Preparing

Now that I'm home for good before I leave for Ghana, I'm starting to get nervous about packing everything I need. There's soo much I need to do. I'm getting excited because I just got my lecture syllabus for classes and some information about the school we're teaching at, Glona.

Here's a website that has some videos and pictures of the school, as well as information on the project we're joining to raise money to build the children their own school:
www.theglonaproject.com

In a nutshell, Glona is a program for children who cannot afford to go to a normal school, or who can't make it to school during normal hours because they must work for their family. The program borrows five classrooms from a private school. The program is grown rapidly, however, and is straining the resources of the private school. The Glona Project is trying to raise money so that a new school can be built specifically for the program.

During the study abroad portion of my trip (the first four weeks), I'm going to be taking classes in the morning at a university in Accra, Ghana's capital city. We have two lectures a day and I have a giant book that I have to read chapters from before each lecture. Apparently the professors expect students to be very active learners, coming to class with prepared questions on the reading. After class we return to our hotel for lunch for an hour or so before we go to Glona. At Glona, we mostly play with the children but we also have the option of teaching portions or even full lessons. We have the opportunity to teach as much as we are comfortable with, but only what we're comfortable with. This schedule will go on for the first three weeks. In the final week of the study abroad, we travel all around Ghana.

If anyone is interested in learning about Ghana, this is a good website:
www.ghanaweb.com
click on the tab 'Country' for general facts and information