Family Dinner

With my daughters (and their nephew)

The students

My sons and me

A few weeks ago I planned with my daughter Linda for her to come to my house one Sunday after church to cook groundnut soup and rice balls.  She asked specifically if she could cook could that for me because it’s more special to her than eating TZ which she eats every day.  The day before she was to come my son Michael was over at the house with his friend Chris just hanging out and I invited him to also join us.  The next day it turned into a family dinner when Linda brought her sister Grace and my other son Edward happened to drop by and I also forced him (it didn’t take much) to stay to eat with us.  

I should explain that when these students call me mother (or “Mommee” as Linda pronounces it) and I call them my sons and daughters it can just as easily mean aunt and nephews and nieces which makes more sense given my age.  It’s always a matter of clarification in English since there’s no words in Ghanaian languages for aunt/uncle, nephew/niece.  Everyone in your family is either your grandmother or grandfather, mother or father, sister or brother.  If my student says “She’s my sister” I usually follow up with the question “Same father?” If no, then she’s really a cousin and that’s that.  If she’s a sister I can usually then ask “Same mother?” The answers to these questions aren’t really important to my students but I find it fascinating.  I digressed...back to family dinner time.

Linda and Grace cooked up a wonderful dinner and then we all enjoyed it together.  I thought it was pretty hilarious that they all decided to try and use forks or spoons to eat with while I used my hands in the proper Ghanaian fashion.  At home they of course eat with their hands so I’m not sure if they were trying to be fancy since they were at my house.  Any way it was funny and an epic evening for the books.  I think we will all look back on our family dinner with fond memories.

New Favorite

Painted calabashes

My new favorite item (after my northern smock) I'm bringing home are these two painted calabashes. I'd heard the madam who comes to do the Catholic church service I sometimes attend paints them beautifully and was hoping I could get some from her.  Before I could even ask her for them, she gave me these two lovely ones last Sunday at church.  Here calabashes (made from a gourd) are typically for drinking pito ("beer" made from fermented millet or guinea corn) out of, serving flour to guests, or as bowls when selling products such as shea butter, shea fruit, and eggs.  I'll definitely be using them as wall decorations once I'm home- I think they'll be a great reminder of Ghana.  Speaking of home, I now only have 1 more month in Ghana!  It's pretty surreal and I think I'm in denial about saying goodbye.  I'll be traveling in England for about two weeks and will return to Atlanta around August 1. 

Ice Cream Party!

Congrats Candidates!  with me :)

I love this picture so much!  It was the first "crazy" one we took.  Please look at Michael with the C and shocked Paulina (not sure why) next to him.  Then jubilant Robert with the O

Time to celebrate!

Friday was an extra fun day at school because I decided to celebrate with my form 3 students.  On Sunday they'll leave for Fumbisi to write their BECE.  Translation: take the big, week-long exam which determines if they'll go to high school and where they'll go.  I taught these guys ICT and Math all last year when they were in form 2 and now teach them ICT in form 3.  Needless to say we have a pretty strong bond now.  As a goodbye present, I gave each of them a photo of myself kind of like school photos (dorky, I know).  But when I ordered them I thought they'd be closer to wallet size but in fact they're tiny like passport photos.  I told them any time they miss me they can look at the small me which they thought was funny.  I also gave our my contact info in America which prompted lots of conversation about how to call the States and vice versa. 

Next I bought an "ice cream" for each of them as a treat.  It's really flavored ice (ours was fruit from the baobab tree) but is delicious.  Finally we ended with holding up the signs in the photos above.  If you missed my recent post about my niece graduating from high school, my students held up signs for her a couple of weeks ago and then asked if I could also do one for them.  Of course I couldn't say no so modified the old ones to say "Congrats Candidates!"  That's what they're called the year they take their exam.  This week we'll finish up class with them, bid them good luck, and send them to Fumbisi.  I asked them to come and say goodbye to me before I leave.  I hope they do and that I can at least keep in touch with some of them to see what they end up doing in the future! 

Madam-o

Tomorrow I celebrate my two year anniversary of first coming to Ghana!  It's been quite a journey and as ready as I am to come home I can't quite grasp the fact that I will be leaving next month.  Being a madam is one of my favorite parts about being here and as frustrating as teaching is sometimes I will miss it because of my students.  Back in March, I held club meetings with the boys first and then the girls to discuss self-esteem which they better understood explained as confidence.  I pulled a few exercises from my favorite Peace Corps book the Life Skills manual and used them to help in the meetings.  The first exercise had the students write ten sentences about themselves starting with "I am..." such as "I am intelligent, loving, lazy at housework, etc." 

Then we did the second exercise where each person wrote their name on a piece of paper and passed it around for other people to write nice things about them on.  I decided to throw in a paper for myself just for fun (and let's be honest- sometimes we all need a little encouragement).  The boys were pretty easy because they all wrote positive things and there weren't as many of them so I could easily write on each paper.  But the girls took a little more work since some were being mean (one wrote you are ugly on another girls paper- which I thankfully able to scratch out before she saw) and that day we had a full house and of course each girl wanted me to write on her paper so they lined up for me to so.  No pressure to come up with 40 different adjectives!  I really love all the comments I received and had to take photos of my papers to not only share but treasure forever :)

I had a funny conversation with my students last week when I told them about the MBA program I'll be starting in August once I'm home.  They were surprised I wouldn't be madam again one students commented that instead of being called madam I would be calling my teacher madam.  So I explained first that we don't use madam in the States and second that at the university level you call your teachers professor or doctor.  It's something they haven't been exposed to here that I'd never have thought about but was interesting and to explain.

I think I will really miss being called madam...especially by my special boy Awenaab, Madam Diana's son.  He is always delighted to see me and greets me "Madam!" or addresses me by saying "Madam-o" and "Madam-eh."  He loves it when I chase and tickle him and we play a lot of football or jump from the steps at school saying "1-2-3-JUMP!"  Yesterday he came to visit me in my house with his cousin Awenwe and we had a big time playing and taking photos and videos.  I wish that I could post one of the videos but it will have wait for the high speed internet of America.  Admire this photo of my buddy instead.

 

Girl Child Education Themed Artwork

Teacher talking about malaria while one girl is sleeping and dreaming about all the work (cooking, sweeping, washing) she has to do in the house

Artist Chris with friends Caesar and Michael

Ama, a pregnant girl, is going to school speaks to one of the challenges of educating girls in Ghana.

Last week I helped a few students do artwork for a contest for Girl Child Education themed artwork in the district/region.  It was fun to have them draw and come up with ideas to depict challenges facing girl students in Ghana.  I also lent my support by giving them colored pencils and Sharpie pens to use.  I love that helping with artwork is currently part of my job!  Who knows if that will ever happen again!