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!:) )  

The Road to Ghana

Three years ago when I started college, the number one piece of advice I received from others was to make sure I traveled abroad at some point. It seemed like most people shared that their number one regret of college was failing to do just that. So as I planned my college career, I knew spending time in another country had to be a priority. This plan hit a bump in the road when I decided to transfer from Winona State to St. Norbert after my freshman year. Coming in from another college landed me behind the game in the education program, and fitting in a semester abroad didn't seem possible.

The moment I found out the education department offered students the chance to do a portion of their student teaching experience abroad, I knew it was something I was going to do. Coming from a strong Irish background and having been an Irish Dancer for eight years, I immediately envisioned myself going to Ireland. It was my first instinct to choose Ireland and I didn't think twice about it. Well, I didn't think twice until it came to committing on paper.

When the time came to write my final choice in ink, something hit me. Since I've always said travel will be a priority throughout my life, I know I will find myself in Europe down the road. But would I ever get on a plane and vacation in Africa? Most likely not. I then decided to use this opportunity to do something crazy, something that I never envisioned myself doing before. As I thought about it more, I couldn't think of a better way to challenge myself as a pre service teacher then to cut myself off of nearly every resource I've become accustomed to using. If I can succeed at teaching my group of five year olds using the limited materials Ghanaians have available, my creativity and confidence will be at an all time high apon my return.

After two months of living in Ghana, I expect to not only evolve as a pre service teacher, but also to grow as a person in general.  I would certainly be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, but I am very excited to begin the amazing journey that lies ahead.

Pre-Travel Research

PEOPLE
Total population: 24,652,402 (2.2 million living in the greater Accra region- the nation's Capitol and  my temporary home!)

Main Religions: 69% Christian and 16% Muslim

Life expectancy: 61 years old

Main Languages: English 39%  Asante 15%  Ewe 12% (English is the official language of Ghana, so that is the language used in the schools!)

EDUCATION  
School system:
Primary School - 6 years          
Junior High School - 3 years
Senior High School - 4 years
University Bachelor's Degree - 4 years

Over age 15 who can read and write: Men 73% Women 61%


WEATHER (during my stay)
My stay in Ghana is not during the wet season, so it will be HOT and HUMID (85 and ^ with around 80% humidity...yikes!)

OTHER
Monetary unit- Cedis ($1=1.93 Cedis) *cedis can only be exchanged in the country on Ghana

Ghana currently has an interim president due to the death of President John Atta Mills in July 2012. Vice President John Dramani Mahama is the current head of state until elections in December (while I'm there!)


 [Information gathered from CIA world factbook and the BBC.]