Rubbish

“By far the most dangerous foe we have to fight is apathy - indifference from whatever cause, not from a lack of knowledge, but from carelessness, from absorption in other pursuits, from a contempt bred of self satisfaction” – William Osler

Next weekend, the town I am living in, Bechem, will host the Adekyem Festival. Bechem used to be called Adekyem and, because of its central location within Ghana, served as a post for hunters to bring their foods to share with the people. The festival will commemorate the history of this town and its significance to Ghanaian culture. Today began some preparations.

Different schools throughout the community were assigned to clean different parts of the community. My school was assigned to an area within town near, what used to be, a river. Around 10:30am, rather than attending classes, students barreled down the side of the road in large groups and their crispy white polos and grass green pants or skirts for ladies. Upon arrival at the edge of town, some students proceeded in to town to avoid the work, while the others followed the directions of their instructors and trudged towards the river area. To get there, we had to cross through the properties of town residents and came upon a bumpy dirt path adjacent to a large hole in the ground. Amongst withering plantain trees, inside of this hole were disgusting mounds of trash.

Apparently, this hole, inconveniently placed directly behind someone’s home, is a dumping ground for trash, or rubbish, as they call it here. Once there, all of the students were directed down a path next to the trash pit towards the used-to-be river, but now, swamp-like area. All of the male students journeyed first, followed by the female students mixed in with several teachers and teaching mentees. However! Being the completely unorganized and poorly led expedition that this was, the ladies, after trudging down a long trail full of weeds and trash, were instructed to turn around and instead weed the area at the beginning of the trail. The men continued on to an area full of mud, weeds, snakes, and rubbish. With machetes and picks in hand, students were to clear the weeds from the area. Weeding is part of the student’s work on campus, so this was no new task for them. After some time, many of the gentlemen returned to the entrance near the ladies with mud-spotted tops and filth up to their knees. Eventually, the teachers got a clue and noted that this wasn’t something the students should be doing. Ya think?! So everyone was directed to leave and return to campus, but not until after the one other female teacher that was there brought me down to the swamp-area to check things out. Apparently, she thought it was important that I see African mud. On the way down, several young men handed me a crab. Yes, a live crab. Why? I have no idea, but they found it entertaining that I was willing to take a hold of that creepy crawly little booger.

Now I’m sure you’re all wondering why the hell any of this is the responsibility of these students? Well, it’s most definitely what I was thinking. Ridiculous really. Thankfully I wasn’t alone in my belief. Several of the teachers and mentees agreed that it wasn’t right for the students to be doing this work. Here we are, in Africa, where teacher-quality is rather poor, and we are sending students from a teacher-training college down to a mud pit to pick up trash on a day when they should be in class. It makes zero sense to me. I was told also that as a result of the festival next weekend, the students will be expected to participate in different activities in the town throughout the week that will again remove them from class. Being that a large majority of the students do not take their studies very seriously, I’m sure that they will be thrilled. However, as for the future of Ghana, it is what will suffer.

So, that pit filled with trash? It actually has potential for a turnaround. The area where the students were working could be a beautiful walking ground for the community and visitors. I am supposed to embark on a community project while I’m here, and my gut is telling me to do something about this area. However, the more I consider this, the more I realize what a gigantic undertaking it would be. Not that I don’t think it’s important, but I think the trouble may come with getting the community to think a clean-up effort is valuable and finding people willing to work. How do you change the mindset of an entire community and nation? Apathy surrounds me here. People throw trash in a hole behind people’s homes. It stays there for years. No one considers doing anything about it. Sad really.