Hello from Ghana!
There have typically been anywhere from three to four volunteers at Happy Kids. One or two stay with the nursery class, one was working with the kindergarten class and then I have P2 – P4. However, due to sickness and a change of placement with one of the volunteers I have been the only volunteer at Happy Kids this week. It has been a completely eye opening experience, as every week seems to be here! I have so many mixed emotions on what to even think about Happy Kids.
Seeing how things have been handled with the other classes has truly made me see how dependent Happy Kids has become on the fact that volunteers will constantly be placed at their school. Without anyone else there this week I have witnessed teachers go into their routine of having kids memorize or just sit there and do nothing. Two of the four days this week, a teacher did not show up until it was almost lunch time, both of the classes usually have a volunteer there. The teacher of the kindergarten class didn’t show up on Tuesday and her kids had to just sit there until she actually did show up. The male teachers would occasionally go over and cane a child who was not sitting quietly in their seat or tell all of the kids to put their heads down.
Then on Wednesday the teacher of the nursery class did not show up and when I arrived all of the little ones were running around crying hysterically. I did our usual circle time that I do with my older kids and we sang songs for about twenty minutes. It calmed the little ones down and they were singing right along with the older kids. Then it was time for me to take my class and get to work. I helped get all of the nursery kids into their class and then had to head off for the canopy. However, the kids were all crying so loud it was hard to keep the attention of my kids. I went into the room and saw some of the kids hitting each other. Then one of the oldest girls Lucy was instructed to go into the room and have them all sit on the two benches. She was picking up the crying children and placing them on the bench. My kids were working on something independently so I could stay in the room for a few minutes. Once I left the room she closed the door to keep them all contained and then she had to keep them out of trouble, keep them from crying and running away. She’s 12 and she had to head a whole class of 30 crying children by herself.
I tried to help as much as I could, but I have had to force myself to really just stick to teaching my class. It has probably been one of the most challenging things emotionally for me to have to sit and watch me old class of 6 year olds get taught three digit multiplication and never pick up a book or watch the nursery kids get canned because they don’t want to sit on a bench and be quiet for three hours. As much as I would love to just run the whole school I know that would be stepping out of my boundaries and making Happy Kids even more dependable on volunteers.
Today at school I witnessed probably one of the most unbelievable situations at school. My teacher was not there this morning so I was going about business as usual. YaYra, went over to the older kids class, P5 and P6 to get something and all of a sudden I hear her wailing and screaming. I peek under the blackboard and see that the teacher had a hold of her. She comes back holding her head and I asked one of the older boys, Wisdom in the other class what happened. It turns out that the teacher was going around to all of the kids and checking their heads. If they had not had their hair cut down short or shaved, then he was taking a pair of scissors and grabbing their hair and cutting a line down the middle of their head as a way to prove that they needed to get their hair cut. When I told YaYra to lift her hand up I could see that he had cut so close to her scalp that I saw just skin. I gave her a hug to try and calm her down. Then he came into my classroom, cut Roland’s hair and Charlotte started crying and hid under the desk. He pulled her up from the desk but then saw me standing right in front of her and he left the room. My whole entire body was shaking and I could tell the kids could see that I was upset. I was frozen and so upset at what just happened. It was like a scene that I had watch from a movie on the Holocaust. I was horrified at what he was doing but couldn’t do anything about it. I had to snap out of it and continue with the rest of the day and hold in my tears and anger. When I got back to the homebase I was still shaking and I went and told our program managers what had happened. They are talking, and they are going to handle the situation.
On a lighter note! My kids have been amazing me every day! I made individual sight word booklets for each of the kids. I found a list of about 100 sight words they should know and wrote them in the back of the notebooks. Then a few weeks ago I took them one by one and tested the words they knew. After that I created small sight words booklets for them of all the words that they didn’t know. During their illustration of their books time, I have been calling them up one by one and having them go over their sight word books with me. Today, four of my kids were able to read every signal word in their books to me and I am allowed them to take the pieces of paper home! They were ecstatic as I was! If I can give them anything while I am here, I think that giving them the power to read more words is a gift for them! They have been doing so well and I have seen their progress even reflected in their writing! The vocabulary they use to write has become so much more enhanced and it’s so wonderful to see them succeed. They are such hard workers and truly just absorb or try to everything I am teaching them! It’s so wonderful to see their faces light up when they understand a concept!
I know that most of my entries have been about the children, and let’s face it, it’s because they truly have become my life here in Ghana. My heart breaks for them but smiles for them every single day I am here. I have learned so much from them and have loved watching them grow!
The other small bit of life here is Ghana continues to go well. I am resting when I can and making sure I drink plenty of water to avoid the germs and sickness that seems to be milling around the homebase.
I hope you are all enjoying the fall weather at home. I think the cold will be a complete shock to me when I get home, but I’ll be ready from a break from the heat!
Lots of love from Africa,
Steph
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