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.
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