Monday October 26, 2009

Monday October 26, 2009
I’ve officially been in Ghana for 2 days now. Arriving at the Accra airport was definitely different than the awesome Amsterdam airport! No air conditioning, no fans, very claustrophobic, and people were rushing everywhere and running into us left and right. We spent over an hour just to get our bags and money exchanged even though everything was in one small room. Dellah, our driver for our time here, met us as we walked outside. He is extremely nice and welcoming, and he is everyone’s favorite person here. Accra, the capital of Ghana, was far more developed than what I thought. There were some very nice cars, a shopping mall, big banks, etc. The only downside was that there were no street lights, so everyone is driving carelessly around trying to beat everyone. As we were on our 4 hour journey to Hohoe, I started to see the “poverty” I prepared myself for. When I say “poverty,” I mean what Americans think poverty is. To Ghanaians, they don’t know any different, so everything is good to them, and they are always happy. All the roads have huge holes and huge bumps, so we were constantly slowing down and stopping and being thrown around the van.
When we arrived in Hohoe, we had a nice greeting from the staff and other volunteers. On Sunday, they drove us into town to show us the bank, the internet café, the post office, etc. Once again, tons of holes, bumps, crazy drivers, goats, chickens, and people. I don’t know how people don’t get hit by cars here because the cabs drive about a foot away from all the people on the road! We have cooks here at the home-base, and they make us some great food! I got sick the first two mornings, but it was from my malaria medicine, so I’m now taking it at night. We have sand volleyball set up in the front of the house, so it has been a fun way to pass time. It is definitely hot here, but it is still hard to get used to the freezing cold showers!
My first day of placement was very interesting. I’m teaching 3rd grade at Mussama school. It is the most structured school in Hohoe. The children have to stand outside in lines for about ten minutes before school to pray and sing to the teachers and headmaster, and then they march to class. They were very excited to see two volunteers coming to their classroom. They jump up and down and scream “yevo, yevo, yevo!” That means white person. My teacher told me at the beginning of class that she needed to step out for a minute, but she would be right back. I taught for three and a half hours before she got back to class. They told us that might happen, so I was prepared for it. The only thing is that I didn’t know how much they knew, or where they were in any subject. I didn’t have any books, or paper, or any kind of lesson plan from the teacher. The kids are very hard to keep under control. They constantly change desks and hit each other. When they do something bad, the teacher canes them. She has a bamboo stick, and she smacks them across the hand or face. It is horrible to watch, but I can’t do anything about it. But when she whips out the cane, they sure do listen better. The children also base everything they know and learn off of memorization, so even though they can say the ABC’s and count, they don’t know what letters look like or sound like; therefore, just about half of my 33 students cannot read. The teacher doesn’t care. She just tells me to not mind them and do other things. Three and a half hours at my placement might not seem long, but it is exhausting when it is 99 degrees, 100% humidity, wild children, dirt floors, and a school with a broken roof over it.
Today we got to go into town to the market. Wow, I have never ever ever ever seen anything like this! It was an absolute mad house! People were selling anything and everything. Two year old children were running around naked and without their parents. Women were carrying about 6o pounds of water on their head. Not only water, but anything you can think of! It was a very crowded place, extremely hot, and I didn’t even take any pictures because I was so in shock by the market! Next time we go, I will definitely have pictures. I hope to get internet tomorrow, so until then…