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5/29/09
Busy… That pretty much sums up my last two weeks. So far, it hasn’t been as difficult to keep all my classes on the same page as I thought it would be. Since all four of my classes are all form 1 core math, I have the same amount of lesson planning as I’ve had the last two terms. The only difference is that now I have to teach the same material four times instead of just twice. Compared to most of the other teachers my schedule is extremely full, but I’m curious how it would compare to the schedule of a typical high school teacher in America. There are technically 10 periods per day, each being 40 minutes, but most of the classes are double periods. Out of the 50 periods in a week, I teach 36, which means I average just over 7 periods per day. I have a feeling this is an average, if not light schedule for most teachers in America. I would love it if someone could let me know how many periods an average high school teacher teaches per week.
The other important news about school is that the form 3 students have finished the WASSCE, which means that they are officially done with SHS. Something I find extremely odd is that they don’t a graduation or any sort of ceremony to commemorate their completion of SHS. At the end of last term we had a handing over ceremony for the prefects to pass on their duties to the newly elected form 2 prefects, but it wasn’t anything like a graduation. Now the form 3 students will have to wait until January 2010 probably before they get their results from the WASSCE. When the time comes for them to get their results, they have to present a paper that has a number of signatures identifying that they don’t owe anything to their school. It is basically like when you have to return a book to the library or pay for it before they will give you your diploma in the States. The biggest issue here is that some of the students haven’t paid their school fees yet. I would think that the staff in administration would be enough to clear a student, but they are required to get signatures from about 10 people, including one for each subject, the sports master, and house master among others. If you remember, I am the House 1 Master, which means I have to sign off for all the form 3 students in my House. I’m sure some of the students didn’t pay all their house dues, but there definitely isn’t a record of it, and I could care less anyway so I just sign every paper that is placed in front of me.
Last week the girls had a soccer tournament between all the classes. The games weren’t on the school calendar and I only found out about them the day before they happened, but I wasn’t surprised. I’m just glad I found out the day before and not the morning of. The reason for the tournament was so that the sports master could pick girls to play on the school team for inter-school soccer that takes place this coming week. The school only has one soccer ball so I’ve been giving the girls the two soccer balls I have to train with.
Two weeks ago I put up an announcement for a meeting to assess interest in starting an HIV/AIDS Awareness Club at ABSEC. About 10 students came to the interest meeting and we decided on where and when would have meetings as well as how to collect membership dues. This last week, we had our first official meeting and about 20 students showed up this time. Unlike most meeting I’ve been to in Ghana, I didn’t think it necessary to follow a formal meeting format with minutes and everything. We watched a short video from a series I have that addresses a wide variety of issues pertaining to HIV/AIDS in Africa. I hoped the discussion would focus around the video, but it turned into a general Q&A, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We’ll see how future meetings go, and I’ll try to guide the discussion better next time.
A couple weeks ago I went to the funeral of my priest’s mother in Kumasi. At the Mass I saw something I’ve never seen before. When the Mass started all the priests present processed down the aisle, and the line kept on going and going and going. I couldn’t believe how many priests there were in the Church at one time. I made a point to count the number of priests as they processed out of the Church and the grand total was 62 including the Archbishop of Kumasi and the Bishop of Obuasi. I doubt I’ll ever be somewhere with that many priests together at one time again in my life. I was pretty impressed.
I think it is time for another lizard story, or at least an update. It has become common place to see lizards of all shapes and sizes in my veranda, shower, and bathroom. For the most part they have stopped pooping on my water barrel, but it isn’t odd to find turds in unlikely places. Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed an abnormally high volume of lizard poop on the window sill and on the ground in front of the window in my bathroom. I have come to find out that at least one lizard is living in the housing of my shutter window. The lizards come out mostly at night, and I think we have a pretty good symbiotic relationship. Obviously, they use my veranda for shelter and protection, and from the piles of poop I assume they are well fed, which I like to think is from eating bugs that find their way into my veranda. They stay out of my room and they don’t bother me so we live happily together. I also found a little tree frog in my bathroom this week, but I kindly picked it up and put him out in the grass because I don’t think it could live in my bathroom too.
Have a wonderful day.
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Melissa
non-member comment
Hey, Hey...
Sounds like you are pretty busy over there!!! So in reading this post to the boys I had to explain to them what "Turd" meant. Thanks for that...Connor thinks it is a funny word!!! They love your stories on your lizzards. They wanted to know if you saw the pictures of our Tree Frogs? Connor thinks you should have left him in your bathroom so you could've had a pet ;o) Love ya and can't wait to see you in August!!!