It has been a big adjustment to see teachers caning children to discourage bad behavior. Every day I have to come up with new methods of non-physical punishment. It takes a lot of energy and some methods are more effective than others but I push onward.
Teaching has been full of new challenges, joys and frustrations. The children are wonderful and some days I feel like I am really getting through to them. Some days they are just loud, rowdy and not picking up what I am putting down. Naturally, every class has its stars and its troubelmakers and it has been nice to get to know the students better every day.
My newest source of excitement has been the inter-house competition. All the students are divided up into 4 houses, each named after a famous person. There is Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana's first president), Kofi Annan (A UN secretary general from Ghana), Barack Obama (the US president) and Yaa Asantewaa (the greatest female warrior Ghana has ever seen). So, I am in Yaa Asantewaa's house and I love a good competition. I certainly love to fire the kids up and spur them to suceed. So far at the last week's point tally, we are in first place! Next week there is a big competition with sports, games and a spelling bee.
Also, I spent the weekend in Tema which is about 30 km east of here with another teacher from Vivibon. Her name is Lucy and she invited me to spend the weekend with her and her big, lovely family. She has five kids: Harry, Selassie, Confidence, Firm and Desire. They range in age from 20 to 15 months and they're a lot of fun but a handful at times. Lucy taught me how to cook red-red this weekend, one of my favorite dishes. We also pounded fufu together and I spend time helping the kids with homework.
Sunday morning it was off to the Apostolic Church of Ghana. The service featured loud, upbeat music with a full praise band and a strong sound system. It also had a firey preacher with an assistant who translated the sermon into Twi line by line. Some of the songs were in English, some in Twi and all were projected onto the front wall. This was great for me to be able to sing along however Twi has at least two letters that English doesn't and I wasn't quite sure what to do with them. They look like an upside-down and backward "c" and a backward "3."
Spending time around a family was great. It was nice to get out of Accra for a few days and have some new surroundings. It was also fun to hang out with new people as I met Lucy's older sister, younger brother and parents during the weekend. I will include some pictures of my house here and my weekend in Tema. Hope everybody has a great week!
Take care!
Me and the family: Lucy and her five kids.
Me learning how to cook Red-red.
This is me and Etil, my nursery baby.
Big ripe plantains in my front yard.
Jessica, Wonderful update - I loved the pictures. It was great to talk to you yesterday. Glad you got the care package. You'll have to remind me what re-red is. Love, Mom
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