Bentsifi’s-A guy about town Mothers be blessed
To all the mothers who have nurtured, inspired, encouraged, moulded, loved and helped shape us… Can we ever say it enough? Thanks to all of you. Here’s to you, this Sunday, when we celebrate this year’s ‘Mother’s Day’. Be blessed, as always.
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And on this occasion, let me wrap some love around my dear big sister Lavinia, whose desire to see terminally- ill children, especially at the Korle Bu Children’s Block and the Psychiatric Hospital, laugh, is bringing back cheer to many of the young ones at these hospitals through her charity, the ‘Little Angel’s Trust’.
“Off the light!” Does this saying irk you too? What about, “Sorry for left,” said ruefully after handing you something with their left hand, in an attempt at being polite. I can’t imagine coming out of the great Achimota School, and being comfortable using such expressions! After attending a year of Mrs Sey’s class? Or Isaac Quist’s? Sadly, it is commonplace with the young lads coming out of the SHS system today, and I find some latter day Akora – old Achimotans –also using them, much to my chagrin!
‘Sorry for left’
The young waitress just used the “sorry for left’ expression, and she’s received a handful of darting ‘eye rolling’ looks, and ‘shaking of heads’ by those of us who went through the proper secondary school system. These days, we all lament the falling standards in education, it’s pretty bad! You wouldn’t think the calamity would befall your alma mater too, but it’s so widespread, it likely has! And we are at our wit’s end, looking for solutions to the problem. Several discussions later, we are still searching how best to tackle the situation.The whole country is!
I recently got the chance to engage some of the current teachers from my old school. I was both appalled and bemused by the stories of goings-on coming out of the school today! Horror stories and I’m told they are worse elsewhere! From students’ behaviour to challenges facing the administration of the schools. Intake at Achimota alone, for instance, is up by some 1,000 fold from my days.
So you can just image how an ill-resourced administration will respond when issues arise.
In our time, we were fewer and spent more years under the tutelage of some really great teachers and administrators, so we imbibed a lot.
It just dawned on me through these conversations that today, with the SHS system, the kids spend only some two and a half years in the boarding system. Hardly enough time to assimilate anything. External examination study period also consumes most of their time, giving them no room for much extra-curricular activity. No wonder, they come out speaking such rubbish constructions in English!
Akora Nation
Speaking of Achimota, the day is coming pretty soon when the “Akora Nation” will converge on the school grounds to commemorate the institution’s 90th anniversary with a series of celebrations. A big jamboree weekend is in the making, and, of course, I need not tell you of the ‘razzmatazz’ being planned to mark the occasion.
It’ll begin on the night of June 30 with a jam, an evening of reminisces, at a simulation of what we used to call ‘Records Night, where a deejay plays a selection of popular tunes, with the aim of filling the dance floor with revellers.
This night will be called, as only Akora will appreciate, ‘The KuzunikThriller Records Night’! Now, Kuzunik is our school’s mascot, and boy, do we have tales of his antics!
Anyway, the tradition of the ‘Record’s Night’ as it happens at Motown – the moniker given to Achimota School – is peculiar to Motown! Being a co-education institution, the first in the country to admit both sexes, the idea for this activity was to groom the young people in social courtesies, when it comes to mingling with the opposite sex.
I’m pretty sure you remember your Saturday entertainment night and what you got up to. At Achimota, we often had Records Night, and it was a night to savour. It provided the chance to approach that girl you had been eyeing, and invite her to dance. But, often, we the guys were scared of being “bounced’ by the girl, and would hover around her throughout the night! We would invite all her friends and dance with, but not her! The girls too suffered in their own way, because often, the guys they wanted to invite them to dance would ignore them.
Father Buckle
I remember so many incidents that happened on records night. But, by far, the most memorable for me, would be that night when, as Entertainment Master, Father Buckle, as the current Catholic Bishop of Accra was known, joined us and got on the dance floor when the tune, ‘One Love’ by Bob Marley rang into the night sky with our voices, led by Father!
And Father can dance! The next number, ‘Now That We Found Love’ pulled many more onto the dance floor, and there swinging this way and that was Father, much to our utter puzzlement! It was a most enjoyable night. So, I hear arrangements are being made to bring, now, Bishop, for a reprise on June 30, Friday night!
Working the turntables on the night will be old school music maven, Rami Baitie, and all the way from Yankee, the incredible ‘Fisho’, the formidable showstopper, JoeLuttu and a certain Sheldon, whose dexterity precedes him! It’s a black and white mask party and you get one with your ticket purchase.
The weekend will also see lots of other activities in the school, including competitive games and mad fun at the ‘Yoks City Family Fun Day’ on Saturday, which will also have the houses open to visitors for inspection. A tour is planned with a shuttle bus to take Akora and other visitors round the school, whose main administration and learning blocks are set with an oval road network enveloping it! Come Sunday, and the “Bolus Rollin’ BBQ” wraps things up with a sunny day out serving scrumptious barbecues and more fun games for the whole family.