Friday, September 28, 2007

School in limbo

SITE:
I arrived from "traveling" on September 4. School was supposed to start on the 11th. Today is the 28th and, drumroll please, I just taught my first class yesterday! It went well, it was 4th grade and we spent an hour and a half playing a rule game where I had Do and Do Not sections and they had to decide which side the rule went under. Most of the time was spent getting them to understand what each rule means, which was interesting because not only are they still learning sign language, but so am I. But all worked out well and when I showed them the project we'll be doing first, they got all excited (tracing hands with crayons so they overlap, then filling each hand with a different pattern, then looking for new shapes where the different hands overlapped and filling every "shape" with different colors of watercolor. fun fun).

Here is a crazy story: I didn't really sleep last night, one of my students went missing. She is only like 4 and is new and in the Kindergarden class. I guess she had been trying to run away all day and they had tied her to her bed (which is ridiculous and a seperate issue). When they untied her to let her go to the bathroom, she ran away. The thing that made it really bad is that there wasn't electricity last night- no lights and she is deaf so they can't call for her. And there was a major thunderstorm. They are like walls of water here. Scary. They didn't find her until this morning at 8! I felt so bad for her. I think they are going to send her home.

What have i been doing with the rest of my time do you ask? Well let me tell you. If you check out the list of books on the side of this blog page, you'll see a pretty good list for only 3 months (it took me a whole month to get through the first one Wicked, cuz i thought it was boring but wanted to finish), but now I have almost 15.

I'm going to get some fruit and veggies at the market before I go back to site (I'm in tamale now, in savelugu you can only buy bread, tomatoes, onions, rice, yams and beans. Period.) I miss fresh things! And dairy...................mmmmmmmmmmm that is the first thing I will eat when I get back to the USA. I hope I don't go lactose intolerant while I'm here, that would be a very sad day. Peace!

Monday, September 3, 2007

End of Training

Yikes! It's real now. The past month has been packed full!
First I would like everyone to give me a little pat on the back for passing my language test!! Thats right, according to my interviwer I am "intermediate med." level in Dagbani (which also means I barely passed). If you guys will recall my language skills in English are pretty lacking...so I was a little worried about being able to have a 20 min. conversation in Dagbani with a stranger. But luckily I have down how to say "can you repeat please" (labi yeli) and speak slowly please (dim suglo, yelmi bela bela). So i somehow made it through...
Aside from trying to cram language in my head, the last couple weeks of training weren't so bad. The art people got to go and learn traditional crafts, so we practiced Kente Weaving, Batik, Kalabash art, and making glue from kasava. It is interesting going to the shops because there is not only the craftsperson, there are a ton of apprentices who are all in little uniforms to help out. The all got a kick out of watching white people trying to do it and thought it was funny how we kept making things our own way because they have it drilled in to them to do everything a specific copied way.
I don't know what it was that was so draining about training, but I'm glad it's done. Last week I said goodbye to my homestay family and gave them all a crate of minerals for a gift (that means pop- the choices are coke/sprite/orange faunta) and then headed off to the good ol Dery Hotel were we all stayed a couple of nights before swearing in. Swearing In was entertaining...i dont know about fun persay, but definitely interesting. We all were decked out in clothes our families had made for us, some people matched both parents hehe:) And then everyone had to do some sort of presentation in the language they had been learning the past 3 months. Mine was a poem and it went like this: Shikiru, Shikiru, Shikiru - Shikiriu changi viella - A yi chang shikiriu - A ni nya bangsim ni kpem - Dinzugulo, Sokam cham shikiru! > School, School, School - Its good to go to school - If you go to school you will be wise and powerful- So, everyone should go to school!
Quality, I know :)
Swearing in night was a good time. We just danced all night and made merriment :) After that everyone went to their sites! I decided to help my friend Tim move into his site down at Cape Coast and visited a few other people on the way back up...now its time for the real deal. Today I go to site. Get Excited :)