water

a lot of people in ghana don't have running water. even in big cities, it is normal to see women or children carrying huge bowls of water on their heads, heading home from the borehole, river, or well.

even among those fortunate to have running water, it is often only on for a few hours a day, at most, or just a couple times a week. during this time, people fill their buckets or barrels to use until the next supply.

the most fortunate people have polytanks. these are huge black water tanks, usually built at an elevation near the house. i am one of these lucky people. with a polytank, we fill the tank, and the water flows from it throughout the day as long as we need.

i am even luckier than most, because my school is on an automated borehole system, so our water supply is endless and free. this means that i can fill my polytank at whatever time it empties. it also means that my neighbor, with whom i share my tank, can use it every single night to water her huge garden, and we never have to pay anything for it.

it's great.

now, when you do have running water in ghana, it is just normal temperature. except in the most luxurious hotels or fancy houses, water heaters do not exist.

so, the best part of the polytank is that if you take a shower in the afternoon or evening, after the sun has been baking that huge black plastic tank all day, it is pleasantly warm!

thanksgiving

each year there's a big party in the capital for thanksgiving. i went last year, and it was amazing.

this year, i was planning to go, but then i felt lazy and cheap and decided i wanted to save all that travel money (and up to 28 hours on a bus) and stay home.

a couple other volunteers in the area had the same idea, so we made a thanksgiving dinner ourselves.

i have to admit, it rivaled the feast at the ambassador's house, plus we killed that turkey OURSELVES.

turkey. mashed potatoes. gravy. stuffing. green beans. carrots. deviled eggs.
plus wine, chocolate pudding, marble cake, and apple cobbler, not pictured.

jewelry

the vocational girls have been making some beautiful jewelry.

here are charity and latifatu modeling some of their masterpieces!

a classroom!

my very own classroom!
for the last year and a half, the school has been rebuilding the girls' dormitory. because of this, the girls have been staying in classrooms.
for the last year and a half, the school has been rebuilding two teachers' houses. because of this, teachers have been staying in classrooms.
so, obviously, there has been a shortage of classrooms, and as always, art was the first to be cut. i've been a mobile art teacher.
but on thursday, the girls moved into their fancy new home!
which means i can reclaim my room! however, the problem now will be tracking down the furniture that i believe once existed to fill the room. that might take a little bit of detective work. until then, the students might just sit on the floor.
yay!

catching the christmas spirit

once again, this year i'm having a hard time believing it is nearly christmas.

our average high temperature is 36 degrees celsius, so nearly 100 fahrenheit.

however, i am glad for the extreme dryness just now. harmattan is hot: during the day. but relief comes at night and in the early morning, and because of the total lack of humidity (in the north at least), if you are standing in the shade and get a good breeze, it can still be pleasant.

anyway.

i've started listening to christmas music. i love christmas. i love winter. but it just feels weird to hear "baby's it's cold outside" "or let it snow" play when i'm sweating profusely.

i had a fantastic moment of inspiration yesterday though. my jhs students have been working on calabash art, and i looked around my art closet and noticed a bag of baby gourds that have been there since forever.

and i realized, they will be PERFECT christmas ornaments! so today my jhs prep students scorched them. we kept it simple, just a ghana flag design on each one. but it's great: ghana's flag is red, gold, and green, with a black star in the center. JUST LIKE CHRISTMAS!

i think it's too late to get them to america in time for this year, but i'll see what i can do.

they don't decorate christmas trees here...

harmattan

it's that time of year again.

time when you can barely breathe for the smoke in the air, from the fields being burned. time when the dust whips and stings your skin. time when the scorching sun makes you wish you could actually melt.

but, just in case you were worried, i've already committed not to burn a single piece of anything this year. i refuse to relive that traumatic event of the past.

the and is duck?

ghanaian deaf children often have a very hard time learning english. this is because ghanaian sign language uses english words, but the sign language syntax. so the children struggle to use proper grammar. also, they never actually hear the words they use, so often their spelling is incorrect, since they can't just "sound it out." they have to memorize everything.

this often triggers a debate among teachers of the deaf here, whether it is actually best to be teaching the children in ghanaian sign language. most teachers at my school are certain that if we taught using signed english, the students would do better academically. i don't think that changing the language that the children communicate in will do much to help; i think rather that we just need to focus on english and grammar and emphasize to the children that these are two different languages. for instance: "i am going home" is signed "me go home."

that's a task that's easier said than done, i understand. especially when many teachers at the school don't know any sign, whether gsl or signed english.

anyway. all that to say, sometimes the things that the children write don't make sense in either language. in my jhs prep class the other day, written on the blackboard was, "the and is duck?"

it made me laugh.

hmm.

on second thought, maybe that man wasn't trying to be creepy at market when he touched my arm.

i think he thought he was helping, trying to brush off my freckles.

back to school

school is back in session, and it is nice to have a routine again.  

the second year of teaching is so much better than the first, because now i know what to expect.  i'm no longer surprised or frustrated when classes are cancelled for the day so the students can harvest the school farm.  i have a much better grasp on sign language, so now i can understand things after maybe just one "again?"  i know my kids, know most of their names, and most importantly, know what the abilities and interests are for the different classes.  

so all of that being said, i'm doing a couple things differently this year.  i've dropped my youngest two classes (P1 and P2) so i have more time to focus on the older students.  the young classes were huge and were difficult to control, and i felt the students weren't gaining any real education from it.  i'll still stop in from time to time and play with the kids or let them color, but now i can let them have fun with the projects instead of worrying that they weren't "educational" enough.

so now i have P3 to P6, of which all but one are small and very productive classes.  we are learning some color mixing and crayon resist there.

then JHS prep through JHS 3.  these are the older kids who are more responsible and self-motivated (they have to pass an exam at the conclusion at JHS in order to enter SHS).  so far, we are continuing with calabash art.  we are making scorched designs now, and i want to make some available for sale here in ghana.

and then, finally, i'm assisting in the vocational department.  this is a new role for me, so i'm still figuring out what it looks like and what the needs are.  at this point, i'm mainly an observer and supplier.  the items the students made last year have helped fund SUPPLIES finally in the vocational department, so the girls finally have beads for their arts and crafts class.  they already have a teacher for the class, so i am trying just to assist and see what the program really looks like.  once i have a better idea of what they are capable of and interested in, i'll try to steer them in a direction where we can find ways to sell these new items as well.  

so, that's about it!  a slightly different approach this year, but mainly i've just gained some very helpful familiarity with the school.

gave up on the garden

i told you about the goat problem i had with my garden.  well, the beans did recover slightly, enough for me to pick about five more green beans.  then the goats returned and finished them off again.  

the zucchini never had fruit; it just kept blooming and then dying.

the lettuce, squash, and nasturtiums never even came up.

so all we had left were about five stalks of yellow corn.  

and then someone came through and stole the corn right off the stalk.

oh well.