Home sweet home

After another 22-hour trip including stops in Amsterdam and Detroit, I'm finally back home in Hudsonville. My first thought? It's really cold. My first meal? Cheeseburger and fries in the Detroit airport. Quite possibly the best cheeseburger I've ever had in my life. The first thing I did when I got home? Took a hot shower. It's great to be home.

Thanks to the 5-hour time difference, I spent most of the hours between 3 and 7AM laying awake in bed. While not ideal, this did give me a chance to really reflect on my last two months in Ghana and my last day at NAP.

Let's start with my two months in Ghana as a whole. I don't think I could have asked for a better experience. I was talking with a friend after getting home yesterday and I told her that my trip to Ghana was possibly the best two months of my life. I wasn't exaggerating. It's hard to put into words exactly what made it so great... it's one of those things that just was. Maybe it was the combination of a completely new experience, the chance to teach little kids, and amazing new friends. Then again, maybe it was just the unbelievably cute kids. Whatever it was, I loved every second.

Moving on to my last day at NAP. Saying goodbye was even harder than I had imagined. Right when I  got to school that morning, the teachers told me that I looked down. It's funny... I didn't really realize I was down until they said something about it. Or maybe I wasn't down until they said something about it. Either way, I found myself feeling unbelievably sad to say goodbye to everyone. The first goodbyes were with my students. I called each of them, class by class, to the library to give them a small parting gift and take a picture with each of them. This took most of the day because I had to call them in between their exams. During the exams, I just went around and took as many pictures as possible. Actually, I was probably a little annoying -- I wouldn't appreciate it if some random dude kept on taking pictures of me while I was trying to write my English exam. Sorry I'm not sorry. It was my last chance. Near the end of the day, I had one final rehearsal with my choir because they'll be performing at a program next week. This time, though, instead of directing them, I just sang and danced along with them. It was fun to be on the other side of the music for a change.

All too soon, it was the afternoon assembly and time for me to say goodbye to everyone. I took a few more pictures and videos and then came Sir Dun and the staff's final farewell. He walked in front of all the students and asked one of them to come to the front and say what she was going to miss most about me. Then, he told all the students that were going to have once last chance to hug me so they should take advantage. Have you ever been swarmed by a hundred kids? Neither had I. It was all I could do to stay on my feet. I stumbled a bit, I think I cried a little, but mostly I just laughed a lot. I'm really going to miss those kids.

The next few hours were a bit of a blur. There was a staff picture, goodbyes with the teachers, and last-minute packing. Then, I was sitting in the car with Madam Gifty, her husband (Sir Richard), Sir Dun, and Fifii and Izzy on the way to Accra. After checking in at the airport, all six of us sat at one of the restaurants for about an hour until it was time for me to check in. As hard as it was to say goodbye to the other teachers and students, it was definitely hardest to say goodbye to this group. Fifii and Izzy were the kids I spent the most time with and Madam Gifty and Sir Dun were as close to family as I could get while in Ghana. I hope with all my heart that I see them again someday.

I guess that (and a couple flights) bring us to right now. I've put a couple pictures up, but look for tons more on my Facebook in the next couple days. While most of them won't see this, it would feel wrong if I didn't take this chance to thank a few people. The entire NAP staff for welcoming me as one of their own, the students of NAP for treating me with the same respect and love as if I were a regular teacher, and most of all, Madam Gifty, Madam Olivia, and Sir Dun for giving me a home away from home.

My Class 2 students. From left to right: Akim, Opata, Gabriel, and Desmond

My Class 3 students, Ezekiel and Sherifa.

Class 4, Jonathan and Selina

A picture of all the students at afternoon assembly.

The staff, from the back and left to right: Sir Richard, Sir Richard, Sir Besman, Sir Dun, Sir Edward
Sir Adu, Sir Ernest, Madam Esther, Madam Dora
Madam Flora, (me), Madam Dorcas, Madam Diana, and Madam Mercy
Unfortunately, we were missing Madam Gifty and Madam Mavis

Me with Madam Gifty's family

Sir Dun on the left and Sir Richard on the right.

I went to Ghana as a single volunteer worrying that I would be unbelievably lonely. Well, two months later, I came home with a whole new group of friends that I'm sure will stay with me for a very long time. So, as it turns out, "1" isn't always the loneliest number.

A fun (second to) last day

Today, my last full day in Ghana, was wonderful. This morning, I woke up and realized I didn’t have any water left, so I went to the reservoir outside my house to fill some buckets of water. Fetching water in this reservoir is pretty difficult though, because the bucket tends to float on the surface of the water, so you have to throw the bucket in just right and get enough water fill the bucket and make it heavy enough to sink. Plus, the bucket that you use to get water from the reservoir has a rope on it so you can pull it back up, but it’s very slippery so it’s really easy to let the rope slip through your fingers when you throw the bucket into the reservoir. One of the girls living down the hall saw me fetching water and chuckled a bit at my struggles as we said good morning. Eventually, I filled my bucket and went to go empty it in my tub upstairs. When I came back down to fill the bucket again (for the record, there are two buckets. One to fetch water from the reservoir and one to bring the water up to my room), I found that someone had already filled the reservoir bucket for me. I transferred the water to the other bucket, went upstairs, and when I came back down, sure enough, I found the bucket full of water again. This happened two more times before I had enough water to last me for today and tomorrow. When I finally closed the metal lid over the reservoir, the same girl that had laughed at me poked her head out of her window. Apparently she was the one that kept fetching the water for me. Having the girl next door help you fetch water in the morning because you’re slightly incompetent… definitely not a bad way to start off your day.

After doing a bit of packing and such, I decided to take a short nap since we had gotten home around 1:00 last night and I woke up again at 6:00. Usually, it’s a bad thing if you fall asleep and forget to lock your door, but today, it was secretly a great decision. I had no clue how long I had been asleep for, but the next thing I knew, someone was poking me awake. I opened my eyes and saw 8 or 9 NAP students standing in my room. They knew it was my last day so they wanted to come spend some time with me. For those who have never experienced waking up to the smiling faces of 7, 8, and 9-year old kids, you should definitely try it some time. Frankly, I’m not sure there’s a better way to be woken up.

One of the kids who came to my room, Opata, is the one I was telling you about whose mother just recently had a baby girl. Today, he took me to the baby’s “Outdooring Ceremony” which, from what I could gather, is basically like a baby shower for after the baby is born. Anyway, I got to hold the baby again and got a few pictures with her and her mother. I was a lot less nervous this time holding the baby even though she was only a month older. Probably because she looked a lot less breakable than she did a month ago.

After spending an hour or so with the kids, I came home to finish packing. An hour or so later, Sir Dun stopped by my room to help me pack. In other words, he looked at pictures on my laptop while I folded clothes and gathered my things. Thanks, Sir Dun.

When I got tired of packing, both of us headed back to the school to spend some time with Madam Gifty and her family. We had dinner together and then I got to play with Fifii and Izzy for one last time. It’s sad to think that I won’t get to play with her again and also that chances are she will have absolutely no clue who I am whenever I get to visit Ghana again. I tried remembering some people from when I was 3 years old and realized I don’t remember anyone. Oh well… I’ll just send her pictures or something.

Now, I guess it’s time to finish packing everything and spend one last night in this room in Ghana. By this time tomorrow, I’ll be getting ready to take off from the Accra Airport (scheduled departure of 10:30PM local time, so 5:30PM EST). The only thing left to do after I finish packing is say goodbye to everyone at school tomorrow. And do my best not to completely lose it when Madam Gifty starts crying (she’s already told me that she’s definitely going to cry tomorrow).

Wli Waterfall

The trip to the Wli Falls today was both unbelievable and unbearable. The unbelievable part was obviously the actual waterfall. Surrounded by a lush forest and emptying into a beautiful lake, the waterfall was truly a sight to behold. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it. The kids hadn't either, apparently, as they all went nuts they second the falls came into view. I was the designated photographer tonight and the shouts of "Sir Michael, Sir Michael, Sir Michael" from all of the kids wanting to get their picture taken by the waterfall or while swimming was almost deafening. By the time we left, I had taken about 200 pictures of the 40 or so kids that went with us today. (Clarification: I've been calling it a "school-wide excursion" simply because it was open to everyone above Class 4. Only about 40 people had time/could pay the excursion fee though, which is why it seems like there are so few.)

The fun really started and ended at the falls though. The journey there was pretty miserable and the journey back was only slightly better. First major problem of the day was not having a bus. The driver that the school had hired totally flaked and Sir Dun was scrambling around at 5 in the morning looking for a bus to take us on this excursion. The result was that a trip that was supposed to leave at 5AM didn't end up getting on the road until closer to 9. Then, this bus ride that was supposed to be about 3 hours ended up taking us a little over 5 hours because the bus kept on having minor issue after minor issue. Finally, when we were only 15 km away from the falls, the bus broke down completely and we had to wait while we found enough taxis and trotros to take us the rest of the way.

To be honest, the ride home really wasn't all that bad. It was just late and everyone was tired and the AC stopped working so everyone was hot. That said, everyone had a really great time at the falls and most people slept so it could have been a lot worse. I, unfortunately, didn't get much sleep because I was sitting with a Class 6 girl and two Form 1 girls in seats that were supposed to fit two people. We made it work just fine, but it just made for a pretty uncomfortable sitting situation. And then the two Form 1's decided they wanted to fall asleep on my lap which, again, was fine but, again, made it pretty impossible for me to sleep. Oh well. They both said that they slept really well so I guess it was worth it. I figure a couple 13-year old girls need more sleep than I do anyway.

All in all, going to the waterfall was a fun trip... just with a few hiccups along the way. Would I do it all again? Definitely. The falls really were amazing (look for pictures when I get home on Tuesday). That said, I wouldn't complain if we had a bit more luck with the bus next time either.

Tomorrow marks my last full day in Ghana. I still have tons of mixed feelings. Going on the excursion today was really great in that I got to spend a lot of time with the students that I've already built relationships with. On the other hand, it kind of stinks that I went on this excursion right before leaving because I talked to many new students that I would love to have more time to talk to and get to know better. For instance, before today, I didn't even know the name of the two Form 1 girls that I sat next to on the way home. We hit it off right away though and by the end of the day, they were comfortable enough with me that they both fell asleep on me/on each other just hours after really meeting me. After spending time with them today (for the record, they're names are Belinda and Gertrude), I would love to spend more time with them at school but I'm unfortunately limited to one last day on Monday.

So, while I'm happy to be going home after two months, I'm also very sad thinking about all the relationships I'm leaving and knowing that there are so many more relationships that I never had time to build/develop. For now, I guess the most important thing is just that I had an unbelievable experience over the past 8 weeks and even though I don't necessarily want it to end, I have to be content with the fact that the time I was here was unbelievable. That, and the hope that I'll come back and visit Ghana again someday.

NAP Talent Showcase (aka D-Day)

Today was the much anticipated showcase featuring singing, dancing, acting, and most importantly, teachers making a fool out of themselves. (That's where the D-Day joke comes in).

All the performances went really well. It was kind of hard hearing the actors because they didn't have mics and elementary school students aren't really the best at projecting while acting, but it was still really good. The songs and dances were great too. It was a lot of fun seeing the students showcase their more artistic side for a change.

Of course, the highlight of the program was the teachers singing "A Whole New World". The kids got really into it and made so much noise that we could barely hear the music that we were supposed to be singing to. Basically, the teachers just tried to yell loud enough that the students could hear them and gave up on singing altogether. It wasn't ideal from a performance standpoint, but it was pretty great from an entertainment standpoint. I've spent a lot of time over the past few weeks getting everyone prepared for this showcase and I was really exhausted and disappointed after many rehearsals, but after seeing the final product today, I couldn't be happier. For the record, props to all of the elementary school choir teachers that I've met/worked with in the past. It's a lot harder than it seems to get 7 and 8-year olds to pay attention, much less teach them a song.

We're going on a school-wide excursion tomorrow so I'm about to get some sleep before we head out. It should be a lot of fun to have a special extracurricular event with the students just before I leave. Plus, we're going to these waterfalls that are apparently breathtaking. I can't wait.

Rehearsals on rehearsals on rehearsals

First highlight of the day: no walk of shame. Good things are happening.

Today, I skipped all of my usual tutoring and spent almost the entire day in rehearsals. First, I gathered all of the teachers in the computer lab for a final run-through of “A Whole New World”. It’s still unclear whether they’ll be able to get through the entire song tomorrow without someone forgetting the words, but it should be a lot of fun for the students, regardless. Plus, a teacher or two forgetting the words would probably add some more comedic value to what is already promising to be a hilarious two and a half minutes. After the teachers came the young kids with their rendition of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and “Silent Night”. They’re almost definitely going to be better than the teachers. Finally, the older students put the finishing touches on “Joy to the World” and “Hakuna Matata”. Both are going to be a ton of fun.

In between rehearsals today, I also went around to each class to get a picture of all the kids with their teachers. The only classes I missed were Class 3 and Class 4. I’ll get them tomorrow. Through taking these pictures, I realized that girls go from wanting to be the center of attention in photos to being ridiculously camera-shy almost overnight. The Class 6 girls all wanted to see their picture immediately after I took it, but starting from JHS-1, it took tons of coaxing by their class teacher and me just to get the girls to stand where I could see them. Girls. I’ll never understand them. Ever.

The last highlight of today is that I recognized someone walking along one of the really busy market streets tonight. Through the sea of faces, I saw a friend walking along the other side of the street and we stopped and chatted for a while when I caught her eye. I’ve finally met enough people/been out enough that I can see people I know in seemingly random places. Good thing this happened three days before I leave. As usual, I have the best timing.

As Sir Eric put it, tomorrow is “D-Day” for the teachers. Check back tomorrow night for a comprehensive analysis of how the teachers did (read: I’ll poke fun at the ones who forgot the words). Oh, and I’m technically in the running for the grand prize too, even though I’m the one supplying the prizes. The kids are all going to vote after the performance so wish me luck! Hopefully it’s okay to win the prize even if you’re the one bringing it.

Walk of shame

Last night at around 8:30 or so, I was finishing up some studying at the school (I like to do my work at school because the lights are a bit brighter) when I decided to go to Sir Dun’s room to collect my things and head home. Next thing I know, it was 11:00. I guess somewhere between going into his room and putting my laptop in my backpack, I fell asleep on Sir Dun’s bed. When he saw that I was awake, he told me just to go back to sleep. He usually sleeps on the ground anyway, so it was no problem for me to take the bed for the night. So, I listened to the Headmaster, and dutifully passed back out.

In the morning, around 6:45, I figured I should go back to my own room to get ready for the day. As I was leaving, I ran into a few students coming into school. They greeted me and asked how I was and then one of the said, “Sir, isn’t that the same shirt you were wearing yesterday?” Caught red-handed. Or, in this case, blue-shirted. I never thought I was going to get called out for walk-of-shaming during my time in Ghana. Especially not by a 10-year old.

That small embarrassment aside, today was a pretty special day. Every Wednesday is worship, but today, the entire staff fasted all morning. At the end of the morning, so around 11:30, we all gathered in the computer lab for a staff sermon delivered by Mr. Adu and then some prayers led by Madam Mavis. During the open-prayer section, one of the teachers told the rest of the staff that she’s been having problems with her legs for two years now, and three surgeries later, she still can’t really run and jump. This is made worse by the fact that she’s the Kindergarten-1 teacher and the students often ask her to play with them and, try as she might, she is physically unable to. It was really touching seeing her open up to everyone like that.

After that, I almost lost it when Sir Edward proposed that they all pray for my safe journey home on Monday and my success in life in the future. So everyone prayed for me and then Sir Dun stood up to thank me on behalf of the rest of the staff and said that everyone at NAP from Creche (pre-nursery) to JHS 3 has been impacted by me and the entire school will miss me a lot. It was really kind of both of them to say these things and it made me realize even more that I’m going to miss these people a lot when I leave. Just 5 more days now. Four more, really, if you don’t count next Monday which is the actual day I leave.

Last, but certainly not least, a special birthday shoutout today to my sister, Ming, on her 29^th birthday. You’ve always been older, and sooner or later, that was bound to start being a bad thing. :)

Hold your breath, it gets better

Full disclosure: this blog post will have little if anything to do with the title. I just have that song stuck in my head after rehearsal today and thought it might catch people's attention.

In fact, there really isn't all that much to report from NAP. After a day as Headmaster yesterday, I was back to just being a normal volunteer today. I guess that's probably for the best. I'm not sure I'm quite cut out to be a Headmaster at this point in time.

Other than that, rehearsals for the performance on Friday are still going well and my time in Ghana is still ticking away. I had my last Tuesday today!

Sorry for the lame, super short post tonight. I guess, after 7 weeks, I've already described most of what happens at school on a day-to-day basis. Check back tomorrow for a story about a staff-wide fast though. That should be fun.

And just so this blog post has at least something to do with the title... A Whole New World

My day as the Headmaster

This weekend, Sir Dun went to Cape Coast again with the plans of getting home on Sunday night. Instead, he found himself caught up with some stuff that he had to deal with and called last night and asked me to take a break from tutoring today and do a few things that he usually has to do. Mainly, this consisted of collecting the “Studies Fee” that every student has to pay. So today, when I got to school, I took a seat in Sir Dun’s office and got ready to collect some money. The teachers all thought it was hilarious and starting calling me “Sir Dun 2” or, more directly, “Headmaster”. It didn’t help that my nice shirts were dirty so I raided Sir Dun’s closet to borrow one of his. Not only was I taking over his job for the morning… I even dressed like him. I couldn't really blame the teachers. If I were on the other side, I’d probably be making fun of me too.

Eventually, I started to have a bit of fun with the teachers and called a couple of them into “my office” during break to see how they were doing. Ultimately, this resulted in me firing them for incompetence. For some odd reason, they chose not to take me seriously. I can’t imagine why. I mean, I was wearing the shirt, after all.

Like I mentioned before, I went souvenir shopping yesterday. I was expecting shopping in Ghana to be pretty similar to China as far as haggling for prices. Turns out there are some pretty big differences. First of all, if you call out a price that is unreasonably low, the shopkeepers will just walk away. In China, they usually just laugh but offer a price a bit lower than their original. Also, it was a lot harder judging how much something actually should be. Usually when I’m shopping in China, I have a decent idea of whether I’m being ripped off or not. That definitely wasn’t the case yesterday. Though, from what I could tell, I got some pretty good prices, I didn’t really spend more than 20 bucks on anything. Frankly, it was a lot more fun just talking to the shopkeepers than actually buying anything. They were all really friendly (probably because they were trying to get me to buy their stuff) and also really helpful in telling me which other shopkeepers to go to in order to find what I was looking for. My wallet was a lot lighter when I finally left, but it was an overall really fun experience. Plus, I got to make some new friends in case I ever come back to Ghana and need more souvenirs.

Malaria, Thanksgiving, and the end of the world

Well, I officially don't have malaria, thank goodness. I got pretty sick Wednesday night and was feeling absolutely miserable on Thursday and Madam Gifty was convinced I had malaria. I checked the symptoms online and I definitely had all the symptoms, but the early symptoms of malaria really aren't all that different from a normal fever so I was hoping it was just the latter. Thankfully, it was. I've felt great for the past two days now and I'm hoping I'll feel even better tomorrow. Hopefully I didn't just jinx it.

On a more festive note, my Thanksgiving dinner last night was great. We had to celebrate the day after Thanksgiving, but I still had a lot of fun with Ben, Anna, Anna's parents, and the boys that Ben is fostering. We spent like 2 hours at the table just talking, taking pictures, and, of course, eating turkey. There was everything you could possibly want for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner plus a bit of local flair. For instance, instead of eating mashed potatoes with gravy, I had mashed potatoes with a spicy pepper sauce made from Ghanaian red peppers. It was definitely different, but actually not bad at all. Maybe I'll always eat mashed potatoes with hot sauce from now on. (Probably not.)

Today was a really fun day because I got to spend my entire afternoon and early evening with the JHS 3 students. After the Saturday morning classes, we went and bought some soda and snacks and came back to watch a couple movies. That's where the end of the world comes in. The first movie we watched was "Jurassic Park", but most of the movie was a bit too boring for them so, for the second film, we opted for a more visually stimulating movie: "2012". This one definitely seemed to keep their attention better and I think a few of them even believed that this is actually going to happen on December 21st. Ghanaians, in general, are pretty superstitious and many of them believe in things like ghosts and vampires so it really wasn't too difficult to convince these students that the world was going to end in a month. I obviously told them the truth after the movie was over, but it was kind of funny watching their terrified faces as they watched the movie because they thought it was actually going to happen. And by kind of funny, I mean really funny (in a mean-spirited, horrible person kind of way).

All joking aside, though, I really liked spending time with the Form 3's (same as JHS 3) outside of school. While they can be kind of frustrating academically at times, I really like the people in this group. I was a little disappointed that a couple of my favorites (oops... are teachers allowed to pick favorites?) couldn't come because of other plans, but I had still had a fantastic time just hanging out with these kids for a change. Especially because I only have a little more than a week before I have to say goodbye to them.

I'm not sure it's going to hit me that I'm leaving so soon until I actually get on the plane. It still doesn't feel real. Funnily enough, that's exactly what I said before I left for Ghana, "it doesn't feel real yet." Only, this time, instead of not believing that I'm going to a foreign country, it's not believing that I have to say goodbye to all these people and potentially never see any of them again. I'm also the kind of person that thinks about last things as I'm drawing near the end of anything. Like today, I kept on thinking that it's my last Saturday in Ashaiman because next Saturday will be our excursion. It being my last Saturday in this town is actually pretty significant, but I know I'll start thinking of ridiculous stuff pretty soon like, "This is my last time wearing a blue shirt to school on a Tuesday".

I'm going souvenir shopping with Ben tomorrow so I've started making a list of things I want to buy and people I want to buy them for. If I dont get you something, it's because I hate you and we're not really friends. No sorry, the joking nature of that probably doesn't come across as obviously through a blog. Seriously, though, if I forget to get you something, I do apologize. If it makes you feel any better, I spent hours making my picture-board for my high school graduation party making sure I included all my friends and it wasn't until the day of the party that I realized there weren't any pictures of my Dad. Other than making me the worst son ever, that also just proves that I'm horrible at remembering people when it comes to stuff like that. Moral of the story, don't take it personally.

Even though it's only 9PM here, I think I'm going to head to bed in the next half an hour or so. Sir Ernest and Madam Mavis invited me to their church tomorrow morning, but the service is from 6:30-8:30AM. Sir Ernest said he'll pick me up at 5:45 or so, meaning I'm going to be getting up no later than 5:00 or 5:15 to get ready. Yay.

Pastor Michael

Like I've mentioned before, NAP (and, I think most other schools in Ghana) starts every Wednesday with an hour-long worship service. Normally, I just do a bit of singing with the kids during this hour, but this week, I was asked to speak and deliver the sermon. I've never preached to anyone before, so I was super nervous. Since I was so uneasy about teaching all these kids, I decided to pick a Bible verse that was very familiar to me, and probably everyone else in the U.S. that's ever been to a wedding. The passage was 1 Corinthians 13 or "Love is patient, love is kind..." Instead of talking about romantic love, though, I talked about how they should love the other students, their teachers, their friends, etc. Overall, I thought it went fairly well and, from what I could tell, the students seemed to enjoy it. Speaking this morning definitely reminded me of some of my high school friends telling me that I should pursue a job as a pastor someday. Who knows? I did have a great time speaking this morning... but I still don't think it's gonna happen.

My work at school has definitely been picking up over the past week or so because exams are right around the corner. I usually get to school at 7:30 or so and don't leave until 6:30 or 7:00 every night now because I stay with the JHS 3 students after all the other kids leave. It's been exhausting but I've had a lot of fun with it and getting to know the older students. In fact, I've invited them all to my house this Saturday to watch a movie and have some snacks and such. It's weird to think that these kids are basically high school freshmen because they seem so much older. Maybe it's because they have a lot more responsibility at home than most high school freshmen in the U.S. do, but I definitely feel like I'm interacting with people just a couple years younger than me, not 14-year olds.

The choir is still doing really well. "Joy to the World" is almost performance ready and I'll be auditioning the solos for "Hakuna Matata" tomorrow after school. The teachers are struggling a bit with "A Whole New World" but, frankly, that was kind of the idea. It should be really funny seeing the teachers perform in front of the kids. I hope they'll enjoy it as much as I'm sure I will. If all else fails, the student choir should be really good by then.

It's unbelievable that I'm leaving in a week and a half. I've started to realize how many people and things I'm going to miss. At first, eight weeks seemed like forever, but now it feels like I haven't been here nearly long enough. I wish I could stay, but at the same time, I'm really excited to be home and see friends and family again. How possible do you think it is to move everyone from NAP Academy to the U.S.? Just kidding... don't answer that, you'll just make me sad.

PTA Meeting

I went to my first ever PTA meeting this afternoon. I definitely didn't think that my first PTA meeting would be when I was 20. Or that it would be in Ghana.

Since I've never been to a PTA meeting before, I don't have much to compare it to, but I imagine that this meeting was very different from PTA meetings in the U.S. The main difference, I think, is that this meeting was less of a discussion between parents and teachers than the school telling parents things and then the parents disagreeing. The entire meeting was in Twi so I didn't understand much, but from what I could tell, the parents didn't really support any of the issues that the administration/teachers were bringing up. What it all came down to was money. The school was asking that parents pay a little more and parents were saying that they pay enough as it is. At least that much, I'm assuming, isn't too different from what goes on at PTA meetings in the U.S.

The entire meeting lasted for about two and a half hours and, by the end, I was thoroughly lost. The conversation went from increasing school fees to changing uniforms to final examinations and I had absolutely no idea when they moved from one topic to the other. Though they did throw in a word or two of English here and there, so I have at least that much to be thankful for.

Speaking of being thankful, I wasn't aware until today that Thanksgiving is this coming Thursday. For weeks, I've been under the impression that it was on the 29th. I guess the 4th Thursday in November isn't always the last Thursday. Duly noted. I'm excited for Thanksgiving though. I'm going to Ben's house on Friday (it's easier if we celebrate on the weekend since there obviously isn't a Thanksgiving Break here) and I think we're going to have a fairly traditional Thanksgiving dinner. And, by that, I mean he told me that there's going to be turkey. Frankly, for someone that routinely eats rice instead of mashed potatoes and broccoli stir-fry instead of green bean casserole, turkey is all I really need to consider it a "traditional" Thanksgiving dinner. The only thing that'll be missing is watching the Lions play. Though, from the way this season is going for them, I can't say I'll miss it too much. I'm just glad I'm not on campus today after their loss to Green Bay. My Packers fans friends wouldn't let me hear the end of it (hi Abby).

The change-up

So, recently, there's been a little trouble at NAP with one or two of the junior high and upper primary teachers getting a little full of themselves because they think they're better than the lower primary/kindergarten teachers. Sir Dun didn't like what he was seeing, so today, he decided to switch up all the teachers and their classes. For example, the Class 1 teacher went to JHS (junior high school) 2, the JHS 3 teacher went to Class 3, Madam Gifty (who was once a teacher but now just does accounting) went to JHS 3, and so on. It was really good for the teachers because I think they gained some respect for what their colleagues do on a daily basis. The material for first and second graders may not be that difficult, but that doesn't make teaching them any easier. According to Sir Edward (the JHS English teacher) "I can't even get the second graders to sit down."

Other than being very helpful, the switch was really amusing too. Especially Sir Richard, the normal JHS 1 teacher, working with the Creche (aka daycare) students. Unfortunately for me, I was not exempt from this switch. Instead of my normal tutoring, I was supposed to take Madam Gifty's job as the school accountant today. My first issue came about 30 seconds after I started. A student came to buy a pen. Two issues... 1) I have no idea how much the pens cost 2) I have no idea where the pens are. So, with the help of this little second grader, I found the pens on the shelf behind me and took his word that they were each 60 pesewas. I saw Kekeli, one of my favorite 4th graders, walking past the office a few minutes later and told her to come in to give me a list of all the prices she knew and where everything was. Fourth graders to the rescue. Other than not knowing how much anything cost (Madam Gifty memorizes all the prices) and not knowing where anything is (again, all memorized), my job wasn't so bad. I had to collect money for the students' lunch but that basically just consisted of counting money and recording how much it was. That I can do. Overall, it was a very fun experience (for the teachers and me) and, more importantly, I think it got Sir Dun's message across that no teacher here at NAP is more important than anyone else.

Speaking of the teachers, rehearsals are going really well for the performance two weeks from now. I've split them up into pairs and started teaching "A Whole New World" to the pairs today. The way I did it is that every pair has 4 or 5 lines of the song, so it takes all 9 pairs to sing the song. I was originally going to teach the entire song to every pair, but I thought that might get a bit boring for the students (hearing the same song 9 times) and it was a little too difficult for most of the teachers. Funny thing about the pairs, I assigned them randomly, but it turns out that one of the pairs, Sir Eric and Madam Mavis, have some history. They dated for a bit last term or last year, but they broke up a bit ago. Now they're going to sing "A Whole New World" and do the Salty Dog Rag (a dance that we teach all the freshmen at Dartmouth) together. Awkward. All the teachers told me not to change the pairs though. They think it's going to be hilarious. I feel a little bad about it, but I completely agree.

The student choir is going pretty well too. Sir Dun wanted me to do a Christmas carol so I'm doing Silent Night/Night of Silence which is a Christmas Concert staple back in Jenison. The students are finding it hard to tune out the other parts and stick to their own, but they're getting better. I'm confident that they'll be ready by two weeks from now. I'm also teaching "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night and Hakuna Matata to the upper grades and Silver Bells to the younger grades. It might be a bit too much, but I'm hoping to make it work. Fingers crossed!

When it rains, it pours

I’ve never been somewhere where that old saying is more true. The few times it’s rained while I’ve been here have been absolute down pours. Today was no different. Shortly after lunch, the skies opened up and the rain started falling like crazy. Unfortunately for me, I had forgotten to close my window when I left for school in the morning. Even worse, I was pretty sure my computer was sitting on my bed right near my window. Seems like my only option was to brave the weather and go back to my room to close the window. That, or buy a new computer.

The problem with heavy rain in Ghana is that the drainage system isn’t really that great. A little rain is no problem, but when it pours, the water doesn’t really have anywhere to go but up. So instead of walking home, it was more like wading home. The water was halfway up my calves! I made it home just fine though (thanks to Madam Gifty for the umbrella) and rescued my computer before it got too wet.

The real fun started on my way back to school after closing my windows. It seemed that in the few minutes it took me to get everything settled in my room, the water level had risen another inch or two. It was so high that even the gutters on the sides of the street were underwater. This is even worse than it sounds because all the gutters here are uncovered and you need to jump over them to get across the street. Normally, this isn’t so bad. Like when you can see both sides of the gutter, I mean. Today, when I didn’t really know where the gutter started and where it ended, I was going based mostly on muscle memory and luck. I wasn’t very lucky. Instead of making it all the way across, I felt my foot slide on the very edge of the gutter and before I knew it, I fell face-first into the now nearly knee-deep water. Good thing I had switched the umbrella for a raincoat. Oh right, raincoats don’t help you if you’re laying in the biggest puddle in the world. To make matters worse, I completely scraped up my hands on the rocks under the water. #winning

I got myself cleaned up when I got to the school though and it made for a great story to tell all the teachers and students. Everyone was really concerned about my hands, but I told them I would just tell people the cuts were from a fight. It’s perfect. I have cuts on my left palm from where I braced my fall when some guy hit me, but I also have cuts on the knuckles of my right hand. You know, from where I beat his face in. That’s believable, right? They didn’t think so either.

When I got back to school later this evening, Madam Gifty insisted on cleaning up my cuts some more with hot water and then putting some anti-bacterial cream on it for me (even though I told her I’d already done that). When she brought out the hot water and rag, I tried taking it from her to clean the cuts myself, but it became pretty obvious that she wasn’t going to let that happen. Instead, she sat down, took my hands, and cleaned the cuts herself. Ghana-Mom to the rescue. And here I thought these two months were going to be an exercise in “independence”.

On a completely unrelated note, I spent yesterday afternoon and early evening at Ben’s house, which is about twenty minutes away from here. Being at Ben’s place is probably the closest thing that I’ll get to being home while I’m here in Ghana. I sat on the couch and watched one of the boys that lives with him play FIFA 2012 on their PS3, watched Hulu, ate a hotdog and salad, and had a milkshake for dessert. It sort of felt like cheating, but it was nice having a day like that where I could just sit back and relax and enjoy a small taste of home. And watch the latest episode of Glee. :) 

Water and electricity

I'm never going to take either of them for granted anymore. Today was the first time I had running water in about a week and there was a power outage for the past two or three days as well. The running water thing isn't so bad though, it just means I had to be really careful with how much water I used. I also started brushing my teeth and washing my hands with the bagged filtered water that is meant for drinking. It felt super wasteful, but I guess that's a pretty normal thing to do here when running water doesn't exist.

The harder thing was definitely the power outage. Since I get home from school at around 4, I have roughly 2 hours of light before it gets completely dark out. Since I didn't have light or any way to charge my laptop, the lack of electricity resulted in two things. First, I got a lot of sleep. Like more sleep in one night than I usually get in two at school. Second, I came up with a lot of ways to entertain myself. Here are some of my favorites in case you ever find yourself alone in the dark for hours on end.

• Singing songs backward. "Bells jingle, bells jingle, way the all jingle." <-- Thanksgiving doesn't exist here, so I'm already getting ready for Christmas.
• Naming the local wildlife.
• Coming up with backstories for random people you see on the street.
• Reliving funny memories.
• Trying to figure out how to explain the speed of light to a third grader.
• Making lists of things you want to do or things you want to see or just things, in general.
• Seeing how long you can hold your breath.

For that last one, I recommend not trying it too many times in a row. I think that's how you accidentally knock yourself out.

Other than the water and electricty, there's not too much to report from over here. All the teachers have shirts/dresses made from a matching design and Sir Dun decided they should all wear those shirts and dresses today. He got a shirt made for me yesterday so I could wear it to school today to match the rest of the teachers.  It was fun wearing a more Ghanaian-styled shirt and it didn't hurt that many of the teachers and students told me I looked handsome again. :)

Looking back on the first month

I can’t believe I’m already halfway done with my volunteering experience here in Ghana. Just a little over halfway, actually. My flight leaves Accra on December 3^rd, exactly four weeks from this past Monday.

So now that I’ve been here a month, here are some notable pictures from the first 50% of my time in Ghana.

Some Class 2 and 3 students from my first day at school.

The schoolyard.

More Class 2 and 3.

A great picture of one of the Class 2 students, Vanessa.

Kakum National Park

Sunset at the Cape Coast Castle.

The cells at the Elmina Palace.
The one on the left was for unruly slaves, and the one on the right was for officers that misbehaved.

Me at Elmina

A view of Cape Coast. If you look way in the distance, you can see the ocean (click on the picture to make it larger).

And as promised, more goats.

Other things to note that are harder to convey in pictures:

• Public transportation here is ridiculously cheap. The trotro ride from Accra to Ashaiman (about 45 minutes) costs 1.50 Cedis, or 75 cents!
• The idea of immigration is very hard for these children to grasp. Many of them still don’t quite understand that I’m not from China.
• A few of the kids tell me that they think America is in Heaven because they know Americans come in planes and they see the planes coming from and disappearing into the clouds.
• It’s very normal for random people to come up to you on the street or in a store and tell you that they want to be your friend.
• Instead of asking whether or not you will take their picture, a lot of Ghanaians will ask you to snap them.
• Even though it’s really hot out, most men that I see in the streets wear pants (aka trousers) during the day. I don’t really get it. Other than when I’m at school, I’m always wearing shorts.
• The mosquitoes have gotten worse over the past few weeks. I knew I jinxed myself when I said they weren’t bad at first.
• I think I’ve forgotten what being cold is. I walked outside tonight and my first thought was, “wow, it’s kind of chilly.” The low today was in the high 60s.

Some memorable experiences from the first month:

• All the students repeating “Welcome, Sir Michael Su!” on the first day I was here.
• Visiting Kwame Nkrumah’s Mausoleum and learning a bit about Ghana’s history and independence.
• Visiting Cape Coast twice and learning about the history of the city’s importance in the slave trade.
• Holding a two-day old baby.
• Walking along the canopy of a rainforest in Kakum.
• Seeing a Ghanaian a cappella concert.
• Being caned.
• Meeting up with another Jenison alum in Cape Coast.
• Going to church.
• Watching the election results by myself at 5 in the morning (probably only memorable because this just happened yesterday).

Some things I’m looking forward to in the coming month:

• Starting a choir at NAP that future volunteers can hopefully continue.
• Drum lessons this Sunday.
• Visiting more churches.
• Learning more of the language.
• A school-wide excursion to some beautiful waterfalls next weekend.
• A talent show/arts afternoon that I’ll be organizing for the Friday before I leave.
• Getting to know the families of some more of my students.
• Building on the relationships I’ve developed with students and teachers.
• Learning to cook some of the local dishes.
• Getting Sir Dun to watch (and stay awake during) one of the Star Wars movies.
• More time with my students and the rest of these kids!

One month down, one more to go. If the second month is anything like the first, I'm going to have a fantastic November.

It's a small world, after all

Who would have guessed that the first time I saw one of my classmates from Jenison since graduation is in Cape Coast, Ghana? Definitely not me! But more on that in a second… let’s talk about Friday and Saturday first.

So like I said, NAP didn’t have school on Friday (and won’t have school tomorrow either) for their midterm break. This meant that after breakfast and a little packing on Friday morning, Sir Dun and I were able to leave Ashaiman at around 10 or 11 – the perfect time to escape the traffic nightmare that is the commute from Accra to Cape Coast. Even with the careful planning, though, it was still almost 4PM by the time we reached Sir Dun’s house. I’m beginning to think I didn’t put enough music on my iPod before leaving for Ghana. Anyway, after resting for a bit, Sir Dun took me out to explore Cape Coast nightlife with a few of his friends. I was really excited because the place we were headed was an outdoor club/bar with a live band. We drove past the place last time I was in Cape Coast and the band sounded awesome, so I promised myself I’d go the next time I was in town. The band definitely didn’t disappoint. They had the usual instruments (guitars, drums, etc) but they also had a set of congas and a brass line consisting of a couple trumpets and a trombone. It made for a really full, festive sound. Plus, the singer was phenomenal. Interesting side note: most of the singers I’ve heard in Ghana so far have been really great. Maybe the Cords should make Ghana our next international stop so we can recruit some of these young singers to Dartmouth. Since the place with the band wasn’t our first stop of the night, it was almost 2AM by the time we left and we all decided we’d had enough fun for one night and went our separate ways to get some rest.

On Saturday, Sir Dun went to play football with a few of his friends in the morning so I got to enjoy sleeping in for a bit. After that slight luxury though, Sir Dun and myself (plus two of his friends, Eric and Beesi) went off to another famous slave castle: Elmina. Elmina was very similar to the Cape Coast Palace but it was probably even a little bit bigger and about a 15 or 20-minute drive outside of the actual city. We got to this castle a bit earlier in the day  than the one two weeks ago, so I got to go on a tour and, unlike last time where I just sort of wandered around, learn a bit about the history of slavery in Ghana and Cape Coast. Turns out both this castle and the one in Cape Coast were originally used to store goods before being shipped off to Europe and Asia. Many of the cells that would eventually be used to hold soon-to-be slaves were actually built as storage rooms for goods like ivory and gold. That all changed with the discovery of the New World. According to the tour guide, the identity of Elmina changed almost overnight. One day, there was ivory and gold, and the next day, the castle was used solely for the slave trade. I met two girls from Norway, Marita and Tina, (fellow obrunis) on the tour and we all agreed that it’s hard to appreciate Elmina’s beautiful views of the ocean and amazing architecture after learning about its history. Still, it feels somehow wrong to visit the castle and not mention its beautiful beach and architecture with Dutch, Portuguese, and English influences.

After getting home on Saturday, I checked my e-mail and Facebook and saw a message that started off with “I apologize for being super creepy…”. From past experience, that’s usually not a good sign. This time was definitely the exception. Turns out one of my fellow members of the Jenison High School Class of 2010, Katelyn, was on an exchange term in Ghana and had seen my new profile picture/blog on Facebook and wanted to see what I was doing here. What’s even crazier than both of us being in Ghana at the same time, though, is that she’s doing her exchange term here in Cape Coast at the University of Cape Coast. In other words, we were less than 10 minutes away from each other! After some planning via Facebook message and eventually texting, we met up for dinner tonight in Cape Coast. Katelyn’s been here in Ghana since June and actually started off her experience volunteering in an area that’s very close to where I am now. She moved from Tema to Cape Coast at the beginning of the school year. She’s going to get home a couple weeks after I do. Compared to her, my stay in Ghana seems like nothing. I’ll be here for about 2 months… she’s going to be here for 6! She had to get back to school pretty quickly after dinner, but it was really great catching up with an old high school friend as well as interacting with someone from the States again. Plus, we went to a more touristy restaurant so I got my first taste of home in a month when I ordered the “Western Burger”. They used cucumbers instead of pickles and a piece of ham instead of bacon, but it was still delicious. Oh, and speaking of American food, Sir Dun and I shared a dinner of tilapia and a local dish called banku on Friday. I don’t usually like banku, but this restaurant served it with a spicy sauce and a red sauce that I hadn’t seen in a while… ketchup! That meal only reinforced my belief that most foods taste better with ketchup.

We’re headed back to Ashaiman and NAP tomorrow morning and I think this is probably my last time in Cape Coast before going home. I’ve really enjoyed both my weekends in this city and definitely recommend it to anyone travelling to Ghana in the future. Who knows? On top of the beautiful beaches, national parks, and castles, maybe you’ll find an old classmate waiting here for you as well.

It's a girl!

Opata's mom had her baby! It was a couple weeks earlier than expected, but the baby is fine and I got to go visit her yesterday after school. I've never held such a young person before. She was only two days old. I only held her for like one minute though because I was terrified that I would accidentally drop her or something. They haven't named her yet and when I asked, her aunt said "Why? Do you want to name her?" I graciously declined.

After spending some more time with Opata and his new baby sister, I went for my run like usual, but decided to turn right after leaving my house instead of left for a change. This takes me out of my community and into the bigger part of town. I was a little nervous to go this way at first, but after being here for a month, I figured it was about time to explore our neighbor community. I'm really glad I did. There wasn't anything that special about the first half of the run. I passed shops and houses and schools just like I do in my community, but for the last part of the run (before turning around), I found myself on a dirt path next to this beautiful lake. It was really nice to run next to the water again since I haven't been able to since leaving Dartmouth and the Connecticut. Later, I learned that they call this lake "the dump" because it's full of agricultural runoff and other pollutants. I'm going to choose not to think about that.

I'm off to Cape Coast again this weekend since there's no school Friday or Monday. This whole week, Sir Dun was telling me that "midterms" were Friday and Monday so I didn't have to go to school. I assumed it was because they had tests so I couldn't pull them out of class like I normally do. Over the course of the week, I kept on asking the students I was tutoring if they had any questions they wanted answered before their examinations. Only yesterday at afternoon assembly did I realize how big of an idiot I was when Sir Richard said to enjoy "your midterm holiday." I can only imagine what these kids were thinking. "Why would I want any questions answered before I go on break for 4 days?" In my defense, though, I think most of you would assume the same thing if someone told you that the kids had "midterms" on Friday and Monday. But still, Ghana: 1 Michael: 0

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween (hi, Nancy!) Also, all of you who are at Dartmouth right now should go see the Cords pinwale (Freshman) Show tonight at SAE at 10. Music, skits, and fuzzy pants... what else could you want for your Friday night?