Happy Monday :)

Happy Monday!

On Friday at placement we have P.E. So the teacher teaches one math lesson for a half an hour and then we go to the park to play until 1:00. I sat back and just observed the lesson that he was teaching. Their approach to teaching is completely different from anything that I have ever been taught and sometimes it can be very frustrating to watch. He gave two examples of a math problem that really only the two eleven year olds should be learning then called each student up one by one to do a problem on the board. When someone didn’t get it correct he essentially would laugh at them and tell them to go sit back down. He expects that the 6 year olds and the 11 year olds will learn the same material and I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. Once the “lesson” was over he had them all take out a piece of paper if they had one, if they didn’t have paper then they just sat there. Then he wrote three problems on the board for them to answer. Before he allowed them to get to work he said aloud “one mistake” and they responded “two canes.” Meaning if they got one problem wrong then they would get caned twice. It makes me so sad that school and learning is treated as such a punishment. After the lesson we all went to the park and participated in P.E. I was playing football with most of the kids in my class and they were just loving life and we were all laughing together and having a wonderful time. Then the three male teachers called me over to join their game of football. I thought that they were getting a big game going with all of the older kids. Instead it was a small game of the four of us and the four oldest kids in the school. They didn’t even care about any of the other kids and what they were doing. It was hard for me to truly enjoy playing with them when I knew that really it was just playtime for them. Something that I have learned is that crying is not accepted here in Ghana. When one of the students fell down during football (soccer) the teachers would mock him and say “I’m sorry for you, now get up and be a strong player” or in the pre-school class at school if a kid starts to cry the teacher will start singing a song about the kid being a pussycat and then all the students will start to meow at them. There is no sympathy whatsoever and that has been difficult for me to sit back and watch and really not able to do anything about.

On Saturday Cat, Piper, Krista and I traveled about 45 minutes to a waterfall. We had to visit with the chief of the village and talked to him and ask permission to hike up the sacred waterfall. Now I was expecting a full on chief in a headdress, well once we were seated down on a bench out steps the chief in jeans and a t-shirt. It may have been a bit of a scam but oh so worth it. A guide took us to the base of the first waterfall and it was like a small rapid. We were able to swim in the waterfall and we attempted to swim across the falls to a rock on the other side. Needless to say we didn’t make it more than five feet away from the shore because the current was so strong and pulling us backwards. As soon as we were done swimming a huge rainstorm came through. The tour guide went into the forest, chopped down a small tree, pulled the humongous leaves off the tree that were about as tall as me and we used them as umbrellas, it was the coolest thing ever! Then we were able to continue hiking up to the top of the waterfall and see where it begins. At the top of the waterfall there was a huge wooden cross, and I could see the mountains in the distance, it was beautiful! Then on Sunday we went to church. Church here is at least three hours long. It really amazes me how much passion people in Ghana have about their faith. They were just singing, dancing, listening and praising the Lord for the entire three hours – they are incredible and so inspiring!

Today at placement was wonderful. It definitely gave me some hope compared to last week! The teacher that usually sits in the back of the room and watches me teach was not there today. It was nice to just be able to do what I want instead of worrying that I am not doing enough rigorous work with them. I realized that I need to do some “assessment” type things just to see what they actually know and what they don’t. They encourage spelling words here so I am going to start making their own spelling words to test and take them from words that they actually need to learn how to spell. I am going to attempt to find something to make them each a folder out of so that I can keep all their work in to see the progress that they have been making. I am going to start back and the basics since all of my kids do not know the sounds of the letters still. Since they are taught to memorize everything when I encourage them to sound out a word they have absolutely no idea what I am talking about. I am going to work on this one! I introduced them to “I see” today, basically “I Spy” but you can play it so many different ways. Today we played “I see something that begins with the letter…” and “I see something that rhymes with run…” The highlight of my day was when Roland actually guessed the correct word that rhymed with run…sun! We have been working on CVC rhymes for the past week and they are slowly starting to understand! It was a shining moment! It really is going to be all about the baby steps and now that I have some confidence in myself I think that things will only start to look up!

I thought I would quickly give a rundown of a typical day:
6:00 – wake up (usually run/get ready)
7:00 – Breakfast (Egg of some sort, pineapple and a piece of bread)
7:15 – Reading and talking on the porch
8:15 – Leave for school
8:30-12:00 - At school
12:15 – Lunch (rice, chicken, pineapple)
12:30 – 4:00/5:00 Afternoon activities
Monday – Errands and market
Tuesday – Rehabilitation clinic
Wednesday – House of Hope Orphanage
Thursday – EPTRA (saving and loans place)
Friday – Weekend traveling
6:00 – Dinner
6:30 – Pitch black here in Ghana and Cat, Piper, Krista and I walk the loop in town
9:00 – In bed!

I have added some new placements and activities in the afternoons now that our cultural learning activities are over with. This is my first week starting at those placements and I will talking about each of them in other entries!

I hope that all continues to be well at home! The new additions to the homebase have been nice. I sure do miss the peace and quiet though, with 21 people that doesn’t really happen that often around here.

Tonight – look at the moon and know that I am looking at the same one, smiling and thinking of you!

Lots of love from Africa,
Steph