This morning breakfast was amazing. I got lots and lots of fresh bread and a drink called Milo. Everyone in Ghana drinks it. It's like hot chocolate w/o the sugar. I got porridge which I couldn't really eat. It tastes okay but the texture is weird - like water with little chunks. The volunteers are responsible for bathing the children every morning and night. The children take the bathing order very seriously as it changes every time and each child always wants to be first. We bath the children in front of the house with a bucket of water and a sponge. They hate the cold water. I had to help Katja fetch water. It's about 1/4 of a mile total to the water pump and back. It hard to carry so much water that far on your head. My neck is weak i guess. Today I went with Katja to school since there is nothing to do at home. I thought I'd just observe for a day. But when the head master heard I was interested in teaching he brought me into the 5th grade class, handed me an open book, said "teach this," and left me alone with a class of 30 kids. Their teacher was gone that day I guess. I managed well considering, but the kids here are not used to thinking or engaging themselves in learning. The teachers in the other classes showed me how they want me to teach their classes English. They have me write a paragraph from the textbook on the chalkboard. Then, I read them the paragraph a few times. Then the children must stand and read aloud the paragraph over and over again for half an hour. Then you post questions about the paragraph that the children must answer in their exercise books. The problem is that the kids don't actually know the content of what they read. They can't read individual words. They just memorize what I say and repeat it. I looked back in their exercises and the children get very bad scores on all their assigments. Many scores of zero! The books the Ghanian government issues are very very bad. There is no order to the content and they require me to teach much more than English. They want me to teach the kids about telling time on a clock one day, weight measurements the next, and how to use "many" and "much" properly in a sentence. Oy! At the end of the day the headmaster gave me a schedule. I teach 5 classes a day ranging from grade 1 to grade 6. This is going to be a lot to keep up with. Tonight Nana gave me an African name. The day you were born on is very important in Ghana. It's what determines your name. Since I was born on a Friday my name is Afua (sounds like Affia) Saffoa (the name of name of Nana's father). Since all my papers said Laura that is what everyone calls me, though they have trouble pronouncing the R so they all end up calling me Lola.
The Sekyere Rehabilitation and Orphanage Centre
The amazing view from the orphanage porch.
There are around a total of 50 chickens and ducks that roam the orphanage yard. They're everywhere! This guy woke me up throughout the night with his crowing.
There is no logical order in the books...in these pages for instance, the kids learn about sayng yes or no, then how to tell time, then how to form sentences, then how to write :/
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