Greetings from Ghana! We are once again siting in the Internet cafe in Saltpond, which is the next major town after Mankessim. It is about 45 minutes away from JIMMYCOM, the guesthouse at which we are staying. We have had pretty reliable electricity, except for today when they turned it off due to a thunderstorm. We have a refrigerator, but no air conditioning. We are supposed to have running water, but it relies on a cistern that needs to be filled every other day at the rate that we use it (since showers are in high demand), and we can’t seem to find someone to fill it.
I have several other things which I have written, but Internet access is difficult to come by here, so I will post it as soon as I can. A summary of our trip so far:
There are ten of us here: five girls and five boys. We have Julie, Meredith, Bella, Malinda, Justine, Will, Patrick, Kevin, Harrison, and myself. We have taught four days of classes so far: Tuesday through Friday. Harrison and I are teaching fractions, decimals, and percentages, as well as conversion between the three. Meredith and Julie are teaching Music and Dance, Patrick and Will are teaching vocabulary, Malinda and Justine are teaching human anatomy, and Bella is teaching reading comprehension. We all also help out with providing extra english and reading practice for the kids.
The kids at Heritage are great, but sometimes we get a little overwhelmed when they all crowd us. The school covers kindergarten through the equivalent of eighth grade. We teach JHS1 and JHS2 (Junior High School 1 and 2, or 6th and 7th grades). These two grades are split into A and B sections, with the A being considered the more advanced of the two.
In the afternoons, we have alternated (so far it was between boys and girls) with the forming of cinderblocks, which will be used in construction of mini-main hall, the new building that will become a high school and eventually become a boarding school at Heritage.
Whichever group was not making cinderblocks instead went to Mankessim, where we visited a cloth shop to buy material for clothing. It is patterned using dyes and wax to prevent the cloth from taking the dye.
On Thursday, a tailor came to take our measurements in order to sew the cloth and have the clothing made by the time we leave. He also came back on Friday to check to make sure he had our orders correct.
On our first visit to this cafe, Julie, Will, Patrick, and I walked to the beach. We had several local kids following us. While we were there, a man asked to talk to Julie, and she dragged me over with her. I wasn’t exactly paying attention to the conversation, but it turns out that Julie received the first marriage proposal of our trip, and I became the first honorary husband.
On Friday, we drove to Ochiso Heritage Academy, formerly Faith International. We took a short tour before meeting the kids. Some of us ended up playing a rather chaotic football (soccer) game with them.
Hope to see more from me soon,
Daniel.