Introducing Samanta Cashwoman!

Written on Sunday 5th October - Had a few internet/blogspot problems this week...

Hello one and all,

I hope that you’re all well and had a great weekend. Thank you to everyone who has been e-mailing me with news from home – it is always great to hear how you are getting on!

So, it’s actually been quite a chilled week considering it was the first week of college… teaching in the UK this is not! The first and second year students arrived on Monday and then we promptly had a public holiday on Tuesday because it was Eid (approximately 20% of the Ghanaian population are Muslim; although I work in a Catholic College). Wednesday I then actually had to do some work, well… hmm… let’s just say I attended a start of semester staff meeting and it went on for quite a while - 6½ hours with one 10 minute break! However, we were then duly rewarded with an amazing meal at the end of it AND there was actually meat on the bits of chicken! In fact that’s a point Ghanaian food is pretty good, well bits of it are – red red is great – rice with a spicy tomato sauce and jollof rice is yummy too. (Actually that’s a good point I’ll have to do a proper paragraph about food at some point!)

Thursday was then the opening ceremony for the first years where all the staff were introduced and I was given my new name! Like I mentioned last week the Ghanaians find calling me Sam very strange so I’ve reverted back to Samantha except they pronounce it as Samanta which is fine with me, but then when the Vice Principal introduced me he also decided to change my surname. It went something like this: “This is Samanta Cashman but as her father isn’t near by we’ll call her Samanta Cashwoman.” That was once again greeted with much hilarity – Ghanaians DO laugh at absolutely everything, but to be fair it was amusing. So there you go my new Ghanaian name! We were then done by 9:30 that morning and I didn’t have any other meetings etc to attend so I spent the rest of the week working on planning for my classes which might start on Tuesday (7th October), general living stuff (hand washing, sweeping, shopping at the market, collecting water from the borehole…) and collapsing – it is SO hot here! I have no idea how I’m going to cope in March/April; apparently it goes up into the 50°s…

Ooh, ooh - went for an interesting meeting on Friday afternoon actually! One of the projects that I’m going to be involved in is ‘Bright Stars’ which is afternoon classes for children who miss a lot of school because they have to work on market day and the like. However, for us to run it we first have to visit the Chief of the area and ask his permission! So I met a real live Chief on Friday and he was absolutely lovely – really kind and very down to earth; he wore normal clothes, spoke to us in English and we didn’t even have to bow or take our shoes off… Classes are on a Wednesday and Thursday afternoon from 3:30-5:00 and they start this week (wk commencing 6th October) so it’s going to be ALL GO – no idea how I’m going to cope!

In terms of actual college classes, we have orientation for new staff/interns on Monday (6th October) Yes – after term has started and the students have arrived! TIA. Then I’ll teach my first class to college aged students on Tuesday – exciting! (Slightly nervous too – I’m normally taller than my students and there’s NO chance of that now! ) As I mentioned earlier I spent some of last week planning and I’m really looking forward to getting started – the syllabus is pretty good and I can already see lots of ways that I can adapt and change it to suit me and my style of teaching. It’s very exciting as well because for the first time ever I’m going to have the opportunity to repeat lessons. (I’ll have a certain amount of groups who I teach the same module to.) Now I know that probably sounds really boring but actually I’m really looking forward to being able to evaluate how a lesson’s gone and think of improvements etc and then try it out the next day. (Normally I’d have to wait a whole year to do that with primary teaching - lots of time to forget…) However, the timetable’s still not finalised so I have no idea when/where I’m teaching, but hey – no problem. I’m learning to be a little more flexible which can be no bad thing.

I can’t believe how much I’ve written - so much to tell I suppose! However I think a page and a half has got to be enough for one week  Think I’m going to keep updating my blog weekly whilst I’m settling in and there’s new stuff to tell you; then I’ll cut down once it all gets mundane! If you have any queries you’d like to ask just e-mail me and I’ll try and include it in next week’s blog. (But before you ask – I can’t upload photographs… I’ve tried and the internet is just to slow to even bother here – sorry!)

Much love, Sam xxx