Lots of smiles!

School has been wonderful this week. Godwin, the teacher that usually sits in the back of my room has not been there at all this week. Normally, he doesn’t do anything anyways but not having him there has allowed me to have the kids’ full attention without him distracting them. As emotionally challenging as it has been for me, just focusing on my class has been one of the best things I have done for my kids. I give them my full attention, they give me theirs, we work great together and they just make me smile and laugh all day long! The kids are fantastic and I would love it if everyone could meet them! With only two weeks left, I have been starting to wrap up some things. One of my favorite moments of the week was watching Porshe actually write full sentences. Normally, she will write sentences like “to be favorite” and just list some of the words that she knows but on Wednesday she wrote “I like to play football!” My heart smiled. I have seen the most progress in her. She was an emergent reader before I started and now she is well on her way to start reading. She is working through her sight word book and has really excelled.

Another volunteer, Beth, and I have been developing a curriculum for Happy Kids. It has been a challenge but so useful. We are just making a list of English and math skills that are appropriate for each class level (KG – P6) and coming up with multiple activities for each skill. Before I leave, it will be finished and I am going to present it to the headmistress at the school and go through the grade with each of the teachers there. I am hoping that perhaps with an outline of what to teacher, they might strive to teacher them something other than math. Whenever I walk into one of the other class rooms, class 1 or class 5 and 6, the teacher is either teaching math or science. I never seen them teaching anything but math to the kids. The kids never open a book and most of the time they are just writing down notes. Despite a lot of negativity from the teachers, I have seen some positives from them. Joshua, the class 1 teacher, has started using the notebooks I gave my old class. He has them write notes it in, but at least he is using them. Each day as I listen to the Kindergarten teacher teach, I have realized she does almost the same lesson I did the previous day with her kids. I think it’s great that she is trying, but it’s not appropriate for the kindergarteners to be learning the same thing as my 2nd – 4th graders. However, I am looking at the fact that she is no longer having them repeat poems or songs over and over again. Yesterday she had them acting out verbs because that is what I am doing with my kids. It was fun to see the KGers jumping, hopping and walking around. If anything, I am happy she is trying and I’m flattered that she is modeling after my teaching!

At first the play at House of Hope seemed like it was never going to happen. We can only go there at 4:00 after they get out of school and we can only stay until 5:30 so we make it back in time for dinner. Piper, Cat and I were the ones that originally started the play, with Piper gone, Cat has lost interest and they didn’t want to finish. I couldn’t do that to the kids so I decided to power through and ask some of the other volunteers to help out. Marinda stepped up to the plate and we got right to work last Wednesday. Basically, we had to start from the beginning and we were a bit frustrated and nervous that we couldn’t pull it off. Yesterday we pre-prepared all of the props for the kids to color. It was fantastic! They actually listened, it was organized instead of mass chaos and we made all the props. Today we went back and started rehearsal. This isn’t going to be your average middle school play but it will be cute and the kids are having the time of their lives. Through the play, I am learning that things don’t have to be perfect. It’s okay if things don’t always go as planned. Sometimes, it’s the things that don’t happen or things that happen unexpectedly that end up being some of the best!

There is another group of three weekers that leaves this weekend. It’s amazing how many people I have seen come and go at the homebase. I’m realizing that those who are here for three weeks have a completely different mentality and mindset apart from those staying twelve. Those of us who are staying twelve are actually living here. I am still noticing things about the culture and people on a daily basis. Instead of trying to inflict my way of life on people here in Ghana I am trying to see things about their culture and understand why they are still that way. It has completely broadened my view on life. For example, the first time I went to the market, I saw kids running around everywhere or sitting at the shops with their mothers. I thought it was a bit unnecessary having all the kids running around the market when they should be home. Now, however, I understand that mothers have no choice but to bring their kids wherever they go. There are no such things as daycares or babysitters here. Mothers are trying to make a living for their family and they have to do it anyway they can and just bring along their children. There is a lady on the street every night who makes the best egg sandwhiches in the world. Sometimes later at night – around 10 or so we will walk down to get a sandwhich. We have to sit there and watch her make it. Sometimes her kids will be up and they will come sit on our laps and we will play with them, and other times they will be sleeping on the ground right next to her stand. I walk away knowing that those kids are literally sleeping on the street every night – but the mother is trying to make a living and that is how she is choosing to do that and she has to bring her children along. It’s such a hard thing to swallow and something that I am still trying to wrap my brain around.

I hope everything is smiling and healthy back at home!

Remember to email me any questions you have about the culture or children!

Lots of love from Africa,
Steph