RELIVING THE PAST: ABUGISS 94/96 STYLE

It has been more than 25 years since we left our alma mater where we were groomed into fully baked responsible adults. The strict academic calendar prepared us for various careers; adherence to school rules and regulations prepared us to fit into the larger society; house duties taught us to manage our homes; interhouse garden competitions taught us to appreciate and care for the environment; athletic competitions and physical education took care of our physique; and the numerous extracurricular activities harnessed the many talents we were endowed with as young girls.

Our spiritual growth was not left out as we were fed with the word of God through strict Presbyterian training during church services. God has been good to us. We have lived and continue to be guided by our slogan "Bepow so hann"!

For unique insights into our journey come along as we relive our Abugiss days...

We definitely were ninos, green horns, fanta bottles and matches sticks!

It was a beautiful day in September 1989, when about 160 girls made it up the hills of Aburi to be entrusted into the care of the authorities of Aburi Girls' Secondary School.

We were accommodated in Irene Anderson House (Metico, an annex of the main schoool) for a year to help us acclimatise before joining the four houses (Aberdeen, Kilsyth, Edinburgh, Barradale) at the main site of the school. We were placed in the care of twelve responsible Form 5 girls as our dorm monitresses. For a lot of us, this was the first time leaving the comfort of our homes in favour of a bunk bed and a small locker.

The preliminary locker inspection with our house mistress on the first day of school made us realise quickly that this was no joke. For several weeks, many of us cried from being home sick. We were constantly freaked out by the "downs" and the food in the dining hall left much to be desired. We donned, with pride, our "sacks" (our school uniform dubbed so from how it looked on us) for all school functions.

Our initiation into the school was in the form of a Ninos night. This was the medium through which new Form 1 students were officially "welcomed" to the Abugiss class. We had to sing the song below in a mass choir to entertain our seniors.

We are ninos
We are green horns
Fanta bottles and matches sticks we are
We are, we are California corned beefs
We are donkeys of Abugiss

We wore outfits skillfully crafted out of our white bedsheets and were showered with what seemed to be an endless supply of powder. We indeed looked "great" with our pails as lockets and our sponges as necklaces. Unbeknowst to us, ninos night was to be the least of our worries. The days we had to walk behind Barradale and in front of Aberdeen houses to get to the Chapel were the most dreaded periods of our times at the school. If you walked past Barradale without being called and bullied by a senior or several seniors before getting to the Chapel then you were a hero by no mean feat. Our dorm competitions always left an impression: a good one if your dorm won and a really sour one if your dorm came last.

It was with great joy that we began our journey into Form 2 for we had been socialized and had learned a few tricks for avoiding bullying. A number of new girls joined us at this stage. They too had to learn to avoid bullying. We continued to gain new colleagues as we progressed into form 5. It will be pure sacrilege to forget our trip to "Gontae" during which we felt like the Israelites wondering in the wilderness and pondering where the end of the road was ...it was one looong trip!

Fast forward to our first day in lower six! Wow, we had endured endless episodes of "papaloolo," made it through the O'levels and were now truly seniors. Mind you we were the last batch of the old system so we had a slightly different experience to those before us.

The tanker is here!

Saying that we had a water crisis at Aburi in our day is a gross understatement of the water "expeditions" we typically had to take to meet our daily needs. Behind Edinburgh House was a massive water reservoir which we called the 'tank'. We had to learn to draw water from this tank which was an extra-large version of a well. Who knows, we may have looked like Snow White (without the seven dwarfs of course!) at the time without realizing it. Sometimes while trying to pull up our ropes, we would lose our buckets and would then have to call on and "pay" the non-teaching staff to climb down the well to retrieve it. Payment was either by a donation of soaps, sardines or tuna.

We learnt to carry a massive bucket of water on our heads and a smaller one on one hand from "Jamaica", "Cuba," "Adonteng," and "Beirut" (imagine the distance from Ghana! That is exactly how we felt walking those 2.2kms) to campus. We often tried to make do with adding chlorine to water from Cocoa ase to change its colour from the sand brown to something useable. Dettol was our best tool against germs in bathing water those days.

The commotion that ensued on the day the school provided a tanker to supply us with water was unmatched. As soon as we heard the words "the tanker is here" we would run with our multiple buckets to line up, sometimes fights ensued over who came first.

Of Course - we ran the race!

Sports was truly a part and parcel of our education. Our inter-house athletics competitions were intense. If your house won, you would have massive bragging rights throughout the year and oh the joy of singing "jama" tunes all the way from Metico to the lower court was riveting.

For outstanding athletes who represented the school at external competitions, waking up at dawn and exercising on the cold streets of Aburi with fellow athletes while other students slept comfortably in their beds demanded a lot of discipline. That was an indication that the famous Inter-Schools or Super Zonal Athletics Competition was just around the corner. Their hard work paid off but sometimes they lost.

We laugh as we remember with fond memories that wearing the new green and yellow sports gear donated by old students made us the talk of the 1995 Sports competition. Before the game, Aunty Alice told the hockey team: "I know we're going to lose but let's lose honourably, I am still proud of you". Not long after that, one of our colleagues overheard two Benkum Secondary School students having a conversation during which one of them said: "look at these 'poultry chicks', in spite of having everything, I bet on my life they will lose their game". Losing that game made that statement more hilarious. As always, we were the envy of all in the Eastern Region.

Vernacular in a Scottish Mission School? An abomination!

We still remember the great efforts our very dear Mrs Grace Ansa Otu (of blessed memory) put into enhancing our English-speaking abilities. Our very own, Maureen Laryea as Book Store Prefect had the enviable task (not!) of submitting names of all students who were caught speaking vernacular in classrooms and around the school for punishment on Fridays. Maureen earned the title "Killer" for subjecting students to punishments on Friday afternoon's after siesta. Killer o Killer...!

Punishment - that too was a way of life

As our very lovely Miss Wendy Adu would always say, "spare the rod and spoil the child" and boy did she live to that adage! Weeding was part of the normal course of life: "wobedow". What stirred us the most was having to fetch water for a teacher or a senior. There is a story of one student who was once punished by a sixth former. The task was to fetch 10 buckets of water for Madam Owusu-Addo! Boy, did we all not have a trick or two up our sleeves? The student skillfully filled the bucket to a quarter of its capacity and pretended she was carrying a very heavy load. Madam Owusu-Addo being so kind, after the student's fourth quarter bucket decided to let her stop bringing any more the water. Imagine the guilt!

Our Houses: Aberdeen, Barradale, Edinburgh, Kilsyth and later Irene Anderson

We recall with nostalgia, how our house affiliations became sacred during inter-house competitions. There was always a ripe silent war between Aberdeen and Barradale during general house inspections. These always involved collaborative team work from the house captains, seniors and juniors alike to ensure the set goal were achieved. From the neatly laid beds of student with well ironed white bedsheets, to the well-scrubbed bath houses and surroundings was critical on days that these inspections were done unannounced. We are inclined to say Aberdeen was jolly good at winning these but then again... Barradale will argue the opposite.

Winning of the inter-house garden competitions were however reserved for Barradale and so was, oftentimes, the sports competitions although Kilsyth may want to claim victory for a few sports competitions. Winning the entertainment trophy was the remit of Edinburgh House. Edinburgh was also known for its strategic location across the lower court and for having a "monkey route" which its house prefect and members will say was not "for the weak at heart!" Legend has it that in addition to "lady high heels" making an occasional appearance and using that route, one of the girls once tried to climb down this route only to fall and rip her skirt right into two ...what a sight to behold.

Irene Anderson was a new kid on the block in houses. It had its own style and dining hall as it was so far away from the main school site. Oftentimes, students put there wondered if they were being punished. To the great relief of our Irene Anderson colleagues, however, they soon realized that they were rulers of their own mini kingdom. In our day, Irene Anderson was popular for its brilliant mock presidential election slogan: "aflikiti" to which they responded "ye tua nkosu ejuma."

5* Dining? Try the Abugiss Water Music

Now, where exactly do we start on the Michelin star meals we had at school? The typical dish was "water music" with "Tugyimi." We were also subjected to regular doses of rocks, ekoegbeemli, "gas" gari and beans (with protein-enriched 'stowaways' (weevils)), palm nut soup and gari, kenkey and nkatekwan, yam and nkontomire and cocoa drink with peanut butter and bread. The excitement in the dining hall on the rare occasions that we had red-red was palpable.

To keep those who had no visitors on the weekend happy, we were served "kenkey and fried fish" at Kafti (Saturday evening dinner).

Side dishes: The meals we could get outside of the dining hall and our chop boxes (gari and shito) started in Metico with Daavi's fried yam. If you didn't get pocket money on Tuesday, you would spend the entire week salivating because the beautiful smells coming towards the classrooms in Metico were undeniable. Auntie Jo! We still miss that kenkey and tsofi. Miss Ankomah and Daavi's bofrot which we, as very civilized Aburi Girls called beff (puff-puff) were always on point.

The food market: last day of term: This was a highly anticipated day in the life of every Aburi girl. Apart from looking forward to going home, we woke up in the wee hours of the morning. The expansive display by food vendors on the lower court made it feel like the ghosts of Aburi had arisen from their graves as well! What joy! This is what we saved our pocket monies for. There was tsofi, fish, kenkey and fresh beff to name a few.

We indeed call ourselves lucky! Entertainment, Field trips and Jubilee

Entertainment at Aburi Girls was like no other. Our entertainment prefects were always carefully selected and boy did they live up to our expectations. We always enjoyed our Saturday nights when, for our viewing pleasure, we would either have to sit through an entertaining and delightful session of dancing by our own Zwenka Queens, Miss IEP, drama, dance competitions and inter-house competitions which required us to come up with songs or walk the run way in traditional or antique dresses. The significant ones that come to mind are when we had our own Madonna perform Saturday night, Patra perform Worker man, performances of traditional Ghanaian dances and numerous versions of Michael Jackson's songs. We also kept things alive with our Geyhey imported version of Ini Kamoze's Stepping it hotter this year in sixth form. Those were also the days of 'mezop' and shuperu!

We are indeed a very lucky year group! We had the privilege of being in sixth form when Aburi Girls celebrated its golden jubilee! The prevailing buzz word at the time was: "Jubilee!" To which we responded: "lee". We thoroughly enjoyed a return trip on a low loader trailer to Accra. We had a very well-organized funfair during which we remember with laughter one of our mates trying to juggle all four or so guys who she was somewhat "seeing" at the time! The event culminated in a weekend of activities before the anniversary Speech Day.

Some of us, definitely assuming that we were destined for the chic Parisienne life, settled for a truly amazing French class trip to Lome. Our own Madam Owusu Addo with her impressionable young ladies on a bus from Aburi all the way to Lome! Each time "yo soi un hombre sincero" plays on the radio, it brings back memories of espadrilles, the Ghanaian Embassy in Lome and Le Lycee de Tokoin thanks to her innovative way of occupying us on the bus. We are still salivating from the thought of the 'pain de op3' (baguette) and very tasty food we had at La Pirogue ...someone please wake us up!

In our work and in our play, Jesus ever with us stay

Morning Assemblies in the School Chapel was the way we started the day and you got into trouble if you were late! We got the words "Ladies are seen and not heard" ingrained in us at these assemblies. Our dear Mr Mpere diligently taught us his complicated anthems for the speech and prize giving days - "Jesu Joy" "The Lord is Great "and "Lift every Voice and Sing" in the Chapel.

All leavers had the Leavers Dinner outside the Chapel and sung with gusto "My chains Fell off My Heart Was free" at their last Service. Leavers also gave parting gi to those that served them. One could start a small shop with the things we received those days!

The Chapel was also the venue for our Scripture Union meetings which were held every Sunday afternoon. These meetings were led by very dynamic and passionate young people who loved Jesus and were supported by Patrons like Miss Kodonu, Monsieur Djanie and Miss Rita Amartefio (Mrs Biney). The "talks" from visiting speakers and movies we watched at our meetings with songs from the "SU Choir" were really special experiences we will treasure forever.

Our teaching and non-teaching staff

You know it is going to be an interesting class when Mr Bonaldi uses the infamous lines "if you do biology you don't have to feel shy'! Biology class was certainly an interesting one. You also know your day is complete when your teacher puts on a hybrid British/American accent in accounting class to say, "show me your work". Then Mr Djamgba walks into chemistry class late and blames his not having a watch for his tardiness. What can we say about French class avec Monsieur Djanie, Monsieur Oppong, Monsieur KDK et Madam Owusu-Addo? Monsieur Djanie was hardly ever seen without his guitar. The guitar that was the critical instrument in the very catchy music taught to us by Monsieur Djanie, such as: C'est nortre Dieu qui donne la victoire and La vie est belle oh. Nous vous remercions infinitement!

Mr Commey always came in dressed so smartly. Let's not forget the mutually beneficial teaching and learning experience we had from the ladies who came in periodically from the Mount Mary College in Somanya. Auntie Alice and Mr Boateng (aka 'Jumping Boateng') did their very best to bring out our sporty edge: fingers crossed the emergence of this sporty edge would happen in another life ha! In addition to lessons in history, geography and religious studies Mr Michael Ohene (aka "Askia Mohamed Tourè"), Mr Osei-Denteh (of blessed memory, aka "Handsome guaranteous rock pedestal"), Mr Agyeman Sarkodie (aka "Jesus Christ was born in a manga") and Mr Ato Bruce were constant fixtures at entertainment events for which we required judges.

Our English and Literature teachers - Miss Anku-Tsede, Mrs Avafia and Mrs Sejafa - had an unusual level of swag. Mrs Avafia was rightfully unforgiving of our terrible pronunciation of English words. She often got so frustrated at our reading that she would ask for the register and go home. The worse bit was when we didn't pronounce "Rosemary," a very common name in the school, which also happened to be her first name right.

Thanks to our headmistress having made English Literature compulsory, some of us have never forgotten the grueling moments spent trying to read and recollect lines (chew and pour) from Ama Ata Aidoo's Dilemma of a Ghost, which definitely left us wondering whether to go to "Cape Coast or to Elmina"; whether Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter indirectly propelled us into becoming assertive women; whether indeed Benedict when eventually 'domesticated' got a sign around his neck saying "Take a look at Benedick, the married man" in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing ; but most importantly whether we should sleep with one eye open when we have dreams like lady Pertelote did in Chaucer's Nun's Priest tale of the Caterbury Tales.

Ms Kodjo introduced us to colours, hues, patterns and mosaics in her exciting art classes. She never hesitated to reiterate, 'art is life, I want to bring out the best in you'. "Art is life" was seen in the many exhibitions we put up during speech and prize giving days! We had a potter's wheel and kiln in which we fired an amazing array of ceramic wares. We earned nicknames like 'osoro abofo' achacha' on account of our paintings. We remember one incident where we were to draw some fruits and asked one of the labourer's around the chapel area to pluck pawpaw for us from the tree. The man shook the tree and down came a rotten one straight down his upturned face! How we managed with stoic faces to apologise and later fled to the classroom to release our mirth was truly classic. Lest we forget Mr Nyame (of blessed memory), one of the non-teaching staff and his number one statement: "Me sh3sh3ee obi." To this day, we are all wondering who Mr Nyame was looking for.

Mr Mpere was with us all the way from Form 1. In addition to teaching music, providing extra piano lessons and guidance on ABRSM, he was famous for his "Mpere tart". But let's not forget the period in Form 2, when we, thinking we had "arrived" decided to enjoy a funfair organized by our seniors. Little did we know that Mr Mpere had been closely observing proceedings at the funfair. In the week that followed, in every one of Mr Mpere's classes, he segmented the class as follows:

♦ Those who danced with boys stand here

♦ Those who danced with girls stand here

♦ Those who danced alone stand here

We will leave what happened to those who danced with boys to your wildest imagination.

Scientific

Perhaps by divine arrangement and not by any special might, a quarter of our year group got selected to start a journey into science in form 3. Looking back, if there was a prior counselling and mentoring session, some of us may not have pursued science class at all. It was hard!!! Apart from it being taught in abstract, the plaguing no-water problem of our time led to numerous lab session cancellations. The science department had limited teaching aids and very few teachers. No wonder we had 'United Nations' teachers. Japan was well represented by Mr Takashi who was enthusiastic about robotics (of which we had no clue) but was forced to teach chemistry with his musical accent. We recall Activity A4 sounded like 'ar-tree-bee-tee A por'. Mr... taught physics until he was well replaced by 4 equally intelligent Ghanaian teachers of varied personalities: Mr Nuamah, Mr Dotse, Mr Adu and Mr Acheampong.

Mr. Coleman from the US peace Corps and Mr. Kobayashi also from Japan taught maths until Mr Ocran and Mr. Sekyiamma took over. Mrs Boah and Mr. Mills -Robertson were our abled biology tutors. We were blessed to have our hard-working assistant headmistress Mrs Oduro Koranteng and Mr. Fred Asare as our Chemistry teachers. In fact, we reminiscence the science class as a united family that had a lot of funny moments. One such was when Mr Dotse found out we had convinced Mr Adu to secretly teach us a topic in Physics, which he had intended to teach for a fee, without his knowledge. In anger he shouted "Wickedness at its highest perk ...if I had a whelpon I could keeellll".

This was the same teacher that will insist that 'we flow the fans ...Sir watch!!!' after he had solved a difficult question from the text book. Dare you give the wrong answer in class and he would scream "...you liiieeeee." Every science student will remember 'point charges' from Mr Dotse. A popular non-teaching staff at the chemistry lab, Mr Dapaah affectionately called 'labasst,' was at our beck-and-call with his gentle smile and cunning looks. We recall one of the most tensed moments of our time - the human reproduction teaching session by Mrs Boah. Oh dear! To bottle down laughter and keep up a straight face for fear of being sent out of the lab for a whole hour was a feat, a bunch of hypocrites survived.

Science students were the ones who enjoyed field trips the most. We also recall a fun filled Cape Coast beach visit (to understand the marine ecosystem) and a Nestle food processing tour that ironically led to hunger pangs and a crush on the hunk who showed us around.

Our teachers made our classes fun yet brought out the best in us. By God's grace we are proud to say we achieved a 100% pass rate in the last GCE A level science exams.

Fast-forward to 25 years post-graduation

We look back not only with fond memories of our time at Aburi Girls but with great appreciation for the holistic education we received. We also say a big thank you to our teachers: we are the products of your dedication to advancing education in your nation and instilling discipline. Today, we toot our horns loudly and say long live Abugiss! You laid the foundation that has produced doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, educationists, fashion designers, university professors and bankers, to name a few, who are indeed leading their generation by "raising young women with integrity and technology for societal transformation in the 21st Century and beyond".

Bepow So Hann!