Well Ghana's electricity issues are still going strong, so that is to blame for my lack of blogging once again. The lights have been off the past two nights from dinner until about ten p.m, so hopefully we make it ONE day with out them going off tonight.
I have now been in my new school for six full days. My school is a ten minute walk from our house, and we are typically gone from about 7 until 3:30 pm. All the kids at the school absolutely LOVE Sarah and I. I wish I could say it's because we are really great teachers- but at this point I think it's mainly because of our white skin. The first few days I was there kids would come up and literally just pet my skin, telling me how soft it was. They also love feeling my long hair because no one here has it long. Anywhere I walk I have a parade of kids following yelling "Teacher Jessica, Teacher Jessica". It's very sweet, but also gets a little overwhelming at times, as one could imagine.
I am teaching in two KG2 classrooms, which is equal to kindergarten in the United States. Between both classrooms I have about 45 kids, and right now my biggest obstacle is just learning all the names. Half of them I can barely pronounce, and on top of that they all have the same hair cut and uniform, so it's rather difficult to tell them apart at this point.
The school day begins at 8 with an all school assembly outside which includes prayers, songs, and announcements. After everyone marches into the classrooms, there is two hours of instruction before a half hour snack break. The kids return to the room for about an hour and a half and then get a full hour for lunch. After lunch, the kids carry their chairs outside and the teacher sweeps the floor of the classroom and wipes down the tables. That goes until about 1:15, and then school closing is at three. The school days go by very quick, but even after six days I'm still amazed at how different it is from an American school day.
I'm slowly getting more involved in the classroom each day. I can already tell that my biggest challenge will be classroom management, since many of the techniques used here in Ghana are ones that I will not be using myself. Since the kids are so used to the teacher's techniques, mine don't quite have the same effect at this point. I'm sure it will get better as time goes on, and I will just continue trying new things. It's a good challenge for me- that's for sure :)
Today was our last day of school for the week, because now we have a nice five-day weekend for midterm break. Classes resume next Tuesday, and in the mean time, Sarah and I are headed to nearby Cape Cost for three days. We will tour the castle that slaves went through directly before being shipped to America, and also walk a bridge high up in a large rainforest nearby. I'm looking forward to getting out and seeing more of Ghana!
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Saturday, October 27, 2012
When it Rains it Pours
After one full week here in Ghana I am finally able to sit down at a nearby internet cafe and update everyone on my new temporary lifestyle. To prevent me from writing a novel (and since the timer is ticking on my internet) I will just use this entry to talk about life in general here in Ghana, and will hopefully write tomorrow about my first week of school.
For those of you who don't know, I made this journey with a girl from Cardinal Stritch named Sarah. We will be living, teaching, and traveling together over the next nine (already down to eight!) weeks. I can already tell that it will be so nice to have someone to share the experience with, because as we often tell each other, it would be impossible to really understand many of the things we talk about unless you see them here first hand. However I will do my best to paint an accurate picture of life as a Ghanaian :)
Sarah and I are living right outside of Ghana's capital city, Accra. We live in a rather large home owned by our host parents, Daddy and Auntie Agnes. Also living in the house is their son and his family (wife and three kids), as well as a tenant family that rents out a room. The house is hard to explain, but is basically the main living areas (Auntie and Daddy's) with several hallways and rooms off of them. Total there are three kitchens, so the house is divided by groups of people. We all cross paths though, and I like always having lots of people to talk to. We have our own bedroom with an attached bathroom, and both are very spacious. Our bathroom always has running water, and is the only room in the house with such. Everyone else has to bring water in buckets from wells outside. I feel guilty, but must admit I am very grateful for the amenity.
I am happy to say that I actually have a rather comfortable bed, which was one of my worries about living here for two months. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean I have been getting a good nights sleep. Directly outside our window is where the chickens and roosters are kept, and EVERY night they wake me up cock-a-doodle-doing, starting around 1 am. They do it for about a minute straight about every half hour. Every. Half. Hour. As if that wasn't enough, at 4:30am every morning the nearby Muslim temple holds prayer..over a loud speaker. It definitely was an interesting wake up call our first morning here. Hopefully I start getting immune to the extra noises soon.
A few nights ago, we had a new middle of the night disturbance. Our first African rainstorm came, and it came hard. Like many other things in Africa, it's something you would have to experience to understand. I can only compare it to being in a small room with ten vacuum cleaners going off at once. I was so terrified our roof would collapse on us. I honestly think if you were outside it would have knocked you right to the ground. To make things even more interesting, we realized some of the rain was actually coming into our room, and in three different places. Because of how the house is laid out, we couldn't reach Daddy and Auntie because of locked doors, so we had to wake up the house helper to get some buckets. It was quiet the experience, and I am glad to report the roof got repaired yesterday!
One interesting thing about Ghana is that they literally don't have enough power to run the nations electricity all at once. As a result, the power is turned off in different sections every few days for several hours. For whatever reason, the power has been off several times already since our arrival. It was off our entire first day here (..quite the transition into Ghanaian life) and has gone off at least three other times this week. Auntie says that is very unusual.
Auntie is slowly introducing us to Ghanaian food, and so far everything has been delicious. As expected, lots of rice, but cooked in so many different ways. My favorite side dish so far though is fried plantain. I can't get enough. This wont do it justice- but it's somewhat like sweet potatoes but more fruity tasting.
Yesterday (Friday), we didn't have school because of a national Muslim holiday (Muslim is the second biggest religion in Ghana behind Christianity). So in all, we have been in the school for three full days. As I said earlier I will update on that tomorrow, but I will say that the schools are even more different than I ever could have imagined. I will definitely be challenged- but then again I guess that's why I came here in the first place! :)
Until next time,
J.
(Sorry for tipos- I have a sticky keyboard and no more minutes to proof read!:) )
For those of you who don't know, I made this journey with a girl from Cardinal Stritch named Sarah. We will be living, teaching, and traveling together over the next nine (already down to eight!) weeks. I can already tell that it will be so nice to have someone to share the experience with, because as we often tell each other, it would be impossible to really understand many of the things we talk about unless you see them here first hand. However I will do my best to paint an accurate picture of life as a Ghanaian :)
Sarah and I are living right outside of Ghana's capital city, Accra. We live in a rather large home owned by our host parents, Daddy and Auntie Agnes. Also living in the house is their son and his family (wife and three kids), as well as a tenant family that rents out a room. The house is hard to explain, but is basically the main living areas (Auntie and Daddy's) with several hallways and rooms off of them. Total there are three kitchens, so the house is divided by groups of people. We all cross paths though, and I like always having lots of people to talk to. We have our own bedroom with an attached bathroom, and both are very spacious. Our bathroom always has running water, and is the only room in the house with such. Everyone else has to bring water in buckets from wells outside. I feel guilty, but must admit I am very grateful for the amenity.
I am happy to say that I actually have a rather comfortable bed, which was one of my worries about living here for two months. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean I have been getting a good nights sleep. Directly outside our window is where the chickens and roosters are kept, and EVERY night they wake me up cock-a-doodle-doing, starting around 1 am. They do it for about a minute straight about every half hour. Every. Half. Hour. As if that wasn't enough, at 4:30am every morning the nearby Muslim temple holds prayer..over a loud speaker. It definitely was an interesting wake up call our first morning here. Hopefully I start getting immune to the extra noises soon.
A few nights ago, we had a new middle of the night disturbance. Our first African rainstorm came, and it came hard. Like many other things in Africa, it's something you would have to experience to understand. I can only compare it to being in a small room with ten vacuum cleaners going off at once. I was so terrified our roof would collapse on us. I honestly think if you were outside it would have knocked you right to the ground. To make things even more interesting, we realized some of the rain was actually coming into our room, and in three different places. Because of how the house is laid out, we couldn't reach Daddy and Auntie because of locked doors, so we had to wake up the house helper to get some buckets. It was quiet the experience, and I am glad to report the roof got repaired yesterday!
One interesting thing about Ghana is that they literally don't have enough power to run the nations electricity all at once. As a result, the power is turned off in different sections every few days for several hours. For whatever reason, the power has been off several times already since our arrival. It was off our entire first day here (..quite the transition into Ghanaian life) and has gone off at least three other times this week. Auntie says that is very unusual.
Auntie is slowly introducing us to Ghanaian food, and so far everything has been delicious. As expected, lots of rice, but cooked in so many different ways. My favorite side dish so far though is fried plantain. I can't get enough. This wont do it justice- but it's somewhat like sweet potatoes but more fruity tasting.
Yesterday (Friday), we didn't have school because of a national Muslim holiday (Muslim is the second biggest religion in Ghana behind Christianity). So in all, we have been in the school for three full days. As I said earlier I will update on that tomorrow, but I will say that the schools are even more different than I ever could have imagined. I will definitely be challenged- but then again I guess that's why I came here in the first place! :)
Until next time,
J.
(Sorry for tipos- I have a sticky keyboard and no more minutes to proof read!:) )
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