So what’s new? I’ll give you a list because it’s easier that way
1. I was formally invited to a fundraiser at the church I have been attending. They want to raise money so that they can buy new instruments for the band (namely a guitar). Should be a good time!
2. I need to make an effort to read more about what is going on in the US
3. So I’ve finished two weeks of school, and it went really well… I think. I didn’t teach at all the first week because the students were going to farm and cleaning and we were giving tests to the P6 students who were trying to come to F1. We discovered that some of the students can’t spell their names, can’t read, can’t do simple math, but some of them (9 to be exact) were able to pass the test and come to F1. Some of those who failed the test have been in P6 for four years now so the primary school said they aren’t allowed to come back and they have to find a different school to go to. The second week of school was good. I’m getting to know my students better and I hope that they are starting to understand my accent.
4. I’m having a bit of an internal struggle because a few of my students in F1 don’t know English very well (some can’t read, some barely understand anything I say), and many struggle with it. So do I stop my ICT, Math, and Science lessons to teach English? Maybe. That would help all of the students struggling with English, but we wouldn’t get very far in the subject I’m supposed to be teaching. Or do I continue on with the subject and try to stick to the syllabus for those who do understand and are doing well so that when they have to take the end of term exams they are able to do well and pass? For now I’m trying to do a little bit of both. That is I call on students who aren’t raising their hands to read what I write on the board and to try and explain what it is that I’m talking about. It’s going OK, but the other students laugh when they make mistakes, which we all know is bad for self-confidence and such. It is only going to make them not want to try at all. I have told them all that if anyone laughs at another student when I ask them a question or while they are reading they will be coming to my house after school to fetch water so we’ll see how that goes.
5. Have I mentioned I don’t like funerals? They seem to just bring a lot of new people into my town that I don’t know and they don’t know me so they assume I’m a tourist or something. They call me Yevu (white person/foreigner) and sometimes I go up to them and make conversation and ask for their name, tell them my name (all in the local language), and then the next time they see me they greet me, but it gets exhausting having to deal with so many new people all the time. Also they blare loud music. I mean so loud that I can hear it across town. I like the idea of celebrating the deceased’s life instead of mourning it, but I don’t like all the unwanted attention. I guess that’s just something I’ll have to get used to. Oh and they’re three days long…
6. On Fridays I only teach one class in the mornings so after that I went with my counterpart teacher into Ho to go to the Yam festival. Once there we met up with several other teachers from my school and surrounding schools. It is hard to understand many of the cultural things that go on here because we don’t really have the same concepts in English, and to be honest it often seems like people just participate in these events without actually knowing what the purpose is so it is hard for them to explain things to me. Anyways, the people who believe in the traditional rituals, traditions, festivals, etc. believe that people shouldn’t eat yams until they have been blessed by the elders and offered to the ancestors. That means that from about April-September (I think) people don’t eat yams. During the festival they elders bless the yams and allow the ancestors to eat the yams first and then everyone else can eat the yams. On Friday they had a huge parade with hundreds of people walking down the main road, playing music, and dancing. The women were all wearing extremely short shorts (even by American standards) and neon colored clothing. Many of them were also wearing leggings, which is common for this festival. The men were also wearing strange clothing, and almost everyone was drunk. Since times like this can be kind of dangerous for foreigners, my counterpart teacher and a teacher from the primary school were walking on either side of me trying to stay as close as possible because people were grabbing at me (not necessarily in an aggressive/violent way, they just wanted to walk with me or dance with me). Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but one of the other teachers took some pictures so hopefully I’ll be able to get them and post them so that everyone can see. The closest thing I can compare it to is St. Patrick’s Day in downtown Buffalo
7. So I’m not sure if this is a secret reserved only for Peace Corps Volunteers so I might get in trouble for sharing this with all of you, but oh well. So there is “a club” known to Peace Corps Volunteers (I’m not sure if it’s in all Peace Corps countries or only Ghana
8. Well that’s about all. If you guys have any questions or suggestions for future blog posts let me know! Maybe there’s something you’re wondering about or a cultural aspect you don’t quite understand. Soon I’ll start to run out of ideas and my posts will become very boring. Also, I’m starting to get used to everything so after a while I won’t know what to write about, so let me know!
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