Tuesday Feb. 7
6am Run with Turner
So after an eventful day at Mavious I slept surprisingly soundly. I woke up and went on a VERY EARLY RUN with Turner. He is a cross-country runner for another D 3 school. His slow is OF COURSE MY MEDIUM SPEED, but it was nice to chat with him and go that fastest I have gone in Ghana yet. Poor Turner had to end the run early with a bathroom break and I managed to bolt back to ISH to go to my EARLY CLASS.
7:30 am class FIRST ACTUAL LECTURE…for geography: RESOURCE ANALYSIS
This class had about 100 students and the only two OBRUNIS IN THE CLASS WERE KATIE AND I. We stood out like sore thumbs. In fact at the beginning he asked where we were from IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. Later in the lecture he asked us for an answer, but Katie and I didn’t have the confidence to answer it. THIS CLASS I WILL HAVE TO SHOW UP TO EVERY DAY BECAUSE KATIE AND I WILL BE WATCHED! Later in class though, I did manage to make a comment. He asked for a summary thus far and I think I did a fairly good job, but after my comment he asked if anyone could top that off and THE ENTIRE CLASS LAUGHTED. I felt embarrassed even though it truly was a compliment. There were several situations where the teacher made a joke, but we didn’t get it and the rest of the class laughed. The lecture was good and fairly simple. I don’t think this class is anything to worry about.
Getting there, lunch, and teaching Mavious for the REST OF THE DAY
After this class Brendan (another ISEP kiddo) and I made the trek to Mavious by Tro-tro. We ended up waiting 20 minutes for one that would go to Kisseman junction, but we did it. We got their around 10:30 and we took 4 kids aside that needed help with writing 1-100. They could do it to 20 but then after that they got REALLY confused. I LOVED WORKING WITH BRENDAN! He is such a nice and thoughtful individual! These kids LOVED US. It was so cool to use what I learned in my P-4 Math and Science class because they really didn’t have a good understanding of number recognition after 20. They were literally just writing random numbers down and going from there. Brendan and I worked on showing them that there is a specific pattern to the numbers and why it is important to count to 100, but I think three of the four didn’t get it. DANG LANGUAGE BARRIER.
Before we knew it, it was lunch time and they had the same thing as yesterday: white rice and a sauce with fish in it. Many on them said “your invited” basically telling us that we could help them eat their meals. THIS HIT ME HARD. Their only meal for the day and they want to share it? This is pretty messed up! I was SHOCKED by how generous they were.
After the lunch Brendan and I co-taught a class together for the rest of the day. This was so much fun, but a REAL challenge!
I was able to teach the children RESPECT and sing the song…YES I MADE THE KIDS SING IT. We also related respect to the classroom and the environment outside. I taught them conservation and preservation and tried to explain to them the difference between the two. They really didn’t get that so I tried to illustrate it on a level of respect for the environment, preservation being more, but conservation allowing more people to enjoy it. They seemed to understand that…somewhat.
Then we taught them about DIFFERENT TYPES OF ANIMALS into different categories: reptiles, insects, fish, birds, and mammals. Although this was very simplistic it did expose them to different vocabulary. They did a fairly good job at classifying the groups.
After the ANIMAL adventure we talked about classroom behavior…and then did something SUPER FUN…hang man! They had a BLAST playing hang-man and I can’t wait to do it with them again!
Twi Class and Dance class after a full day of teaching
TALK ABOUY EXHAUSTING…I don’t know how I will do this next week WITH running in the morning. I will have to miss some of the Twi due to the time of my dance class…but I will get at least an hour of Twi a week. We learned about want Twi is on the spectrum of African languages and what areas of Ghana it is spoken in. Then dance class was HARD! I felt completely lost the whole time…but I STILL HAD A BLAST even though I was CLUELESS. I just love seeing everyone else dance and me trying to keep with the beat and move my body in a Ghanaian way. It is hard to describe how Ghanaian’s move their body. It is very modern, yet warrior like. I will hopefully get some to film our final performance so you can see what I mean by the different movement.
NIGHT MARKET AND MILO…making our days brighter
I was so exhausted that the night market seemed to be the ONLY option to eat at. We crawled over there and shoved our faces FULL of rice and beans. Then…just as things seemed to be dark…THE SAVIOR AVERY…asked Emma, Katie, and I to join her for some iced milo. Milo is a drink that entails, chocolate power, milk, water, sugar, and ice. It is like chocolate milk…but requires less water than than…but it is AMAZING! I PRACTICALLY got down on my knees thanking Avery for this glorious sweet.
Wednesday Feb. 8
DOWN DAY FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE LAST FRIDAY…HORRAY!!!!
I was actually able to blog and enjoy a bit of facebook and email for the first time and a very long while…but it was well deserved. I think anytime I am near a computer with internet I am a ZOMBIE. So I could buy internet at ISH for 20 CD a month…which isn’t bad at all…but I am too cheap and I want to save that money for traveling…some I have to walk over a mile to actually get internet…and this internet is only available from 9am-4pm week days. So on rare occasions like this Wednesday I got to bask in the glory and become a computer Zombie for an hour or so.
But I still managed to go on a RUN.
I still seemed determined to get ready for Ghanaian cross country that I woke up around 7am and went on a hour run…which was very pleasant. I find running here the best way to get out all my feeling…without crying.
How Ghanaians cut Grass
As I was going on my run I observed that Ghanaians in fact cut the MAJORITY OF GRASS WITH THEIR HANDS! They use a machete and cut of chunks at a time. Imagine motivating yourself to ACTUALLY cut grass ALL DAY BY HAND. This is a look back into the oldin’ days of the United States before it was industrialized.
Encounter with Professor and April 14th
I ran into a Professor at a college in Accra. He was very delightful (and a white person). He asked where I was from and it actually made me feel good to talk to someone that has been here for years, but understands what I am going through. He invited me to this convention at their school…and then I realized after the encounter…this was when Susan’s wedding is…OOPS!
Two BACK TO BACK ACTUAL CLASSES…and the football game that Ghana loses
One class didn’t happen…the professor canceled in, which allowed Emma, Brendan, and I to watch the Ghanaian football game. Then, right as the last 15 minutes happened…when the score was still 0-0 (the winner would progress to the FINALS OF THE AFRICAN CUP) we had to go to class. BOO and the professor made us miss the last part, which…probably because we weren’t watching…GHANA LOST. So disappointing because I would have liked to have seen how nuts Ghana would have gone if they would have won.
PASTA WITH MEAT SAUCE
After Emma and finished the class WE HAD WONDERFUL PASTA WITH MEAT SAUCE…that the WONDERFUL Avery and Katie made for us. IT WAS GLORIOUS TO HAVE RED MEAT…and it was only 3CD for the meal…not bad…not bad at all.
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