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.