Things are going well here in Ghana as I am now in my second full week at the school. Yesterday we went back to the internet place and got a new SIM card, so hopefully that will resolve my internet problems. So now is a good time to update you on what has been going on as of late.
Things at the school are going well. I’ve gotten to know all of the teachers and many more of the students. There are so many that I have a lot of trouble remembering names and faces. They all recognize me though, although recently I've been getting more ‘obroni’ (translation: foreigner, but in a fairly benign sense) or even sometimes ‘Mr. Ben’ (for Ben Schwartz, WPE’s founder. I guess all white men look the same to them? Haha. Most of the time they’re just kidding but sometimes I'm not so sure).
Last week, I observed teachers in their classrooms as I was getting to know the system. This week I am beginning to work with individual students who need the most help in reading. I just started this today, and it was quite an eye-opener, which merits its own post. But it is a good feeling to start this work, which I feel is critically important and extremely rewarding (although very frustrating at times!).
But the kids are a lot of fun. They are all very welcoming and excited to include me in their lives. Here is a picture of me and some of the kids. As you may be able to see, I’ve decided to let my moustache and other facial hair grow out since I’ve gotten to Ghana. I figured now is as good a time as any to give it a try. I doubt it will live up to the incredible displays of Kevin, John Gerdes, and Tim (couldn't find a link, but there has been some wild styling).
In other news, I’ve learned some new skills since being here. The first involves the drinking water here, which is sold in half-liter plastic bags for 10 pesewes (~7 cents) each, or 1 cide (less than a dollar ) for a giant bag of them. But to drink them, you have to tear a small hole in the corner with your incisor teeth, which took me several days to master. I had a nice picture to share on this, but the internet is acting slow so I'll save it for later. Anyways, I’m not sure how this plastic pouch model caught on in Ghana, but it's a similar deal for Fan Ice, which is a kind of ice cream in a plastic pouch. Again, you tear off a corner and squeeze it into your mouth. Those are quite refreshing on hot days.
The other skills I’ve learned (sort of) is washing clothes by hand. I say sort of because when I went to wash some clothes on Sunday, six kids jumped up (there are always some hanging out at the school after school and on weekends) and insisted they do it for me. So I “supervised” this round, and promised myself I would play a more active role the next time I need to do wash – which will now be as long as I can avoid doing it, because it is a long and painstaking process.
One final note and I’ll let you go. We’ve had two nights with the other set of WPE consultants and volunteers. They are at NAP Academy, which is in a slightly more suburban part of Tema, about half an hour away from Manye. It seems that they are doing well. I had met Jon and Kiki (both Dartmouth ‘14s) at the WPE orientation meetings at the end of the spring. And I got to meet the NAP consultants – Richard (Dartmouth ’15) and Katy (Dartmouth ’10, and Teacher Education Program graduate). It was great to spend time with that crew and we’ll see each other again this coming weekend.
So that’s what I know for now. I will hopefully have some more posts of my reflections on my first experiences tutoring and some other thoughts as I’m now in my second full week in Ghana. A lot has happened and it feels I’ve been here much longer than that. But everything is going well. Talk to you all soon.
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