School; the classes and the students!

Wooohooo time table! I like time tables, it reminds me of school, which reminds me of Hafstad, which reminds me of my friends and how much I miss them. Sigh.

So, I’ve got 18 hours of lessons a week and am in charge of the full English education until Christmas of students ranging from 8-12 years old. Which is pretty scary. The awesome Britt, who I’ve taught together with until now, is leaving on Wednesday, which means that I have to try and be the disciplinarian that she is. I just want the kids to like me, which means I’m probably too nice to be a good teacher. Ah, well, I’m going to do my best to be all mean and stuff.

The classes:

Class 3: An unruly classroom full of 23 energetic 8-year olds. They don’t listen, half of them don’t do their work and they keep breaking their pens. There’s a lot of yelling and sometimes a desperate; ‘’I’m gonna get the cane, I’M GONNA GET THE FRIGGIN CANE!’’ before snatching it from one of the other teacher and smacking whatever with it. I would never hit the kids, but their tables, chairs and the blackboard have already taken several beatings.

Class 4: There are about 30 9-year olds in this class. These don’t listen either, but they want to learn and are quicker to write down their notes. There are a couple of funny figures in this class, like Lewis, the class-snitch who writes down lists of the kids that misbehave and then gets a teacher to cane them. He’s actually adorable and means to help, but it’s still diabolically smart, because he is best mates with all the teachers. His popularity doesn’t seem to suffer though. I can easily see him become president one day – he’s already got the political games down. Or the twins Doris and Dorcas, who are equally sleepy and who keep running off to do whatever wherever. I cannot keep them apart. There is also a little boy called Michael, who is so happy and content all the time, but who we believe is dyslectic. The poor boy gets no extra help at the school and can barely read.

Class 5: The ‘’nice’’ class. About 14 kids, I think. They are clever in this class and pay attention. My favourite is in this class. A teacher isn’t supposed to have favourites, but all teachers have and mine is 10-year old Chris. I think he is adorable and smart, just like his twin sister Cristobel. But Chris remains my favourite. Today he got caned, for no apparent reason other than cruelty, and it broke my heart to see him cry. I just wanted to comfort and hug him and Sophia (A girl who got the worst of the beating and was also crying) but the kids here are used to some more beating if they are caught crying, so they just kind of hide their faces on their tables. It’s horrible.

Class 6: These are the ones ‘’in charge.’’ 11-year olds, about 12 of them. There are a couple of ‘’good ones’’ in this class and a couple ‘’naughty ones.’’ They are good kids though and are mature and responsible enough to ask help from, which is nice, as the teachers aren’t especially helpful. The students of class 6 are the ones that get us our lunches, the ones who check the time table for what’s lesson is next and the ones that like to carry bags. Big and dopey Clement, always-eager Portia, quietly brilliant Beatrice and Pearl who has, according to Britt, ‘’the biggest African lips I’ve ever seen!’’ She likes to pout and go ‘’Oy! Madame!’’ and be annoying.

Class 7: A tiny class of only four students and the only ones who have a proper classroom, instead of a ‘’class-stable’’, without a fan of course, which mean that it is their classroom is the HOTTEST room out of them all. They’re a silent bunch, with only one boy. Normally students of class 7 are supposed to go to a different school, so called Junior High, but this year they’ve decided that class 7 just stays at Promiseland Int. School, but some of the students did transfer. That’s why there are so few of them. Don’t ask me why. 

Update yay!

I’ve been here three weeks tomorrow. Three weeks! Three months to go. It still feels like a vacation though. Like; I’m going to go home soon and back to school. But then I realize that no, I’m staying, I have a couple of months to go, about 8 weeks left to explore Ghana and become all spiritual and find myself and stuff. So far it’s been pretty great! The school has been tough, but also very rewarding. The food has been spicy and not very healthy, but that’s okay and I can handle a few spots. The people are very helpful, even though I’ll never be used to the staring. The heat is… tolerable, as long it’s cloudy. Once the sun comes out I turn into a sweaty tomatoface. A SEXY sweaty tomatoface.

This weekend we took a trotro to the Volta region. 7 girls, a couple of Ghanaians, one cute little boy and two chickens tied together, stuffed under one of the benches. After a couple of uncomfortable hours, we finally got to our destination, a gorgeous waterfall! It took a 45-minute walk through a forest to get there, but it was totally worth it. A dangerous journey in a trotro later we arrived at our hostel, a place that can be described as a vegan-rasta-paradise called Roots Yard. Delicious food, freshly mixed juices and chai tea lattes! And then after a relaxing night, we arrived back at the house today, exhausted and dirty. Tonight we also had to said goodbye to one of my favourite Spaniards Maria who is going back home to Madrid. This week a couple of other fellow volunteers are going to leave, but new ones will be arriving too! Fun!

I’ll have to check if I can make some kind of video from this weekend but tomorrow (Yes TOMORROW. I’ve got posts queued for a change) you can expect my class schedule and more! 

Turtles woohoo

Ey peeps!

No worries, I’m still alive and I’m still having a blast here in Ghana! Yes, the teaching is tough, the food we get at home is still blah and I spent most of my days sweaty, but it’s amazing anyways. Last Friday, when I was sitting in the back of a stuffy minibus (38 Ghanaians, Britt, Nat and me) with my superwhite shoulder half out of the window so I could hear the kids shouting ‘’Obruni! Obruni!’ and was watching the hustle-bustle outside and breathing in the smoky air, I found out that ever though I wasn’t sure I could do this 3 weeks ago, there is nowhere I would rather like to be right now.

So, this weekend we took a taxi, bus and another taxi to the Green Turtle Lodge for some relaxing beach time and baby turtles! We left the volunteer house at 7 in the morning and arrived 4 in the afternoon, but the drama was worth it because the place was gorgeous! I made another little film of it!

For anybody who is interested; One of my fellow volunteers, Britt, who works with me as a teacher at the school and is absolutely awesome writes a blog about her adventures here! She and her friend Jess will be going home next week, but her posts are worth a read. I especially agree with the last one about the difficulties over here and I recommend you to read it, as she writes so much more… eloquent than me.

I shan’t lie Britt, school would be a nightmare without you!

A little bit about the school! :)

Hellu!

 So, I’m in Ghana! But what am I going to do here? 

 I’m going to volunteer at the Promiseland International School, which is a 25-minute-walk away from the volunteer house. It is a private, Christian school, so the kids wear uniforms, which are pink dresses for the girls and pink shirts with brown shorts for the boys. The parents pay for their kids to go to school, so it’s a fairly good school and the kids who go there are middle class. I think there are 70-odd students, spread out over 6 years. The kids get lunch at school, which is cooked by two ‘’Big mamas’’ sitting in a little alley behind one of the buildings. The food is pretty good though! I’ve found out that as long I don’t think about the germs I’m fine. 

 Me and an English girl called Britt are volunteering as teachers at the school and we start properly tomorrow. I spend Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week at the school too, but I just played with the kids and told them about Norway and my life back home. They are ADORABLE. They call me ‘’Madame Marieke’’ and are pretty respectful, but it’s just that the school is build in such a way that everybody can hear each other so the kids are kind of easily distracted. I haven’t really gotten any pictures of the school yet, because the kids go CRAZY when you even take your camera out of your bag, but maybe tomorrow I’ll be able to take some pictures without the little monkeys jumping in the frame. 

 For now: Here’s a short video I made when I bought my camera to school on Thursday!

 

Woohoo!

I'm getting OLD

All of the sudden I am 19! Wooohooo! We went to a bar called the Purple Roof on Friday evening to celebrate my birthday and we had a lot of fun!  We had planned on going on a overnight-trip to a hostel with a private beach, but I ended up staying at home together with Katie who was nice enough to keep me company and the new volunteer who arrived last night, Cat. The fact that it was my birthday didn’t really matter to me, it was more annoying to have to waste a whole weekend on being ill. I’m gonna be here for the next 3 months though, so I guess I’ll have plenty of time.

I’ll talk a bit more about the school and the work I’m going to do there later today, but for now watch this video. You should especially pay attention to the lyrics.

This is a pretty popular song here in Ghana. I mean, its okay, I guess some people do want a strong African man. But if you’d reverse the roles, make it a song about a strong white man, because white men are better and if it was released it in Europe, wouldn’t there be a massive uproar? It would be banned and the creators would be accused of racism and whatnot. That’s a double standard right there. 

Ghana: The volunteer house and stabbing crabs!

I had my first day at school today! It was an experience on its own, but I thought I’d split stuff up in chapters, and talk about the school and work there another time.

Sooo, the house! I am staying in Accra, which is the capital of Ghana, in the area called Teshie-Nungua more specifically near the Borabora hotel. I haven’t even taken any pictures of the street or the area, because I’ve been so focused on settling in and getting used to the heat and the food. 

 

So the house is quite large and the yard is surrounded by a wall, like most houses in the area. There is a livingroomarea with a tv and chairs and sofas. Then there are four bedrooms for the volunteers, two for the girls and two for the boys. The girls have their own bathroom, which is… messy. I’m not 100% sure if we are supposed to clean it ourselves, but we’ll see after a while :P 

Right now there are only 6 girl volunteers; one Irish girl who sleeps in the bunk above me, three British girls (two of them are friends) and one Spanish girl. Plus me! Also living in the house is the CEO of the Dream Africa Care Foundation, Jamal. 

The cook is called Yvonne and she makes breakfast and dinner for us. She’s also in charge of the kitchen area. We’ve got a big fridge where they keep the food, and where we can store our own food. I’ve only got some juice and a bottle of coke in there so far. 

Yesterday Jamal bought live crabs at the market and Yvonne was going to prepare them. She had to stab them with a knife to kill them. It was fascinating and the best thing was that she was so calm about it! We were squealing and jumping out of the way, because the crabs were really putting up a fight. 

There are also two house dogs; Bobby and Peace. Bobby is very affectionate and once you got his attention he doesn’t go away. He doesn’t have a tail though, but his little waggling stomp is pretty adorable. Peace does like to be close to people, but she doesn’t like to be touched and actually starts to whimper if you try. She got hit by a car and doesn’t use one off her legs. They both have fleas though.

Sooo, I guess that’s the house! :)

I'm here!

(No way you guys are getting a sweaty webcam picture right now!)

I’ve arrived!

It was very comforting to have another volunteer arrive at the same time as me so that we could be awestruck in the back of the car together! There are a couple of people here, some will leave soon, some will stay for another 10 months but people will be arriving too, so that’s fun. I’m gonna take some pictures later today, but as for right now I’m just trying to get used to the clammy heat.

Some thoughts so far:

• I actually like long flights! Sure it was my first, but it was fun to just sit there, watch movies, eat M&M’s (I shared with the kids sitting next to me, because they kept staring. They couldn’t stop smiling afterwards though) and get drinks served to me under my blanket. I even liked the food!
• Customs was scary and took a loooooooong time. We stood there in line for like an hour, and I was honestly nervous about having to answer questions. It went pretty smooth though, they wanted fingerprints a picture and BAM I was in Africa.
• Yes, it IS like on tv! We had a half hour drive from the airport yesterday, driving through both poorer parts and the touristy parts and it somehow felt unreal. Like a documentary. I’m going to get used to it, but it was just so different from anything I’ve ever experienced.
• The breakfasts are going to be HEAVY. And I normally either eat one sandwich or don’t eat at all. This morning we had fried egg sandwiched between two slices of very sweet bread and it was good, but such a heavy meal! I didn’t finish it, but I’ll probably get used to it after a while.

Later on today we’re gonna get an orientation, which is good because I need cash and just a general sense or where I am in the world, because all I’ve seen properly so far is the volunteer house!

For everybody wondering; my skype name is just mariekebrock and I’m all for skypedates! We can just set a time and date on facebook! I’m only two hours behind Norway and the Netherlands, so like right now it’s 10 o’clock in the morning here and 12 o’clock over there. 

The Year of Perpetual Bad Luck

Stuff tends to happen to me. But not stuff I WANT to happen to me. I’ve never had surgery (except for when they took my tonsils out) but I’ve been to the doctors or in the hospital A MILLION TIMES. This one time my big toenail was ripped off by a slamming door. No joke.

I’ve always had my normal share of bad luck. But this year, 2012, has been exceptional. A year of non-stop problems. Therefore I have baptized this year ''The Year of Perpetual Bad Luck.''

Enjoy.

• Got a ride from classmate with her pretty new car. Slammed the door shut with the seatbelt in between. A few scratches, but you know, it’s a new car, it needs to be fixed. Cost my parents a few thousands.
• Got a virus on my computer and camera, while trying to send pictures of scratches on car to insurance company. I, of course, manage to pass on the virus to roommate. 
• Bought a new fancy smartphone in April. 30 days later I lost it at a outside-concert-party, where it was crushed by, like, a 100 drunkenly dancing people. Byebye smartphone.
• Got a stupid ticket because I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt. The problem: I WAS wearing my seatbelt. He didn’t even check the 6 drunken people in the back of the van. I was one of those lucky exemplary cases. Norway got a tiny bit richer because of me.
• Didn’t get my driver’s licence because I was in the wrong place, at the wrong time and surprise, surprise the examiner was the same police dude who gave me my ticket. Evidently his initials are S.O.S. Just my luck.
• Had two written exams in my absolutely best subjects. Like my top-grade subjects. Misunderstood both of them, ended up with the worst grades I’ve ever had. Yes, my fault, but WHY THIS YEAR?
• Rasped off a part of my thumbnail while rasping lemons for a pie.
• Bought a new but sturdy and chunky phone, so that it would survive everyday use and wouldn’t be interesting for thieves. Had it in the pocket of my jeans, took it out, screen white with a black ‘’ink stain’’. The people at the store said I must have dropped it. I DID NOT DROP IT.
• Visa for Ghana. Difficulties because I’m Dutch but live in Norway. Figured that one out 4 months in advance. Called to the right embassy 2 months in advance. Send the info one month in advance. Called to check up on them 1 week before date of departure, they tell me something is wrong. I end up having to fly to Copenhagen to try and fix it. Nothing of this was my fault, but you know, it just happened to happen to me.
• I think I lost my Ipod somewhere between Copenhagen and home. Don’t tell my parents; I got for my birthday last year.

 I’ve had fun, I ALWAYS have fun, but you know, there’s a limit of how much can go wrong and I’ve crossed that limit a while ago. I hope it picks up from here dudes, I really do :)