Opata and Friends

After school today, I decided to walk home with one of my students, Derrick Opata. He’s one of the second graders that I’ve been working with and I thought it would be fun to see where he lives and also to meet his parents. Like most of the students at NAP, Derrick (more commonly referred to at school as Opata) lives very close to the school. I don’t think it took longer than five minutes to walk from school to his house. When we got there, I was introduced to his aunty (whose three children all go to NAP as well) and his mother. According to his mom, Opata is going to have a new baby sibling next month some time! She told me I was more than welcome to come visit the newborn baby if he/she’s born before I leave. I’m really excited.

Opata’s family, his cousins, his grandmother, and another student from NAP all live in the same building complex so their little yard was quite literally crawling with children. I was definitely a little jealous. Since my sister is so much older than me, I didn’t really have any playmates in my house after 3^rd grade and Opata has like 3 or 4 other elementary school kids living with him with just as many toddlers! I imagine there’s seldom a quiet moment in that yard.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before or not, but many people, when they meet me, ask me if I can take them to America when I leave. Today was no different. I wasn’t sure if Opata’s mom was joking or not, but about 10 minutes after getting to their house, she asked if I could bring Opata to America at some point. When I first got here, I wasn’t sure what to say. I obviously couldn’t say yes, but I didn’t want to sound too harsh and say “no, absolutely not” either. By now, though, I’ve come up with a well-rehearsed answer that dodges the question completely. Instead of saying yes or no, I just laugh and say, “I’m still in college, I can barely take care of myself!” This usually leads to questions about Dartmouth, some comment about my age (most people seem to think I’m in my late 20s. One guy even told me he thought I was 30), or confusion as to why I’m not taking classes. Either way, the topic of bringing them with me to the U.S. is generally forgotten and the conversation moves on. Moral of the story: when you have to answer an uncomfortable questions… just change the subject. That’s healthy, right?

After sitting with Opata’s family for an hour or so, I decided it was time for me to go home. Opata and three other kids insisted on walking me home because they wanted to see my room and because their parents were worried I was going to get lost. It was 5PM and still light out. Everyone seems to constantly worry about me getting lost. All I had to do was turn from Opata’s street to mine and walk in a straight line until I got to my building, but they still insisted. Oh well, I guess I shouldn’t be complaining, I got to be accompanied by four cute little kids on my walk home from work.

On an unrelated note, plans for my school choir are finally shaping up and I’ll be starting auditions either tomorrow or the day after. Since all the students leave school at different times, though, it means my choir will have to be a before-school extracurricular. We’ll rehearse from 7-8 in the morning. This isn’t ideal for their voices and definitely not ideal for my sleeping habits, but I’m really excited either way. My current idea for the choir’s name is “The NAPsters”, but I’m open to suggestions. I came up with that name in like two seconds so I’m sure there are better options out there.

Opata's on the left, Enoch's second on the right, and Opata's cousin Kekeli is on the far right.

A cappella in Ghana

So first of all, for anyone keeping track at home... it's 2:30 AM as I write this. The bullfrogs in the swamp in my backyard have been going nuts for the last hour and I find myself oddly awake. I figure now is as good a time as any to update the blog since I haven't in a few days.

For the first time since getting to Ghana, I stayed home for the entire weekend. While it's been fun traveling and exploring, it was also nice to just stay in and relax for a bit. It also meant I got to spend some more time with the local kids and go to church with Madam Olivia too.

The highlight of the weekend, though, was definitely the a cappella performance I went to on Saturday. The program was hosted by some political candidates as it was meant to promote peace during the upcoming election (their Presidential election is on December 7th). The event was called Peace A Cappella and featured 4 or 5 different a cappella groups, including the one that Sir Richard, NAP's creative arts teacher, sings tenor for. 

At first, I was imagining a cappella groups like the ones I've become used to at Dartmouth. I was wrong. All the groups that performed were quintets consisting of one bass, one baritone, two tenors, and a lead and very choral. All the singers were incredible. It seemed that every group's bass could sing impossibly low and every group's tenor could comfortably sing higher some girls that I know. There was one guy in Sir Richard's group that especially impressed me. He was out there belting high C's and D's like they were nothing. (For those of my friends who aren't music nerds... I'm sorry. Just bear with me on this one.) It was also really cool seeing their form of beatboxing. Since the groups were so small, they couldn't afford to have one person beatboxing the entire time, but the entire group would sometimes transition from the more choral singing into a kind of melodic percussive groove, each person making a different sound or noise. It was different from anything I'd ever heard, but really fun and cool nonetheless.

Seeing this a cappella performance definitely made me miss the Cords and really excited to sing again in the winter. I can't wait. Speaking of the Cords, good luck to the four freshmen at their pinwale show this Saturday!

At this point, I suppose I should try to get to sleep again. Week 4 at NAP starts in 5 short hours!

Chickens, goats, and me

What do I have in common with chickens and goats? All three of us have to be back in our yards by nightfall. Turns out all the chickens and goats roaming the streets during the day DO have owners and they know exactly how and when to get back to their homes. I didn’t notice until today when I went for my run a bit later than usual. Normally, I get back from running at around 5:45 or 5:50, so 10 or 15 minutes before the sun really sets. Today, though, I started a bit later so didn’t get back until 6:05. On the last section of my run, I realized that there were a bunch of chickens and goats behind me, all trying to get back to their homes before dark… just like me. You see, I’ve been told by not only my parents, but also my two WPE coordinators AND my two Ghana-mothers that I’m not allowed to run outside after dark. Something about it being “dangerous” and how I might get “lost” or some crazy talk like that. Whatever. I figure if 6 people tell me it’s not allowed, though, I should probably listen to them.

Tomorrow’s a holiday so none of the elementary school kids have to go to school which means I don’t have to go to school either. In other words, I’ll be able to sleep in tomorrow for the first time in weeks! I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am. Then again, “sleeping in” at this point probably means sleeping until like 9 or 9:30 at the latest since I’m so used to getting up around 7:15. It’ll still be really nice though.

Also very exciting is that this weekend is Dartmouth's Homecoming and the the '16s first big weekend ever! I would love to be back at school for the bonfire and all the festivities... especially for AXA's Room-to-Room Tails tonight. Those AXAs that are on campus are just going to have to celebrate a bit extra for my sake. For the first time since getting here, I'm definitely a bit jealous of everyone back in Hanover.

On a much less exciting note, there was a huge tragedy in the neighborhood yesterday that directly affected one of my students and her family. In fact, if you remember from last week, I actually mentioned her as being one of the students I was really excited to work with. Her name is Sherifa. Out of respect for her family’s privacy, I won’t go into what happened, but I will say that it’s something no 9-year old girl should ever have to go through. I spent all of yesterday with her and she was crying almost the entire time. She’s absolutely devastated. So for those of you who pray, please keep her and her family in your prayers and for those of you who think, please keep her and her family in your thoughts. I’ve put a picture of her at the bottom of this post so you can put a face with a name. Thank you all so much.

Sherifa in the library.

Cape Coast

I spent this past weekend at Cape Coast and it was definitely one to remember. Sir Dun and I left school on Friday at around 1:30 or so because traffic on Fridays is always horrendous (case in point, we didn’t get to Cape Coast until 9 or so. It’s about a 120 km trip), but not early enough to miss the gigantic storm sweeping through the greater-Accra area. I don’t remember the last time I was that wet. But some minor rain-related discomforts aside, the trip to Cape Coast went along pretty smoothly… though very slowly.

On Saturday, we spent most of the day at Kakum National Park, Cape Coast’s famous rainforest. The rainforest’s most visited attraction is the “Canopy Walk”. I was hundreds of feet in the air, walking along this rope bridge around the canopy of the rainforest! I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous, but the view was spectacular. Granted, I would have thought any view of the rainforest was spectacular, seeing as how the closest I’ve ever been to a rainforest was in a local musical I did when I was like 8 years old (which, as it turns out, was where I learned what a “canopy” was).

On the rope bridge. The planks were barely wide enough for both feet!

View from the Canopy Walk

After the rainforest, we went to the Cape Coast palace. President Obama actually visited the very same palace when he came to Ghana in 2009. Unfortunately it was about to close when we got there so I didn’t get to go on an official tour, but I got to wander around regardless. This palace was once where they held slaves before they were shipped off to the Americas. To see the kinds of dungeons and cells that these people were held in was almost sickening. It was damp and cold and unpleasant even just with me and Sir Dun – I can’t imagine what it would have been like with all those hundreds of people crammed in there. I also saw “The Door of No Return” which led to one of Cape Coast’s ports and also the last view these soon-to-be slaves would see of their home country before boarding one of the many waiting slave ships. Knowing I was walking through the same door and seeing the same view as every Ghanaian slave did all those years ago was very humbling. On a lighter note, the view of the ocean from the palace was breathtaking and I got a few great pictures of the sun setting over the beach.

Picture of the ocean from the palace.

On Sunday, I got to go to church with Sir Dun’s mother, Madam Rose. Church, from what I could tell, was mostly the same as what we’re used to in the U.S. but with two major differences. First, it went from 8:30-12:30. Second, it was all in Twi so I didn’t understand a single word. Even with the length of the service and the fact that I couldn’t understand it though, it was still a lot of fun seeing everyone worship and pray. Worship here takes up what seemed like half or even a little more than half of the service. It’s not worship like we’d imagine though, people in the congregation were playing tambourines and dancing and praying and crying and singing all at the same time. Although I couldn’t understand anything, it was pretty clear how and what everyone was feeling during that service. I’m very excited to go to church with Madam Rose again next time I’m in Cape Coast. As we were leaving after church, she mentioned that they might even have someone to translate for me next time I’m around. That would be nice. I think I’d like to know what the preacher is saying.

This coming week is going to be back to the normal routine of teaching my 13 students, but I realized today that as much as I pretend to have this teaching thing all figured out, I’m absolutely still learning as this process goes on too. Teaching elementary school is harder than it looks. Props to all my teachers at Bauerwood, Alward, and Rosewood (wow… I went to a lot of elementary schools). The kids are still fantastic though and I’m still having a really great time teaching them so that’s all I can really ask for. Though, for their sake, I hope I figure everything out sooner than later.

Okay, off to bed now. Though I can’t leave without mentioning the fact that my Tigers swept the Yankees (to all my friends who are Yankees fans: ha. ha. ha) and are now on their way to crush the Giants in the World Series. Even in football (aka soccer)-crazed Ghana, I still have to give my props to my hometown team of America’s favorite pastime. J

Bananagrams and Canes

After careful experimentation, I've come to this conclusion: canes hurt. A lot. I finally had one of the teachers cane me yesterday and my hand was stinging for minutes after he hit me. I assume my pain tolerance is higher than these kids' too so I can only imagine how bad it must be for them. Thank goodness we don't believe in caning in the U.S.

Speaking of caning, one of the teachers tried to get me to use a cane this morning when I was teaching "How Great is Our God" during worship. He said it was the only way to get kids to listen. First of all, I found it highly ironic that I was told to hit kids while teaching them a praise song. Second of all, there was no way I was going to take the cane and hit kids with it. Third of all, I don't believe him at all. It's not my place to tell these teachers what to do, but I am determined to show them that I can teach these students just fine without physical punishment. Maybe if they see enough volunteers come through and teach without caning, they'll start coming up with different methods too. That's the hope at least.

As far as teaching goes, it's been really fun these first couple days. I've been working on English and all that entails right now (for 2nd and 3rd graders) is working through the alphabet and helping them sound out words. It's especially difficult because the Ghanaian accent doesn't pronounce R's so they say "wata" and "playa" instead of water and player, meaning that many of the kids forget that some words have an R at the end. They're also having a really hard time distinguishing E sounds from I sounds. At first it was really frustrating because I'd try to sound the words out with them and break up long words into shorter sounds but my accent made it so they didn't really understand what I was doing. That's where the bananagrams come in. Since I couldn't communicate what I was trying to do verbally, I just showed them visually. This worked so much better! Now, not only can they see the letters in front of them, they can also manipulate the word by literally breaking it up into smaller pieces. Plus, it's always fun to play with bananagrams. :)

Before I go to bed, I'll leave you guys with a link to this website. One of my trippees (Hi Julietta!) sent it to me and I found it absolutely hilarious. The math geek in me especially appreciated #16. http://therionorteline.com/2011/11/30/the-56-bestworst-analogies-written-by-high-school-students/

Let the teaching begin!

With the week of observation done with, I’ve been able to start working with the students this week! I got the list of students yesterday (13 in all) so almost all of yesterday was spent devising a schedule and lesson planning. I’m working with the 11 primary school students during the day at school and the 2 junior high students in the evenings. I’m basically working with every student for about an hour and a half every week. The basic format is a lesson on one day and a small quiz the next day. This means I’m teaching Monday-Thursday and I’ve set aside Friday for testing the students I’m teaching on Thursday as well as a sort of office hours-like deal where any of the students I’m working with can come hang out in the library and read with me or ask questions about reading or math, depending on which week it is. (I’m alternating weeks between reading and math; this week is reading.)

I’m really excited for one of my students tomorrow. Her name is Sherifa and she’s a girl in Sir Ernest’s Class 3 class. I’ve talked to her a few times when I was observing Sir Ernest and she’s also read to me a few times. I was a bit surprised when Sir Ernest nominated her as one of the students from his class (they’re only supposed to pick students who are behind or weaker than others), but I guess I’ll find out tomorrow why she was chosen. Either way, I’m glad that at least one of the kids I’ll be working with is someone who I’ve already started building a connection/relationship with.

Tomorrow is Wednesday so that means it’s another worship day and I get to teach the whole school “How Great is our God”! The original plan was teach it last Friday, but the headmaster decided it would make more sense to pair the song teaching with their weekly morning worship. It also means I get to teach all the students instead of just the after-school choir. I’m really excited. I’m going to take a video tomorrow and hopefully I’ll be able to upload it. I think it’s going to be pretty amazing seeing all those kids singing this song.

I also found out today that Sir Dun is taking me to Cape Coast with him this weekend! Cape Coast is about a 2-hour drive from where we are now and it’s where Sir Dun grew up. I’ll be spending the weekend on the beach and in the Ghanaian jungles. I can’t wait. Definitely look for pictures from the trip early next week!

One week

As of today (or last night at 11), I’ve officially been in Ghana for a week. So here are some thoughts, starting with some highlights from my trip to Accra today.

           

-         Chinese restaurants all look the same. It doesn’t mater if you’re in Jenison, MI, Hanover, NH or Accra, Ghana. Seriously, you could have told me I was in any of those three places for lunch today and I would have believed you.

-         Here’s a picture (linked from Wikipedia. Note to self: remember to charge your camera battery) of one of the places I went to in Accra today. It’s the tomb of one of their first political leaders and revolutionaries, Kwame Nkrumah. And a link to his wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwame_nkrumah

-         The difference between the people I saw in the Accra mall and the ones I encounter every day here in Ashalman is stunning. On one side you have designer shoes and purses and on the other you have dirt roads and semi-frequent power outages. Like Ben said, “they’re worlds apart.”

-         Wal-mart owns a chain of stores called “Game”. There was one in the mall. Wal-mart has expanded to Ghana. Unbelievable.

-         The city itself is beautiful. It’s right on the ocean and the beach is stunning.

Now for some thoughts from this week:

-         There is rarely any rain, but it seems like there are always puddles in the road when I go running. I still haven’t figured this out.

-         Ghanaian people are quite possibly the most welcoming people in the world.

-         Everyone is also very polite. It’s super important to say some sort of greeting if you’ve made eye contact with someone. This normally isn’t so bad, but it makes running a bit more of an ordeal. Not only do I have to remember where I’m going so I know how to get back, I also have to make sure to say hi to everyone I see, regardless of how out of breath I am.

-         There are goats and chickens that run around the streets during the day (and probably at night, too). It’s unclear to whom they belong or whether they belong to anyone at all. I’ve begun to consider them just another part of the neighborhood.

-         Madam Olivia cooks a lot of food. I’ve yet to finish an entire meal that she’s made me.

-         You don’t “have dinner”, you “take supper”.

-         The students at NAP had never heard of rock, paper, scissors before Wednesday. The teachers hadn’t either. I’ve taught most of the kids how to play by now.

-         Ghanaian people tell me I’m handsome a lot. Maybe that’s why I think they’re so welcoming. :)

-         The mosquitoes actually haven’t been that bad so far. (I hope I haven’t just jinxed myself.)

-         The sun sets really early here. It’s dark by 6 or 6:15 every day.

-         When you buy things, you have to take whatever you’re buying and give the person your money with your right hand. You also only ever handle trash with your left hand. The teachers laugh at me when I forget this.

-          I think the thing I miss most about home (other than the people) is not having to plan my showers and bathroom breaks around when I think there is going to be running water. And being able to drink tap water. And fall colors. Can you miss three things the most?

-         Ghanaians know far more about America than Americans know about Ghana. Or at least than I know about Ghana.

-         Maybe it’s because of how welcoming everyone has been, but it’s been very easy to adjust to life in Ghana.

-         I’ve been having a fantastic time so far.

-         These next 7 weeks are going to go by way too quickly for my taste.

Another picture with the kids from this Friday right after I finished playing volleyball.

Motos and tro-tros and cabs, oh my!

What to do if you’re trying to get to Accra on Friday night but the traffic is at a complete standstill? Take a moto-taxi and weave in and out of traffic on the back of a motorcycle, of course. That’s how my night started out last night. Sir Dun and I took moto-taxis all the way to the highway and, for the first time I can remember, I understood what people mean when they say “white knuckling”. Don’t get me wrong, it was exhilarating, but sitting on the back of a motorcycle as it crosses into oncoming traffic on these pot hole-filled dirt roads will make anyone hold on to their seat a little tighter. Just as we were getting onto the highway and I thought we were going to travel like this all the way to Accra, Sir Dun motioned for the two moto-taxis to stop so we could get in a regular taxi for the rest of the way. Good thing too. I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to riding on the back of that motorcycle without a helmet on the Ghanaian highway. Taking a moto-taxi is definitely something I want to do again though. Taking the whole experience into account… it was pretty awesome. :)

If you remember, I thought we were going to hang out with all the teachers so I thought we were going to some sort of club in Accra with them, but it turned out that we were actually just going there to pick up Sir Dun’s cousin. I guess the teachers decided to postpone or something so Sir Dun made some last minute plans with Hakeem (that’s his cousin). We also weren’t taking the taxi all the way to where his cousin was. We got near the Accra mall and hopped out of the cab and into a “tro-tro”. Basically, a tro-tro is a van that’s supposed to sit around 10 people plus the driver (sort of like a Sprinter van), but is rigged so that it actually fits about 15. I got to the know the person sitting next to me pretty well seeing as how we were doubling up in the front seat.

Once we picked up Hakeem, we drove back in his car to Tema and went back to Monte Cristo, the nightclub he took me to on my first night in Ghana. This time was a lot more fun though because I wasn’t dead from travelling and actually danced a bit. The second I got on the dance floor, everyone around me started copying exactly what I was doing. It seems their fascination with Obrunis knows basically no bounds. Good thing I have no shame. On the cab ride home (around 2 or so), Sir Dun also talked to me about how he thought my first week was really successful and he thinks the kids really like me. That alone would have made my night. By the time we got home, the landlord had locked the gate so I had to jump the fence to get into my own house but it’s a pretty short fence so it wasn’t a huge deal. Have a good first Friday in Ghana: check.

Today was a really nice day to relax and do some more reading on the balcony. Also, it turns out I was right about my running being noticed by the locals around here. Today, a taxi driver stopped me and told me he’d seen me a few days this week now (which is pretty surprising since I’ve been running different places every day to try to explore as much as possible) and said that there’s a very nice gym in Community 22 and that I didn’t have to run outside. When I told him I preferred being outdoors on the dirt road, he just laughed and drove away, shaking his head. He also said something that sounded suspiciously like “Obruni”. So there’s at least one person that thinks I’m nuts.

I’m not sure if anything’s happening tonight but I think it’s going to be a pretty early night since I’m going to be exploring Accra with Ben (the program coordinator) tomorrow and we’re leaving at 9. Look for some more pictures tomorrow as well as a quick recap of some things I’ve found interesting over my first week here!

The Return of "The Panda Punch"!

Today’s been the best day yet! Turns out Friday is PE day at NAP and that means the entire second half of the day is devoted to being outdoors and playing games. I think Friday is going to be my favorite day of the week, by far.

I started out my PE by learning a few dances with the KG1 and KG2 (kindergarten 1&2) classes. After that I embarrassed myself a little more on the football field. It was still fun, regardless of my inability to dribble, defend, or score. My day got infinitely better though when they put up the volleyball net. Now here was the sport I was looking forward to the most. After playing volleyball in the backyard of AXA almost every day over the summer, I was looking forward to getting back into this game. Also, to explain the title of this post, before I got decent at volleyball over the summer, the only thing I could really do was serve. My serve was actually pretty good though and the rest of the ’14 AXAs decided to give it the nickname “The Panda Punch”. As you can see, it’s a nickname I’ve embraced. I spent basically the rest of the afternoon playing volleyball with the kids and ended the school day with a 5 on 5 game with just us teachers. “The Panda Punch” scored 5 of our 11 points. Boom. :)

After school, we had a sort of staff meeting where Sir Dun brought meat pies and pineapple soda and I was officially welcomed as part of the staff. It was also one of the teacher’s birthdays so we sang to him. We also threw like five buckets of water on him. Apparently that’s some sort of tradition here. Good thing my birthday is in March and well outside of the time I’ll be here in Ghana. That’s one of the traditions that I don’t really want to personally experience.

Since it’s my first Friday in the country and that teacher’s birthday (I keep on forgetting his name because it’s really hard to pronounce), everyone is going to go out tonight. And even though I technically got my first taste of Ghanaian nightlife last Saturday, that doesn’t really count because I was half asleep the entire time so I’m really excited for tonight to get the whole experience. As I was leaving, Sir Dun told me to get ready because “he takes his weekends seriously”. Game on. I didn’t sophomore summer for nothing. (Yes, I did just use “sophomore summer” as a verb.)

So, I think I’m going to do some quick reading before dinner and then get ready for the night. I have no idea what to expect. Whatever we do, though, I’m sure it’s going to be fun because these teachers are a really awesome bunch of people. Outside of Sir Ernest, I’ve also become good friends with Madam Victoria, Sir Edward, both Sir Richards, and, of course, Sir Dun. I’ll take and post pictures of all these people soon so you can all start putting names to faces.

Alright, that’s it for now. I hope everyone had a great week and happy Friday! :) 

Just call me Yaw

Since arriving here in Ghana, I’ve been given two new names, Sir Michael “Su” and Obruni. Today, I got my third: Yaw. The story behind this name is that everybody born in Ghana is given a special name (generally used as their middle name) based on what day of the week they were born. Since I was born on Thursday, my name is Yaw. Funnily enough, it’s pronounced exactly like Yao, which is what my friends called me when I played basketball. You know, like Yao Ming.

After school, I usually get home around 3:15 or so and do a bit of reading/studying in my room until dinner. Today, I decided to venture outside onto the balcony of the house instead of being cooped up in my room. I couldn’t have made a better decision. I spent two beautiful hours on my balcony reading. Granted, I was reading about thermodynamics and gas laws in the Physical Chemistry textbook I brought over so it wasn’t necessarily the most fun I’ve ever had reading, but the nice weather out on the balcony definitely helped.

Oh, I almost forgot. You know how I said I’ve been having a hard time dealing with caning? Well, I decided today that I’d better understand what the kids are going through if I have to go through the same thing. So I got Madam Gifty to agree to cane me on my hands tomorrow. Sir Dun thinks I’m crazy. I’m sure some of you think the same thing. I think this will actually be good though. You know, so I can experience what the kids are experiencing and see just how much this piece of wood actually hurts. And I asked Madam Gifty because I feel like if anyone is going to cane me, it only makes sense that my “Ghana Mom” is the one to do it. Feels right, somehow.

I’m off to take a quick shower and then head to bed because I just played a quick pick-up game of soccer… I mean, football, with some kids in the schoolyard. Thank goodness I’m bigger than them – it hides how miserable I am at this game. Apparently they play volleyball sometimes too though. Now, THAT, I’m excited for.

Before I go though, here’s a list of the names for people born on certain days of the week in case anyone is interested. (Yes, this does require you to go back in your calendar to when you were born and figure out what day it was.)

Monday: Kojo (M) and Adjoa (F)

Tuesday: Kwabena (M) and Abena (F)

Wednesday: Kweku (M) and Kukua or Aqua (F)

Thursday: Yaw (M) and Yaa(F)

Friday: Kofi (M) and Effia (F)

Saturday: Kwame (M) and Ama (F)

Sunday: Kwesi (M) and Akos or Akosua (F)

*Tips on pronouncing the names: all the e’s are pronounced like a long A as in “bAseball” or “cAne”. Also, say all of the vowels. So Kukua is literally pronounced kookoo-a, not kookwa like we might say in the U.S.

Lights out!

So, on top of not always having running water, turns out I don’t always have power either. Last night I was in the middle of dinner when, all of a sudden, the lights and fan in my room turned off randomly. Apparently there are a couple power outages per neighborhood per week. These, again, are unscheduled. Or at least to my knowledge. Good thing I brought my headlamp and I spend most of my night outside anyway because the lights here are pretty dim. The power outage wasn’t the only first yesterday though, I also went for my first run since getting to Ghana. Actually, I have to specify that I went jogging, they seem to associate running with something bad happening or running away from something. Anyway, I went on a nice jog around the area I’m living and succeeded in getting the weirdest looks ever, along with many more exclamations of “Obruni!” I guess people here don’t go running for exercise very often since many of them do physical labor as their job and they don’t need any extra exercise. Either way, I’m assuming my runs are going to be a topic of many “silly white person” jokes.

Speaking of silly white person… it’s really funny being considered the pale person here. Though people obviously know I’m not Caucasian, they still refer to me as white. This is compared to Jenison and Dartmouth where people say I get so tan in the summer that I look black.  Everything depends on perspective, I guess.

School the past couple days has settled into a nice routine of observing the teachers' teaching styles and taking some notes, both on the teaching styles and what they're actually teaching. Today I sat in on a Class 1 English lesson and learned the Twi words for grandma, grandpa, mother, father, sister, and brother. My vocabulary is growing every day. Yesterday I learned to count to three. :)

I’ve also become good friends with one of the teachers, Sir Ernest. He doesn’t believe in caning as punishment. As far as I can tell, he is the only one. Caning has been a pretty hard thing to deal with. I didn’t think it’d be this difficult, but watching kids as young as 8 or 9 (especially the little girls) getting caned to the point of tears has definitely been the hardest thing about NAP so far. That’s why it’s so refreshing to find a teacher that believes more in rewards like a small treat or punishments like not being allowed to go to break than physical punishment. On top of that, he’s just a really nice guy. Both yesterday and today after lunch we have shared a dessert of bananas and peanuts. I’m very excited to see how this friendship develops. I think he’s going to be taking me to his church over one of the coming weekends too.

That’s another big surprise about Ghana: how religious everyone is. According to Ernest, almost 90% of the country is Christian. In fact, every Wednesday morning, all the schools hold worship. Look below for a picture I took this morning. All the kids gathered in one of the bigger classrooms singing and praying. Very amazing. In fact, I’ll be teaching some classic American praise songs as part of the music class I’ll be leading. This Friday’s song is “How Great is Our God”.

Overall, things are still going really well. Days seem very long, but that’s because my day now starts at 6:45. Last time I got up this early on a regular basis was junior year of high school. Let me tell you, I’m definitely looking forward to 10 AM classes again.

Oh, and a quick shout-out to Kaila for helping me buy the gifts that I brought over. I’ve given the tea and honey to my two “Ghana mothers’ and the jelly to Sir Dun, the headmaster. They’ve been a huge hit and I’ve been told to thank my friend who helped me buy them. So Kaila, thank you from three random Ghanaians that you’ve never met. :)

The last thing I’ll leave everyone with before heading to bed is a poem that I’m sure you all know and that Sir Ernest taught his Class 3 class today:

The cock crows in the morn,

To tell us to rise,

For he who lies late,

Will never be wise;

For early to bed,

And early to rise,

Makes a man healthy,

Wealthy and wise

A few kids from Class 3

Wednesday morning worship 

Me with some students during the mid-morning break

This picture goes out to Claire and Kelly (wherever the two of you are). Turns out kids in Ghana can take selfiez too! :)

First day of school!

My first day at NAP was wonderful! Like yesterday, I was woken up by Olivia bringing my breakfast at about 7AM. After finishing breakfast (and reading a couple more chapters of Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol") I got ready for school and made the 3 or 4 minute walk from my house to NAP.

At NAP, the first order of business every morning is the school assembly at 8AM. They start off with what seemed like their version of the Pledge of Allegiance and then went on to sing the Ghanaian National Anthem as a couple kids raised the flag. Both of these, to my delight, were accompanied by a 3-person drumline, consisting of a bass, snare, and tenor. After the national anthem came a prayer led by Sir Richard, the creative arts teacher, and then came time for me to be introduced! Madam Gifty led me to the front of the assembly and told them all who I was and to welcome Sir Michael "Su" (woops). I couldn't help but smile when all 250 kids chanted "Welcome Sir Michael Su!" in unison three times. Who cares if they pronounce my name incorrectly when they are the cutest children in the world?

After meeting the entire staff, I was told I could choose whatever class I wanted to observe for the day. My first two classes were a math class taught by a teacher whose name I have completely forgotten. He was teaching a JHS-1 (junior high school 1) or Form-1 class about LCF's and HCM's. It definitely brought me back to my pre-algebra days.

Observing from the back of a math class.

After the first two periods came break time and my first to chance to really interact with the students. At first, "interacting" consisted mostly of all the kids trying to hold my hand and touch my hair at the same time. Next, and big mistake here that I should have learned from DREAM, I picked up one of the kids and now everyone was lining up for piggy back rides and getting picked up and "airplaning". Thankfully one of the little girls saved me by dragging me out into the big schoolyard where she taught me this game where everyone stood in a circle with their hands palms up. Your right hand was on top of the person to your right's hand and your left was below the person to your left's hand. You played the game by slapping the person to your left's palm. For every hit, there was a chant and when it got to the 16th chant, the person to your left had to try to get their hand out of the way before you could hit it. Classic reflex game. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't get the chant down for the life of me. I just smiled and mouthed along to what I thought they were saying. 

Apparently the kids got sick of this game pretty quickly though and decided to move onto a new game. One of the kids put their hands above their head, palms facing closed together in a sort of upside down V, forming the tree stance that I had seen so many times since getting to Dartmouth... they were playing Wa! I guess one of the volunteers taught them Wa when they were here and they love playing it now. I don't think they quite understand the rules, but it was still fun playing with them. They don't have a vegetable-off when it gets to the last two though, I think there's just sort of two winners. Or in this case, since it was between me and one of the students, I just let him win. :) Moral of the story: you can get away from Dartmouth but it always somehow finds its way back to you. Who would have thought, especially only a month after Trips, that I'd be playing Wa again, but this time with a very different group of kids? (And yes, trippees, I did just call you guys kids. Get over it.)

First picture of the kiddies.

This is my favorite picture I've taken so far. The little girl in the bottom right hand corner is the one who taught me how to play the hand slapping game.

Some of these kids just can't get enough of the camera.

After break, it was time for me to observe some more classes. This time, I decided to go with some of the younger students to Class 2 and Class 3 (2nd and 3rd grade). Class 2 had science class where they learned that birds have "two legs, two eyes, and a beak" and that "the blood of mammals is warm". I wish science class was still that straight forward.

The rest of the day passed without anything else too special happening. Just more cute kids touching my hair and asking me to speak Chinese. A few things I really liked about today: 1. The little girls in primary school really liked my hair. A couple even asked me to bring them some tomorrow. I'm not sure how they want me to go about that. 2. All the teachers seem so nice and happy. Then again, looking at these kids, how can they not be? 3. I've never been called handsome so many times in my life. I'm sure the teachers were just being polite, but still, a guy could get used to this. :)

Eventually I left school about half an hour early because I hardly got any sleep last night (time difference) and was about to pass out right in the schoolyard. Goal for tomorrow: make it through the entire day. Easier said than done though... while playing with these kids is awesome, it's also exhausting!

The schoolyard.

Madam Olivia preparing lunch for the primary school students.

Speaking of not being able to get away from Dartmouth, the room I ate lunch in has historically been the volunteers' room and they decorated it last year with the alphabet and some pictures. I couldn't help be reminded of Dartmouth and 12X by a couple of the panels.

YOLO... even in Ghana.

Thing 1 and Thing 2, in all their Seussian glory.

As promised, here's a picture of the goat I saw yesterday. He (actually, also could be she, I have no idea), is looking right at the camera. Even the animals love cameras here.

Goat or "apo pom" in Twi (the language they speak here, pronounced kind of like chee)

Here's a picture of my room that I took this afternoon. My room is actually the biggest single I've ever lived in, it's pretty nice. And, with the window open at night, it's actually pretty comfortable temperature-wise in my room when I'm sleeping. 

My room. Mosquito net and all.

Here's a picture of the bagged water that I've been drinking ever since getting here. The tap water isn't drinkable so all their water has to be filtered so it makes sense that they use these little bags instead of bottles. They hold 500 mL of water and use significantly less plastic than the bottles we have in America. Maybe a little less convenient, but definitely more environmentally friendly.

Bagged water.

Okay, it's only 9:30 here, but I think I might try to get to bed early just in case I wake up in the middle of the night again like last night. One day down, 7 weeks and 4 days to go. If today was any indication, I'm going to love the next two months. :)

Obruni, obruni, obruni!

Hello from Ghana! After about 24 hours of travel yesterday, I finally made it to Accra at about 8:30PM local time (4:30 EST). I was met there by Ben and Anna, the two program coordinators over here, as well as Sir Dun, the headmaster of NAP Academy. (that makes him sound really scary, but he's actually only like 28 and really cool).

Anyway, you would think that after such a long day of travel, and not getting to my room until 10:30PM, I would go straight to bed, right? Apparently not. Call it FOMO or curiosity, but when Sir Dun asked if I wanted to go out and see Ghanaian night life, I told him that of course I wanted to go out. Who goes to bed at 10:30 on a Saturday anyway? So the two of us hopped in a cab and he took me to this club-like deal about 10 minutes from where I live called Monte Carlo. It was basically like an outdoors sports bar with an inner lounge. We sat in the lounge for a while but then both decided to go outside to watch the football game. (aka the soccer game, but I get laughed at if I say soccer here). He proceeded to order me a drink and when I asked what was in it, he told me he didn't really know. It was basically some fruity cocktail that the bar makes a ton of and then sells by the cup. The first thing I thought of was, "Good thing Charlotte Johnson isn't here." We stayed there until probably about 1AM just talking and eating some grilled shish-ke-bob thing that I realized today was chicken gizzard. Yum. As much fun as I was having though, I realized the second I got in bed just how exhausted I was and  fell asleep almost immediately.

After going to bed around 1:30 after that long day, I expected to be asleep until at least 10 or so, especially since I didn't have anything going on until 1 today. Instead, I woke up to loud knocking on my door at about 7:30. When I opened the door, in walked this lady carrying a loaf of bread, a block of cheese, a container of hot chocolate mix and a jar of sugar. Any negative feelings I had about being woken up early immediately evaporated, especially after talking to her granddaughter, Sarah. The lady, it turns out, is Olivia and she is going to be making my meals for the entire duration of my stay here. Later in the day, she brought lunch and dinner to my door too. Everything was delicious. It also didn't hurt that she brought along a different cute child every time she brought food. The only downside is that, when I went to wash my hands before breakfast, I realized that there wasn't any running water. Apparently running water comes and goes. Currently, it is gone.

Speaking of cute children, have I mentioned that these kids are adorable?! Walking outside right after lunch, two little girls ran at me yelling some word I didn't recognize (more on that in a bit) and each one took hold of one my hands and led me on a brief tour of their yard. A bunch of other little kids came up to me to say hi too, as well as some adults here and there. Ghanaian people seem absolutely fascinated by people of a different race. Last time I saw anything like this was when the Cords went to Korea... only that time no one really cared about me because I looked just like them and there were a bunch of white people that were far more interesting. :) If the kids are already like this though, I can't even imagine what's going to happen tomorrow when there are 250 kids in school and just one of me. Wish me luck.

Alright, last couple things. In regard to the title of this post, "obruni" means white person or, more generally, foreigner, so that's what the kids were yelling at me earlier. I've been told that obruni is going to be like a second name to me for the duration of my trip. I look forward to it. Other words I've learned today: "Etesen" means how are you, "acuava" means welcome, and "yo" means something along the lines of yes. (the last one is by far the easiest). Apparently the kids speak some mixture of English and this Ghanaian dialect so I'm going to have to learn a lot of this language too. We'll see how that goes.

I visited the school today and met with a lady named Madam Gifty who greeted me by giving me a high five while yelling "ching ching chong ching chong". Even though that sounds like it's pretty racist, like I said, Ghanaian people seem super interested in people of other races and I was told to expect things like that. It's just their way of acknowledging the fact that they realize I am not Ghanaian. After that, though, she let me know that she was one of my two "Ghana mothers", the other being Madam Olivia (who I mentioned earlier). Barely 10 minutes into our conversation, she told me I had to invite her to my wedding someday because it wouldn't be right not to invite your parents to your own wedding. I guess she's taking this "Ghana mother" thing pretty seriously. She does seem very nice though and has three Ghanaian children (not including me) -- Fifi, a 6th grade boy, Izzy, a 3-year old girl, and another child in high school that I didn't meet tonight.

Anyway, I guess that's about it for now. Sorry for how long this post is, there's just so much to share! I'm almost positive I'm still forgetting stuff too. I'm unbelievably excited for the first day of school tomorrow. I'm just going to be observing and sitting in on classes , but I'm just pumped to finally meet all the teachers and students.

Check back tomorrow to find out how the first day of school at NAP was and I'll also try to start posting some pictures. (I got one today that I really like of an adorable baby goat!)

FYI

I'm in Amsterdam! Had I planned a little better, I would have gotten here a few days ago and spent some time in the city, but I'm actually only here for a few hours in between flights. My flight from Detroit to Amsterdam was great though. I was sitting in a row of 4, and the middle two seats were empty! I don't think I've ever been more comfortable sleeping on a plane. The guy at the other end of the row wasn't complaining either.

Anyway, going through my e-mails just a couple minutes ago, I realized that one of my friends from home brought up a very good point: I haven't even mentioned what I'm going to be doing in Ghana yet. As far as a bunch of people know, I'm just hanging out for two months. So, for those that don't know, I'm going to be volunteering at an elementary/middle school (NAP Academy) in Tema which is about an hour outside of the capital city of Accra. During the day, I'm mostly going to be helping with homework, tutoring, etc. After school, I'll continue with tutoring and such but also mentor certain students as I see fit, depending on their academic situation, social situation, or both. I'm also going to be leading/co-leading an after-school activity 3 days a week. I haven't completely made up my mind as to what I'm going to do, but I think it'd be pretty cool to start a school choir if they don't already have one.

Here's a wikipedia page about Tema and a link to World Partners in Education's website (that's the organization I'm working with) in case some of you are REALLY bored:
Tema: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tema
World Partners: http://www.worldpartner.org/

The last thing I'll leave you all with is this song that I've been listening to incessantly for the past week or so. I'm posting it both because I think it's an awesome song and because I think it fits my current situation pretty well.
"It's Time" - Imagine Dragon

Visas, vaccines... and cheese

So as I type this, I'm sitting in the Detroit airport waiting to fly out to Amsterdam and then from there to Accra, Ghana. The past couple days have been crazy with last minute packing and buying things that I realized I'd forgotten to get earlier in the week. Actually, not even 3 hours before I was supposed to leave, I was at the World Market in Grandville with my friend Kaila buying maple syrup and honey to bring as gifts to Ghana. (And this weird cucumber soda that I just had to try. For future reference, kind of odd-tasting, but good nonetheless.)

As I walked out the door before driving to the airport though, I really only had three things on my mind that I for sure needed to bring. 1. My passport and visa. Pretty self-explanatory. 2. My yellow fever vaccination record. Without it, I wouldn't be allowed to get into Ghana after this 20-hour trip. And 3. Cheese. You see, the guy who I've been in contact with through WPE asked me to bring him six blocks of cheese months ago. So as I left, I had to double check to make sure I had 2 blocks of sharp cheddar, 2 blocks of monterey jack, and 2 blocks of pepperjack. (I'm hoping that cheese is allowed through customs...)

I still don't think it's quite hit me that I'm going to be in Ghana tomorrow yet. I'm not sure it's going to hit me until I'm actually there. I just got off the phone with my friend and when she asked me how I felt, the only answer I could give was, "weird." It's some odd combination of excitement, nervousness, and scared out my mind-ness. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I have absolutely no idea what's in store for me. The last time I felt like this was before freshman year of college, but even then I sort of had an idea what I was getting myself into. This time, I am going in almost completely blind. I can only hope that this is going to be as great of an experience as everyone has been assuring me that it will be.

Well, it's about time to start boarding the plane to Amsterdam. I hope everyone reading this has a great fall, whether that's in Hanover, Jenison, Scotland, or somewhere in the middle of the desert. Keep in touch, I'll be checking blitz (for those non-Dartmouth people, "e-mail") as often as possible and updating this blog as much as possible too. See you all on the other side!

p.s. For any '14 AXAs reading this, you'll all find it very amusing that the new debit card I got has a picture of a panda on the front. #12X