Cross Country, Volleyball, and New Buildings

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10/30/09
I know it’s been a while since I posted on the blog, and I have a lot to tell you about so I’ll be as concise as possible. For starters, I still haven’t begun teaching and we still don’t have a new headmaster yet. Progress is being made on one of those issues though. The form 1 students have finally started to report to school. This week was mid-terms, so hopefully the form 1s will have orientation next week after the break. It looks like I’ll get 4 to 5 weeks of teaching in this term, which is the same I got last year. There has been no sign of a new headmaster, but things are coming along nicely without one.
There have been a few inter-house sporting competitions over the last couple weeks, but my house has not upheld the reputation as champions. First we had cross country, and both my boys and girls came in 3rd out of 4 houses. The biggest problem was the fact that the competition was announced 5 days beforehand, so there was no time to train. That’s how it happens for all sports though. The purpose of the inter-house competitions is for the sports master to select a school team. The following weekend I went with the cross country runners to Kumasi for the regional competition. One of our girls placed 8th and qualified for the Milo Marathon in Accra. Another girl placed 11th, but only the top 10 qualified to go to Accra. I’m not sure how running cross country qualifies these high school students to run a marathon, but I’ll be interested to hear how they do.
The other inter-house competition we had was for volleyball. In Ghana, both the boys and the girls play volleyball. Since I’m into sports, the teachers all thought I would be a great volleyball player. They were astonished when I told them that volleyball is a girls’ game in America, and men only play it for recreation, on the beach, or in the pool. For how popular volleyball is in Ghana, I was surprised how bad the games were. I may not be great at volleyball but I at least understand the principles of: bump, set, spike. The students on the other hand played as if the only point of the game was to hit the ball over the net. Most of the balls were bumped or set over the net to the other team to create long, boring rallies that only ended when someone messed up and hit the ball out of bounds or into the net. Once again, my house did not do well with the boys losing in the first round and the girls forfeiting because they couldn’t field enough players.
There have been some exciting developments at my school recently. The school has acquired a large new hostel right across the road from the school. All of the girls are moving into the new hostel, and the boys will come and stay in the hostel next to my house. The other girls’ hostel is going to be converted back into a classroom, which is its intended use. Even more exciting than the new hostel, is the new classroom block the district assembly is building at the school. The foundation for the 3 classroom block is already being dug and it appears like the contractor knows what he’s doing. From the looks of it, I expect the building will be finished by the end of the school year at the latest. With the funds coming from the district assembly, I don’t think it’s going to take 2 years to complete like the PTA funded classroom block that is still being finished.
I have another interesting story for you. Last weekend I spent a few nights watching the Peace Corps office in Kumasi. Upon my return home, I was greeted with an unexpected scene. Let me preface this story by telling you that over the past few weeks there has been evidence of a mouse lurking around my veranda once again. It appears that the mouse has gotten smarter though by only coming into the veranda at night every few days, instead of building a nest under my propane tank. I did find small amounts of droppings from time to time and one time it got into my bananas. So I started setting a mouse trap. Twice the trap went off, but the mouse got away. Little did I know that a mouse trap would not be my furry friend’s demise. When I left for Kumasi I forgot to empty the bucket I wash my dishes in, so it was sitting at the end of my cooking table half full of water. When I got home I found my thieving rodent floating face down in my dish washing bucket. I’m not sure how or why the mouse got into the bucket, but with it half full, the water was too high for it to touch the bottom and too low for it to climb out. I’m glad I was finally able to eliminate the mouse from my life, but I feel bad the way it happened. With a mouse trap it would have been instant death, but who knows how long the mouse was swimming around the bucket before it finally drown. I think it’s a bit ironic that the mouse was smart enough to escape the mouse trap on more than one occasion, but wasn’t smart enough to avoid a bucket of water. The worst thing about the incident is the fact that a filthy animal with who knows how many diseases was floating in the bucket I was my dishes for who knows how long. Luckily, bleach is readily available, so I filled the bucket with bleach and water and scrubbed away. The bucket is probably cleaner now than it’s ever been.
Incase any of you didn’t hear, Ghana’s U-21 Men’s team, the Black Satellites, won the U-21 World Cup a couple weeks ago. They beat Brazil on the 6th kicker in a penalty shoot out. To be in Ghana when they won was an unbelievable experience. I watched the game at the Assistant Headmaster’s house with another teacher and we went crazy along with the rest of Ghana when the Black Satellites won. That’s all for now, so adios until next time.

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Comments

[Mary Hewitt]

Poor Mouse!!!
Well I hope you gave that little guy a proper burial! I'm glad that you feel a little bad regarding his demise. I am also glad that you thoroughly cleaned your bucket! Glad to hear about Ghana's U-21 men's team beating Brazil! I hate shoot outs... Glad you had someone to go crazy with! Are there going to be anymore inter-house competitions? Hopefully your teams will do better if there are. I bet you'll be glad when you can start teaching again. Hopefully that will be very soon. Thanks for keeping us up to date with your blog. Talk to you soon... Love, Mom