Making mud pies, and irksome teachers

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I slept really well last night, perhaps due to the fact I'd chucked out my mosquito net from around my bed. Every night I'd wake up tangled in it! Not like I'm sleeping in a mud hut - there are no mosquitos in my room anyway. When I arrived, most people were using them so I thought it'd be a good idea, but the other 3 I share with don't use them anymore now anyway.



Got to school for 9am, only to find out that the students' exam papers STILL weren't ready....so it was teaching as usual. You may wonder why I even bothered going, seeing as they were supposed to have exams, but in Ghana, teachers can help the students in exams, so long as they don't answer the questions for them. Anyway - Lucy had nothing prepared to teach, and nor did I. The next thing I knew, she turned to me and said "I'm going out to buy some medicine for Elijah" (that's her little boy who is recovering from Malaria) and off they went, with Elijah swaddled on her back, leaving me to teach the class. There were only 10 or 11 of them today, rather than the usual 14 or 15. And Alfred was absent. Straight away, I noticed that the class was slightly better behaved than normal.



We did a lot of repetition of the alphabet and the numbers and then some -at words, chaging the first letter every time (although they didn't quite get it). The teacher I don't like, from the other class, came in and just stood there. At one point I actually held out the chalk to her and said "Did you want to teach?" (note my veiled sarcasm) as she was just so annoying. All she did was shout at the kids I was trying to teach, and cane them if they so much as looked away from the board! That same teacher followed Steffi home from school today, asking for money and clothes. Steffi told her no. I found out that the teacher's name is Marion, and I have not disliked anyone as much in a long time. She asked Gorka for his clothes when he left Ghana, and today she asked Steffi to give her her camera! Last week she asked me to leave my clothes for her, and today she asked if I can bring her a present tomorrow when I get the kids something. She is so rude, hasn't even made an effort to be friendly, and just demands things. I really hope she asks me tomorrow for something, as my answer is all planned out, and I don't think she will like it much. I have also spoken to Jamal, documenting what she is doing, as nobody else has passed on the information. Jamal is friends with the director of the school and is going to speak to him. GOOD. She gives the school a bad name and makes me incredibly angry! She has a job (although she is the laziest person there) and she has a phone, and clothes. There are Ghanaians with nothing. She actually angers me so much I cannot put it into words. Even Lucy, who I work with, doesn't like her much from what I can tell (though she's too polite to say). Steffi's last day at the school was today, so she took in sweets for the kids. This teacher actually took away their sweets and put them in her bag! She'd better not try and pull that crap with me tomorrow or fur will fly. Rant over!



I got to spend time with Yaw at break again. Gosh, I adore that boy. As I said before, he is about 2 years old. He doesn't talk. He just stands there looking so cute you want to sweep him up in your arms. He has the biggest, whitest smile you've ever seen, a button nose and huge chocolate eyes. When he beams at you, silently, you feel like you've gone all squishy inside. I can't even put into words how much I adore him. I hope I remember to take my camera into school again to get a photo of him before I leave.



At lunchtime, Steffi and I went down to Brigade. We haggled some boxes of cigarettes (so, 200 cigarettes!) for 12 cedis. That's £4. Yes, you read it right - 200 cigarettes for £4. Amazing! That's my allowance for the plane, so I am a happy bunny. I also bought two mangoes from the fruit stall. One for now, and one for tomorrow (they check how ripe they are accordingly).Sad times though, on the way home, the bag split and one of my mangoes rolled into the drains (aka sewers) at the side of the road!



This afternoon, I went to the orphanage with Ryan, Shauna and Laura. A few days ago, Sonja had brought some little trowels for the kids for when we went to the beach. They were still in the yard, so Destiny and I went over to the sand/dirt in the yard and started digging, making a big mud pie next to the hole we were creating. Then Junior wanted to join in. And then Grace. And then Peter. Then some of the older kids. They took it in turns to get cups of water to pour on the sand to make it stick better. I feel a little bad now, as I forgot what a precious commodity water is here. Anyway - it was beautiful, they were all working together, sitting around this mud pie, building it up and patting it into shape. So cool. Of course, I had a great time too!



At 8pm, we had a house meeting for an hour. Jamal explained that he's been running Dream Africa Care Foundation for 5 years now, and as he has set it in motion, will be leaving his full time post with the charity, and going back to work for the family business. We all threw ideas around about the future of the charity, and what projects it should support, as well as suggestions for future volunteers (e.g. a welcome pack with information). It made me realize how much more I could be involved here, and I am nowhere near ready to come back to the UK. It sucks! I have a lot that I miss in the UK, and stuff I will miss about Ghana when I leave. But I shall save that for another post!

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