Happy first week of June!

Back at school…today is Wednesday June 4th. School ended early so that children can go to the church and be blessed. I never mean to sound disrespectful but I really do not see the need to cut school early twice each week so the children can sit in the back of the church, talk and not pay any mind to the service. I guess I just do not understand.
The first thing I want to address in this week’s blog is Ellen. After speaking up about my disapproval of the way she was being treated last Tuesday, she has seemed to disappear. This of course made me worry a bit, “now what have they done with her?” but I was informed that she was brought back to Tema (a city not far from Accra) to live with her mother and be “healed” at a church in Accra. I wish her luck.
I spent the past weekend on various beaches along the coast. I was much closer to the western border of Ghana this time in a town called Axim. While I could not afford to sleep at the fancy resort some of my friends choose to stay in, I was able to spend the day on a beautiful, secluded beach. My tan truly is coming along but I fear I too often forget my sunscreen and I know I need to watch out. Tans are great…but are a BIG price to pay for future wrinkles and the possibility of skin cancer. I promise myself (and my mother) that I will do better in remembering to apply sunscreen, liberally, while on the beach.
We (Heather, Leanne, Tony, Alison, Klarta from Switzerland and myself) played beach volleyball in the rain (it is rainy season so we can’t be sun bathing all day long) and had great food. I stayed down the road in a different resort that had accommodation for budget travelers. However, I personally preferred the Axim Beach Resort as it too was beautiful with charming double rooms with breakfast included in the price of the room. I am perfectly content. The tro tro ride home however was an all day process but I made it in one piece.
This week I have continued working with class 4 teaching math lessons. Yesterday the 9 kids I spent extra time with seemed to really understand how to find the area and perimeter of a shape but then today I looked over their homework and it was as though they forgot everything I taught them yesterday. Boy, do I have an unbelievable level of respect for any teacher anywhere, this is a HARD job. Tomorrow I am holding my multiplication quiz for class 4. They should have been studying their 2, 3, 4, and 5 times tables to prepare for the quiz tomorrow. I will use the flash cards mom sent me in the mail and have chocolate cookies for rewards. They seem excited but I have my doubts as to how many of them will be successful. We will see.
I put the sex health class on hold for this week. In order for me to properly teach the girls about safe sex methods, I need props and information. Yesterday I met a woman from Japan who has lived in Ghana for over a year. She is doing some form of AIDS research though I am not certain of her exact responsibilities. She invited me to join her on Monday at the teaching hospital to visit the AIDS ward, meet patients, doctors and other researchers. She also told me I would have access to condoms, a penis model to help demonstrate how to properly use a condom (hopefully a can discuss female condoms as well) and will also be able to borrow books to better teach sexual education. I am really looking forward to this. While I have enjoyed teaching overall and have really bonded with my kids, I originally wanted to come to Africa to volunteer in health care. If this visit on Monday goes well, I may be cutting down my teaching hours to just three days a week and volunteering with Mika (the woman from Japan), learning more about AIDS research. I will start my sex ed course again next week, hopefully armed with colorful pictures and printed hand-outs.
Well that is all I have for today. I promised to help with homework tonight for a few of the kids living at the orphanage. I do enjoy being a tutor to the children, mostly because I vividly remember those that helped me with my homework in daycare and after school. Without their help, I’m not sure I would be where I am today so I am happy to provide the same guidance to others.
Friday (June 6th) afternoon…the kids are once again at the church for their bi-weekly blessing. I usually head to my room during this time and intentionally avoid going to the church on Fridays but I think I will join them for the last hour of the service today. The week has gone by quickly. On Wednesday I ended up joining Klara and Nana (one of our organization coordinators) to the nearby craft center. Klara is heading back to Denmark next week and she wanted to buy some more gifts for people. I did buy a few bracelets for friends but held off on any wood carvings just yet. There are so many beautiful crafts to buy but I am doing my best to not only wait until my last month here but also to reevaluate my funds. I also know that the first price I am told for any given item is usually about 50 percent higher than the necessary price. While I wouldn’t say I have great bargaining skills, they are improving. After the craft center I came back to hang out with some of the kids. I brought out my camera and that is always exciting for them. If it were up to the kids I would be spending the entire night snapping photos of them in various poses. I also worked on some homework with the older kids.
While watching Forrest Gump on Thursday morning (before school) I heard a loud pop come from the television and then it went blank. Shoot. I have no idea when that will get fixed. I guess I have to remind myself that I was extremely spoiled having a tv in my room but still, I didn’t even get to the part where Forrest and Lieutenant Dan became shrimp boat captains. In addition to the tv breaking, we have been without running water for over a week! I can still “bath” but it is in the form of bucket showers. I know, I know, poor me. I’m kidding, I lucked out before because most people do not have access to showers while in Ghana. Thursday was a very long day for me however. I was busy in school helping the class 5 teacher give an English lesson and after break was the multiplication quiz for class 4. Overall they did better than I expected but I was most defiantly nicer than I should have been and gave multiple chances to some of the kids. They really enjoyed the chocolate biscuits though and I think it is incentive to study harder for the next quiz next week. I made myself hoarse however yelling at the kids to be quiet, sit down and DO NOT help by giving out answers. I may have been yelling at them but I was laughing to myself because while it is very difficult to give a quiz when all the kids are running about, I totally understand what it is like to be their age and how easy it is to get carried away by talking to your friends. Many of these kids remind me of myself just 10 or 12 years ago. I made the mistake of letting kids in class 5 and class 3 see my chocolate biscuits so now I am giving quizzes to both of those classes next week as well. Thankfully, biscuits and cookies are quite inexpensive in Ghana.
After school I went to Kumasi to spend some time on the internet and then met up with friends for Heather and Leanne’s good-bye dinner. I have already had to say bye to many friends I have met in the past 3 months but I have faith that I will stay in touch with most of them, which is very cool. And lastly today…school went just fine. I went over class 4’s homework for the week and gave out stickers to those that got at least 80 percent correct. I think it took a while but I can see the stickers and the cookies are real incentives for the kids to actually try when doing their homework. If I missed giving out a sticker, that student is immediately asking me to correct myself and produce a sticker for all to see. Time to join the kids in church and relax for the rest of the evening…tomorrow I will be joining the rest of the volunteers in my organization at a wedding. William (the head coordinator for ICYE in Ghana) is getting married and we are all invited. I will write about it before posting the blog tomorrow.
Hello all…I just got finished with the wedding. It was held in a Catholic church and was lovely. It was great to see all the other volunteers again too. A lot of the service was actually in English, which was very helpful. I am off to stay the night in “the palace” again. The evening will be filled with grilled cheese and movies. Have a great weekend everyone!
-Erin