Happy First Day of School in Ghana!!!

Yeah school has finally started here in Ghana! Before I talk about that let me give just a brief recap of my fantastic weekend exploring Cape Coast!

We had our first full weekend of experiencing tro-tros and it most certainly was an interesting one. It was about an 8 hour journey to Cape Coast via tro-tros and taxis. We traveled to Accra on one tro-tro, got dropped off in the middle of the highway. Had to take a taxi to the next station, go on a tro-tro to Cape Coast. One of the reasons that I love Ghana so much is for the friendly people that live here. I’m not saying that there are people smiling and waving everywhere we go but there are people who are genuinely such caring and nice people here in Ghana. We asked the driver if he could take us right to our hotel since it was already dark out and we didn’t know exactly where it was. There was a woman sitting next to Dunkin and I in our row of seats on the tro-tro and once she heard the name of our hotel she told the driver that we had already passed it. The driver pulled over right away and told us to get out. The woman sitting next to us also got out and started fending off the taxi drivers there were bombarding us. Everywhere we go taxi drivers literally get in fights, sometimes physical fights over taking us places because we have the money. The woman yelled at the drivers and put us all in taxis and wished us a nice weekend. It never ceases to amaze me how caring some people in Ghana are.

We traveled to Kukum National Park on Saturday to do a canopy walk. It was a nice, simple hike up to the canopy platforms. The guide explained to us that there are only 5 canopy walks in the world and this was obviously one of them. It consisted of 7 bridges 320 meters above the forest floor. In between each bridge there were small platforms to wait on until it was okay to go across the next bridge. The bridges were quite shaky and were swinging a bit as I was traveling across some of them. Even though I am not scared of heights I was a bit nervous as I was crossing the first few bridges. Once I got the hang of it I was able to enjoy the beautiful scenery around me. I was only a little bit away from the top of the tree line and it was amazing to see the clouds and sun close.

After the canopy walk, we traveled to Cape Coast castle. This was a castle that participated in the transatlantic trade route or “triangle trade.” I went into a museum first that talk about the history of slave trade and showed maps of where the trade routes went to. It showed a picture of the boats and how the slaves were transported across the ocean. Then we went on a tour of the castle. We went inside the male and female dungeons. Each of the dungeons were about the size of a standard living room. In each room 200 males or 400 females had to stay, I’m not even going to say live in there because there was no way it was actually suitable for any sort of living. They had to stay in there for up to three months since that is how long it took to make the journey across the ocean and back to the Americas. The rooms were dark and only had one small window that created a small amount of light and air. They were passed food through a hole in the wall and there were small ditches that usually got back up for “liquids” to drain out of. By the female dungeons there was a huge door that led to the harbor where the slaves would be packed into boats. On the top of the door you could see the scratch marks of the slaves who tried to get out. Then above the door it says, “The door of no return.” A few years back, they had ancestors of the slaves pass through the door of no return and then they had them pass back through. So now on the outside of the door that faces the harbor there is a sign that say “The door of return” to symbolize the end of slavery. It was one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had and is something that just sends chills up my spine even as I am writing this.

Today was the first official day of school, and it truly was the first day of school!!! When we got there, the teacher that I mentioned earlier was there and asked Clay and I what ages we would like to work with. Not all of the children were not there today because as the teacher put it, many of them did not know that school resumed. So there was the oldest class and then there was the pre-school/kindergarten class. The teachers just put the kids in a group and sent them over to us. Now I may have taken the easy way out, but I chose to take the older kids and leave Clay with the younger kids. Today there were only 12 kids in my class and Clay had 25 kids. So I will be teaching P4, P5 & P6 all in the same class – talk about some serious need to differentiate! Today since there were not enough kids to have the P2 & P3 class, I had them in my class as well. The classroom is located under a straw roof, has a small blackboard on a stand and wooden desks for some of the kids. Some of them shared desks.

I started by having them make a name tag so I could see and know their name. Then I had them introduce themselves and say their favorite color. I showed them my pictures from home and then had them draw me a picture to teach me something about Ghana. They looked at me like they had no clue what I was talking about so we brainstormed some things that they could draw. Most of the either drew the Ghana flag, different types of fruit that are here in Ghana or a plane or car. It’s so interesting to me that kids here in Ghana have no creativity when it comes to drawing. I had them complete a small writing activity answering some questions about themselves to see where they are in their writing. Since I have such a wide age/ability range I tried to differentiate as much as possible. They are allowed a 15 minute “play” break and then it was back to work. We finished the writing activity and talked about it. Then I read them a couple of stories and it was time to go already. The day flew by like nothing!

It will most certainly be a challenge for me as I teach three grade levels and they figured twice as many kids once they all are actually there. I was talking with the teacher and he said there is no set curriculum, textbooks or any materials to actually work with so I am just creating things on my own. They do have some books, but the children don’t use them, I am allowed to use them to create some lessons. The teacher told me that I am allowed to do whatever I want and he will just teach the subjects that I don’t. I think that I am going to teach English and Science since they have a pretty big emphasis on science here. I will leave math for him to teach since we all know it’s my favorite subject haha not! So here’s to lesson planning, lots of creative and differentiating!

Today Cat, Krista, Piper and I (my three roommates who have been my saving Grace in the homebase) finished painting at a Christian orphanage “House of Hope.” We painted a boy and a girl to indicate the bathrooms and wrote the bible verse “Lord wash not only my feet but also my hands and my head” in the middle of the bathrooms. It was so much fun to paint and I hope that there are most projects like that to do in the future.
I hope that all is well at home and that you had a wonderful weekend! Think of you often!

Lots of love from Africa,
Steph