Feature Stories

Anastasi

Selina

Ezra

Gloria

Eric

We're the Same, Just Different

A Muslim in Ghana

Ghana Ambassador Club Makes the Grade

Mapping the World

Making Connections

We’re the Same, Just Different  

Mrs. Victoria Sewaa-Aboagye teaches the thirty-two students in class five at Presby Primary School. Most of the students are 13 or 14 years old and have a lot of impressions about America. All of the students have seen a white person (obruni), but only one has met and spoken to an obruni. The students explained that there were not many white people in Ghana because white people are not native to their country. Most of the students knew there were both white and black people in America.

The Ghanaian students thought that most kids in the U.S. went to school but some did not because they couldn't pay the fees for school. (Ghana's schools are free, but fees are required for uniforms, books, and supplies.) The Ghana students were very interested in discussing the fact that not all Americans are wealthy.

Computers were of special interest to the Ghanaian students. They wished that they all had computers in their classrooms, like they imagined classrooms in the U.S. do. They were very surprised to learn that not all Americans own, or have access to, computers.

Animals seem to be the common thread that most closely ties the Ghanaian students to Americans. Ghanaians love animals, and the students thought that in the U.S., pets were held in high esteem, as well. Cats, dogs, monkeys, and Tonoos (a large beetle) were listed as common household pets. One student had a monkey named "Nyame Akwan" ("God’s way" in Twi). Many of the names the students give their pets have religious significance. Monkeys are captured from the forest and raised as domestic pets, but often they are returned to the forest when they become too big and unruly. The students knew that birds and fish are common pets in the U.S., but in Ghana no one would keep them as pets because they are considered wild and untamable.

The Ghanaian kids didn't know the stripes on the U.S. flag represented the thirteen original colonies, but quickly understood that the fifty stars symbolized the fifty states. The class explained the meaning of the Ghana flag. The three stripes represent: green for lush forests and vegetation; gold because Ghana is the 'Land of Gold'; red for the blood shed in the fight for independence. The black star in the center is for the united spirit of the people of Africa.

Ambassador Club students in Ghana and the U.S. are learning that there are many similarities between kids from different cultures, and the differences in everyday lives are to be celebrated.