Through Our Eyes

Dave's class with is teacher. His students were at the first grade level even though many of them were 12-15 years old. 

This is my classroom. There were 34 girls, ages 10 to 16 or 17 in the class. The smallest girls sit up front and the tallest ones sit in the back. (I am not going to name any of the girls for their own privacy.) 

My class on our last day of school. 

The third classroom in our school (there are four total). These girls are 4-9 years old. They are at the preschool/kindergarten level, learning to write and recognize letters and shapes. This is not even the entire classroom. To the left there is a bench against the wall where more students sit without desks. There are almost 70 students in this class. Usually they have only one teacher. Talk about needing patience as a teacher!

Our evening class. These girls are 14 to 17 years old. They are in grades 4 through 8th. Nir, the man on the right, would tutor the girls in grades 4 and 5 with Dave. I worked with the girls in grades 6-8.  

Dave speaking to some of the Maltiti students at their weekly Saturday morning meeting at the school.

At one of the evening cultural shows I spoke alongside one of the local volunteers with Volunteering Solutions and the Kalargia Village Chief (far right) to dozens of parents about the importance of girls education. We held the show at a village near the school where the majority of the girls in the village do not attend any form of schooling.

Dave doing his thing with the cement blocks for the office/library.

When we worked on Saturdays the girls would help out too. They are laying the cement floor right now. The wood plank is used to level out the cement after it is poured.  

One of Dave's co-workers. 

Girls would come to the house daily to read and play games. They would stay at the house for an hour or two reading Dr. Suess books, coloring, practicing flash cards, looking at a map of the world we brought, and/or playing games. Notice the girl in the middle right of the picture who is in blue with a baby on her back. The girls would often bring their little siblings with them. 

These are a few of my most advanced students. They were writing stories (which they were very proud of!) One of the students stories is below:
"Once upon a time there was a man and woman fighting in the house. One day the man say to the woman I can give you money to cook but you cannot give me money to cook. The woman say to the man I can cook for you bug you cannot cook for me. The man say I can run but you cannot run. The woman say I cannot run but my son can run fast. The man start to cry. The woman also cry. Their son laughed at them. He, he, he. Mother and father cry. The man and his wife and their son. Story End."
It's brilliant! This particular student used to be in grade 5 but since her mother and father passed away she is living with her aunt who cannot afford to pay for school. Because of this she is at our school. Thankfully she is back in school but I hope that she can move up to J.S.S. soon.  

These eight boxes are full of books for the new library that we started. We brought a bunch of story books (Dr. Suess books, chapter books, etc.) with us when we came. There was also a group of 25 Americans who came at the end of our stay. We asked them to bring books and they did! We sorted the books by skill level. Green tape are junior high books, blue tape is grades 4 through 6th books, and red tape is K-3rd grade books. They are in the process of finishing the new office that is next to the school where the library will be kept. Once this building is finished in the next couple of weeks the library will be up and running! While we were there the girls would ask me for a book and then would bring it back to the house the next day. I know that they will be eager to see the books again! Especially the book "Are You My Mother?" by Dr. Suess. That book was the definite favorite of my P3 students. 

A few of my students having fun with the camera in my room pretending to be reading diligently. The green book with the girl in the green hat and the three books in the first row to the left are a few of the books that [you!] helped buy! 

Playing the memory card game. These three were a handful in the classroom but were SO darn cute outside of class! 

The memory card game was a favorite for all.  

Our friend Masky helping me do laundry. You use three buckets and wash each piece of clothing three times. It definitely put complaining about walking to the washer in perspective!

It's a Ghanaian tradition to wake and pelt your friend/family member with water when it is their birthday. It was Francis' birthday so we all poured water on him. Before this picture was taken Fred (the director who is holding the green cup) was spraying the water on Francis. We are being rather friendly in this picture. 

A few of the girls having fun while hanging out at the school in the afternoon. We were waiting for a the large group of American volunteers who arrived and were going to read story books with the girls. The girl on the right has a Frisbee on her head (the logical use of it!) and she is playing a rhyming game with the girl on the left. The girl in the striped shirt is holding her little brother who sometimes likes to wander into class looking for her in the morning. All of the girls pictured are in my class.  

I playing soccer with some of the evening class students from Vittin Village. The girl in the first row in white and red and the girl in the second row three from the left are the students who came to Mole National Park, where the elephants were, with Dave and I. Can you tell that it was just a tad bit hot? ha. 

We visited Paga, in the North of Ghana to visit the crocodiles (see below). After seeing the crocodiles and an old alave camp we took at taxi to the border and convinced the border patrol police to let us cross the border into Burkina Faso briefly.

Our visit to the monkey village! We fed them bananas and they devoured them on the spot.

At the monkey village there was a huge tree that was hallow that we could climb up into.

Children at one of the villages that Volunteering Solutions supports. We did not work  in this village but volunteers who come in the summer will live here.

All of the women walk to either the dam (seen here) or other rivers or water sources to collect water for washing, cooking, drinking, bathing, etc. They carry these heavy metal buckets on their head for anywhere from 5 minutes to an 45 minutes.

Eating banku (a traditional dish that is really spicy and somewhat sour but really tasty) with Nana in Accra. 

Dave hunting and throwing his new club at the chicken. For a good five minutes it was the chicken versus six of us. Ultimately, the chicken lost. Points if you can find the chicken!

That crocodile is alive I promise! 

Dave taking me for a spin on the Kalargia Chief's motorbike.  What you can't tell from this picture is that this is only my second time riding a motorbike and I almost fell off the back when we accelerated because I was not holding onto Dave properly.

Playing djembe with Maiga, one of our teachers. I brought the drum in front of me home!

Can you find me? I am one of the drummers! The cultural dance and drumming group that I have been training with performed at the village where are school is. I played the Fume Fume dance and Palango dance during the performance. So exciting. There were only, you know, like 100+ of our students and their parents watching!

A few of the dancers having fun. In this picture they are performing a traditional Northern dance. They wear difference outfits for the Southern Ghana and Northern Ghana songs. In this piece the women fan the male dancers but in other pieces the women dance as well.

I even decided to join in! I can't remember the name of this dance right now, but it is a dance done at many occasions in which only girls dance. They dance in a line and then when it is your turn you bump hips/butts with the person in line behind you (in rhythm with the music naturally.) I am about to bump hips with the girl (one of my students) on the far left. 

A few of my students with me after I finished drumming. The girl to the far left is 13 or 14. The rest are 10 and 11 years old. 

Elephants at Mole National Park!

Entering the water hole. It looks gray/tan right now but after it enters the water you can see that it is actually black!

An elephant's footprint.

Two of our older students went with us to the park. Can you tell that they were excited? :) 

One of the guys who lives with us and is a high school student also went with us. Behind us you can see a warthog!

Cape Coast! This is the view from the hotel that we were staying at. Dave is literally 10 steps from our individual room/hut.

The fishing boats right next to the Cape Coast Castle, where slaves used to be sold into the Triangular Trade. 

The waves at Cape Coast were incredible! I can without a doubt say that Dave and I will never find  such consistently perfect waves no matter where we go. No matter the time of day the waves were perfect for diving into and body surfing. 

Fisherman pulling in their nets around 7 am. 

Dave heroically opening a coconut that fell from one of the trees with his new machete. 

Me enjoying his hard work. 

The canopy walk at Kakum National Park near Cape Coast. This was one of the coolest and most terrifying things we did in Ghana. There are 7 bridges that we crossed. At some points they are 40 meters (over 125 feet) off the forest floor! 

One of the MANY huge trees in Kakum National Park. We were above these trees when we walked on the bridges!

Acting calm and cool while in actuality we are pleading with Nir to take the picture faster. 

Don't look down! Or, do. But don't fall! 

This and the picture below are two of my favorite pictures from the trip. This picture is from our first week in Ghana. Everyday the girls would walk us home from school. One day Dave got on the back of one of the student's bikes. All of the girls got really excited and chased after them. Such joy in such a small thing!

Again, this picture captures the joy the children have and share. This was on our last day in Tamale. These are some of my students who came to say goodbye. We are all sitting on my bed laughing about who knows what. They came at 8 am and most of them did not leave until they had to go home for dinner around 5. This is the feeling I am leaving Ghana with and hope to return to one day soon.

Thanks for following our trip!