Another holiday?!

Hey everyone,

I hope that this entry finds you all well and enjoying the cool temperatures! After a month of ‘cool’ (well just in the 20s) where I actually needed a blanket at night it’s suddenly started to get HOT! On Saturday it was 42 degrees and boy did we feel it... However a colleague has assured us that it only goes up to 43 in the HOT season which is March and April… so that was kind of reassuring, but goodness me that is HHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Warm winter jumpers? Whatever do you mean?!

Speaking of Saturday, I had quite a lazy day until the afternoon when we went out to a ‘Babies Home’ in a village called Sirigu which we’ve been to a couple of times– its run by a group of Sisters (as in religious) and it cares for children up to the age of three who have been abandoned by their families. Normally they’ve been born with some sort of deformity or their Mother died during child birth meaning that their family see them as ‘Spirit children,’ i.e. that they aren’t real people and there is a history of families killing these children in the Upper East Region of Ghana. So the children are brought to the home until they are three when they are returned to their families, to varying degrees of success. However, as there aren’t enough Sisters to care for these babies they have to be accompanied by a ‘carer’ who is usually their sister or Grandmother. This means quite often that an 8/9 year old girl has been taken out of school to become the child’s carer…

We first went to visit the home back in October and it was a difficult visit to say the least – I felt really useless; what could I do? Going along and playing with the children for a little while and telling the Sisters that they were doing a great job – not much use in that… The babies seemed so small and they were all so vacant looking. It wasn't that they were looked after but just they didn't seem to have a lot going for them... However, a new Sister has just taken over and this time when we went to visit the children were a lot more lively and mischieveous, which was great to see. There've also got a few different projects that they want to do to improve the home - they want to start giving the carers lessons and they've started to build a play area. So its exciting to see the changes and be involved in a small way - we've got a few ideas but we'll see how it works out.

As for general life - we're on holiday again! We broke up from college on Saturday morning after a staff meeting at 7:30AM(!!!) followed by assembly and then the students were allwowed to leave. So I'm spending this week getting organised for next semester by starting to do some observing of students with the teaching practice co-ordinator (so I know the expected standards) and sorting out a few other bits. Chilled but its amazing how long things can take to do here! We're (Jet, Sarah, Mary and myself) then off to travel through the Volta region and end up in Accra as of Saturday so I'm really looking forward to that!

Anyway, enough waffling, take care

Sam xxx

A day in the life of…

Friday 30th January 2009

Hi everyone,

I hope this message finds you all well and happy.

So the end of January is already here – how’d that happen?! This has been the strangest January here – I mean its hot and yet the Ghanaians are complaining its colder than normal and whereas I’d normally be run off my feet busy, its really chilled here. College started back on the 12th January – well, the students were supposed to arrive then and classes on the Tuesday. As it was I hauled myself out of bed at 6am to be ready for my 7am class only to arrive at the classroom block to find it locked and the students still in their pjs! Classes actually did start the next day but that was the only ‘teaching’ week. Then it was revision week where I did a couple of classes giving students their midterm papers back and feeding back on how they could improve…blah blah blah. Now we’ve two weeks of exams - well I say ‘we’ – I’ve got two exams to invigilate and I struck lucky on the first one – ICT which is only a one hour exam, compared to three for English… Then on the 7th of February we break for end of Semester 1 break. Do I actually do any work? ‘Sometimes’ I think is probably the closest to the truth… at the moment!

Anyway, a couple of people have asked what a typical day is like in Navrongo so that’s what I’m going to waffle on about in this entry. However, it’s a story of 2 halves, because during Semester 1 my main job was to teach (more about that in a minute) whereas in Semester 2 my main job is to supervise and mentor the third year trainee teachers who are in schools on teaching practise. Now to do this job I need a MOTORBIKE and I got one this week! SO EXCITING! It’s amazing and I’m loving having it! And before you ask, yes of course I’m being careful and yes Mum, I am wearing my helmet. The amount of lectures we’re getting from everyone at the moment) It’s a black and white Yamaha DT 125 and it looks like a proper monster bike which is great as it means you can go down all the dust tracks with all the bumps and lumps without getting shaken to bits. I will try and attach a photo but that’s of course dependent on how quick the internet connection decides to be. Anyway, so when we come back from Semester 1 holidays (during which we’re off to travel through the Volta region and then down to Accra to check my liver’s still working after 6 months of anti-malarial drugs – by that I mean I’m having a liver function test at a hospital, not that I’m going on a bender – just so you know!) and then I’ll be going out to different schools and observing the third year students on their teaching practise, so watching them teach and then giving them feedback on what they can improve on, picking up on any students who are struggling and working with their mentor’s too. I’m not exactly sure how my week will look, but as the temperature begins to creep up again (we’re moving into the hot season at the end of February – we’re currently in the humutan season which is cooler but very dry and windy – there’s a constant sheet of dust covering the horizon) I imagine we’ll start early and get to schools for 7/8am and then be done when we’ve seen all the students in that school teach. It’s going to be a challenge as I’ve not done a lot of observations before, but Jennette (my housemate) and I are going to begin by doing them together as she has more experience. We went out with Joe; the teaching practise co-ordinator to observe some students last Friday and ended up seeing a snake, a bit too much of a ‘gentleman’ at the roadside and killing a chicken so I think it should be an interesting experience! I’m looking forward to it. So that’s Semester 2, we’ll probably do a few other bits and pieces as well, but we’ll have to see.

Ok, so Semester 1 - I was teaching the second year trainee teachers ‘Science methodology’ which meant I taught each of the seven classes for 2 hours a week. I was also teaching a couple of classes at the Junior High School to help me to understand what the Ghanaian educations system a little better. Then I was working with one class of younger children (Bright Stars) who don’t attend school very regularly and was working with some of the trainee teachers to give them an opportunity to plan these sessions as they don’t actually do any teaching practise until their third year.

So, a normal week looked like this:

Monday: 7:00-9:05 Class at Boscos
9:35-11:40 Class at Boscos
4:00-6:00 Staff meeting and assembly

Tuesday 7:00-9:05 Class at Boscos
11:55-2:00 Class at Boscos
3:00-4:00ish Meet students to discuss Bright Stars

Wednesday 8:00-8:35 Class at Junior High School
9:35-11:40 Class at Boscos
11:55-2:00 Class at Boscos
3:30-5:00 Bright Stars

Thursday 7:00-9:05 Class at Boscos
9:10-9:45 Class at Junior High School

Friday Nada!

So, Thursdays and Fridays were basically blank meaning I could do all my planning and marking for all the classes then so I have my evenings to myself! Well that was the plan anyway… it worked some of the time. So overall the day starts early and then finishes early too – by about 10 I was always dead on my feet.

Something else that’s been a little different is eating. The routine here is completely different with breakfast being from 9:05-9:35 and then lunch being at 2:00 which I found really strange to begin with as you’re getting up earlier than normal and yet not eating until later, but somehow it seems to work.

Right enough waffling for one day.
Take care, Sam x