School is starting! Are you sure?

Yay new blog! Ok so here are some new things that have been going on. School was supposed to start on the 4^th of September. The week before classes I was trying to figure out what classes I would be teaching so that I could start preparing, but my headmaster and counterpart teacher said we would talk about that the first day school opened because for the first week the students would just be cleaning anyways. Ok. So on Monday the 3^rd I called my headmaster around 2pm to find out what time I should be at school the next morning. He told me he was coming to my village soon and we could talk about it then. So I waited, and waited, then waited some more, then called him around 4pm (he said he was coming soon), then waited some more, the called him around 6pm (he was still coming), then I left my house. I figured I would see him when he got to town or he would call me. So he shows up to my village around 8pm and informs me that the children would be going to the school maize farm the next day so I didn’t have to come to school.

Well I went anyway around 11 and was able to talk to my headmaster. It looks like I’ll be teaching 5 classes: ICT (computers) 1, 2, and 3, math 1, and science 1. Maybe… This is a lot to take on so I’ll be pretty busy, but it will be back to my old life of being a work-a-holic right?

Anyways he told me I should come back the next morning (today) around 7:30. So I get there a little early and no one is to be seen except for some nice men that were doing voter registration that entertained me for about 3 hours (now 10:30 and still no one at my school). I decided to go and get some food and within an hour I start to see some kids headed towards the school so I follow. They were busy sweeping and cleaning, and my teacher and one other were busy interviewing the kids from P6. Side note: In Ghana the grades go Kindergarten 1, Kindergarten 2, Primary 1-6, JHS 1-3, SHS 1-3. To go from P6 to J1 you must pass a test. It seems like the kids in P6 range from about 10-14 years old, so you would think they could read, and add. Wrong. As I was sitting and listening to the interviews some of the questions that the students couldn’t answer were: “How do you spell your name?” “How do you spell ‘orange’?” “What is 5+4?” but my favorite question was “Who is the current President of Ghana?” So I’m not sure if I ever wrote about this, but the former President of Ghana, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, died on July 24^th of this year and was replaced by President John Dramani Mahama. Ok back to the point of the story. Most of the students said that Atta Mills was still president, but my favorite answer was that Barack Obama was the current President of Ghana… You learn something new everyday. Thankfully I wasn’t the only one shocked by the student’s performance. My counterpart teacher and another teacher at my school both were surprised by the results. Anyways, the kids will go back to the farm in the morning, but I should be able to do some review classes in the afternoon.

So what else is new?

I have been selling things like bread, sugar, ground nuts, garri, etc. from a little shop type thing owned by a woman in town who I visit a lot. It’s a lot of fun, and the people in town think it’s great. It gives me a chance to practice my local language!

“Lights out” is an English term used by Ghanaians when the electricity goes out (happens rather frequently and can last anywhere from 5 minutes up to hours). The sun sets around 6:30 and its pretty dark by around 7, but the other day the lights went out around 8pm. Luckily I was sitting outside when this happened and it just so happened to be an amazing night to see the stars. It tends to be overcast a lot here so it is rare to have a good view, but it was completely clear this night. The moon was also an orange-ish color which was awesome! I just sat with a few kids in my lap looking up at the stars.

My village is extremely quiet compared to what I was used to at homestay. People here either don’t have the equipment to blare loud music or they chose not to, either way I love it. It’s also much smaller so there are less people. Needless to say I’ve been able to sleep in until like 7am every morning! It has been heavenly. Usually I wake up to one of the small children I hang out with at my window saying “Daavi Adzo” (which is my name in town – literally translates to Sister Monday-born). I go an open my door and there is two or three of them coming to greet me. It always puts a smile on my face!

I managed to get really sick for the first time. You’re probably thinking I was vomiting or had some type of horrible explosive diarrhea. Well you’re wrong. Instead I have this nasty head cold accompanied by sneezing, coughing, fever, headache, chills, etc. You may now be wondering how I caught said cold. Well I’ll tell you. It just so happens that these children (don’t get me wrong, I love them already) that I have been hanging out with like to touch my face, my food, the straw for my water bottle when I’m not looking, etc. So germs spread and it went from one child being sick, to all of the children to me. I don’t even want to think about the contaminated things that have made their way to my mouth…

My water filter was invaded by the little tiny ants I have been talking about. I washed the whole thing out and I have attempted to seal all entrances with duct tape (there’s nothing duct tape can’t fix, right?)… I’ll keep you updated.

Other news: 1 USD is currently equal to 1.93 Ghana Cedi (let’s just say that’s 2 Cedis). Some things I can buy for 2 Cedis: a large loaf of bread, a coke and about 2 shots, 20 water sachets (500 ml of water each), 2 huge meals (if you buy them from a seller on the street), and lots more!

I’ve been eating a lot of fish in many forms including sardines and little (whole) minnows. Don’t get me wrong, I like fish, but I’ll probably never want to eat it again once I get back to the states.

Some other things that I forgot to put in my last blog about Ghana include:

-The term “running”. In the US we use this term to describe the physical activity of exercising. Here it is used to describe having diarrhea. So if you are jogging somewhere and someone asks you what you are doing (which they always will), and you say running they will assume you are trying to get to the nearest toilet very quickly. Instead you have to say jogging or training. On this note it is perfectly acceptable for someone to ask you if you are “running” if they have witnessed you go to the toilet several times in a short time period.

-Adding an “o” to the end of words. Examples include: “Bye bye-o” “Sorry-o” “I’m coming-o” “It’s not easy-o” “Morning-o”. I’m not really sure of the meaning/purpose behind this, but all of us seem to have picked it up very quickly so you can be sure that you returning volunteer will use these terms in their every day conversations.

-And last, but certainly not least, machetes. I’m going to be honest here so don’t judge me. Before coming to Ghana I assumed, inappropriately, that machetes were only used in violence. Well I was definitely wrong. Machetes are used by hundreds of people every day at farm, to cut things, and to weed (kind of like mowing the lawn). It is perfectly to walk through town carrying a machete, most people own one, and they are super common. So weeding. It never occurred to me that they wouldn’t have lawn mowers here, but very few people here do. Instead they take advantage of their most active work force: children. On any given day, in some town in Ghana, I can guarantee that there is a group of small children (aged anywhere from maybe 4-15) weeding some patch of grass or field. There first time I saw such a large group of children all hacking away at grass with machetes my jaw dropped. In the US we would never let a child use a large knife, especially unsupervised for the most part. Of course I’m used to it by now and it seems like a common thing. I will try to get a picture of this process if I ever have my camera handy when I see this.

I was feeling kind of blah the other day, getting sick, missing home and friends, but I got to talk to my family and a few friends and I’m feeling better now. Otherwise my village is great, everyone knows my name, everyone is friendly, the weather has been good, haven’t had much trouble with biting insects, I’ve been to drink palm wine twice, bought a guitar (not sure if I’ve already mentioned this), the sunsets are beautiful, and I’m loving life.

Wow this is long… I started this because I was bored, but thought it would be really short. Enjoy!