Everywhere we go

June 7, 2013.

Montessori Song:

Everywhere we go-oh

People always ask us

Who we are

And where do we come from

So we tell them

We are the Royals

The mighty might Royals

And if they do not hear us

We shout a little louder!

*Up the tempo, and repeat at a louder volume!*

Sorry I havn’t posted in awhile. It’s just that, well, my life is insane. This past month has been eventful, and I can hardly believe how little time I have left!

School is the typical Montessori chaos. About a week ago the headmistress asked me to create and teach a song for the kindergarten kids to sing at the graduation ceremony. Not only do I have zero musical talent, but every single Ghanaian can sing and come up with songs no problem. Why she picked the obruni for the task I have no idea. Luckily a few teachers were helping me, and no surprise, they came up with an awesome song in no time. I was relieved I didn’t have to sing in front of 50 kindergarteners. Little did I know, a few days later I would be marching and leading all the older kids in the song.

2 weeks ago I had my typical Monday morning of surprises. The first: One of my favorite teachers, Monsieur John the French teacher has left. Everyone knows I speak French so I got to teach French for 2 weeks until a new teacher was hired! I loved it and it was super fun to teach an academic subject. My other surprise was that a previous volunteer, Lindsay, from 3 years ago, was coming back to visit. She leaves only a few days before I do so I have a new roomie for the rest of my time here! She’s super nice and it’s interesting to hear about the school and what the family were like a few years back. And it’s absolutely made me realize that I want to come back and visit my students one day!

My other news is Timoskay news: We reached our goal!! It has been so exciting watching all the donations come in and I want to send a huge thank you to everyone who helped out. Our final total is $5901 which is absolutely incredible. The money is being wired this week and we are all set for construction to begin! The facebook page has been updated with pictures of the new staircase leading up to the second floor. The kids are all super excited and they can tell big things are happening for the school! Again, a huge thank you to everyone who donated; I’ve been consistently blown away by your generosity over the past few weeks.

I’ll share one more story with you before I head back to my little pink house to clean up my disaster of a room. (Clothes, drawings, paper, and glitter everywhere…)

Yesterday afternoon we had a rehearsal for graduation. Lately its been no lessons in the afternoon as this grad ceremony is a big deal. The younger kids sing their Montessori song, lower primary is doing a dance routine, and upper primary and JHS are doing cadets. The marching is back in full form and the kids are always trying to get me to join in! So, yesterday afternoon Lindsay and I were sitting in the shade watching them march when the headmistress taught them the Montessori song. Then she figured they should march along the road singing the song. She looked around for someone to lead them. Uh oh. Spotting Lindsay and I, she came over saying “You know the words, right?” I’m one of those tone deaf, no rhythm people that has a fear of singing in public. But hey, why not try something new? Hah. So Lindsay and I took our places at the front of all the students, and sang. We sang a line (badly) and they would repeat it back to us. While marching (again, badly). But it was tons of fun. We lead them around to the front of the school where all the rest of the students were. And it was something I’ll never forget. Singing in Africa, no big deal J

Love,
Sarah