the beginning of February we met 19 year-old Lucy in Accra. She is a friend of a friend so unknown to us but has settled in very well both in the house and the school. In school she is helping with N2 with whom she is becoming very attached so it will be a wrench for her when she leaves however she will be grateful to not live in the heat and humidity we have at present. At home Lucy has blended in well and cooks dinner for us once a week. Each visitor needs to do a meal one day in a week so if you are coming then just find something you can cook and we promise no criticism, just gratitude for a cooking-free day. However, Lucy hates spiders and in the last few weeks we have had two mega-spiders (not the tarantula type) in the house which luckily she has not seen. She is happy with the geckos and can tolerate the cockroaches, most of which happen to be big.

Two weeks after meeting Lucy we were in Accra again to meet Annette who will be working in the school for six months and is an EEP (Experience Exchange Partner), this being a joint Anglican (USPG)-Methodist (WCO) project in which the volunteer lives with a family for between 6 and 12 months and helps in whatever way is required. Annettte, like Rose last year, lives at the Bishop’s house in a flat and eats what they provide. So far most of her time in school has been in the office typing exam papers which has freed up Ian for other tasks. She is also teaching Diana’s two Extra English Classes for the JSS pupils who do not take French. Diana misses these dreadfully but knows that she must do the minimum to allow maximum recovery. Once she is fully fit, Diana should be able to take Maths and English with classes for which the teacher is absent and as this regularly happens she is sure her teaching bug will be fully satisfied.

Ian, by taking two services on some Sundays, has been able to have a Sunday free so after school one Friday Diana, Lucy and Ian went to Axim which is about two hours drive from Cape Coast to the West beyond Takoradi so that Lucy could be taken by Ian to Nzulezo, the stilt village we visited quite early on in our time here. Diana rested for the day on a palm lined tropical beach, absolutely beautiful and a place we wish we had found earlier. The rondavels for sleeping were simple, but they were comfortable with en-suite and the food was excellent from the two restaurants, one on the beach. Lucy enjoyed the stilt village including the hour long canoe journey each way as well as the trip into remoter parts of Ghana. As it so close to Cape Coast we were able to enjoy a large part of the Sunday before returning home as well as enjoying a good rest.

Last weekend both Lucy and Annette did the Canopy Walk at Kakum while Diana and Ian sat out relaxing and Lucy went to Cape Coast Castle with Ian. At Kakum we now take a chair each and read or write letters and enjoy the relative peace. While there we got talking to two Ghanaian students; one a third year student at Cape Coast University and his girl friend who has just finished SSS who was visiting from Tema for the weekend. Having paid c2000 to get into the park they did not realise they had to pay c25,000 each for the Canopy walk (it is considerably more if you are non-Ghanaian). She went to check the price and on coming back her face was downcast as they did not have the fee. It is embarrassing how the equivalent of £3 ($5.50) could make two peoples day, so we gave them the money. He wanted to keep in touch with us but I apologetically refused knowing that our lives are so busy that we could not spend time with more persons. In fact while Diana has been ill it has been a a problem discouraging visitors but, as some of you may know, talking can be very tiring and at present, that energy has to be conserved. However to be greeted by three very sweet elderly men from Nkanfoa at 6.30am was delightful and they only stayed a very short time to bring their good wishes, greetings and prayers. How can this not lift your spirits at the start of the day?

We are looking forward to March 29th but have a problem, we are unable to get the special glasses for the total solar eclipse but have been told that black and white film fully exposed to daylight and developed will do the trick but, of course, not available here. Can anyone get some to us in time? Does anyone know of any special tricks needed with video or digital still cameras to capture the event?

With love to you all.

Diana and Ian

• Niger, Sub-Saharan Africa Famine Appeal £384.10
• Harvest, eco-farming in Nepal £500
• Pakistan Earthquake Appeal £451.90

These include £210 in Gift Aid recovered.

We have also made the following donations from the Benevolent Fund:

• Childline £100
• Galloways Society for the Blind (particularly for reading the Methodist Recorder on to tape) £50
• Methodist Church in Bulgaria £200, towards £650 to fit out a kitchen to provide food for the poor in their local community (this work is through a personal connection with Councillor Albert Richardson, a member at Ribbleton Avenue Methodist Church).

The new term was due to start on Tuesday, September 13th so I, Diana, was told to go, with Joseph who wanted to move to JSS, to the Regional Manager’s office to meet the new JSS staff. In the event Joseph was there and Dorothy Obeng who had a five week old baby and would be on maternity leave until the end of November. She was to teach sewing. Oh well! Term does not start until the day after and I was given the names of 3 other JSS teachers and promised a French teacher.

Tuesday: The queue outside the office was exceedingly long with folks wanting places for their wards. In Primary no child can be refused as, to encourage parents to send their children to school, there are now no fees. The theory is great, but all children, whatever their age up to 16, should be admitted into BS1 but we already had 45 in BS1 who had had at least two years schooling and in many cases four years so how is one teacher supposed to cope with all those who know nothing and those who know numbers in order up to 20, the whole alphabet with the sounds of the letters and reading 3 letter words? The Municipal Director told us that in Rwanda one class had one teacher and 102 children learning under a tree so we must just take them in. Very rapidly N1 2/3 year olds was filling up and N2 had 58 children, we aim at 45 maximum with KG1 and KG2 full. New teachers arrived but not the JSS teachers we were expecting but gradually over the next two days 2 JSS teachers did arrive but even at the end of four weeks, no sign of that French teacher.

On the Monday we bought ourselves a drainer for the crockery and a new 6 burner gas cooker with large oven— maybe we are moving in!

I was told to collect a sample JSS timetable but the man “he had been busy” and JSS syllabuses promised in February are still not here so let’s do what we can. Lessons actually started on the Wednesday and we now have JSS1a and JSS1b with twenty pupils in each. Some subjects they have together and a non-specialist French teacher is doing the French. Anything is better than nothing!

Friday we were off to Accra to meet two friends who were coming for four weeks. If you fancy doing the same get back to us quickly. It is hard work but also seems to give great pleasure. Rachel has been with N2 so they are learning to play along with Gifty, their teacher. Carol has been helping with the sewing as well as net ball, book covering, register checking, etc. No shortage of jobs here!

On arrival I think Rachel and Carol wondered how we coped. The answer is “one day at a time”. We’ve tested people for BS5 and put them in BS2, taken 7 year olds into N1 (for 2 year olds) as no room in KG1 but with the help of four SSS students, awaiting results, classes manage to keep going even when most of the teachers are on a one day protest march. Thursday, October 6th saw me with many others being interviewed. GES has finally decided that all Acting Heads and Deputies should be interviewed to see if they could be made substantive. One person I spoke to had been “acting” for 11 years and finally an interview. We await the results.

The biggest present challenge is coping with the new Capitation Grant and to access it each Head is required to submit a budget, itemizing everything that will be purchased in the year. If it is not in the budget it cannot be bought. No contingency fund, petty cash allowed. If you have 6 million to spend (£360) then the budget must come to exactly that amount, not a cedi more or less. Interesting times.

The library extension needs major work on it due to poor workmanship which we suspected but which the person in charge, the PTA Chairman, was happy with. No site plan still for the new land and the ‘shed’ idea as a workshop is grander than needed.

It has taken Ian two attempts to mark out the volleyball and netball areas after the first effort was removed by a visiting church. This time the marker pegs are in a bit too deep to be easily removed and the volleyball posts are concreted in place. Doing the latter attracted much interest from staff and pupils because they are not used to seeing a “bruni” doing such manual labour.

The chaplaincy work is just getting under way, the second and third year SSS having returned two three weeks ago but the first years are only today, 10th October, starting to arrive for their week of orientation.

Diana has omitted the episode when Ian backed the car into a tree at the Regional Manager’s office, smashing the rear window and denting the door. The window took two attempts at replacement as the first on delivery was broken when they attempted to fit it. The door is still a bit rough but will be finished when we are in England, hopefully, in April. We also had a repeat of the ignition lock jamming while we were at Elmina but the replacement gearbox done while on furlough at least means Ian can now drive it without having to hold the gear stick in 5th. This car has not been the best the car we have had. It was a real joy on furlough to drive the big Peugeot, which despite having 170 000 miles on the clock was still on its original clutch and so quiet compared with the Toyota despite being a diesel.

In the third week of term the Methodist Regional Manager asked me if teaching had started in JSS. I replied it had started on the second day of term. Sometimes the expectations of those in high positions are too low and though I can certainly see much we need to improve, some progress is being made.

We are grateful to all of you who continue, so faithfully, to pray for us as we could not do any of this in our own strength.

May God bless you all,

Ian & Diana Bosman

I thoroughly enjoyed baking and selling my Fairtrade cakes and pies last month. I appreciated all the compliments received and I’m pleased to announce that I made £39 profit for our next Church Charity Project, St Catherine’s Hospice, and starts us towards our £1,000.

Alison Stevens

The latest Nkanfoa newsletter brings the story up to February 2005 and is now online.

Rev. Alex Jones Memorial Methodist Primary School, Nkanfoa, Ghana

The map comes courtesy of calle.com.

The latest news and requests from Nkanfoa bring the story up to February 2005. Older news is contained in the following PDF format editions of NftP:

• 12 Oct 2003
• 16 Nov 2003
• 01 Feb 2004
• 27 Jun 2004
• 01 Aug 2004
• 19 Sep 2004

Images of Nkanfoa

A few pictures of Nkanfoa can be found below. More are available on Luke’s .mac pages.