A campus walkabout part I

Most of these pictures were taken shortly after I arrived, before classes started and before the first big rain fall. I feel they don't show enough of the campus to give a real sense of it. But I've come to the slow realization that if I wait for that these will never get posted. So here is my first impression of the campus.

First, the new Arts Building. Since my arrival, every week day the gate to this construction site is open. I have never seen more than three people inside working, and the building itself shows no sign of progress. I realize that some parts of a building project don't show a lot at the end of the day. Also, since all of this is poured-on-site concrete, there is a lot of waiting for concrete to dry and cure. However, I don't think there is a move-in date scheduled, and I think some people expect we will never move in. Actually, the philosophy department itself won't be moving in; this is administrative and classrooms.

Next, the campus post office. This charming little building is right behind my office; my window looks out on it. The activities that take place within the building were made famous by a 1975 recording that can be found here on youtube. I think the staff from that recording have all retired, but the current staff is pleasant and efficient, if not overtly musical. I have sent postcards to a few people and they have arrived. What more do I want?

Every year the University hosts a New Year School, which is open to the public. People register and attend classes on a specific annual theme for a week. The opening ceremonies took place just after I arrived so I got to see chiefs in full regalia presiding and this bit of dancing and drumming in the courtyard outside The Great Hall (which, by the way, is depicted on the back of the 5 Cedi note).

My classroom(s):

This is a pair of pictures of my first classroom for the Existentialism course I am teaching. I thought it a real charmer, especially with the benches that have desktops built into them. However, we outgrew the room. 

Things are done a little differently here, than in Canada. Instead of capping the enrollment of a course (in Canada, sort of based on the size of the classroom — though we build bigger classrooms so we can have bigger classes), here enrollment continues regardless of the size of the scheduled room, growing until the add period ends, so the final count is based on popularity alone. While this means no one doesn't get into the class they want (a regular occurrence back home) it does present other, obvious logistical problems.

Outgrowing a classroom is a regular event. In fact, classrooms weren't assigned until just before classes started, and the assignment was then based on the current size. But also, class times weren't assigned until then. This means students sign up for a class not knowing when and where it will be.

This isn't as bad as it sounds. My existentialism course is an elective, but only philosophy majors may take it. Beyond first year only philosophy students take philosophy courses, English students take English courses, etc. (Students can have double majors.) Each department then is assigned a set of differently sized rooms at different times based on their predicted needs. When my class outgrew its room, we simply looked at the philosophy course schedule and moved classes around to accommodate us. 

Moving a class from one room to another in the same time slot requires negotiating with another department for one of their rooms. We did this on week two and met in a new room. Unfortunately, that deal fell through and we had to opt for a different room at a different time. Philosophy had a large unused room at a different time so we moved there. This doesn't run the risk of causing a conflict with students schedules since they are only taking philosophy courses. We have access to their entire possible timetable.

By week three we were in our third room and in a new time slot. I joked to my students that my plan was to so confuse them that enough of them would get lost or drop the course and we would fit back into our original room.

Weekends at the Guest Centre:

It's now been a week since I moved out of the Guest Centre, but while there I had two regular interruptions. Most Saturdays the grounds outside the restaurant were taken over by a wedding reception. This would involve someone arriving early in the morning (7:00am is not too early), unloading and then stress testing the sound system. This was most important. If the speakers, as HST said, couldn't sterilize a frog from a hundred yards, then the whole event would have to be called off.

While the sound system was being tested, others would set up canopies, tables, chairs, linens, etc. By mid-afternoon the wedding party would begin, and usually by early evening it was all over. The greater disruption was in the preparations. I would just head off to my office for the day, and when I arrived home could expect a couple of hours of (often, but not always, really great) music. A couple of places I regularly eat on campus are fond of American country music, and I have heard Celine Dion wafting through the mangoes. But the weddings tend to favour funk and hip-life.

On Sundays, there is always the chance that I will be awakened before 6:00am with the church band tuning up. It seems about once a month a giant temporary church is set up across the road from the Guest Centre. This is big enough for a congregation of over 500.

Noisy activity starts with bass and drums around 5:45 and then just after 6:00 the full event gets underway, with a lot of preachin' and testifyin', all out gospel singing, mass glossolalia, and general whooping it up. But the event is over by noon.

But there is always forewarning, as the canopies and chairs, dais and sound system are set up on Saturday.

This morning was no exception, even though I have moved a big block away from the site. All this means is I didn't see the signs, and was taken by surprise at 5:45 this morning when the bass and drums started thumping it out. This, after a rare late night of campus revelry last night. Not my revelry, everyone else's. Yesterday was convocation and the campus was the busiest I have seen it. Finally, it felt like a campus with 30,000 students, though most of the crowd was former students and their families. I suspect most of these had departed by evening, but the event seems to have left a residual festive atmosphere, and music and people could be heard late into the night.

This is very rare here, where early to bed and early to rise has many practical advantages: often the power is out so there are no lights at night, it is cooler in mornings and you might actually feel like doing physical things, the pre-dawn chorus of birds is symphonic. On this note, it really does sound like a Tarzan soundtrack at night, with a lot of ooh-ooh, aah-aahs. 

To be continued...