braces

i was recently showing my students some pictures of students in their penpal class in america.  several of the american students had braces, and this was bewildering to my students.  

what is that on their teeth?  

are their teeth rotten?

how do they eat?

is it like nail polish?

and really, explaining braces and explaining why so many american children wear braces to children in ghana IN SIGN LANGUAGE is very difficult.

garden!

i am really looking forward to fresh green beans, zucchini, squash, and corn in the next few months!

pictures!

i mentioned earlier that i would try to post some pictures of my kids with their fertility dolls, the latest and greatest art project success. so, here you go!

this is class p4.

this is class p2.

these are some of those beautiful children.
here is tang, a really shy girl, but very proud of her creation.
this is dafaar, showing off his doll.
i will try to edit more pictures to post again soon. as soon as i pull out a camera in class, the kids go nuts and all order is lost, but i got some good pictures the other day!

world cup mania

the world cup begins on friday.  this is the first world cup to be held in africa (south africa), and ghana is one of only five african nations to qualify.  

everything right now is world cup mania.  

so, since america doesn't really care about football (soccer), don't support america.  support ghana.

go black stars!

life is normal.

several of you have been commenting lately that i need to post more often.  i know i do.  i just don't have a whole lot to say.  to me, life here is normal.  at this point, it is hard to me to remember the things about ghana that would seem exotic to you in america.  i just sat here for several minutes and could not even come up with a good topic to write about.  

so, if you can come up with some ideas of things you would like to know about, please tell me.  sometimes my internet connection is difficult (especially now starting the rainy season...), but i'll do my best to keep up with my blog.  

i'll try sometime to upload pictures and post some of my most recent art project with my lower primary kids (first to fourth grades).  

we took empty toilet paper rolls, pieces of cardboard, scraps of cloth, yarn, and markers and made fertility dolls.  it was really fun, because i felt like this was a rare project that actually allowed them to be creative.  so often the children here are afraid to be creative.  if i show them an example of the project we are working on, they all want to copy that example exactly.  if i don't show an example, it is often difficult for me to communicate to them what it is we are working on.  so it's a tricky situation.  but this time, i did show two examples.  one, an actual fertility doll (a wood carving that is traditional here), and the other, a simple one i made.  and then i just let the kids make a mess.  and they made some really fun dolls!  

so, i will work on taking some pictures with the kids and their dolls and let you see them.  

until then, let me know what i should be writing about!