New Names

I now have my own bicycle so I’ve been enjoying going for rides whenever I want to without having to first find a bike to borrow. For me running isn’t a very fun here because of the heat and it makes me stand even more than I already do. Right now the landscape is beautiful because it’s the rainy and farming season. I’ll try to take and post some photos soon. My favorite place to ride is to the dam farther away from my house. It’s good for me to get out and greet people too. Sometimes I get so into the groove of greeting people that once I’ve passed the more populated section with houses I catch myself almost greeting cows and other animals just because I see them out of the corner of my eye and think they’re humans. Greetings are so important here and it’s really an acknowledgement of someone’s existence. I like that idea of validating people just by greeting them. Since having my own bicycle, I’ve picked up a couple of people who were footing it (walking). Only a small girl and then a small new form 1 students since I don’t think I’m fit enough to have an adult riding on the back of my bike.

Last week I worked a lot on creating our new timetable (schedule) of classes and felt like a counselor. We also finally conducted entrance exams for our form 1 students and some had to be demoted back to primary 6 if they didn’t pass. Of course there’s been drama regarding the promotion and demotions for all the forms. One girl who has to repeat form 2 for a second time even got down on her knees to beg me to promote her. Needless to say I didn’t but that was too much for me. I got a little frustrated because someone how I became in charge of tasks at the school that really aren’t my responsibility. I was happy when Friday came because it was a holiday and I went to our Tamale office for the weekend. I already needed a break after only a few weeks back to school! But the beginning of school is stressful so I’m sure it’ll get better.

During the very beginning of school, I mentioned to some of the teachers that we’d have a holiday toward the end of the month. They didn’t know what it was which was pretty funny to me that I was able to tell them Founder’s Day. I used the internet to research it and learned it’s a newer holiday created in 2009 by the late President Mills to honor the country’s first President and freedom fighter Kwame Nkrumah.

I started teaching my form 1 babies this week and have been taking their photos again like I did last year to help me learn their names and also demonstrate how ICT tools can make life easier. It’s nice that I only have 1 class where I don’t know their names so it’s going a lot faster. I think it’s really important to know names in order to help with classroom management. Instead of just saying “Hey you there- stop talking,” I can call people out by name “Dorcas! Gilbert! Zanetti!” These are few of my favorite new names.