In the mornings I see girls and boys in their uniforms on their way to school, walking along the street, riding bicycles or motorbikes. Leticia shows me her school pass which contains the rules of the school. They include the following: It is not allowed to bleach your skin or colour your fingernails. It is not allowed for boarders to let their rooms. It is not allowed to write anonymous letters with false information. Punishments, listed below every rule, are ground work, suspension and dismissal.
I join Fadila and Baba to go to school. On the compound are some low buildings, painted in blue. On one something written: Today the illiterate is not one who cannot read or write but one who cannot use the computer to his/her advantage. It is the computer lab.
Someone brings a chair and I am told to sit. While I am waiting, a man calls every student who arrives late to a room where they are slapped with a branch. Only very few are lucky enough not to be seen and escape. I hear the slaps, but almost no sound from the students. Irritatingly, most of them laugh when they come out of this room and run to their classrooms.
After one hour I am shown to the headmaster. His office is in a small house consisting of two rooms. In the first room a woman and two men are sitting at a table. The second room is even smaller and crammed with all sorts of stuff. Here I find the headmaster. He asks me what I am doing in Tamale, why I want to visit his school. I understand he doesn‘t allow me to sit in one of the classes with Fadila and Baba. He says the school is an institution, there is strong competition and he doesn‘t want any foreigners to see how he is leading his school. I am surprised. I am not planning to give away his secrets and I don‘t mean any harm in listening to one of his teachers.
So I wait. In the break Fadila takes me to some stalls further down the road where she buys something to eat. Then Abdul Manan comes to bring me home. I don‘t know whether he knew that I can‘t visit the classes or whether Sakina just decided that I should rest.
