Oh, we’re halfway there, Oh whoa living on a prayer…

Although as I post this my time is over half way done, I still thought it would seem fitting to put that as my title. Some days it seems like I have been here for a year and some days it seems like I just arrived. Time certainly is a funny thing that we have absolutely no control over!

Speaking of control…that has seemed to be a bit of a struggle for me lately as I have attempted to talk myself through the fact that I have no control over the culture of the school system here in Ghana. This week has been the start of a new schedule for me that will continue up until my departure. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I have started staying at school all day until it ends at 3:00. Then on Wednesday I am still going to House of Hope, an orphanage right after school is finished. Cat, Piper and I are having the students, after they get out of school, put on a play. We are performing an African Folk Tale. So far we have created a script, casted the parts and had a run through of the lines. It is complete chaos but the kids are absolutely loving it! We are hoping to video tape the performance and then I’ll be able to have a little viewing when I get home! Thursdays I will still be going to school but come home for lunch and continue to go to EPTRA in the afternoons – the micro financing organization. That is something different from working with kids and I get to see the community and really go out there and be in the midst of all the going ons of the people. On Friday I will only be going to school for PE in the morning and returning to the homebase for lunch. It has been a busy week and I have been exhausted, in a wonderful way when I return every afternoon! My bedtime is slowly getting earlier and earlier!

In the few days that I have stayed for a full day at Happy Kids my eyes were opened to a whole new world. On Tuesday my class of 16 was cut in half as they decided to make a new class of P1’s. Now my class consists of P2, P3 and P4. So on Tuesday as I was be bopping around my classroom doing all the activities with my kids, I had to sit and watch the other half of my class stare at me helplessly as their teacher was making them repeat a poem over and over again until they had it memorized. I think that a little piece of my heart actually broke as I watched them run over to me during break and ask if they could work on their books that we have been writing. After break that day I asked if they could come over and we just finished writing the whole entire book since I didn’t know when I would be able to work with them again. I’m going to continue having the come over for a half an hour every day so they can at least finish their books. I’m going to talk to the Head Mistress and see if she would allow me to keep the classes combined at least while I’m there, however, it might have a negative effect on them when I do leave and could possibly put them further behind, but we shall see.

Lunchtime at Happy Kids is quite the ordeal. I have been taking my traditional peanut butter and jelly and a banana for lunch every day, since I am not sure what food they will be eating and I would probably get sick off of it. They are given an hour break from 12:00 – 1:00. The other teachers go and hide in a secluded area and the older girls are left to go and fetch lunch from the boarding house. Meanwhile, the rest of the older kids are laughing, running around playing football and just being kids which was wonderful to see. However, the younger kids are running around, unsupervised, hitting each other with sticks, pushing each other off the brick piles and running away to the park. It was like I was trying to control a circus the first day I was there. I am going to try and start having a few games to play with the younger kids during this time starting next week. I am still unsure of the whole lunch situation. The youngest students are allowed to eat first. They get a bowl, get a little pile of rice and run off to eat it with their hands. Not all students are given bowls and they run over to the kids who do receive food and try to steal it from them. I am not sure why some kids do not receive food and some do. Then the older students are allowed to eat. It seems that everyone is content by the time lunch is over but my head is always spinning.

After lunch, its back to work for my kids! I have now started doing math and have attempted to be creative with using some manipulatives. It’s a bit challenging when the resources are so limited but it seems to be working out alright. As I am again having my kids doing all kinds of work, the P1 class is being ordered to put their heads down on their desk and take a nap, the Nursery kids are all sprawled out on the concrete floor sleeping, my old class is still repeating the same poem or being asked to do two digit multiplication, and the oldest class P5 and P6 is copying down notes from the chalk board while the teacher is on his cellphone. It is so frustrating and heartbreaking to see what goes on in the other classes after the volunteers have left. It makes me wonder what is going to happen to my class the rest of the year.

There are about 25 kids living at the boarding house that stay after school to help clean up. They have to put all of the desks and chalkboards into the classroom that gets locked at night. Then they have to carry over the bowls and tubs from lunch. Almost all of my kids live at the boarding house and as I was watching them get ready to go “home” I could help but tear up and think about what they do every night. It always amazed me how close the kids in my class were and how they always looked out for each other but fought like brothers and sisters as well. I wasn’t sure if it was a cultural thing, and I’m sure it is partly but after watching them all walk together down the dirt road, I couldn’t help but think that to each other they are more than schoolmates, they are family. I’m sure not all of them are orphans but they don’t live with any family so really they are all each other has. They have slowly stolen and captured a piece of my heart and every day I become so much closer with them and I would love to just love to keep them. So as impossible as that really is and instead of trying to find a way to bring all of them home, I have started saying a prayer for each of them at night.

So as I am ending my seventh week here in Ghana I am asking all of you before you go to bed tonight to just say a short prayer for all the children at Happy Kids and that God will guide them and look out for them. Thank you for your prayers for me while I have been here. It’s been so comforting to know that I have so many wonderful people in my life!

I hope this finds you all smiling and healthy!

Lots of love from Africa!
Steph