The Puzzle of Games

I’m so grateful to the Osu Children’s Library Fund in Accra for giving our librarians free training in how to create a fun, engaging library atmosphere in Ghana. Our little library in the rural village of Asisiriwa has been open for a month now, and Kumi and Mary have done an amazing job making the place inviting and intriguing.

Based on his training, there were two things Kumi wanted to do at the end of every weekday: story time and game time. Story time was easy enough, since we have plenty of great story books (thanks to donations from many of you) and librarians with proficiency in both English and Twi. Game time proved to be more difficult. We had brought a couple boxes of Scrabble on an earlier trip, and the JHS students have learned to play it (and they really get into it), but it’s not appropriate for the primary school kids who barely speak any English and it doesn’t offer a whole lot of variety.

While I was still in Asisiriwa, Kumi and I went on a quest to Kumasi to look for puzzles and games, which aren’t widely available. We looked in the markets and found nothing. We then went to the Kumasi City Mall, which carries luxury items, and found a few options. There were very few board games to be found, but there were a couple puzzles and sets of building blocks. These were way more expensive than we were expecting, and we had limited cash with us, so we just bought two bags of large, plastic building blocks made in South Africa. Our logic was that this was something groups of kids could play with and get creative without too much explanation.

It wasn’t much, but it made game time possible. The building blocks we got proved to be extremely popular with the kids, who played nicely with each other and even collaborated to make funky structures and 3D people. These students had never had access to toys like this, and they began eagerly showing up every evening to hear stories and play, to hear creativity and get creative. It was so cool to see, but it also highlighted a lack that still exists.

Our library needs more games and puzzles for game time. We can get more bags of the same colorful building blocks, which will be compatible with the ones we already have, for $18 each. We can also get a couple floor puzzles for around $12 each.

Outside of that, there aren’t a lot of options in the Ashanti Region. We would like to buy some stimulating board games and puzzles that aren’t available in Ghana and take them to Kasadwini Atenaeɛ on our next trip. If you would like to help us buy some more games for these kids, just go here to donate.

Alternatively, if you feel compelled to get even more involved and perhaps do a game drive in your local area, we would be humbled and would do whatever we could to help raise awareness about it. Just email us at [email protected] or use the contact form on our website.

With just a few dedications of funds or time, we can make this library even more fun and stimulating than it already is, and bring kids from about five different villages to play and learn together.