There certainly are parts of school that are downright depressing to watch and not be able to do anything about it. However, I’m realizing more and more the small bits of hope that the kids are showing me every day.
For the kids’ about the author page in their books I have started “interviewing” them during break time and have found out so much about them. Most of my kids live at the boarding house during the week and then travel home every weekend. Some of my kids go home to 10 people living in their house and some go home to no parents at all. Often aunts and uncles or grandmothers will live in their houses with them. I asked them about their siblings and they can always tell me how many brothers and sisters they have but only sometimes can they tell me their names and ages. A lot of the siblings go to different schools or are older than them. I asked each of them what they wanted to be when they grow up and there were a wide variety from a football player, working at a hotel as a cleaner, to a teacher and a basketball player. Although not all of my kids wanted to be doctors or lawyers, they were all aspiring to be something and that gave me some hope for their future. After all it all starts with a dream right?
I have been asking Godwin, the teacher that usually teaches my class, some questions about the school. Those children who are living at the boarding house have to pay 140 cedi per term, which is about three months. Those who only attend school there have to pay 30 cedi a term. This last statistic was the most shocking to me, teachers at Happy Kids get paid 45 cedi per month. That is about 30 US dollars a month. I don’t think I will ever complain about teachers not making a lot of money in the US. No wonder why the teachers don’t really care too much about teaching.
I am finding that for kids here, education is a means of survival. In order to even begin to break the cycle of poverty, just like in America, kids need to be educated. The frustrating part is, at a school like Happy Kids, the people educating the children are so unqualified that it decreases their chance then of survival and making something of themselves. Parents pay a lot of money to send their kids away to Happy Kids and I think that part of it is the fact that they do have volunteers constantly there – which is a wonderful thing for the kids. However, when there are not volunteers there, or there is not a volunteer in their classroom, then they are not receiving an education.
In Ghana, kids can attend a government run school for free up until P6, After P6 they then have to pay for their education and therefore no many children attend school past P6. Although government schools are free, some parents are still unable to afford sending their kids to school because every school requires a certain school uniform and certain small notebooks. If kids show up at most schools without these, then they are sent back home.
For centers I have been doing matching games with nouns, word families and plurals and hangman based on one of those categories. The kids absolutely love these activities. Even in the past four days I have seen a great improvement in my students increase in word knowledge. They are so excited to play such simple games yet they show me so much of what they have learned. I find myself just sitting back and smiling as they rush to the blackboard during break time to play hangman together and when the younger class rushes over to me so they can finish illustrating their books! I wish you could meet all of them because they really are absolutely wonderful children!
Every day my kids are showing me more and more of their potential and every day I attempt to challenge them and they most certainly challenge me! I love them dearly and just by little things they say to me, like actually asking me every day if I can give them homework, they show me there is hope for their future. I guess, that’s really all I can do for them, and that is all they can do for themselves, is hope that things will turn out alright!
I hope this finds everyone healthy and smiling!
Lots of Love from Africa,
Steph
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