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!

Mondays and the days that follow

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

Volunteering means Experiencing

Volunteering means Experiencing.
- Teaching, learning, and being a part of daily life is what this trip is about. So, here's some glimpses into my Ghanaian life!

Worship means Dancing.
- Religion is everywhere here. So many shops have religious names, I'm constantly asked what church I attend at home, and already had an intense discussion about the importance of religion with one of the other teachers. But it's such a way of life here, and wayyyy more lively than back in Canada. On Wednesday mornings all the students gather for worship, and it really is a dance party. (Honestly, like sooo many things here) Singing, fist pumping, clapping, jumping, and energy, especially from the teachers leading it!!

Cadets means Caning.
- Its the only extra-curricular here, and it's intense. Itl's so disciplined and structured, unlike everything else here hahah. Iti's also meant that I've only been teaching in the mornings so far, because they train in the afternoon for the GNAPS celebrations this week. It'll be interesting to see them march on Friday with all the other students.

Football means Africa. Or, Africa means Football.
- Because there is no field or even PE class ehre I didn't get a chance to experience my first soccer game until a few days ago. Organized chaos, led by the students, in a tiny little area next to the school. And it was amazing. I was on a team with some of my Class 4's, and easily the same level hahah! Nothing like been showed up by little kids... :D I scored a goal and everyone went crazy, it was hilarious. Very cool to see kids with such a love for the game. :)

Students mean Leaders.
- It is inspirational to see the level of dedication, self-reliance, and the leadership qualities from these young kids. I feel like they're taking care of me, not the other way around...

Creative Arts with Basic 6 means Drama.
- Anything that involves acting, talking, or just being outgoing and dramatic is how they could spend every single class.

Creative Arts with Basic 5 means Drawing.
- I could give them a pack of pencil crayons and a pad of paper and they're golden for the hour class. They actually listen to me, and love anything to do with visual arts.

Creative Arts with Basic 4 means Playing Games.
- Again, the enthusiasm. My challenge is going to be getting a variety of everything creative incorporated into all my classes. Luckily for me, the students love the class so it's not too hard. And really, I love being Madam Sarah.

So what does Madam Sarah mean?
So far it could mean glorified babysitter, tutor, teacher, role model, or friend. Or of course, Obruni. But, it's starting to mean more than that. Even little 3 year old Whitney who hangs out at the Dadzie's house with us after school has started calling me Sarah, not Obruni, and in this country that's a bit step for becoming a part of their life!

So, I send my love to all of you back home!!
Sarah xoxox

PS. Went to the supermarket yesterday, was almost like being somewhere magical with all the fancy things there like cheese, chocolate, and anything you could find back home. Missing my snacks of bulk chocolate and brie cheese from Thrifty's... ;)

Parading through Town

There are some experiences that really make me look around and go "Wow, I'm in Africa". For the most part, everything has been relatively easy to adapt to, and even though it's been almost a month here, so many things are new and exciting every single day.

Everything is easy, until it's not. So what hasn't been easy? Getting sick. After our weekend at Cape Coast both Maddi and I spent a few days in bed sick with everything except malaria it seems. I'm pretty sure mine was food poisoning, and not bad enough to go to the hospital, but bad enough to be incredibly annoying. On the other hand, it's GNAPS week, which means theres no classes at the school so it was good timing to be sick.

This morning we figured we were well enough to go with all the kids into the centre of Sekondi. So, we piled into the schoolbus. That was an experience in itself. Basically athey just try to fit as many kids in the bus as possible, and I was sitting on a teachers lap; that's how little room there was. We arrived, and then the party began. We thought it would be the kids marching, but today was dance-party day. All 300 or so kids lined up in rows of 4 or 5, with a kid carrying the Ghanaian flag in front, and a few kids holding the school banner. We were accompanied by a band of about 6 playing the drums, trumpet, trombone, tamborine, everything. And then we basically just paraded through Sekondi, dancing. It was one of the coolest experiences, and the energy from the students and teachers was incredible. And anyone who knows me knows that it takes a lot to get me dancing. But there I was, dancing (badly, of course) through the streets in Africa.

It took up the whole morning, and I was absolutely exausted by the end of it. Exausted, with a smile on my face.

More later!!
Love, Sarah

2 day week, 5 day weekend

For those of you that think my life is difficult here, it's really not. Yes, there are challenges. Yes, it can be hard. But in different ways than I would have thought. Easing into the school life has been a breeze. So here's what a few of my typical days have been so far:

Up at 6am to go for a run. All the locals look at me like I'm insane, it's actually quite funny. But, the temperature is perfect in the early mornings, and it's a neat way to see the neighborhood. Our area is quite nice, and it seems like we're the only white people. Actually the other day I saw some missionaries from the US and the UK, and it was litterally a shock to see other Obrunis in my area!!

We go to school at about 8am, and I'm usually teaching for most of the mornings. My Class 4 loves playing games. Class 5 loves to draw. And Class 6 is all about the drama. So I'm trying to find a balance of what to teach in all the classes! When I'm not teaching I'm helping Maddi's younger kids, playing in the creche, or yesterday I sat in on a french class.

Afternoons have been no classes this week because a lot of the kids are in Cadet Rehearsal. Next week theres no classes because it's a big Cadet thing that we're going too. (Life is really relaxed hahaha). So I've been spending lots of time just hanging out with the students.

It turns out a lot of them our Mr. and Mrs.Dadzie's (Our hosts) grandchildren, and they were all over yesterday. A bunch of them helped me handwash my laundry. Mom I got pictures because I know you don't believe that I can handwash laundry!!

After school we either relax, go into town, go to the beach, or just go for walks. It really is like living at home. So this week is midterm holidays, so we had wed/thur/fri off. 3 other volunteers and I travelled to Cape Coast yesterday, and the rest are joining us today. It's a beach resort type weekend, with visiting the town and the Cape Coast Slave Castle today, very interesting!

Not much else to report for now, hope this gives a sense of my life here so far!
Sarah xoxox

Madam Sarah

"So, what do you want to teach?" Was our first interaction with our hostdad, and headmaster of the school, Mr. Dadzie. About 20 min later, he comes up to us, and says "Well, actually, we have a problem with creative arts. There's no teacher. Can you guys teach that?" So, I decided to take Basic 4, 5, and 6 which is about 8 to 11 year olds. Maddi is teaching Basic 1,2, and 3 and I'll help her whenever I don't have class, as one of her classes has 45 kids!!

So, for my first class I thought I was just observing, and as soon as I entered the class (basic 4) the teacher told my it was Library Class. She gave me a book and told me to read it to the class. So, for half an hour I just read stories, and I'm assuming this is what Library Class is. I've found so far that no one, including the teachers, are telling us what we should be doing. But, the kids know what is happening. They're the ones that   are taking us in, and teaching us what we should be doing. The self-reliance that these kids have is amazing, and it's reassuring that they really do appreciate having us here.

So, my biggest challenge so far? The fact that what I'm teaching is Creative Arts. It's basically elementary art class, mixed with a bit of drama and singing, and games. Because all they want to do is play games. I've already run out of new ones... I think I need a tad bit more of creativity myself!! So, coming up with what to do during lessons is going to be difficult. I feel like if it was anything academic, then I would know what I'm doing, but there's no criteria for what I should be teaching these kids.

So my first day was playing name games, like when you say your name and the name of an animal that starts with the same letter, and you have to repeat all of them. We then played Stella-stella-hola, and I taught them the french version which they absolutely loved. Then they made nametags, and I've also played games like Scatagories. Luckily the ages are similar, so I've been doing the same type of thing with all my classes.

But, nothing here goes as planned. Whenever I think I have class, someone else is teaching a different lesson. And whenever I think I have free time, a kid comes and gets me saying "Madam, we have class!" So, whenever I don't have class I help out in Maddi's younger kid classes, and they all love me in there. Especially when I bring my coloured pencil crayons which they don't have themselves, so my supplies that I brought are absolutely getting good use. So when I'm not teaching I can go hang out in the creche with the little kids (1-2 yrs old), or if I even just walk around the school once someone will get my attention and there will be somethng to do. I was helping a group of JHS1 (about 13 years old) with math homework, and it was one of my favorite parts of being here so far. Finally, some math! They really are so enthusiastic about learning, and it was the first time that my academic skills came in use. The other neat thing was talking with the French teacher, and all the kids think it's really neat that I can speak french. Basically my ego is just getting way bigger, because whenever they see me I get compliments. It will be very interesting to see how they interact with us once the novelty of us wears off a bit.

It will also be nice to get into a bit of a routine, but I knew the first week would be overwhelming. But whenever Maddi and I go to town and come back to our little pink house, it is like coming home/

So sorry for rambling, and I'd love to hear from you! And if you contact me with art ideas, or games for kids then you can be my best friend.

Love,
Sarah xoxo

Arriving in Accra

Week One has been at the Lattitude Country Managers Henry's house with all the other volunteers. I arrived with 13 other volunteers at night, so waking up the next morning was like waking up in a whole new world. I was up super early because of jetlag, and we had bread with nutella for breaky.

This whole week has been about orientation, so we've been going to a hotel conference room in the morning to get told all sorts of information, and a teaching skills course. The afternoons have been about taking it easy, and it's really hard not too nap as there's basically nothing to do. I'll share some of my highlights from this week, as already I've had a couple of really cool experiences. 

Day 1: All of the volunteers piled into a tro-tro (small bus) and drove through the area where we're living this week. It was our first chance to experience Africa, and all the locals would wave at us, especially the kids. We get "Obruni!" (Means white person) shouted at us constantly, but always in a positive way. It's quite funny, and especially the kids love seeing us here. 

Day 4: I was walking with a few of the other girls and a woman named Happy introduced herself to us. She is a teacher at a small school that she and a few other young woman opened. It is run as an NGO for the children in the community that cannot afford to go to school. About 50 student attend, ahd she asked if we could come the next day to see it. So, the next morning about 6 of us went, and met the kids. Happy told us it was Math/Science day and as I was chatting with some kids, she handed me a small book, and told me to take this class. So, without having any idea what I was doing, I started teaching about 20-30 kids, ranging from 3 to 9 years old, some math. It was shapes and counting, and I loved it. It's hard to gage their understanding and whether whatever we were saying was the right level for them. It was an excellent preview for teaching for us. 

On our last day most of us,