I know some of you like to read the Sunday edition of this blog but as it is already 5:30AM tuesday and I have to get ready to leave for another hectic day there will not be any news until later this week.
The longer I am here, the less seems special enough to write about, even though I know all the great things that donations are allowing me to do while I am here so I will write what happened last week and the first few days of this week soon (hopefully not in Ghanaian time!)
Monday, July 19, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Reaching the half way mark
This has been an interesting week. On Monday 5 more Sabre volunteers came to help at Bantuma. That makes 12 of us. A huge number for a school who rarely gets any help at all. We have spent lots of time with children. Something they seem to crave.
On Tuesday it was the start of Bakatue Festival so school was dismissed at 10am. This was my third time at this festival. It is a grand display of African Tradition. Every one gets excited. Because of the festival, school attendence was pretty low on Wednesday. However, Class 6 had their practical for life skills which meant, cooking a real meal! I was honored to be invited to enjoy the food the Headmaster after the children finished. Admittedly, I was frightened of eating food cooked in a school setting but am glad to report that as of today I am still not ill! I guess they should all get an A+ as everything was also very delicious (I love the food here!)
Thursday brought an invitation to a conference Sponsored by UNICEF on the new KG cirrulum. We discussed the best way to implement the standards and then started listing the barriers that will be the cause of the impemention taking a longer time than hoped. After the conference I was even more conviced that Sabre's efforts to implement the standards in this area is the way we should go. It will be a generation before this government will be able to get it all done!
Saturday morning brought me to Cape Coast for food and stuff, where I passed a local high school celebrating the 100 year aniversary.
In the afternoon, I met up with Andrew, a young Fraterity Brother of George's who attends Case Western in Cleveland and hopes to go to medical school. He is here volunteering in Cape Coast for 6 weeks with a group that does outreach in the Rural areas for HIV/Aids.
We went to town so we could see the closing ceremony for Bakatue. Rudolph, Francis, Solo, Paul, and Richard soon found us as they wanted to meet Andrew who is not much older than they are while I neglected to take any pictures of the group, it was fun to watch them. I luckily did not forget to take pictures of the Ressional back to the palace of all the area Chiefs and various Elders etc. I also have some video that I will post on YouTube when I return home or when I am not paying by the upload!
I can not take pictures or video or find the right words to share with you the feeling of being here. There is so much joy and caring and during Bakatue and World Cup the pride and celebrating is so uplifting. Everyone watches out for me. The villagers where I live, the teachers at the school, even Taxi drivers worry about where I am going and how I am going to get there when I vary my routine!
Some Pictures of the week:
Bakatue Festival
The Library in Action after school, children playing with pictures we cut from the clock box, volunteers in the classrooms, volunteers spending time with children after school, a small boy with flip-flops on his hands acting as goalie playing football with a water bottle, and our favorite library patron the 2year old Patience.
On Tuesday it was the start of Bakatue Festival so school was dismissed at 10am. This was my third time at this festival. It is a grand display of African Tradition. Every one gets excited. Because of the festival, school attendence was pretty low on Wednesday. However, Class 6 had their practical for life skills which meant, cooking a real meal! I was honored to be invited to enjoy the food the Headmaster after the children finished. Admittedly, I was frightened of eating food cooked in a school setting but am glad to report that as of today I am still not ill! I guess they should all get an A+ as everything was also very delicious (I love the food here!)
Thursday brought an invitation to a conference Sponsored by UNICEF on the new KG cirrulum. We discussed the best way to implement the standards and then started listing the barriers that will be the cause of the impemention taking a longer time than hoped. After the conference I was even more conviced that Sabre's efforts to implement the standards in this area is the way we should go. It will be a generation before this government will be able to get it all done!
Saturday morning brought me to Cape Coast for food and stuff, where I passed a local high school celebrating the 100 year aniversary.
In the afternoon, I met up with Andrew, a young Fraterity Brother of George's who attends Case Western in Cleveland and hopes to go to medical school. He is here volunteering in Cape Coast for 6 weeks with a group that does outreach in the Rural areas for HIV/Aids.
We went to town so we could see the closing ceremony for Bakatue. Rudolph, Francis, Solo, Paul, and Richard soon found us as they wanted to meet Andrew who is not much older than they are while I neglected to take any pictures of the group, it was fun to watch them. I luckily did not forget to take pictures of the Ressional back to the palace of all the area Chiefs and various Elders etc. I also have some video that I will post on YouTube when I return home or when I am not paying by the upload!
I can not take pictures or video or find the right words to share with you the feeling of being here. There is so much joy and caring and during Bakatue and World Cup the pride and celebrating is so uplifting. Everyone watches out for me. The villagers where I live, the teachers at the school, even Taxi drivers worry about where I am going and how I am going to get there when I vary my routine!
Some Pictures of the week:
Bakatue Festival
The Library in Action after school, children playing with pictures we cut from the clock box, volunteers in the classrooms, volunteers spending time with children after school, a small boy with flip-flops on his hands acting as goalie playing football with a water bottle, and our favorite library patron the 2year old Patience.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Four Weeks finished, Six to go, will it be enough time?
In many ways I feel as I just arrived and then it also feels like I have been here forever. I feel as I have not accomplished much but then look backwards and see lots. Very weird, very surreal, but I love it.
Solo had his interview this week to see if he will be admitted to Teacher Training School. I am hoping for him on one hand but on the other he is so great running the Library ....
Watching the teachers shop for shoes, in the school yard, out of the back of a hatch back cab, still makes me grin on so many levels!
Even though it was sad that the Black Stars lost in the football match for the semifinals in the World Cup I had a very enjoyable Saturday. First, I won a disagreement with MTN (phone and Internet) about what it means when you run an ad that says 2.5g data for 60GHC and then sell 1.5G data for 60GHC. (I got the 1G missing data time credited to my account) and then 4 of our favorite scholarship students past and present, joined me at the Library and painted words on the walls and entertained me with their bantering back and forth.
It is great to have so many volunteers here. It adds so much. Giving so many children a bit of special attention that they so desperately need. Three of the original 5 have left but 4 came last week and 6 are arriving today so next week should be a great one for the children.
The rains have subsided and we have only had a few showers this week. Thursday was a holiday, Republic day. Tuesdays starts Bakatue, fishing festival here in Elmina. Chief processions, a Regatta, no school and LOTS OF PARTYING! Should be fun!
Solo had his interview this week to see if he will be admitted to Teacher Training School. I am hoping for him on one hand but on the other he is so great running the Library ....
Watching the teachers shop for shoes, in the school yard, out of the back of a hatch back cab, still makes me grin on so many levels!
Even though it was sad that the Black Stars lost in the football match for the semifinals in the World Cup I had a very enjoyable Saturday. First, I won a disagreement with MTN (phone and Internet) about what it means when you run an ad that says 2.5g data for 60GHC and then sell 1.5G data for 60GHC. (I got the 1G missing data time credited to my account) and then 4 of our favorite scholarship students past and present, joined me at the Library and painted words on the walls and entertained me with their bantering back and forth.
It is great to have so many volunteers here. It adds so much. Giving so many children a bit of special attention that they so desperately need. Three of the original 5 have left but 4 came last week and 6 are arriving today so next week should be a great one for the children.
The rains have subsided and we have only had a few showers this week. Thursday was a holiday, Republic day. Tuesdays starts Bakatue, fishing festival here in Elmina. Chief processions, a Regatta, no school and LOTS OF PARTYING! Should be fun!
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!
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
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