--I didn’t have school for two days last week because the students were harvesting maize. A big tractor machine showed up to take the kernals off the corn, and all the students had to help load the machine. Later that week, the students sat around shucking giant piles of maize, while the teachers supervised. School is different in Ghana; there's school time and farm time, and both are important. Students are also expected to do lots of chores on campus, like weeding and sweeping, starting in the very early morning hours.
--For several days during the harvest, I had 50 students surrounding my house, sitting shucking maize and crying, moaning, vocalizing. It wasn’t that they were necessarily upset, but it was just the general ambient pandemonium of a large group of 8-12 year olds. My quiet oasis was suddenly a childcare center; every sound that is outside sounds like it’s actually coming from inside my house because the windows don’t have sealed glass.
--You know how in the states you have to wait for fruit to ripen? Like, bananas--you buy them when they are green, and they slowly turn to yellow, and you eat them? Well, here, vegetables and fruits are nearly or totally overripe at the moment of purchase. They have been boiling in the Ghanaian sun for several days or more, and transported to market in the back of a truck or bicycle or on top of someone's head. They are bruised and beaten and squashed. The bananas here go from green to rotten almost immediately, and I have to rush the boiling fruit home and stash it in my frig in the hopes of extending its life a few extra days.
--Yesterday morning, I saw my students bathing naked 100 feet from my classroom door. They didn’t seem phased by my presence---they just continued to lather-up while I unlocked the door to begin the day.
--I’ve taken to wearing a sweatband while cooking; it keeps the sweat from rolling down my forehead and into my eyes.
--Ah, midterms! I was informed that this week was midterm exams, so I hastily made what I thought was an easy midterm covering the only two subjects that I have managed to teach thus far---line and pattern. I asked the students to draw three examples of lines, and three examples of patterns. I showed them a template on a piece of paper and on the board that had 6 squares drawn on it in which they should draw the lines and patterns. (For the past four weeks, I have drawn squares on the board and asked the students to draw different lines and patterns in them, so this format should not have been unfamiliar.) The students spent about a half an hour just copying the template, carefully drawing the squares and writing “Draw 3 examples of lines” on their paper in my handwriting. They would each come up to me, proudly, and show me how they had correctly copied the template. I would tell them, “Good, now fill in the squares with different lines.” They looked at me blankly, as if to say, “You want me to do something more? Wasn’t copying the template difficult enough?!?”
--In between two classes, I had an amazing moment with a group of the P3 students. I was cutting paper for a future project, and some of the students who had wandered in started helping me. Within a few minutes I had 12 hands helping me, a set on each end of the paper, two holding the big ruler, and we began a fabulous assembly line, albeit one in which the limbs do not respond properly to central command. I never cease to be amazed by how enthusiastic the students are to interact with me, and to make or help make anything.
--I’m starting to like my Primary 4 class. They need me so much more than the older kids. I taught several students how to use scissors; I cupped my hand around their hand and showed them how to cut. Priceless moments.
