Happy Birthday Nico!

Posted on August 23, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

Today was SO much better than yesterday, thank goodness. It’s Nico’s birthday (!!!), so we had a day of fun planned to celebrate.

It obviously started off with the usual early trip to the farm. Want to guess what the activity was today? You got it – more hoeing! That wasn’t very exciting, but do you know what is? OUR PLANTS ARE GROWING!!! Yay!! I am really not a plant person, so the fact that any plants I’ve come in contact with are actually surviving is thrilling.

We sang happy birthday to Nico at breakfast and presented him with a semi-squished cake that we bought at the mall on Sunday. After two tro tro rides and a couple of days in the fridge, I’m impressed that it survived (though only barely).

School actually went well too! I was happy to be back in the P3/P4 classroom and to have another person teaching with me. Having a co-teacher makes the days way easier, and I didn’t realize just how much easier until yesterday when I had to control the kids and prep and explain everything by myself.

We talked about pronouns in English (very exciting, I know) and did more times table practice in Math. We also went over measuring distances with rulers, and the kids did NOT seem to get it. According to their textbooks, they supposedly learned it 2 years ago…? I did a quick review because I assumed that they already knew it, but everyone was staring back at me with blank expressions on their faces. I think we’re going to have to start from the beginning tomorrow.

Maria, Fernanda, Avy, Amber, me, and Nico by the river

After school was lunch, and after lunch we went to a hotel in a nearby town, Atimpoku. Supposedly they sometimes have functional wifi, but today was not one of those days. That’s okay. We all got drinks, sat by Volta River, and just hung out. We were only about 30 minutes away from the house, but it felt like we were in paradise. No kids, flush toilets, and fake Oreos (they’re decent fakes though) that Avy brought. Does it get any better than that?

We came home in time for dinner and afterwards headed to the soccer field by our house to stargaze. Today is the first day since we got here that the sky isn’t completely cloudy, and we wanted to take advantage. As you might guess, there aren’t a lot of lights here, so the sky is ideal for looking at stars. It was another one of those nights where I had that feeling of total contentment. It doesn’t get much better than laying in a field and staring at the night sky with a bunch of your friends.

It’s pretty late, so I should get to bed if I want to be able to wake up for the farm tomorrow. But yeah, today was a great day.

A Bad Case of the Mondays

Posted on August 22, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

Getting back into the groove today was rough. When my alarm went off at 5AM, I wanted to cry. I was hoping for another seed planting day at the farm, but no such luck. Amber and Nico planted the rest of the seeds, and Maria and I watered the seeds we planted Thursday and finished hoeing the weeds out of the eggplant field that we started working on last Wednesday. Definitely not my favorite activity. It’s pretty hard on your back, and the stupid chickens at the farm follow you around while you’re trying to work and do their best to get in the way. I’ve started to just continue working as I would if they weren’t there, and if a chicken loses its head, it’s not my problem (yes, I realize it kind of actually would be my problem, but I’m choosing to ignore that). I’m adding “catch a chicken with my bare hands” to my list of goals for my time here.

Maria, trying not to fall into the water hole while filling up a watering can (don’t worry, this isn’t where we get the water for our showers)

The day didn’t get much better from there. Fernanda is still feeling sick, so I took over her class for the day (P5 and P6, aka 5th and 6th grade). I was just getting comfortable with our kids, and having to adjust to a new group was a bit of a challenge. She helped me with the prep work which was good, but the kids were hard to control and it didn’t help that I don’t know most of their names. For the elective, I tried to put them into groups to construct paper towers and compete to build the tallest one, and it was a disaster. They kept switching groups and trying to get me to tell them how to build their towers. In the end, two out of the three groups had good attempts, and the third turned in a stack of papers.

The winning tower, complete with a door and a roof (because all of the kids wanted to build houses instead of towers, and I said fine as long as it’s a tall house)

By the time school ended, I was ready to have some time away from the kids. I’m still not feeling great, so I took a nap for a few hours and woke up just in time for dinner. I’ve been in a bit of a daze since then. I think I just need to get to bed early tonight and try to sleep off the rest of whatever I have.I should go prep for class tomorrow so I can get some sleep. Good night!

A Perfect Day!

Posted on August 19, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

If there’s such a thing as a perfect day, today might have been it. One aspect of my time here that I really haven’t talked about yet is the other volunteers. People are here from all over the world, and getting to know them has been a lot of fun. I’m constantly amazed by how well we can relate to one another even when we come from such different places. I also feel like I’ve known them all for much longer than 5 days… Just seeing that number is kind of throwing me off. But when you live and work together, friendships develop much faster than in normal life, and the group dynamic right now is incredibly good.

A few people left this week, but I want to briefly mention the ones who are sticking around so that I can refer to them by name. Two volunteers were already in the house when we got there, Avy (Hong Kong) and Fernanda (Mexico). They both played big roles in getting the summer school going and are awesome with the kids. Amber (Belgium), Maria (Portugal), and Nicolas (France) started at the same time as I did, and they all work at the farm with me in the mornings. Nicolas and I are teaching buddies, and Maria and I have been running together. Amber is helping at the medical clinic.

They’re all absolutely hilarious, and we also work well together which is a huge blessing. People share ideas and help each other, and we can be far more effective in helping the kids because of that.

Anyway, back to business. At the farm this morning, Nicolas showed us how to plant some seeds that he brought from France. We spent a couple hours making “nests” for the seeds- digging a hole and loosening the dirt inside of it to make it easier for the new plants to break through and grow roots. It wasn’t as labor intensive as the other days which was a welcome break.

Then, school went so well!! We’ve been working on coming up with more fun ways of teaching the kids. We did the hokey pokey to help teach them about nouns, adjectives, and verbs in English class and did some activities with shapes in Math. The kids were so good and I think they had fun and learned a thing or two.

After class, Maria had face paint that she used to give them some war paint, and they absolutely loved it. Seeing them get excited about such “little” things definitely makes you stop and think. Something may seem small to you, but you don’t know how it looks to someone else. In my mind, it was so simple, but for those kids, that was a big thing. It makes me rethink my previous ideas about not being able to make a real difference in such a small time. I think that you have to live as if your every action will have some lasting impact on the people around you, and whether it’s positive or negative is up to you.

Some of the kids showing off their war paint

The rest of the day was spent hanging out, watching the Frankadua soccer team play against a neighboring town, and after dark, having a farewell bonfire for the volunteers who are leaving this weekend. A bunch of the kids and locals came too, and the night was filled with Ghanaian music and dancing and good conversations.

This weekend, we’re headed to Cape Coast to do some touristing. I should go pack before it gets much later! So much for getting to bed early… (it’s almost midnight)

Juapong

Posted on August 17, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

The days here feel so incredibly long. When I think about working at the farm this morning, I’m blown away by the fact that that was today. I know it’s going to happen, but it’s hard to believe that 3 months are going to fly by when each day feels like a week. I think that it’s just because we do so much every day that it seems like it all shouldn’t be able to fit in 24 hours.

This morning at the farm, we helped to clear weeds in one of the fields by using hoes to slice the tops off. It was exhausting, but I was just happy that we weren’t using the machetes again so my hands have time to heal.

We also learned a little more about the locals who work at the farm. They also have farms of their own to take care of, so they spend hours working at the orphanage farm and then go home and rest by working at their farms too. I don’t know how they do it. An hour and a half each morning is more than enough for me.

School was rough. I’m still excited to work with the kids, but it’s so hard trying to reach a class with such diversity of skill levels. We did a writing exercise in English class, and some kids were great while others could barely put together a sentence. Where do we go from here? I find myself constantly trying to think of ways to engage them while also teaching them. I’m determined to figure this out.

We spent the afternoon at the market in Juapong, a town about 20 minutes south of Frankadua. It was great! We’re really not living in a tourist area, so practically everyone we encounter is Ghanaian. Going to the market made me feel like we’re really becoming part of the community, especially since, for the most part, no one gave us weird looks for being there. It’s nice to already feel that sense of belonging.

A couple of market shots. These aren’t great, so I’ll try to take better ones next time we go

I also experienced my first tro tro ride on the way to the market and back! A HUGE mode of transportation in Ghana is a bunch of privately owned minibuses that drive back and forth along set routes, called tro tros. They’ll pick you up from wherever along the route and will stop wherever you’re getting off. They can also get quite crowded… I’ve had multiple friends tell me about times when they had to hold random children on their laps due to the space. We got to the market for about 1.70 cedis each (the exchange rate to US is around 3.8:1). I still don’t totally understand how their routes work, but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it soon enough.

Okay, I need to go to sleep ASAP. Tomorrow is going to be such a mess. So. Tired. I need to start sleeping more! Good night!!!

Machete Monday

Posted on August 16, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

(I know it’s Tuesday but let’s just pretend because Machete Tuesday isn’t catchy.)

WOOO!!! I survived my first day!! Both mentally AND physically (which are both things I was slightly concerned about). This morning was brutal though. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep for at least a week now, and the 5AM wake up call was not exactly what I needed. We had to be ready to go to the farm by 5:30, so I pulled my stuff together, attempted to wash my face using a bucket, and inhaled a granola bar before Joe and John, two of the Ghanaians that run the farm, came by to pick us up.

The walk to the farm! This is what 5:45AM looks like

Some brief background info on the farm – it was started when they realized that one of the nearby orphanages never got fresh food. Now, half of the food is donated directly to the orphanage, and the other half is sold to buy seeds and fertilizer and other things required to keep the farm running.

The walk there was nice and gave us some time to wake up. It’s probably 15 minutes from the volunteer house, and part of it involves walking through water about 8” deep. I was happy to have rain boots (aka gum boots) to keep my feet dry. I had no idea what we were going to be doing, so when we got there and they handed each of us a machete, I was pretty pumped. We got to help clear one of the old corn fields to get it ready for a new planting by chopping the dead corn stalks at the base with the machetes. Believe me when I say that there’s nothing more satisfying than whacking a stalk and seeing it fall without even putting up a fight. Yay manual labor!

I wish I had gotten a before picture, but this is the field after we wreaked havoc

I felt quite accomplished by the time we finished clearing the field, but I didn’t even think about what the work would do to my hands. Talk about blisters! It’s okay… a couple days of sucking it up, and I’ll have the calluses I need to support my natural machete skills.

Once we finished at the farm, we headed back to the house for breakfast and to do last minute preparation for class. My teacher partner, Nicolas, and I were basically winging it for the first day just to get a reference of where the kids are skill-wise. We have P3 and P4 levels, and I think the kids are about 9-12 years old, maybe a bit younger. In English class, we had each of them introduce their partner to the group. For the rest of the time, we picked different letters of the alphabet and each kid wrote a word on the board that started with that letter.

I felt much more at ease in Math class. I put up some addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division questions and we gave the kids time to work on their own before coming back together to go over them. The biggest struggle was times tables, so we’re going to try to help them memorize those by the time school starts.

Just to give you an idea of the landscape here, this is a view of one of the houses/yards near where we live

We had the rest of the day after that to prepare for school tomorrow and relax. I went for a [slow and painful] run with one of the other girls and made some plans for classes. I’m feeling really excited and encouraged by the kids and our experience today. They’re all so well behaved and eager to learn! It makes me happy to teach them.

I also survived my first bucket shower experience. It really wasn’t as big of a deal as I expected. I can totally do this for three months, no problem. I feel like I’m living so sustainably now. There’s no running water for anything, and I only used about 2-3 gallons for my shower.

Anyway, it’s very late (almost 11PM) and I have another very early morning tomorrow. Hopefully it’s not another machete day! My hands need a change of pace.