Nothing too remarkable has happened since my last post, but I felt like sharing a few stories regardless. This past weekend all the volunteers in Western Region went up to Kumasi (capital of Ashanti Region) for our regional conference. There are a few more than 15 volunteers, I think, in our region. Those of us that were able to attend the meeting stayed at our Kumasi sub-office, aka KSO. It was a blast, actually. Once we had finished the necessary Peace Corps work, we got down to business - food. We made quite the spread and it was delicious. There were fajitas with pork and chicken, queso dip, guacamole, salsa, rice, beans, and jello jigglers (apparently no one else has heard this term besides me...Mom you can back me up on this one). It was a wonderful time spent with great people. I'm so happy I was placed in Western - I've met some amazing people and I'm glad to call them my colleagues!
Ambrose, the account for my LNGO and he also lives in my compound, is back from Cape Coast. He was completing his masters degree in Educational Administration at the University of Cape Coast, so congratulations to him! I am very excited to start working with him and I can tell he is very enthusiastic about his job. This will make my life a lot easier, which is always a nice thing, and I can truly tell that he puts his heart and soul into helping his community. We've already had a few discussions regarding our plans for the future and what we'd like to do in Afere, and needless to say I'm stoked. Technically PCVs aren't allowed to start any official projects during our first three months at site, so it's been a long three months and I'm ready to work! I've mostly been working on forming health clubs and teaching health lessons at the various schools and clinics.
Next week all the Health/WATSAN volunteers that came in February (that's me) have a Reconnect IST (in-service training) in Kumasi. We will learn how to write grants and apply for funding, so when we return to site we can get down to business. I've been making a list of things I'd like to do in the community, so in the next few weeks I'm going to call a community meeting and conduct a needs assessment. We'll see if my ideas line up with what the community would like. I'll keep everyone posted!
The school year has ended so there are more children than usual running around town. However, there are a few who are attending summer school, my younger sister included. I spent the morning at the school with the teachers and students and I'm glad these students are getting extra help, some of them really need it. The teacher asked one class, "Is a human being a living thing?" and the class was silent. I'm really hoping that it was because they didn't understand the English or that fact that they can't think critically, but I was still shocked. Finally one student raised their hand and yes, a human being is a living thing. I really wish the teaching style in Ghana was different. I can't imagine the students are truly learning anything. Everything is repetition, repetition, repetition. When the teachers are teaching, they ask a question, and since none of the students respond, the teacher ends up leading them and eventually just gives them the answer - that's not really learning. The students rely on being told what is what and how to think. It's sad, really.
I opened my younger sister's workbook to look at her school work and was shocked. I guess they don't reach handwriting in school. So I told her each evening we will start practicing handwriting and hopefully she'll improve. If I can at least help one student improve, hopefully they can impart their new found wisdom to others and the cycle will continue. We'll see.
Well that's all for now. This past weekend I borrowed a friends hard drive and now I have over 400 movies and TV shows, and over a 1,000 kindle books so I'm going to see what I can find to entertain me for a little while!
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| Me, M'Adowa, M'Abena |
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| Summer School |
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| M'Abena washing |
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