Malaria...

Tuesday June 24th, I am at school trying to get started on this week’s blog before break time is over. Another blog, another week completed in Ghana. Yesterday was my official 6 week left mark and I am filled with different emotions. While I am not totally wishing for another 6 months and am truly excited to get home, I do not wish these last 6 weeks to go by any quicker than they are going to. My time in Ghana has been an unbelievable experience and I my journey is coming to an end. Thankfully I still have time to check off my to-do list though I was able to get a few things done this past weekend. I am also happy to report that the young adults group from my wonderful church (UCUCC) is going to give me quite a bit of money to put towards the Columbus preparatory school and orphanage. The young adults group is going to dip into their personal account and I will help them fundraise when I return. While we are still deciding how to best use the money I am fond if the idea of building new desks for the older classes. If you have checked out my pictures website recently, you will see a photo from the exam period and it is clear that the desks provided are much to small for classes 4 and 5. Building new desks should not been too difficult. In addition I would like to provide each student with exercise books and new pencils. If there is any money leftover I would like to accommodate the few children at the orphanage still without a proper mattress. Foam mattresses cost between $15 to $20. I am excited to offer assistance to the school however we decide to spend the money.To once again continue where I left off in the last blog: I spent last Wednesday evening with my friend Jeanette (from Denmark) at her project. She is working in a different town just outside of Kumasi at a rehabilitation center for the disabled. I saw very little of the center Wed. night but on Thursday she took me to the various classrooms. The center is primarily a vocational school. Being a government run center, they are supposed to receive adequate funds to provide necessary materials for the different classes as well as room and board for each student. Jeanette informed me that the government has neglected to give any financial support for the past two years. The center has been running off of strictly donations since then. Even with this being the case, the classrooms seemed well stocked with supplies compared to the vocational students at my school. There was a room for shoe making (I ordered a pair…3 Ghana cedi each!), a room for hair dressing complete with sink, various blow dryers and products of different kinds, a room for sewing, weaving, carpentry and catering though that class does not seem to be in high demand. All of the students are disabled in one way or another but their disabilities are vast in variety. Jeanette serves as a teacher for all other subjects, primarily science and math. Each day she takes certain students (all aged 13 to 25) out of their classes to work on the basics. Since I was there to both observe and be of help, she put me to work. Thursday was her deaf group and she gave me the three oldest boys to work on math. Before I go any further I want to mention the blackboard at the school. The boys stared at me strangely because I seemed very interested in the chalkboard. The board looked more like the chalkboards I am used to and I had to find out what type of paint was used. I spoke with the headmaster and he informed me that it was in fact crushed battery acid mixed with a basic black paint. Well that doesn’t help me one bit. I refuse to use toxic chemicals in an area with so many children so I am just going to live with the faults of the blackboards at my school.After learning about the board, and forcing myself to ignore the fact that I had to come in contact with crushed battery acid, I began my lesson. While these boys were relatively older than the kids I teach at my school, Jeanette told me to stick to basic addition an subtraction. After a while I tried subtraction using borrowing, something they had clearly never done before, but both I and the three boys found this to be fairly simple. I continued and by the end of my lesson I was teaching multiplication. I demonstrated problems like 4x3 by drawing four groups of three objects like circles, apples, hearts etc. I then had them first count the number of objects and then the number of groups and finally count the total number of objects. I really enjoyed working with these boys, and though I was a bit nervous in the beginning and probably used overly exaggerated hand movements, I realized they can understand me. I applauded each time they answered the problem correctly and they rewarded me with huge smiles. After the lesson Jeanette gathered her group and my group together to play a memory game. They students clearly loved this game while Jeanette personally made with the help of former volunteers. After lunch we headed to town and to the cultural center. I had seen an absolutely gorgeous painting of elephants at a watering hole and decided I had to get it but when we came to the stall I was told the painter had just sold it an hour before. He said he could easily paint me another so I will be able to pick that up next week sometime. Friday was another long day. I woke up early to get some washing done, though I admit Naomi helped me quite a bit (hand washing bed sheets is quite the ordeal and I watched in awe as my sister completed the task like it was nothing). Around 10:30 Naomi, her younger sister Adelaide (yes my host father, the bishop, has 4 children and 3 different mothers) and I headed to Kumasi. Adelaide, 13, has been living at Columbus for the past month and left to go back to Accra (she lives with her mother) and to school this past weekend. I wanted to take her out for a fun day before she left. I had a list of things to accomplish before the day was over and our first stop was the Kumasi zoo. Break is over however so I must go and return after school. School is over for the day and I can continue my blog. The Kumasi zoo is both better than what I expected and worse. After paying just 1 cedi, 40 pesewa for the three of us, we walked in and almost tripped over 3 huge peacocks. There are many more animals than I was told but the cages and facility as a whole needs work. We were able to see the whole zoo in an hour though we were taking our time. I felt most sorry for the various chimp and baboon species. They looked so depressed in their cages, though when a group of primary school students arrived at the zoo the chimps became riled up. A woman also walks around selling peanuts that people then take a feed to the monkeys (totally ignoring the signs that say “do no feed the animals.” There was a man hanging out by one of the chimpanzee cages and we began chatting. He is from South Africa and is a cameraman filming a new series on animal planet about rescuing chimpanzees and reintroducing them into the wild. I told him I would look out for not only the show but the chimp named Martha that he and his team are taking out of the zoo confines and are bringing her down to South Africa to a monkey sanctuary. Now I can say that I have met knew a chimp before she became famous. Finally we stopped by the leopard and lion exhibit (though I can hardly call it an exhibit). The poor single leopard is in a cage smaller than my bedroom at home and is all alone. And the lions looked quite underfed if you ask me. After the zoo we headed for the central market to find some fabric for me to get another dress made. I can get cheap cotton fabric for 1.50 Ghana cedi per yard (I need three to make a dress). I then had various other errands to run and it was nice to have company. We had planned on going to Manchyia (and area of town) to visit the Chief’s Palace and Museum (my organization spent time here during orientation but since I missed that week, I have to go myself), but time was ticking and we has to postpone the museum for another day. I also want to visit the Armed Forces Museum at some point (this is right in town across from the post office) but will do that on my own. Before heading back home I treated the girls to pizza at Vienna City (a restaurant/bar/pool hall/casino). Both Naomi and Adelaide had never had pizza before. I ordered a soft drink for each of us, veggie spring rolls and a margarita pizza. It was quite entertaining watching the girls eat pizza, unaware of the hot, stringy cheese and the need to use both hands to separate and eat the pizza. In Ghana it is considered very rude and a traditional crime to do just about anything with your left hand (thankfully I have been excused from this many times, it is hard to remember to wave only with my right hand), and therefore I think Naomi and her sister were having trouble eating the pizza (not wanting to pick the whole thing up at once). Though the bill was somewhat pricey, they were extremely grateful and I was able to share an American dish with them. We quickly headed back to Columbus only so I could grab my backpack, turn around and head back to Kumasi and to “the Palace” to meet Alison, Tony and Jeanette for dinner and a night of relaxing in front of the tv (and the air conditioning). Jeanette and I spent the rest of the weekend with our friends enjoying the use of the kitchen, hot showers and comfy couches. Saturday night the ladies and three two guy friends of ours (plus a visitor from Arizona) went out on the town enjoying wine at a fancy hotel followed by beer and pool. While I am doing things I can very well enjoy while in the states, I am meeting new people, those that I would never have had the chance to meet had I not come to Ghana. Sunday evening I had the kids back in my room for our weekly event. I couldn’t help myself while in town this past weekend and I bought a new Disney collection dvd full of children’s movies from the past three years or so. The kids choose to watch “Over the Hedge” Sunday night but I think I will start having movie night twice a week because I want to watch some of these movies. Back at school on Monday I went right to work grading the math quizzes for class 4. Twelve received at least 75%! A good number received failing grades but between yesterday and today I spent at least ten minutes with each student (other than the above average 12) going over their quiz. More than half could answer the problem correctly when given the time. Three kids were absent yesterday, including Elizabeth Sawaa (the girl whose mother died a month ago, the same girl who has failed her past two grades but was not allowed to be held back). Elizabeth received 30% on her grade (sadly, this was just below the average grade of 40%) so this morning I took her out of class and she and I worked on not only her quiz but some other topics she missed while mourning for her mother. After speaking to Mr. Osei (class 4) and Mr. Boachie (class 5), I think she will in fact repeat class 4 next year, which really is the best thing for her. Well this is all I have thus far. Tomorrow I teach another sex health lesson on STD’s but this time I am equipped with visual images of genitals infected with various STD’s and new notes to better explain each disease. I’m anxious to see how it will go. Wednesday 6/25: school is finished for the day. I have to head into town briefly and I hope to get back before it starts to rain again. Last night I felt like I was back in Seattle. It was raining from 5 to 11 pm! I know it is rainy season but that seemed a bit extreme. The bucket I placed under the major drip spot in my room was half full this morning. And then just after breakfast, it was raining again. I just pray it dries up before the end of July (for my planned birthday weekend at the beach). School went well today. I finished going over the class 4 math quizzes with the kids that were absent before and Mr. Osei started a new lesson teaching the class how to use charts and draw graphs. I helped students understand the charts given and draw the correct graphs. There was a lot of erasing involved but I believe most recent a perfect grade. I began the day trying to write out as many notes as possible for my class on STD’s but once again there are just 4 kids here so I decided to hold off on my lesson until tomorrow and hopefully find a few more images online today. I did sit and talk with the vocational students however. One of them told me that they need my help. I’m sure their teachers (both whom were not present today) put them up to this but I gave them my full attention. While I agree that there is no motivation for the kids to continue coming, I also know it will take A LOT of donations and time to get an adequate vocational school up and running. While the school could thrive in the future I told them that I honestly think they should consider going to a different school next term. This may not be the “words of advice” I should be offering but I believe it is the best thing for them. Due to the heavy rain last night the chalkboards on the far walls (classes 4, 5, and vocational school) are drenched. Thankfully, the old chalkboards are available still and the teachers do not have to put their classes on hold. One of my coordinators, Douglas, stopped by today to see what I mean about the boards. He says Columbus (the pastor, my host father) will have to build an attachment to the roof to keep the rain from coming into the classrooms. Well, good, I’m glad we figured out what must be done, when this will get accomplished, I dare not say. And look at that? I am done typing for today and it begins to pour outside once again. I’m tired of rainy season, even if it is easier to sleep at night…I hope dry season comes again soon.Friday June 27th: I am quickly posting this blog and headed back home to sleep. Yesterday I felt quite ill and last night was no fun at all. I just spent an hour at a private hospital (with my host sister) and I was informed that I have a mild case of malaria. Well I guess I was bound to get it sooner or later since just about every other volunteer has had it at least once. I have to admit I was a bit nervous to get my blood drawn here but the needle was taken out of it’s individual, sterile packaging so I’m sure it’s fine. The doctor taking my blood wasn’t wearing any gloves however so that made me a bit nervous. In total with doctor consultation, lab work and prescription I had to pay 20 cedis. I guess that is cheap compared to home but I wasn’t prepared for that. Oh well. So I hope to have a full recovery by Monday. I missed school today and therefore also missed my STD lesson AND an art project with class 4. They will just have to wait until Monday. I was able to do an art project with class 3 yesterday before I felt sick and hung out with the two vocational school students yesterday as well. Delia, one of the students, made me a dress with some of the fabric I bought last week. I’m excited to wear it at home. Well I guess that is it for now. Have a great weekend!
And now…just as I was about to cut and paste this blog onto my website, the network goes down for who knows how long. Oh well. Back to my home for now and will just have to wait until tomorrow to post this.
It is now Saturday afternoon. I was able to get plenty of rest last night and am feeling a bit better. Two more days of medication and I should be a okay!