Blogs from Teshie, Greater Accra, Ghana, Africa - page 4

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 ... read more

So this morning there was some confusion about whether the puppy is a boy or a girl...there has been a lot of debate! We spent last night looking after the pup, trying to get it to eat but to no avail. It didn't want water either, and just kept crying. I guess it's used to being around 30 kids at the orphanage, as well as the other puppies in the litter. I tried hand feeding it pasta and vegetables and it ate some, so that is good :) We took it back to the orphanage today though. We got to the orphanage for 9am, to get the kids ready to take them to the beach. They were super excited. The little ones had a big bowl of sunscreen they were smearing eveverywhere, and they were getting ... read more

This morning at school, there must have been something in the water. The children were off on a mental one. Auntie Lucy was off again, as her son Elijah is still poorly. Another teacher came in to set work, but half the children had their books missing, and it was all just a bit chaotic. They were out of control today. No matter what I did, whether it was distraction, positive reinforcement etc, they just wouldn't stop hitting, pushing, slapping and punching their classmates. There were tears every few minutes! Alfred was an absolute little monster today.He ripped his book up, and just couldn't keep his hands off the others, constantly stealing their erasers, distracting them and hitting them. The hitting isn't done in a violent way for the most part- it just seems like the ... read more

I know it is/has been a full moon, but the kids were really crazy today... I got to school at 9am and they were singing rhymes, led by Lucy. So cute, with their little accents! They then copied sentences off of the board, did some roman numerals, and some basic addition. No worries. Alfred, as always, just doesn't do anything. He isn't able to read and write, and if in the UK, I think he'd have one-to-one help. I worked with him today, getting him to trace over the letters I had written in his book, and he focused for a whole 10 minutes, which was pretty good going. At breaktime, Stevie, who I think is in the class above mine, came over and wanted to play our usual game where he hides a stone in ... read more

So tonight I had to brave the bucket shower. There is a massive vat of water in the yard with a tap on the bottom. You fill up a bucket with water (cold) and take it to the shower, where you simply fill it up with a mug and use that. Very refreshing and not as bad as I thought! I was talking to Jamal earlier and he said he would find it really strange if hot water came out of a tap. Mind you, these cold showers are nice in Ghana. The weather sees to that. I think I'd actually CHOOSE a cold shower, even if there was hot water... A lot of things about Ghana are very different from the UK. No pudding after dinner (insert sad face here), Very few street lights. The ... read more