"Intense..." "Just like camping!" thanks Heather

Our program has really been established now and we have somewhat of a routine. Heather looks after the larger level 2 class and I look after the small level 1 class. My class moved into the kindergarten building which is still on the church premises. I had such a surreal experience with that though. Here we were, in a dimly lit room, with tiny tables and tiny chairs fit for 4 or 5 year-olds, but the women just sat in them with no complaining or moving around. They couldn’t have been very comfortable but learning is so much more important to them. Then, it started raining so hard on the tin roof that you could barely hear the teacher. I thought we might just pause class for a while until it let up. Auntie Julie (the teacher) kept teaching, however, and the ladies kept their attention as though they couldn’t hear anything else. And then it started to rain even harder. I could not hear a word she was saying. Furthermore, there were leaks in the roof, so some of the ladies were getting dripped on. They just nonchalantly moved their books over so they wouldn’t get wet and didn’t make a fuss or anything. I couldn’t help compare it to a classroom in Canada. Maybe younger kids can be excused for bad behaviour and attention span because of their age, but even in university students don’t put the same amount of effort into our studies. Heather and I were talking and if the power went out for 5 minutes, our profs would probably cancel the rest of class, even though it came back on ten minutes later. It’s just a different world.

I am getting pretty excited about the program. I know that my part isn’t  really the literacy program, but I love helping out and interacting with the women. I have built some relationships and next week I will begin interviewing them about their trades and their jobs. It is honestly just such a cool way to learn. I just hear some sort of new information every day. Like the other day I found out that health insurance for the year in Ghana is 14 cedis, or around 11$. Then they don’t have to pay for doctor visits or medication. The sad thing is that many people cannot afford that seemingly miniscule amount, so when they do get sick, they somehow have to pay the 50 cedi or more for whatever treatment they need. I just want to find out who doesn’t have health insurance and buy it for them! Gah!

Ok another thing I learned is that at the one school there are too many kids so half of them come from 7-12 and half from 12-5. We were walking home from class and like 15 kids were following us on their way home. They walk about 5 miles to school every day. That’s pretty far, especially for a young child about 7 or 8 walking on a busy road with no sidewalk. My mom would have a heart attack if I did that when I was that age. But there is no other choice for these kids really.

Did I ever mention that we met two British boys (Dan and Max) whilst in Kokrobite? We got to talking, a lot about development, and found out that they are filming a documentary about volunteers in Ghana. They actually asked us if they could interview us for their film. We didn’t think anything would really come of it, but Monday night Dan called me and said “so how does Wednesday work for you?”. So they came all the way from Accra (2.5 hour tro tro ride) to our small town of Asamankese. We asked the ladies in the class before they came if it would be ok, and they all got really excited. When we arrived with them on Wednesday, all the ladies were in nice clothes and a few of them had gotten their hair done for the occasion. It was really endearing. They did really well though, concentrating hard on their studies even though they knew there was a camera watching them. I know it’s just a small documentary, but it will still be cool to send to the women so they can see themselves in a real movie. My favourite part was that they interviewed one student, Alberta. They asked her about how the program was affecting her after 2 weeks and what she thought of it. Hearing directly how she is benefiting was so promising. She said she can already see how they are improving and the new things they are learning (like past participle). Dan also asked her what she would think if the program continued all year. She said “like school? I think everyone would love that.” That is mine and Heather’s big goal, we’ve discussed it a bunch of times. Mostly because we aren’t even the actual teachers, we just provide some capital, lesson plans (Heather does that), and other teaching materials. We also mark the workbooks and make sure classes run smoothly. The teachers ask us questions from time to time. But really we would love to see that if we left money here, they could continue the program in January when we aren’t here. We still have to figure out the logistics of it all, but that is our dream.

These blogs just seems to get out of hand. I start typing and I just keep going and I don’t even feel like I scratch the surface of telling you about what is happening here. Oh well, all I can do is try right. Today we are going to meet an American girl who is also living in Asamankese, working for an organization called Flower that works to empower women. So that will be interesting and good to talk to someone new. Saturday is looking to be a pretty eventful day. I am going to go see a cocoa farm! Many of you know that this is a soft spot for me and holds a lot of interest, so I will get to see if there are indeed child slaves working there. Although I’m pretty sure there won’t be because it won’t be one of those massive farms. Regardless, I am excited to see the process, maybe buy some cocoa beans and grind them with a mortar and pestle. Yeah, I am that hardcore. Also on Saturday Belinda is going to show us how to make donuts. And yes I do realize that this is possible to do in Canada. But it’s somehow still cooler in Ghana right? At 4 on Saturday on of our students, Juliana K, is coming for extra help. Really we are going to go over Wednesday’s lesson. She can never come on Wednesdays because she has to go to Accra to purchase her fish to sell in the market here in Asamankese. Saturday is full, and I love full days. I’m pumped.

So it’s killing me that I can’t just add pictures that correspond to each of my stories. At the internet café, I can only upload one picture each time and it takes 15 minutes to do so. But hopefully our internet situation will improve soon and I can share with you some visual aids of what my life is like here. A picture is worth a thousand words, after all. Alright, shout out to everyone who is in midterms… not the best, sorry about your luck, but study hard! It is your second last semester, after all. Also I thought I was missing out on a lot because people are getting engaged and married while I am gone, but those things seem to pale a bit in comparison because Heather’s sister went into labour last night. New niece = winner. Until next time…