Beth with some of the senior library members at the Nungua Community Library, Greater Accra

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A Typical Day

Many have asked about the daily operations of the library, so I"ll fill you in a typical day. I get to the library at about 8:30-8:45 each day. We begin by opening the curtains, and sweeping the floors. We wash all the windows each day - there are 87 - I had the children count as part of a game. We clean the chairs and the tables. Then if there is time, we will wash the books - they are covered with plastic for protection - or the puzzles and games. The doors open at 10:00am.

Each day, I have seen about 200-400 children come through. They range in age from 3 to 40 years. There is a space where secondary and post-secondary students can study, and that is usually full and quiet. If I were a student here, I would use that space to study too. It is quiet and cool in the mornings. There are four other staff at the library, and one will sit at the front as security to watch peoples shoes and bags.

Perhaps one of the hardest things to get used to is seeing the children come in without any teachers or parents with them. The kids come in on their own and want to pass the time before they leave the school compound to go home. We run programs in the afternoons - art, reading games, puzzles, bingo etc. and get about 50-70 children for each program. I rarely see the same children pass through the library. In fact, since I've started, the ones who make the trip in each day are the children who are part of the library scholarship program that pays their school fees, and for the uniforms and books.

I teach adult literacy classes for four mornings each week. One of my students this week told me that she bought a newspaper last weekend and read it. This woman has never been to school in her life and after only a few short months at the library, she is feeling so good about learning and reading and she is so confident - enough to buy a paper and read one story. It made me feel so glad to be here to be a part of her learning experience.

I spend my off time in the evenings cooking dinner - I eat fish - so much fish - and stew with rice, kenkey or banku. The last two are local favourites made form corn dough and other things, sort of like dumplings, but not really. They are staple foods here for the people of the Accra region, and I’m enjoying it very much. After dinner, I usually read, write or go for a walk. There is a sandy beach about 10 minutes away from the house. Sometimes, I go there with friends from here and we just sit on some rocks out in the water. The beach is deserted at night and is very beautiful. We sometimes buy Milo tea - which is basically hot chocolate - and if we're hungry we get some fried egg and fresh bread and take it to eat at the sea.

That’s a typical day for me at the Nungua Community Library in Ghana.

Beth Ford


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