congratulations shea!!

my little sister made the travelling soccer team!! i'm so excited for you shea-shea! soon you'll be the one playing on the jmu club team and winning nationals. i love you!

weekend trip to the volta region

our original plan was to leave accra saturday morning around 8am, visit the Wli waterfall and then travel to the hotel. we were going to then go to the monkey sanctuary on sunday and return to accra. but a boy on the trip got sick friday night and needed to go to the clinic to get meds so our departure was delayed about four hours. our guide, awuku, decided it was best for us just to travel for the hotel so that we could watch the ghana vs. usa game and to see both the waterfall and monkey sanctuary on sunday.

it took us around 3 hours to reach the Chances hotel in the volta region. i love driving through that area because it is so mountainous and beautiful, not to mention the times we drive past the volta rivers. the hotel was a little strange; the hallways were huge and the rooms were baren. it had a very hospital-like feel to it. the doors could only be opened and locked by a key, so for example, saturday night i wanted to go to bed early while my roommate wanted to go out and celebrate, i told her to lock the door. i fell asleep and about an hour later woke up because i thought someone was knocking on the door, it then dawned on me that i couldnt open the door without the key and was literally locked in that room. i was pretty freaked out because we're all pretty sure it was some sort of mental hospital.

to watch the ghana game, we were invited into a big room of the hotel with a projector showing the game on a large screen. there were a lot of really nicely dressed men already in there, and they welcomed us with open arms. they went out of their way to make sure we were perfectly comfortable. i found out later that they were all the ministers of ghana, like the minister of water conservation, the minister of sports, etc. we got to watch the ghana-usa game with key members of the government.

the next day we went to the Wli Waterfall. it was about a 45 minute hike to the waterfall. our guide showed us all of the plant life that grows on the side of the trail, like cocoa, coffee, and papiya. the waterfall was easily the most beautiful place i've ever been to. it's the tallest waterfall in western africa. it fell into a small lake and then meandered into a river. it was so peaceful to sit and stare up at the rushing water. some people went into the water, but there could be parasites in it so i opted not too. i got great photographs and videos of it all.

we then travelled to the tofi atome monkey sanctuary. this village coexists with the local monkey population. we got a man from the village to bring us to the monkeys and to tell us a little of the history behind the village and it's becoming a monkey sanctuary. he made a really loud, almost kissing sound and all the monkeys came bounding out of the trees. most were small and really cute. they made funny squeaking noises. we got to feed them bananas.

this weekend was full of amazing experiences. i saw the most beautiful waterfall and got to feed a monkey. i'm sad it's over but i miss my kids at glona and can't wait to see them tomorrow.


by the way, the Stephanie i referred to in a previous entry is an actually person. my mom thouught i was referring to myself but i wasn't. there is a black girl on the trip who was born and grew up in ghana and then moved to the US and is now on the trip with us. it's really helpful to have her because she speaks the local language and serves as a cultural bridge between us and the ghanaians.

visit to the chief's palace

yesterday we went forty-five minutes east to the volta region to visit a more traditional style village. because of the rain (and our guides being late) we arrived two hours after we should have. luckily, the chief forgave us and allowed us into his village. we were met at the tro-tro by his spokesperson, a man draped in colored cloth and holding a golden staff with a sankofa on top. the sankofa is a bird looking backwards (i'm sure you can google it to see) and it represents a return to your beginning, to your roots. he led us into the palace (essentially just a bigger house, nothing dramatic) to meet with the chief and his elders. the chief spoke to us through his spokesman: he forgave us for our tardiness and told us that if he hadn't understood why we were so late we would have had to make a sacrifice of a ram to appease the ancestors. good thing he understood because i couldn't see us killing a mouse, let alone a ram. he then gave us water, which is customary when any visitors enter any house. he asked us the reason for our coming and we told him then gave him gifts. we brought shnapps for the ancestors and school supplies for the village school. the spokesman then performed a ritual of giving the ancestors the gift we brought for them. it was really cool to see such traditional village life in action.

we were then allowed to go see the school and children, while our lunch was being prepared. none of the students spoke very good english, but we found ways to communicate. i played soccer with a bunch of the boys and i think i surprised them with the fact that i could actually play. it was crazzyyy to play soccer on the top of a mountain, with beautiful views all around, on a grass field, aiming for bamboo stick goals. one of the teachers reffed the game, and he called penalty kicks to end it. i scored mine and my team when crazy. the boys i was playing with asked for my email and address so they could write to me. we only got to play for about half an hour; i wish i could've stayed for weeks. the students then sang a prayer for us and performed a dance. the little kids (four and five year olds) are so funny because they can DANCE. they swing their hips like nothing i've ever seen. it is really cool to see a culture that is so involved with dancing and singing. everyday i see people dancing, wherever we go.

we got back to the palace to eat lunch and there was dancing and music being played. the first few dances were reserved for the elders, which was hilarious. one man was very very old but he could still move! his wife came up to him while he was dancing and wrapped her third cloth (they keep it around their waist) around him. this is a signal that she approves of his dancing and thinks he is doing a good job. we had just learned about traditional dancing in class a few days before, so it was awesome to see it happen in person. we danced after we ate for about an hour, then asked the chief for permission to leave. our professor said that the way ghanaians term leave is that they ask if it is okay to just step out side for a moment, until they return again.

on the way back to accra, we hit traffic. traffic in ghana is like nothing i've ever seen. there are barely any lights, and people don't exactly adhere to lanes or normal driving rules. it took us over two hours to get back to our hotel, and i swear an hour and a half of it our tro-tro was completely still, stuck in the worst traffic we've seen yet. it's worse because the rains have been particularly bad, and the roads are a mess. there are HUGE holes everywere. we're lucky if we get a smooth road. for an hour or so after we returned, i still felt like i was being jostled around in the back of the tro-tro.

today we're heading up to kumasi to see the Wli waterfalls and then a monkey sanctuary. we won't be back until sunday night so i don't think i'll be able to update until then. it's a five hour bus ride (and five hours is obviously relative depending on the traffic that we hit).

glona day 4

it was a more difficult day for me at glona on thursday. the kids had a hard time focusing and i was the only teacher in the room for most of the class. i discovered that most of them don't know their alphabet or the phonetic sounds that match the letters so we had to re-learn something they should have already known. moses, the child i helped so much last classes, didn't show up to school that day, the day we were going over things he didn't know. it was really frustrating to have him not show up. i felt bad too because solomon is way too advanced for learning the alphabet. he's bored, but if the other children don't know the basics, they won't advance either. this experience of teaching has really opened my eyes to the difficulties i might face if i do get accepted to the teach for america program.

Ghana vs. Germany

we knew we wanted to go to osu (a section of accra close to the beach) for the game, because that is where they pull the big screens down in front of the buildings and project the game onto them. we got there around six, about a half an hour before the game was supposed to start, and it took us twenty minutes to walk about twenty feet. we were swarmed by vendors, face painters, and children begging for money. everyone wanted to be our "friends". it was stressful. thank god we found duncan (another one of our local friends who have been with the program since the beginning) and he brought us to a sports bar called Cels Bridge. we had to pay 3 Ghana Cedi to get in, but we got a free drink coupon. the bar was PACKED. and i mean PACKED. like sardines. annd we were the only white people. it was awesome. i was really surprised that everyone was so excited for us to be there, and welcomed us to spots on the floor. they actually squished themselves (the people on the floor already) more so that we could have room to sit. if any ghanaian had done that in america during the superbowl, i don't think they would have been allowed in the bar even. it was so cool to watch the game in that environment, even though my ears just about bled from the horns and noise makers, as well as the sound system blasting the commentary. it was probably a good thing ghana didn't score because the roof may have collapsed from all the cheering and dancing. i was disappointed in their play, but whatever, we qualified. its funny that ghana plays the US next. GO BLACK STARS :)

you'd never see this in america

before glona classes started yesterday, all of the students at the school were called in for 'worship'. once they were all assembled in the classroom, one of the girls from our group, Stephanie (she's ghanaian but lives in the US and goes to JMU) led them in a song for the Black Stars. they sang and cheered and danced for a while until one of their teachers led them in more songs. the children were so excited to sing for their country's soccer team. they were then led in a prayer session for the black stars. they all had to close their eyes and pray. the intense looks of concentration and hope on their faces was incredible. you'd never EVER see that from any american children. the ghanaian soccer team has become a beacon of unity for the country, and a source of pride for them because ghana is leading the african nations, once again.

to finish, we sang the cutest song on the planet. the children here have trouble pronouncing "th", so they usually just say "t". the song is called 'one little thumb' but they all sing it as 'one little tumb'. it goes, one little thumb is moooooving, two little thumbs are mooooving, as we are praising god. then the song continues to include hands, feet, head, stomach and buttocks. they love this song.

glona day 3

i can't remember if anything exciting slash interesting happened before glona. i don't think so, classes were long as usual and we played with the hundreds of kids before we taught. this little boy named joshua has decided that he is my personal body guard before glona and he sticks to me like glue. he holds my water bottle for me when i play clapping games with the girls.

oh, i have noticed that in ghana violence is much more widely accepted than in the US. if a kid doesn't want another one near him or her they just whack the other person. the teachers threaten "beating" but they never really do it. the kids actually think its really funny. one of the teachers i work with, Madame Rose (she's Ghanaian), asked me yesterday if she should keeel the children who weren't paying attention. she said: Madame Stephanie, should i keeeel them? and all of the children started laughing.

glona just keeps getting better and better. i'm excited now that i've started to form bonds with my kids. they are doreen (17), moses (16 i think), solomon (16), samira (11), hannah (12), and benedicta (14). we taught them to spell the numbers eleven through twelve again. i noticed that moses was having a really tough time spelling any of the numbers. i pulled him to the side and asked him to phoenetically sound the word out. i discovered he couldnt match any phonetic sound with any letter. i asked him if he had been in school for that lesson and he said yes, but since i didn't believe i asked solomon and solomon said that he had been absent. this just shows how difficult it is to teach at glona: the students can't have set terms because they stop coming to school for periods of time. then when they come back, they are far behind the others. so moses, who was trying to learn how to spell numbers with everyone else, was really struggling because he couldn't sound out the words to match them to the letters. once he got it correct, though, was soooo amazing. everyone was so excited for him and he was excited too. it took them a long time to learn it all but everyone was SO happy when they did. i loved the feeling i got from know i helped them learn and was able to pinpoint the root of his struggle.