I've always felt that Mondays set the tone for the week, and I have yet to have a "normal" Monday. 3 Mondays ago I walk up the stairs to teach a class, and one of the teachers inform me that it is Midterm Exam week. And asks if I have my Creative Arts midterm ready. I suppose it just dosn't occur to anyone to tell us stuff in advance! So I sat in the creche writing an exam for my kids, while the creche babies run all around me creating chaos. I'm sure this is how real teachers do it too!! But that was just the beginning of the toughest day yet I've had during this trip. Trying to make sure kids keep quiet when they're sharing pencil crayons to answer drawing questions.. not so fun. But better than Maddi's Class 1, with 45 kids, all cheating. I helped supervise that class which just drained all the energy out of me. But then, I had Class 6 for their exam. And it was the first time I've had a problem with the discipline here. They all had to write my exam kneeling on the cement floor as they had already got in trouble from another teacher. And because they know I would never cane them, they wouldn't stay silent. So, another teacher came in and caned every single kid. There are so many high and low moments with my life here, and thank goodness Iv'e had so many amazing moments to compensate for when things get tough.
The upside to exam week was that Wednesday/Thursday were holidays. Wednesday was Independence Day, and Maddi + I decided we should do something exciting. Our poor hair got the sacrifice. For 3 hours I sat on a tiny stool while about 5 women braided my hair. It was a neat experience though, as we were outside on a busy Takoradi street so I could people watch, with Ghanaian music and the women speaking Fante as background music. But really, I didn't look like me by the end. My mistake was adding extra blonde hair... my head has never been so hot, heavy, and itchy. If there's one thing I appreciate from my time here in Ghana so far, even more than running water and electricity, is my own hair. But it was actually a very cool experience getting it done. And an even cooler one getting it out. I lasted a week with braids before taking them out, and a few of my Class 5 students offered to help. There were about a dozen girls who were more than happy to spend an hour of their time helping me unbraid!
My weekend was spent at Timoskay School Complex, visiting Mason and Marisa, 2 of the other volunteers from Victoria. I can already tell that Timoskay will be home away from home (from home...). It's much more in the middle of nowhere, and their host family are just the friendliest, most welcoming people I've ever met. By the end of my few days there the 6 year old daughter Ellen was calling me Sister Sarah :) The highlight of my weekend was coaching the U13, U15, and U17 Timoskay boys soccer games. Despite not doing much more than cheering them on, we got a lot of credit for the 2 wins and a tie hahahha.
So now we come to 2 Mondays ago. I walk up the stairs to teach a class, and the headmaster calls Maddi and I to the office and tells us there is a problem. It turns out that the Basic 4 5 and 6 Math and Science teacher has left on a missionary trip to Nigeria. Typical. But it means that I get to be the new math teacher, so I'm thrilled! This whole time I've been saying that I wish I was teaching something academic, so this couldn't be more perfect. It will be a challenge I'm sure, but it's the kind of challenge I want.
Monday and Tuesday were the chaos that has become the new routine in my life. I'm constantly supposed to be in 2 places at once, and its been tough to figure out where the previous math teacher left off with the classes. Especially trying to teach something like algebra when they don't know basic integer adding and subtracting. It's definitely the type of challenge where it's incredibly rewarding to see the result. It's funny how adding a few classes to my schedule makes it seem like a new beginning. And just in time for a couple of my favorite obrunis to show up at my school!! Next blog post will be about my family visiting me, and I am sorry for being so behind on updating my blog... spazzy internet mixed with a crazy busy past few weeks is my excuse :)
Until later,
Love Sarah xoxox
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