Greetings from the Ghana Sauna!
We
will try to answer questions from various e-mails. By the way, love
hearing from you!! And don't forget to keep us informed about the
political happenings in the land of democracy. All of you should read
The Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and Dave Relin -- thanks to John
and Barb Flynn for the recommendation to us!!!
Our food is bought
from the open air market by our host teacher, Vera. She was our host
the last time we were here. She cooks on a small gas burner and
sometimes uses a small coal stove like a hibachi. She has made
groundnut soup with chicken and mashed yams and a meal of jollof rice
with a type of salad and fried chicken -- all very good so don't count on
us coming home skinny!! Breakfast has been oatmeal or eggs with onion
and a little tomato. We drink powdered milk mixed with a kind of
ovaltine for breakfast. Lunch is at school--a small bottle of soda
with saltine crackers -- we could have something else, but we choose this
because it is too hot to eat in mid-day. When we "trek" home we drink
water--we drink a lot of water. We have stopped for a frozen milk
chocolate bar--it is in a plastic bag that we bite the corner off and
just suck it out with finesse!!
It takes us about 30 minutes to
walk to school. We wear our sneakers or Harry has some kind of great
walking shoes--because the path is very rugged, steep with gullies -- not
ruts. We see a lot of people going to work at their farms or into
town. The children also walk to school, so we see many children on the
road and paths.. Small children call out "abroni" and we wave. It
means white man -- They are so cute and love to touch our skin and hair.
Our
classes start at various times during the day -- on Monday Joan has an
8am class until 9:20 with form 1 (7th graders) -- then 12:20 to 1pm with
form 2 (8th). On Tues. Joan starts at 10:20 until 11:40 and then 11:40
to 1 for the next class. She is teaching English. It is like that for
the rest of the week and the same for Harry for Social Studies. We
co-teach most of the time because our classes are not at the same
time -- we have a lot of fun and the kids love it. Of course our
resources are limited. We will be checking on the books that we sent
two years ago and see what is left. We hope to set up some kind of
library system for them--as primitive as that may be--but it will be
better than the system they have now.
Next to our school they are
constructing a huge building that is supposed to be someone's home -- it
looks like a hotel and it is three stories high. The workers have to
head load huge buckets of water from the river which is below the
school. They do this several times during the day to make the cement
for the bricks and for the wall that will be built around the compound
of this ostentatious building. They mix the concrete by hand and
wheelbarrow it from the top of the hill down to the site. It is
exhausting to watch! The guys look like Atlas.
Our classes are in
the newly constructed concrete block building and we have a nice
breeze -- Thanks to many of you who have contributed to the building. We
also have a "faculty room", not on the porch as before. It is in one
of the old buildings that they didn't tear down -- it's rather nice
because we can socialize with the rest of the faculty -- primary and
secondary. We are also out of the elements -- just wish we had AC.
This
week is a BIG sports event -- the beginning of the Africa Cup Football
(soccer) tournament. The tournament has 16 African countries
participating -- this is big stuff so we are not sure that a lot of
academics will take place even though school is in session. The
opening ceremony starts this Sunday and goes on until Feb. 10th. Go
Ghana!! Joan is going to have her form2 kids take notes from either
watching the telly or listening to the radio and they can become
journalists -- most of them seem to have access to either tv's in the
market or some friends. They are excited -- I just have to find a
microphone or make one!
The government is moving from "rote
learning" to a more conceptual western style curriculum -- some of the
teachers are having a hard time with it as well as the "no caning" but
we are able to talk to them about other ways -- we are very happy about
their work towards other disciplinary measures.
There are many
who have cell phones, tv's -- not digital -- and the electricity still goes
off during the day -- but we do see some gernerators -- we don't have one.
At night we seem to not have water and of course the school has neither
running water nor electricity.
We were hoping that Connie the
donut lady would be making donuts at her "shop" on our way home
today -- but the shop was closed -- after we walked up the big hill -- alas,
we were really disappointed -- so we drank our warm water -- it was good!
This is long enough. To be continues...like the rooster who may not
make it til we leave and the goat that doesn't know how to be quiet
during the night outside of our window!!
Love and Prayers
Harry and Joan
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