Basic Two

Early December

Since most of my blog updates are about adventures, I thought I might as well write about the biggest adventure of them all: Basic 2. The kids are crazy but we quickly learned to just roll with it. They are so excited to learn about everything! We did a mini unit on whales and they were completely mesmerized during Free Willy. We also learned about tornadoes. 

Madam Liz: “A tornado is so strong, it can move a whole train!” 

Student: “Woah! Can it even move a bus?” …Yes.

In Religion we’ve done mini impromptu plays of the Annunciation, Visitation, and Nativity to prepare for Christmas. The students thoroughly enjoy it and some are getting very theatrical. In music we’ve also been singing a bunch of Christmas carols, and that’s when the real fun starts! Good luck controlling a class full of 40 second- graders whose favorite hobbies are singing and dancing. And banging on the desks. It’s always a party in Basic 2!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Day

Special thanks to the cooks who spent all day preparing a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner for us! The Sisters invited the Brothers over to share our meal. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, jello, salad, pumpkin pie, aaaaaaaaand fried plantain, rice, and fish stew. YUM!

Bojo Beach

Sometime in November..

One of the teachers and his nephew wanted to introduce us to Bojo Beach, so of course we took them up on the offer! Bojo Beach, according to the postcard, is Ghana’s best kept secret, and I agree! It is located only about 20 minutes from the convent, and is the cleanest beach I’ve ever seen! You have to cross a river to get to the beach and it is breathtakingly beautiful. 

The boat to cross the river

A big boat 

Paradise!

Playing soccer on the beach

Baby clams

Takin' on the Jellies

November 18

Before break, Julie and I met with Sister Esther and she decided that it would be a good move to have us be co-teachers, so once school resumed Teresa (the aid) moved to KG (Kindergarten) and Julie started up in Basic 2 with me. So far, it’s been great!! Its much easier to plan and conduct lessons with 40 students when there are 2 teachers contributing, bouncing ideas back and forth, getting new resources and materials, and managing the many crazy kids. We have been learning about water in science, and Julie started teaching about the oceans for social studies, and so we created an “Under the Sea” unit, complete with making jellyfish out of paper plates cut in half, and tissue paper streamers hanging down. We hung the 40 decorated jellyfish from the ceiling, and before you know it the older students started hanging things in their own rooms, and teachers came to inspect our artwork. They wanted us to make their classes "Christmas Decorations" too. Everyone loves the jellyfish, and the kids are so proud!!

The RAINFOREST…. the Tropical RAINFOREST!

November 1

We went to Cacum National Park, which is a rainforest. They have a canopy walk up in the trees, with 8 swinging bridges connected in the tall trees. It was scary at first, but absolutely breath taking!!! The views were SPECTACULAR. We also got to meet a lot of different people. In our hiking group were a few Americans as well as British people. After one bridge there was a bird watching group and they let me look through their telescope at a bird with iridescent blue feathers. Absolutely gorgeous! We had so much fun up in the canopies of the rainforest. Then our taxi driver suggested to go to the monkey habitat, and who could say no to that? 10 years ago a couple from Holland started to build a lodging place for tourists, but people started asking them to take care of monkeys. So they built cages and habitats for monkeys instead! We got a personal tour of the different monkeys (and snakes, birds, and various creatures) that lived there, and it was so cool! Definitely a great stop.

Scary Bridge

Beautiful View

Big Stump

For  flashback to 10th grade biology… watch this Rainforest Rap

After While Crocodile

October 31

For midterm break the three obrunis decided to trek up to Hans Cottage where they keep crocodiles. It’s a nice little hotel with an outdoor pool, situated by a large pond with crocodiles. We got to touch a big one, and to our surprise they were really squishy!!! It was a lot of fun. 

Trick or Treat!

October 30

In Ghana they don’t celebrate Halloween, but that did not stop all the first and second graders from Trick or Treating at school today! We spent all week learning about Halloween and Jack O’ Lanterns and all the different costumes people can dress in. Since we have midterm break on the 31^st we celebrated it today instead. During art time the kids were busy drawing Jack O Lanterns and costumes they would wear if they could go Trick or Treating and I would pull out one group at a time to knock on our door and yell “TRICK OR TREAT!” Then Julie brought the Basic 1 class over and they got candy too. We made each kid stand in the front of the room and tell us what they “dressed as” (the candy was real, the costumes were imaginary). They loved it! Who doesn’t love a holiday based solely on getting free candy and wearing weird clothes? 

How Old Are You Now?

October 27

Happy Birthday Monica! We celebrated by going to the market to drink/eat fresh coconut. Delicious!