Midweek update

Teaching is still going well at Unistar. The KG 1 teacher is back so the class is totally under control. I’ve been able to continue teaching some lessons – with the real teacher translating the tricky bits into Fanti – and have also had a chance to work with some of the kids in smaller groups.

Unlike at home, the teachers here seem to focus on punishing mistakes rather than celebrating success. So, when a student isn’t answering a question I find it hard to decide whether they don’t understand the concept, don’t understand my English instructions, are painfully shy, or are too scared of being wrong (and being caned as a result) to say anything at all. I’ve also been wondering what happens to the children with learning disabilities here. They certainly don’t have the programs and support that we have at home and the poor children aren’t going to benefit from the canings that result from their errors.

We had our weekly quiz night/volunteer meeting last night. We usually just play games or watch a movie but Grant (our regional director) organized a treat for us last night. We watched a demonstration of African dancing and drumming from different countries and different regions in Ghana and then had a brief dancing lesson at the end of the evening. It was really amazing to see – people here are so rhythmically talented. They grow up surrounded by music all the time, whether it’s at home, in school, songs playing from stores during the day, in bars at night – they are always moving. Also, if everyone in Western culture danced with their energy and vigour, obesity would not be non-existent (Katie, this is definitely a calorie-burning workout that we should look into!). On Wednesday night we saw an impromptu drumming/acrobatic/dancing/fire show that was even more impressive.

Generally, things are good here in Cape Coast. We are well into the rainy season now and it rains at least a little bit every day. A ton of new volunteers have been arriving in the last few weeks and many more will be here over the summer months. Nicole and I are getting two new Canadian girls to this house on the weekend (four Canadian girls in all of Cape Coast and they put us all together). I think I’m going to be sad to leave many of these people behind. Through taking care of each other, sharing un-flushable toilets, and having too many discussions about the activities of our intestines, we’ve formed close friendships in a really short period of time.