Friday November 6, 2009

Gosh, the days go by so fast here!  Earlier in the week we went to Mount Afajato, and we climbed to the top!  I don't think I have ever sweated that bad in my life!  I didn't even know if I was going to make it to the top because it killed my knees, but I made it, and it looked awesome!  We also had 2 speakers come in and talk about child labor and marriage in Ghana...very interesting and very confusing and contradicting at the same time. 

I made thirty something worksheets for my students this week.  They loveeeee worksheets for some reason.  I have 5 boys that are very advanced when it comes to math, so I made their worksheets really hard, and they did amazing!  The only problem is that they can't read.  Today I tried to play a game outside for a change, and they were really excited and did real well for the first 2 minutes, but then the shoving and punching and beating people on the ground began, so we went inside.  They just get so out of control!  It is pretty much the adult's fault here when it comes to violence.  The teachers cane the kids for no reason, and I recently found out that it is illegal to cane kids in Ghana, but somehow they get away with it.  Sometimes I see grown men running down the street with his fist in the air about to strike a little kid.

One of the volunteers came home the other day and told us that a new orphan was brought to her orphange.  She came from northern Ghana, and people up there thought she was a witch!  She is only 4 years old, and they were planning on killing her.  A peace core volunteer took her and kept her in his place of stay for about a month or so, and then he got in touch with an orphange here, and they told him she could come stay.  He pretty much rescued her and saved her life!  She is burned on one side of her head really bad, and she doesn't speak English or Ewe.  The 2 volunteers here that are married, Stephne and Kerrin, traveled to Togo and Benin before they arrived in Ghana.  Vodoo and such is very popular in Togo and Benin.  About 60% of the population there believes in it.  They had fascinating pictures and stories about witchcraft, and I wish I could tell y'all all about it!

Yesterday, I went with some girls to the orphanage outside of Hohoe.  It was awesome!  These kids were soooooo happy, and they all had big personalities!  They are so different than the kids I teach it seems like.  Even though they are all orphans, they wouldn't have it any other way.  They were all very well behaved, and they wanted to show us everything!  I walked into a bedroom and thought, wow, this is better than what I was expecting until Abby told me something.  There were 3 sets of triple bunk bed, but they sleep four kids to a bed.  It is a twin size at the most.  Their clothes hardly get washed, and they bathe outside in front of everyone.  Most of them like to run around naked anyways lol...2 girls really caught my attention, and they sang songs for me, so I videoed them on my camera.  They loved watching it!  Their names were Sarah and Patience.  Sarah's parents both died of aids, and she doesn't know it yet, but a past volunteer is adopting here, and she should be going over to the U.S. very soon!  She was loud, crazy, and full of life, and her hair sure did show it!  I want to go back on Monday, so hopefully it will happen!

I can't post pictures at all because the internet is too slow, but I'll keep trying.  The slideshow at the bottom is not mine...and I don't know how to change it.