Well, this is our third week in Ghana and I definitely feel like I am starting to get a hang of things. I definitely have a routine during the week which is nice. This is how my day goes during the week:
6:00 - Wake up and get ready for school
6:45- Leave for school, find a Tro-Tro (public transportation) to get me to school
8:30 - Arrive at school ... yes it takes almost 2 hours in a hot, sweaty, cramped van to get to school.
12:45 - Done teaching (I usually teach 2 classes per day)
Afternoon - I go to Osu most afternoons which is where the internet cafe is located as well as some good shopping
6:00- Dinner time
9:30 - Bed time!
It's so annoying to start your day with a 2 hour ride but I really shouldn't complain! Most of the kids in the school wake up around 4:00 to finish their chores at home before arriving at school for 6:30 where there are more chores waiting for them. In addtion to that, the kids hardly eat all day, if at all. The Ghanian people are THE most hardworking people I have ever encountered!!!! I think I would DIE if I had to complete all the tasks they complete in a day, especially in 30+ degree weather.
Today Kelli and I witnessed a teacher hitting the children with her stick. A few of the girls cried after it happened (it looked like it hurt) and it was really hard to watch. They were hit because they did not do their assignment properly. I am glad that we do not have this sort of punishment in the Canadian schools anymore as I can see that it would definitely do more harm than good.
Well! I have to sign off for now. Kelli and I are working on a "First Aid Seminar" that we are teaching to the school next week. In total, we will be teaching over 400 students about First Aid so we are trying to develop a good way to do it!
Bye for now!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
I am a Teacher!
Well!
Today we were allowed to teach!! Kelli and I taught a grade 9 English class. We taught them all about the internet. The class went really well and the children seemed to be quite attentive. I am glad we are at a Junior High School as there are some other volunteers here who are working at an Elementry School and they say that the teachers beat the crap out of the younger kids when they misbehave. Apparently the teachers are quite cruel to the younger kids!!
The volunteers at the Elementary School were also telling us that there is this one kid in their class that definitely seems to have some learning disabilities and apparently he looks like he is "slow" (from my understanding he has a very oddly shaped head and his eyes don't seem to look in the same direction).. but anyways, they were telling Kelli and I today that the teacher of the class called this boy to the front of the classroom and started to make fun of him in front of the other kids, calling the boy "stupid" and "ugly" and even pointing at his head and saying "look how big it is!!"- which in turn, of course, made the other kids "join in" on the fun and the kids then proceeded to laugh at him! That story made me SO sad!! What's even worse is that the volunteers who were telling us this thought the story was kind of funny!! That makes me sick to my stomach!! I want to go and steal this boy from his classroom and put him in my class and show this boy some love!
Tomorrow afternoon (Thursday) we (all of the volunteers) are leaving for the weekend to go to a small village called Ada Foah. It is located right where the Volta River meets the Ocean and apparently it is amazing! We will be sleeping in little huts on the beach and I can't wait.
I won't have internet access until Monday, so I will "talk" to you then!
Bye Bye
Today we were allowed to teach!! Kelli and I taught a grade 9 English class. We taught them all about the internet. The class went really well and the children seemed to be quite attentive. I am glad we are at a Junior High School as there are some other volunteers here who are working at an Elementry School and they say that the teachers beat the crap out of the younger kids when they misbehave. Apparently the teachers are quite cruel to the younger kids!!
The volunteers at the Elementary School were also telling us that there is this one kid in their class that definitely seems to have some learning disabilities and apparently he looks like he is "slow" (from my understanding he has a very oddly shaped head and his eyes don't seem to look in the same direction).. but anyways, they were telling Kelli and I today that the teacher of the class called this boy to the front of the classroom and started to make fun of him in front of the other kids, calling the boy "stupid" and "ugly" and even pointing at his head and saying "look how big it is!!"- which in turn, of course, made the other kids "join in" on the fun and the kids then proceeded to laugh at him! That story made me SO sad!! What's even worse is that the volunteers who were telling us this thought the story was kind of funny!! That makes me sick to my stomach!! I want to go and steal this boy from his classroom and put him in my class and show this boy some love!
Tomorrow afternoon (Thursday) we (all of the volunteers) are leaving for the weekend to go to a small village called Ada Foah. It is located right where the Volta River meets the Ocean and apparently it is amazing! We will be sleeping in little huts on the beach and I can't wait.
I won't have internet access until Monday, so I will "talk" to you then!
Bye Bye
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
School
Well!
So far we have had 2 days of school. The school we teach at is called "Osu Home JHS" and there are about 300 kids that attend the Jr High School. Yesterday consisted of us three (Kelli, myself and this other girl named Danielle) being introduced to all of the classes. On our way out of one of the classes, someone threw two rocks at me! I can't believe that I got rocks thrown at me on my first day of school!!!!! Hahaha... I am not sure if it was meant as something mean or if it was more to get my attention but either way we all got a good laugh out of it.
The rest of our day yesterday was spent marking essays on "why cheating is bad" I guess quite a few of the kids were caught cheating on their end of term exams last year so they all had to come up with reasons as to why it was a bad idea to cheat! Some of the essays were very good while others were not good at all (they were in English just in case you were wondering). It was hard to assign a mark to the essays as we were not given any "perameters" as far as what the marking criteria was. Some of the kids seem very proficient in their written English and the essays were nice to read!
Today we did a bit more marking (today's marking was easier as we just had to mark things as right or wrong - grammar!). We also were allowed to go watch a soccer game (this week they have inter school sports competitions). I think that this week will consist of more marking and observing the classes and hopefully next week we can start teaching our own classes. The headmaster seemed interested in having Kelli and I teach a "First Aid" seminar as we are both have our certification. The other girl who is with us (also named Danielle) is a lawyer (and has an MBA) and I believe she is preparing a presentation for the government on how to build your own business!
Things at the house are going pretty well. I think I will have my own room as of tonight! Woo hoo!!!
This weekend we are taking a tro-tro (bus) to a little village named Ada Foah. It is located where the big river in Ghana (Volta River) meets the Ocean. Apparently they have lots of weekend activties such as bon fires and other "cultural" things going on so all of us (I believe 10 of us all together) are going there for the weekend! It should be fun!
Well, I will be sure to update again soon!!
Bye for now, Danielle
So far we have had 2 days of school. The school we teach at is called "Osu Home JHS" and there are about 300 kids that attend the Jr High School. Yesterday consisted of us three (Kelli, myself and this other girl named Danielle) being introduced to all of the classes. On our way out of one of the classes, someone threw two rocks at me! I can't believe that I got rocks thrown at me on my first day of school!!!!! Hahaha... I am not sure if it was meant as something mean or if it was more to get my attention but either way we all got a good laugh out of it.
The rest of our day yesterday was spent marking essays on "why cheating is bad" I guess quite a few of the kids were caught cheating on their end of term exams last year so they all had to come up with reasons as to why it was a bad idea to cheat! Some of the essays were very good while others were not good at all (they were in English just in case you were wondering). It was hard to assign a mark to the essays as we were not given any "perameters" as far as what the marking criteria was. Some of the kids seem very proficient in their written English and the essays were nice to read!
Today we did a bit more marking (today's marking was easier as we just had to mark things as right or wrong - grammar!). We also were allowed to go watch a soccer game (this week they have inter school sports competitions). I think that this week will consist of more marking and observing the classes and hopefully next week we can start teaching our own classes. The headmaster seemed interested in having Kelli and I teach a "First Aid" seminar as we are both have our certification. The other girl who is with us (also named Danielle) is a lawyer (and has an MBA) and I believe she is preparing a presentation for the government on how to build your own business!
Things at the house are going pretty well. I think I will have my own room as of tonight! Woo hoo!!!
This weekend we are taking a tro-tro (bus) to a little village named Ada Foah. It is located where the big river in Ghana (Volta River) meets the Ocean. Apparently they have lots of weekend activties such as bon fires and other "cultural" things going on so all of us (I believe 10 of us all together) are going there for the weekend! It should be fun!
Well, I will be sure to update again soon!!
Bye for now, Danielle
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Ghana!
Well, I definitely have been slacking on the blog updates! I blame it on the lack of internet access!
But yes, we have arrived in Ghana and so far I love it.
We arrived on Friday, October 2nd and have had our "orientation" for this past week. Tomorrow we will start our placement.
Just an update on my placement for everyone, I am now placed at a jr. high school in a district of Accra called "Labodi". I am placed with my friend, Kelli and another girl that is part of the program. (Her name is also Danielle!). We have no idea what subjects we will be teaching or any details as of yet. We were told that it would be great if we could set up an after school sports program so we are really excited to possibly start that!
But yes! We definitely love it here. The people are SO friendly. They are so amazed to see white people! The little kids will run after us when we are outside in our yard and scream "Obruni!" (which means white person!). There is definitely a lot of poverty here but despite that, the local people are still so friendly and so eager to help us, especially when we need directions if we are lots. The locals here speak Twi but most of them also do speak English (English IS the offical language of the Country but there are over 25 tribal languages spoken by people across Ghana).
We were taught a little bit of Twi this past week, such as saying hello and asking how a person is. The locals think it is hilarious when us white people speak in Twi. For example, there are A LOT of people selling things on the streets and a girl came up to me and asked if I wanted to buy some water and I said "Dabbi Medaase" which means "No Thank You"... she started laughing SO hard and had to tell all her friends that were around her that "the Obruni spoke Twi". I think they really appriciate it when we attempt to speak their local language and of course, it adds some humour in their days!
We are staying in a part of Accra called Kaneshi. The house we are staying in has a lot of rooms (Id estimate at least 10). Right now, I am staying with Kelli and her sister Tessa but I think I will get my own room soon (which I would be so excited about if it did happen!). We have a cook that meals us our 3 meals a day Monday-Saturday. On Sundays, like today, we are provided with the materials to make our own meals but we have to prepare them as the cook needs a day off. The two people who live with us who work for Volunteer Abroad are amazing. One of them is named Poppo and is from the Ashanti tribe (northern ghana). He's worked for Volunteer Abroad for about 2 years and is extremely helpful to us newcomers. The other Volunteer Abroad person is a Canadian (from Saskatoon) and is also extremely helpful! His name is Kyle and he was a volunteer here in early 2008 and apparently loved it so much that he came back to work here!
The little area we live in seems like its own little village. There are miniture goats running around the streets and lots of little boys playing soccer. There is an elementry school to one side of us and across the street there is a church. The church does not have any walls (it looks like an unfinished builiding) and they are SOOOOOOOO loud!!! I get woken up everymorning at 6am because thats when they start their "worship" service. The church is pretty much active from 6 am to 10 or 11pm EVERYDAY. Its slightly annoying at times but I think I will definitely miss it when I leave!
Last night we got invited to our cook's boyfriend's boss' house. He lives in a MANSION!!!! I could not believe how big the houses were in the area that we were in last night. Definitely bigger than any house if I have seen in Edmonton, Kelli and I could not believe how huge these houses were. So I guess not everyone in Africa is poor... hmm!
I feel a little overwhelmed right now trying to fit this last week all into my blog. There are just so many amazng things we have seen and experienced so far!
I will definitely try to come back to the internet cafe tomorrow and write about my first day at Jr High! (Its a half hour "trotro" ride to get to the internet cafe here!).
Bye for now!!!
Danielle
But yes, we have arrived in Ghana and so far I love it.
We arrived on Friday, October 2nd and have had our "orientation" for this past week. Tomorrow we will start our placement.
Just an update on my placement for everyone, I am now placed at a jr. high school in a district of Accra called "Labodi". I am placed with my friend, Kelli and another girl that is part of the program. (Her name is also Danielle!). We have no idea what subjects we will be teaching or any details as of yet. We were told that it would be great if we could set up an after school sports program so we are really excited to possibly start that!
But yes! We definitely love it here. The people are SO friendly. They are so amazed to see white people! The little kids will run after us when we are outside in our yard and scream "Obruni!" (which means white person!). There is definitely a lot of poverty here but despite that, the local people are still so friendly and so eager to help us, especially when we need directions if we are lots. The locals here speak Twi but most of them also do speak English (English IS the offical language of the Country but there are over 25 tribal languages spoken by people across Ghana).
We were taught a little bit of Twi this past week, such as saying hello and asking how a person is. The locals think it is hilarious when us white people speak in Twi. For example, there are A LOT of people selling things on the streets and a girl came up to me and asked if I wanted to buy some water and I said "Dabbi Medaase" which means "No Thank You"... she started laughing SO hard and had to tell all her friends that were around her that "the Obruni spoke Twi". I think they really appriciate it when we attempt to speak their local language and of course, it adds some humour in their days!
We are staying in a part of Accra called Kaneshi. The house we are staying in has a lot of rooms (Id estimate at least 10). Right now, I am staying with Kelli and her sister Tessa but I think I will get my own room soon (which I would be so excited about if it did happen!). We have a cook that meals us our 3 meals a day Monday-Saturday. On Sundays, like today, we are provided with the materials to make our own meals but we have to prepare them as the cook needs a day off. The two people who live with us who work for Volunteer Abroad are amazing. One of them is named Poppo and is from the Ashanti tribe (northern ghana). He's worked for Volunteer Abroad for about 2 years and is extremely helpful to us newcomers. The other Volunteer Abroad person is a Canadian (from Saskatoon) and is also extremely helpful! His name is Kyle and he was a volunteer here in early 2008 and apparently loved it so much that he came back to work here!
The little area we live in seems like its own little village. There are miniture goats running around the streets and lots of little boys playing soccer. There is an elementry school to one side of us and across the street there is a church. The church does not have any walls (it looks like an unfinished builiding) and they are SOOOOOOOO loud!!! I get woken up everymorning at 6am because thats when they start their "worship" service. The church is pretty much active from 6 am to 10 or 11pm EVERYDAY. Its slightly annoying at times but I think I will definitely miss it when I leave!
Last night we got invited to our cook's boyfriend's boss' house. He lives in a MANSION!!!! I could not believe how big the houses were in the area that we were in last night. Definitely bigger than any house if I have seen in Edmonton, Kelli and I could not believe how huge these houses were. So I guess not everyone in Africa is poor... hmm!
I feel a little overwhelmed right now trying to fit this last week all into my blog. There are just so many amazng things we have seen and experienced so far!
I will definitely try to come back to the internet cafe tomorrow and write about my first day at Jr High! (Its a half hour "trotro" ride to get to the internet cafe here!).
Bye for now!!!
Danielle
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Budapest
Well.. unlike Prague, we didnt not enjoy Budapest as much! We found the people to either be very rude or very nice (nothing in between!). When we first arrived in Budapest it was close to 11pm and we were having trouble finding an ATM that worked with our bank cards or even an money exchange place. So, we ventured into the underground metro area and were stopped by 4 of these 'ticket checkers' who rudely asked to see our tickets. Of course, we didnt not have tickets as we didnt even know that we were in the actual underground area. The 'train trolls' ... as we called them.. were very rude and intimidating and tried to fine us 6000 forinths (about 25€) as we did not have tickets. We tried to explain to them that we were not even aware we were in the underground system but they wouldnt hear it and kept telling us that they were calling the police and we would be in huge trouble! Thankfully, as we were waiting for the 'police' we were approached by 3 girls who were from Seattle that currently live in Budapest and they told us that the train trolls were notorious for picking on tourists and scaring them into paying the fee (but in reality, if you havent actually rode the underground yet, they cant ticket you). The girls instructed us to just take our bags and leave as the train trolls would only try to stop us by standing in front of us and they couldnt actually physically stop us. However, by this time, Tessa and Corey had been escorted by one of the train trolls up to use an ATM to get money so we could pay our fine. THANKFULLY our ATM cards did not work at the ATM they went to and in the end, the train trolls just let us go. Definitely not a first good impression!
We also found that a lot of the service people would act like they were inconvienced to help us even in the resturants.
The only super great thing we did while in Budapest was a cave tour. Theyre are a lot of caves underneath the city of Budapest and wow it was so amazing. We thought we were just going through a walk of the caves but we were extremely surprised that we were actually crawling through small spaces and climbing up sides of the caves. There were some spaces that you had to oddly contort yourself to make it to the other side. It was defintely very fun!
Overall, the things to see in Budapest were awesome but we felt like we were an inconvience to the service staff pretty much everytime we ate out and the metro system is definitely not traveler friendly. I probably wouldnt go back to Budapest anytime soon!
We also found that a lot of the service people would act like they were inconvienced to help us even in the resturants.
The only super great thing we did while in Budapest was a cave tour. Theyre are a lot of caves underneath the city of Budapest and wow it was so amazing. We thought we were just going through a walk of the caves but we were extremely surprised that we were actually crawling through small spaces and climbing up sides of the caves. There were some spaces that you had to oddly contort yourself to make it to the other side. It was defintely very fun!
Overall, the things to see in Budapest were awesome but we felt like we were an inconvience to the service staff pretty much everytime we ate out and the metro system is definitely not traveler friendly. I probably wouldnt go back to Budapest anytime soon!
Prague
Well! I am a little behind in the blogs but I will try to get caught up today.
We definitely love Prague a lot. It is a very clean city and our hostel was awesome.
We spent most of our time hanging out in the hostel (during the evenings) and during the day we took the trams to the 'old square' and saw some very cool castles and churches.
We met a lot of people in our hostel from many different parts of the world. In particular, two Australian guys that all four of us seemed to get a long with really well. We were going to try and meet up with them again in Budapest but that didnt work out as they went to Austria from Prague and that is where we had just come from.
It is super cheap to eat in Prague. You could have an appitizer, a main course plus a few beers for less than 8€. We found this Vegitarian resturant where we ate at twice because it was so good! I never thought that I would enjoy Vegitarian cusine but its actually quite good.
Overall, I would definitely recommend for anyone to come visit Prague. I felt safe the whole time and we never ran into any issues!
We definitely love Prague a lot. It is a very clean city and our hostel was awesome.
We spent most of our time hanging out in the hostel (during the evenings) and during the day we took the trams to the 'old square' and saw some very cool castles and churches.
We met a lot of people in our hostel from many different parts of the world. In particular, two Australian guys that all four of us seemed to get a long with really well. We were going to try and meet up with them again in Budapest but that didnt work out as they went to Austria from Prague and that is where we had just come from.
It is super cheap to eat in Prague. You could have an appitizer, a main course plus a few beers for less than 8€. We found this Vegitarian resturant where we ate at twice because it was so good! I never thought that I would enjoy Vegitarian cusine but its actually quite good.
Overall, I would definitely recommend for anyone to come visit Prague. I felt safe the whole time and we never ran into any issues!
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