Once again, the blogging computer has been in short supply, but here goes:

We’ve settled into a routine now in Ghana. We wake up and eat a relaxed breakfast of bread slices with pancakes, oatmeal, or toast in the living room. Any time between 8 and 8:30 the Heritage bus comes to pick us up and take us to school. For the first three periods of school I am in the library helping kids read. There is one boy, Michael, who I’ve been working a lot with. He is in 7th grade, but is much older than the rest of the boys in his class and can’t get through a page of Cat in the Hat without help. I have to shoo his friends away to stop them from whispering the answers in his ear, and I wonder what will happen when I’m not there.

After the reading periods, I teach my first class with Minji. Today, we gave them tape measures and as a class we used them to find out how many square inches of the 1 inch thick wood we would need to build one of their desk/tables (it’s 2143 sq in if you’re wondering). After that comes lunch. By this time the heat is getting to me and I’m starving. The food here is great and we all eat in the library while the kids run around outside with their food.

After lunch, I teach two more classes and then collapse for my end-of-the day free period. I think now is a good time to mention that during break, after lunch, and between classes, the kids rarely let us alone. The younger kids seem to have gotten over their fear of us, the “obrofo,” so the moment I walked outside I was almost overrun by a horde of kindergarteners. They’re too young to speak much English, so talking to them involves a lot of pointing, giggling and names.

There’s one girl though, Precious, who I’ve become close to. She’s eight and adorable. She knows my name, and we were both born on a Thursday so our Ghanaian day names are both Aba. She came up to me after church on Sunday and showed me her house, a small rough building of mud bricks down the road from the church. She was wearing a dress of Ghanaian fabric and I have a picture, but can’t upload it yet.

Right now four of our group have fallen asleep in the living room and I think I’ll be heading the same way soon as well. I’ll be posting again soon!

Laura