My Classroom :)
My little Abrah :)
Monday, September 27, 2010
I spy with my little eye something green...
Last week I started at a new placement on Thursday afternoons at a place called EPTRA. It is a micro-financing company and goes from house to house or store to store and collects money. In return they give it back to them at the end of the month. The mission is to teach people how to save money. Most of the homes and stores are in the Zongo which is the Muslim community. I saw so many different things while traveling since I was actually stepping into the homes and store it was hard to take it all in for the first time. The woman that I work with Vida, is so funny and has such a wonderful personality to work with. She was forcing me to speak Ewe to the clients and it was a great learning experience. I will be doing that every Thursday afternoon and it will be a nice change of pace from working with the kiddos.
This weekend was quite an adventure as we were really unsure of what to expect. We spent the night in Accra which is the capital of Ghana. Accra does not impress me at all. Around Accra big businesses have attempted to come in and “Westernize” Ghana. However, they might put in a big billboard or set up a store but behind the store is a whole community of huts and just filth. Like any city, there is a lot of poverty, but it is a different kind of poverty that I see in the rural community that I live in. In most of the city, there was garbage everywhere and people just hanging out in a dirty mess. Although we may not have been in the “nice” part of the city it was still very disheartening to me that all of these companies, especially cellphone companies come and set up and force their business of people when there is so much more that can be done instead of trying to Westernize a culture that doesn’t really know or want to be Westernized.
On Saturday we traveled to a small island! We got dropped off at the tro-tro station, walked through a small village and then got on a small wooden boat to make our way to the island. The island was beautiful. It wasn’t truly an island but it was close enough. The whole boat ride I could see the small villages on the river and the sun was so bright reflecting off the water is was breathtaking. We arrived on the island and were shown to our huts. I literally mean huts. There were two beds with mosquito nets and that was it. The sand was floor and there was a straw roof. It was actually pretty amazing. The bathrooms were outside and it was truly living in a rural community. The island is set up so that on one side of the island the Volta River meets the Atlantic ocean and made a calm sea water area we were able to swim in. Then on the other side of the island was the Atlantic ocean and we were able to jump the roaring waves! I love the beauty of nature so much! We arrived around dinner time and just hung out, talked with other volunteers that we met there. While we were waiting for our food, we asked the cook if we were able to see turtles on the beach, since at this point we realized that we were in the opposite direction of the actual turtle reservation and about 3 hours away. She said that every once in a while a turtle would come ashore and usually late at night, around midnight.
So we just hung out at the beach and around midnight, of course I would be exact, I asked if anyone wanted to go turtle watching along the beach. Nobody really wanted to go so Piper and Krista amused me and came walking with me. The moon was full in the sky and there were no clouds and a million stars. It was a gorgeous night and I couldn’t help but just stare at the sky. We were walking along the beach, which was littered with tons and tons of garbage and about 50 feet away I saw something dark and the moon was reflecting off of it. We started walking towards it and every once in a while it would move a little and at that point we thought it was a plastic bag blowing in the wind. As we got closer, we realized it was actually a SEA TURTLE! She was coming up from the ocean. It was so sad to watch her walk through the garbage but amazing to watch her walking in the sand. I quickly ran back to get the others and we all just sat on the beach about four feet away from her and watched her lay her eggs. She was working so hard to dig the hole and lay the eggs that she had to stop and take a rest every now and then. It was one of the most magical things that I have ever witnessed in my life. It started to pour and we went back to the huts so we were unable to see her walk back to the ocean but when we went back at 2:30 she was already gone. back to the huts so we were unable to see her walk back to the ocean but when we went back at 2:30 she was already gone.
Today at school was a bit frustrating. I rode up in the van and saw that all the kids were in their straight line ready to march and do their pledge and say their school motto but there was only one teacher there. I now have 12 children in my class starting today which was great, however, Godwin, the one teacher that was there, made all of my children move their desks over to his canopy and he had me teach both classes while he blasted his music and sat and listened in the back of the classroom. I didn’t mind teaching both classes but the teacher was clearly trying to make a point that he was going to do nothing and just watch me. I had to think quick on my feet and change my lesson plan so that now I could teach 6-14 year olds. Just another exciting adventure! I love my kids and I am developing a deeper bond with them every day! I couldn’t wait to get back and see them today after the weekend! I adore them and they make me smile every day!
I hope you are all enjoying fall!
Lots of love from Africa!
Steph
This weekend was quite an adventure as we were really unsure of what to expect. We spent the night in Accra which is the capital of Ghana. Accra does not impress me at all. Around Accra big businesses have attempted to come in and “Westernize” Ghana. However, they might put in a big billboard or set up a store but behind the store is a whole community of huts and just filth. Like any city, there is a lot of poverty, but it is a different kind of poverty that I see in the rural community that I live in. In most of the city, there was garbage everywhere and people just hanging out in a dirty mess. Although we may not have been in the “nice” part of the city it was still very disheartening to me that all of these companies, especially cellphone companies come and set up and force their business of people when there is so much more that can be done instead of trying to Westernize a culture that doesn’t really know or want to be Westernized.
On Saturday we traveled to a small island! We got dropped off at the tro-tro station, walked through a small village and then got on a small wooden boat to make our way to the island. The island was beautiful. It wasn’t truly an island but it was close enough. The whole boat ride I could see the small villages on the river and the sun was so bright reflecting off the water is was breathtaking. We arrived on the island and were shown to our huts. I literally mean huts. There were two beds with mosquito nets and that was it. The sand was floor and there was a straw roof. It was actually pretty amazing. The bathrooms were outside and it was truly living in a rural community. The island is set up so that on one side of the island the Volta River meets the Atlantic ocean and made a calm sea water area we were able to swim in. Then on the other side of the island was the Atlantic ocean and we were able to jump the roaring waves! I love the beauty of nature so much! We arrived around dinner time and just hung out, talked with other volunteers that we met there. While we were waiting for our food, we asked the cook if we were able to see turtles on the beach, since at this point we realized that we were in the opposite direction of the actual turtle reservation and about 3 hours away. She said that every once in a while a turtle would come ashore and usually late at night, around midnight.
So we just hung out at the beach and around midnight, of course I would be exact, I asked if anyone wanted to go turtle watching along the beach. Nobody really wanted to go so Piper and Krista amused me and came walking with me. The moon was full in the sky and there were no clouds and a million stars. It was a gorgeous night and I couldn’t help but just stare at the sky. We were walking along the beach, which was littered with tons and tons of garbage and about 50 feet away I saw something dark and the moon was reflecting off of it. We started walking towards it and every once in a while it would move a little and at that point we thought it was a plastic bag blowing in the wind. As we got closer, we realized it was actually a SEA TURTLE! She was coming up from the ocean. It was so sad to watch her walk through the garbage but amazing to watch her walking in the sand. I quickly ran back to get the others and we all just sat on the beach about four feet away from her and watched her lay her eggs. She was working so hard to dig the hole and lay the eggs that she had to stop and take a rest every now and then. It was one of the most magical things that I have ever witnessed in my life. It started to pour and we went back to the huts so we were unable to see her walk back to the ocean but when we went back at 2:30 she was already gone. back to the huts so we were unable to see her walk back to the ocean but when we went back at 2:30 she was already gone.
Today at school was a bit frustrating. I rode up in the van and saw that all the kids were in their straight line ready to march and do their pledge and say their school motto but there was only one teacher there. I now have 12 children in my class starting today which was great, however, Godwin, the one teacher that was there, made all of my children move their desks over to his canopy and he had me teach both classes while he blasted his music and sat and listened in the back of the classroom. I didn’t mind teaching both classes but the teacher was clearly trying to make a point that he was going to do nothing and just watch me. I had to think quick on my feet and change my lesson plan so that now I could teach 6-14 year olds. Just another exciting adventure! I love my kids and I am developing a deeper bond with them every day! I couldn’t wait to get back and see them today after the weekend! I adore them and they make me smile every day!
I hope you are all enjoying fall!
Lots of love from Africa!
Steph
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Testing the waters...
Tuesday was a Public Holiday in Ghana. It is the second year that they have recognized this day and the country was informed that it was going to be a holiday again this year on Monday night. The day is Founder’s Day and is named after the first president of Ghana after he gained their independence. It is much like our President’s Day in America. So, since it was a public holiday all of the schools were closed. We traveled about fifteen minutes away to a rural community to teach them about personal hygiene. When we first arrived the kids were jumping up and down, singing and dancing. They were singing in Ewe, “Come to me Jesus.” Makafui our program director called the whole community to assemble and he told them in Ewe why we were there. We had them split into three groups and we broke ourselves into three groups and talked about: hand washing, clothes washing, nail cutting, bathing, and preventing the common cold. I was in the group that discussed bathing and clothes washing. While we were discussing the importance behind bathing and washing clothes, we constantly had to adjust our speech in order to be sensitive and realistic to their culture. They all had great questions about prevention and seemed very interested in what we had to say. At the end, we handed out toothbrushes and toothpaste and it was like a mob scene. Someone finally had to make them all get in lines. They did not speak any English and everything had to be translated into Ewe by one of our program directors. It really was an amazing day and I’m so glad that I was able to have that added experience. One of my favorite parts of the day was having a little girl just follow me, sit on my lap and hold my hand the entire day. It seems that everywhere we travel there are always children so willing to just be close to you. I was even a little sad to say goodbye to her after I had spent the entire time with her and knowing that I would never see her again.
School has definitely been a great improvement. I have bonding with the other male teachers and I think that they respect me enough now to not pass judgment on my teaching methods and they actually respect my efforts instead of thinking that I am here to take over and change everything about their school. I adore the kids and we are having a wonderful time together. One of my favorite moments from earlier this week was when we were focusing on writing simple complete sentences paying special attention to capital letters and “full stops.” One of the girl Charlotte wrote as one of here sentences “I like to learn.” It just made my day!
Today at placement I attempted what I thought would be the impossible. Now that I am into a routine and over the shock of the structure, resources and attitude towards school I am not 100% prepared to do what I came here to do and that was to teach children. I decided to start really building in some of my active learning and differentiated beliefs and I spent all of Wednesday night preparing for class today. It was my goal to have them participate in centers while I conducted a small guided reading lesson with the oldest student in the class. I knew that it could possibly be a complete flop or could be one of the greatest things that could happen to the classroom for the next twelve weeks making my life and theirs enjoyable! All of the centers were reinforcing skills that I had been teaching over the past two weeks: a rhyming cube game where they had to make words and put them in appropriate columns, ordering the days of the week and the months of the year and then putting sentences back together that I had cut up. Since there are no materials here, I spent Wednesday night creating paper cubes with word families and consonants on them, and papers that had the sentences and day/months that I cut up. Now here is where my personality is being completely tested because I love creating materials like that however, I would have loved to have been able to put them into zip lock bags or paper clip them together or something to have them organized instead of just thrown in the bottom of my backpack! It worked and was a complete success. The kids absolutely loved it, I was able to bounce around the room and work individually with some students. The teacher was even participating in the centers. It was a wonderful day!
Things continue to challenge me every day but in a wonderful way. One of my favorite things to do is just ride in the car and look out the windows at the small villages, mountains, or just jungle!
This weekend we are traveling to a small little island near an turtle conservation where we are hoping to see some sea turtles! If not, we at least will have spent the night on an island!
Hope all is well at home, I think of you every day!
Lots of love from Africa,
Steph
School has definitely been a great improvement. I have bonding with the other male teachers and I think that they respect me enough now to not pass judgment on my teaching methods and they actually respect my efforts instead of thinking that I am here to take over and change everything about their school. I adore the kids and we are having a wonderful time together. One of my favorite moments from earlier this week was when we were focusing on writing simple complete sentences paying special attention to capital letters and “full stops.” One of the girl Charlotte wrote as one of here sentences “I like to learn.” It just made my day!
Today at placement I attempted what I thought would be the impossible. Now that I am into a routine and over the shock of the structure, resources and attitude towards school I am not 100% prepared to do what I came here to do and that was to teach children. I decided to start really building in some of my active learning and differentiated beliefs and I spent all of Wednesday night preparing for class today. It was my goal to have them participate in centers while I conducted a small guided reading lesson with the oldest student in the class. I knew that it could possibly be a complete flop or could be one of the greatest things that could happen to the classroom for the next twelve weeks making my life and theirs enjoyable! All of the centers were reinforcing skills that I had been teaching over the past two weeks: a rhyming cube game where they had to make words and put them in appropriate columns, ordering the days of the week and the months of the year and then putting sentences back together that I had cut up. Since there are no materials here, I spent Wednesday night creating paper cubes with word families and consonants on them, and papers that had the sentences and day/months that I cut up. Now here is where my personality is being completely tested because I love creating materials like that however, I would have loved to have been able to put them into zip lock bags or paper clip them together or something to have them organized instead of just thrown in the bottom of my backpack! It worked and was a complete success. The kids absolutely loved it, I was able to bounce around the room and work individually with some students. The teacher was even participating in the centers. It was a wonderful day!
Things continue to challenge me every day but in a wonderful way. One of my favorite things to do is just ride in the car and look out the windows at the small villages, mountains, or just jungle!
This weekend we are traveling to a small little island near an turtle conservation where we are hoping to see some sea turtles! If not, we at least will have spent the night on an island!
Hope all is well at home, I think of you every day!
Lots of love from Africa,
Steph
Monday, September 20, 2010
Happy Monday :)
Happy Monday!
On Friday at placement we have P.E. So the teacher teaches one math lesson for a half an hour and then we go to the park to play until 1:00. I sat back and just observed the lesson that he was teaching. Their approach to teaching is completely different from anything that I have ever been taught and sometimes it can be very frustrating to watch. He gave two examples of a math problem that really only the two eleven year olds should be learning then called each student up one by one to do a problem on the board. When someone didn’t get it correct he essentially would laugh at them and tell them to go sit back down. He expects that the 6 year olds and the 11 year olds will learn the same material and I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. Once the “lesson” was over he had them all take out a piece of paper if they had one, if they didn’t have paper then they just sat there. Then he wrote three problems on the board for them to answer. Before he allowed them to get to work he said aloud “one mistake” and they responded “two canes.” Meaning if they got one problem wrong then they would get caned twice. It makes me so sad that school and learning is treated as such a punishment. After the lesson we all went to the park and participated in P.E. I was playing football with most of the kids in my class and they were just loving life and we were all laughing together and having a wonderful time. Then the three male teachers called me over to join their game of football. I thought that they were getting a big game going with all of the older kids. Instead it was a small game of the four of us and the four oldest kids in the school. They didn’t even care about any of the other kids and what they were doing. It was hard for me to truly enjoy playing with them when I knew that really it was just playtime for them. Something that I have learned is that crying is not accepted here in Ghana. When one of the students fell down during football (soccer) the teachers would mock him and say “I’m sorry for you, now get up and be a strong player” or in the pre-school class at school if a kid starts to cry the teacher will start singing a song about the kid being a pussycat and then all the students will start to meow at them. There is no sympathy whatsoever and that has been difficult for me to sit back and watch and really not able to do anything about.
On Saturday Cat, Piper, Krista and I traveled about 45 minutes to a waterfall. We had to visit with the chief of the village and talked to him and ask permission to hike up the sacred waterfall. Now I was expecting a full on chief in a headdress, well once we were seated down on a bench out steps the chief in jeans and a t-shirt. It may have been a bit of a scam but oh so worth it. A guide took us to the base of the first waterfall and it was like a small rapid. We were able to swim in the waterfall and we attempted to swim across the falls to a rock on the other side. Needless to say we didn’t make it more than five feet away from the shore because the current was so strong and pulling us backwards. As soon as we were done swimming a huge rainstorm came through. The tour guide went into the forest, chopped down a small tree, pulled the humongous leaves off the tree that were about as tall as me and we used them as umbrellas, it was the coolest thing ever! Then we were able to continue hiking up to the top of the waterfall and see where it begins. At the top of the waterfall there was a huge wooden cross, and I could see the mountains in the distance, it was beautiful! Then on Sunday we went to church. Church here is at least three hours long. It really amazes me how much passion people in Ghana have about their faith. They were just singing, dancing, listening and praising the Lord for the entire three hours – they are incredible and so inspiring!
Today at placement was wonderful. It definitely gave me some hope compared to last week! The teacher that usually sits in the back of the room and watches me teach was not there today. It was nice to just be able to do what I want instead of worrying that I am not doing enough rigorous work with them. I realized that I need to do some “assessment” type things just to see what they actually know and what they don’t. They encourage spelling words here so I am going to start making their own spelling words to test and take them from words that they actually need to learn how to spell. I am going to attempt to find something to make them each a folder out of so that I can keep all their work in to see the progress that they have been making. I am going to start back and the basics since all of my kids do not know the sounds of the letters still. Since they are taught to memorize everything when I encourage them to sound out a word they have absolutely no idea what I am talking about. I am going to work on this one! I introduced them to “I see” today, basically “I Spy” but you can play it so many different ways. Today we played “I see something that begins with the letter…” and “I see something that rhymes with run…” The highlight of my day was when Roland actually guessed the correct word that rhymed with run…sun! We have been working on CVC rhymes for the past week and they are slowly starting to understand! It was a shining moment! It really is going to be all about the baby steps and now that I have some confidence in myself I think that things will only start to look up!
I thought I would quickly give a rundown of a typical day:
6:00 – wake up (usually run/get ready)
7:00 – Breakfast (Egg of some sort, pineapple and a piece of bread)
7:15 – Reading and talking on the porch
8:15 – Leave for school
8:30-12:00 - At school
12:15 – Lunch (rice, chicken, pineapple)
12:30 – 4:00/5:00 Afternoon activities
Monday – Errands and market
Tuesday – Rehabilitation clinic
Wednesday – House of Hope Orphanage
Thursday – EPTRA (saving and loans place)
Friday – Weekend traveling
6:00 – Dinner
6:30 – Pitch black here in Ghana and Cat, Piper, Krista and I walk the loop in town
9:00 – In bed!
I have added some new placements and activities in the afternoons now that our cultural learning activities are over with. This is my first week starting at those placements and I will talking about each of them in other entries!
I hope that all continues to be well at home! The new additions to the homebase have been nice. I sure do miss the peace and quiet though, with 21 people that doesn’t really happen that often around here.
Tonight – look at the moon and know that I am looking at the same one, smiling and thinking of you!
Lots of love from Africa,
Steph
On Friday at placement we have P.E. So the teacher teaches one math lesson for a half an hour and then we go to the park to play until 1:00. I sat back and just observed the lesson that he was teaching. Their approach to teaching is completely different from anything that I have ever been taught and sometimes it can be very frustrating to watch. He gave two examples of a math problem that really only the two eleven year olds should be learning then called each student up one by one to do a problem on the board. When someone didn’t get it correct he essentially would laugh at them and tell them to go sit back down. He expects that the 6 year olds and the 11 year olds will learn the same material and I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. Once the “lesson” was over he had them all take out a piece of paper if they had one, if they didn’t have paper then they just sat there. Then he wrote three problems on the board for them to answer. Before he allowed them to get to work he said aloud “one mistake” and they responded “two canes.” Meaning if they got one problem wrong then they would get caned twice. It makes me so sad that school and learning is treated as such a punishment. After the lesson we all went to the park and participated in P.E. I was playing football with most of the kids in my class and they were just loving life and we were all laughing together and having a wonderful time. Then the three male teachers called me over to join their game of football. I thought that they were getting a big game going with all of the older kids. Instead it was a small game of the four of us and the four oldest kids in the school. They didn’t even care about any of the other kids and what they were doing. It was hard for me to truly enjoy playing with them when I knew that really it was just playtime for them. Something that I have learned is that crying is not accepted here in Ghana. When one of the students fell down during football (soccer) the teachers would mock him and say “I’m sorry for you, now get up and be a strong player” or in the pre-school class at school if a kid starts to cry the teacher will start singing a song about the kid being a pussycat and then all the students will start to meow at them. There is no sympathy whatsoever and that has been difficult for me to sit back and watch and really not able to do anything about.
On Saturday Cat, Piper, Krista and I traveled about 45 minutes to a waterfall. We had to visit with the chief of the village and talked to him and ask permission to hike up the sacred waterfall. Now I was expecting a full on chief in a headdress, well once we were seated down on a bench out steps the chief in jeans and a t-shirt. It may have been a bit of a scam but oh so worth it. A guide took us to the base of the first waterfall and it was like a small rapid. We were able to swim in the waterfall and we attempted to swim across the falls to a rock on the other side. Needless to say we didn’t make it more than five feet away from the shore because the current was so strong and pulling us backwards. As soon as we were done swimming a huge rainstorm came through. The tour guide went into the forest, chopped down a small tree, pulled the humongous leaves off the tree that were about as tall as me and we used them as umbrellas, it was the coolest thing ever! Then we were able to continue hiking up to the top of the waterfall and see where it begins. At the top of the waterfall there was a huge wooden cross, and I could see the mountains in the distance, it was beautiful! Then on Sunday we went to church. Church here is at least three hours long. It really amazes me how much passion people in Ghana have about their faith. They were just singing, dancing, listening and praising the Lord for the entire three hours – they are incredible and so inspiring!
Today at placement was wonderful. It definitely gave me some hope compared to last week! The teacher that usually sits in the back of the room and watches me teach was not there today. It was nice to just be able to do what I want instead of worrying that I am not doing enough rigorous work with them. I realized that I need to do some “assessment” type things just to see what they actually know and what they don’t. They encourage spelling words here so I am going to start making their own spelling words to test and take them from words that they actually need to learn how to spell. I am going to attempt to find something to make them each a folder out of so that I can keep all their work in to see the progress that they have been making. I am going to start back and the basics since all of my kids do not know the sounds of the letters still. Since they are taught to memorize everything when I encourage them to sound out a word they have absolutely no idea what I am talking about. I am going to work on this one! I introduced them to “I see” today, basically “I Spy” but you can play it so many different ways. Today we played “I see something that begins with the letter…” and “I see something that rhymes with run…” The highlight of my day was when Roland actually guessed the correct word that rhymed with run…sun! We have been working on CVC rhymes for the past week and they are slowly starting to understand! It was a shining moment! It really is going to be all about the baby steps and now that I have some confidence in myself I think that things will only start to look up!
I thought I would quickly give a rundown of a typical day:
6:00 – wake up (usually run/get ready)
7:00 – Breakfast (Egg of some sort, pineapple and a piece of bread)
7:15 – Reading and talking on the porch
8:15 – Leave for school
8:30-12:00 - At school
12:15 – Lunch (rice, chicken, pineapple)
12:30 – 4:00/5:00 Afternoon activities
Monday – Errands and market
Tuesday – Rehabilitation clinic
Wednesday – House of Hope Orphanage
Thursday – EPTRA (saving and loans place)
Friday – Weekend traveling
6:00 – Dinner
6:30 – Pitch black here in Ghana and Cat, Piper, Krista and I walk the loop in town
9:00 – In bed!
I have added some new placements and activities in the afternoons now that our cultural learning activities are over with. This is my first week starting at those placements and I will talking about each of them in other entries!
I hope that all continues to be well at home! The new additions to the homebase have been nice. I sure do miss the peace and quiet though, with 21 people that doesn’t really happen that often around here.
Tonight – look at the moon and know that I am looking at the same one, smiling and thinking of you!
Lots of love from Africa,
Steph
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Monkeys and Bananas
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
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
Monday, September 13, 2010
Happy First Day of School in Ghana!!!
Yeah school has finally started here in Ghana! Before I talk about that let me give just a brief recap of my fantastic weekend exploring Cape Coast!
We had our first full weekend of experiencing tro-tros and it most certainly was an interesting one. It was about an 8 hour journey to Cape Coast via tro-tros and taxis. We traveled to Accra on one tro-tro, got dropped off in the middle of the highway. Had to take a taxi to the next station, go on a tro-tro to Cape Coast. One of the reasons that I love Ghana so much is for the friendly people that live here. I’m not saying that there are people smiling and waving everywhere we go but there are people who are genuinely such caring and nice people here in Ghana. We asked the driver if he could take us right to our hotel since it was already dark out and we didn’t know exactly where it was. There was a woman sitting next to Dunkin and I in our row of seats on the tro-tro and once she heard the name of our hotel she told the driver that we had already passed it. The driver pulled over right away and told us to get out. The woman sitting next to us also got out and started fending off the taxi drivers there were bombarding us. Everywhere we go taxi drivers literally get in fights, sometimes physical fights over taking us places because we have the money. The woman yelled at the drivers and put us all in taxis and wished us a nice weekend. It never ceases to amaze me how caring some people in Ghana are.
We traveled to Kukum National Park on Saturday to do a canopy walk. It was a nice, simple hike up to the canopy platforms. The guide explained to us that there are only 5 canopy walks in the world and this was obviously one of them. It consisted of 7 bridges 320 meters above the forest floor. In between each bridge there were small platforms to wait on until it was okay to go across the next bridge. The bridges were quite shaky and were swinging a bit as I was traveling across some of them. Even though I am not scared of heights I was a bit nervous as I was crossing the first few bridges. Once I got the hang of it I was able to enjoy the beautiful scenery around me. I was only a little bit away from the top of the tree line and it was amazing to see the clouds and sun close.
After the canopy walk, we traveled to Cape Coast castle. This was a castle that participated in the transatlantic trade route or “triangle trade.” I went into a museum first that talk about the history of slave trade and showed maps of where the trade routes went to. It showed a picture of the boats and how the slaves were transported across the ocean. Then we went on a tour of the castle. We went inside the male and female dungeons. Each of the dungeons were about the size of a standard living room. In each room 200 males or 400 females had to stay, I’m not even going to say live in there because there was no way it was actually suitable for any sort of living. They had to stay in there for up to three months since that is how long it took to make the journey across the ocean and back to the Americas. The rooms were dark and only had one small window that created a small amount of light and air. They were passed food through a hole in the wall and there were small ditches that usually got back up for “liquids” to drain out of. By the female dungeons there was a huge door that led to the harbor where the slaves would be packed into boats. On the top of the door you could see the scratch marks of the slaves who tried to get out. Then above the door it says, “The door of no return.” A few years back, they had ancestors of the slaves pass through the door of no return and then they had them pass back through. So now on the outside of the door that faces the harbor there is a sign that say “The door of return” to symbolize the end of slavery. It was one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had and is something that just sends chills up my spine even as I am writing this.
Today was the first official day of school, and it truly was the first day of school!!! When we got there, the teacher that I mentioned earlier was there and asked Clay and I what ages we would like to work with. Not all of the children were not there today because as the teacher put it, many of them did not know that school resumed. So there was the oldest class and then there was the pre-school/kindergarten class. The teachers just put the kids in a group and sent them over to us. Now I may have taken the easy way out, but I chose to take the older kids and leave Clay with the younger kids. Today there were only 12 kids in my class and Clay had 25 kids. So I will be teaching P4, P5 & P6 all in the same class – talk about some serious need to differentiate! Today since there were not enough kids to have the P2 & P3 class, I had them in my class as well. The classroom is located under a straw roof, has a small blackboard on a stand and wooden desks for some of the kids. Some of them shared desks.
I started by having them make a name tag so I could see and know their name. Then I had them introduce themselves and say their favorite color. I showed them my pictures from home and then had them draw me a picture to teach me something about Ghana. They looked at me like they had no clue what I was talking about so we brainstormed some things that they could draw. Most of the either drew the Ghana flag, different types of fruit that are here in Ghana or a plane or car. It’s so interesting to me that kids here in Ghana have no creativity when it comes to drawing. I had them complete a small writing activity answering some questions about themselves to see where they are in their writing. Since I have such a wide age/ability range I tried to differentiate as much as possible. They are allowed a 15 minute “play” break and then it was back to work. We finished the writing activity and talked about it. Then I read them a couple of stories and it was time to go already. The day flew by like nothing!
It will most certainly be a challenge for me as I teach three grade levels and they figured twice as many kids once they all are actually there. I was talking with the teacher and he said there is no set curriculum, textbooks or any materials to actually work with so I am just creating things on my own. They do have some books, but the children don’t use them, I am allowed to use them to create some lessons. The teacher told me that I am allowed to do whatever I want and he will just teach the subjects that I don’t. I think that I am going to teach English and Science since they have a pretty big emphasis on science here. I will leave math for him to teach since we all know it’s my favorite subject haha not! So here’s to lesson planning, lots of creative and differentiating!
Today Cat, Krista, Piper and I (my three roommates who have been my saving Grace in the homebase) finished painting at a Christian orphanage “House of Hope.” We painted a boy and a girl to indicate the bathrooms and wrote the bible verse “Lord wash not only my feet but also my hands and my head” in the middle of the bathrooms. It was so much fun to paint and I hope that there are most projects like that to do in the future.
I hope that all is well at home and that you had a wonderful weekend! Think of you often!
Lots of love from Africa,
Steph
We had our first full weekend of experiencing tro-tros and it most certainly was an interesting one. It was about an 8 hour journey to Cape Coast via tro-tros and taxis. We traveled to Accra on one tro-tro, got dropped off in the middle of the highway. Had to take a taxi to the next station, go on a tro-tro to Cape Coast. One of the reasons that I love Ghana so much is for the friendly people that live here. I’m not saying that there are people smiling and waving everywhere we go but there are people who are genuinely such caring and nice people here in Ghana. We asked the driver if he could take us right to our hotel since it was already dark out and we didn’t know exactly where it was. There was a woman sitting next to Dunkin and I in our row of seats on the tro-tro and once she heard the name of our hotel she told the driver that we had already passed it. The driver pulled over right away and told us to get out. The woman sitting next to us also got out and started fending off the taxi drivers there were bombarding us. Everywhere we go taxi drivers literally get in fights, sometimes physical fights over taking us places because we have the money. The woman yelled at the drivers and put us all in taxis and wished us a nice weekend. It never ceases to amaze me how caring some people in Ghana are.
We traveled to Kukum National Park on Saturday to do a canopy walk. It was a nice, simple hike up to the canopy platforms. The guide explained to us that there are only 5 canopy walks in the world and this was obviously one of them. It consisted of 7 bridges 320 meters above the forest floor. In between each bridge there were small platforms to wait on until it was okay to go across the next bridge. The bridges were quite shaky and were swinging a bit as I was traveling across some of them. Even though I am not scared of heights I was a bit nervous as I was crossing the first few bridges. Once I got the hang of it I was able to enjoy the beautiful scenery around me. I was only a little bit away from the top of the tree line and it was amazing to see the clouds and sun close.
After the canopy walk, we traveled to Cape Coast castle. This was a castle that participated in the transatlantic trade route or “triangle trade.” I went into a museum first that talk about the history of slave trade and showed maps of where the trade routes went to. It showed a picture of the boats and how the slaves were transported across the ocean. Then we went on a tour of the castle. We went inside the male and female dungeons. Each of the dungeons were about the size of a standard living room. In each room 200 males or 400 females had to stay, I’m not even going to say live in there because there was no way it was actually suitable for any sort of living. They had to stay in there for up to three months since that is how long it took to make the journey across the ocean and back to the Americas. The rooms were dark and only had one small window that created a small amount of light and air. They were passed food through a hole in the wall and there were small ditches that usually got back up for “liquids” to drain out of. By the female dungeons there was a huge door that led to the harbor where the slaves would be packed into boats. On the top of the door you could see the scratch marks of the slaves who tried to get out. Then above the door it says, “The door of no return.” A few years back, they had ancestors of the slaves pass through the door of no return and then they had them pass back through. So now on the outside of the door that faces the harbor there is a sign that say “The door of return” to symbolize the end of slavery. It was one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had and is something that just sends chills up my spine even as I am writing this.
Today was the first official day of school, and it truly was the first day of school!!! When we got there, the teacher that I mentioned earlier was there and asked Clay and I what ages we would like to work with. Not all of the children were not there today because as the teacher put it, many of them did not know that school resumed. So there was the oldest class and then there was the pre-school/kindergarten class. The teachers just put the kids in a group and sent them over to us. Now I may have taken the easy way out, but I chose to take the older kids and leave Clay with the younger kids. Today there were only 12 kids in my class and Clay had 25 kids. So I will be teaching P4, P5 & P6 all in the same class – talk about some serious need to differentiate! Today since there were not enough kids to have the P2 & P3 class, I had them in my class as well. The classroom is located under a straw roof, has a small blackboard on a stand and wooden desks for some of the kids. Some of them shared desks.
I started by having them make a name tag so I could see and know their name. Then I had them introduce themselves and say their favorite color. I showed them my pictures from home and then had them draw me a picture to teach me something about Ghana. They looked at me like they had no clue what I was talking about so we brainstormed some things that they could draw. Most of the either drew the Ghana flag, different types of fruit that are here in Ghana or a plane or car. It’s so interesting to me that kids here in Ghana have no creativity when it comes to drawing. I had them complete a small writing activity answering some questions about themselves to see where they are in their writing. Since I have such a wide age/ability range I tried to differentiate as much as possible. They are allowed a 15 minute “play” break and then it was back to work. We finished the writing activity and talked about it. Then I read them a couple of stories and it was time to go already. The day flew by like nothing!
It will most certainly be a challenge for me as I teach three grade levels and they figured twice as many kids once they all are actually there. I was talking with the teacher and he said there is no set curriculum, textbooks or any materials to actually work with so I am just creating things on my own. They do have some books, but the children don’t use them, I am allowed to use them to create some lessons. The teacher told me that I am allowed to do whatever I want and he will just teach the subjects that I don’t. I think that I am going to teach English and Science since they have a pretty big emphasis on science here. I will leave math for him to teach since we all know it’s my favorite subject haha not! So here’s to lesson planning, lots of creative and differentiating!
Today Cat, Krista, Piper and I (my three roommates who have been my saving Grace in the homebase) finished painting at a Christian orphanage “House of Hope.” We painted a boy and a girl to indicate the bathrooms and wrote the bible verse “Lord wash not only my feet but also my hands and my head” in the middle of the bathrooms. It was so much fun to paint and I hope that there are most projects like that to do in the future.
I hope that all is well at home and that you had a wonderful weekend! Think of you often!
Lots of love from Africa,
Steph
Friday, September 10, 2010
Rolling With The Changes
On Tuesday instead of going to placement we hiked the tallest mountain in Ghana. Now this wasn’t your simple hike, instead it was literally a straight up the side of the mountain hike which seemed like at times I should have had a rope attached to me. It was quite intense but the view at the top was so worth it. When I first reached the top, we were in the middle of a cloud and couldn’t really see anything but the other mountains surrounding me. Then one of the clouds slowly started to move away and I saw the small village below. It was such an amazing view looking down on the village that we had passed by to get to the base of the mountain. I am constantly amazing at what simple but content lives the people in Ghana live. I learn something new about their culture every day.
I was supposed to start at the school on Wednesday so Dela, our driver, dropped us off at the school instead of the orphanage. When we pulled up I saw three small canopies that were made of sticks and then a straw roof and one classroom that actually had four walls. Then there were also men there lying bricks which looks like they are expanding the school building. There were no children there except a young boy named Jonathan and a 19 year old who said that he was the teacher for P5 and P6 (equivalent to our 5th and 6th grade). The 19 year old, whose name I really should know, told me that since there were not enough kids today, that they would not be having school. So we walked back to the orphanage where Lisbeth pulled over three small benches and made all the kids come and sit down in the small classroom at the orphanage. I was a little overwhelmed at the fact that school did not start and confused at what she wanted me to do with the 1-10 year olds in the same room. She left after she yelled at them to all sit and be quiet and I continued doing what we had been doing the previous days. We sang songs, I had them sit in a circle and we passed the ball around saying the ABCs in order, counted as high as they could go, colored, read stories, practiced our colors and then I took them to the park to play.
The hygiene of the kids at the orphanage is pretty much non-existent. They will literally go to the bathroom wherever they feel like it, even sometimes in the classroom. They always have their fingers in their mouths, picking things up off the floor like garbage and eating it or sucking on plastic bags. I even had to take a razor blade from a kid as he almost put it in his mouth. I started having the kids wash their hands after lunch which means getting a big bowl of water, a bar of soap and all of the kids running at the bowl and playing in the water. I decided that I would try to have them actually form a line and have some sort of structure with the hand washing activity. Well, it was to say the least a disaster the first day I tried it. They kids all charged the water bowl and it was a complete mess. However, today, while we were coming back from the park, I made them get in some sort of a line, which really was just a group, but was better than them running off and I had them marching and tiptoeing to a count of 10 and then switching and that worked very well. Then before I even got the water bowls ready, I had them line up a ways away from the water bowl and they actually all stood in a line and waited patiently for their turn to wash their hands. I was so happy that they were actually quiet and standing in a line…small baby steps here!
Thursday I was talking to Lisbeth and the teacher and he said that I could choose which grade I would like to teacher. There are about 70 kids who will be at the school starting on Monday. There are only three classes at the school P1/P2 & 3/P5 & 6. I expressed interest in teaching P2 and P3 but am not getting my hopes up until Monday rolls around and that actually happens. I have been greatly challenged in not being able to have control over most things happening here in Ghana. Although I don’t think I will ever be able to give up my need to make lists and organize things, I am slowly starting to get over the need to have control over every aspect of my life. Instead of being worked up that school didn’t start this week, I just had to laugh and say T.I.A. (this is Africa) and remind myself to be patient. I know that I am at this placement for a reason, that reason? Well I’m not sure yet, but I am sure that with time I will soon discover that reason! So for now, I am going to enjoy my last day at the orphanage tomorrow with the little ones and hope that my little Abrah is there tomorrow since she has not been for the past two days.
On Tuesday we had a guest speaker on the Traditional African religion which is celebrated for the most part across the continent with just a few minor changes in each country. Only 21% of people in Ghana practice Traditional African religion. There is a very small Muslim population and the majority of the people in Ghana are practicing Christians. There are so many interesting facts about how they celebrate their religion that I won’t be able to get into but will have a whole presentation about it when I get back. The first fun fact that I’ll share is, once a baby is born, the baby does not see daylight for the first seven days. Once seven days has passed, they take the baby outside, ask the gods if the baby is normal and then they have a naming ceremony. This is only for those families who practice traditional religion here in Ghana. They also have a very interesting way of naming their children that I’ll share later!
The rainy season is starting to come to an end and the weather is getting hot. The sun constantly beats down and is very intense. Sunscreen has become my lotion of choice as well as bug spray!
This weekend we are traveling to Cape Coast and visiting an old slave castle and doing a canopy walk across the jungle! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
I hope the start of school or continuation of work is going well for everyone back at home! I think of you often! I’ll write again after school has started up here!
Lots of love from Africa,
Steph
P.S. I have been trying to post pictures but it hasn’t really been working all that well. I’ll keep trying though!
I was supposed to start at the school on Wednesday so Dela, our driver, dropped us off at the school instead of the orphanage. When we pulled up I saw three small canopies that were made of sticks and then a straw roof and one classroom that actually had four walls. Then there were also men there lying bricks which looks like they are expanding the school building. There were no children there except a young boy named Jonathan and a 19 year old who said that he was the teacher for P5 and P6 (equivalent to our 5th and 6th grade). The 19 year old, whose name I really should know, told me that since there were not enough kids today, that they would not be having school. So we walked back to the orphanage where Lisbeth pulled over three small benches and made all the kids come and sit down in the small classroom at the orphanage. I was a little overwhelmed at the fact that school did not start and confused at what she wanted me to do with the 1-10 year olds in the same room. She left after she yelled at them to all sit and be quiet and I continued doing what we had been doing the previous days. We sang songs, I had them sit in a circle and we passed the ball around saying the ABCs in order, counted as high as they could go, colored, read stories, practiced our colors and then I took them to the park to play.
The hygiene of the kids at the orphanage is pretty much non-existent. They will literally go to the bathroom wherever they feel like it, even sometimes in the classroom. They always have their fingers in their mouths, picking things up off the floor like garbage and eating it or sucking on plastic bags. I even had to take a razor blade from a kid as he almost put it in his mouth. I started having the kids wash their hands after lunch which means getting a big bowl of water, a bar of soap and all of the kids running at the bowl and playing in the water. I decided that I would try to have them actually form a line and have some sort of structure with the hand washing activity. Well, it was to say the least a disaster the first day I tried it. They kids all charged the water bowl and it was a complete mess. However, today, while we were coming back from the park, I made them get in some sort of a line, which really was just a group, but was better than them running off and I had them marching and tiptoeing to a count of 10 and then switching and that worked very well. Then before I even got the water bowls ready, I had them line up a ways away from the water bowl and they actually all stood in a line and waited patiently for their turn to wash their hands. I was so happy that they were actually quiet and standing in a line…small baby steps here!
Thursday I was talking to Lisbeth and the teacher and he said that I could choose which grade I would like to teacher. There are about 70 kids who will be at the school starting on Monday. There are only three classes at the school P1/P2 & 3/P5 & 6. I expressed interest in teaching P2 and P3 but am not getting my hopes up until Monday rolls around and that actually happens. I have been greatly challenged in not being able to have control over most things happening here in Ghana. Although I don’t think I will ever be able to give up my need to make lists and organize things, I am slowly starting to get over the need to have control over every aspect of my life. Instead of being worked up that school didn’t start this week, I just had to laugh and say T.I.A. (this is Africa) and remind myself to be patient. I know that I am at this placement for a reason, that reason? Well I’m not sure yet, but I am sure that with time I will soon discover that reason! So for now, I am going to enjoy my last day at the orphanage tomorrow with the little ones and hope that my little Abrah is there tomorrow since she has not been for the past two days.
On Tuesday we had a guest speaker on the Traditional African religion which is celebrated for the most part across the continent with just a few minor changes in each country. Only 21% of people in Ghana practice Traditional African religion. There is a very small Muslim population and the majority of the people in Ghana are practicing Christians. There are so many interesting facts about how they celebrate their religion that I won’t be able to get into but will have a whole presentation about it when I get back. The first fun fact that I’ll share is, once a baby is born, the baby does not see daylight for the first seven days. Once seven days has passed, they take the baby outside, ask the gods if the baby is normal and then they have a naming ceremony. This is only for those families who practice traditional religion here in Ghana. They also have a very interesting way of naming their children that I’ll share later!
The rainy season is starting to come to an end and the weather is getting hot. The sun constantly beats down and is very intense. Sunscreen has become my lotion of choice as well as bug spray!
This weekend we are traveling to Cape Coast and visiting an old slave castle and doing a canopy walk across the jungle! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
I hope the start of school or continuation of work is going well for everyone back at home! I think of you often! I’ll write again after school has started up here!
Lots of love from Africa,
Steph
P.S. I have been trying to post pictures but it hasn’t really been working all that well. I’ll keep trying though!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Sleeping Babies!!
The weekend was quite eventful and interesting for the first weekend trip! It most certainly has been a challenge traveling in a group of nine. I along with the help of Kat and Krista planned the entire weekend. After only 7 days of being here the rest of the group now calls me mom. So much for working on not being the planner of everything! It’s just in my nature I suppose and I was in my glory as I was leading a group of us through an unknown territory. However, I am fearful that I have just set myself up to now plan every weekend trip from here on out.
This weekend we all traveled to Lake Volta which is the largest manmade lake in Africa. We hired a van to take us there and it was only about a two hour drive. Once we pulled up to the hotel and it wasn’t a complete dump I felt proud that we actually pulled this off! The mountains around the lake were beautiful and seeing the sun behind them was quite the sight! This weekend I got to experience my first tro-tro ride! Tro-tros are literally a three seat van. There is a driver and a door man. The tro-tros yell the destination they are traveling to and then you put out your hand for them to stop. If you start at a tro-tro station then once the tro-tro is full then they will leave. It is a very cheap way to travel and not hard once you figure out the process of it all.
On Saturday we went to the Agomanya Market, which is the largest market I have ever seen. They had so many gorgeous beads and fabric there. They also had people selling all of their vegetables and fruit like our farmer markets back home. After the market we walked 30 minutes in the blazing hot sun to the Cedi Bead Factory. The bead factory is nothing like an actual factory that we would think of in the US. It was literally a family business in their home. The man showed us each of the steps taken to making beads. It’s amazing to me how much time goes into make each bead and then how cheap they sell their jewelry for. We learned how many different types of beads they use and what each bead is made from. In a week or so I will be posting the process on my other blog! The man actually has traveled to Rochester for a conference at the city center.
We went on a boat tour around the lake as well. It was so beautiful out on the lake even though the sun was not out. It was so interesting to see the contrast in lives that live on the lake. All along the river there were villages of huts that truly lived their life based off the river. The families were bathing, washing their clothes, getting water to cook or just cooling off in the river. Then on the same river, right next to some of the hut communities, are resort hotels or summer lake houses of wealthy people who live in Accra. I loved watching the families on the river, as they were getting what they needed from the water. They all live such a simple life but couldn’t be anything more than happy. They were constantly waving and smiling at us as we were passing by.
I am falling more and more in love with the kids every day that I go to Happy Kids! On Friday, Abrah, who was the little girl that is in the picture with me on my blog, she fell asleep in my arms again. As soon as I arrive, she runs over and puts her hands up for me to pick her up. It’s hard not to just hold her the whole entire time that I’m there. However, I know that the love needs to be shared with all the other children! Today there were not as many kids at the orphanage. How it was explained to me during orientation is that some orphanages are treated more like daycares. Only a certain number of kids actually live at the orphanage and then the rest of the kids get dropped off in the morning. Here in Ghana, being an orphanage doesn’t necessarily mean that they have no parents. Some parents choose to put their children in an orphanage. So many kids still have their mother or father around, but have been put there to take care of. Then there are what they call economic orphans and they basically turn their kids over to the orphanage because they cannot financially support their child. They are allowed to visit their children once a year. It is amazing to me how many children are in the surrounding orphanages.
I found out today that school actually starts tomorrow instead of next week. Today I tried to review colors, the alphabet and numbers 1-5 with the kids. Many of them, who are 5-7 years of age, cannot recognize any of the letters. They can sing the ABCs but they cannot pick out what the letter actually looks like. I brought flashcards from the resource center and the kids almost looked at me dumbfounded. If I am frustrated with one thing, it is literally the lack of resources in the resource center here at the home base. I understand why they do not want to give all of the school all these supplies because instead of empowering them you are instead causing then to be dependent upon donations and such…but it is very frustrating that they have no materials for use to even just take with us to placement.
My creative side will certainly have to be kicked into high gear! I will be going to the school on Wednesday because tomorrow we are climbing a mountain so we are not going to placement. It will be very interesting to see what resources I will be working with, what age level, and if at all I will actually be teaching or just assisting. I am all about rolling with the changes these days and I am excited for this new part of the adventure to begin. I will miss my little Abrah but am planning on going back at least twice a week in the afternoons so that I can snuggle with her.
One of my favorite moments of the day was sitting in a chair reading a book to the kids and having Abrah and Joshua, another small child the size of Abrah, fast asleep on my lap. I was in heaven!
Things are still going well. I am starting to get more into a routine and realizing that instead of this being a trip, this is going to be my way of life for the next three months. I have become accustom to cold showers, the power going out every so often, usually not at the most convenient time, eating chicken and rice twice a day, walking down dirt roads and being called Yevoo wherever I go. It still hasn’t completely hit me that I am actually in Africa and making a dream come true. I’m sure that won’t happen until I’m actually at home. So for now, I’m taking every opportunity that I can and just loving my time with the kids!
We were able to have a Batik lesson today where we were allowed to print our own fabric. I picked out a stamp that had four different symbols on it that meant: creation, hope, wisdom and transformation. We printed the design on by dipping the symbol in hot wax and printed it over and over again on the cloth. Then Beatrice, put our fabric in chemicals that dyed the fabric red. We let it dry then rinsed it in boiling hot water and it took the wax off the fabric. The symbols came out white while the fabric was red. It was so amazing that this process takes about two hours and yet most of their dresses are made out of fabric that is handmade.
I hope all is well at home and I think of you often!
Lots of love from Africa,
Steph
This weekend we all traveled to Lake Volta which is the largest manmade lake in Africa. We hired a van to take us there and it was only about a two hour drive. Once we pulled up to the hotel and it wasn’t a complete dump I felt proud that we actually pulled this off! The mountains around the lake were beautiful and seeing the sun behind them was quite the sight! This weekend I got to experience my first tro-tro ride! Tro-tros are literally a three seat van. There is a driver and a door man. The tro-tros yell the destination they are traveling to and then you put out your hand for them to stop. If you start at a tro-tro station then once the tro-tro is full then they will leave. It is a very cheap way to travel and not hard once you figure out the process of it all.
On Saturday we went to the Agomanya Market, which is the largest market I have ever seen. They had so many gorgeous beads and fabric there. They also had people selling all of their vegetables and fruit like our farmer markets back home. After the market we walked 30 minutes in the blazing hot sun to the Cedi Bead Factory. The bead factory is nothing like an actual factory that we would think of in the US. It was literally a family business in their home. The man showed us each of the steps taken to making beads. It’s amazing to me how much time goes into make each bead and then how cheap they sell their jewelry for. We learned how many different types of beads they use and what each bead is made from. In a week or so I will be posting the process on my other blog! The man actually has traveled to Rochester for a conference at the city center.
We went on a boat tour around the lake as well. It was so beautiful out on the lake even though the sun was not out. It was so interesting to see the contrast in lives that live on the lake. All along the river there were villages of huts that truly lived their life based off the river. The families were bathing, washing their clothes, getting water to cook or just cooling off in the river. Then on the same river, right next to some of the hut communities, are resort hotels or summer lake houses of wealthy people who live in Accra. I loved watching the families on the river, as they were getting what they needed from the water. They all live such a simple life but couldn’t be anything more than happy. They were constantly waving and smiling at us as we were passing by.
I am falling more and more in love with the kids every day that I go to Happy Kids! On Friday, Abrah, who was the little girl that is in the picture with me on my blog, she fell asleep in my arms again. As soon as I arrive, she runs over and puts her hands up for me to pick her up. It’s hard not to just hold her the whole entire time that I’m there. However, I know that the love needs to be shared with all the other children! Today there were not as many kids at the orphanage. How it was explained to me during orientation is that some orphanages are treated more like daycares. Only a certain number of kids actually live at the orphanage and then the rest of the kids get dropped off in the morning. Here in Ghana, being an orphanage doesn’t necessarily mean that they have no parents. Some parents choose to put their children in an orphanage. So many kids still have their mother or father around, but have been put there to take care of. Then there are what they call economic orphans and they basically turn their kids over to the orphanage because they cannot financially support their child. They are allowed to visit their children once a year. It is amazing to me how many children are in the surrounding orphanages.
I found out today that school actually starts tomorrow instead of next week. Today I tried to review colors, the alphabet and numbers 1-5 with the kids. Many of them, who are 5-7 years of age, cannot recognize any of the letters. They can sing the ABCs but they cannot pick out what the letter actually looks like. I brought flashcards from the resource center and the kids almost looked at me dumbfounded. If I am frustrated with one thing, it is literally the lack of resources in the resource center here at the home base. I understand why they do not want to give all of the school all these supplies because instead of empowering them you are instead causing then to be dependent upon donations and such…but it is very frustrating that they have no materials for use to even just take with us to placement.
My creative side will certainly have to be kicked into high gear! I will be going to the school on Wednesday because tomorrow we are climbing a mountain so we are not going to placement. It will be very interesting to see what resources I will be working with, what age level, and if at all I will actually be teaching or just assisting. I am all about rolling with the changes these days and I am excited for this new part of the adventure to begin. I will miss my little Abrah but am planning on going back at least twice a week in the afternoons so that I can snuggle with her.
One of my favorite moments of the day was sitting in a chair reading a book to the kids and having Abrah and Joshua, another small child the size of Abrah, fast asleep on my lap. I was in heaven!
Things are still going well. I am starting to get more into a routine and realizing that instead of this being a trip, this is going to be my way of life for the next three months. I have become accustom to cold showers, the power going out every so often, usually not at the most convenient time, eating chicken and rice twice a day, walking down dirt roads and being called Yevoo wherever I go. It still hasn’t completely hit me that I am actually in Africa and making a dream come true. I’m sure that won’t happen until I’m actually at home. So for now, I’m taking every opportunity that I can and just loving my time with the kids!
We were able to have a Batik lesson today where we were allowed to print our own fabric. I picked out a stamp that had four different symbols on it that meant: creation, hope, wisdom and transformation. We printed the design on by dipping the symbol in hot wax and printed it over and over again on the cloth. Then Beatrice, put our fabric in chemicals that dyed the fabric red. We let it dry then rinsed it in boiling hot water and it took the wax off the fabric. The symbols came out white while the fabric was red. It was so amazing that this process takes about two hours and yet most of their dresses are made out of fabric that is handmade.
I hope all is well at home and I think of you often!
Lots of love from Africa,
Steph
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Water, Water Everywhere!
Ndo (Good Afternoon)!!
I am really starting to get settled into things here in Ghana. I go running almost every morning with a couple other girls and I know the loop around town pretty well, which I think is pretty impressive since we all know how awful I am with direction and I’ve only been here about 6 days! I love running in the morning and seeing Ghana in the early light. It is so interesting to me how other people prepare for their day compared to us in the United States. Often in the morning, Ghanaians attend a church service which is available every morning usually starting at 6 or 6:30 and lasting about 45 minutes to an hour, which is 1/3 of their Sunday service time. During my runs I have seen women filling huge bowls of water on top of their head from a main faucet in town, a little boy carrying two dead chickens, people setting up their shops, small children – sometimes naked, yelling Yavoo (white person) and smiling and waving!!
It has been a bit of a challenge adjusting to life at the homebase as I am living with 13 other people at the moment and we all know how well I do sharing things haha! I am the third oldest at the homebase right now and it has been a challenge to adjust to different mentalities to those that are younger than me. I just have to keep reminding myself why I came to Ghana and not worry about what other people’s intents might be!! However, my saving Grace has been Krista who is 26 and working at the hospital here in HoHoe and comes home with so many interesting stories and Kat who is 24 and from London and working at a savings and loans placement. The three of us are sharing a room and we have had many wonderful discussions!
Happy kids…is well for the most part a pretty happy place! Another volunteer Michelle who has been there for the past three weeks came back from a weekend trip for placement on Tuesday. This was her last week with the kids so Clay and I let her continue the routine that she was having with them since she had been there. Really, we just sing songs, play on the playground, color, read stories and take them to the “park” which is an open field with two handmade soccer goals on each end! The kids love running around and chasing after the soccer ball. Yesterday I taught the kids how to sing “Tarzan,” a song from summer camp and they absolutely love it! They were so adorable throughout the whole song! Then today I attempted to teach them “The Princess Pat,” another camp song, but they weren’t as into that one. We will have to give it another go tomorrow!
I am totally enjoying my time with the kids, just playing with them. I really have the best of both worlds because this week and next week I will just be able to enjoy them and play with them. Then next week I will start teaching at the school down the road with them and other children. Since Michelle will be done at the orphanage on Friday, Clay and I are going to begin setting up our own routine for next week with a few small lessons to get them in school mode.
Today I played a couple games with them just to see what they do know. I had them count with me as high as they could go. Most of them could probably only count to 10, if even that. The two older girls (12 and 15) were the only ones that could go past that. Then I played a game where I tiptoed over to an area in the classroom and pointed to a something in the room or on the wall and they had to whisper the color. Then I counted to three and we shouted out the color together. Most of the kids didn’t know any of their colors but they were so quiet and content while we were doing this activities and it just shows me that they need structure in their lives. I am really excited for next week, breaking up the time into half hour blocks and planning two short lessons and then structured free time! I wanted to give Michelle her last week with the kids…but now I’m ready to go!
One of the biggest challenges has been the lack of resources. This orphanage literally has nothing. When the kids want to get a drink of water they go to the big bucket of water and use one of the two cups they have floating in there. It’s hard to teach them good hygiene when there isn’t any way to allow for it. They just recently had bunk built because before they were all sleeping on the floor of the classroom all together every night.
It amazes me how entertained these children are just with the simple things they have to play with…a piece of rope as a swing, the inside of a tire hung on a branch for a swing, a sprite can to kick around as a soccer ball. . Children here by no means need any form of technology to keep them entertained, instead they occupy themselves wherever we go. Whether its inside a classroom for 3 hours when it rains and they are just sitting there looking at stuff on the floor or drawing words with their fingers or going to the park and just sitting in the grass and playing with the tall grass or looking for bugs. They can entertain themselves and laugh so hard just by running to one end of the soccer field and back. Their smiles are contagious and I can’t stop smiling when I think of them!
On Wednesday we went to Wli Waterfalls which is the largest (tallest) waterfall in West Africa. It was a short 45 minute hike to the falls and when I walked from the clearing I saw a beautiful waterfall and a rainbow over the falls. Right next to the waterfall on the rock cliffs were hundreds of bats sleeping…it was insane. We were able to swim under the waterfall and I felt like a hundred gallons of water were being dumped on my head. We hung out at the waterfall and just swam around for a while and I just took in the beautiful country of Ghana that was surrounding me.
Tomorrow afternoon we are all leaving to go to Lake Volta for the weekend which is the largest manmade lake in Africa. It should be a wonderful weekend exploring more of this beautiful country!
Hope all is well at home. Thinking of you all as enjoy Labor Day weekend and prepare for school!
Love from Africa,
Steph
I am really starting to get settled into things here in Ghana. I go running almost every morning with a couple other girls and I know the loop around town pretty well, which I think is pretty impressive since we all know how awful I am with direction and I’ve only been here about 6 days! I love running in the morning and seeing Ghana in the early light. It is so interesting to me how other people prepare for their day compared to us in the United States. Often in the morning, Ghanaians attend a church service which is available every morning usually starting at 6 or 6:30 and lasting about 45 minutes to an hour, which is 1/3 of their Sunday service time. During my runs I have seen women filling huge bowls of water on top of their head from a main faucet in town, a little boy carrying two dead chickens, people setting up their shops, small children – sometimes naked, yelling Yavoo (white person) and smiling and waving!!
It has been a bit of a challenge adjusting to life at the homebase as I am living with 13 other people at the moment and we all know how well I do sharing things haha! I am the third oldest at the homebase right now and it has been a challenge to adjust to different mentalities to those that are younger than me. I just have to keep reminding myself why I came to Ghana and not worry about what other people’s intents might be!! However, my saving Grace has been Krista who is 26 and working at the hospital here in HoHoe and comes home with so many interesting stories and Kat who is 24 and from London and working at a savings and loans placement. The three of us are sharing a room and we have had many wonderful discussions!
Happy kids…is well for the most part a pretty happy place! Another volunteer Michelle who has been there for the past three weeks came back from a weekend trip for placement on Tuesday. This was her last week with the kids so Clay and I let her continue the routine that she was having with them since she had been there. Really, we just sing songs, play on the playground, color, read stories and take them to the “park” which is an open field with two handmade soccer goals on each end! The kids love running around and chasing after the soccer ball. Yesterday I taught the kids how to sing “Tarzan,” a song from summer camp and they absolutely love it! They were so adorable throughout the whole song! Then today I attempted to teach them “The Princess Pat,” another camp song, but they weren’t as into that one. We will have to give it another go tomorrow!
I am totally enjoying my time with the kids, just playing with them. I really have the best of both worlds because this week and next week I will just be able to enjoy them and play with them. Then next week I will start teaching at the school down the road with them and other children. Since Michelle will be done at the orphanage on Friday, Clay and I are going to begin setting up our own routine for next week with a few small lessons to get them in school mode.
Today I played a couple games with them just to see what they do know. I had them count with me as high as they could go. Most of them could probably only count to 10, if even that. The two older girls (12 and 15) were the only ones that could go past that. Then I played a game where I tiptoed over to an area in the classroom and pointed to a something in the room or on the wall and they had to whisper the color. Then I counted to three and we shouted out the color together. Most of the kids didn’t know any of their colors but they were so quiet and content while we were doing this activities and it just shows me that they need structure in their lives. I am really excited for next week, breaking up the time into half hour blocks and planning two short lessons and then structured free time! I wanted to give Michelle her last week with the kids…but now I’m ready to go!
One of the biggest challenges has been the lack of resources. This orphanage literally has nothing. When the kids want to get a drink of water they go to the big bucket of water and use one of the two cups they have floating in there. It’s hard to teach them good hygiene when there isn’t any way to allow for it. They just recently had bunk built because before they were all sleeping on the floor of the classroom all together every night.
It amazes me how entertained these children are just with the simple things they have to play with…a piece of rope as a swing, the inside of a tire hung on a branch for a swing, a sprite can to kick around as a soccer ball. . Children here by no means need any form of technology to keep them entertained, instead they occupy themselves wherever we go. Whether its inside a classroom for 3 hours when it rains and they are just sitting there looking at stuff on the floor or drawing words with their fingers or going to the park and just sitting in the grass and playing with the tall grass or looking for bugs. They can entertain themselves and laugh so hard just by running to one end of the soccer field and back. Their smiles are contagious and I can’t stop smiling when I think of them!
On Wednesday we went to Wli Waterfalls which is the largest (tallest) waterfall in West Africa. It was a short 45 minute hike to the falls and when I walked from the clearing I saw a beautiful waterfall and a rainbow over the falls. Right next to the waterfall on the rock cliffs were hundreds of bats sleeping…it was insane. We were able to swim under the waterfall and I felt like a hundred gallons of water were being dumped on my head. We hung out at the waterfall and just swam around for a while and I just took in the beautiful country of Ghana that was surrounding me.
Tomorrow afternoon we are all leaving to go to Lake Volta for the weekend which is the largest manmade lake in Africa. It should be a wonderful weekend exploring more of this beautiful country!
Hope all is well at home. Thinking of you all as enjoy Labor Day weekend and prepare for school!
Love from Africa,
Steph
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