Sunday, June 27, 2010

Sunday June 27 Week 3 finishes


I wanted an adventure this trip so I am staying away from the hotel. I am renting a very nice bed room and "hall" (living room) and small kitchen (sink, fridge, but NO stove) I guess I would have to cook outside if I wanted to cook. Luckily for me I do not even think about cooking. I may buy a toaster. It has air conditioning in the hall and a TV but that leaves the bedroom very hot and still in the night. I wish it had a fan for sleeping. I may purchase a small one but maybe not as I have just finished my third week and other than realizing how much I miss STUFF I am doing quite well. I quite miss it all or at least most of it and contrary to what I have heard many times I do not find it liberating. The young man who owns this building is working at making it a restaurant and will live here when it is done and he leaves his present job. The rent he is collecting from me will help him finish the project. He hopes to be able to open by November (I know that you may assume this November, but I having been here 3 weeks, I am not so sure.


Every morning I walk about 15 minutes to the "station" and get a taxi with 3-5 other people and go to Bantuma school. The library is a bright spot at the school. The children are loving the idea of having a Library. They are slowly looking at more books and some are really reading.
I have a picture of our littlest reader, she is 2 and LOVES books, a very unusual sight indeed. She comes to "read" every day after school and is sad on the days the library is only for the older children. I dream of the day that all the little ones can have books around they can look at every day in their classroom WHEN EVER THEY WANT. I need to ship a container of books. Anyone what to help get that together? I really can not express the difference I already see with the library going strong. I can hardly wait to see things in a year. Will the grades be better? kids happier? more kids coming to school everyday?


I must talk about the wonderful people who came to paint the Kg1 and Nursery Rooms. They were the saddest rooms I have ever seen when I was here in March. (see YouTube Tomorrow's Stars) Earlier volunteers painted the outside a great yellow and the inside walls whitewashed so it was quite an improvement. Then these 7 painting angels came. They were at the beginning of a month long trip through Ghana, Burkina, and Mali and were scheduled to help paint for 1/2 day. When they arrived they told me that none of them were artists but after some thinking we had a plan for the morning. They worked fast and the room looked great when they finished. The next day was a free day and 5 decided that they could easily spend another half day painting the other room and they had lots of ideas. They were inspired and as you look at these pictures, can you believe not one of them was an artist? I think of them as the painting angels. I am sure that the elephant is going to speak to one of the children. I think he will tell them they must grow up and write children's books

.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Sunday June 20 Week 2

This week has just flown by. Every day at Bantuma, we are reading, playing word games, standing in for teachers who are not in school, playing games, coloring, and giving the children as much as we can.

I spend lots of time talking to the teachers, trying to get them to understand how children learn and the difference between them really understanding and just being able to repeat something. This seems to be one of the biggest challenges. Many of the teachers think that just because they can say a word, they understand what it means, or that if they can not do a math problem they are stubborn. They do not think they may not know the times tables well enough to do a problem.

Aubrey from Sabre took the volunteers to two of the other projects that they are involved in. They both are in a rural area in this school district. You can check out some of the Sabre projects at www.sabretrust.org

NO pictures this week it takes too long to upload! Need to get somewhere else!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

 
 
 
 
Posted by Picasa
Posted by Picasa

First week in Elmina

Well I have been here a week. I can hardly remember the LONG journey here. As usual, I feel like I belong here.
It was a hectic week. I arrived on Sunday evening and bright and early Monday, I had to meet the 5 Sabre volunteers that would be working with me at Bantuma government school down the road from Christ Cares. It has 800 students. Many of them do not speak English at all, even as old as grade 3 they have a hard time, so needless to say they are having a hard time reading.


The Library is looking great! It is a dream come true for me. To see the two boys laying around with books reading brought a tear to my eyes.

Solo has done a great job for Tomorrow's Stars with this library project. He has grown leaps and bounds this year. He has applied to teacher's training college and I expect him to be accepted. I think he will be a great teacher.
What I really hope to accomplish with this trip is to have the teachers start to see how the "new" methods can work and the children will be easier to teach and then there jobs will be easier and not harder. That with the little they have here, things can still be fun. We made name crowns one day and it only took 1/2 sheet of paper for each hat! and some of the kids are still wearing them!
I must be off, the "match" (World Cup) will start soon and I think that if I don't watch I will be deported!
Till next week.....
Join the group Tomorrow's Stars on Facebook for everyday quick details of the trip