Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy 4th of July!

Katie Bowman & Hilary Griffin

Today we awoke, excited to begin our first day of observing and teaching at St. Cyprian's. We ate a hearty breakfast of french toast and scrambled eggs, then left for school. When we arrived at St. Cyprian's we were warmly greeted by Theresa Baidoo who had memorized all of our names correctly. (Teresa is Mr. Ato Baidoo's daughter and one day may assume responsibility for leading the Tuwohofo-Holly school where we taught last week.)

We dispersed into our separate classrooms and began to either observe or teach. We quickly noticed that the students at St. Cyprian's are not used to seeing Brunyis. All of the students were very well behaved and listened intently to what was being taught to them. During break time, we all enjoyed watching the students play and also teaching them a few songs. They are still timid around us, but we know that will quickly change as the week progresses.

After teaching for the morning, we left St. Cyprian's and went back to the Fairhill where we ate a delicious lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. After lunch, some of us took naps, while others continued to work on the puzzles that were started the previous night. We all ventured into the lobby around 3:00 to leave for our Fante lessons with Mr. Baidoo.

On the way to Tuwohofo, we passed many of our former students walking home. They all screamed and yelled, "Hello!" as we rode by. It was very exciting to see many smiling faces crowd around the tro tro as we pulled up and climbed out. The students were very happy to see us, just as we were happy to see them.

When we finally made our way into the library, Mr. Baidoo treated us to three Ghanaian folk tales. The first one was about a man who believed he could gather all of the wisdom in the world and hide it. The second was about a father who had his daughter marry a monkey to trick the monkey. The third was about a leopard, a zebra, and a little red bird and how the leopard discovered that he is more powerful than the zebra. Our Fante lesson ended when dark clouds began approaching, a sure sign of rain.

As we drove back to the Fairhill, the rain began to pour, but quickly stopped when we arrived. Walking into the Fairhill, we were greeted by a power outage. All of us took this time to sit in the common room and talk about various subjects. Luckily, the power came back on within a few minutes along with the internet, that had been out all day yesterday and most of today.

We had a fabulous 4th of July dinner tonight: fish and chips, green beans, and macaroni and cheese. We asked Dr. C if there were fireworks in Ghana, and he laughed at us and said, "No, there are no fireworks in Ghana." The rest of the night was dedicated to preparing for lessons to teach tomorrow (and a few of Dr. Bone's OCD Banana personalities kept it up at the puzzle tables)!

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