Blogs from Ashanti, Ghana, Africa - page 11

3/1/09 Whether you can believe it or not, it’s already March and yet another month has passed. This week has not been a typical week as far as school goes. The mid-term break started on Thursday, which means that mid-term exams had to be given this week. The mid-term break and testing has been posted on the schedule of the term so I knew that it was supposed to happen this week. I was hoping to get one period of teaching in this week before giving the mid-term exam to my classes, but plans rarely go the way you hope in Ghana. On Monday on my way to teach my first class, I was surprised to see most of the students out of their classrooms. I was then informed by fellow teachers that they were holding ... read more

2/22/09 In contrast to last week’s entry, this week’s blog post will be much shorter. As far as school goes, I had a full week of classes without any interruptions. Looking at how many weeks there are left in the term and how much material I still have to cover, there is no way that I am going to get through the entire syllabus. Maybe if I had the form 1s for the entire first term I might have been able to get through the syllabus, but that’s not the case. I assigned a short homework assignment and now that there are 220 form 1 students, it took me four and a half hours to grade the homework assignment. I am not a fan of lesson planning, but I have to say that grading is definitely ... read more

Ah we've been enjoying our time together. Kwabena loves baking and Praise loves his bike! This next week the students will be “spacing out”. We have a team of (2) teachers to help launch us into space! Last month, under some very comical circumstances, I met Jessica (Utah) and Matild (France) here in Dunkwa. Both are volunteers in Ghana for 3 months, love kids and the sciences. They spent a few days in Apebouso teaching and being taught (culture). Despite Apebousos very hungry cocoa bugs, the girls enjoyed the visit and have asked to come back this week. We have some fun ideas we hope will help students begin to grasp the mind stretching concept of space. It is possible for this to be the final week in processing the schools official registration. Yep, one day ... read more

I have just finished my last full week at school and will be returning to Accra next week for my last few days in Ghana. The past two weeks have gone by quite quickly as I have been finishing up school work before I leave. At this point, all letters have been written, the library is being used daily, and the newspaper has been printed. All finished! This past weekend I went to the lake for one last getaway before the end of the internship. A whole group of us went. Some of Alison’s friends from America were here to visit her, so all of us headed off to Lake Bosumtwi for a fun relaxing weekend. Some highlights would include the late night dips, eating good food, and squishing 8 people into a 5 person taxi ... read more

1/25/09 Hey everybody. It has been over a month since my last blog entry and I’m really sorry I’ve been slacking lately. The last month was pretty hectic, but I’m back in the swing of things at site so I’ll be getting back to my routine of trying to write something every week. As most of you know, I came back to America for Christmas. My trip didn’t start off too well thanks to flight delays, missed connections, and snow in Seattle. I was extremely lucky to get a flight out of New York and even luckier when my flight was diverted to Salt Lake City where my wonderful girlfriend picked me up so I could get some sleep, food and take a shower. All in all I think I arrived in Seattle only 14 hours ... read more