I Miss American Food!

I've been having trouble eating the food here. First off, I don't get lunch which sucks because that means I have to wait 10 hours between meals. The kids get lunch, but not the volunteers which I don't understand. I often get yam (like a dense but spongy potato) and fish sauce. It makes me gag a little, but since it's all there is to eat and since I don't want to offend my host family I eat it anyway. I went to the market with Miracle for the first time. I saw the fish they buy. The fish are in piles on a table sitting in the sun while flies swarm all over them. Teaching is going okay. I've tried to use some different teaching methods, but the children are so used to not having to think they don't even try. I tried having the kids do group work but they just looked at me like I'm crazy. The children's English is so bad. Even grade 6 can barely speak it even after having 6 years of English classes. No one can write an original sentence. They can only repeat things. It is a lot of work for me to teach. It's more like charades and pictionary. In grade 4 I spent the whole hour teaching them the meaning of 4 words. I spent ten minutes going over each word. I reviewed each word a few times as well. Then I gave them an exercise where the children had to match the word with the definition. I basically told them the answers before letting them complete the exercise. Somehow most of the children got 2's out of 4. I don't understand it.

My English is getting worse here. The children learn British English, so I have to teach with a British accent or else one of the teachers corrects my pronunciation. I also hear bad Ghanian English and Katja's English with a German accent. The way I talk now has turned into a conglomeration of all these accents. I have no idea how that happened, lol.
The children in school have been teaching me Twi. It's very fun and they clap and cheer whenever I learn a new word :)
Tomorrow I get to go to the internet in Kumasi with Nana. He wants me to type profiles of all the children for a website he's making. I'll get to email people!!!

The kids having lunch - avocados right off the tree!

The school next to the orphanage - is closed down due to lack of funding.

Vivian on her way home from school, talking to friends coming back from their farms.

The market in Sekyere


A not so yummy selection of sea food


Something a little more fresh...


A woman selling food at the market


Yam and cassava with fish sauce/goo :)

Katja "enjoying" her dinner. She didn't like this picture, but I think it's great!

The house kitties - Simba and Sonja

Out and About

At the internet "cafe" (it's not really a cafe. it's a room with a bunch of computers) the power went out. I had to wait 2 hours to get back online and finish writing the profiles. Taking a taxi here was interesting. Here there are single and shared taxis. The shared taxis are cheaper, but you share the taxi with a lot of people. In a car the size of a corolla there are two people in the passenger seat and four people in the back seat.
Walking through Sekyere is also very interesting. Me and Katja are the only white people here for miles. White people are fascinating to Ghanian people, especially in the small town of Sekyere. They all want to meet you and know your name. They want to touch your skin and ask to be your friend. They always call out "Obrunni, obrunni!" (white person, white person!) to get your attention. The little children sing a song out to me ""Obrunni, Obibibi!" which means "White person, black person!"). They follow me around waving their little hands singing as they run. It's like being a celebrity or something. I barely stop waving my hand all the way to school everyday. A lot of people I've never met know my name as well. It's all very odd.

When I got back from Oyoko (where the internet is) Miracle came into my room and saw my bible. She asked me to read to her. I asked what she wanted to hear. She didn't know the story of Adam and Eve, so I started at the beginning. I had an extra bible with me that I gave to her. She was ecstatic. She loves it.
After their bath today, I read the kids the Jungle Book story. I had them draw the characters from the story and they were very confused. They don't know how to draw! Miracle kept trying to interrupt me to help her with homework. I told her I'd help her after coloring, and she was very mad.
Katja leaves tomorrow to travel to Cape Coast. I hope I can handle everything at the orphanage on my own. I've missed home a lot this week. I love being here, but thinking about home makes me sad. So, I try to not think of all you people in America (sorry :) )
A Ghanian taxi

Already Sick

Today was a rough day. I feel ill and have a fever and am dizzy. This morning Miracle was still angry at me about her homework. She wouldn't let me have the bucket to fetch water. I don't know what to do when the older children when they misbehave! I don't think time-outs work for 14 year olds :) I wish I hadn't gotten the bucket because I had to fetch water five times today. I was left alone with all the children today. I felt guilty laying in my bed so I taught them some games that let me sit. I taught them that bobo-ski-wotlin-totlin game where you sit in a circle and slap each other's hands. And I taught them the Father Abraham song which they loved! Nana asked me to make posters of the house rules so I also did that today. Rule 1 is "No Hitting." People in Ghana hit each other all the time, even the adults! At school when a child is late or misbehaves they get caned. Some of the teachers even hit the children for getting an answer wrong in class. They hit the kids so hard that they scream and cry. All the other children laugh and don't get in trouble. I don't like it.
Tonight I had the children show Nana what I'd taught them. He liked it very much. He didn't compliment me or the kids though. I know he liked it because he asked me to pay to have a TV crew come out and tape the kids doing the songs and to pay to have it put on TV. Nana asks me to give him money nearly every day. It's a rather awkward.
The older kids play Scrabble almost every evening.

I brought toys for the kids thinking they wouldn't have many. But, they have an entire closet FULL of toys! They're stacked half way up the walls.

I GOT RICE! I was overjoyed to get familiar food! :)




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The kids playing a clapping game

Still sick...

Being ill doesn't count for much here. I get woken up every half hour to "can I use your comb?" "can I use your pen?" "come out, so and so wants to meet you." I missed church today though, which is sad. I think it would be interesting to see how church is in Ghana. Miracle came afterwards to tell me how church went. Apparently they don't have communion at her church...interesting. She wanted me to read about Moses and the plagues. Everyone here is very surprised but delighted to know I am a Christian. Perhaps most of the volunteers they've had are not?

All Better!

I didn't make it to school on Monday or Tuesday since I was still feeling sick. And now I am missing my morning classes. I am better now, but school is canceled when it rains. Ghanians think being in the rain makes you sick.
I'm having a difficult time with Nana. He keeps asking me for money. And he asks for things I don't think he needs. He wants to get a computer and meanwhile the kids are wearing clothes that are falling apart. Honestly, I don't trust him. He talks about how he has to work all the time (he's a taxi driver) because he doesn't get enough money from donors. Yet, I always see him playing checkers in town and Katja runs into him at the internet cafe nearly every time she goes there. And, I often see his empty taxi parked in town. Every weekend he goes out with his friends while his wife stays home to take care of the house. I'm sure some of this is part of Ghanian culture where the woman does all the work at home, but Margaret has 13 kids to take care of as well as volunteers to feed! I'm sure that is more than most women in Ghana have to handle. He barely spends any time with the kids.
One good thing is that the kids have gotten a little better about not hitting each other. They love the "toilet game" where they pull my hand like a lever and fall between my legs. It's never boring hanging out with them. They've all got strong personalties. They are very happy children overall. They just need to learn how to control their anger.
I tried fufu for the first time today. It's cassava and yam beaten together until they turn into something that looks like bread dough. But it's the consisntency of over-chewed gum that's gotten too soft. I couldn't eat it! It's the first thing here that I physically couldn't make myself eat. Ew!!

Fufu with fish sauce...never eating this one again.

Isaac walked to the orphanage almost everyday just to help make Fufu.



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Making Fufu - it's mixed by being hit with a big stick

Trip to Kumasi

Today Katja and I left school early to go to Kumasi. We met up with Katja's German friend Michael who works at the internet cafe in Oyoko. We had some awesome food in Effiduase (something not made out of cassava or yam...yea!).
The people in Kumasi don't pay so much attention to white people like in Sekyere. But they do try to sell you things. They will follow you trying to get you to buy something. One guy grabbed my arm and wouldn't let me go. It hurt!
We went to a supermarket in Kumasi. They only had one kind of shampoo! A little different than in America :)
Katja and I are staying the night here. Our hotel has running water and a toilet! Granted the water comes out of a faucet at my knees and the toilet is broken...but still! There's a toilet!!! It's much better than going to an outhouse that sometimes has worms crawling on it.
We had dinner at Vic Baboo's, a place that's "famous" for it's good food. I'd say the quality is a notch below Denny's :)

Michael and Katja

You can't keep your bottles in Ghana...they get sent back to the factory and are reused

Chicken and fried rice...yes, a meat other than fish - yea!

The supermarket in Kumasi - so many cracker choices!

Prempeh II roundabout in Kumasi

Presbyterian church of Kumasi

View of Kumasi from my hotel balcony

Football and a Funeral

This morning Katja got up and went to (supposedly) the biggest market in Africa. It's a huge maze! It's 14 football (soccer) fields large! It's setup is totally random, so it was hard to find what we were looking for. There are people hacking up a pig on one side and someone selling sandals on the other side. We first bought Baflots which are sweet bread balls that are deep fried. So good! After wondering around for an hour we finally found material. We're going to have a seamstress in Sekyere make clothes for us. We found some movies to buy as well. The movies here are so funny! The story lines are like soap operas and the acting is really over dramatic.
We went back to Sekyere today for a funeral. Neither of us knew the man who died, but Nana wanted us to go. Margaret loaned me some traditional Ghanian clothing to wear. The skirt was a little hard to walk in and the head wrap gave me a headache. But, Nana was ecstatic about how beautiful he thought Katja and I looked. Haha! At Ghanian funerals everyone sits in chairs in a "U" shape around a picture of the person who died. First we went around the "U" greeting everyone in the front rows. Upbeat African music is played with singing and drums. People traditionally give the family of the person who died a donation for funeral costs. People can sit at the funeral for as long or little as they like. Nana had us sit for only about five minutes. Then, we went and got drinks at the "American Pub" (it's not so American looking, lol) and went back home.
After the funeral Katja and I left for Kumasi again. We met up with Michael and two more German friends of Katja's - Julia and Hannah. I can follow a conversation between two Germans pretty well - three is hard and four is really difficult. They all talk so fast! (Or at least it seems that way). It's been interesting getting to talk to Germans and see how they view what's going on in the world. Julia is from East Germany, so it was interesting to hear what her parents and grandparents thought about growing up in the DDR.
Our tro-tro broke down on the way to Kumasi! We got very lucky to find another one down that could fit four people. At the stadium we bought all kinds of fanfare. I think we were wearing more Ghanian stuff than the actual Ghanians!
Ghanians would stop us in the street all surprised and happy - "You support Ghana?! You support the Black Stars?!" It was great.
The game was interesting, but the student section at gopher football games is much more rowdy and exciting. I think I find football (soccer) rather boring to watch :/
But I got to have ICE CREAM at the game! SO good! You suck it out of a bag, but it's still yummy.
Katja is staying with a different family near Accra for a week, so I was on my own to get home.
It was a little scary. I got in a taxi outside the stadium. Traffic was dead stopped, so all these men kept coming to my window. Some of them were very nice and asked me how I liked the game. A few asked me to come home with them. Once stuck his had inside the taxi to stroke my face. Awkward!
Thank God I met someone I knew at the tro-tro station in Kumasi. Naomi, a teacher at my school, was there and she helped me find a tro-tro and a taxi in Effiduase.

Part of the market in Kumas

The market was very busy and it was a tight squeeze through the market pathways

More market

Mmmm...fish!

Walking around with my yummy Bahflot (sp?)

Katja and I in the traditional Ghanian clothes...good lookin' huh?

Hannah and Julia at a restaurant in Kumasi

Katja and Michael eating American food

We got into the Black Star spirit

Check out those earrings

Some guy walking around the stadium with a smoking pot...not sure what that was about

Libya vs. Ghana

Katja and I in the sun

The guy behind me at the match was wearing a MN Vikings jersey!! I asked him about it and he had no idea what I was talking about and pretty much ignored me. Wonder where he got the shirt from...

Julia, Hannah, Michael, and Katja enjoying the football match

A New "Family" Member

For the first time here I carried water on my head the whole way to the house AND didn't spill any of it. Normally I get to the house totally soaked. Next step, carrying water on my head without hands. I did laundry by hand for the second time here. It's so much work! It doesn't help that my clothes are usually covered in dirt since the kids are always climbing all over me. I never realized how convenient a washing machine really is.

Tonight Nana called me over to him and told me how he's been with another woman and had a 1 and a half year old son. He'd been battling with the baby's grandparents (the mother doesn't want to keep the child) for custody. I thought it was odd, but he asked me (not his wife) to come with him to pick up the baby since everything was finally resolved with custody issues. Nana had went on at some length how the baby would be so much better off at the orphanage. But, I don't agree. The grandparent's house is really nice and they have ACTUAL furniture and live in a less isolated city. The grandfather talked to me for a while about how he felt he was plenty capable of taking care of Acusi (the baby). He and Nana got in an argument and both kept asking me to agree with their side of the argument. It was rather uncomfortable.

The mother of the child came with us in the taxi back to the orphanage. She walked up to the house and Margaret stood there and didn't seem to care that her husband's former mistress was there. Katja says it's considered acceptable in Ghana for men to be with women other than their wives.

Laundry

Playing Class

The last few days have been rather uneventful. Things have changed a bit with Acusi being here. Kwaku doesn't like having to share Margaret with another baby. It's odd though. Kwaku is a year older than Acusi, but because of poor nutrition Kwaku is the same size as Acusi. The electricity has been out for the past few days. We can't get fresh water from the pump, so the boys have to walk all the way into town to get water! It's quite an exhausting trek.

Teaching has been very frustrating this week. The children have caught on to the fact that I won't beat them. If the teacher is there the children are well behaved, but if not, they will not listen to reason. It's very exhausting and I end up shouting most of the class for the kids to sit down and be quiet.

The teachers here frustrate me as well. They often don't even show up and the kids just sit in the class all day doing nothing. And when they are around, they often teach from their desk and sit the whole time. They give the kids exercises but give them the answers. I don't know how that method measures whether the kids are learning the material. I'd say most of the kids are about 2 grade levels behind American students.

For instance I had each student in grade 6 read individually with me. Most of them have no idea how to read. I'd say about a fourth are illiterate. Reading and learning is so important to me and it's sad that these students are missing out.

But, I did run playing class myself this week. There were about 20 kids total which was perfect. It was really fun. We played cat and mouse, red rover, sang some songs, and did the bobo clapping game. Ebenezer took a lot of pictures and they turned out great!




The cat and mouse game


Red rover, red rover send someone right over!

Everyone playing the clapping game

They're kicking, I'm screaming!

The students in grade 2 have gotten so bad! Whenever I tell them to be quiet or to sit down, the students that are sitting and being quiet smack those who are misbehaving. And since there are so many kids misbehaving, class turns into a giant slap fest! I'm not exaggerating. It's total chaos sometimes. I know that if I hit the kids I'd have instant order in the classroom. But, I just can't hit a 6 year old with a stick.

I took my camera with me to school. The kids absolutely love to have their picture taken. When I show them the pictures, they just go crazy with excitement. Some of the kids stood up on a desk and fell down when the desk broke...oops. I think this will be the last day I bring a camera to school :)

Our Savior Sekyere Primary School

Inside one of the classrooms

Grade six posing for a picture

After seeing the class picture :)

Grade two posing for a picture

Right before the desk in the back broke