End of May

Today is Monday May 26th and once again there is no school. I honestly could not tell you what holiday Ghana is celebrating today but it seems as though school is never in session for these kids. I am happy to report the chalkboards are complete! Well, all ten have been constructed. I have yet to buy the paint. Since there is no school today however I plan on going to town to do just that. I cannot wait to see the finished product.
The weekend went by quickly and the orientation was interesting. While we had great discussions and it was nice to spend time with volunteers who had actually been here for almost a year, I have come to the conclusion that I am a bit disappointed with my organization, ICYE. After a the weekend of pondering this however, I decided I can not do much about it now. I do think that it is entirely possible to come to Ghana to volunteer without an organization and without paying expensive fees to an international office and never fully understanding where my money has gone. While I absolutely will encourage others to volunteer, I would also encourage people to think about going on their own terms.
We arrived at the conference center around 8pm on Friday and we have nothing scheduled other than talking and meeting those we did not already know. All day Saturday we were doing activities and discussions about our projects, the kind of impact we think we had on our projects thus far or what we hope to accomplish before leaving. For those that have been here almost one year, we learned what they think they have actually accomplished and what they wish they had done differently. We had a fairly lengthy discussion on discipline in the schools and how every one of us hated the fact that the school authorities used nothing but physical punishment to “fix the problem.” The canning and the being forced to clean up garbage outside (during school hours) might provide a 5 minute solution but it does not solve anything. Yet when we were asked to come up with other ideas for discipline, things we have and have not tried, everything we came up seemed like it too would fail. Yelling at the kids does nothing, as I have found out, taking away breaks and P.E. also does not work because the teachers will not take their breaks to stay behind in the classroom with the kids. There is no detention teacher (I remember the few times I had detention in both middle school and high school, usually for talking too much, and that always worked on me) and everyone wants immediate results, like beating the children. No one wants to wait for change to happen and wait to see if a new form of discipline will actually work. The topic of discipline is just very difficult. Another interesting discussion was about our experiences in Ghana and what we plan to take back home with us. I still have almost 3 months so I choose to have this discussion with myself perhaps in July but it was interesting to listen to those that have been here much longer than I. Each of us are grateful for the experience and for whomever helped us actually get to Africa, that is one thing we all have in common.
Saturday evening I was hanging out with Eva, Sabine and Hannah, all from Germany. They arrived August 2007 and will be leaving in mid July. They had all graduated from secondary school then took a year off before going to a university to come to Africa. I admire what they have done. After just 3 months a part of me is missing home but they have been here for 10 months and they are just out of high school. To me, they are quite brave. I wish I had had the nerve or the courage to do something like that. Over our beers we discussed the positives and negatives of our organization, ICYE, and they gave me some pointers for my next 3 months. They also told me I am not a “typical American,” though I have no idea what they mean by this. Apparently, to Germans, Americans are selfish, arrogant and tightly wound. I found this fascinating. It is rare that a person gets to hear how they are perceived as a nation, from someone of another nationality. I am happy to report that I am Sabine’s first American friend and she is going to remember that not all Americans are not utterly selfish. At least I like to think that I’m not.
After our final thoughts on Sunday morning we headed back into town and I met up with Heather, Leanne, Tony and the driver Duko to go to another football match. Thankfully the rain held off for the game and we had a nice time, though the stadium was filled far beyond capacity. The match was Kumasi verses Accra, major rivalry. Of course I was waving a red and white Kumasi flag, though overall I didn’t really care who won. Still, it was exciting to see how crazy everyone gets during even the littlest foul. I am grateful that they do not sell alcohol at these games because I can only imagine how ugly things could get in an already over excited stadium, crammed FULL of people. Next weekend I will join my friends down to Cape Coast which should be a lot of fun.
I am going to head to town but will write more this week.
Today is Thursday May 29th and I have a cold. Not just a head cold but a whole body cold. How this happened I am not sure but I am missing the luxury of cuddling up on my couch in Seattle, in front of the fireplace and the tv, eating chicken noodle soup…oh well. Soon enough I suppose.
I find that that week has gone by both slowly and quickly but none the less, here we are with the week just about over. On Tuesday I went to work grading class 4 math homework. About half did pretty good and the other half I spent some extra time with this week and now just the entire class understands how to find the area of a square.
I also continued with my sex education class with the vocational school. This week the subject was puberty. While the girls, the boy did not join us this week, did comply an take notes I do not think they were as interested in puberty as they were with menstruation. This may be because they have mostly passed the puberty period and therefore do not really care that much. Next week I begin with sex health and how to protect yourself. When I mentioned bringing condoms to class and demonstrating how to use them correctly, I had the classes attention. What a shock.
The rain/wind storms hit hard the past two days, one completely waking me up at 4 am with me thinking my room would be torn into two, that or I would be hit by lightening. The bolts were so bright and the thunder so loud I swear the storm from right on top of us. Thankfully, my room did not leak too badly and I was able to go back to sleep.
This weekend I will be going to Cape Coast with my friends from the UK and the girls from Canada. It is Heather and Leanne’s last weekend here in Ghana and I plan on spending it with them. Sadly, I have already said goodbye to many friends during my 3 months and it is always a bit sad but then you meet new people and everything works itself out. I have met so many people from all over the world thus far and that is very exciting.
One last thing I want to share before posting this blog…I am going to attempt to write this in a most unbiased form. For a few weeks now an adolescent girl has been hanging out around Columbus (I am referring to the place Columbus, not the pastor, where I live). She clearly has some mental instabilities but seems harmless and sweet. From what I can see and have been told, mental illness is uncommon here and viewed as something no one wants to deal with. At first I saw her every few days but now it seems as though she is living here. I was told that she came from Tema (located near Accra) where her mother lives and was brought to Medoma (the town where I live) to be with her father. Now her father has disserted her and she therefore has become dependent on the church. On Tuesday, while I was teaching my lesson on puberty, I heard her singing, very loudly on the other side of the school wall. I stood on a chair to see her and asked nicely if she could sing more quietly or go sing for someone else since I am teaching. She then pointed at her leg and I saw that she was literally chained to the ground. There was a metal chain wrapped around her leg, with a lock and she had no room to move around. I immediately thought of a dog, a poorly treated dog, and was appalled. This girl is not an animal yet that is the way she was being treated. I was then informed by the vocational school girls that she was chained like this each day since last week and that one of the associate pastors decided to do this. Again, I was shocked. I tried to finish the lesson then went to speak with the girl. She stood there smiling and singing her heart out. Her favorite is Celine Dion and various American pop artists. I smiled at her and said she has a wonderful singing voice, which she does. After school I went to speak to Naomi about the chaining and then I was given the “rundown” on beliefs in Ghana. Naomi told me that Ghanaians believe in evil spirits, little ghosts, and in curses. If you are “not right in the head,” as they refer to mentally unstable people, you are first brought to a hospital to be checked out. If doctors can not determine what is wrong then the person is “diagnosed” as spiritually sick. The girl (who has been called Ellen) was brought to Columbus so the pastor (bishop, prophet) could pray for her and essentially ‘cure’ her. In order to do this the pastor (my host father) ordered her to follow a strict fasting schedule (not sure exactly what it is but something along the lines of 6am to 6pm without food each day) and is heavily prayed for my him and other members of the church. To prevent her from running off or getting in the way of others she is chained behind the school, in the shade however. With time she should defeat the curse or the spiritual evilness within her. Curses usually happen when someone (who already possesses bad spirits) you know is jealous of your accomplishments or of your success and sends evil thoughts and bad spirits into the person in which they wish to curse. From what Naomi tells me, Ellen has not always been “not right in the head” but we have no facts for sure. The fasting is to strengthen her spiritual soul. You eat for your body strength but eating too much weakens your spiritual soul. When you fast, your body uses fats to increase the strength of your spirit and you can better defend yourself against evil spirits. Naomi herself fasts twice a week to build up her spiritual soul. I was also told that it is late at night when the evil spirits are hardest at work and that is why people pray loudly late into the night (and wake me ). The fasting should strengthen Ellen’s soul and spirit and she will eventually be strong enough to defeat the curse, that and the constant prayers of course.
So…what am I suppose to say to that? This is clearly a belief that I know nothing about and find very hard to understand but who am I to tell the church they are wrong? I still believe that it is cruel to chain a human being…I’ll keep you up to date with Ellen’s recovery.
Today I continued working with class 4 and tomorrow I will wrap up puberty with the vocational school. Have a great weekend everyone!

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