Feel Free

The early part of last week was pretty full with wrapping up practicum and starting Buli language lessons. I decided to try a review (or revise in Ghanaian English) game in my 35 minute science class since I finished all the material I was supposed to cover on Monday and Tuesday. I figured it was a good time to try something different out and make mistakes since I was practice teaching after all. I split the class into two teams and had gum and stickers from America as prizes for the winning team. Here stickers=gold! I asked question ‘Family Feud’ style- they loved it but did get a little rowdy. When I play the game at my school I will penalize teams that talk too much by taking away points. I think the biggest thing I need to work before I start teaching in Gbedema in the fall is my classroom management skills. Because, as the principal says in movie Lean on Me we watched during practicum debrief, discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm! All you teachers out there please email me your discipline tips or book recommendations on class control. I had a lovely moment with 2 of my students from last week when they came into the teacher’s room to ask me for help with some extra practice questions on force and power. They just took it upon themselves to go through problems that weren’t assigned to them- these dream students impressed me so much! I interviewed one of them for one of my practicum assignments and he wants to be a doctor in the future. Was a great reminder of the potential impact I could have on future Ghanaian leaders in politics, engineering, medicine, business, etc. Many influential Ghanaians in the public eye have been taught by Peace Corps Volunteers so it is a great legacy that I hope to be a part of.

On to language learning…I can now speak just as much Buli as I can Twi or maybe even a little bit more. I can greet people, introduce myself and my family, and talk about what kind of food and hobbies I like. My host family is great and even though they really want me to learn more Twi understand that I will get confused while learning Buli. This week we have started 6 hour days of language which can be overwhelming at times but is going well so far.

It was Republic Day here on Friday (we still had to work though) which means the boys staying at our family house left for the weekend so it was eerily quiet even though there were still roughly 10 of us living in the compound. It’s amazing how quickly I adjusted to always having people around though I have found myself needing more me time in the last week or so. I met another one of my sisters Juliette who lives a few hours away and her son Enoch. That five-year-old son of hers was quite bold with me and touched my ear and my nose. Haha it’s hilarious they love my nose here- I’ve gotten so many complements and I keep telling them I do not like it but am glad they do. I also get a lot of complements on my mouth. I think they just like my features because they’re different from their own. I had a good conversation about skin color with one of my sisters the other night because she told me she loved my skin and I replied that I loved hers. She said she wanted to try lightening crème and I told her about women in American that pay to go to the tanning bed. We decided that part of the human condition is to never be satisfied with one’s lot in life.

I think the newness has started to fade a little and I am starting to get angry about things because of culture shock. I remember from Thailand that ups and downs of cross-cultural living are a little more extreme than normal living so I am just trying to take it all in stride. Twice this week I walked into town with my sister Janet after dinner and just got so grumpy about people staring at me, calling me obroni, and not being able to have meaningful conversations with people beyond hello, how are you, bye. It hadn’t really bothered me up until this point but hit me pretty hard. I tried to make myself enjoy the walk by admiring the pretty fireflies (on a side note I named the kitten in our compound the Twi word for firefly- boo boo ja) on the way into town but once we got into the busyness of town I would just feel miserable. It kind of felt good to let myself be in a bad mood.

I celebrated the Fourth of July on Sunday with other Peace Corps trainees at a spot owned by one trainee’s host mom. It was fun to get together with everyone. It was also my host sister Cynthia’s birthday so once I got back from the PC party (interesting taxi ride on the way back home- a man rode on the top of the taxi!) I went to her birthday party at Green Door Restaurant and entertained everyone by dancing. They got a kick of trying to teach me to dance like an African- I am afraid my body does not move like that though! I guess I have two years to work on it. Yesterday was a great food day- I had popcorn, groundnuts (like peanuts), Fan Ice (Ghanaian ice cream), and sausage on a stick with a nice cold bottled Coca-Cola made with real cane sugar (so yummy). Happy birthday America! I miss you but mostly I miss my Americans- love to all my friends and family back home. Hope you celebrated our freedom well! My favorite Ghanaian saying so far is 'Feel free,' hence my blog post title.