So a few weeks ago there was a funeral in my town. Maybe, thats not quite correct: the funeral was in my house for someone who died about a month prior. Being at the epicenter of the funeral action was an event in itself, especially being the white person in town. So let's begin the recap!
Friday: The body arrived at about 6:30 via ambulance to the town from the morgue. The ambulance stops on the outside of town, to 'ask permission' from the chief to enter the town with a dead person. Also, a large number of people (150?) escorted the remains to our house amidst much (select three of the following) singing/dancing/rejoicing/mourning. Then, the dress the body for viewing. Viewing in America? In the casket. Viewing in Ghana? Well, in order for the person to look as lifelike as possible they put on what appears to be a wedding dress (all white and very large) and sit the person up in a chair like they are still alive!! I wonder how one applies to be a dressing consultant for dead people: is it an inherited profession? The experience of seeing someone upright, clothed, not in a casket, but still very, very dead was like finding out people in Ghana, eating with no utensils, wash their hands with soap and water AFTER they eat – it doesn't make sense to me and in both instances is fairly disturbing. There were viewings from different families coming to pay their respects, but the most interesting part was the aftermath of what I'll call 'Deceased Dressing'.
Tradition here dictates that the body arrives on Friday and buried Saturday, so from when the body arrives in evening until the next morning, they have 'wakening', which is essentially an all-night party of music, food and dancing to keep the corpse company until it is buried... analogous to a going away party, just for a dead person. The music they play is LOUD; I'm talking KISS-concert wattage with a DJ blaring gospel music for 12 hours – in my courtyard. I tried to sleep for a bit from 12 until 6, but in every dream I dreamt I was in either at a bar, or like Inception there was background music warning my dreaming consciousness that I was about to wake up due to ear-drum damage.
Hmm, I won't be able to post all of this in a single day, so to conclude, at dawn on Saturday the party is over. At sunrise everyone left at the party goes and parades around the town with music. In my dream, I dreamt that every living person disappeared and, once again like Inception, I was stuck in a place like limbo where I was the only living person in my dream; I felt very alone so I woke up.
Continuation will occur next week: Same Ghana time, Same Ghana Channel.
You may have noticed me always talking about music. Present everyday (especially Sundays), music may occur from a soccer match, singing at school assembly, church, funerals, weddings, and when the boys from the schools play football (soccer) the girls then proceed to run around the field singing and clapping tunes from church.
Some of my colleagues want me to teach them how to talk like an American, so I've started to use larger words (draconian, ginormous), slang "What's up?" (A common misperception here is the response to "Whats up" is "Cool" – I dont know why either), and interjections of various expletives into my Ghanaian speaking style. Funnily enough, little kids as small as 5 know "sheet", but my students haven't figured out any other bad words through age 18.
Final Notes:
I read "Stiff: The life of human Cadavers" about the same time as my funeral. Great book.
About 60 students from my school were caned (google if unfamiliar) for attending wakening.
Punishments given out by me are now to carry water ¼ mile to my house, on a bucket on their head.
Two other teachers and I ate an entire box of Oreos in one night.
Book Count Since September 15th – 53 books completed. Next up: Animal Farm, 1984, Sphere.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Traveling
Transportation in Ghana is quite different than the United States. For one thing, the country is small that you don't need to fly anywhere. Instead of Greyhound buses like we do in the US, they have tro-tros here, which are like 16-passenger vans that transport people long distances.
First of all, to hail a car when you are by the side of the road you can do one of two things. To hitch a ride (hitch hike), you hold out your hands like taking communion (for catholics) and smack your hands together; this is especially useful on my road, as sometimes there are absolutely no commercial vehicles going by and I can hitch a ride with private vehicles. Or, if you are hailing a taxi in town and want to go a short distance, you point down at the ground with your right hand. Should you want to go a long distance, you point up. Guess where you point to go a medium distance? That's right, you point about shoulder level. BUT, what if there is a fork in the road a little ways down? Easy, simply point the way you want to go at the fork. Sometimes it can get complicated, like if you want to go a long distance but there are two sets of forks in the road. It's really funny to see a person point up, point right, then point left, and repeat frantically attempting to stop an uninsured, twenty year-old rusting tro already sardining 20 people into 15 child-sized seats.
Taxis. They resemble Americans taxis in name only. There are no meters (too expensive), so you have to negotiate a price based on how far you travel. Of course, this assumes you know how far it is, which is really a fallacy since prices are also increased being a white person; one person may give you a ride for 2 cedis while another, after hard bargaining will only go down to 4 cedis -at this point I pretend to huff off to see if they make a final offer... typically to no avail – I continue to walk away. There are also 'line-taxis' that take a predetermined route, but there aren't any maps to see where they go – trial and error works best in this situation. Bargaining is funny – at the airport in Accra, to get there is maybe about 4 cedis from a certain destination, but leaving directly from the airport the taxi driver charge 20 cedis.
United States = Price gouging
Ghana = Leverage
On a more cultural note, there was a funeral in my compound this past weekend. It was planned for months ahead of time so everyone in the family could make it. My landlord (Michael Asafo) is the patriarch of the family, so hundreds of people descended upon my house for a weekend of festivity and mourning. Since it only ended yesterday, I haven't had time to write about it and will post about it in full next blogupdatetime.
First of all, to hail a car when you are by the side of the road you can do one of two things. To hitch a ride (hitch hike), you hold out your hands like taking communion (for catholics) and smack your hands together; this is especially useful on my road, as sometimes there are absolutely no commercial vehicles going by and I can hitch a ride with private vehicles. Or, if you are hailing a taxi in town and want to go a short distance, you point down at the ground with your right hand. Should you want to go a long distance, you point up. Guess where you point to go a medium distance? That's right, you point about shoulder level. BUT, what if there is a fork in the road a little ways down? Easy, simply point the way you want to go at the fork. Sometimes it can get complicated, like if you want to go a long distance but there are two sets of forks in the road. It's really funny to see a person point up, point right, then point left, and repeat frantically attempting to stop an uninsured, twenty year-old rusting tro already sardining 20 people into 15 child-sized seats.
Taxis. They resemble Americans taxis in name only. There are no meters (too expensive), so you have to negotiate a price based on how far you travel. Of course, this assumes you know how far it is, which is really a fallacy since prices are also increased being a white person; one person may give you a ride for 2 cedis while another, after hard bargaining will only go down to 4 cedis -at this point I pretend to huff off to see if they make a final offer... typically to no avail – I continue to walk away. There are also 'line-taxis' that take a predetermined route, but there aren't any maps to see where they go – trial and error works best in this situation. Bargaining is funny – at the airport in Accra, to get there is maybe about 4 cedis from a certain destination, but leaving directly from the airport the taxi driver charge 20 cedis.
United States = Price gouging
Ghana = Leverage
On a more cultural note, there was a funeral in my compound this past weekend. It was planned for months ahead of time so everyone in the family could make it. My landlord (Michael Asafo) is the patriarch of the family, so hundreds of people descended upon my house for a weekend of festivity and mourning. Since it only ended yesterday, I haven't had time to write about it and will post about it in full next blogupdatetime.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Harmattan!
Harmattan! It means that everything is dusty and dry. I have some mountains that are about 2 miles away from me that I can't even see now because there is so much dust in the air. The dust reminds me of an overcast day in the US, except its always overcast and foggy. Its dry - a stream next to my village has completely dried up.
Unfortunately, all of my stuff is covered in dust as well - If I go out to my market town, my pants and shirt look like I decided to roll around in a dirt field for an hour. The upside - its pretty cool here at night and the sun is mild (for Ghana), but the sky is just all gray... there is no blue sky to be seen.
Teaching is just starting up again, so I am really excited to try out new teaching techniques and ways of getting students to care about learning. I went to church for the New Years with Ghanaians, and it was really different. Do they stay up until midnight? Yes. Do they celebrate with friends and family? Yes. Do they stay at home or go out to friend's houses? Neither, in fact Ghanaians all cluster in their churches to bring in the new year. Actually NYE is a larger holiday than Christmas (when no one goes to church unless its Sunday) because EVERYONE goes to church and prays for a successful new year. I think the strangest thing was not going to church, or having a 3 hour long church service, but between 11:30 and midnight, everyone is praying (some silently, some barely audible, some talking loud). No talking from the pastor, except to mark the time (15 minutes left!), and then all of a sudden its HAPPY NEW YEAR! and everyone cheers and breaks out into song and dance. An interesting experience... but one I probably won't redo next year - Ill be watching it on tv!
Days since last rain: ~30 days
Money spent for a 2-egg omelet on toasted bread: ~60 cents
Fuel price increase in one day, as determined by gov't: 20%
Extra ICT classes taught at my house: 20
Unfortunately, all of my stuff is covered in dust as well - If I go out to my market town, my pants and shirt look like I decided to roll around in a dirt field for an hour. The upside - its pretty cool here at night and the sun is mild (for Ghana), but the sky is just all gray... there is no blue sky to be seen.
Teaching is just starting up again, so I am really excited to try out new teaching techniques and ways of getting students to care about learning. I went to church for the New Years with Ghanaians, and it was really different. Do they stay up until midnight? Yes. Do they celebrate with friends and family? Yes. Do they stay at home or go out to friend's houses? Neither, in fact Ghanaians all cluster in their churches to bring in the new year. Actually NYE is a larger holiday than Christmas (when no one goes to church unless its Sunday) because EVERYONE goes to church and prays for a successful new year. I think the strangest thing was not going to church, or having a 3 hour long church service, but between 11:30 and midnight, everyone is praying (some silently, some barely audible, some talking loud). No talking from the pastor, except to mark the time (15 minutes left!), and then all of a sudden its HAPPY NEW YEAR! and everyone cheers and breaks out into song and dance. An interesting experience... but one I probably won't redo next year - Ill be watching it on tv!
Days since last rain: ~30 days
Money spent for a 2-egg omelet on toasted bread: ~60 cents
Fuel price increase in one day, as determined by gov't: 20%
Extra ICT classes taught at my house: 20
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Parenting Tactics
Today's blog post about Ghana is going to talk a lot about parenting styles here in country. For most of the villagers in my area, and indeed in most parts of Ghana (except Accra, where things are most westernized) children are viewed as small people that you have to take care of. Parents generally provide all of the necessary things like clothes and food, but don't take into account that a child needs to have adult supervision at a young age. Consequently, kids evolve into groups that, in a sense, raise each other through interaction with other children, and are not raised by adults most of the time.
There are two ways of thinking about why parents let their children 'run amok', except for disciplinary situations. First way of thought – parents prefer to let their children grow up independently so that they will become 'strong' and self-sufficient when they reach adulthood. Second way of thought – parents don't know how to be effective parents because their parents did not take an active interest in their lives, and as such don't know how to raise children to succeed in academia. Its important to note that in both of these, parents do less 'work' raising children than in the US. Generally speaking, parents don't sit down with kids at a young age to help them learn the alphabet or how to count or how to read; it could be because mothers have a crap-ton of work they need to do, like preparing food (at least 2 hours), bathing themselves and kids (1 hour), cleaning the house (2 hours), and going to visit relatives (2 hours).
In summary, to compare between US and rural Ghanaian parenting styles, American parents teach their children to prepare for school by reading to them and investing time in their kids, and developing a talking relationship. People in my town, from what I've seen, don't really prepare their kids for school and believe that teachers are entirely responsible for their child's education; also, because it is taboo to question an authority figure, parents talk at, rather than with kids when they get home.
Also of note, on Sunday I went to a neighboring town, Kpedze, by bicycle (maybe about 8 miles to get there). I had met a friend in Ho, my regional capital who lives there so I went to visit him (incidentally, his name is also Mike, just like the headmaster of my school, my landlord, and myself). He cooked some jollof rice for me, but we had a lot of discussions about how to raise children. His way of thinking about child rearing is vastly different than others: he doesn't let his kids go andplay with other kids in the neighborhood precisely because of how they are raised. Mike sits down with his kids every night, teaches them English, teaches them to read and take education seriously so that they can succeed in school. Think of everything I have said about how Ghanaians raise their kids, and now reverse that for Mike – in summary, he is determined to have his kids go far in life, and I know that they will succeed.
I dont mean to imply that all Ghanaians rear their children like this, but from the majority of parents I've seen its true. Obviously, there are many exceptions: like people living in Accra, the capital, are most westernized with their beliefs.
Fun Facts:
Harmattan has started, and because there is so much dust in the air sunsets are hazy and brilliant.
The day I'm writing this the key to the school was missplaced, so we are all waiting outside.
I'm teaching Kofi, the small boy in my complex, English, the alphabet, and numbers at night.
Temperature outside now: ~80 degrees.
A student just gave me 40 bananas and peanuts as a thank you for the semester.
Average price for a large, satisfying lunch in my town - 30 cents.
There are two ways of thinking about why parents let their children 'run amok', except for disciplinary situations. First way of thought – parents prefer to let their children grow up independently so that they will become 'strong' and self-sufficient when they reach adulthood. Second way of thought – parents don't know how to be effective parents because their parents did not take an active interest in their lives, and as such don't know how to raise children to succeed in academia. Its important to note that in both of these, parents do less 'work' raising children than in the US. Generally speaking, parents don't sit down with kids at a young age to help them learn the alphabet or how to count or how to read; it could be because mothers have a crap-ton of work they need to do, like preparing food (at least 2 hours), bathing themselves and kids (1 hour), cleaning the house (2 hours), and going to visit relatives (2 hours).
In summary, to compare between US and rural Ghanaian parenting styles, American parents teach their children to prepare for school by reading to them and investing time in their kids, and developing a talking relationship. People in my town, from what I've seen, don't really prepare their kids for school and believe that teachers are entirely responsible for their child's education; also, because it is taboo to question an authority figure, parents talk at, rather than with kids when they get home.
Also of note, on Sunday I went to a neighboring town, Kpedze, by bicycle (maybe about 8 miles to get there). I had met a friend in Ho, my regional capital who lives there so I went to visit him (incidentally, his name is also Mike, just like the headmaster of my school, my landlord, and myself). He cooked some jollof rice for me, but we had a lot of discussions about how to raise children. His way of thinking about child rearing is vastly different than others: he doesn't let his kids go andplay with other kids in the neighborhood precisely because of how they are raised. Mike sits down with his kids every night, teaches them English, teaches them to read and take education seriously so that they can succeed in school. Think of everything I have said about how Ghanaians raise their kids, and now reverse that for Mike – in summary, he is determined to have his kids go far in life, and I know that they will succeed.
I dont mean to imply that all Ghanaians rear their children like this, but from the majority of parents I've seen its true. Obviously, there are many exceptions: like people living in Accra, the capital, are most westernized with their beliefs.
Fun Facts:
Harmattan has started, and because there is so much dust in the air sunsets are hazy and brilliant.
The day I'm writing this the key to the school was missplaced, so we are all waiting outside.
I'm teaching Kofi, the small boy in my complex, English, the alphabet, and numbers at night.
Temperature outside now: ~80 degrees.
A student just gave me 40 bananas and peanuts as a thank you for the semester.
Average price for a large, satisfying lunch in my town - 30 cents.
Friday, December 10, 2010
A Funeral (but not sad)
Last weekend I went to my first Ghanaian funeral. Now, this isn't your typical American funeral with lots of crying and weeping; it was a funeral with lots of eating, dancing, and socializing. First of all, everyone that goes to a funeral of someone who died 'before their time' wears black, red, and brown to show mourning. However, if the person is old and 'the time is right' then everyone wears white and black to show the they are happy for the person to move on to the next life. Funerals are more like a party and less like a time of mourning, especially because some funerals aren't held until several weeks, months, or up to two years after someone has died!
So back to my funeral: I, being the only white person there among hundreds of Ghanaians, stuck out like... well like a white sheep among a flock of black sheep. I wore black clothes (which are extremely hot in the tropical sun!) and greeted tons of people. However, the best part of the funeral (if there is such a thing) was that my landlord, an 80-yera old man, has unofficially adopted me into his family! And, at said funeral, I entertained not as the Yevu, but as a member of the Asafo family. We met the paramount chief of our surrounding villages who is still chief after being enstooled (crowned) in 1936, visited a few houses and said our remorses to the families, and I even got to eat a nice meal and beer in the end. I had a great time going as an Asafo; supposidly as the next family meeting I will be introduced to the other members of the family – its an extended family over several towns, and I'm sure jokes will abound about how the all black family has a white person in it.
Things are starting to get hot, and its almost time to buy a fan in my non-air conditioned concrete house. The concrete house is an excellent insulator, and proves it worth about midday when its still cool inside and scorching outside... however the flip side is the sun heats up the building and doesnt cool off until the next morning, making going to sleep inside painful. In fact, I've thought of buying a hammock to put outside and sleep in my courtyard, but then I wouldn't be under a mosquito net outside, and would rapidly develop malaria. School term is almost over, so we are giving exams. Speaking of which, Religious and Moral Education (RME) is a class, and some of the standardized questions are just that – questionable. Examples are as follows, and read the question before you look at the answer to see how YOU perform as a model student in middle school.
Q: It is good practice to ____ while eating.
A: keep quiet
Q: Children must be ____ to promote a good relationship with parents.
A: obedient
Q: God always blesses people who _____.
A:donate money for His work.
These were all from our end-of-term exams. So, Kofi means I was born on a certain day of the week, Yevu means white person, and Asafo is the family that has taken me in in Ghana. I have another funeral to go this weekend, so I look forward to being called Kofi Michael David 'Yevu' Asafo Shoup.
So back to my funeral: I, being the only white person there among hundreds of Ghanaians, stuck out like... well like a white sheep among a flock of black sheep. I wore black clothes (which are extremely hot in the tropical sun!) and greeted tons of people. However, the best part of the funeral (if there is such a thing) was that my landlord, an 80-yera old man, has unofficially adopted me into his family! And, at said funeral, I entertained not as the Yevu, but as a member of the Asafo family. We met the paramount chief of our surrounding villages who is still chief after being enstooled (crowned) in 1936, visited a few houses and said our remorses to the families, and I even got to eat a nice meal and beer in the end. I had a great time going as an Asafo; supposidly as the next family meeting I will be introduced to the other members of the family – its an extended family over several towns, and I'm sure jokes will abound about how the all black family has a white person in it.
Things are starting to get hot, and its almost time to buy a fan in my non-air conditioned concrete house. The concrete house is an excellent insulator, and proves it worth about midday when its still cool inside and scorching outside... however the flip side is the sun heats up the building and doesnt cool off until the next morning, making going to sleep inside painful. In fact, I've thought of buying a hammock to put outside and sleep in my courtyard, but then I wouldn't be under a mosquito net outside, and would rapidly develop malaria. School term is almost over, so we are giving exams. Speaking of which, Religious and Moral Education (RME) is a class, and some of the standardized questions are just that – questionable. Examples are as follows, and read the question before you look at the answer to see how YOU perform as a model student in middle school.
Q: It is good practice to ____ while eating.
A: keep quiet
Q: Children must be ____ to promote a good relationship with parents.
A: obedient
Q: God always blesses people who _____.
A:donate money for His work.
These were all from our end-of-term exams. So, Kofi means I was born on a certain day of the week, Yevu means white person, and Asafo is the family that has taken me in in Ghana. I have another funeral to go this weekend, so I look forward to being called Kofi Michael David 'Yevu' Asafo Shoup.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Sports Day!
Sports day! Or should I say two days. Maybe more like two weeks. When sports are going on at school, or when there is training for them, school, in my fellow teachers' words is "ineffective". While in the US sporting events for school are after school or the weekends, sports are right in the middle of the week, in this case Wednesday and Thursday. Learning in school does not take place during these days; instead, the entire school shows up at Dzolokpuita (a town about a 50 minute walk away) to compete in our little sporting bloc.
Unfortunately, while I did not participate as a coach or a referee, I like to think I provided some emotional support being the only 'yevu' (white person) at a sporting event with over 250 people to the students at my school. Now, not only will an unnamed member of my family only see pictures of me with other Peace Corps Volunteers, but that person will see me now sitting watching football and at a palm-wine spot with a fellow teacher.
My small boy, who it about 4 years old can speak only a small small English, I can now deal with appropriately by giving him small tasks like carrying my soap to the shower, hanging up my clothes after I wash them, fetching me water, etc. I have about 50 pictures of him because he insists on Kofi Photo Shoots to broadcast his bling (my personal items he finds interesting) like my watch, sunglasses (gankui), hat (kuku), and shirt (dzimewui). He wants to know about America, but I can't communicate to him about all the subtleties of US life. I like to think that I'm getting a taste of what being a dad is like because he routinely falls asleep in my lap and then I carry him back to his bed. Also, I have the responisblility, per se, of entertaining him if we aren't doing anything else that evening. The other little girl who lives in my complex is a little over 2 years old, but for some reason the last 2 weeks whenever she sees me she runs away! It wasn't like that, say, a month ago, but I can't imagine what's going through her head.
Teaching is going well, but our syllabus of topics we need to cover is way larger than the amount of time we have for it. ICT is easy to fit in all the topics, but Math is much harder. Out of the 150 pages I am supposed to teach this year, after the first term I will be about 10 pages behind!
For some reason, Blogger won't let me upload photos or videos here, so go to facebook to see photos and videos.
Fun facts:
One of the popular songs here is currently titled "Sex Machine"
I found out one of the students who comes to me for ICT to use my computer in Junior High School is 22.
My fellow teacher says she is too skinny and 'wants to get fat' to get a husband soon.
I am, on average, at 6'0 about 6 inches taller than the typical Ghanaian man.
Still malaria-free
Unfortunately, while I did not participate as a coach or a referee, I like to think I provided some emotional support being the only 'yevu' (white person) at a sporting event with over 250 people to the students at my school. Now, not only will an unnamed member of my family only see pictures of me with other Peace Corps Volunteers, but that person will see me now sitting watching football and at a palm-wine spot with a fellow teacher.
My small boy, who it about 4 years old can speak only a small small English, I can now deal with appropriately by giving him small tasks like carrying my soap to the shower, hanging up my clothes after I wash them, fetching me water, etc. I have about 50 pictures of him because he insists on Kofi Photo Shoots to broadcast his bling (my personal items he finds interesting) like my watch, sunglasses (gankui), hat (kuku), and shirt (dzimewui). He wants to know about America, but I can't communicate to him about all the subtleties of US life. I like to think that I'm getting a taste of what being a dad is like because he routinely falls asleep in my lap and then I carry him back to his bed. Also, I have the responisblility, per se, of entertaining him if we aren't doing anything else that evening. The other little girl who lives in my complex is a little over 2 years old, but for some reason the last 2 weeks whenever she sees me she runs away! It wasn't like that, say, a month ago, but I can't imagine what's going through her head.
Teaching is going well, but our syllabus of topics we need to cover is way larger than the amount of time we have for it. ICT is easy to fit in all the topics, but Math is much harder. Out of the 150 pages I am supposed to teach this year, after the first term I will be about 10 pages behind!
For some reason, Blogger won't let me upload photos or videos here, so go to facebook to see photos and videos.
Fun facts:
One of the popular songs here is currently titled "Sex Machine"
I found out one of the students who comes to me for ICT to use my computer in Junior High School is 22.
My fellow teacher says she is too skinny and 'wants to get fat' to get a husband soon.
I am, on average, at 6'0 about 6 inches taller than the typical Ghanaian man.
Still malaria-free
Friday, November 5, 2010
It's Friday!
Friday! But aren't I supposed to be teaching on Friday? You would be correct, on Fridays I do teach. So what am I doing in my regional capital Ho and not at school?
Oh, well our school has started athletics, and next Friday is our first outing. But our students can't come after school because most of them have to go and farm; so we hold practice from 5:15am until about 8:30am. Then the students go home and are supposed to bathe, change clothes, and come back to school.
Well, today being Friday all of the students that are playing on teams (more than half of the school) decided just to take the rest of the day off. Y'know, start the weekend early. School is supposed to start at 7:45, so I arrive at 7:30 every day, and by the time 10:00 had passed, they were only about 40% of students at the school. I should also mention that our school has 6 teachers and 1 headmaster, yet for most of the morning I was the ONLY teacher on the schoolgrounds, responsible for 40 mid-teenagers.
Some friends were coming to Ho today, and as such I spontaneously decided to come and meet them. I rode my bike to the nearest large town and caught a ride to the city.
I should mention that even though we are in a third-world country, and cars and generally crappy, some taxis CAN go fast. In fact, my one today topped out at around 135 km/hour (around 84 mph). This wouldnt bother me on a freeway, but Ghanaian roads have blind corners, not to mention we pass numerous small towns. We made it alive with 7 people in our taxi (people learn that personal space is only optional).
Next week, I have an In-Service Training with most of my friends in Education, so I am looking forward to that.
The things I miss most about the US is food.
Current Weight - 172 pounds (about 5 less than when I came here)
Number of canings witnessed - 100+
Average number of eggs eaten, per day - 4
Oh, well our school has started athletics, and next Friday is our first outing. But our students can't come after school because most of them have to go and farm; so we hold practice from 5:15am until about 8:30am. Then the students go home and are supposed to bathe, change clothes, and come back to school.
Well, today being Friday all of the students that are playing on teams (more than half of the school) decided just to take the rest of the day off. Y'know, start the weekend early. School is supposed to start at 7:45, so I arrive at 7:30 every day, and by the time 10:00 had passed, they were only about 40% of students at the school. I should also mention that our school has 6 teachers and 1 headmaster, yet for most of the morning I was the ONLY teacher on the schoolgrounds, responsible for 40 mid-teenagers.
Some friends were coming to Ho today, and as such I spontaneously decided to come and meet them. I rode my bike to the nearest large town and caught a ride to the city.
I should mention that even though we are in a third-world country, and cars and generally crappy, some taxis CAN go fast. In fact, my one today topped out at around 135 km/hour (around 84 mph). This wouldnt bother me on a freeway, but Ghanaian roads have blind corners, not to mention we pass numerous small towns. We made it alive with 7 people in our taxi (people learn that personal space is only optional).
Next week, I have an In-Service Training with most of my friends in Education, so I am looking forward to that.
The things I miss most about the US is food.
Current Weight - 172 pounds (about 5 less than when I came here)
Number of canings witnessed - 100+
Average number of eggs eaten, per day - 4
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