Madam Emma and Sir David

-          “Good morning Madam Sarah, Madam Emma, and Sir David”

-          “Good morning class! How are you?”

-          “We are fine, thannnk you. Aaaand you?”

-          “We are also fine, you may all sit down.”

This was the introduction that Emma and Dad got as they walked into my Class 4 in the morning of their first full day with me. The experience of the whole class standing up to greet me when I walk into the room still amazes me, and it’s so fun to have my dad and sister see what my life here is like.

During the first few days they unintentionally turned into teachers. If you ask my dad about his trip I’ll bet you anything the first thing he’ll say is that he was volunteering as a French teacher…! It worked out well as when I was supposed to be teaching 3 classes at once I could get each of them to take over a class for me! By the way, not a single teacher or anyone else questioned why they were here, why they were teaching, or how long they would be here for! And all the kids LOVED having more obrunis visiting.

The classesthat the 3 of us were all in at once have varied from extremely productive to the craziest, most out-of-control-but-still-very-fun classes that I’ve ever seen. With math it’s helpful to have other people help the kids individually as needed and mark work. Plus, when it’s an actual lesson on the board the kids are actually well behaved.

Unlike, oh, I don’t know, Creative Arts. Our new theory is that the more obrunis in the class the more out of control they get. We decided to play “Drawing Clubs” which is a 4 team competitive pictionary game. Literally, it was kids screaming, standing on desks, etc. But all in a positive, enthusiastic manner!! Quite fun, despite every teacher in the school popping their head in the door to see what all the noise was about…

I loved watching Emma and Dad teach. Dad read the Machu Pichu book to all of my classes, and in a second I went from being a teacher to being my 5 year old self listening to my dads bedtime stories. Thanks to the setting of the book, all of my students now all know the Quetcha (Peruvian language) greeting of “Don’t steal, don’t lie, and don’t be lazy”. They also know how to say it in Quetcha, it’s quite impressive! Another hit was the inflatable globe to have mini geography quizzes of finding countries. It’s amazing how many African countries, that most people in our society have never even heard of, they can place on the map!

Sir David hard at work

On Friday the 3 of us went to Busua Beach for the weekend. We took a tro-tro to get there and the journey proved that every tro-tro ride is eventful. A man asks Emma if his friend can sit next to her- perfectly normal- and then adds “With his TV?” Sure enough, the guy with his massive (not flatscreen I might add) TV on his lap were next to Emma for the whole ride. We all joked about which show was going to be on for the ride. J

We arrived at the Busua Inn, and had a lovely dinner overlooking the ocean. The next day was spent relaxing on the beach, wanderingthrough the small town, and drinking delicious homemade juice. We had lunch at Daniels Pancakes, which in the guidebook makesit seem like the most westernized place ever. Could not be farther from the truth. We head to where the sign says it is, and a kid points to a house and tells us it’s there. We wander over, and a young kid grabs plastic chairs and puts them on the veranda for us, followed by a table and table cloth. He brings us handwritten menus, and lets us know that Daniel is on his way. And we had the most delicious pancakes ever, in the most local setting I’ve ever had at a restaurant! (Well, “restaurant”J )

After lunch Em and I did a surf lesson with a german volunteering at a hospital in Kumasi, and 2 canadian volunteer coordinators for Free The Children. It further proved that pretty much every white person here is here volunteering! I still suck at surfing, but it was very fun!

We had dinner by the beach and then walked through the small town for drinks at a spot. Very cool to watch all the kids playing, and the world go by. Also I should mention the one thing at our hotel that most places don’t have- a monkey! It used to be a pet at a different hotel, but now it’s free. We were able to pet it, until it slapped Emma and tried to get into Dad’s bag- we weren’t huge fans of it after that!!

Fam Jam in Ghana :)

Daniel's Pancakes

Right before the monkey slapped her. 

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were spent at school, and Emma and I’s project was Flat Stanley. We made Flat Stanley (Flat Kofi is his Ghanaian name) with my Class 4, and Flat Kojo with 3 of my host-parents grandchildren for Emma to bring back to Canada with her. She’ll then mail them back, and it will be a very neat way for my students to learn a bit more about Canada, through pictures and stories of Flat Stanley’s adventures J

Flat Stanley (Flat Kofi) with Class 4

Flat Stanley (Flat Kojo) with Grace and Elizabeth Dadzie

Wednesday was my birthday and after my breaky of chocolate milk and cookies (Mom, I’m doing an excellent way of staying healthy by the way! I even eat veggies once in a while…) I went up to Class 4. They all stood up and sang me Happy Birthday, it was the sweetest thing ever J I taught classes in the morning, my favorite was reading Robert Munch’s “Moira’s Birthday” to the Basic 2 class! At noon, after a lunch of Banku, I went up to tell my Basic 5’s that I was leaving for a few days, and they all sung me happy birthday too J While they were singing, one of the teachers Madam Portia came in and dumped her water bottleon me… goodthing it’s so hot here!! (Also, this is the teacher who literally only yesterday learned my name is Sarah, because she’s been calling me Obruni this whole time… I think she’s warming up to me?!? Hahah)

So drying off Dad Em and I took off for Elmina, and arrived at our hotel at about 4pm. The hotel is literally right downtown and infront of the fishing lagoon and slave castle. It’s a pretty spectacular location with colour, people, and noise everywhere! We had dinner of grilled cheese and plantains, and then I got my first legal beer. By the way, beer here only cost 3 cidis -$1.50 Canadian- and is about 3 times the size of beer back home ;)

The next day we did a walking tour of Elmina and the Elmina Castle. There is truly nothing more depressing than hearing about the slave trade, but it was very educational and interesting all the same. We then went to Oasis at Cape Coast to spend the night. Our day at Cape Coast included breaky at Baobabs, an excellent vegetarian restaurant in town (Mom- I ate veggies!!), touring the Cape Coast Slave Castle, and shopping in town with Emma. I bought the most colourful pants you’ve ever seen… :D

Elmina

Elmina lagoon

View from the Elmina Castle

We then took at taxi to Hans Cottage Botel (I’m telling you, it was a very busy mini-vacation!!) We arrived and had a very nice swim in the swimming pool, and then went to the restaurant for dinner. The cool thing about the restaurant is that it’s built over a lagoon, and there’s crocodiles in the lagoon! So we ate dinner with the crocs, glad that we ourselves were not dinner! J

Only 1 rule at this pool: No drowning!

Don't mistake the lagoon for the pool! This croc was about 5 metres from our  breaky table in the morning

The next day was Emma and Dad’s last day, so we headed to Kakum National Park. We did the Canopy Walk first, with a group of about 30 Ghanaians, all university aged I’d be guessing. I swear they were worse behaved than my students! But they were all hilarious. One of the best parts of the canopy walk waswatching them film each other going across the bridges, and screaming their commentary: “ This is so-and-so, the princess of all princess’s, and here comes SWAGGER BOYYY” was the best part hahahah. The canopy walk itself was pretty incredible, nice rickety suspension bridges!! I see why it’s an attraction that every volunteer does, it was absolutely worth doing. After we crossed all the bridges we did a guided nature walk (this is a Roberts family vacation, after all!) around the park. Saw a green mamba snake, some insects, and learned lots about trees and their uses.

We then taxi’d and tro-tro’d back to Takoradi for one last night. They left this morning and it was sad to see them go, but I’m so glad they came. It was a crazy busy 2 weeks (sorry for the ridiculously long blog post, I’m very impressed if you’re still reading…) and so much fun. Dad and Em, I can already tell that the kids at the school will miss you! J

Love, Sarah

xoxox

Bye byee!