April Fool's Day

April 1

Today was April Fool’s Day and every student in the school thought it was so funny to play the “made you look!” game with us. Julie got a little more creative and decided to trick the entire class into thinking they wouldn’t get lunch or snack because the Sisters forgot to pay the food bill and now they won’t bring any. Meanest April Fool’s Joke ever.. some tears were shed.

This week is final exams week. I honestly can’t believe how fast this term has flown by. It’s almost over!!!

A few months ago we decided, for a variety of reasons, that we would leave before 3^rd term started. It was logical to start our job search at home, and easier for Sister Esther to hire someone for an entire term instead coming in for the last half. Ever since Liz took a tumble, I’ve really bonded with the teachers. I’m not ready to say goodbye to the kids or the teachers in just one week’s time. I wish me leaving so early was an April Fool’s joke. 

Girls enjoying our newly donated books

Library Time

Crazy kids

Simple Beauty

March 26

The sunrise the other day was breathtaking. Absolutely. I find it ironic that people pay money to see beautiful things, or travel to far away places, when all they have to do is wake up a little earlier and watch the most beautiful display of colors emerge from the horizon. All natural, every day. And I’ve probably slept through 99% of my life’s worth. Sad.

God is so great. I can’t believe some of the things He created, and how I take them for granted. I don’t stop to admire the beauty He has given us on this earth: sunrises, sunsets, grasshoppers, seashells, butterflies, penguins, orchids, horses, bumblebees, ants, snow capped mountains, rivers, clouds, stars, lakes, puddles.

Beautiful.

If I Only Had a Brain...

March 21

So we had our final competition for sports day. Since the JHS (Junior High School) is being build exactly on top of the our old soccer/track “field” they bulldozed another spot for us to run and play on. Unfortunately it is only about 80 meters long, so for the “200 Meter Dash” the kids had to run down, turn around, and come back. Nothing like braking around a cone to slow down your momentum.

Every single sports day the male teachers in charge say “Its sports day, Liz, wear your PE dress!” So every single sports day I run back to the house to change into shorts and tennies, and every single sports day, I don’t participate in any sports. Until today. I came wearing khaki capris, flats, and a polo, and no one told me to change into my PE dress, so I didn’t. We watched the final House Competition to determine the fastest runners in the school. After the student’s finished the last race, they announced “Now its time for the teacher’s race!” and I looked around to see the participants. The only ones out were the 5 young male teachers under the age of 30, and I thought to myself “Where are all the women?” I took it upon myself to represent them and walked over to the starting line.

Here is a list of things that I did not stop to think about:

      1)   Liz, you’re wearing khakis and flats. You can’t run in khakis and flats.

      2)   Liz, this is a straight up gravel track. You can’t run fast on gravel. Especially in flats

      3)   Liz, just because you ran track doesn’t qualify you as a “natural runner.” The last race you ran was 5 years ago. 

      4)   Liz, you also haven’t exercised for like a year.

      5)   Liz, this is Africa. You are running against 5 young African males. Who do you think wins the Olympics? Africans. They are fast. You are going to humiliate yourself.

Here is a list of things that I did stop to think about:

     1)   I ran track in high school. Sprints are my thing. These teachers won’t know what hit them when a small white girl totally blows them out of the water.

If I only had a brain….

Take your mark. Get Set. Go.

And we were off. I was amazed at how in the first 3 meters someone could so clearly take the lead. Who knew the French teacher was so fast?

          10  meters later.. Hey I’m not last! That has to count for something? Just push it a little more…

          20  meters later.. my shoe came off and Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. It goes without saying that flats are for the cuteness factor only, and are not as versatile as previously thought.

The teachers left me in the dust while they competed for the winning title. The entire student body (yes, I wiped out in front of the whole school) ran onto the track and surrounded me to see if I was okay. I was laughing to cover up my injured  pride, gashed and bloody knee, and scraped forearm. I tore right through my khakis, and Hilda, the 3^rd grade teacher, helped escort me to the nurse.

The nurse was actually amazed at how beat up I got, and kept asking if I was okay. (I was, until I felt the powerful effects of rubbing alcohol cleaning my wounds). After she bandaged me up, I felt like I had to bandage what was left of my pride. I marched back up to the male teachers and respectfully requested a rematch next week. As I walked up to the house to change out of my battle uniform, I remembered numbers 2-5 of “The List of Things I Did Not Stop to Think About” and realized that they are applicable to my race next week. I’m going to humiliate myself twice in one week.

If I only had a brain…

Boti Falls

February 28 

The 3 Obrunis journeyed to the beautiful Eastern region to visit Boti Falls, the waterfalls. It was very simple and beautiful, God really knows his stuff. We had fun climbing along the rocks and trying not to slip into the water. Unfortunately, the adventure side of me took over and I tried to conquer sitting on a slippery log. As if in slow motion, I slipped off and into the water, fully clothed. It made me famous, because all of the other tourists started taking pictures of me.  Everyone expressed sincere sympathy, while Julie and I were laughing so hard.

To dry out, we began a trek to see the canopy at Boti Falls. After about a 20 minute hike, we stopped some girls on the path coming back from the canopy, to ask how far it was.  One of the girls replied, “It is 100% far!!” which made us laugh so hard! We decided to turn back since it was getting late, and we didn’t want to be traveling in the dark. We didn’t get to see the canopy, but we definitely had some good laughs.

February Updates

February:

Lots to say! We are having so much fun in the classroom! We are really keeping busy trying to keep up with all the kids. We had sports day at the school, in which the teachers set up a track around the soccer “field” (its all dirt) and we had house races to see who is the fastest. We never finished the final competition; we got rained out, so Augusta (my house) is still in the running!

Sister Lucy, a great friend from India who was on internship here, left in February, and we were so sad. She was always smiling and joking about everything. Her laugh will be greatly missed!

We had midterm break and the three obrunis took a tro tro to Cape Coast to visit Elmina, one of the castles they kept slaves in during the Trans-atlantic slave trade. It held 1000 slaves at a time, 400 female and 600 male. It was so depressing to see the living conditions of the slaves, and hear of everything they had to go through. It was very cool to actually visit such a historical site; this castle had been built in the 1600s. 

Female Slaves cell. They fit 150 women in here.

A cannonball that weighs 25 kg (55 lbs). As a punishment, slaves would have to hold this all day in the hot sun, or get 40 lashes and their ear chopped off.

Making fishing boats

A small memorial

Overlooking the city

January Updates

January

We came back from our Christmas trip, rejuvenated  and reenergized. Julie and I prepared for meeting our 40 smiling students, while Sister Esther had another plan for us. She sat us down and said they added another new student, so we have 41, and therefore they decided to split the class. We were mixed feeling about this, because while we wouldn’t be in the same classroom with the same students all the time, we would be able to actually control a class of 20 or so children. We decided to continue to subject teach instead of one of us teaches all of A and one teaches all the subjects in B. I teach math, science, religion, and music to both classes while Julie teaches English, social studies, computer and art to both classes. It is a lot of running back and forth between the adjacent classrooms but we both prefer seeing all of our kids instead of only half of them. Also, we are continually getting new students in both classes. We are up to 45 now, and we are having so much fun. It’s great that all the kids get the individual attention they need in order to excel in the classroom.  

One of our students celebrating a birthday :)

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!