When I last left you, I was about to cook strudel and stuffed cabbage, both which take awhile to make. The stuffed cabbage took awhile because you have to wrap the cabbage around the meat sauce, like so.And then it was carmelized in a pan and then put in a container with cabbage and sauerkraut. And then finally, homemade meat sauce was poured over to look like this.

The strudel, on the other hand, takes awhile because you have to make the dough the night before (but you have to do that with the potato knishes, the mocha tarts, and pretty much anything that needs dough). They also turned out delicious… especially the ones I made for myself which had less walnuts and more cinnamon sugar.

Then yesterday, we made the potato knishes, brisket, and chocolate covered matzah. Potato knishes are dough with an oniony mashed potato in the middle. I came up with the idea to put cheese in with the potatoes, and everyone thought that it definitely added a new dimension to the taste, so we made all four batches with it!

The chocolate covered matzah, on the contrary, is a very quick recipe. In fact, it is so quick that it is a process full of anxiety. You have to make the caramel to the right temperature, and then pour it over the matzah very quickly before putting it in the oven for 3 minutes. And then you have to take it out on time, and then pour chocolate over before putting it back in the oven for a minute. It is very easy to mess up, and we did in fact have to throw out the first batch because the caramel waited too long before having the chocolate added. My mom usually makes four to six batches of it, but we only made two this time. My mom has making this recipe since I was six, at the oldest. It is one of our Passover favorites.

We later cut this up to make a bite-size treat! The last thing we did yesterday was make the brisket, which we just finished today. My mom’s brisket is one of the most difficult things to make because, well there is no recipe. My mom created this dish when she was trying to make a Cajun brisket out of a cookbook. But it was so bitter that my mom added brown sugar, ketchup, and pretty much anything to sweeten it up. But she figured it out and now we have this brisket (which tastes different every time) but it is always delicious.

After that, you would think we would be extremely tired, but today we made matzah ball soup, mocha mini tarts, sour cream coffee cake, and cole slaw. The mocha mini tarts are almost like a souffle, and I am excited to try them for the first time!

And the matzah ball soup isn’t yet ready!

We are cooking up a storm to have a huge dinner tonight with all the food we have been making. I am calling it a “Fader,” but I guess you can use your own term for the fake Seder. We are going to have the conglomeration of all the food with my brother, Margo (my sister), my grandparents, my grandmother’s best friend, and my mother. But it sure seems like we have enough food for 30 people. I will let you know how it goes, but we are just going through the list of food we wanted to make at such a fast rate, we will definitely finish by the time my mom and I have to go to our next destination!

Teaching has been challenging, fun, and rewarding. I never thought I would teach because I have always hated speaking in front of people. I took this trip to Ghana because I knew it would push me outside of my comfort zone. The kids at Heritage are adorable and facinated with the “Obroni” (foreigner) that are on campus. At first this was exciting and I loved to be swarmed by little kids.  After eight days it has become exhausting when I get swarmed walking from a class while the little kids are screaming “Obroni!” and fighting for my hand. I love them anyways and can’t resist hugging them and trying to communicate with them in their limited english.The fact that the kindergarden is taught under a tent makes this especially hard to control. One of my favorite things to do with the little ones is teaching them American nursery rhymes like Old McDonald and The Itsy Bitsy Spider (I will have to video tape it – it is adorable). 

My first two periods of the day are reading periods where I sit with a small group of kids and help them read a book. We learned quickly that the kids vary a lot in reading levels. To solve this the group of reader have set up a system where one person hangs back and picks out the kids that need extra help from our groups once we begin to read. The students favorite thing to read by far are the Disney Princess Story books and Junie B Jones. What we have been working on with the kids is reading comprehension. The kids are not fluent and may seem like they can read but most just sound out the words without having any idea what most of them mean.

My first class is the 6th grade in the shed and after lunch I teach J2a and J2b in the main building. I was nervous on the first day when I walked in and realized it would not be easy. The students are eager and have a lot of energy, the key is to figure out how to channel that into learning. They were excited to see us and introduce themselves, but, just like the sixth graders at home they were rowdy… jumping around, hitting eachother, and shouting. A tool that works is shouting, “If you can hear me raise your hand”. The windows and doorways are open, which makes sound travel extremely easy between classes making us have to talk in a louder than normal voice. I love how eager the kids are to learn. We have taught them grammer, poems, and are now starting on short stories and plot structure. Teaching here consists of a lot of copying and memorizing and it is hard to teach them to think forthemselves: to say write there own story or poem. I have loved teaching and even though it has been hard and discouraging at times when kids don’t get it I do feel that I have been able to teach them about creative writing and about my culture. I hope that I will be leaving here with some short stories they have written to share at home. 

My students love to write notes and everybody wants to be your penpal. Their favorite thing is to have their picture taken. They will ask in class and run up to you outside saying “snap! snap!” and all cram infront of the camera. In Ghana time is much more relaxed, us Americans call it Ghana time. Ghana time for Americans means calm down, class will start when it is ready. Periods are set times but they are just guidline, school periods start and end a bit differently eachday and people get there when they are good and ready. I have learned to be flexible and time has taken on an entirely new meaning (getting back to the Westtown schedule will be hard).

Teaching in Ghana has been amazing and has taught me so much. I love the kids and have learned a lot from them about their humility and kindness. I have loved becoming close to my students and the high school students here. Traveling into town to learn about their families, Ghanain culture, and food has been my favorite part of this trip. I love town because I get to see what my kids lives are like outside the classroom.

After over a week of crazy adventures in the wonderful city of DC, our group is departing for Westtown tomorrow. We have had many unforgettable experiences here and I have definitely gotten closer with the other students in my group. We have learned a lot about each other and have laughed a lot! From Apples to Apples, to eating out for dinner, to just walking around the city, we have had some really great times. 

One of my favorite things about bonding with this group, is what we all like to call “Tom-isms” which are things that Tom Gauger says that are totally hilarious. I kept a list of all of the funny things he said, which I’m sure if anyone else read they would not understand. It was awesome to become so close with my classmates who I was not that familiar with before.

Since the project was service oriented, we did many different service projects including working in a food bank, serving breakfast to the homeless, sorting vegetables, and helping a blind woman by building a staircase in her house. The most eye opening project we did was on the one day that it snowed. Our original plan fell through because we could not go anywhere, so we grabbed a couple shovels and went out to help out the neighborhood. Rather than doing it for free, we decided to hit two birds with one stone by going door to door asking for donations for socks to give out at Union Station. After shoveling out about a whole two blocks, many people gave us socks and money; we purchased some more socks and headed down to Union Station. When we got there we assumed it would take about 20 minutes to distribute all of the socks, but it turned out that it was harder than we thought. after about an hour and a half, witnessing an arrest, and being called angels but a few people, we had finally given out most of the socks. I walked away with mixed feelings. I was happy I had helped, but I knew that regardless of all the socks we gave away, these people were still going to be sleeping out in the cold.

Apart from service, we have also explored the tourism side of DC by going to museums and monuments. We live right down the street from the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, and the Library of Congress. On the other side of the Capitol Building is the Mall. As a group we went to the Holocaust Museum, and some of us went the the Art Museum and the Air and Space Museum. A few of us went into Georgetown, some went to Arlington National Cemetery, and some saw the outside of the White House. We also ate at many restaurants around the city including Ben’s Chili Bowl which is a historical establishment, Shake Shack, We the Pizza, and District Taco. (The only thing we were missing was a Wawa.)

After many days of fun and service, we are all quite ready to pack up and take the train back home. It was an experience none of us will forget.