Blogs from Ghana, Africa - page 12

School as usual this morning. I got there and as it was Friday, it was Religious Education. Except they did nothing. Absolutely nothing. From 9am until break at 10am, Lucy just sat there, chatting to other teachers and myself, whilst the students occupied themselves with stickers that somebody had brought in. I got a few photographs and Lucy and I talked about the education system in the UK vs. Ghana. They too, get visits (like we do with Ofsted), theirs being from the Ghana Education Service. But they don't seem to have lesson plans or anything, which is strange. I left after break, and didn't make a big deal of it being my last day. I'd bought every student in my class a pencil and an eraser, and some pens for Lucy to mark with. She ... read more

This morning I got up a bit late, as I woke up in the night and couldn't get back to sleep. It was too hot, I was itching too much from mosquito bites, and Bobby was barking. I only found out in the morning WHY he was barking - because Peace had come home! He was missing for 4 days in total, and in that time we got the new puppy! I still made it to school in time though, and the students for once were fairly well behaved! The rest of the school's exam papers were ready so they started exams, but my class' papers weren't ready, so we had a normal morning. I find it strange here that there seems to be no structure to the lessons. The kids just sit around, annoying each ... read more

This morning was school. The students have exams this week, yes, even my teeny tiny 4-6 year olds. I wasn't expecting to have to do much, but the exam papers weren't yet ready, so they will be starting them this afternoon instead. So the teacher hadn't brought the class' exercise books, which meant that we just got the students up to the board to write letters that we told them to, in chalk. One student wiped the chalk with her sleeve, and Lucy (their teacher) said "No, don't do that. You get cancer. Cancer!" which I found amusing. At breaktime, Steffi came over and got me to go and see a little girl who was poorly. This girl had ulcers all over her tongue and lips, and the school had put the purple liquid on her. ... read more

Today, we were taking the kids from school to the beach. At least, that's what we thought (damn translation issues). Turns out that even though we were going to Kokrobite beach, we weren't actually going to the beach. It's also the name of a place. So we got to school at 9am, ready. The kids were practising their drumming and dancing they'd be doing. So cool. In typical Ghanaian fashion, the bus didn't turn up until 11am though. We all piled on. Now bear in mind that this bus was the size of a very small van, and there were 40 or so children with us....everyone was crushed up and sitting on laps. Georgina, one of the 11 year olds at my school sat with me, and she is now my new buddy and won't leave ... read more

I didn't know what to expect from my journey to Ghana. Really, I had no idea of what I was getting myself into. Maybe it was the constant studying and fear of failure from my nursing studies that kept my mind preoccupied with seemingly more vital day-to-day tasks; or maybe it was the daily reminder of my bodily deformities and chronic pain that left me wondering if I would be well suited for such a physical adventure; or maybe it was the ugly blackness of depression looming over me that made me believe that I was not good enough; whatever it was, I was fully unprepared to leave the comforts of home and head to Africa - and so, expected little. In truth, Africa was never on my list of places to visit in my lifetime. ... read more