We are the Champions

Friday before last two of our students competed in a radio quiz show in Fumbisi.  At school many of us left behind listened to the quiz and cheered them on afar.  Three boys (one extra) went all of whom are part of my peer education program.  To be honest I couldn’t really understand what was being said on the radio because of all the static but I still listening and pestered my students with questions on how we were performing.  In the end our students won and beat the two other schools competing.  We were all happy and proud of them and they received quite the reception when they arrived back from Fumbisi.   There was much blowing of moto horns, cheering, and hoisting of the victors while running around.  I really wish I had thought to get my camera from the house before their arrival but I did take some photos of them with their prizes- a clock, English books, and drinks- after the fact.  It reminded me of my days in middle school as part of the academic team.  Wow my inner nerd has been coming out a lot lately with marching, quizzes, and also math.  As some of you may know Thursday was Pi Day so I wished my form 2 students a ‘Happy Pi Day’ when I entered their class since last month I taught them area and volume of a circle.  I was happy that one of my students realized the date corresponded to pi.  I wasn’t sure they’d get it since the date is usually written day-month here and usually in calculations they use the estimation 22/7 instead of the value of pi.  

In other news, the trained teachers are now on strike over pay.  I haven’t much been paying attention to the details but the government is notoriously bad about paying teachers on time.  It’s just a shame it will affect the students.  But it’s lead to some interesting conversations around the American government paying me rather than the Ghanaian government.  Much to my surprise and enjoyment the weather this past week or so has been cooler and we even had some rain Sunday and Monday!  Sunday it only rained for 10 minutes or so but yesterday there was a proper storm and it rained for a few hours.  Unluckily, a scorpion came into my house because of the rain but fortunately I always wear flip flops around my house (mostly because I’m lazy and don’t sweep daily) and happened to see it.  So now I’ve killed my first scorpion and it was very satisfying to do so.  Otherwise it’s pretty much been business as usual around here.