Teaching and Getting Settled

My second full week in Ghana was full of excitement.  I started my new placement, a new volunteer arrived, and we started to get adjusted to living in the African way of life.

On Tuesday morning, I was introduced to the girls at Kingsby Methodist School, where I was going to help teach sports education.  Upon arriving, I found that I was actually teaching classes by myself- I have three classes of around 30 students, grades 10-12. Tuesday was my first teaching experience, working with the grade 10 girls.  Since I hadn't prepared to teach a full class, I had to come up with a lesson plan really quickly.  Basically, I introduced myself and told the girls why I had come to Ghana and to their school, and I got them all to introduce themselves.  Then we talked a little bit about the curriculum and played a quick game.  Each class I taught got a little easier, and I am looking forward to being able to plan my classes better.

Although I have more responsibility than I initially expected, I'm really excited to work with the girls.  They are hilarious and I can already tell that we are going to have a lot of fun together. The girls are working towards competing in a inter-school track and field event, so I am going to be working with the full classes and also selecting girls for the school team.

Outside of the school, I have been learning lots about the Ghanain life!  On fellow volunteer Brenda's last day, we prepared fufu, a traditional meal.  It is made by pounding plantain and casava in a giant mortar and pestle until it becomes a sticky dough.  Then it is eaten with soup using only your right hand- and chewing is generally frowned upon.  Definitely an experience!

Pounding the fufu

On Thursday I had a really nice day.  Justine and I went to the orphanage together, then both of us went to Kingsby for the classroom and training session.  We were working with the grade 12 girls so they were much more confident and excited to speak up in class.  It also really helped to feel more prepared.

After the training session, we walked home-amusing the locals by practicing speaking Twi and stopping to play with lots of the kiddies.  We passed a small school house and gathered a crowd of about 20 kids all following us singing "Obbbruni how are you, you're fine? me too!"  Cutest kids ever!

When we arrived home, we had Kenkey, another Ghanain dish. It is very similar to fufu, but made from pounded maize.  Once again, your right hand is your utensil, but it was a little easier to eat than the fufu.

Finishing off the week, we decided to get domestic and do our laundry.  Little did we know, washing clothes takes a couple hours- and is a pretty good workout!  We had lots of fun, and got good and sudsy; but, it definitely made us appreciate the convenience of throwing a load in the washing machine.  Naomi and Annette helped us out a lot as well, they were much more efficient than us Obrunis :)

My second week in Ghana was really wonderful, I got to experience lots of new things, and was introduced to my new placement.  I felt more at home and started to become better adjusted to the lifestyle here.