Ready...Set...Teach!

"It is only as we develop others that we permanently succeed." -- Harvey Samuel Firestone

8:30am. Monday morning. First class of the semester for me. 48 students. 1 of which was female.

My assignment was to teach “reading”. Students here already take English, which I believe encompasses grammar, literature, and writing. Since I was essentially given free reign, I created my own plan. Repeatedly, I emphasized the importance of reading aloud to children every day. I was saddened to find out though, that most of the students in this first class did not have that experience themselves. Some said that their teachers never read books to them in school. This was appalling to me. And it is a testament to the disturbingly uneven distribution of resources in the world today. Unfortunately, I imagine that many teachers in Africa simply do not have books to read to their classes, which many of these young people experienced first-hand. Yet in America, classrooms are filled with books that sometimes students and teachers rarely touch. That gets my blood boiling!

After the lesson, I read aloud my favorite poem, Invictus, and everyone’s mind seemed to be engaged. During our discussion, heads were nodding, hands were shooting up in the air, and eyes were constantly glued on me. Reading aloud to students is one of my favorite things about being a teacher. I love capturing the interest of young people with a mesmerizing text by taking them into other worlds and other people’s minds. After my read aloud, the students practiced being the teacher with their own read alouds of poems. This type of student-centered activity was well received. Overall, a successful first class! Later in the afternoon, I taught another class about the development of teaching and learning materials. Class was scheduled to begin at 3:30, but only 8 of the 40-something students had arrived. I began anyways. I want to set an example for timeliness and make it clear that being prompt is important to me. I mean business here people!

I am a teacher. It is my passion. Though at times my role as teacher has made me want to pull my hair out, ultimately, it is who I am. I only wish that with this current position I was getting to do more of it. Unfortunately, I’m not teaching nearly as much as I would have hoped. The students here hold exceptionally high regard for authority figures in their lives and have been nothing but respectful and kind towards me, always. I would love to have this student body while teaching in America. That would make for rewarding and meaningful days at work. With that in mind, I am going to savor every moment of teaching these engaged, enthusiastic, and eager young people, and hope that I can make even the slightest impact.

As the day winded down, I reentered my accommodation to find no running water, again. This has been a regular occurrence. The water flow isn’t very consistent, so at times, I have to resort to buckets. I walked over to the faucet outside of the boy’s dormitory (I’m still in the middle of the boys side of campus waiting for my accommodation to be finished on the girl’s side of campus). As soon as I approached with my bucket, several boys immediately stopped what they were doing and offered to help me. My bucket was filled, placed on top of a young man’s head, and brought to my door. Sweetness J

Livin' and Learnin'

“The darkest thing about Africa has always been our ignorance of it.” – George Kimble

A productive day! I spent the day planning and preparing for the Reading class I will be teaching, which I will only teach every other week, but hey, it’s something. In addition, every week I will be responsible for two classes supporting students with the development of teaching and learning materials. There is still a lot of time that needs to be filled, but I’m working on it. At least some ounce of purpose has been provided for me.

I have the luxury of being provided breakfast and lunch each day in the staff common room. For breakfast today, I had porridge made with millets (type of corn) served with a large, round, sweet roll. Bring your own mug for breakfast or, like me, you’re left standing there looking ridiculous. Lunch was rice made with beans and served with a red stew soaking in fish heads, and hard-boiled eggs on the side. The stew had not arrived yet, so I filled my bowl with rice and began eating. Several men came and said, “wait for the stew!” and looked at me like I was crazy for wanting to eat only rice. Then, another woman questioned why I was using a spoon, because I should be using my fingers. Hey! The men next to me were using spoons too, so I just followed suit. A very informative lunch indeed! De! (Delicious in Twi, yea that’s right, I’m bustin’ out some Twi).

As I was didi (eating in Twi), most of the conversations taking place are in Twi, but whenever I hear, “obruni”, I know they are talking about me, because that word means white person. So I told them that I know they are talking about me when I hear that word since I’m the only whitey there, and that got a few chuckles from the crowd. I was assured that anything being said was not at all negative. Hopefully this is true. Also, when I’m greeted, I am often called Abena, which is my day name since I was born on a Tuesday. Apparently, the day you were born really matters here, and it becomes part of your name. I didn’t have a clue what day I was born on, only the date. So I had to do some internet research in order to have an answer for these Ghanaians questioning me about what day I was born and gasping when I said I didn’t know. Everyone is happy now!

I seem to have made a friend, Ameyaw, who has offered to teach me Twi. He has definitely been the most helpful in terms of slowly pronouncing words and breaking it all down for me. I think I’m also going to attend a class here at the university so I can maybe start to have at least a clue of what is being said when I venture out and about. Regardless of how ridiculous I probably sound, the Ghanaians seem to really appreciate my attempts.

This evening I walked down the road to the school for the deaf to meet a peace corps volunteer working there. She showed me around and we were mauled by masses of children that were completely mesmerized by the new obruni on campus. I even managed to learn some sign language along the way. Kaitlyn did not know any sign language until her arrival in Ghana four months ago, and now she can effectively communicate as an art teacher. Amazing. I was very impressed. My university shares a wall with this school, so Kaitlyn showed me a shortcut through the cassava and plantain farmland. When I arrived back to campus, I encountered a community of college students bustling with activity. Girls washing clothes, sweeping and chilling outside their dorms. A large pack of male students in military formation jogging through campus shouting African chants. The sounds of African drums filling the night air and mosquitoes buzzing by my ears. And to top it all off, when I got in my room, a little lizard was crawling up the wall towards the gaping hole in the corner where the electrical lines are running through. Tomorrow, it’s off to Kumasi! In a trotro!

Cock-a-doodle-do

"I don't know which is more discouraging, literature or chickens." -- E. B. White

Chickens sir, chickens. I know chickens are God’s creatures and I should be saying prayers for their safety and happiness. However, I find absolutely no joy in waking up at 3:30am. Chickens are on my hit list. Beware Mr. Rooster, you just might find yourself on my plate for dinner.