Fun around the institute

So what do we do on the institute? Surely we don't study all the time? Well, as much as the atmosphere is perfect for finding irreducible polynomials, solving optimisation problems and describing firing rate of neurons, we (I) sometimes do other things. So let's have a look :-)

First of all, I took a friend with me from Slovakia, a very good friend - Gertrude, my electro-acoustic guitar made it through the long journey and even though she had some rough time accommodating to the local climate, she's now OK after a quick fix of the tension in the neck (truss rod adjustment), which (to my great relief) I carried out successfully. Funny that the humidity can cause such deviations in the neck, before I adjusted the truss rod, it was almost unplayable.

Sunday mornings are like this :-)

I bring the guitar to AIMS every weekend - I cycle with the normal rucksack and the guitar on top of it on Saturday morning and back on the Sunday night. The reason is, well, for one - it's a weekend and I have a bit more time to play. But another reason are the gatherings with Michael, Thabo, Bemsi and often others - we meet on Saturday night on the terrace and practice a song. It's always a Christian song, as we practice for the following morning's worship session. I play my guitar (and sometimes hum along), Bemsi plays his electric bass and the rest sings in a nice choir harmony. I must say that even though the songs are always simple, with just a few chords, I look forward for this every time. It's nice, it's fun and both the practice and the session itself sort of remind me what's really important in life.

Madagascan tunes

There's also another good player (shame, that not another guitar too) here - Mihaja from Madagascar who usually comes along after finishing up his assignments on Saturday. The tunes he plays are nice to listen to, and it's the best background you can have for writing a blog post or an afternoon piece of code!

But the pressure on the strings is there, and the humidity makes them rusty quickly. Thus, when I was in Cape Coast and I caught by the corner of the eye an electric guitar in the window of a shop, I knew I'm gonna stop by (actually, I would have stopped even if I didn't need any strings). The place was very small and I doubt the place has seen anything better then a cheap immitation of a Strat, but it was really nice to see a music shop around, and even nicer to hear that there were 2 more in Cape Coast. Ghanians could be musicians, after all! But my hopes of getting D'Addario strings remained to be hopes, as the only strings they had were of a funny name "Darling" (the logo actually quite resembled the one of D'Addario), for just around 3 euros.

On another note, twice a week, we go to a local junior high-school in Biriwa, to transfer the knowledge on to the younger generation. The initiative was kind of broken for some time until we decided to resume it at the beginning of March. The idea is, that the AIMS students are those who've now made it far enough to help others. And what is more - as I mentioned in my street-playing blog post, it is by helping others that you often help yourself the most. By going to teach even the most basic things to the local kids, you not only grow as a person, a teacher and a leader, it also kind of forces you to do something so that you subconsciously know you deserve to be the role model for others. And I also assume that when going to teach, one should not only understand the concept, but also be able to explain it (which, in fact, brings a whole new level of understanding)! The reality, was, once again, a little different :-) and I had to keep my calm when few (AIMS) students came 5 minutes before the departure with the words "I don't really understand the game" :-D, though we've explained it a day ago, and asked if it was clear (we were to teach Monty Hall paradox while also playing it, as a game).

School visit - playing Monty Hall

At the end of the day, however, it all comes down to having fun with the kids, and inspiring them to strive for their best, because (as Michael said) motivation is the most important for the young African students. Along with hope and confidence they will make it to see the better future. But enough of words, to see once is better then read thousand words, so here you are, a video (the video was initially meant for the kids in a school in Prague, where Tinka works, thus the "hello Czech Republic" at the end :-))

One of the teams for Robot night

Finally, the third thing to mention would be a funny activity Zuzka came up with and organized. We were thinking about a cool name that would attract as many students as possible, and eventually went for the "robot night". Though initially there was some unwillingness, the whole idea quickly caught up and I don't think I've heard so much laughter and noise on the institute before.

Robots are ready!

The students were split into about 6 groups, each of which was to choose one person to be a robot. The robot could be controlled only with three words (copy, paste and delete) and nothing else - the robot was blindfolded and should not be directed by anything else then the three words. The groups then discussed a language to control the robot (e.g. copy paste could mean "go straight"), unaware of the task that was waiting for them. All in all, there was 4 rounds of tasks: taking a pen from one table and bringing it back, finding a specific page in a book, shaking hand with another robot and eating a piece of chocolate, the task always following with a chance to improve the commanding. Evening well worth it!



Apart from that, many other things happen. Every end of the block, there is a party and presentations about some African countries. Last time, we fit in with Zuzka, and gave a presentation about Slovakia, which said so much positive about it, that at the end I actually felt like going there for a vacation!

Could there be a presentation on Slovakia without this picture?

A great Ghanian dish during Ghanian night

Robert and Emma - very nice people! :-)

Some other day, there was a football match of AIMS vs. Vocational school in Biriwa. Watched by about 200 people, it was a pretty serious match which ended with a draw. I played just for something over 10 minutes, but in my running shoes it was not optimal (not to mention not having played for 3 months).

And I can't forget the "staff meetings", introduced again by Zuzka, which could just as well be called "going for a coconut and a beer with our lecturers", a very nice tradition, and one that, if nothing else, would truly make one feel as on a holiday.


So all in all - nope, not bored. It's true sometimes I long a bit for a change of environment, but then, the time passes quickly, it's fun and if I look at it from a bigger perspective - the whole AIMS is kind of change of environment, at least for me :-)


PS: I was on CNN! The television crew came in one day as a part of filming documentary about Prof. Allotey, part of African Voices section. You can see (but not hear) me something after the middle of this video :-P, or simply see how it looks around AIMS.

Our place for coconuts

Nzulezo

Last block, Zuzka was here and it was a nice change to have someone to talk to in Slovak. She also brought me Kofola and lot's of traditional Slovak candies for everyone. Yay!

I use the bottle to this day!

But even before that, there was a "reading week" at AIMS, i.e. one week of time everybody should have officially spend studying things for which there is otherwise never enough time. Unofficially - it was almost holiday. I spent most of the time at AIMS anyway, as I have not much else to do. And working here is fun :-)

Two days out of the reading week, however, I took off. First, I went to Accra, about which I blogged in my previous post. And on 19th of February, we all went to Nzulezo.

Our "diplomat" bus and sunrise

Nzulezo is a village close to the coast in the western part of Ghana. The whole village stands on pillars above a lake, and is only accessible by 45 minute paddling in canoes through tropical swamp forest. But first you need to get to the start of the canal. And to find it :-) . We set off from from AIMS at around 6:30 am in a nice air-conditioned bus, which was really welcome, as we spent most of the day in it. Even though the village is only something around 200km drive from Biriwa, the one-way journey took 5 hours. The roads are often congested, half of our itinerary was under reconstruction that time, and our drivers contributed their share of the delay with their funny instinct, which told them to go straight even though the advice from locals was clear "turn left at next intersection".

Eventually, after making couple more wrong turns, we got off the bus at the correct place, went to pick up the life jackets and gathered at the start of the canal. But before setting off - pictures. Ghanians and Africans in general seem to like taking pictures and we spent good 20 minutes capturing various combinations of people with various poses from various angles :-P . But I cannot really blame the AIMS students - living, studying and simply being at the same place all of the year, it's no wonder a day off like this should stay be captured by camera. And now, after one month of not going anywhere (apart from Cape Coast), I kind of feel the same.

Finally we took off from the little port, about 8 people per canoe including one conductor. Ours was a bit leaky, and after about 15 minutes of losing the battle "pour water out" vs. "leak water in" we (I mean, the conductor) persuaded the group just returning from opposite direction to swap the boats, as we had a longer journey in front of us (including paddling through the bigger and deeper lake).


The canal led through (often narrow or shallow) swamps, which as our conductor said, hides crocodiles as well, though they're not normally seen. We finally arrived to Nzulezo and got off the board to the "land", i.e. the shaky wooden construction of the small village, built on the lake. I've read about the poverty in the village before in the travel guide - it's no wonder after all, as it's so isolated. But then, I would expect tourism to bring in extra money. A village built on water! Come on, if this was in Europe, the whole place would thrive with stalls full of souvenirs and postcards. I'm not saying that's a good thing, but it did strike me odd that the only souvenir available was a hand-carved canoe boat (which was really beautiful and I bought one). Perhaps the people want to limit the tourism and stay away from it, but more likely, I would say they just don't know how to start.

The main path through the village

Right next to the school

Going back

Anyway, the village is worth to visit. I especially liked the little church and school they have (though there's only something about 200 residents), couple of bars with cold drinks and a small guest house where one can even stay overnight. This was part of an AIMS organized trip however, so we soon boarded back on the canoes for the long journey back through the swamps, making it a little competition with the other AIMS canoe paddling parallel to us. I've asked if there's another way to reach the village, and there is, in fact, though it's even less accessible and leads through the rainforest.

School in Nzulezo

 

Church in Nzulezo

On the plain sun of the afternoon and sweating from paddling all the time, the whole journey left me tired and I gladly got back on the bus, and eventually (after another 4 and half hours) back to my bed in Chateaux. It was a nice day, one to remember and one that made it a point - it's not easy to travel around in Ghana. In Europe, you find all the information before on the internet - map, connections, places to stay, blogs from other travellers. Here, you're on your own, have to be patient and often let yourself be surprised by what you found. Be it a negative or positive surprise - let's take it as a plus - you never know what will be the next, and the travelling is thus an adventure it should be in the first place. Looking forward for our trip with Tinka - one more week to go :-)

Time goes...

AIMS from the beach

Time here at AIMS goes fast. I'm here already for almost two months and if I look into the future, it seems like a such a short time till I'll be flying back. It's funny how time shrinks as we grow up and especially when we experience new things - when I was little, an hour was a long time, day was forever and a year was something one should not even be bothered about. Time was plentiful and sometimes I wished it passed more quickly.

Now it's a different story and often I find myself dreaming of at least 25 hours long days, extra days here and there and a bonus week I could procure at a personal taste any time and anywhere, pausing the life around to resume once I've caught up. And even though the last physics professor here at AIMS did talk about some time dilation, I guess the day this would be practically possible will never come. And you know what? It's good. The more and more I realize, what I've repeated so many times "the goal is not to get used to the pain, but to understand that pain is something you can survive" - and though I'm not talking about pain here, lack of time, never-ending effort, dealing with occasional frustration and so many other things could be plugged into the equation...

Beach at Biriwa

I was thinking why I feel good here at AIMS. Finally, during our lunch discussion with Robert and Zuzka, we defined it - "you're using the whole human here". And it's kind of true - it's not enough to be smart, e.g. in mathematics. It's vital of course, but then, much more than that is needed. One interacts all the time with students and lecturers, has to manage the time and prioritize all the time and has to motivate others while staying motivated. I also feel I am somehow held responsible for whatever I do - but by no one else then simply myself! I feel I want to do my best and whatever decision I'm facing, the right choice is the one for greater good. Compare this to a corporate job, where you usually do some sort of specialisation all the time, are held responsible by the boss, have minimal social interactions (at least in IT), and the decisions are often based upon something completely different then the "greater good".

Biriwa, AIMS in the distance

So I guess that's why time goes so fast and I realize it's soon going to be two months that I am here. And though more then two are still to come, I feel another department in my brain was unlocked already. I believe it is this "unlocking" process, that's never easy, and yet makes the life interesting. Scientists say we don't use most of our brain - well, how can we? The world is so huge, full of things unknown to us and only by experiencing them can we really unlock that new department. It's like playing a strategy game with most of the map hidden at the beginning, and gradually uncovering its parts - with the goal to see the big picture.

This post is thus a bit contemplative, and I realize it's more a series of ideas that were flowing through my mind. But if I should pick the most important thing, it would be this: Life is short - so don't be afraid to break the ordinary and see the other side of the world - only that way you'll get most of the life. And know the other side of yourself.

Biriwa