Hello world! Or hello
to those of you that are following this blog.
Forgive me friends; it has been over two months since my last blog
ingression. Last time we met here I was
merely a Peace Corps Trainee. I am very
excited to have crossed the threshold and emerged a volunteer. I have been in Ghana nearly five months and
cannot believe how fast the time is going by.
I am not even sure where to begin on what has happened. The first three months of training are busy,
energetic, full days, little free time, but somehow I managed to write nearly
every week or two during that time. The
pace was at first much slower when I got to site, and now I am finally becoming
busy which is a very very good thing.
So, I
am now permanently at my site which is in a small village near the sprawling
market town of Kumasi. I love my village,
school and community, but no situation is perfect. I have the nicest house in my part of the village. (I know, terrible, right?) I have really great digs compared to many
other volunteers. I have a big living
room, a bedroom, a kitchen, private latrine (many volunteers share with
others), and private bathing room. I
have a whole house to myself, and also a vacant room. It’s actually
really great…BUT….Most families here have three, four, five, six, or even more
living in a house the size of mine or even much smaller. Part of my responsibilities as a Peace Corps
volunteer is cross-cultural awareness, which involves promoting better understanding
of Americans to the people we serve. It
is standard for a Ghanaian to think that all Americans are rich and live a life
of luxury. How can I change that
perception when I am the only white person in town and I move into the nicest
house on my street all by myself? They
don’t know that my school pays for my housing, and the people that always ask
me for money don’t understand that I am working on a very limited stipend. I do my best to explain but seeing is
believing. My students come by my place
often to help me clean or fetch water.
They tell me ‘Madam, your place is sooo nice. I wish to come and live here with you.’ They don’t understand how I can live here
alone. But, I am extremely grateful that
my school found such a great place for me to live. It is more than comfortable and much more
than I expected.
Being
the only white person in town also means that people I have never even spoken
to know where I live, where I work, and they know my Ghanaian name, which in my
village is ‘Abena Abofiri Koto’. Even
though I live alone, I don’t have much privacy.
I leave my house and almost everyone I pass and greet, whether I know
them or not says
‘Abena! Where are you
going?’
‘I am going to Market.’
‘What will you buy?’
‘Just some food’
‘What will you prepare?’
‘Not sure yet’
And on and on and on…and it always ends with them telling me
to buy them something. If I am walking
toward my house everyone I pass says ‘Abena! Where have you gone?’ If I go into Kumasi for market or errands and
the traffic is bad, I return home and some will say ‘Abena! You have kept
long-oooh! Why!?’ (Ghanaians add –oooh
to then end of many sentences, it’s catchy, and I have been adding it to my
sentences as welloooh). It would be rude to not respond, so it means that mamny
people in my village not only know where I live, but they also know where I am and
what I am doing at any point in the day.
I will be honest that it was endearing at first, then became extremely
frustrating and invasive. I would smile
and say ‘Oh! I am just going into town to buy some things. I will go and come.’ Then they say ‘You go to Kumasi or you go buy
things here?’ I then smile and respond casually with the appropriate answer,
even though in my head I am imagining the vein in my forehead pulsing as I
scream ‘WHY MUST I ALWAYS TO TELL YOU EVRYTHING I DO AND WHERE I AM GOING??!!!1!!’ But, as more time passed, I adjusted and now
reminded myself that it is a different culture.
These small villages are like one big family. Everyone knows everyone and I am a part of it
now. They only ask me these things
because it is part of their culture to do so. They are curious about me. I am starting to welcome it more and more as
it also means that I am becoming part of
the extended family in which my village operates. I have no choice but to embrace and roll with
it, and so I am rolling. J
So
regarding the education sector in the
Peace Corps; it is much different than other sectors like natural resource
management (NRM) or heath and water sanitation (WATSAN). I know that this is obvious simply by stating
it, but what I mean is that volunteers in other sectors have a lot more freedom
and flexibility in their projects (or so I’ve heard). They get out into their communities and
assess the needs and make a plan to address what needs they are most capable of
assisting in. I am not saying that
education volunteers do not do that, but our primary project is very structured
and clear: we teach. We definitely have
the option of taking on secondary projects in other sectors but we are
discouraged from doing so until we have been at site for three months and have
settled in. The only reason I am even laying
this out is because it makes the first few months at site pretty boring for an
education volunteer, or at least for this education volunteer. I have been meeting with people in my
community and brainstorming ideas as to what I can do for secondary projects
within my community, but I also have to be careful that I am not sending a
concrete message that I will be able to do this that and the other, because I
don’t know how much time I will have to focus on other things when I need to
focus on teaching first and foremost. So
I am hesitant to do much else other than teach until I am completely
comfortable and confident in doing so, because the last thing I want to do is
be over ambitious in efforts outside of being a teacher, resulting in failed
projects and disappointment. Plus, my
school is in such a deprived state that I am sure I will make the biggest
difference in Ghana by improving the resources and facilities of my school, so
any secondary project I do take on in the future will be focused directly at my
school. It does not have a library, no
computers, no science equipment; our education resources are seriously limited
to chalk and a chalkboard. A lot of
students do not even have textbooks. I
guess the whole point of this rant is that my initial ideas about ‘community
development projects’ I would be doing were involving people from all over the
community, but at this point it seems that I will make the biggest and most
sustainable difference by focusing on one community group: the students at my
school. But even if I improve the lives
of even a few people, or a few students during my time here I will see it as a
success. I have been trying to not make
any assumptions about the possibilities here.
I want to do as much as I can but I also want to keep realistic and attainable
expectations.
More on
teaching, I am actually really enjoying it.
But teaching in Ghana is hard.
Not devaluing the work of stateside teachers in anyway, it’s just that in Ghana, the majority of students
are extremely passive in their learning and even apathetic at times. Especially for a new teacher, progress is
painstakingly slow. I have also noticed
that thinking independently is not something that Ghanaian students are used to
so I have found that the hardest part about teaching is to get the students to
just think about the material and try to figure out the answers on their own. They are used to rote memorization and
regurgitation of words, not comprehension.
So I feel I am not just teaching science material, but I am teaching
these students how to learn.
As far
as the material goes, I am completely baffled at what the education system
expects these students to learn. I teach
integrated science, which is basically general science, and everyone has to
take it. There is a section on organic chemistry!!! Why a 17 year old business track student
needs to learn how to name organic molecules I don’t know. It kind of drives me crazy. And the fact that the textbook writers think
that they can ‘summarize’ organic chemistry in a 10 page chapter of a high
school general science book is astonishing.
But nonetheless, I have been giving organic chemistry lectures to 17
year old Ghanaians with the sad knowledge that they won’t remember any of it.
This
week I also started teaching math, and I am also working on my first secondary
project of bringing a library to school.
So these things are keeping me ridiculously busy. My reasons for staying off the blog stream so
long were at first no computer due to the theft incident, and then when I got a
replacement I was too busy to write consistently. Anyway, I will have more on the library soon
and I really need some stateside support so please keep in touch with me
because very soon I will be having some great opportunities for people to get involved
with the work I am doing here.
Welp,
sorry no pics this time. Uploading
photos takes forever for my mobile USB modem so I can only do it at the speedy
internet cafes.
Oh, I
almost forgot! I got a dog! Things can get pretty quiet and boring on the
weekends so he is a great pal to have around.
I got him from my neighbor when he was probably a little too young to
leave his mamma, but he’s doing great and is living a very posh life compared
to other Ghanaian dogs. When I got him
his little face and body was crawling with dust mites and fleas. Now he is clean and happy and getting
fat! His full name is Daakyehene
(Dah-chay-he-neh) which means ‘Future King’ in the local language. It is a common nickname for brilliant people
or people that are expected to do great things in their life. I call him Daakye (Dah-chay) for short, which
just means ‘future’. Everyone absolutely
loves that I gave him a Ghanaian name and he is now quite famous around
town. People even call me Daakyehema,
which means future queen, since my ‘son’ is the future king. If I am spotted in town without him everyone
is asking “Eh, Abena! Where is Future
King?!” I love that people love him! J And he is smart and
loyal. He comes to school with me and
never wanders away from the school grounds, and if I leave him at home if I
need to travel I will return to him just hanging out on the porch or running
around in the yard, he never strays. You
will see pictures soon but eventually you will meet him as I plan on making the
trek back to America with him. J
This is
all I got for now. I will try to be more
consistent to limit the thesis length updates.
Much more has happened but of course I can’t remember it all at the
moment. Till next time!