Blogs from Ghana, Africa - page 15

Time. I’ve heard it said that “time is a valuable thing”. We have too much time or too little time; time goes by too fast or too slow; people are too busy or too lazy. Well, these past few months – maybe the past year even - I feel like I just haven’t had enough TIME. I can’t believe how I have managed to compile everything into the last month. First there’s the things that actually needed to be DONE: finishing my courses, writing exams, moving out of my apartment, planning (and the cancelling due to weather) a fundraising event, visiting Ottawa, going to my family’s cottage, and trying to gather everything that I need for this trip. Then, there are the mental challenges: keeping my brain charged while studying for exams, battling anxiety, and trying ... read more

I had planned to post this blog right away, on Monday, but I had not realized what 5 days without internet would force me to catch up on many other as important tasks. CIEE, took the nifty nine, well technically now the ____ eight/ the ____ seven, and well, even at times just the ____ six (depending on the situation) to Kumasi (up North). We left at 5:30 am on Thursday morning for a 5 hour bus ride. First, we went to an Asante Traditional home where I got to read up on the history and hear about how the Asante dealt with British influence by keeping their traditions. Afterwards, we went straight to the Palace Museum to get a further tour of the Royal Chiefs and Mother Queens of the Asante Tribe. There were facts ... read more

This past week was a relaxed week due to not going to my internship and having Wednesday, which is normally my full day of classes off because of Ghana's Independence Day holiday. Without doing really anything significant this week it ended up being a great week for my body to decide to get sick. I was sick when I woke up on Monday morning. I had the shivers and was sweating more than I normally do. I had a headache and my stomach hurt. It was definitely not a good day for me. So while thoughts of the possibility of me having Malaria flew through my mind... I just ignored it and tried to tell myself that sleep would cure me. The next day I felt 10 times better, still had a few symptoms but I ... read more

This past week my "Maame (Mommy) Instincts" kicked in and my photography skills (with the help of instagram). As everyone says, pictures say a thousand words... so while I tried to write captions under all of the pictures, use your imagination, because trust me, the week was not only of smiles, there were tears and upset faces all around because that's exactly what all maames see on a daily basis. So I'll just do a quick recap to let you get straight to the photos: 1. I failed at teaching my first English class...structure of the classroom is not the same. While I wanted to me more interactive with the class, I was interrupted by the teacher to just read from the book, word for word...After that first attempt, I just continued to observe from my ... read more

I am sorry for the extreme lack of travel blog entries since I returned to Ghana in January- It has been a very busy start to the new term and the weeks are flying past! There’s a lot of work to fit in to a short space of time this term, and I really can’t believe we’re half way through and already enjoying a four day weekend for mid-term break :o) A few weeks ago, we celebrated ‘Founder’s Day’, which is a day to celebrate Sammy and Florence’s birthdays as well as to give them thanks for founding the school. This year is also the 25th anniversary of Alpha Beta school and college, so it’s great to be part of such a special year here! Despite working long days again to stay on top of the ... read more