estha: she wakes up at four am every morning to sell things on her head in the streets by five am. she does this everyday until she comes to glona at 4 pm. she must work for 11 hours, standing up, carrying items, dodging cars before she comes to learn. how she could concentrate after a day like that is beyond me.
most of the children come from homes that are incredibly poor or broken. they see glona as a sanctuary and we try hard to keep it that way. they have a tough time focusing because of issues going on at home. their parents most likely discipline them with violence (estha had a new gash on her neck in class the other day but she wouldn't tell us what it was from). its really important to me to make them excited to learn as well as explain to them the importance of learning to them.
i met hannah's "auntie" yesterday before school. she told me that hannah was a stupid girl because she didn't know any english. she asked me to beat her good so that she would learn. i informed her that hannah was very intelligent, knew a lot of english and i would never hit her. the woman just laughed at me and went back to her cooking. this is an example of how ghanaian parents try to inspire their children to learn. they are big fans of negative persuasion. i was really shocked, and kind of offended, that the woman could say those things about hannah, in front of her. i made sure hannah knew after that i think she's very smart. i hope that not all of the parents have the same approach.
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