Swimming, Wedding, School, and Cooking!

Hi all,

Sorry for the long absence. The power was out during the day all weekend and yesterday. But then turn it back on at night which is wonderful since that is when we want the ceiling fan to sleep and can use the lights to read and cook. We have been doing lots of exciting things! I am not really sure where to begin so I am going to list what we have been up to.

Swimming!
We went to a swimming pool on Sunday! When we arrived the pool was PACKED since what could be better to do on a hot Sunday afternoon than go to the pool? It felt really nice to get in the water to cool off and swim around. One of our Ghanaian friends here, Masky, came too. She does not know how to swim so Dave and I helped teach her. She was progessing VERY quickly. In just an hour she went from only putting her feet in the water to blowing bubbles in the baby pool, leaning back to put her head in the water, floating with my assistance, getting in the big pool in 3 feet of water, to moving out to 4 feet, stepping 5-6 feet away from me, and jumping and then doggie paddling towards us! She has been wanting to learn for years (she is 25) so she was very excited. I think we will go there once every one or two weeks to cool off and have fun.

Wedding!
We were invited to a Muslim wedding this weekend because the cultural dance and drumming group that I have been practicing with was performing at the wedding. Weddings here take multiple days. I never saw the bride because she does not come out until the evening after her parents and the groom's parents have met in the mosque to discuss the arrangements of the marriage. There was a lot of music and dancing had by everyone (not me since I cannot dance AT ALL and there is a very specific way you must dance to many of the songs) but I had fun watching. I look a lot of pictures of the cultural group performing so I will try to post those on facebook soon.

School!
Things are still going well at school. I would not go as far as to say that we have mastered fractions by any means but they can each create a fraction after a picture is drawn and shaded. (I will draw a square with four squares in it, shade 3 of the squares, and they will know that that means three fourths, etc.) About 80% of them understand why 1/2 is bigger than 1/4 and why 1/1 is bigger than 7/8ths. Hopefully they will all understand that by the end of the week. It's difficult to decide when I should move on from a concept or stay back since there is such a spread of ability. Six of the girls are very advanced, 6ish are far behind in either math or English, and the rest are somewhere in the middle. It was a bit overwhelming when the teacher than used to be teaching came in on Friday asking what ability level each of the girls (there are 34 girls in my class at the moment) were at. He wants to move a couple of them down. I agree that it is a good idea but it seemed strange that he thought I should make the decision when I had only been working with the girls for 3 weeks when he has been working with them for the entire year. I told him I needed some time to think about it and on Monday he asked if I had made a list grouping the girls into ability levels. So, I made a list last night and we will be moving 6 girls down. Now I just need to come up with a way to make moving down seem like an exciting thing and not a punishment.
In other news, we are building an addition to the school which will eventually hold computers! Most of the girls do not know how to use a computer, not to mention search the internet, or write an email so they are very excited to get that portion of the school going.

Learning to cook!
Masky and her sister have been teaching us how to cook! This is VERY exciting news because it means that Dave and I can have a little bit more control over what we are eating, I am learning to cook (which is just exciting in general and makes me feel more self sufficient), I am learning my way around the market, we are becoming better friends with Masky and her sister, and, because I need to mention this again, I am learning to become a good cook!
Yesterday we made Yam Balls which were really tasty and simple. We peeled, cut, and boiled, and mashed the yam (it is kinda like potato but more starchy and soft), cut green peppers, carrots, and onions, mixed the vegetables with the yam with sardines (I NEVER would have considered eating sardines at home), mixed in a bit of egg, rolled the yam and ingredients into balls, rolled them in egg, and then fried them. So tasty. and easy. So I think we will be eating like at least once a week. We will also learn to how to do other thins with the yam and how to make different types of stews.

That is all for now but thanks for all of the emails everyone. I love hearing about all of you and it's wonderful to hear that people are actually reading the blog.

The Orphanage, Teaching, and Soccer

Hi all,

I am learning that how I walk away from my experiences (whether I feel optimistic/overwhelmed/happy/sad etc. depends on my perspective. That might seem like an obvious revelation but I think it will be huge for me being able to handle the large ups and downs of the trip. For example, today we visited the orphanage for a second time. There were 4 women working there taking care of 15 babies (2 months to 1 year) and 12 toddlers (from 1 up to maybe 5 year olds). We were sent to the "play room" (play room is in quotes because it was a tiled room with two wooden benches and barred windows) to distract the toddlers while the women were bottle feeding the babies. There were three of us and every toddler wanted to be held, spun around, and bounced at the same time. I had one on each leg and one on my back when I was sitting down. The kids are adorable and a few would repeat everything we said and sang which was fun. Ok, here is where the perspectives lesson comes in. Part of me is very sad for these children and the fact that they do not have parents, the orphanage does not have the man power to give them the attention they deserve (one child had peed herself and one was running around without underwear), and it is not likely that the older ones will be adopted. When I think about this while I am there it is overwhelming But. when I think about the fact that these children are lucky to have food, water, and a place to sleep (which is just not a reality for many kids here) then they are lucky. The women are amazing for doing what they do every day and most of the babies will be adopted. So, there are two sides to the coin! We will be returning tomorrow to help with feeding and dressing the babies. I think this will be a bit easier actually since the babies won't be trying to talk to us in Dagbani. Dave and I will have mastered  diapers by the time we return home.

Teaching:
I am loving it. Some of my lesson ideas flop (such as introducing fractions today. How did my third grade teachers do it? I mean, how do you explain that 1 over 4 means one forth, and that 1/4 plus 1/4 is not 2/8ths its 1/2 (who came up with spelling "half" with the "l" anyway?) haha but I am sure tomorrow will be better. Last week the idea of doing subtraction with more than two numbers was daunting and now they have mastered it with 4 and 5 digit numbers!! We have also covered <,>, and =, and they can write out "one thousand five hundred and fifty two" huzzah! haha It is really satisfying seeing their progress. I am finding that Math is much easier to teach than English so far (but fractions might change that!) In English we are reciting poems, making sentences and acting them out, defining adjectives and coming up with actions for them, and doing jumping jacks every 45 minutes or so to make sure they are paying attention. It is harder to see their progress here but I think they are improving and they seem happy so that's good. They are so eager to learn which makes my job a thousand times easier.

Also, adorable story...two of the girls were writing a note so I took it away from them. The note said "I love you Jenny" in Dagbani and English. One of the older girls was helping the younger one translate. They were extremely embarrassed since the note was about me and I didn't really know how to react since it made me happy but I was supposed to scold them for writing notes during class. So, I ended up giving them a scolding look and then saying thank you. Not very direct feedback but what was I to do!

In case any of you are following soccer the African cup (which is every 4 years)is going on right now. It has been super fun to watch with the Ghanaians. Sadly we just lost in the semi finals because we were not able to finish even though we were completely dominating the game. But we got to see four games here, each of which were good matches. (You sound silly if you call it a "game" not a match here.) If you want to watch the final it will be this Sunday Ivory Coast vs. Zambia.

Ok, that is all for now For those of you who have emailed me, I will get back to you soon. ,I love getting all of the mail.

Life in Ghana

Hi all!

More updates...I have been getting questions about what Tamale is like so I will start by talking about that.

Traffic: In Tamale (where we are in the North) everyone rides motorbikes and bicycles. A few people have cars but if you do you are considered very wealthy. Traffic is crazy. The bikes ride on the sidewalk and just weave in and out of traffic around pedestrians. The idea that pedestrians have the right of the way does NOT exist here so we are always on our toes walking around town. People often drive on the wrong side of the street or go through stop lights if they feel like it.

Taxis: We take a group taxi (there are no private taxis) into town. It costs about 50 cents per person per trip and is a great way to get cozy with the locals!
Buying food or clothing: For those of you who were wondering, there are no Walmarts, McDonalds, or Starbucks here. If you want to buy something you go into town where there are dozens and dozens of stands selling individual things (a mango stand, a tomato stand, a shoe stand, a toy stand, a sardine stand, etc). It is a bit overwhelming as a foreigner since it is difficult to find things like a towel or mirror. (Dave had to shave using a silver coffee pot for a mirror. I took pictures and we will see if we can upload them later. I have not seen my reflection in more than a car window since getting here.)

Water: When we first arrived water was flowing out of the hose pipe at our house. But, just like the electricity, the government or city can shut off the water for an unknown period of time whenever they like, so for the past 5 or six days we have been getting water from a tank a few houses down. We take buckets, fill them, and carry them back to the house a couple of times a day. We are lucky that our family can afford the tank. Right now we are sharing the tank with all of our neighbors too. Some families walk to the river but it is very dry in the north so there are not many rivers. Anyway...once we get the water from the tank we can shower using a bucket. One volunteer we met said she prefers the bucket shower to a real shower. I don't know that Dave and I will ever agree with her but she gave us a couple of tips on how to actually get the soap out of our hair without using as much water.
We buy drinking water every couple of days. The water comes in little plastic bags that you bite open. The bag holds 2 liters of water and you just drink it all in one setting. We have to be careful which bags we buy to make sure that they are actually purified. We've been safe so far so keep your fingers crossed!

Family life: The gender dynamics are very prominent here. The women take care of the children, cook, clean, bath the children, wash the clothes, and often sell food at market. I don't know how they do it all! The men work during the day and they come home and meet up with friends or relax. Since the north is predominantly Muslim most men have up to 4 wives. (I guess this is how the women are able to get so much done). Interestingly, the women and men eat and sleep in different places. Even the daughters do not eat with their brothers or father because it is disrespectful. The mother and daughters will cook the food, take it to the father and sons house, return to their house or hut, and then eat the food with only the women. (This might just be something that happens in Muslim homes as well. I believe that this is different in the south where it is predominantly Christian but again, I am not completely sure.

Ok...I think that covers all of the basic things. If you have any more questions let me know and I will try to answer them. In the future I will mainly post about things Dave and I have been doing or stories about school.

My time is already up!

Until next time.

February 3, 2012

Hi All,

Before I forget, here is my mailing address. If you send a letter or package you should let me know so I make sure that I go to the post office to get it.

Frederick Addai
Jenny Peek
Post Office Box TL 313
Tamale, Ghana

There is so much to share! So, I am going to split it just into sections and you can read what you like!

The weather:
It is very hot from 11 am to 4 or 5 pm. After that it is not too bad but if the power goes out (it has been out 3 times since we have been in Tamale) and our ceiling fans turn off it gets really hot really fast. The power seems to turn on after a couple of hours. The government controls the power and water, so everyone (who can afford it) has water tanks and a couple of flashlights.In the morning while I am teaching it is not bad and the evenings are nice to walk around in.

The food:
Breakfast: Hot chocolate or hot tea and white bread in bagette form (but it tastes more like wonder bread but is less chewy).
Lunch: more bread and water. We drink a lot of water here since it is so hot. So far today I have had 12 cups of water and it is only 5 o'clock! Hopefully Dave and I can find snack food we like and can eat without getting sick soon. After this we are getting mangos (yum!) I think we just need to explore around town more and we will find food we like.
Dinner: A LOT of rice, noodles, vegetables, and spices mixed together. Starches and spices (like hot pepper) are really big here. The Peek's are known for liking spicy food, but this is a new level of spice! Even Dave has had trouble with some of the hot sauces. But we had a ramen noodle like dish that we both really liked last night.

School:
I love the girls I work with. My class has about 30 girls in it and I HAVE successfully learned all of their names! It was difficult since they are all new...Naziha, Rahama, Rahema, Karima, Salamutu, Sadia, Madiya, etc. But I think the fact that I now know their names made them like me even more so they really respect me and pay attention. We do English in the morning for 2 hours, take a 30 minute break for lunch and then do math for the last hour and a half. We have been learning things like how to use "has" and "have", "is" and "are" and "this" and "that." English is harder than math because they only know some English words and not others and whenever I ask "do you understand?" they always respond "yes" as a class, even if they have no idea what I said. So I am getting good at recognizing their blank stares  and doing body motions for words. But how do you do a motion to help they know what "to describe" means? It's been interesting to say the least. In math we first went over addition, which they are really good at. Now we have been doing subtraction. The first day was disasterous. I was trying to explain how to borrow 1 from a number. (For those of you who do not remember, when you subtract something like 112 - 23, since 3 is bigger than 2 you have to "borrow" 1 from the second 1 in 112 and then think 12 - 3 and then 10 - 0.) Anyway, the first day crashed and burned but on the second day half of them understood and by the third 75% do. I need to figure out what to do with the girls who are very behind. There are two students who are older who struggle with subtraction problems like 10-4 or 12-6. I tried to work with them during the break but they are embarrassed that they have to stay in class for an extra amount of time. Hopefully I can figure something out (since the other teacher is usually (read: always) helping in the other classrooms. Since I am here for 11 weeks I am trying to come up for a bigger plan (versus going day by day) but it seems like the other teacher would just flip in the handbook to a certain page and start teaching there. So it is difficult to tell  what the girls have learned before and what is new. I guess this is what happens when most of the teachers are volunteers who come for different lengths of time and feel comfortable teaching different subjects. If any of you with teaching experience have suggestions of things we can do with limited paper and supplies that is at a 3rd grade level, let me know! (jennyrpeek@gmail.com).

Phew, this is turning into a really long update! I should go, but I would love to hear about how each of your lives are doing. I am thinking about keeping a dream journal since they are all about the U.S. So far I have dreamed about Colorado and Grinnell. Last night my dream was about food Italian food and boy was it tasty! I guess dreaming about food will have to hold me over until we find food that we really like here.
I hope you all are doing well. Congratulations for getting through the entire post!