Tales of An NSS Teacher: May Weather

By Margaret Blankson

Posted on May 31, 2018

Today being the last day in May, the weather has brought itself

The sun is out

Every tree and every plant

Stands in bright array

The rains have had their share

Now the sun shines so brightly

May weather, one can hardly predict!

Weather Vibes

Talk of when the weather gets you poetic, only May weather can do such.

I’m lying in my bed, snuggled comfortably in my blankets. It’s cosy in here mheen. The rain is falling in fine drizzles outside, making not so much noise. In here I have all I need; a pair of socks to keep my feet warm, my laptop for some really good music and my books! Indeed all is perfect!

The thing is, I am back home from school, safe in my room, so the rain can fall all it wants. Yeah, it did a good job with the timing too. And the books! I am actually referring to some amazing books I found in the school library today. Mustracks! It’s an African writers’ series I used to read in Primary school. I never got to read some exciting editions and I have been looking forward to doing so since. They meant the world to me back then, and all that feeling came back today. I was just so excited when my eyes caught sight of them sitting on the shelves. They even looked beautiful! LOL

And you know what? For two days in a row, I have had lifts in a car, I mean a vehicle, to school. I hope you notice the emphasis. It gets really heartbreaking sometimes when I dress up only to end up on a two-wheel ride. Especially, when I had dreams of doing National Service in some amazing office only to find yourself teaching. So I still do the corporate shada to school; Charlie, if you do not by the time service is over and you are back to Accra, you may have lost all the tips o.

Related: Bring Back Our Hand Sanitizers

My free advice to all the NSS Teachers

You naa you know how things are over here. No meet ups, no eateries and malls to shada to. Biko (please) someone snatched my pen from me this past seconds. The lines within this time frame are not from my hands].

So I have to sit in a certain way when I’m in a pencil skirt or another when I’m wearing something else. It’s not just the corporate thing really; I actually respect what I do that much. Dressing takes an attitude of its own you know. One can actually deliver on whatever it is when the dressing is in tune. Well…

As I was saying, I got to sit in a four-wheel drive these past two days! Today is the second day. And you should see me; looking through the window at the open countryside. I was like the Nigerian princess driving through her kingdom. Only my four-wheel drive starved face gave me up. Hehe.

And it was very beautiful what I saw, looking out through the windows. Greens everywhere! The mountains were enveloped by a great carpet of grass. The trees surrounding the senior high school sports field, where I usually pass, were a canopy of orange beauty! Flowers have sprung out on them. Even the weeds on the farmlands paraded themselves in glory. Why not? They can at least enjoy the freshness from the rains too until the farmers dealt with them for what they really are.

Rice Farming

This place is a hub for rice farming in Ghana. It accounts for most of the local rice we eat. And so the rice farms were not left out, they were beside themselves with a great show too. Spread out in many separate portions of land, they looked like green rectangular patches. The rice, forming millions of tall thin straws, swayed gently to the tune of the morning breeze. Do you know that what we eat as rice actually develops from a milk state? Well, it does and it is at this stage that the farmers face challenges. The birds love the rice this way, they can suck a whole farmland dry. Until the stalks turn brown and the farmers think it is due for harvest, then they get the big surprise-empty grain husks!

But this time my farming neighbours are positive. They say the birds will not come around. The rains have brought food for them too, they would not travel for food as they do in the dry season. Why will these grain stalks not dance? The harvest is sure. The food will be good! What rains can do!

Because of the birds, the farmers have a practice they term as scaring; yes, like the meaning of the word, to scare. They said the birds are too smart for scarecrows nowadays. So they have to be on the rice farms themselves to scare them away.

Truancy

For rice farmers to keep the birds away, children of school going age have to be on the rice farms; school pupils form a large part of the labour force. Most of them miss a lot of school hours- mostly a week or more. It does not matter which part of the term scaring is needed, they must miss school to do it. I have seen students go for scaring during revision week. The fortunate ones only go for scaring after school hours.

Yet I hear them rant about their scaring schedules, as though it is one fun of a job. Waving your hands at hundreds of birds attempting to land on your farm? I think that is tedious. But, hey when they are successful and the rice is sold, they earn money to cater for school bills. They will tell you that, then, they forget all that hard work; it is as if they never did anything. The glint in their eyes when they describe it even testifies. Such hope!

So this rainy season among other things, it is a big relief for school children here. They can at least be punctual to school (See, it as a teacher’s comfort too). Interesting how one’s environment can affect his/her lifestyle, most especially something as important as formal education. Think about it.

My pupils are such a handful (this work I never dreamt of doing is too tedious). Every day has its own challenge.

Yet, lying down here listening to the rhythm of the rains now only droplets, all of that seems to disappear like them. It does not count. The weather here now is too good to complain. Thus the bliss of the countryside!

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