The Jamestown Gbekebii School

As agreed upon with Emmanuel after our weekend tour of Jamestown, we showed up on Wednesday afternoon at the doors of the Jamestown Gbekebii school, ready to meet the kids. Well, at least we thought we were ready. From the moment we stepped inside, we were swarmed by dozens of children and their curious, grabby little hands. It was unlike anything we've ever experienced.

The school is a project of necessity. From what we gathered, the community of fisherman who live on the Jamestown beach constitutes a nuisance to the government, and little else. There are big development plans for this prime section of capital city real-estate, and none of them include a raggedy collection of shacks. Luckily, it's not easy to forcibly relocate an established population of thousands, so development has come to a standstill. In the meantime, though, the Ga community here barely exists in an official sense. The children aren't compelled to go to school -- indeed, there's no sanctioned place for them to go, even if they wanted.

That's where people like Emmanuel come in. The Jamestown Gbekebii School was established just a couple years ago, and only has students because he walks around the village ceaselessly, imploring parents to send their kids to class. Many could care less about schooling; fishing is the family business and hardly requires an ability to read. But others are convinced. Today, there are around 80 kids learning the basics in this school: one of the most charmingly basic places of education we've ever seen.

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