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Published: June 14th 2014
June 12, 2014
Watching the world cup with Jamal and the volunteers: Brazil vs. Croatia. Jamal is a huge football fan. One of the projects he started with Dream Africa is football (practice and games) for boys and girls. For those who don’t know Ghana has one of the premier football teams in the world. On Monday Ghana plays the US. Jamal has already teased me about that, but I told him since I’m in Ghana I’m a Black Stars (the national team) fan.
I led my first class today at the fishing village and I feel like the worst teacher ever. However, I know that’s not true and after I talked to another volunteer and Jamal they helped me feel better by reminding me that it was my first day alone. It just made me realize how important it is for me to learn some basic Ga.
Happy Birthday to my cousin Christopher!
June 14, 2014
Some of you have been asking for pictures of the house that I’m staying in, so here they are. I share a room with 3
other girls. I’m glad I have a bottom bunk. Mavis, who is an absolute doll, cooks, cleans, and does our laundry. As I already mentioned Jamal lives in the house, which is pretty impressive considering the partying that some of the younger volunteers like to do. I’ve started going to sleep listening to music because they can get kind of loud, but that’s what you have to do when you live in a place like this. Jamal has two dogs. Uncle Mike you would like that everyone here has Jack Russell terriers. The two dogs here are both male dogs, Peace and Callie. Peace is a moody dog, who isn’t socialable and can bite, so I keep my distance. Callie is very social and gets attention and love from everyone in the house.
A word that I’m still getting used to here is Bernie. It’s basically the Ghanaian term for gringo. It translates to white person, and as people tan here they add different words like Bernie coco (red) or Bernie tutu (black). I joked that right now they’re going to have to come up with a new term for me Bernie Bernie because I’m still so
Volunteer House
I still don't know why Jamal has this pool.white. On the side of most roads there are open sewers that are called Bernie traps.
One more thing: people really do carry things on their heads here. I’ve been quite amazed by how much I’ve seen some women carrying. Even the children can do it because they grow up emulating their parents. I want to learn how to do that; it’s such an efficient way of carrying things. I’ve even seen women with trays of peanuts that have peanuts only on one side of the tray yet still stay on their heads.
Happy early Father’s Day to all the fathers, especially to mine! I miss you Dad.
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KitKats
Kit Rawson
Great photos; great writing
Thanks for all the descriptions and information, Laurel. And, great photos! It looks like there is an Android app for learning Ga, so maybe I'll have to get that before we come visit you. I'm sure you'll be teaching like a pro in no time. Thanx for the Fathers Day wishes. Love, Dad