Morning morning!

Well I haven’t written in a while so here goes… School is tough. I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d ever be a teacher so I didn’t go to school for education as many of you already know. Sure, I’ve tutored my friends but it’s completely different. To be honest I think that having a background in education might have hindered my abilities here because their education system is quite different from ours in the states. I’ll give you a run down of the typical student’s day here in Ghana

.

-Wake up around 4am to help around the house with cleaning, cooking, or whatever else needs to be done.

-Many are at the school compound by about 7:15 to sweep, and clean out all of the classrooms.

-My school, and many other JHSs, start at 8am, which means that morning assembly is at 7:45.

-Morning assembly consists of a few songs, prayers, announcements, and punishments. The students are required to have clean and ironed uniforms, clean and cut fingernails, proper footwear, buzzed heads (boys and girls), and a handkerchief. If they fail these requirements they are punished: caning, weeding, kneeling, or some other labor. They are also punished for being late, and speaking the vernacular language. A lot of times this cuts into the first class block.

-School closes at 2pm, but on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesday we have extra classes until 3:15.

-Most of them go home, change, eat quickly, and then help their parents around the house, prepare food, go to farm, or sell things at the roadside.

-By they time the finish eating, and bathing, most of them are too tired to focus very well on their assignments.

I’m struggling quite a bit in school because the literacy level in my school is very low. I try to write a lot of the important things board because it is often hard for people to understand American accents, but if they can’t read it doesn’t do much good.

So on the first Friday sports day I embarrassed myself by trying to play Volleyball, but the next Friday I thought I would be able to redeem myself by teaching them how to play ultimate Frisbee because I’m actually semi-decent… Until I start running and trip over the big cement block in our school compound that is… It’s OK though I went on playing while my foot bled everywhere. Probably not my best decision.

Well I’ve become pretty popular among many of my students and younger kids in town. I’m 84% sure that they have some radar that alerts them the second I walk through my front door because as soon as I come home I’m flocked with visitors. A lot of times they are doing homework so I don’t mind, but it doesn’t leave much quiet time.

I helped with a Spelling Bee in Ho. They have started a Spelling Bee in the country so you can register your school and they give you information on how to coach your students. Then you hold a Bee at your school and the top 5 or 6 spellers go to the Regional Qualifiers (I believe it’s called, but not sure), and the top 3 spellers from each region go to Accra for the final competition. I was amazed by some of these words because I know for a fact I couldn’t spell many of them correctly. The winner of the final competition wins an all expense paid trip to Washington D.C.

along with $500 spending money. The winner last year was from the Volta Region (the best region in Ghana!), so I’m hoping we can represent again this year.

Got some packages from home, which was awesome. One day I had dinner that consisted of cheeze-its and pizza Pringles (thanks Sarah and Mom and Dad!). It also included ingredients for s’mores, which rocked my world.

Hmm what else? I’m really excited about Thanksgiving this year. We’ve all been invited to the US Ambassador’s house in Accra for a Thanksgiving feast. Actually to say I’m excited is probably an understatement. Not only will I be stuffing my face with delicious turkey and pumpkin pie, but I will also be meeting a ton of other volunteers that I haven’t met before. It will be the first time in 3 months that those of us from the most recent education group will all be reunited again so I’ll get to see all of my friends. We also had the option of staying with a homestay family in Accra so I’ll be staying with an American family who is now living here in Ghana. I’ve heard wonderful things about these families and, like I’ve said, I’M EXCITED!

After the Thanksgiving festivities, those of us from the education group will be traveling to Kumasi for In-Service Training. It is a 7 day long training seminar that we bring our counterparts to. I’m not exactly sure what this entails, but I think they give us more teaching strategies and we talk about any successes/failures/frustrations/etc we’ve had over the last three months.

Other fun things that have happened…

-I set up a hand washing station at my school. It’s called a tippy tap and essentially you attach a jug to a rope connected to a stick that when you press on the stick it pulls the rope which tips the jug. I’ve never seen kids more excited to wash their hands, it’s great.

-The health system here has provided the medication for all of the students to be dewormed, which is good.

-Ghanaians LOVE Celine Dion. I hear her music all the time, and it makes me happy.

-Some people here say “Morning morning” instead of saying morning in their local language, but since they’ve been saying it for so long, they think it is their local language and not English. Anyways, I greeted an elderly woman by saying “morning morning” and she got so excited! In the local language she said “You understand Ewe!” I replied in the local language “I understand Ewe small small.” It was the highlight of my week.

-Check out this website. It’s hilarious and extremely accurate: http://whatshouldghanacallme.tumblr.com/

-The anti-malaria medicine the Peace Corps makes us take induces crazy vivid dreams… That’s been interesting.

-Things I miss: American holidays, (American) football, cheese, chocolate, cold weather (never thought I’d ever say that), driving, cooking, sleeping in, pets, contacts, and of course family and friends! Wish you all could visit!

-I had all my kids come last weekend to scrub my floors and walls. Found some interesting critters like lots of spiders, a big millipede, and a lizard.

-Download “Whats app” if you have a smart phone. It’s a messaging application that sends messages over the internet. It comes through your phone like a text message though. That means that you can be texting your favorite Peace Corps Volunteer, free of charge! My number here is +233248207663 and yes you have to use the plus sign.

-New pictures will be coming soon!

-Also my birthday (Nov. 26^th) and Christmas are fast approaching. If you’re interested in sending some goodies, here a short list of things to include.

            -chocolate (no, it won’t melt)

-any type of shells and cheese things

-any other food type things that you just add hot water to

-deodorant (they sell it here, but it’s not quite the same)

-any type of 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner combos

-flash drives with music/movies/PDF books

-Frisbee, deflated soccer/volley ball

-I’m lacking in nice semi-dressy shirts that I can wear to school with a pair of dress pants, or I can wear with jeans to be semi-casual. I have a pair of brown dress pants, and a pair of white/tan dress pants.

-Also a few of my dresses have been ruined that I wear to school. Dresses should be semi-conservative meaning nothing above mid-knee, nothing strapless or spaghetti strapped. I have a lot of pink/purple so that color should be avoided.

-Q-tips

-If you don’t want to send anything, you can put credit on my phone by going to telephoneghana.com then go to the bottom right and it says recharge. Click that link. Then it asks for the country then provider, which is Ghana and MTN. Then the phone number which is 248207663 it will automatically put in the area code. Then you put in the US dollar amount and press continue. 20 USD dollars lasts me quite a long time here.

-People here have been really interested in the US elections. A good majority of Ghanaians support Obama because “he gives hope to other people of African decent.” I have heard a few people saying that he worships the anti-christ though which I have to laugh at.

-PICTURES!!!

-a guitar for dummies type of book so I can learn how to play the guitar I bought

-cheeze-its

-dried fruit (craisins, raisins)

-hand sanitizer

-bug spray

-any other fun goodies!