This was our last week of cultural learning activities and we went to visit both the monkey sanctuary and had a guest speaker on child labor. At the monkey sanctuary, it literally is a community that allows people to walk into the forest and feed the monkeys. The people in the community believe that the monkeys are spirits they can communicate to God through. Those who practice traditional Africa religion believe that God is so powerful that people cannot communicate directly to Him. Instead one had to speak through a spirit which can be in the form of animals, trees or their ancestors. So, the people in this community believe that the monkeys are spirits and don’t harm them. Instead, they allow people to come into the sanctuary and see the monkeys. We walked into the forest with bananas in hand and the guide stopped at this one huge tree and started to whistle. All of a sudden, monkeys start jumping out from the other trees and jump right in front of our feet and are all above our head. We all held out bananas and they came right up to us and if we held on tightly, the monkeys would peel the bananas right out of our hand. It was the craziest thing ever!
The guest speaker on child labor was so interesting. He works with an organization called Pro-Link. This organization goes out and rescues children who have been sold by their parents to usually fishermen and sometimes mining industries. Children as young as five years old are sold to these industries for 100 – 500 cedis and are given a one to two year contract with these places. However, often what ends up happens, especially with the fishermen, they end of moving locations and the children continue to travel with them. At that point, they lose contact with their families and then just continue to be with the fishermen. After rescuing these children, they actually reconnect them with their families and then provide services to their families to educate them about the rights children have. There is also a great deal of discrimination against women still here in Ghana. Most men can choose to have as many wives as possible and as many children as he wishes. Women do not know and understand their rights of saying when they would like to have children and when they don’t. It cannot believe that in 2010 there is still child trafficking and such severe discrimination against women still going on. Living in the United States we take for granted our freedoms and rights, often don’t exercise those rights but then complain about what we are not allowed to do. It’s hard to think that some women here in Africa, some even living right in the village that I am in, are treated like property. The best thing that can be done to help stop this from continuing, is educating people in the United States that issues like this are still going on around us. So think about the next time you see a woman paying for something in a store, or you yourself pay for something and know that here in Africa, women have no rights to keep in possession any money, and thank God for all the rights and privileges that we take for granted every day.
On Tuesday when I arrived to school the kids were split up into three classes as opposed to one class from yesterday. I asked the teacher where he wanted me to teach and he said that I could choose whichever class I wanted to. The choices were P1, P2 – P4, P5 & P6. I had to make a quick decision which is so not like me at all and I choose to teach P2-P4. The lesson that I had prepared for that day was for the children in P5 & P6. I felt unprepared again today and had to think quickly on my feet for the next three hours. I was way too ambitious when I first started preparing lessons and forgot that I was in Africa and not in a school in the States. I was going to have them introduce themselves by making an acrostic poem of their name. We brainstormed some words that might describe themselves and I did a model of my name for them. When I had them do their own name, all they did was write words that began with that beginning letter. Although my lesson was essentially a complete flop, I was very happy to see that they at least understood the concept of writing one word per line and just to see where their vocabulary is.
For my lessons on Wednesday I based them off of the book that Godwin, the teacher gave to me. I took the “skills” and then modified and tried to add some of my own activities as well. To say the least, it was a complete disaster. As I continue to reflect on Wednesday, although at the time I felt that it was horrible, I am realizing that my students did make some progress. The students did learn some basic rhymes through a fun activity I did with them, I heard them read for the first time, they were able to answer orally some comprehension questions.
Here in Ghana, and I’m sure most of Africa in general believe in teaching children through rote memorization of facts and definitions. On Tuesday, the class next to me, P1, had to repeat the same poem over and over again for 45 minutes. The teacher made them stand the whole time and if they were not standing then he would hit them on the head with a stick. On Wednesday our ride home was late so I watched as the teacher took over the class once I was done with all of my lessons. He was teaching them about adjectives. First he stated what an adjective is then he made all the students stand up. He went around individually and asked them what the definition was; if they did not get it right then they had to stay standing. I even saw one boy standing off to the side rubbing his hands together over his head and marching in place. He had to do this for about five minutes before he could come back and sit down.
Everything about education here in Ghana besides the fact that they try to get all children educated, goes whole heartedly against my entire philosophy of education. Now I understand that I am unable to change their views and way of teaching. The challenging part is that when I do try to do something that involves creativity or actually explaining why something is the way it is, the kids do not understand because they have not been taught to think that way. I am not going to forget all my own beliefs in education but at the same time I have to teach the way the students are going to actually begin to understand things. I am going to attempt to mix in both philosophies while trying not to completely frustrate myself. It’s going to be about finding the right balance that works well for the kids. The best part is I still have nine weeks with the kids and will hopefully see them grow in even the smallest way.
I can’t believe I have already been in Africa for three weeks, time is flying by so quickly. On Saturday 12 new people come to the homebase and the dynamics will be completely different. That will be a challenge for me all in itself, but I am looking forward to hearing the life stories of so many new faces!
Hope all is well, think of you often, and eat a fresh apple from a tree for me!
Lots of love from Africa,
Steph
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