Read and Play 2011: Outreach to Local Schools

Lawrence Donkor greets the Kindergarten class of DC Primary School in Humjibre

GHEI staff was out en masse this week as part of The Read and Play Serve and Learn Session.  With the Read-a-Thon still brewing in the background, the staff and volunteers are visiting all the schools in the Humjibre area to promote proper care of books and teach the students a song about not abusing your book (or you’ll make it frown).

“Hi, we are from the GHEI Library, and we are here to talk about taking care of your books!”

In front of each class (and the kindergartners too) at these primary schools, volunteers acted out proper and improper ways of caring for books with big signs (“Don’t Bend Your Book”) held up to drive the point home.   A smiley face (happy) and a frowney face (sad) were also held up as students were asked whether a book would be happy if it was thrown on the ground (it wouldn’t).  In this age of world-wide connectivity, never discount the awesome communicative power of the emoticon…

 Jen Artibello advertises while Seanna Jimmeh turns the pages gently...

Seanna throws a book to the floor, and the sudden vision of violence towards literature causes a few gasps.  Helen asks, “Is the book happy?” There were some giggles, and the students replied, no, it’s not happy.

Seanna and Helen McDonald demonstrate sharing books to the Kindergarten class

Then it was time for the song.  Volunteer teachers and the Education Team had written the words up on the board in both languages, and Serve and Learn volunteers began to demonstrate the actions to go along with the words.  In one session, Education Program Manager Happy Nkrumah took a seat at one of the tiny little desks with the students to sing among them, encouraging them to sing as loud as they could.

  

The giggling continues, and it’s clear now that the students are snickering at Happy, sitting among them.  The book’s not happy, THIS is Happy right here. 

Happy Nkrumah seems to be having fun participating from the student's point of view

The song, a song in Twi that was once so difficult for the volunteers, now flows effortlessly off the lips of the staff and volunteers. Already, the song is a big hit.  As GHEI staff and volunteers were on their way to the DC Primary School for their outreach, students from Anglican Primary School were belting out the song in Twi, like a hooligan mob trying to impress.   

Di wo bukuu ne ho ni

SԐdeԐ ԐbԐ ya a me ne wo bԐsuaԐ

MԐ mmum anaa mԐ mfa to fom…

Students at Memorial School sing along

Perhaps it’s the timeless tune, as universal as emoticons, that explains its popularity, or it could be the choreography, or the simple message of the words...  In any case, the song has reached a critical mass exposure that would make a teen pop star jealous.   It is burned into all of our brains now, and there still are more schools to visit, as well as the gigantic Read-a-Thon award ceremony this Saturday allowing even more chances for the song to echo in our heads over and over...and over...and over...

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