Thursday, April 9, 2009

Abraham Lincoln International School, Abuakwa-Manhyia, Kumasi, Ghana



I stayed for the month of March at Abraham Lincoln International School just a few kilometers northwest of Kumasi on the Sunyani Road. It was nice to stay here while I got acclimated to Kumasi and visited the village of Adugyama, the place I'm staying at now.

I was introduced to the school by Andrew Roberts, the Peace Corps volunteer who got me connected to the village. At the beginning of March, I met Madame Doris Osei, the Proprietor and owner of the school. I brought her a band flute from the Roberts family, a recorder, and some books.

She was so excited by the flute and said it was the first horn instrument for their future school band. I asked her about inexpensive places to stay in the area and she offered me a place at the school.




Madame Doris Osei spent twenty years abroad working to build Abraham Lincoln International School. She worked for about eighteen years in The Netherlands and a couple years in New York City.

She said that she worked three jobs a day in the Netherlands. During the day, she worked at a pharmacy filling orders. In the evening, she would then go to the post office and sort mail. And then late at night, often past midnight, she would clean a coffee shop. She'd often only get a couple hours of sleep a night.

From around 1991 to 2003, she would return to Ghana and build bit by bit the school that she dreamed of. The school finally opened in 2003. She is now in the process of adding on a boarding school for junior high school students which is expected to open in the fall. Her future plans are to build an orphange and a nurses training center. She's also taking evening classes working towards a degree in business administration.

On April 3rd, the school had a big party with lots of food and dancing. It was the last day of school before the students "vacate". For the months of April, the students are on vacation. There was a DJ providing the music, and the students created a big circle for students to dance in. I danced in the circle with the preschool teacher, Madame Becky. The students seemed to enjoy it!




Here are some of the students in the cafeteria at Abraham Lincoln Intl. School.

If anyone is interested in sending school supplies such as pencils, colored pencils, books, or even band instrument books here is the address of the school. Madame Doris is trying to get marching band instruments as well, but I don't know how easy it would be to send them in the mail.

Abraham Lincoln International School
Abuakwa-Manhyia, Kumasi
P.O. Box KS 14652, Kumasi
Ashanti Region, Ghana, West Africa

5 comments:

  1. There must be a way to get her instruments!

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  2. Please is there any opportunity for teachers recruitment in Abraham Lincoln?

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  3. It is a great school but there are few corrections which ought to be made in the write up for the school. Example, for the second paragraph the ,Madam Doris Osei was referred to as a proprietor which means the owner of a business but in terms of gender I think it should have been 'proprietress'

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  4. Enter your comment... please is there any vacancy for teachers or non teaching staff

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  5. Is the school a pre-school or high school?

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