Day 7 - Korforidua school

Today we set off to Korforidua school. On the way we went for a bit of souvenir shopping where Rhys and Ray showed off their bartering skills, getting their bongos down to 10 Cedis when Lanaway got his for 15! On arriving at the school we were greeted by the Headteacher (Walter) who took us into The Cooperative House which had been funded by the Co-op in Manchester who had donated £5k to help build it. It was the first time that we were able to use flushing toilets outside of the hotel (a big change for the boys who were used to peeing against walls). Walter went through a presentation on a laptop about the school. It was so clear to see how involved the school was with fairtrade and comic relief with lots of pictures and displays. We were then taken outside for our surprise that Walter had organised.


We got to watch a group of students dancing to lots of different Ghanaian music.  The dance was amazing, the students put on such a good performance and just when we thought it had finished lots of us were dragged up to have a go too. In no time everyone was dancing, Kevin was spotted busting out some moves, displaying his tekkers with Azonto dancing! We all had so much fun and the kids were thrilled to see us attempting to dance. See link below for a few laughs!

Along with a few suitcases full of stationary the school had asked for some football kit. With the headteacher being a huge Chelsea fan and the kids loving Michael Essien we had kitted them out with some Chelsea blue football kit. The boys were so happy in their new kit and looked absolutely amazing!

We then were able to put our John Fisher mark at the school as Mr Dean planted a cocoa plant in our memory. This was alongside 4 other plants, one being from Sophi Tranchel managing director of Divine Chocolate, one of which was a group from Estonia and a couple of others. We were the biggest group that had visited the school to date. 

Shortly after this the boys played a football match against the U15s for the school who are the currently the regional champions. After Harry headed the ball in scoring a goal putting us in the lead, Mr Street then told the boys to “let them play” and that’s when the boys sat back in traditional English fashion, allowing them to score an equaliser, and eventually losing on penalties. Dombrandt took the first penalty, woeful effort. Stick to cricket. In fact all of our penalty takers missed except Ray, even Sean who seemed to release a fair bit of anger out on the ball, smashing it right at their keeper! The game ended; JFS 1-2 Korforidua school.

With the boys absolutely exhausted, hot and sweaty we headed in to have some lunch. At first the boys were a little disappointed (especially John) that there was no special tomatoe sauce but soon they discovered there was beef stew and it was soon polished off. Sean surprise surprise had a little bit more rice, with some more rice on the side.

After lunch we donated all of the items we had brought with us. We were also given an ornamental plaque inscribed with the schools name. It was so sad leaving the school, everyone had been so welcoming and sadly we realised that it was our last day working in schools in Ghana. In the evening we headed to a pizza parlour where we said good bye to Erica and Vincent who had helped and supported us during our trip, we miss you already! The boys also said their thanks to the staff with Miss Malik receiving an engraved pen and Mr Dean a new pair of personalised rugby boots.