So my flight is finally booked.. under the name Mocelyn Ellams, hopefully that will be changed before I go!
As everyone has probably heard North and South Korea are having a bit of a family tiff at the moment. I would just like to point out that officially they are still at war as a peace treaty was never officially signed.
The Foreign Office Commission has no travel warning so I am not too worried.
Something that maybe should trouble me more is the rumour they are quarantining English teachers because of swine flu! There is a pretty funny blog a teacher who is in quarantine at the moment.
The teachers all trained at a school together which is why they were all quarantined, so I should be ok....
Things are looking pretty adventurous even before I leave....
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
South Korea... Here I come at last!!!!!!!!!
After lots of changes and waiting around, my visa is finally on the way!!!
The school had changed my contract to be living in Jeonju, teaching university students in the morning for two hours,then being driven about 45 minutes to Gunsan, teaching kindergarten to Middle school there until 7, then having to get the bus back. So I finally got my head around the fact I would be living in a totally different place. When I found out it was all changed back to the original plan - living and working in Gunsan. At this point I just want to be there!!!! So, as they had changed my contract, I thought they had not even started processing my visa yet.
But then... I got my visa application number!! Which take 14 days to process, so I was not expecting it yet. Then it takes 5 days to process it here. I called the office today and it should be ready by June 1st!!! So Flying Cows will be sorting to my flights for the 2nd!!! Oh my goodness!
I am so excited to teach again. I really glad I have my Ghana experience, what with the lack of resources, disorganisation, caning, heat and general riotousness, I am hoping that South Korea will not be as bad!!
I have soooo many ideas of fro fun lessons and was even thinking about how to decorate my classroom with educational posters!!!
Now, I have to figure out how to fit a years worth of my life into 30kgs!!!
The school had changed my contract to be living in Jeonju, teaching university students in the morning for two hours,then being driven about 45 minutes to Gunsan, teaching kindergarten to Middle school there until 7, then having to get the bus back. So I finally got my head around the fact I would be living in a totally different place. When I found out it was all changed back to the original plan - living and working in Gunsan. At this point I just want to be there!!!! So, as they had changed my contract, I thought they had not even started processing my visa yet.
But then... I got my visa application number!! Which take 14 days to process, so I was not expecting it yet. Then it takes 5 days to process it here. I called the office today and it should be ready by June 1st!!! So Flying Cows will be sorting to my flights for the 2nd!!! Oh my goodness!
I am so excited to teach again. I really glad I have my Ghana experience, what with the lack of resources, disorganisation, caning, heat and general riotousness, I am hoping that South Korea will not be as bad!!
I have soooo many ideas of fro fun lessons and was even thinking about how to decorate my classroom with educational posters!!!
Now, I have to figure out how to fit a years worth of my life into 30kgs!!!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
4 Years since Brazil
Well, today 4 years ago I was in Brazil on my first ever Cross-Cultural Solutions program! Who would have thought that those 4 weeks would completely change my life. They led me to moving over to New York to work for CCS. They led me to having the opportunity to volunteer in Costa Rica, Guatemala and Ghana. They led to make meeting and working with the most dedicated and amazing people. They led to making sooo many fantastic friends. They lead me to realise how much I love teaching and moving over to South Korea (eventually when my visa arrives!) And they led to me realising I can achieve anything I set my mind to!
I was reading through my blog and during my final year at uni, I said that the ideal thing would be that I would be offered a job with CCS and move over to New York - and it happened!
So, what would be great would be to win the lottery, travel some more, finally decide on somewhere to settle down, start up my own NGO/School/business and marry an extremely handsome, rich, black man... (hint, hint universe.)
I was reading through my blog and during my final year at uni, I said that the ideal thing would be that I would be offered a job with CCS and move over to New York - and it happened!
So, what would be great would be to win the lottery, travel some more, finally decide on somewhere to settle down, start up my own NGO/School/business and marry an extremely handsome, rich, black man... (hint, hint universe.)
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
South Korea!!!
Last Friday I accepted a job as an English Teacher at a school in Gunsan, South Korea! I've signed a contract for a year and will leave as soon as my visa is sorted. So probably about 3/4 weeks!!
Just a little background information.
South Korea is in East Asia.
I will be in the South on on the Coast in a place called Gunsan/Kunsan. It is has a big American Air force base in the city!
I found the opportunity through an company called Flying Cows (yes insert your jokes here).
The school I will be working at is a new academy and a branch of Woosuk University. I will be teaching kids aged 7-13 and also teaching a women's class.
The school pays for my flights and also my accommodation - normally a small studio, so its a really good opportunity to get some teaching experience and also experience a new culture.
So, a little nervous about it all, trying to learn some Korean which is reeally difficult!!! I am also in the process of doing a Teaching English as Foriegn Language (TEFL) course, once I have completed it I will be an accredited TEFL, teacher! Then the world is my oyster!!!
Just a little background information.
South Korea is in East Asia.
I will be in the South on on the Coast in a place called Gunsan/Kunsan. It is has a big American Air force base in the city!
I found the opportunity through an company called Flying Cows (yes insert your jokes here).
The school I will be working at is a new academy and a branch of Woosuk University. I will be teaching kids aged 7-13 and also teaching a women's class.
The school pays for my flights and also my accommodation - normally a small studio, so its a really good opportunity to get some teaching experience and also experience a new culture.
So, a little nervous about it all, trying to learn some Korean which is reeally difficult!!! I am also in the process of doing a Teaching English as Foriegn Language (TEFL) course, once I have completed it I will be an accredited TEFL, teacher! Then the world is my oyster!!!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The last few weeks of my time in Ghana.... (Just for you Schleather!!!)
Monday 26th January
We had lecture about Religious practices today. It was pretty interesting to see how much religion does influence Ghanaian life. Shops names have religious psalms and phrases that bear no resemblance to anything that it actually sells. My favorites so far are – 'I'm afraid of my friends even you', 'Don't stop trying nonoboy', 'Don't stop praying Hair salon'!!!
What really stood out was when I was helping Peace with her science homework. It was talking about artificial and natural satellites. The definition of a natural satellite was that it was made by God and an artificial was made by man. It also explained that stars were a heavenly body. This was taken from a text book that all the public schools have and is government issued. I just found it so crazy that it do not mention forces or gases just that it was made by God. Which is fair enough as this is what some people believe but to teach all children regardless of their faith really struck home.
The woman spoke about traditionalism which was practiced before Christianity was introduced. Some of the 'rules' were crazy, well in my view, polygamy was practiced, one reason for this was because women are not allowed to cook for the husband when they are menstruating so a husband needs many wives so he can always be fed. Well maybe I am slightly simplifying it but still!!
Tuesday 27th January
I was in my class alone today, my teacher is out for the rest of the week, The class was crazy today, I think it must have been a full moon because the whole school seemed to be acting up. The kids just kept hitting each other and not paying attention to anything!!!
Well everyday can't be a good day!
In the afternoon we went to the monkey sanctuary. It was soooooo cute!!! I was feeding the monkeys bananas, they would peel the banana, look at you to make sure you weren't going to do anything, then would bite a bit off then run off and eat it.
Wednesday 28th January
My class were pretty naughty again today. I think they began to realize how disappointed I was in them. I told them that I did not want to teach them anymore and that I was not going to come in tomorrow.
I was teaching them about primary and secondary colours and what colours you get when you mix them. Again it took them a while to get it but they did in the end.
I just need to add to this that I am typing this in the other house at the home base watching Ann teach Emily, Heather and Liz bikram yoga. This is sweat inducing tie yourself in knots yoga which is VERY funny to watch!!
Anyway back to my kids, saying this to them quieted them down. They said oh Madam, please, we beg forgiveness, please come in tomorrow. Then played hangman using words from today's lesson.
Something else I have noticed about the education system is kids learn by memorization. They cannot sound words out phonetically but just randomly guess. There really is a thin line between understanding and just remembering. They may not understand what you have just taught them but then can remember it. If you try to change the order they just don't get it.
Had another drumming lesson in the afternoon, my rhythm is awful and Jojo is very patient with me, I think I just need to practices more!!
In the evening Heather and I went to watch Man U play against West Brom. It was so funny to watch. The guys were really getting into and shouting at each other. When Heather said she didn't think that Man U were the best team and the guy looked at her and then moved to another seat!!
Thursday 29th January
I taught the kids about technology today and went over everything I had taught them about communication and information, they had surprising remembered most things.
I also gave them a spelling test on months of the year. This again enforced the fact that they learn by memorization. They could spell and write all of the months in order but if I mixed them up and asked them, they could not do it. Some of them did not even try. I tried to shame them by marking them and telling the whole class what marks they got… I am going to test them again tomorrow so we will see if it worked!!
I sort of gate crashed a seminar that was being held for some local women by a Doctor and his wife from he US. The part I sat in was about health. It was pretty eye opening! They were asking questions about childbirth, periods, menopause, how to get a flat stomach and what sit ups were!. Some of the questions were pretty basic that I would automatically know just from discussions with girl friends. The way the health system works here is that is not patient orientated. The Doctor does not tell the patient what is wrong with them, what medicine they need to take and the side effects. They literally just give them the medication, which shows why people are pretty clueless about health.
Ended up meeting up with Jojo on the search for some Hip- Life music, a cross between the traditional High-Life music and Hip-Hop.
The weather has heated up again. The season is 'hamitem' which basically is the dry season but with incredible amounts of dust. The dust gets everywhere!!!! Lots of the volunteers are suffering with allergies and general snotty-ness! I am washing my feet about twice a day but they are still filthy. I am not sure if I have tan lines or dirt lines!!
Friday 30th January
I was told off at placement today by the teacher in the next classroom because my kids were being to noisy!! On the plus side, I had divided them into teams and was testing them on everything I had taught them that week and they had remembered most of it, so it was worth getting excited about!
Liz, Heather and I decided to go to Ada Foah for the weekend and brave the tro-tros. We set off about 1.30 and got on a tro-tro from Hohoe to go to Tema Roundabout. We got to Tema about 4.30 and managed to find our way to another bus that would take us directly to Ada Foah… it all seemed a little too easy! The 2nd tro-tro we got was huge, it had about 20 rows of seats, with 2 on each side, we went on sat and the back, then they flipped out jump seats down sat in the middle of the aisle! There were about 40 people packed into the bus! We were travelling for about 30 minutes and stopped, the guy sitting next to Liz, jumped out of the huge window, peed and then jumped back in!!! We then got to Ada and every got off the bus. We sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out what was going on. There was another Ghanaian guy who was still on the bus who also had no clue what was going on. Then we heard the Medi (the guy who takes the money) shout 'Hey White.. get off the bus'. Apparently the bus was about to break down so we got packed into a smaller tro-tro where we were told 'Whites, I've paid for you"! The Guy who had been on the bus with us was sitting in the back with us. He was Ghanaian but had been living in Belgium. He was the most neurotic and scared Ghanaian we had ever seen. Obviously tro-tros are a little bashed up and not always totally road worthy but this guy was petrified. He was like ' slow down slow down, no one has to die today'!
We finally got to our Hotel and it was soo nice. It was a tiny little compound with about 4 huts in, hammocks, plam trees, beer and pasta. It was right on the beach and we could hear the sea from our room.
Saturday 30th January
We had a lie in – until about 7am! Then we just mooched around the beach and relaxed, drank, ate, walked around. It was so relaxing and chilled. We walked into town, to find a bar and the town was so quiet and nonexistent that we walked straight through it!!!
I don't think that Ada Foah sees many 'Yoevus' we had kids running up to us all the time. Heather and Liz were accosted by a mob of about 20 naked young boys on the beach who were playing in the sea!
The kids are so friendly though and don't give it a second thought about running up to a stranger and throwing their arms around them for a hug.
Sunday February 1st
We started on our journey back to Hohoe about 10.15 and hoped that it was going to be as uneventful at the way to Ada.
We managed to get a tro-tro to Tema really easily, once we stepped of fthe tro-tro at Tema, we were instantly surrounded by taxi drivers. They were asking where we were going and saying I want that one, no, I want that one, oo I like that one and pointing at us. We managed to get a taxi driver to take us to the Hohoe tro-tro station and another taxi driver was shouting, no I want the fat one, pointing at me, I like her, she can be my mattress!!! So I have had about 4 marriage proposals now and a request to be a mattress…… hmmmm
Monday 2nd February
My teacher was back at school and was doing fractions when I came in. Her first words were pretty much so what are you teaching them today! Which was fine as I don't mind but it would but it would be interesting to see how she actually teaches. I taught them about prepositions such as below, above, behind in front etc. They actually got it when I asked them to act it out. Writing sentences was a little bit harder though as their vocabulary is limited to sentences out of their much rehearsed text books.
I had to give the headmaster a letter, as there will be 2 new Volunteers at the school on Monday. I walked past the P1 class and could see that the teacher was asleep on the desk… pretty normal by Ghana standards from what I hear!
I spent the afternoon relaxing at the home-base as it was so hot, it rained a little bit but then there was huge rumblings of thunder and it began to properly chuck it down. Emily and I danced in the rain and actually got cold so had to stop. The storm caused the electricity to go off also.
We had a guest speaker come and talk about politics, religion and he also threw in some stuff about education. It was also interesting to hear him speak about how peaceful Ghana is – the most peaceful out of all the African countries. Which is really true. The election that happened in January was so close that they had to have another between the 2 parties – the NDC and the NPP. If this had happened in any other country they would have been riots, and huge disturbances but not in Ghana. Ghana is looked upon by other African countries as a sort of role model, which is great.
He also spoke about how Christianity, Islam and Traditionalism religions exist side by side peacefully also. Religion is a huge thing in Ghana so to have 3 such distinct religions coexist so calmly is amazing. Especially when you look at the rest of the world.
I taught Peace in the evening, as well as her brother and one of the neighbours. I seem to be acquiring quite a few students. Kenneth, the neighbor, brought along some mock Religious and Moral Education papers and also one on Politic and Economic stability. I wasn't much help with the political paper but it was interesting to go through te RME paper. The questions were things like what are responsibilities, what are a parents responsibilities to their children, it talked about teenage pregnancy and STDS. All pretty normal topics, but the answers that they gave were more eye opening. One question was what is repentance and the effects of repentance. Kenneth said that if you repented you would live longer as God would forgive you and allow you to live longer. Again it shows that how much religion creeps into education.
Wednesday February 4th
I went over with my kids, prepositions, primary and secondary colours, and possessive pronouns and….. they remembered everything!!!! I was so proud of them.
I had also been getting them to draw pictures of their houses etc when they had finished to keep them entertained. When they finish they come up to my desk and say ‘Madam, see see, Mark it mark it.’ I look at it and say oh its beautiful. Which has now become a catchphrase. One boy will show me his work and look at me and say ‘Beautiful? Beautiful?’ My kids are seriously taking the Mickey but praise is a positive influence and they all strive for me to tell them their work is beautiful. Another one is I always tell them well done, so that is another they tend to repeat.
Today I did some sewing with them, I got them to chain stitch their initials and then blanket stitch 2 piece s of material together. It went down really well! Even Lucy, my teacher wanted to do one. Some of them were really good, others will not be taking up a career as a seamstress!
I also had my long awaited epiphany today!!! I think I am going to look into a teacher training course when I get back or do art workshops in schools. I really enjoy working with kids and it is so rewarding when the kids actually get something. Even just sitting with Peace, God’s Way and Kenneth with them asking me questions, it makes me really see how much I don’t know but wish I did. I really wish I could tell them all the answers because they are so eager to learn but I am just not that intellectual and don’t seem to absorb that kind of information.. hence the art route!!!
I did IT with my kids yesterday and some of the boys picked everything up straight away and I know that they should be come IT consultants or something, it’s just whether they will have the opportunity or not.
Heather, Ann and Emily leave this weekend, and a new group of 17 people arrive. I am not looking forward to them leaving. It’s going to be so sad. Emily and Ann are travelling from Kenya to South Africa over the next 3 and half months. I am half tempted to meet them somewhere along the way……. Hmmmm……!!
Friday 5th February
I attempted weaving with my kids today, they really enjoyed it, it was gluey and messy and they had fun, the weavings were not fantastic but they are pretty good! They went out for break and never got called back in so they were all playing games. The boys had found a football and were have in very serious game with the goalie wearing socks on his hands as goalie gloves. They all stripped down to their underwear because it was so hot!
The girls all crowded around me and were asking when I was leaving, they kept saying ‘oo Madam do not leave us, if you have to leave us, you must take us all with you’. It is going to be sooo hard to leave them.
It was Ann. Emily and Heather’s last day today so we bummed a lift down to Accra with them and went to the mall and had pizza. We dropped Heather off at the airport. It was soooooo sad! It’s going to be really strange not having her here. Heather completely got my sense of humor and we tended to get into quite a bit of mischief together!
Ann, Emily, Liz, Chris and Tim got dropped off at our hotel in the Osu district which is supposed to be the happening places to be. There are lots of clubs and bars. It was a huge culture shock. For a start we were not the only yeovus, we were no longer a hot commodity!! Also the bar that we went to was full of ex pats and even more yeovus. The bar was also full of prostitutes and Tim was also approached by a drug dealer. This made me really sad that they saw us as people who came to their country and used prostitutes or came for cheap drugs. We were also followed by this small girl that was begging. It was so different to sleepy friendly Hohoe, it was definitely a city - a touristy city. It made me really appreciate Hohoe. Even though you are seen as an ATM or a plastic bottle provider. (Literally the kids see a yeovu, run over and shout ‘give me bottle’!) One guy walked past me n the street and said Hi, then went I need an investor. Ghanaians see white people as rich and it can be really hard to break this stereotype. But the average wage here is about 6 Ghana cedis a day which is about 3 pound a day, so I suppose we are better off but it is still difficulty and slightly annoying to be seen as a cash machine.
Saturday February 7th
We went down to Liberation Square, walked along the beach and then walked back to our hotel.
Went out for a really nice Chinese meal, it was so nice to have something different. The food is good, but its basically rice, beans, plantains, yams and potatoes. I didn’t realize how spoilt I was with all the different types of food that is so widely available to me – especially in New York!!
Sunday February 8th
We had to go back to Hohoe today and leave Ann and Emily to start their tour around Africa. Again super sad. Dr Ann, as we call her is going to be sorely missed at homebase not only for curing us all but entertaining us as well. Emily is the sweetest person ever and so fun to be around. I love CCS program be cause they attract such wonderful people, but its so hard to say goodbye to them though.
We started our tro-tro journey back, we waited about 45 minutes for it to fill and be on our way. We drove off slowly, very slowly…… then there was this smell of burining. It turned out that the brakes kept locking and he was driving with breaks on.. or something like that. We all piled out of the van and he fiddled around with the breaks and said it was fixed. By this point no one wanted to get back into the van and a huge fight broke out. The driver would not give us our money back to get on another trotro but wouldn’t call another van for us as he said it was fixed and would be fine. This was one on those moments where you have to embrace Ghana and just laugh. All the other passengers were getting really het up and at one point one of them was grabbing the driver and the shaking him. Then the police turned up, (remember this is all on the side of a highway/ dual carriage way in the mid afternoon heat) these police had these huge guns on them, all the passengers were shouting, trying to explain what had happened, the driver was back tracking on his story, it was all loud and really funny!
It all sounds a lot worse than it was but sorted its self out. A new trotro arrived and 2 hours later we were on our way!!
We were walking back from were we got dropped off, back to the homebase and I heard a group of Kids chanting ‘madam, madam’ it was a bunch of my kids from school.
Then when I arrived at the homebase, Peace, Kenneth and Jennifer were out and came running to give me a hug. It was so lovely! Jennifer had crocheted a bag for me to carry my phone in.
It is going to be soooooo hard to leave. Ergh!
Tuesday 9th February
Today was the first day for the 2 new volunteers at my school. I found myself getting really over protective about my class! They were saying how thy liked my kids and wanted to take over. Then they came into my class and sat in the back and totally interrupted while I was trying to teach directions.
I am a pretty social person but this new group is loud! I have been used to waking up about 6am, and pottering around for a bit, watching the sun come up. I came out of my room at 6am, having woken up about 5 minutes earlier, so I could do my laundry. There were about 4 new volunteers out already. It was ‘oh you are doing Laundry, How do you do it, can we watch’ not in their quiet voices. It’s going to take some getting used to!
In the afternoon I went to met Peace at the library and managed to pick up Melody along the way. The children’s library was consisted of maybe about 200 books that were pretty tattered. As soon as I walked in and sat down about 7 kids came and sat around me and wanted me to read some stories out loud.
That is one thing that I have noticed here, the kids and people are so trusting. I walk down the street and kids will come up to me, grab my hand, and walk with me for about ten minutes. Even adults will just hand their kids over to strangers to hold. I love the fact people are so open and friendly and ready to talk to you.
Thursday February 12th
I took some coins and English money in today, and talked to the kids about London, the currency and the Union Jack. They were really interested in the money and then they did rubbings of the different coins and loved it. Half way through the class the teacher came from the class next door and asked me to go and teach his class. Fortunately I had my ‘This is your life’ book so I went through that and also showed them the money and we did more rubbings. I think that half of Ghana has now seen where I live, what my family look like and photos of Helsby!
One of the teachers was asking me how I was finding teaching. I told her I was enjoying it so much I was going to look into training to be a teacher when I go back to the UK. They loved it!!! I am going to get the Head teacher to write me a glowing reference hopefully!!
We then spent the afternoon taking out Liz’s braids!!! It took a lot longer than we anticipated!
Friday 13th February
I walked up to school today and there sounded like there was a huge party in my classroom! I could here drumming and people dancing, singing and cheering!! I walked in and was greeted by a swarm of children running out of the classroom. Apparently there was going to be football match against another school o they were gearing up for it.
We made Valentines Day cards, which of course they loved. They really do not get much chance to be creative. I had made a card to show them, as it had a pop up heart in it. The majority of the class copied my card pretty much exactly.
About 11 we all walked down to the other school, the kids were singing and clapping on the way down. The other team was all decked out in shiny new football kits, our school had football kits but you could definitely tell the difference.
The boys were looked at as heroes and everyone was swarming around them. When they were playing one of the teachers was starting different songs and chants, so all the girls were going crazy, dancing, clapping and singing. The girls dancing put even me to shame, they certainly know how to ‘shake their booty”!! The atmosphere was amazing and it still surprises and astounds me when groups of people spontaneously break into this amazing dancing. Every Ghanaian seems to have this innate rhythm and can make music out of old pot and plastic bottles!!
I came back to the home base, all the new volunteers were going away for the weekend. So it was just 5 of the old volunteers. Melody, Peace and God’s Way came over, we listened to music, danced in the rain to Scissor Sisters, watched some very toned men do some carpentry on the well, watched Dela wind Joe up to the point that he pouted like a 6 year old and went and sulked in the corner of the garden. Basically I did nothing and it was great!
Melody is the cutest child ever, she is about 3 years old and has the most infectious giggle and sprit ever. I really want to bring her home!
In the evening, Marcella, Chris, Brenda, Robin and I sat and watched The Bee Movie with Peace, Melody, KK, God’s Way, Kofi, and 2 of the cats! It was so cute, it was like being a very large dysfunctional family! Melody fell asleep on my lap half way through the movie.
Saturday February 14th
Liz and I were up at 6.30am to go and watch some of the teachers from her school play football, they ended up winning and we went and got some palm wine and banku. We literally walked to this shack at the side of the road with a palm leaf roof and drank palm wine out of some hollowed out seeds that had been made into bowls at 10am on a Saturday! When in Ghana……
We were talking about nicknames that people had. When you have a nickname this is sort of an insulting name that you have. People also have a ‘guy’ name which would be like Joss for Jocelyn. Other examples were ‘ Brown paper’ which is when someone has lots of money, as they carry it around in a brown paper bag. If you area a cheater then you are nicknamed Spider as there is a story about the spider who cheats. Tony’s nickname is Assistant Headmaster because he has a big head, but there is another guy that has a bigger head, so he was demoted to Assistant Headmaster. Julius’ nickname was Senior because he is so tall and looks older. We worked out that I was the oldest of the group, so I was nicknamed Grandma!!
It rained in the afternoon again while I was playing football with KK, Kofi and God’s Way. We also played piggy in the middle.
It was just a perfect Saturday afternoon, getting muddy, cooling off in the rain, playing with Melody and just relaxing at the homebase. KK had also bought me some chocolate with Valentines Day!
We all went to Malezia to celebrate Valentines day, it is huge here, people party on the same scale as we would at New Year. We all dressed in red and walked down into town.
The beginning of the night was pretty quiet. Liz and I decided to do shots of the local gin, it took us about 20 minutes to order as the guy could not understand us and then forgot what we ordered. We finally got the drinks and it worked out at about 30p for 4 shots of gin!!!!
The club started to liven up and there was lots of dancing! There was also lots of grabbing, Ghanaian men are not shy!!
Then all the power went out in the whole town but fortunately Malezia had a generator so it didn’t stop the party. The town was so busy though, there were even women out partying with their babies on their back!
I also peed outside for the first time! There was ‘four walls’ for the bathroom, so Brenda and I went outside, but there was a huge group of men there so we didn’t fancy it. We went out the front and walked to find a dark quiet spot. Some guy came up and started walking and chatting with us, we had to discreetly get rid of him. It is so funny because people are not shy about peeing in public. I have literally had Jennifer in the middle of her homework, just walk off a couple of paces, lift her skirt up and pee in front of everyone. This is definitely not one the Ghanaian customs I will be taking up!
When we got back into the club, I was greeted by a chorus of ‘Grandma, Where have you been?’ My nickname had some how managed to get out to practically half the club!
We got back about 2am and had to wake Alpha, the Night Guard up to let us in. I felt like a naughty school girl coming in late!
My first proper experience of a Ghanaian club was fun and interesting but the groping got a bit too much!
Monday 16th February
Today I attempted to teach the kids about capital and small letters, full stops and commas. They sort of got it but I think I will need to go over it again with them.
I had also made some toy for them from half a plastic bottle, a piece of string and scrunched up piece of paper. They loved it!!! Lucy, my teacher even wanted one to take home for her son.
In the afternoon I just chilled around the homebase, Melody came over after school and I made one of the plastic bottle toys for her also. Marcella, one of the other volunteers in her early 30’s enjoyed it more though!
Tuesday 17th February
I did picture dictionaries with the kids today, they really enjoyed it, they never really get a chance to be creative in their learning as they learn everything by rote.
The kids crowded around me at break time telling me that I wasn’t allowed to leave and that I should take them all with them.
I had a a really long conversation with Lucy about caning at school and explained that if that happened in the UK, you would be sent to prison. It is so hard to see, I understand that it is their culture but it doesn’t make it any easier to see. Lucy said that if you spare the rod then you spoil the child. She said that some children are so stubborn that you have to cane them, I can slightly understand with some of the kids, especially the naughty boys. But a teacher from the other class came in and was just caning kids because their uniforms were slightly ripped, and other stupid reasons. I think that the fact that the kids even wear uniforms when they have so little is amazing.
We also talked about the fact that kids will just come up to you and are so trusting, there seems to be no ‘stranger danger’ concept here like there is in the UK and US. In a way it makes me sad that we have come to that, that every person is viewed suspiciously until proved otherwise.
I was also talking to Lucy about flying and what plane are like, she was asking if they were like lorries and were I had travelled to. She was pretty amazed at how much travelling I had done.
We also discussed some of the behavior of the kids. There are a couple who are really smart but cause trouble, because they finish their work quickly and get bored. I spoke to Lucy about this, and she is looking at moving them to a higher class next term.
Some of these kids have such potential and I know with the right encouragement they could do whatever they set their minds too.
On the way home I walked past Bertha, who has made a skirt for me and she called me in and said she had something for me. She had a bushel of bananas for me, which was so sweet!!
Liz and I went into town, typically when you walk through town you get people hissing at you to get your attention or calling at you to go over. We decided that we would go and talk to every person that did this to us! We both got several marriage proposals, lots of new phone numbers. One guy said he wanted to marry me before I left, I told him I was leaving on Thursday and that he couldn’t afford my dowry, he found this pretty funny!
Wednesday February 18th
2nd to last day at placement! I had asked the Headteacher to do me a letter of reference, which he had, so I nearly cried in his office as it was so lovely.
I was teaching the kids about different verbs and completely had one of those moments. They were all sitting there copying off the board and writing out sentences, it really struck me how much I am going to miss the kids and how such a huge part of my daily life they have become. I have been in this Ghana bubble, just teaching a few hours a day, mooching around town, not checking emails, relaxing and just generally not stressing about anything. The bubble is going to burst soon and I will have to go back to working 9-5, having to be on time for things, having to integrate into using technology, computers, my mobile again. And I just don’t want to! I am excited to figure out my ‘new career’ but I know it is going to be such a huge culture shock.
Sampson one of my kids at break told me that he liked me and asked me not to leave. The kids all wanted to be packed in my bag to come back to the UK with me. A couple of them had brought me ice cream and biscuits, and then I was given another bushel of bananas from all the teachers as I would be leaving tomorrow.
The kids here are so amazing and yes they can be bratty and fight just like kids in the UK but things seem so much more simple and laidback here. They don’t care if they have the latest pair of trainers, they are more concerned if they have a pencil or an exercise book to do their school work in.
My last day at placement tomorrow is going to be so tough!!
Thursday February 19th
Last day at placement! ;( I walked into the school land they were all practicing marching for Independence Day. We watched that for about 20 minutes and then everyone went back to their classrooms.
I did a quiz with them all testing them on everything I had taught. I gave out sweets to the people that got the answers right. I could not believe how many people remembered everything. Most of the boys that never answer questions knew all the answers… bribery goes a long way!!! It made me so happy that that actually understood and had learnt things from me. I wish they had let me know sooner though!
We then played pin the tail on the donkey and some balloon games.
I also gave them all photos of themselves that I had taken and glued onto the weavings that they had made. They loved it!
Loads of the kids had brought me oranges and bananas and nuts, it was so sweet. During break I videoed the kids singing the songs I had taught them, they were sooooo cute!
Then the time came for me leave and several of the kids burst in to tears, which completely set me off. Its amazing how in such a short time, you can get so attached to the children.
Liz and I set off for our mammoth journey to Mole National Park. We left Hohoe at about 2pm and got a tro-tro to Accra, then a super posh bus to Kumasi. The bus had air-conditioning and reclining seats! We got into Kumasi about 12. We hadn’t booked a hotel but fortunately had made friends with the girl sitting behind us so she took us to a hotel near her house. She was so lovely, she wouldn’t let us pay for the taxi and was a god send as we weren’t really sure where to stay!
Friday 20th February
We got up at about 5am and Theresa met us and took us to the bus station. We had just missed a bus so had to wait 3 hours for the next one to fill up. That’s the thing in Ghana buses leave when they are full, so sometimes you get lucky, other times you are waiting for a very long time!
We finally left about 10am and started the journey to Tamale. This took about 7 hours and with the fact that we left late meant we missed the one bus to Mole National Park.
We met a Peace Corp Volunteer who had been in Ghana for 17 months already. Having been here that long you would thing he was used to Ghana time and the fact things never run smoothly. The bus driver kept stopping and this volunteer was getting so worked up about it all. It really gave me an insight to I used to be like and the US and UK is like. There was nothing we could do about it, there was no point in getting worked up… you just need to ‘go with the flow!’
We managed to get a taxi to take us after arguing the price down from 300 cedi to 90 cedi we set off again!
The road to Mole is the dustiest, bumpiest, bone jarring road ever. The taxi was pretty beat up anyway and the rattling was so loud it made my ears ring!
By this point it had started to get dark and then the taxi driver took a wrong turn. It was a pretty much make or break moment. We had been traveling for so long and we just wanted to get there. I turned and looks at Liz and she was covered in a bout an inch of dust and dirt, we just completely broke down in to fits of hysterics!! It was one of those moments that you have to laugh about it otherwise you will just cry!
We finally got to the motel at about 10.30 but the bar was closed and so was the restaurant. We had been eating digestive biscuits and bananas for the past day and half. We managed to get a beer, have a quick bucket shower and headed to bed.
Saturday 21st February
We got up for a guided tour at 7am and went off in a group of about 8 people to see some wildlife. About 45 minutes into the walk we came across an elephant!!!! We were literally about 25m away from this huge elephant, then another came along. This one had been in a fight and had a broken tusk. It was pretty amazing to be that close to a real life wild elephant. What made the experience slightly more surreal was that the Guides mobile phone kept going off and he was shouting down the phone, the elephants just mooched around and didn’t seem bothered at all.
We walked on a bit further to a watering hole and there were 4 elephants just chilling in the middle!
We also saw antelope, baboons, monkeys and the tops of a couple of crocodiles!
We just sat by the pool for the rest of the day because we had traveled so much yesterday.
Sunday 22nd February
We got up to get the one and only bus that leaves Mole at 4am and got back to Tamale about 8.30. We got another bus to Kumasi at about 10 and finally got into Kumasi at 4.30. Theresa – our angel - came and met us at the station and took us back to hers. She had cooked a meal for us and insisted that we stay with her.
Her house had a large living room/dining area, the kitchen was outside and there were 2 bedrooms, form what I could tell. Off the kitchen was a really small room, that had a flushing toilet in and a shower fixture on the wall. There was no door to the ‘bathroom’ but I was pretty glad that there was evening a western style toilet!
We met up with Akos’ brother who lives in Kumasi and went for a few drinks outside a pub. It then started to rain and there were huge bolts of lighting so we were dancing in the rain. It was so much fun!
Monday 23rd February
So after 2 hours of sleep we were up at 3am to go and get a bus that took us straight from Kumasi to Hohoe.
Theresa’s mum gave me a 5 cedi phone card to call them when we got home, they also made breakfast for us. Theresa had asked me a couple of times what church I went to and said that I should look up her church when I get back to the UK. I kept expecting her to ask me to make a donation to her church or ask for something. We literally met her on Friday and she let us stay at her house, fed us, paid for taxis and took us about and wouldn’t accept anything in return. It really struck that this would not happen in the UK or US. It’s kind of sad that I was expecting her to ask for something when really Ghanaians are the most welcoming and hospitable people I have ever met. It is so wonderful that she just opened up her house for 2 random yeovus and took care of us!
The bus left the station at about 5am and then drove off to wait for more passengers. Here we found out that we would wait until the bus filled (not looking likely) or until 8am.
Again we were shown another act of kindness when we asked the driver where we could ‘urinate’ (You have to be pretty specific as to what you are doing as it will depending on where they take you!!) He paid for us to use the bathrooms as well. The stalls were literally tiled stalls with a small drain in the floor. They were right next to a slope that led up to the market so anyone looking down would have seen right in. I went in and there was a guy in the next stall that sort of nodded hello. It was so embarrassing!!
The journey back was pretty good as the bus wasn’t full and the scenery was beautiful. We got back to Hohoe about 3.30. So over the past 4 and half days we spent 44 hours traveling to see 6 elephants!!! It was definitely an adventure and we meet some wonderful people. I probably would not do it again but it really restored my faith in human kindness!
I hung about with Peace, Jennifer, KK and Kofi in the evening. It was so sad to say goodbye to them. Peace and Jennifer walked me to Lips where I was going to meet some people for goodbye drinks.
Tuesday 24th February
So today I leave Hohoe…… It’s so sad… I don’t even want to think about it…..
I am going to go and stay with Sarah so still have about a week and half left in Ghana but I really feel at home in Hohoe. On the way back form the tro-tro station yesterday, we met about 7 people that we knew. I feel so comfortable here and don’t want my Ghana bubble to burst……
We had lecture about Religious practices today. It was pretty interesting to see how much religion does influence Ghanaian life. Shops names have religious psalms and phrases that bear no resemblance to anything that it actually sells. My favorites so far are – 'I'm afraid of my friends even you', 'Don't stop trying nonoboy', 'Don't stop praying Hair salon'!!!
What really stood out was when I was helping Peace with her science homework. It was talking about artificial and natural satellites. The definition of a natural satellite was that it was made by God and an artificial was made by man. It also explained that stars were a heavenly body. This was taken from a text book that all the public schools have and is government issued. I just found it so crazy that it do not mention forces or gases just that it was made by God. Which is fair enough as this is what some people believe but to teach all children regardless of their faith really struck home.
The woman spoke about traditionalism which was practiced before Christianity was introduced. Some of the 'rules' were crazy, well in my view, polygamy was practiced, one reason for this was because women are not allowed to cook for the husband when they are menstruating so a husband needs many wives so he can always be fed. Well maybe I am slightly simplifying it but still!!
Tuesday 27th January
I was in my class alone today, my teacher is out for the rest of the week, The class was crazy today, I think it must have been a full moon because the whole school seemed to be acting up. The kids just kept hitting each other and not paying attention to anything!!!
Well everyday can't be a good day!
In the afternoon we went to the monkey sanctuary. It was soooooo cute!!! I was feeding the monkeys bananas, they would peel the banana, look at you to make sure you weren't going to do anything, then would bite a bit off then run off and eat it.
Wednesday 28th January
My class were pretty naughty again today. I think they began to realize how disappointed I was in them. I told them that I did not want to teach them anymore and that I was not going to come in tomorrow.
I was teaching them about primary and secondary colours and what colours you get when you mix them. Again it took them a while to get it but they did in the end.
I just need to add to this that I am typing this in the other house at the home base watching Ann teach Emily, Heather and Liz bikram yoga. This is sweat inducing tie yourself in knots yoga which is VERY funny to watch!!
Anyway back to my kids, saying this to them quieted them down. They said oh Madam, please, we beg forgiveness, please come in tomorrow. Then played hangman using words from today's lesson.
Something else I have noticed about the education system is kids learn by memorization. They cannot sound words out phonetically but just randomly guess. There really is a thin line between understanding and just remembering. They may not understand what you have just taught them but then can remember it. If you try to change the order they just don't get it.
Had another drumming lesson in the afternoon, my rhythm is awful and Jojo is very patient with me, I think I just need to practices more!!
In the evening Heather and I went to watch Man U play against West Brom. It was so funny to watch. The guys were really getting into and shouting at each other. When Heather said she didn't think that Man U were the best team and the guy looked at her and then moved to another seat!!
Thursday 29th January
I taught the kids about technology today and went over everything I had taught them about communication and information, they had surprising remembered most things.
I also gave them a spelling test on months of the year. This again enforced the fact that they learn by memorization. They could spell and write all of the months in order but if I mixed them up and asked them, they could not do it. Some of them did not even try. I tried to shame them by marking them and telling the whole class what marks they got… I am going to test them again tomorrow so we will see if it worked!!
I sort of gate crashed a seminar that was being held for some local women by a Doctor and his wife from he US. The part I sat in was about health. It was pretty eye opening! They were asking questions about childbirth, periods, menopause, how to get a flat stomach and what sit ups were!. Some of the questions were pretty basic that I would automatically know just from discussions with girl friends. The way the health system works here is that is not patient orientated. The Doctor does not tell the patient what is wrong with them, what medicine they need to take and the side effects. They literally just give them the medication, which shows why people are pretty clueless about health.
Ended up meeting up with Jojo on the search for some Hip- Life music, a cross between the traditional High-Life music and Hip-Hop.
The weather has heated up again. The season is 'hamitem' which basically is the dry season but with incredible amounts of dust. The dust gets everywhere!!!! Lots of the volunteers are suffering with allergies and general snotty-ness! I am washing my feet about twice a day but they are still filthy. I am not sure if I have tan lines or dirt lines!!
Friday 30th January
I was told off at placement today by the teacher in the next classroom because my kids were being to noisy!! On the plus side, I had divided them into teams and was testing them on everything I had taught them that week and they had remembered most of it, so it was worth getting excited about!
Liz, Heather and I decided to go to Ada Foah for the weekend and brave the tro-tros. We set off about 1.30 and got on a tro-tro from Hohoe to go to Tema Roundabout. We got to Tema about 4.30 and managed to find our way to another bus that would take us directly to Ada Foah… it all seemed a little too easy! The 2nd tro-tro we got was huge, it had about 20 rows of seats, with 2 on each side, we went on sat and the back, then they flipped out jump seats down sat in the middle of the aisle! There were about 40 people packed into the bus! We were travelling for about 30 minutes and stopped, the guy sitting next to Liz, jumped out of the huge window, peed and then jumped back in!!! We then got to Ada and every got off the bus. We sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out what was going on. There was another Ghanaian guy who was still on the bus who also had no clue what was going on. Then we heard the Medi (the guy who takes the money) shout 'Hey White.. get off the bus'. Apparently the bus was about to break down so we got packed into a smaller tro-tro where we were told 'Whites, I've paid for you"! The Guy who had been on the bus with us was sitting in the back with us. He was Ghanaian but had been living in Belgium. He was the most neurotic and scared Ghanaian we had ever seen. Obviously tro-tros are a little bashed up and not always totally road worthy but this guy was petrified. He was like ' slow down slow down, no one has to die today'!
We finally got to our Hotel and it was soo nice. It was a tiny little compound with about 4 huts in, hammocks, plam trees, beer and pasta. It was right on the beach and we could hear the sea from our room.
Saturday 30th January
We had a lie in – until about 7am! Then we just mooched around the beach and relaxed, drank, ate, walked around. It was so relaxing and chilled. We walked into town, to find a bar and the town was so quiet and nonexistent that we walked straight through it!!!
I don't think that Ada Foah sees many 'Yoevus' we had kids running up to us all the time. Heather and Liz were accosted by a mob of about 20 naked young boys on the beach who were playing in the sea!
The kids are so friendly though and don't give it a second thought about running up to a stranger and throwing their arms around them for a hug.
Sunday February 1st
We started on our journey back to Hohoe about 10.15 and hoped that it was going to be as uneventful at the way to Ada.
We managed to get a tro-tro to Tema really easily, once we stepped of fthe tro-tro at Tema, we were instantly surrounded by taxi drivers. They were asking where we were going and saying I want that one, no, I want that one, oo I like that one and pointing at us. We managed to get a taxi driver to take us to the Hohoe tro-tro station and another taxi driver was shouting, no I want the fat one, pointing at me, I like her, she can be my mattress!!! So I have had about 4 marriage proposals now and a request to be a mattress…… hmmmm
Monday 2nd February
My teacher was back at school and was doing fractions when I came in. Her first words were pretty much so what are you teaching them today! Which was fine as I don't mind but it would but it would be interesting to see how she actually teaches. I taught them about prepositions such as below, above, behind in front etc. They actually got it when I asked them to act it out. Writing sentences was a little bit harder though as their vocabulary is limited to sentences out of their much rehearsed text books.
I had to give the headmaster a letter, as there will be 2 new Volunteers at the school on Monday. I walked past the P1 class and could see that the teacher was asleep on the desk… pretty normal by Ghana standards from what I hear!
I spent the afternoon relaxing at the home-base as it was so hot, it rained a little bit but then there was huge rumblings of thunder and it began to properly chuck it down. Emily and I danced in the rain and actually got cold so had to stop. The storm caused the electricity to go off also.
We had a guest speaker come and talk about politics, religion and he also threw in some stuff about education. It was also interesting to hear him speak about how peaceful Ghana is – the most peaceful out of all the African countries. Which is really true. The election that happened in January was so close that they had to have another between the 2 parties – the NDC and the NPP. If this had happened in any other country they would have been riots, and huge disturbances but not in Ghana. Ghana is looked upon by other African countries as a sort of role model, which is great.
He also spoke about how Christianity, Islam and Traditionalism religions exist side by side peacefully also. Religion is a huge thing in Ghana so to have 3 such distinct religions coexist so calmly is amazing. Especially when you look at the rest of the world.
I taught Peace in the evening, as well as her brother and one of the neighbours. I seem to be acquiring quite a few students. Kenneth, the neighbor, brought along some mock Religious and Moral Education papers and also one on Politic and Economic stability. I wasn't much help with the political paper but it was interesting to go through te RME paper. The questions were things like what are responsibilities, what are a parents responsibilities to their children, it talked about teenage pregnancy and STDS. All pretty normal topics, but the answers that they gave were more eye opening. One question was what is repentance and the effects of repentance. Kenneth said that if you repented you would live longer as God would forgive you and allow you to live longer. Again it shows that how much religion creeps into education.
Wednesday February 4th
I went over with my kids, prepositions, primary and secondary colours, and possessive pronouns and….. they remembered everything!!!! I was so proud of them.
I had also been getting them to draw pictures of their houses etc when they had finished to keep them entertained. When they finish they come up to my desk and say ‘Madam, see see, Mark it mark it.’ I look at it and say oh its beautiful. Which has now become a catchphrase. One boy will show me his work and look at me and say ‘Beautiful? Beautiful?’ My kids are seriously taking the Mickey but praise is a positive influence and they all strive for me to tell them their work is beautiful. Another one is I always tell them well done, so that is another they tend to repeat.
Today I did some sewing with them, I got them to chain stitch their initials and then blanket stitch 2 piece s of material together. It went down really well! Even Lucy, my teacher wanted to do one. Some of them were really good, others will not be taking up a career as a seamstress!
I also had my long awaited epiphany today!!! I think I am going to look into a teacher training course when I get back or do art workshops in schools. I really enjoy working with kids and it is so rewarding when the kids actually get something. Even just sitting with Peace, God’s Way and Kenneth with them asking me questions, it makes me really see how much I don’t know but wish I did. I really wish I could tell them all the answers because they are so eager to learn but I am just not that intellectual and don’t seem to absorb that kind of information.. hence the art route!!!
I did IT with my kids yesterday and some of the boys picked everything up straight away and I know that they should be come IT consultants or something, it’s just whether they will have the opportunity or not.
Heather, Ann and Emily leave this weekend, and a new group of 17 people arrive. I am not looking forward to them leaving. It’s going to be so sad. Emily and Ann are travelling from Kenya to South Africa over the next 3 and half months. I am half tempted to meet them somewhere along the way……. Hmmmm……!!
Friday 5th February
I attempted weaving with my kids today, they really enjoyed it, it was gluey and messy and they had fun, the weavings were not fantastic but they are pretty good! They went out for break and never got called back in so they were all playing games. The boys had found a football and were have in very serious game with the goalie wearing socks on his hands as goalie gloves. They all stripped down to their underwear because it was so hot!
The girls all crowded around me and were asking when I was leaving, they kept saying ‘oo Madam do not leave us, if you have to leave us, you must take us all with you’. It is going to be sooo hard to leave them.
It was Ann. Emily and Heather’s last day today so we bummed a lift down to Accra with them and went to the mall and had pizza. We dropped Heather off at the airport. It was soooooo sad! It’s going to be really strange not having her here. Heather completely got my sense of humor and we tended to get into quite a bit of mischief together!
Ann, Emily, Liz, Chris and Tim got dropped off at our hotel in the Osu district which is supposed to be the happening places to be. There are lots of clubs and bars. It was a huge culture shock. For a start we were not the only yeovus, we were no longer a hot commodity!! Also the bar that we went to was full of ex pats and even more yeovus. The bar was also full of prostitutes and Tim was also approached by a drug dealer. This made me really sad that they saw us as people who came to their country and used prostitutes or came for cheap drugs. We were also followed by this small girl that was begging. It was so different to sleepy friendly Hohoe, it was definitely a city - a touristy city. It made me really appreciate Hohoe. Even though you are seen as an ATM or a plastic bottle provider. (Literally the kids see a yeovu, run over and shout ‘give me bottle’!) One guy walked past me n the street and said Hi, then went I need an investor. Ghanaians see white people as rich and it can be really hard to break this stereotype. But the average wage here is about 6 Ghana cedis a day which is about 3 pound a day, so I suppose we are better off but it is still difficulty and slightly annoying to be seen as a cash machine.
Saturday February 7th
We went down to Liberation Square, walked along the beach and then walked back to our hotel.
Went out for a really nice Chinese meal, it was so nice to have something different. The food is good, but its basically rice, beans, plantains, yams and potatoes. I didn’t realize how spoilt I was with all the different types of food that is so widely available to me – especially in New York!!
Sunday February 8th
We had to go back to Hohoe today and leave Ann and Emily to start their tour around Africa. Again super sad. Dr Ann, as we call her is going to be sorely missed at homebase not only for curing us all but entertaining us as well. Emily is the sweetest person ever and so fun to be around. I love CCS program be cause they attract such wonderful people, but its so hard to say goodbye to them though.
We started our tro-tro journey back, we waited about 45 minutes for it to fill and be on our way. We drove off slowly, very slowly…… then there was this smell of burining. It turned out that the brakes kept locking and he was driving with breaks on.. or something like that. We all piled out of the van and he fiddled around with the breaks and said it was fixed. By this point no one wanted to get back into the van and a huge fight broke out. The driver would not give us our money back to get on another trotro but wouldn’t call another van for us as he said it was fixed and would be fine. This was one on those moments where you have to embrace Ghana and just laugh. All the other passengers were getting really het up and at one point one of them was grabbing the driver and the shaking him. Then the police turned up, (remember this is all on the side of a highway/ dual carriage way in the mid afternoon heat) these police had these huge guns on them, all the passengers were shouting, trying to explain what had happened, the driver was back tracking on his story, it was all loud and really funny!
It all sounds a lot worse than it was but sorted its self out. A new trotro arrived and 2 hours later we were on our way!!
We were walking back from were we got dropped off, back to the homebase and I heard a group of Kids chanting ‘madam, madam’ it was a bunch of my kids from school.
Then when I arrived at the homebase, Peace, Kenneth and Jennifer were out and came running to give me a hug. It was so lovely! Jennifer had crocheted a bag for me to carry my phone in.
It is going to be soooooo hard to leave. Ergh!
Tuesday 9th February
Today was the first day for the 2 new volunteers at my school. I found myself getting really over protective about my class! They were saying how thy liked my kids and wanted to take over. Then they came into my class and sat in the back and totally interrupted while I was trying to teach directions.
I am a pretty social person but this new group is loud! I have been used to waking up about 6am, and pottering around for a bit, watching the sun come up. I came out of my room at 6am, having woken up about 5 minutes earlier, so I could do my laundry. There were about 4 new volunteers out already. It was ‘oh you are doing Laundry, How do you do it, can we watch’ not in their quiet voices. It’s going to take some getting used to!
In the afternoon I went to met Peace at the library and managed to pick up Melody along the way. The children’s library was consisted of maybe about 200 books that were pretty tattered. As soon as I walked in and sat down about 7 kids came and sat around me and wanted me to read some stories out loud.
That is one thing that I have noticed here, the kids and people are so trusting. I walk down the street and kids will come up to me, grab my hand, and walk with me for about ten minutes. Even adults will just hand their kids over to strangers to hold. I love the fact people are so open and friendly and ready to talk to you.
Thursday February 12th
I took some coins and English money in today, and talked to the kids about London, the currency and the Union Jack. They were really interested in the money and then they did rubbings of the different coins and loved it. Half way through the class the teacher came from the class next door and asked me to go and teach his class. Fortunately I had my ‘This is your life’ book so I went through that and also showed them the money and we did more rubbings. I think that half of Ghana has now seen where I live, what my family look like and photos of Helsby!
One of the teachers was asking me how I was finding teaching. I told her I was enjoying it so much I was going to look into training to be a teacher when I go back to the UK. They loved it!!! I am going to get the Head teacher to write me a glowing reference hopefully!!
We then spent the afternoon taking out Liz’s braids!!! It took a lot longer than we anticipated!
Friday 13th February
I walked up to school today and there sounded like there was a huge party in my classroom! I could here drumming and people dancing, singing and cheering!! I walked in and was greeted by a swarm of children running out of the classroom. Apparently there was going to be football match against another school o they were gearing up for it.
We made Valentines Day cards, which of course they loved. They really do not get much chance to be creative. I had made a card to show them, as it had a pop up heart in it. The majority of the class copied my card pretty much exactly.
About 11 we all walked down to the other school, the kids were singing and clapping on the way down. The other team was all decked out in shiny new football kits, our school had football kits but you could definitely tell the difference.
The boys were looked at as heroes and everyone was swarming around them. When they were playing one of the teachers was starting different songs and chants, so all the girls were going crazy, dancing, clapping and singing. The girls dancing put even me to shame, they certainly know how to ‘shake their booty”!! The atmosphere was amazing and it still surprises and astounds me when groups of people spontaneously break into this amazing dancing. Every Ghanaian seems to have this innate rhythm and can make music out of old pot and plastic bottles!!
I came back to the home base, all the new volunteers were going away for the weekend. So it was just 5 of the old volunteers. Melody, Peace and God’s Way came over, we listened to music, danced in the rain to Scissor Sisters, watched some very toned men do some carpentry on the well, watched Dela wind Joe up to the point that he pouted like a 6 year old and went and sulked in the corner of the garden. Basically I did nothing and it was great!
Melody is the cutest child ever, she is about 3 years old and has the most infectious giggle and sprit ever. I really want to bring her home!
In the evening, Marcella, Chris, Brenda, Robin and I sat and watched The Bee Movie with Peace, Melody, KK, God’s Way, Kofi, and 2 of the cats! It was so cute, it was like being a very large dysfunctional family! Melody fell asleep on my lap half way through the movie.
Saturday February 14th
Liz and I were up at 6.30am to go and watch some of the teachers from her school play football, they ended up winning and we went and got some palm wine and banku. We literally walked to this shack at the side of the road with a palm leaf roof and drank palm wine out of some hollowed out seeds that had been made into bowls at 10am on a Saturday! When in Ghana……
We were talking about nicknames that people had. When you have a nickname this is sort of an insulting name that you have. People also have a ‘guy’ name which would be like Joss for Jocelyn. Other examples were ‘ Brown paper’ which is when someone has lots of money, as they carry it around in a brown paper bag. If you area a cheater then you are nicknamed Spider as there is a story about the spider who cheats. Tony’s nickname is Assistant Headmaster because he has a big head, but there is another guy that has a bigger head, so he was demoted to Assistant Headmaster. Julius’ nickname was Senior because he is so tall and looks older. We worked out that I was the oldest of the group, so I was nicknamed Grandma!!
It rained in the afternoon again while I was playing football with KK, Kofi and God’s Way. We also played piggy in the middle.
It was just a perfect Saturday afternoon, getting muddy, cooling off in the rain, playing with Melody and just relaxing at the homebase. KK had also bought me some chocolate with Valentines Day!
We all went to Malezia to celebrate Valentines day, it is huge here, people party on the same scale as we would at New Year. We all dressed in red and walked down into town.
The beginning of the night was pretty quiet. Liz and I decided to do shots of the local gin, it took us about 20 minutes to order as the guy could not understand us and then forgot what we ordered. We finally got the drinks and it worked out at about 30p for 4 shots of gin!!!!
The club started to liven up and there was lots of dancing! There was also lots of grabbing, Ghanaian men are not shy!!
Then all the power went out in the whole town but fortunately Malezia had a generator so it didn’t stop the party. The town was so busy though, there were even women out partying with their babies on their back!
I also peed outside for the first time! There was ‘four walls’ for the bathroom, so Brenda and I went outside, but there was a huge group of men there so we didn’t fancy it. We went out the front and walked to find a dark quiet spot. Some guy came up and started walking and chatting with us, we had to discreetly get rid of him. It is so funny because people are not shy about peeing in public. I have literally had Jennifer in the middle of her homework, just walk off a couple of paces, lift her skirt up and pee in front of everyone. This is definitely not one the Ghanaian customs I will be taking up!
When we got back into the club, I was greeted by a chorus of ‘Grandma, Where have you been?’ My nickname had some how managed to get out to practically half the club!
We got back about 2am and had to wake Alpha, the Night Guard up to let us in. I felt like a naughty school girl coming in late!
My first proper experience of a Ghanaian club was fun and interesting but the groping got a bit too much!
Monday 16th February
Today I attempted to teach the kids about capital and small letters, full stops and commas. They sort of got it but I think I will need to go over it again with them.
I had also made some toy for them from half a plastic bottle, a piece of string and scrunched up piece of paper. They loved it!!! Lucy, my teacher even wanted one to take home for her son.
In the afternoon I just chilled around the homebase, Melody came over after school and I made one of the plastic bottle toys for her also. Marcella, one of the other volunteers in her early 30’s enjoyed it more though!
Tuesday 17th February
I did picture dictionaries with the kids today, they really enjoyed it, they never really get a chance to be creative in their learning as they learn everything by rote.
The kids crowded around me at break time telling me that I wasn’t allowed to leave and that I should take them all with them.
I had a a really long conversation with Lucy about caning at school and explained that if that happened in the UK, you would be sent to prison. It is so hard to see, I understand that it is their culture but it doesn’t make it any easier to see. Lucy said that if you spare the rod then you spoil the child. She said that some children are so stubborn that you have to cane them, I can slightly understand with some of the kids, especially the naughty boys. But a teacher from the other class came in and was just caning kids because their uniforms were slightly ripped, and other stupid reasons. I think that the fact that the kids even wear uniforms when they have so little is amazing.
We also talked about the fact that kids will just come up to you and are so trusting, there seems to be no ‘stranger danger’ concept here like there is in the UK and US. In a way it makes me sad that we have come to that, that every person is viewed suspiciously until proved otherwise.
I was also talking to Lucy about flying and what plane are like, she was asking if they were like lorries and were I had travelled to. She was pretty amazed at how much travelling I had done.
We also discussed some of the behavior of the kids. There are a couple who are really smart but cause trouble, because they finish their work quickly and get bored. I spoke to Lucy about this, and she is looking at moving them to a higher class next term.
Some of these kids have such potential and I know with the right encouragement they could do whatever they set their minds too.
On the way home I walked past Bertha, who has made a skirt for me and she called me in and said she had something for me. She had a bushel of bananas for me, which was so sweet!!
Liz and I went into town, typically when you walk through town you get people hissing at you to get your attention or calling at you to go over. We decided that we would go and talk to every person that did this to us! We both got several marriage proposals, lots of new phone numbers. One guy said he wanted to marry me before I left, I told him I was leaving on Thursday and that he couldn’t afford my dowry, he found this pretty funny!
Wednesday February 18th
2nd to last day at placement! I had asked the Headteacher to do me a letter of reference, which he had, so I nearly cried in his office as it was so lovely.
I was teaching the kids about different verbs and completely had one of those moments. They were all sitting there copying off the board and writing out sentences, it really struck me how much I am going to miss the kids and how such a huge part of my daily life they have become. I have been in this Ghana bubble, just teaching a few hours a day, mooching around town, not checking emails, relaxing and just generally not stressing about anything. The bubble is going to burst soon and I will have to go back to working 9-5, having to be on time for things, having to integrate into using technology, computers, my mobile again. And I just don’t want to! I am excited to figure out my ‘new career’ but I know it is going to be such a huge culture shock.
Sampson one of my kids at break told me that he liked me and asked me not to leave. The kids all wanted to be packed in my bag to come back to the UK with me. A couple of them had brought me ice cream and biscuits, and then I was given another bushel of bananas from all the teachers as I would be leaving tomorrow.
The kids here are so amazing and yes they can be bratty and fight just like kids in the UK but things seem so much more simple and laidback here. They don’t care if they have the latest pair of trainers, they are more concerned if they have a pencil or an exercise book to do their school work in.
My last day at placement tomorrow is going to be so tough!!
Thursday February 19th
Last day at placement! ;( I walked into the school land they were all practicing marching for Independence Day. We watched that for about 20 minutes and then everyone went back to their classrooms.
I did a quiz with them all testing them on everything I had taught. I gave out sweets to the people that got the answers right. I could not believe how many people remembered everything. Most of the boys that never answer questions knew all the answers… bribery goes a long way!!! It made me so happy that that actually understood and had learnt things from me. I wish they had let me know sooner though!
We then played pin the tail on the donkey and some balloon games.
I also gave them all photos of themselves that I had taken and glued onto the weavings that they had made. They loved it!
Loads of the kids had brought me oranges and bananas and nuts, it was so sweet. During break I videoed the kids singing the songs I had taught them, they were sooooo cute!
Then the time came for me leave and several of the kids burst in to tears, which completely set me off. Its amazing how in such a short time, you can get so attached to the children.
Liz and I set off for our mammoth journey to Mole National Park. We left Hohoe at about 2pm and got a tro-tro to Accra, then a super posh bus to Kumasi. The bus had air-conditioning and reclining seats! We got into Kumasi about 12. We hadn’t booked a hotel but fortunately had made friends with the girl sitting behind us so she took us to a hotel near her house. She was so lovely, she wouldn’t let us pay for the taxi and was a god send as we weren’t really sure where to stay!
Friday 20th February
We got up at about 5am and Theresa met us and took us to the bus station. We had just missed a bus so had to wait 3 hours for the next one to fill up. That’s the thing in Ghana buses leave when they are full, so sometimes you get lucky, other times you are waiting for a very long time!
We finally left about 10am and started the journey to Tamale. This took about 7 hours and with the fact that we left late meant we missed the one bus to Mole National Park.
We met a Peace Corp Volunteer who had been in Ghana for 17 months already. Having been here that long you would thing he was used to Ghana time and the fact things never run smoothly. The bus driver kept stopping and this volunteer was getting so worked up about it all. It really gave me an insight to I used to be like and the US and UK is like. There was nothing we could do about it, there was no point in getting worked up… you just need to ‘go with the flow!’
We managed to get a taxi to take us after arguing the price down from 300 cedi to 90 cedi we set off again!
The road to Mole is the dustiest, bumpiest, bone jarring road ever. The taxi was pretty beat up anyway and the rattling was so loud it made my ears ring!
By this point it had started to get dark and then the taxi driver took a wrong turn. It was a pretty much make or break moment. We had been traveling for so long and we just wanted to get there. I turned and looks at Liz and she was covered in a bout an inch of dust and dirt, we just completely broke down in to fits of hysterics!! It was one of those moments that you have to laugh about it otherwise you will just cry!
We finally got to the motel at about 10.30 but the bar was closed and so was the restaurant. We had been eating digestive biscuits and bananas for the past day and half. We managed to get a beer, have a quick bucket shower and headed to bed.
Saturday 21st February
We got up for a guided tour at 7am and went off in a group of about 8 people to see some wildlife. About 45 minutes into the walk we came across an elephant!!!! We were literally about 25m away from this huge elephant, then another came along. This one had been in a fight and had a broken tusk. It was pretty amazing to be that close to a real life wild elephant. What made the experience slightly more surreal was that the Guides mobile phone kept going off and he was shouting down the phone, the elephants just mooched around and didn’t seem bothered at all.
We walked on a bit further to a watering hole and there were 4 elephants just chilling in the middle!
We also saw antelope, baboons, monkeys and the tops of a couple of crocodiles!
We just sat by the pool for the rest of the day because we had traveled so much yesterday.
Sunday 22nd February
We got up to get the one and only bus that leaves Mole at 4am and got back to Tamale about 8.30. We got another bus to Kumasi at about 10 and finally got into Kumasi at 4.30. Theresa – our angel - came and met us at the station and took us back to hers. She had cooked a meal for us and insisted that we stay with her.
Her house had a large living room/dining area, the kitchen was outside and there were 2 bedrooms, form what I could tell. Off the kitchen was a really small room, that had a flushing toilet in and a shower fixture on the wall. There was no door to the ‘bathroom’ but I was pretty glad that there was evening a western style toilet!
We met up with Akos’ brother who lives in Kumasi and went for a few drinks outside a pub. It then started to rain and there were huge bolts of lighting so we were dancing in the rain. It was so much fun!
Monday 23rd February
So after 2 hours of sleep we were up at 3am to go and get a bus that took us straight from Kumasi to Hohoe.
Theresa’s mum gave me a 5 cedi phone card to call them when we got home, they also made breakfast for us. Theresa had asked me a couple of times what church I went to and said that I should look up her church when I get back to the UK. I kept expecting her to ask me to make a donation to her church or ask for something. We literally met her on Friday and she let us stay at her house, fed us, paid for taxis and took us about and wouldn’t accept anything in return. It really struck that this would not happen in the UK or US. It’s kind of sad that I was expecting her to ask for something when really Ghanaians are the most welcoming and hospitable people I have ever met. It is so wonderful that she just opened up her house for 2 random yeovus and took care of us!
The bus left the station at about 5am and then drove off to wait for more passengers. Here we found out that we would wait until the bus filled (not looking likely) or until 8am.
Again we were shown another act of kindness when we asked the driver where we could ‘urinate’ (You have to be pretty specific as to what you are doing as it will depending on where they take you!!) He paid for us to use the bathrooms as well. The stalls were literally tiled stalls with a small drain in the floor. They were right next to a slope that led up to the market so anyone looking down would have seen right in. I went in and there was a guy in the next stall that sort of nodded hello. It was so embarrassing!!
The journey back was pretty good as the bus wasn’t full and the scenery was beautiful. We got back to Hohoe about 3.30. So over the past 4 and half days we spent 44 hours traveling to see 6 elephants!!! It was definitely an adventure and we meet some wonderful people. I probably would not do it again but it really restored my faith in human kindness!
I hung about with Peace, Jennifer, KK and Kofi in the evening. It was so sad to say goodbye to them. Peace and Jennifer walked me to Lips where I was going to meet some people for goodbye drinks.
Tuesday 24th February
So today I leave Hohoe…… It’s so sad… I don’t even want to think about it…..
I am going to go and stay with Sarah so still have about a week and half left in Ghana but I really feel at home in Hohoe. On the way back form the tro-tro station yesterday, we met about 7 people that we knew. I feel so comfortable here and don’t want my Ghana bubble to burst……
Monday, January 26, 2009
Finally managed to blog........
Monday 12th January
So, finally made it to Hohoe!!
The drive from Accra was about a 4-hour drive. The change in scenery was really dramatic. Accra was crazy busy, the traffic was worse than New York. The roads varied from dusty bumpy roads to normal typical dual carriageways. At red lights people would crowd around the van trying to sell us all kinds of things. There were women with huge baskets on their heads just dodging around the traffic weaving in and out of the speeding cars. Apparently it is really hard for us to balance things on our heads because our heads are too slippy! I think we are going to try and prove this theory wrong.
The home base via van is down the bumpy, dusty, whiplash-inducing road because somebody discovered they owned the land that road went through and built a house in the middle of it!!
There are 2 houses, the main house that has the kitchen dining room, and about 4 bedrooms in. The other house, which is literally across the road, has a few more bedrooms and the office and resource centre.
The surrounding area is a pretty rural, dusty road, I mean really dusty roads. There is a surprising amount of greenery though.
In the afternoon we went for a brief walk into town. I felt slightly less self-conscious walking through Hohoe, than I did Darkuman.
I was really surprised at how self-conscious I felt in Accra. I have traveled to quite a few places and really happy to walk around a completely foreign place and not even know the language. But being the only white person in a huge bustling market where you obviously stick out like a sore thumb can be a little - not intimidating but makes you very aware of your skin colour. People are obviously staring at you not in a threatening way but out of curiosity. After living in New York, were there are so many different ethnicities and colurs it is certainly going to take some getting used to.
Sunday was orientation and Monday morning also.
Monday afternoon we went to the market, which sold pretty much everything. There were some beautiful fabrics, which I am going to buy and get made into some nice, light airy tops to wear.
When we got back to the home base we had a group come and do some traditional drumming and dancing, which was amazing!!!! They got us all up dancing which went on for longer than I liked considering the heat!!!
The Internet here is rubbish, so I have taken to typing things on one of the other volunteer’s laptop and then saving it to my pen and uploading it like that. I will try and upload photos but it will take hours!
All the other volunteers are great and we are all getting on really well… it is only day 2…!
Tuesday 13th January
First day at placement. Seeing as I am at school I was a lot more nervous than if I were at a daycare centre – I am somewhat responsible for educating these children!!!
I was given P2 which should be about 8-9 but there is a 12 year old and a couple of 10 year olds also. Lucy my teacher has 26 years of experience, so next to here I feel like a bit of a dud and really doubted what I could actually do to help. There should be 20 kids in my class but as it was the first day back from school, there were about 7. They spent most of the day sorting out the classrooms, putting the desk back and sweeping the dirt floors.
That is one things I should try and describe – the classroom. Basically there are about 5 classrooms in a row inside this basic shed like structure, there are walls that separate each class room but do not reach the roof so any and all noise travels from classroom.
There is one cupboard containing a few battered and ripped text books, the blackboard, which does have the alphabet in Ewe and English painted around it then a few basic learning tools like the maths signs, fractions etc. The floor is a basic dusty dirt floor.
Some of the kid speak really good English others don’t it really varies.
There seems to be a schedule and the teacher said she would bring in the lesson plans and syllabus for me to look over tomorrow. So this all bodes pretty well!!!
I said I would be interested in teaching English, creative arts and also IT. Although how I am supposed to teach this without any computers will be pretty challenging!!
Wednesday 14th January
Scratch all that! I walked in to my classroom today and greeted the teacher, only for her to tell me that she was not going to be in until next Monday!!! Slight panic attack. She showed me where there were in their book. I told her I was slightly overwhelmed by all of this and she said ‘it’s ok, you know how to make notes, you area teacher!!!’
So I tried for about an hour to teach them how to tell the time in English. I was trying to get them to draw the clocks in their books and write out the time in English. They did not get what I wanted them to do at all. I just got so frustrated. A couple of the kids are really smart and they did get it, but others did not even understand me. Towards the end of morning I taught them a song with actions, which they picked up straight away!!!
I came away feeling so frustrated and dejected. I know that I am not going to make any major changes and that it was going to be challenging but I was so disappointed. I think I was more disappointed in myself as I really want to be able to teach the kids something but I just felt like a failure. I am not a teacher and I have no idea of where to start when teaching kids how to tell the time, or the best method of teaching.
I didn’t know what sort of level they were at or what they had done before. The kids here learn by rote. They can read you story from their textbook beautifully but point at certain words or ask them to read something and they can’t. They have memorized the whole book. Their learning style is so different they recognize words, they do not learn phonetics or how to sound out the word.
Walked back to the homebase feeling extremely dejected and had lunch.
After lunch we went to Wli Waterfalls. It was about a 45 minute walk through the forest, then you come to this 400m high waterfall, it was so beautiful! All down the side of the waterfall were thousands of bats, it took me a while to realise they were bats as the sounds they were making just sounded like a flock of seagulls.
I went for a swim in the waterfall, near the base there was this beautiful rainbow and it was sooo windy! We braved walking through the actual waterfall and managed to touch the back of the rock behind it. I now know what it feels like to be in a monsoon!
I just sort of stood there in the waterfall which this water beating down on my back not really being able to see anything but thinking oh my goodness, I am standing in a waterfall and I am in Ghana! It was such a stunning once in a life time experience, that I know for certain will never happen again… well maybe who knows!
The only bad experience was that in all the excitement, I bashed my toe and nearly ripped the whole nail off. Not what you really want in such an environment where your feet are constantly caked in dirt but hey ho!
In the evening I set about furiously planning to do something with the kids for tomorrow, I know I shouldn’t have such high expectations but I just want these kids to have the resources to learn as some of them are so intelligent.
Thursday 15th January
Ok so the game plan was:
• Word of the day – Happy
I got them to tell me what the word meant, what makes them happy and then to write a sentence that makes them happy. (Side note, dancing, birthdays, going
to school, and being with friends makes children from class P2 happy!)
• Alphabet
I spent the night before cutting up 26 plastic bottles and collecting objects that started which each letter of the alphabet. I got the kids to each draw one letter and then attached it to the bottles. I then got them to place the objects in the relevant bottle.
SUCCESS!! They loved it!!
They all got it and could recognize the letters out of order, apart from one girl. This lasted for about an hour. Some of the kids are just so eager to learn and to please you, it’s great!!
We then had break where we did some skipping with a rope that was for the letter R.
Then I tried them with Bingo, this took some explaining as they thought they had to write all the numbers out. Then they finally got it and we muddled through. When they realized they had to shout bingo, they all began shouting it, so much so that the teacher in the next room came over and told them to be quiet.
We sang the song I had taught the day before – this they had actually remembered! So at least they have learnt one thing from me!!!
I can also get them to be quiet when I want. I put my fingers on my lips and just stand there looking angry. And they all mimic me, and sit down! Whohoo!!
I came away feeling so much happier than yesterday. I now have an idea who knows what, what sort of level they are at, who are the trouble makers, who are the clever ones.
Friday 16th January
Today I tried to teach the kids about space and different planets, not quite as successful as yesterday.
Note to self a little bit more harder than yesterday but not as hard as today!!
We all decided to go away for the weekend to Cape Coast. It was about an 8 hour drive. We had to go through Accra and we got stuck in traffic for about 2 hours!
The Hotel we stayed at was called Coconut Grove and is was sooooo nice. It was right on the beach and had a pool. We managed to cram 7 of us into a family room.
Saturday 17th January
We went to Kakum National Park and did the canopy walk. It was about a 20 minute walk and then there were 7 rope bridges from different trees about 14 metres in the air. I am not scared of heights but this was a little bit nerve wracking!!! You are literally on a bridge that is the width of a plank of wood with ropes up to about your chest.
In the afternoon we went to Cape Coast Slave fort and had a tour of the dungeons and castle. It was eerie and beautiful at the same time. I t was hard to believe that such a beautifully place had such horrible history. There were dungeons that would hold up to 400 people with 3 small windows for ventilation and light. There was also a cell for the condemned which had no windows and the people in those cells would receive no water or food. There would be 50 people that would be in the cell and it would be the slaves who tried to fight for their freedom. They would then all be locked in the cell and the door would not be opened until all 50 of the slaves were dead.
It was a pretty eye opening experience and extremely educational.
It was Heathers Birthday so we went out to a sort of club/resort and danced up a storm.
Sunday 17th January
We went to Elmina Castle which was another slave fort. The original use for the caste was trading so the conditions were not as horrendous as the Cape Coast one which was built for the purpose of trading slaves.
We then started the 4 hour drive back to Accra, stopped off a mall – with air conditioning and got pizza!! It was then another 4 hours back to Hohoe.
So it is 5.30am and I am up sitting on the terrace listening to the hundreds of cockerels and chickens that surround the neighborhood. There are so many. I seem to t be waking up at about 5.30 most days, so I normally get up and potter about a bit, watch the sun rise and sort of my lesson plans for the day.
I knew the internet was going to be bad but I did not expect it to be as bad as it was. It literally took me 45 minutes to send 2 emails. Hence why I just started to avoid the internet and have not checked facebook at all despite the mound of notifications I have been sent.
So the update so far…..
Monday 18th January
My teacher was back at placement today, so when I walked in she was teaching them maths. I took this as a really good sign! She then told me she would be in this week and next Monday but away again! I was glad that she was back this week but actually more nervous teaching in front of her than the kids!!! They have a timetable so were doing maths, which was first on the timetable, PE was next so I said I would do PE with them. I am guessing that the timetable is not stuck to as the kids were really excited for PE. I took them outside and played a couple of balls games with them and skipping. Obviously they got excited and got a bit rowdy which is so difficult when all the classrooms are linked and open air and is disturbs the other children.
After break I read them Dumbo and got them to draw some pictures. I don’t think they fully understood the story but definitely got a laugh out of Dumbo’s big ears.
One thing that did happen today was that I saw my first caning. Over here they still use caning, for some kids jus the sight of the teacher banging it on the table is enough to make the all sit down. My teacher only half heartedly caned them but it was still shocking. The boy knew what was about to happen so ran around the classroom away from her while she chased him with it. He was laughing as he ran so it seems my class does not really fear the cane, as from what I saw they put their hand up in the air and she attempts to hit them.
Still it was shocking to see and definitely not something I will be doing!!!
In the afternoon I went to the internet to try and send emails but gave up after only being able to send 2 in 45 minutes. I was looking at a small stall on the side of the road which had some jewelry and a drum for sale. One of my personal goals this trip is to learn to drum. I asked the guy who owned the store if he knew anyone who could teach me drumming and he said he would! Score! I am on my way to achieving one of my goals!
Heather, Emily and I then went for a fanta at a chop bar. There was a man who must have been about 50ish in there. He asked if I was married. This is a very typically question. I said I had a boyfriend and said I needed a man-friend not a boyfriend and went off to prepare. Fortunately he didn’t come back!!
Tuesday January 20th
Placement went really well today. I had some maths colour by numbers for them. The sums were a little too easy for them but the concept of doing the sums and what ever the number was corresponding to a certain colour got a little getting used to for them but they seemed to enjoy it. They knew most of the colours but did not know grey – they kept saying green, or purple – they call it violet.
I then tried to teach them the simple present tense. Some kids got it, some did not at all.
I think if everyday at placement could be like today, it would be good. It was just the right amount of challenge, frustration, achievement and fun that made me come away feeling happy and motivated.
Liz had also decided to get her hair braided to I dropped her off at the salon I had mine done.
In the afternoon I went for my first drumming lesson! Excitement! Jojo my drumming teacher took me to be introduced to his mum at her shop then we went back to his house. It went pretty well. I can do the beats, but then when I change the beat and rhythm I found it really difficult to do the previous beat! I was talking to Jojo about when I would have lessons, how long they would be and how much they would be. He would not accept any money at all for the lessons!
His mum was back at the house when we had finished and she was telling be about how I think it is her brother who has died and it is his funeral this Saturday. She invited me to the celebrations on Friday. They were going to pick the body up on Friday and then the actual funeral is on Saturday. Because her brother was only young, on Friday I have to wear red. If it is an elder then you wear white. The funerals in Ghana are more like celebrations of the persons life and Jojo said there would be drumming and dancing. I am really looking forward to seeing the differences.
I went to check on how Liz’s hair was getting on, she still had a fair amount to do, so Jojo, Alex his friend and I just chilled at the salon. They put the inauguration of Obama. Who can say that they saw the first black president of the US being inaugurated while sitting in a hair salon in Ghana!!!
In the evening we had High Life dancing which was a bit like basic salsa steps to lively African music.
Wednesday January 21st
At placement today, I went over the colours and did bingo with the kids. I also finished of the simple present tense.
I then taught them about information as part of their Information Communication Technology class. Again this was on the timetable but the kids had never been taught it as the teacher had no idea about any of it. This was a success. They got everything!!! I was so proud! Whether they remember any of it is another thing but I will test them all on Friday!
I went for my second drumming lesson. Jojo gave me some banku and pine nut soup. Banku is like a slightly sour tasting uncooked dough, that you dip in the soup. It was pretty good, an acquired taste but good. His family is so lovely and so welcoming. They ask all about me and my life. I also found out that a family member who is in the UK is coming back for the funeral so that should be interesting also.
Everyone is so friendly here. I love it! Everywhere you go kids are shouting ‘Yeovu’ and waving it you. When (if!?) if come back I will be waving at the kids and asking people how they are and know I will get no response and just be glared at, as if I am a crazy women. The children will come up to you and ask your name, how old you are, where you are from. Where as the adults ask where are you going, where are you coming from. I love it. I love the fact I can walk into town by myself, make 4 new friends and just chat to random people. I think we all know this is my specialty!
Thursday January 22nd.
We didn’t go to placement today, we went to Lipke Caves instead. It was a pretty arduous hike up to the caves up pretty steep hills. What made it worse was the fact that come of the local community practically skipped past us on the way up in their flip flops!
There were 7 caves in total, I was going to opt out of them and just sit and take in the scenery however we followed them down to some of them and had to go as there was no other way out. So after a lot of scrambling, climbing down rope, up ropes along cliff edges holding onto nothing but a wire, we were done.
The farming that is done here is slash and burn agriculture. In that during the dry season they will burn all the old crops to make way for the new ones in the wet season. So when we finally came out of the caves. There was this horrendously loud crackling that sounded like gun fire. When I looked out across the hills slightly closer than I wanted were huge flames and smoke where they were burning the crops. So we made a hasty retreat back down the hill. We didn’t want roasted Yeovu for dinner – the other white meat!
I went into town to find some wood to do printing with my kids tomorrow. I met a few people knew, then bumped into Jojo and went back to his house and had a chat with his mum where she fed me plantain chips. They are so welcoming, its lovely.
On the way back to the home base, there were 2 kids aged about 7 and an adult singing songs. This particular song they were singing was…... jingle bells. The kids were drumming using sticks and the adult had a huge upright stick of bamboo and was banging it with the side of his machete!! Only in Ghana will you see people playing jingle bells in January with sticks, bamboo and a machete!!!
There are some kids that live in the house behind the CCS house that I have been helping with their reading. Peace is 16 and her brother God’s Way is 15. God’s Way wants to be a Doctor and has his exams in April, so I will be helping him with maths and science…. Well, I will try to!
I have been helping Peace with her English, we normally sit and she reads out loud to me, any words she doesn’t know she writes down, I tell her the meaning and then test her on them the next day. It is so great to be with these kids who actually want to learn.
Quite a few of the volunteers are leaving tomorrow, so there will only be about 12 of us in the house as opposed to 21 which there has been… oh the sadness……
Friday 23rd January
I was sooo proud of my kids today!!!! I went over the stuff I did with them about Information and they remembered it all!
I was teaching them about patterns. I was drawing things like square, circle, square circle etc and they had to tell me if it was a pattern of not. It really took them a while to get it. With there only be a 50% chance of then getting it wrong, I kept thinking they understood it but then realized they were just good guesses! I was getting them to draw their own pattern and they were just copying the patterns I had done off the board.
After they had finished the worksheet, we made printing blocks. It was basically a block of wood and I had cut out some shape that they had to glue on. They loved it!!! I have never had my classroom so quiet because of the concentration they all had. There were kids from other classrooms peering in the windows watching what they were doing!
Towards the end of the lesson, I was drawing patterns on the board and getting them to shout out what I should draw next and they were shouting out the right answers!!! I was so proud of them! I was so excited that they understood and they got excited because I was excited!
In the afternoon I met up with Jojo, my drumming teacher. His Uncle had died and the funeral was to be on Saturday. This meant they had to pick the body up from the mortuary. Because he Uncle was only 37, everyone had to wear red. If is an older person, then everyone would have had to wear white. We walked down following the stream of ‘friends an sympathizers’ in red dresses, t-shirts, bandanas, pretty much anything and everything. When we got to the mortuary there must have been at least 200 people milling around. Then a brass band appeared, there were drums, people ringing bells, the atmosphere was so chaotic and noisy, full of people laughing, dancing and singing. It was a very stark contrast to a UK funeral. The body was put in a ambulance and taken through town to where he lived. The noisy stream of people danced through the town with the body, collecting more people.
Before this, I liked Ghana, but going to this funeral has really made me fall in love with Ghana. I was so amazed by the way that Ghanaians embrace life with so much enthusiasm and passion. Everyone was waving to me and welcoming me into the parade. I did not see one person crying, they were truly celebrating his life. When I die I want a funeral like this!!!
W walked back to his house, where I got hauled in to the back of a pick up truck and we drove back to JoJo’s house. At his house there were marquees and chairs put up on the street with a huge sound system and photos of his Uncle.
It was such an amazing and unique experience and a fantastic insight to Ghanaian culture!! Definitely the best funeral I have been to!!
Saturday 24th January
We went to the bed factory to make our own beads. We made one out of powdered glass and 2 out of transparent glass. It is not as easy as it looked!! It was really good fun though and interesting to watch the whole process! It was even more fun to buy the necklaces and bracelets afterwards!
We then went to our hotel that we had booked by Lake Volta. Lake Volta is a manmade lake. Our Hotel , despite being in the moderate section was definitely not as nice as Coconut Grove, from last weekend, so we went for a wander round and went for drinks and dinner at some other hotels that were right on the lakeside.
We made some friends and went to a bar called Last Hour!!! It was full of guys dancing - I mean seriously dancing, they were amazing, this one guy was doing a mixture of break dancing, vibrating, traditional dancing everything. Unfortunately he took a bit of a shine to me and insisting on leaning over my chair, talking to me and dripping his sweat all over me! Ergh! It was good fun though!
Sunday 25th January
We had a super relaxing day, We went back to Aylo’s Bay and sat on the deck on the lake. We pretty much just ate, drank, read and relaxed.
Then Heather, Isaac and I went for a canoe along the lake and around an island.
So, finally made it to Hohoe!!
The drive from Accra was about a 4-hour drive. The change in scenery was really dramatic. Accra was crazy busy, the traffic was worse than New York. The roads varied from dusty bumpy roads to normal typical dual carriageways. At red lights people would crowd around the van trying to sell us all kinds of things. There were women with huge baskets on their heads just dodging around the traffic weaving in and out of the speeding cars. Apparently it is really hard for us to balance things on our heads because our heads are too slippy! I think we are going to try and prove this theory wrong.
The home base via van is down the bumpy, dusty, whiplash-inducing road because somebody discovered they owned the land that road went through and built a house in the middle of it!!
There are 2 houses, the main house that has the kitchen dining room, and about 4 bedrooms in. The other house, which is literally across the road, has a few more bedrooms and the office and resource centre.
The surrounding area is a pretty rural, dusty road, I mean really dusty roads. There is a surprising amount of greenery though.
In the afternoon we went for a brief walk into town. I felt slightly less self-conscious walking through Hohoe, than I did Darkuman.
I was really surprised at how self-conscious I felt in Accra. I have traveled to quite a few places and really happy to walk around a completely foreign place and not even know the language. But being the only white person in a huge bustling market where you obviously stick out like a sore thumb can be a little - not intimidating but makes you very aware of your skin colour. People are obviously staring at you not in a threatening way but out of curiosity. After living in New York, were there are so many different ethnicities and colurs it is certainly going to take some getting used to.
Sunday was orientation and Monday morning also.
Monday afternoon we went to the market, which sold pretty much everything. There were some beautiful fabrics, which I am going to buy and get made into some nice, light airy tops to wear.
When we got back to the home base we had a group come and do some traditional drumming and dancing, which was amazing!!!! They got us all up dancing which went on for longer than I liked considering the heat!!!
The Internet here is rubbish, so I have taken to typing things on one of the other volunteer’s laptop and then saving it to my pen and uploading it like that. I will try and upload photos but it will take hours!
All the other volunteers are great and we are all getting on really well… it is only day 2…!
Tuesday 13th January
First day at placement. Seeing as I am at school I was a lot more nervous than if I were at a daycare centre – I am somewhat responsible for educating these children!!!
I was given P2 which should be about 8-9 but there is a 12 year old and a couple of 10 year olds also. Lucy my teacher has 26 years of experience, so next to here I feel like a bit of a dud and really doubted what I could actually do to help. There should be 20 kids in my class but as it was the first day back from school, there were about 7. They spent most of the day sorting out the classrooms, putting the desk back and sweeping the dirt floors.
That is one things I should try and describe – the classroom. Basically there are about 5 classrooms in a row inside this basic shed like structure, there are walls that separate each class room but do not reach the roof so any and all noise travels from classroom.
There is one cupboard containing a few battered and ripped text books, the blackboard, which does have the alphabet in Ewe and English painted around it then a few basic learning tools like the maths signs, fractions etc. The floor is a basic dusty dirt floor.
Some of the kid speak really good English others don’t it really varies.
There seems to be a schedule and the teacher said she would bring in the lesson plans and syllabus for me to look over tomorrow. So this all bodes pretty well!!!
I said I would be interested in teaching English, creative arts and also IT. Although how I am supposed to teach this without any computers will be pretty challenging!!
Wednesday 14th January
Scratch all that! I walked in to my classroom today and greeted the teacher, only for her to tell me that she was not going to be in until next Monday!!! Slight panic attack. She showed me where there were in their book. I told her I was slightly overwhelmed by all of this and she said ‘it’s ok, you know how to make notes, you area teacher!!!’
So I tried for about an hour to teach them how to tell the time in English. I was trying to get them to draw the clocks in their books and write out the time in English. They did not get what I wanted them to do at all. I just got so frustrated. A couple of the kids are really smart and they did get it, but others did not even understand me. Towards the end of morning I taught them a song with actions, which they picked up straight away!!!
I came away feeling so frustrated and dejected. I know that I am not going to make any major changes and that it was going to be challenging but I was so disappointed. I think I was more disappointed in myself as I really want to be able to teach the kids something but I just felt like a failure. I am not a teacher and I have no idea of where to start when teaching kids how to tell the time, or the best method of teaching.
I didn’t know what sort of level they were at or what they had done before. The kids here learn by rote. They can read you story from their textbook beautifully but point at certain words or ask them to read something and they can’t. They have memorized the whole book. Their learning style is so different they recognize words, they do not learn phonetics or how to sound out the word.
Walked back to the homebase feeling extremely dejected and had lunch.
After lunch we went to Wli Waterfalls. It was about a 45 minute walk through the forest, then you come to this 400m high waterfall, it was so beautiful! All down the side of the waterfall were thousands of bats, it took me a while to realise they were bats as the sounds they were making just sounded like a flock of seagulls.
I went for a swim in the waterfall, near the base there was this beautiful rainbow and it was sooo windy! We braved walking through the actual waterfall and managed to touch the back of the rock behind it. I now know what it feels like to be in a monsoon!
I just sort of stood there in the waterfall which this water beating down on my back not really being able to see anything but thinking oh my goodness, I am standing in a waterfall and I am in Ghana! It was such a stunning once in a life time experience, that I know for certain will never happen again… well maybe who knows!
The only bad experience was that in all the excitement, I bashed my toe and nearly ripped the whole nail off. Not what you really want in such an environment where your feet are constantly caked in dirt but hey ho!
In the evening I set about furiously planning to do something with the kids for tomorrow, I know I shouldn’t have such high expectations but I just want these kids to have the resources to learn as some of them are so intelligent.
Thursday 15th January
Ok so the game plan was:
• Word of the day – Happy
I got them to tell me what the word meant, what makes them happy and then to write a sentence that makes them happy. (Side note, dancing, birthdays, going
to school, and being with friends makes children from class P2 happy!)
• Alphabet
I spent the night before cutting up 26 plastic bottles and collecting objects that started which each letter of the alphabet. I got the kids to each draw one letter and then attached it to the bottles. I then got them to place the objects in the relevant bottle.
SUCCESS!! They loved it!!
They all got it and could recognize the letters out of order, apart from one girl. This lasted for about an hour. Some of the kids are just so eager to learn and to please you, it’s great!!
We then had break where we did some skipping with a rope that was for the letter R.
Then I tried them with Bingo, this took some explaining as they thought they had to write all the numbers out. Then they finally got it and we muddled through. When they realized they had to shout bingo, they all began shouting it, so much so that the teacher in the next room came over and told them to be quiet.
We sang the song I had taught the day before – this they had actually remembered! So at least they have learnt one thing from me!!!
I can also get them to be quiet when I want. I put my fingers on my lips and just stand there looking angry. And they all mimic me, and sit down! Whohoo!!
I came away feeling so much happier than yesterday. I now have an idea who knows what, what sort of level they are at, who are the trouble makers, who are the clever ones.
Friday 16th January
Today I tried to teach the kids about space and different planets, not quite as successful as yesterday.
Note to self a little bit more harder than yesterday but not as hard as today!!
We all decided to go away for the weekend to Cape Coast. It was about an 8 hour drive. We had to go through Accra and we got stuck in traffic for about 2 hours!
The Hotel we stayed at was called Coconut Grove and is was sooooo nice. It was right on the beach and had a pool. We managed to cram 7 of us into a family room.
Saturday 17th January
We went to Kakum National Park and did the canopy walk. It was about a 20 minute walk and then there were 7 rope bridges from different trees about 14 metres in the air. I am not scared of heights but this was a little bit nerve wracking!!! You are literally on a bridge that is the width of a plank of wood with ropes up to about your chest.
In the afternoon we went to Cape Coast Slave fort and had a tour of the dungeons and castle. It was eerie and beautiful at the same time. I t was hard to believe that such a beautifully place had such horrible history. There were dungeons that would hold up to 400 people with 3 small windows for ventilation and light. There was also a cell for the condemned which had no windows and the people in those cells would receive no water or food. There would be 50 people that would be in the cell and it would be the slaves who tried to fight for their freedom. They would then all be locked in the cell and the door would not be opened until all 50 of the slaves were dead.
It was a pretty eye opening experience and extremely educational.
It was Heathers Birthday so we went out to a sort of club/resort and danced up a storm.
Sunday 17th January
We went to Elmina Castle which was another slave fort. The original use for the caste was trading so the conditions were not as horrendous as the Cape Coast one which was built for the purpose of trading slaves.
We then started the 4 hour drive back to Accra, stopped off a mall – with air conditioning and got pizza!! It was then another 4 hours back to Hohoe.
So it is 5.30am and I am up sitting on the terrace listening to the hundreds of cockerels and chickens that surround the neighborhood. There are so many. I seem to t be waking up at about 5.30 most days, so I normally get up and potter about a bit, watch the sun rise and sort of my lesson plans for the day.
I knew the internet was going to be bad but I did not expect it to be as bad as it was. It literally took me 45 minutes to send 2 emails. Hence why I just started to avoid the internet and have not checked facebook at all despite the mound of notifications I have been sent.
So the update so far…..
Monday 18th January
My teacher was back at placement today, so when I walked in she was teaching them maths. I took this as a really good sign! She then told me she would be in this week and next Monday but away again! I was glad that she was back this week but actually more nervous teaching in front of her than the kids!!! They have a timetable so were doing maths, which was first on the timetable, PE was next so I said I would do PE with them. I am guessing that the timetable is not stuck to as the kids were really excited for PE. I took them outside and played a couple of balls games with them and skipping. Obviously they got excited and got a bit rowdy which is so difficult when all the classrooms are linked and open air and is disturbs the other children.
After break I read them Dumbo and got them to draw some pictures. I don’t think they fully understood the story but definitely got a laugh out of Dumbo’s big ears.
One thing that did happen today was that I saw my first caning. Over here they still use caning, for some kids jus the sight of the teacher banging it on the table is enough to make the all sit down. My teacher only half heartedly caned them but it was still shocking. The boy knew what was about to happen so ran around the classroom away from her while she chased him with it. He was laughing as he ran so it seems my class does not really fear the cane, as from what I saw they put their hand up in the air and she attempts to hit them.
Still it was shocking to see and definitely not something I will be doing!!!
In the afternoon I went to the internet to try and send emails but gave up after only being able to send 2 in 45 minutes. I was looking at a small stall on the side of the road which had some jewelry and a drum for sale. One of my personal goals this trip is to learn to drum. I asked the guy who owned the store if he knew anyone who could teach me drumming and he said he would! Score! I am on my way to achieving one of my goals!
Heather, Emily and I then went for a fanta at a chop bar. There was a man who must have been about 50ish in there. He asked if I was married. This is a very typically question. I said I had a boyfriend and said I needed a man-friend not a boyfriend and went off to prepare. Fortunately he didn’t come back!!
Tuesday January 20th
Placement went really well today. I had some maths colour by numbers for them. The sums were a little too easy for them but the concept of doing the sums and what ever the number was corresponding to a certain colour got a little getting used to for them but they seemed to enjoy it. They knew most of the colours but did not know grey – they kept saying green, or purple – they call it violet.
I then tried to teach them the simple present tense. Some kids got it, some did not at all.
I think if everyday at placement could be like today, it would be good. It was just the right amount of challenge, frustration, achievement and fun that made me come away feeling happy and motivated.
Liz had also decided to get her hair braided to I dropped her off at the salon I had mine done.
In the afternoon I went for my first drumming lesson! Excitement! Jojo my drumming teacher took me to be introduced to his mum at her shop then we went back to his house. It went pretty well. I can do the beats, but then when I change the beat and rhythm I found it really difficult to do the previous beat! I was talking to Jojo about when I would have lessons, how long they would be and how much they would be. He would not accept any money at all for the lessons!
His mum was back at the house when we had finished and she was telling be about how I think it is her brother who has died and it is his funeral this Saturday. She invited me to the celebrations on Friday. They were going to pick the body up on Friday and then the actual funeral is on Saturday. Because her brother was only young, on Friday I have to wear red. If it is an elder then you wear white. The funerals in Ghana are more like celebrations of the persons life and Jojo said there would be drumming and dancing. I am really looking forward to seeing the differences.
I went to check on how Liz’s hair was getting on, she still had a fair amount to do, so Jojo, Alex his friend and I just chilled at the salon. They put the inauguration of Obama. Who can say that they saw the first black president of the US being inaugurated while sitting in a hair salon in Ghana!!!
In the evening we had High Life dancing which was a bit like basic salsa steps to lively African music.
Wednesday January 21st
At placement today, I went over the colours and did bingo with the kids. I also finished of the simple present tense.
I then taught them about information as part of their Information Communication Technology class. Again this was on the timetable but the kids had never been taught it as the teacher had no idea about any of it. This was a success. They got everything!!! I was so proud! Whether they remember any of it is another thing but I will test them all on Friday!
I went for my second drumming lesson. Jojo gave me some banku and pine nut soup. Banku is like a slightly sour tasting uncooked dough, that you dip in the soup. It was pretty good, an acquired taste but good. His family is so lovely and so welcoming. They ask all about me and my life. I also found out that a family member who is in the UK is coming back for the funeral so that should be interesting also.
Everyone is so friendly here. I love it! Everywhere you go kids are shouting ‘Yeovu’ and waving it you. When (if!?) if come back I will be waving at the kids and asking people how they are and know I will get no response and just be glared at, as if I am a crazy women. The children will come up to you and ask your name, how old you are, where you are from. Where as the adults ask where are you going, where are you coming from. I love it. I love the fact I can walk into town by myself, make 4 new friends and just chat to random people. I think we all know this is my specialty!
Thursday January 22nd.
We didn’t go to placement today, we went to Lipke Caves instead. It was a pretty arduous hike up to the caves up pretty steep hills. What made it worse was the fact that come of the local community practically skipped past us on the way up in their flip flops!
There were 7 caves in total, I was going to opt out of them and just sit and take in the scenery however we followed them down to some of them and had to go as there was no other way out. So after a lot of scrambling, climbing down rope, up ropes along cliff edges holding onto nothing but a wire, we were done.
The farming that is done here is slash and burn agriculture. In that during the dry season they will burn all the old crops to make way for the new ones in the wet season. So when we finally came out of the caves. There was this horrendously loud crackling that sounded like gun fire. When I looked out across the hills slightly closer than I wanted were huge flames and smoke where they were burning the crops. So we made a hasty retreat back down the hill. We didn’t want roasted Yeovu for dinner – the other white meat!
I went into town to find some wood to do printing with my kids tomorrow. I met a few people knew, then bumped into Jojo and went back to his house and had a chat with his mum where she fed me plantain chips. They are so welcoming, its lovely.
On the way back to the home base, there were 2 kids aged about 7 and an adult singing songs. This particular song they were singing was…... jingle bells. The kids were drumming using sticks and the adult had a huge upright stick of bamboo and was banging it with the side of his machete!! Only in Ghana will you see people playing jingle bells in January with sticks, bamboo and a machete!!!
There are some kids that live in the house behind the CCS house that I have been helping with their reading. Peace is 16 and her brother God’s Way is 15. God’s Way wants to be a Doctor and has his exams in April, so I will be helping him with maths and science…. Well, I will try to!
I have been helping Peace with her English, we normally sit and she reads out loud to me, any words she doesn’t know she writes down, I tell her the meaning and then test her on them the next day. It is so great to be with these kids who actually want to learn.
Quite a few of the volunteers are leaving tomorrow, so there will only be about 12 of us in the house as opposed to 21 which there has been… oh the sadness……
Friday 23rd January
I was sooo proud of my kids today!!!! I went over the stuff I did with them about Information and they remembered it all!
I was teaching them about patterns. I was drawing things like square, circle, square circle etc and they had to tell me if it was a pattern of not. It really took them a while to get it. With there only be a 50% chance of then getting it wrong, I kept thinking they understood it but then realized they were just good guesses! I was getting them to draw their own pattern and they were just copying the patterns I had done off the board.
After they had finished the worksheet, we made printing blocks. It was basically a block of wood and I had cut out some shape that they had to glue on. They loved it!!! I have never had my classroom so quiet because of the concentration they all had. There were kids from other classrooms peering in the windows watching what they were doing!
Towards the end of the lesson, I was drawing patterns on the board and getting them to shout out what I should draw next and they were shouting out the right answers!!! I was so proud of them! I was so excited that they understood and they got excited because I was excited!
In the afternoon I met up with Jojo, my drumming teacher. His Uncle had died and the funeral was to be on Saturday. This meant they had to pick the body up from the mortuary. Because he Uncle was only 37, everyone had to wear red. If is an older person, then everyone would have had to wear white. We walked down following the stream of ‘friends an sympathizers’ in red dresses, t-shirts, bandanas, pretty much anything and everything. When we got to the mortuary there must have been at least 200 people milling around. Then a brass band appeared, there were drums, people ringing bells, the atmosphere was so chaotic and noisy, full of people laughing, dancing and singing. It was a very stark contrast to a UK funeral. The body was put in a ambulance and taken through town to where he lived. The noisy stream of people danced through the town with the body, collecting more people.
Before this, I liked Ghana, but going to this funeral has really made me fall in love with Ghana. I was so amazed by the way that Ghanaians embrace life with so much enthusiasm and passion. Everyone was waving to me and welcoming me into the parade. I did not see one person crying, they were truly celebrating his life. When I die I want a funeral like this!!!
W walked back to his house, where I got hauled in to the back of a pick up truck and we drove back to JoJo’s house. At his house there were marquees and chairs put up on the street with a huge sound system and photos of his Uncle.
It was such an amazing and unique experience and a fantastic insight to Ghanaian culture!! Definitely the best funeral I have been to!!
Saturday 24th January
We went to the bed factory to make our own beads. We made one out of powdered glass and 2 out of transparent glass. It is not as easy as it looked!! It was really good fun though and interesting to watch the whole process! It was even more fun to buy the necklaces and bracelets afterwards!
We then went to our hotel that we had booked by Lake Volta. Lake Volta is a manmade lake. Our Hotel , despite being in the moderate section was definitely not as nice as Coconut Grove, from last weekend, so we went for a wander round and went for drinks and dinner at some other hotels that were right on the lakeside.
We made some friends and went to a bar called Last Hour!!! It was full of guys dancing - I mean seriously dancing, they were amazing, this one guy was doing a mixture of break dancing, vibrating, traditional dancing everything. Unfortunately he took a bit of a shine to me and insisting on leaning over my chair, talking to me and dripping his sweat all over me! Ergh! It was good fun though!
Sunday 25th January
We had a super relaxing day, We went back to Aylo’s Bay and sat on the deck on the lake. We pretty much just ate, drank, read and relaxed.
Then Heather, Isaac and I went for a canoe along the lake and around an island.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Ghana!
So I made it here! The plane was an hour delayed at Frankfurt but otherwise everything could not have gone more smoothly! The plane from Frankfurt to Accra was huge! It had a downstairs section with about 6 toilets in!!! I have never been in plane that had a downstairs part before!
The hostel is fine basic but fine. There are a couple of guys from Kent and my roommate is from Connecticut.
Today I went for a walk along the main road and bought a Ghanaian simcard.
it was not what I thought Ghana would be like, although I didn't really know what it would be like. It might be because I am in Accra which is a big city but it's crazy busy and the roads seem more dangerous than NYC!
In the afternoon I decided to brave a tro-tro to Kaneshie Market. A tro-tro is a like a mini bus but with a million people packed in and the door hanging off the hinges with guy hanging out of the door shouting where the tro-tro is going.
So I made it ot the market and it was HUGE and completely overwhelming. The different smells, the different fruits and vegetables the people shouting Hi Brunie (white person) all the time. I feel slightly like a celebrity as the kids seems fascinated by my whiteness.
So after drinking my coconut water from my freshly chopped coconut I decided to try and find a tro-tro back.
Which I did courtesy of Sheriff who insisted on giving me his number and his friends. I got on the tro-tro and told the guy where I was going, we tootled along and he told me this was my stop. Assuming that he knew better then I did I got off and began walking in the direction I thought was right. After about 10 minutes I still didn't really recognise anywhere so decided to get in a taxi. I told the taxi driver where I wanted to go and he didn't know. Neither did the 10 or so other people that we asked on the 45 minute drive!!!
I called my roommate who gave us directions and we headed in the right direction. We headed right back to where he had picked me up!!! The hostel would have been another 10 minute walk from where I had doubted myself!
Moral of the story - Jocelyn actually does have a good sense of direction!!
Marriage proposal count - 2
The hostel is fine basic but fine. There are a couple of guys from Kent and my roommate is from Connecticut.
Today I went for a walk along the main road and bought a Ghanaian simcard.
it was not what I thought Ghana would be like, although I didn't really know what it would be like. It might be because I am in Accra which is a big city but it's crazy busy and the roads seem more dangerous than NYC!
In the afternoon I decided to brave a tro-tro to Kaneshie Market. A tro-tro is a like a mini bus but with a million people packed in and the door hanging off the hinges with guy hanging out of the door shouting where the tro-tro is going.
So I made it ot the market and it was HUGE and completely overwhelming. The different smells, the different fruits and vegetables the people shouting Hi Brunie (white person) all the time. I feel slightly like a celebrity as the kids seems fascinated by my whiteness.
So after drinking my coconut water from my freshly chopped coconut I decided to try and find a tro-tro back.
Which I did courtesy of Sheriff who insisted on giving me his number and his friends. I got on the tro-tro and told the guy where I was going, we tootled along and he told me this was my stop. Assuming that he knew better then I did I got off and began walking in the direction I thought was right. After about 10 minutes I still didn't really recognise anywhere so decided to get in a taxi. I told the taxi driver where I wanted to go and he didn't know. Neither did the 10 or so other people that we asked on the 45 minute drive!!!
I called my roommate who gave us directions and we headed in the right direction. We headed right back to where he had picked me up!!! The hostel would have been another 10 minute walk from where I had doubted myself!
Moral of the story - Jocelyn actually does have a good sense of direction!!
Marriage proposal count - 2
Monday, January 05, 2009
2 Days until Ghana!
Well... I know what my placement will be!!!!
Just call me Miss Ellams for the next 6 weeks!!!
"The School was established in September, 1985 to provide quality and affordable basic education to the youth in and around Hohoe in the Hohoe District of the Volta Region. It was founded by the Church Musama Disco and later on taken over by the government of Ghana. It is now managed by the government through the Hohoe District Assembly. Government is the sole financier of the school.
The school currently has about three hundred and thirty two (332) students. They run the following courses; Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Pre Technical, Pre Vocational studies, Religious and Morals studies and Agriculture science. It has a kindergarten, primary one through to six and a junior secondary (junior high) school.
Volunteer Activities / Duties
Teaching conversational English
Teaching simple arithmetic
Teaching rhymes and action songs
Playing games and other outdoor activities
Teaching basic hygiene
Taking the kids to places of interest and events.
Assist teachers by grading papers and organizing learning activities.
Organize projects and activities for the children.
Goals of the Partner Program
Long-Term
Provide free basic education to kids.
Provide pre technical/vocational skills to the kids so as to earn an income if they are not able to further their education.
Short-Term
Expose the children to a culture that is totally different from their own.
Looking for diverse way of teaching the children"
I am so nervous! I knew I would end up a a school and this was the one I was most nervous about. I know I will be fine but I suppose I was just being lazy as I know this will be a challenge for me, which is good! It will be a good learning experience for me! I have been looking into lesson plans and activities already and created a cheesy book with photos of my house, family , life etc to show the kids.
I leave on Wednesday and am staying at a hostel for a couple of days the Crystal Hostel and then start the program on Saturday.
I am so excited to be a long term volunteer again. The last couple of programs I have been a week long, which are great if that is all the time you have. (Rubbish US Holiday allowance!!!)But I am really looking forward to really being able to soak in the culture and build some great relationships.
So I am all packed and ready and just have to sit and twiddle my thumbs for the next 2 days!!!!
Just call me Miss Ellams for the next 6 weeks!!!
"The School was established in September, 1985 to provide quality and affordable basic education to the youth in and around Hohoe in the Hohoe District of the Volta Region. It was founded by the Church Musama Disco and later on taken over by the government of Ghana. It is now managed by the government through the Hohoe District Assembly. Government is the sole financier of the school.
The school currently has about three hundred and thirty two (332) students. They run the following courses; Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Pre Technical, Pre Vocational studies, Religious and Morals studies and Agriculture science. It has a kindergarten, primary one through to six and a junior secondary (junior high) school.
Volunteer Activities / Duties
Teaching conversational English
Teaching simple arithmetic
Teaching rhymes and action songs
Playing games and other outdoor activities
Teaching basic hygiene
Taking the kids to places of interest and events.
Assist teachers by grading papers and organizing learning activities.
Organize projects and activities for the children.
Goals of the Partner Program
Long-Term
Provide free basic education to kids.
Provide pre technical/vocational skills to the kids so as to earn an income if they are not able to further their education.
Short-Term
Expose the children to a culture that is totally different from their own.
Looking for diverse way of teaching the children"
I am so nervous! I knew I would end up a a school and this was the one I was most nervous about. I know I will be fine but I suppose I was just being lazy as I know this will be a challenge for me, which is good! It will be a good learning experience for me! I have been looking into lesson plans and activities already and created a cheesy book with photos of my house, family , life etc to show the kids.
I leave on Wednesday and am staying at a hostel for a couple of days the Crystal Hostel and then start the program on Saturday.
I am so excited to be a long term volunteer again. The last couple of programs I have been a week long, which are great if that is all the time you have. (Rubbish US Holiday allowance!!!)But I am really looking forward to really being able to soak in the culture and build some great relationships.
So I am all packed and ready and just have to sit and twiddle my thumbs for the next 2 days!!!!
Friday, January 02, 2009
Happy New Year!
Well New Year was full of fun and festivities! I went to a Rainbow Party in Huddersfield. You had to chose a colour, wear it and then drink drinks of that colour.
Then we attempted to sing Auld Lang Syne!!!
Then we attempted to sing Auld Lang Syne!!!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Spain and Ghana
So I got back from Spain last week, a week earlier than planned due to the Ghana High Commission, having an 'oversight' and forgetting to sign my visa!!!! Ergh!
Well Spain was great, lots of relaxing, sleeping, walking about and just general mooching.
I went to the Contemporary Art Museum where there was there were dancing robots!
In the evening in the centre there were always lots of street performers including these drummers who so reminded me of Brazil!
.
The weather was pretty cold all of the time and it did rain a bit, there were a couple of nice days though.
One of the nice days
This also gave Ruben the chance to show off his skills.
There were some beautiful sunsets though!
So my next adventure is GHANA!!! I took my 1st malaria table yesterday which means it is 3 weeks until I go!! I can't believe it. I am so excited and can't wait to find out what my placement will be!
I will be travelling for 2 weeks afterwards and these are my tentative plans.....
I will be staying in Hohoe until February 20th, then travel back to Accra.
Then down to Cape Coast for a few days and visiting Kakum National Park.
Then up to Kumasi for a few days,, then its about a 7 hours bus ride to Tamale. Then another 5ish hours to Mole National Park. Then travelling one the bus for 13 hours back to Accra to come back to the UK!!!
Of course this is all completely subject to change once I arrive in Ghana, as I will be there volunteering for 6 weeks, so I may visit some of those places at the weekends but I know I definitely want to visit those places anyway!
Well Spain was great, lots of relaxing, sleeping, walking about and just general mooching.
I went to the Contemporary Art Museum where there was there were dancing robots!
In the evening in the centre there were always lots of street performers including these drummers who so reminded me of Brazil!
.
The weather was pretty cold all of the time and it did rain a bit, there were a couple of nice days though.
One of the nice days
This also gave Ruben the chance to show off his skills.
There were some beautiful sunsets though!
So my next adventure is GHANA!!! I took my 1st malaria table yesterday which means it is 3 weeks until I go!! I can't believe it. I am so excited and can't wait to find out what my placement will be!
I will be travelling for 2 weeks afterwards and these are my tentative plans.....
I will be staying in Hohoe until February 20th, then travel back to Accra.
Then down to Cape Coast for a few days and visiting Kakum National Park.
Then up to Kumasi for a few days,, then its about a 7 hours bus ride to Tamale. Then another 5ish hours to Mole National Park. Then travelling one the bus for 13 hours back to Accra to come back to the UK!!!
Of course this is all completely subject to change once I arrive in Ghana, as I will be there volunteering for 6 weeks, so I may visit some of those places at the weekends but I know I definitely want to visit those places anyway!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Last day at CCS HQ! :(
Well, yesterday was my last day at CCS HQ. Although I didn't cry as much as I did at the staff meeting it was still really emotional!!!
I honestly had no idea that me placing a $275 deposit in 2005 would lead to me have an amazing and life changing experience in Brazil, then lead me to moving to New York to actually work for the organization!
It is crazy to think that my first job straight out of university was a working for this non profit in NYC that does such amazing and inspiring work. I am so proud to have worked with CCS. I remember how I felt when I was in Brazil and the fact that I have been able to facilitate that feeling and experience for over 700 people makes me happy.
The people at CCS are amazing, selfless, passionate and inspiring people who truly believe in what they do and the vision, mission and values of CCS. I know I have been incredibly spoilt here and will NEVER find another work place like this.
Where else can you say oh my job sent me to Costa Rica, Guatemala, Colorado, Toronto...
Professionally, I learnt so much and gained so much experience, I know it will be a great stepping stone for even better things.
Personally, I have grown in confidence, maturity and know that I can pretty much achieve what ever I want!
It was so hard to make the decision to leave but I am ready for my next challenge in life and excited for new opportunities! I have Ghana to look forward to and hopefully lots of exciting opportunities to work in a more creative field.
CCS was just the beginning and has opened up so many doors and I am extremely thankful for that.
This is definitely not good bye CCS or NYC, its just a see you later!!
Don't be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetime, is certain for those who are friends. ~Richard Bach
I honestly had no idea that me placing a $275 deposit in 2005 would lead to me have an amazing and life changing experience in Brazil, then lead me to moving to New York to actually work for the organization!
It is crazy to think that my first job straight out of university was a working for this non profit in NYC that does such amazing and inspiring work. I am so proud to have worked with CCS. I remember how I felt when I was in Brazil and the fact that I have been able to facilitate that feeling and experience for over 700 people makes me happy.
The people at CCS are amazing, selfless, passionate and inspiring people who truly believe in what they do and the vision, mission and values of CCS. I know I have been incredibly spoilt here and will NEVER find another work place like this.
Where else can you say oh my job sent me to Costa Rica, Guatemala, Colorado, Toronto...
Professionally, I learnt so much and gained so much experience, I know it will be a great stepping stone for even better things.
Personally, I have grown in confidence, maturity and know that I can pretty much achieve what ever I want!
It was so hard to make the decision to leave but I am ready for my next challenge in life and excited for new opportunities! I have Ghana to look forward to and hopefully lots of exciting opportunities to work in a more creative field.
CCS was just the beginning and has opened up so many doors and I am extremely thankful for that.
This is definitely not good bye CCS or NYC, its just a see you later!!
Don't be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetime, is certain for those who are friends. ~Richard Bach
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Ghana, Ghana, Ghana
So all I can really think about at the moment is GHANA!
I have been researching what I want to do and where I want to go.
I came across this blog which has some very essential tips
You have to read it!!! Click HERE to read it!
On side note, was at a bar last night, you bought your drink and were given a ticket, you then took your ticket yo the back of the bar, handed it in and..... got a free pizza!!!! I think it is my new favourite bar! I heart the Crocodile Lounge!
Anyway that's all for now, off to go apple picking!
I have been researching what I want to do and where I want to go.
I came across this blog which has some very essential tips
You have to read it!!! Click HERE to read it!
On side note, was at a bar last night, you bought your drink and were given a ticket, you then took your ticket yo the back of the bar, handed it in and..... got a free pizza!!!! I think it is my new favourite bar! I heart the Crocodile Lounge!
Anyway that's all for now, off to go apple picking!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Pole Dancing, Cheese, playboy bunnies and Ghana!!!!
Well.....
Last week Libby and I went to a pole dancing class - it is HARD work!!!
I managed to do a few moves bgot a HUUUUUGE bruise on my leg!
I then went to Wisconsin to a cheese festival. I do also have friend who I met in Costa Rica who lives there but the cheese was a pretty big draw!
The night before said cheese festival we went out fora few beers and dinner.
One of the advertised drinks was PBR (the cheapest beer ever) with a pickled egg in!!!
The main thing the Wisconsin is known for is fried cheese curds, this is cheese.. friend in beer batter... could there be anything worse for you that tastes so good?!
Last weekend some of us from work went out in New Rochelle, who knew New Ro could be so fun!! We went to Silkies The owner claims to have been a play boy bunny and has had the most plastic surgery ever. But she is sooo much fun. We were the only ones in there and we had the juke box on and were singing with a microphone swiftly provided by by Silkie.
But.. the big news - I am going to Ghana!!!! I will be volunteering with CCS in the Volta Region in Hohoe (pronounced Ho-way) in January
Last week Libby and I went to a pole dancing class - it is HARD work!!!
I managed to do a few moves bgot a HUUUUUGE bruise on my leg!
I then went to Wisconsin to a cheese festival. I do also have friend who I met in Costa Rica who lives there but the cheese was a pretty big draw!
The night before said cheese festival we went out fora few beers and dinner.
One of the advertised drinks was PBR (the cheapest beer ever) with a pickled egg in!!!
The main thing the Wisconsin is known for is fried cheese curds, this is cheese.. friend in beer batter... could there be anything worse for you that tastes so good?!
Last weekend some of us from work went out in New Rochelle, who knew New Ro could be so fun!! We went to Silkies The owner claims to have been a play boy bunny and has had the most plastic surgery ever. But she is sooo much fun. We were the only ones in there and we had the juke box on and were singing with a microphone swiftly provided by by Silkie.
But.. the big news - I am going to Ghana!!!! I will be volunteering with CCS in the Volta Region in Hohoe (pronounced Ho-way) in January
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Birthday Party!
So Laura, Cass and I all have birthdays around the same time, so decided to have a joint Birthday party, a joint KIDS birthday party.
Saturday Laura and I spent time filling the piñata
We then baked our Birthday cake
Actual day of the party.....
We had egg and spoon races
...pass the parcel
Pinata
Wizards, Elves and Giants
Birthday cake
Party bags, water ballon name games - that end up bursting on me and LOTS LOTS more!
It was soooo much fun and great way to celebrate me turning quarter of a century!!!
Saturday Laura and I spent time filling the piñata
We then baked our Birthday cake
Actual day of the party.....
We had egg and spoon races
...pass the parcel
Pinata
Wizards, Elves and Giants
Birthday cake
Party bags, water ballon name games - that end up bursting on me and LOTS LOTS more!
It was soooo much fun and great way to celebrate me turning quarter of a century!!!
Monday, September 01, 2008
Brazilian Day!
So this weekend was full of Brazilian festivities! It was BRAZILIAN DAY!
Jon, Jay and I went and checked out Little Brazil and the huge street festival there.
We then wandered into Build Bear Factory I definitely could not get over how you could buy themed outfits, shoes, sun glasses, mobile phone, all kinds for the bear - even boxer shorts!
In the evening, I went to Sounds of Brazil there was a Brazilian Band playing called Banda Eva
They were really good and it was good because it was a small club and we were really close! I even got a photo with some of the band members! they played a reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally long set for at least 2 and half hours!
After them, there was this great drumming band.
It completely reminded me of being back on the streets of Salvador!!!
Jon, Jay and I went and checked out Little Brazil and the huge street festival there.
We then wandered into Build Bear Factory I definitely could not get over how you could buy themed outfits, shoes, sun glasses, mobile phone, all kinds for the bear - even boxer shorts!
In the evening, I went to Sounds of Brazil there was a Brazilian Band playing called Banda Eva
They were really good and it was good because it was a small club and we were really close! I even got a photo with some of the band members! they played a reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally long set for at least 2 and half hours!
After them, there was this great drumming band.
It completely reminded me of being back on the streets of Salvador!!!
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