Madame Reynolds

Happy Ghana Independence day!

I've been in my new host family for about a month now, and have been working at my new volunteer job for around three weeks.Every thing's going really great, and honestly I'm feeling good about these last four months (can you believe only four!).

Teaching Class 4 Creative Arts

The Living Word Academy, the small private school where I volunteer at, is a twenty pesewa tro-tro ride away and slightly resembles a row of garages. The school is open to children in creche (pre-k/kindergarten)-JSS (middle school). I teach English, ICT (computer tech), and Creative Arts to Classes 2, 3, and 4. I work five days a week with two classes a day. I really, really enjoy teaching. I had no idea that I'd love it so much! The kids, for the most part, pay attention very well and are really eager to learn. It took a few tries for them to get warmed up to what I understand now as the 'Western' style of teaching which includes a lot of back and forth between student and teacher. Most of Ghana's schools are guilty of using a lecture method for every age. Living Word Academy was moving into more interactive teaching before I arrived and the kids seem to be really getting a lot out of it so I hope my time there can encourage the teachers to give it a try.

Interactive teaching :)

All three of my subjects are really fun to teach, my favorite is probably English. I didn't realize a lot of things about myself, my culture, and my country until I came to Ghana but how difficult the English language can be is one of the biggest. I've been working on nouns, adjectives, pronouns, past/present/future tenses, and now punctuation marks. Instead of moving up a ladder, teaching more simple subjects to the younger students and growing more complicated as they grow, the material is all pushed onto about three classes at once. So I'll be teaching my five or six year old students the same thing as my eleven year old students. Well, at least that's what I'm supposed to do, but I try my best to be considerate of the age factor.

Marching in my Class 2's

With my ICT classes I'm starting from the very bottom. My Class 2's are just on paint, working on their mouse skills. My Class 3's are doing about the same but we've moved on to a little bit of easy typing. I'm really eager for my Class 4's ICT classes to continue because after bouncing some ideas back and forth with my papa for a little while my class has got some American penpals. Eureka Elementary penpals no less! As an introduction I emailed some of the student's favorite things to Eureka along with each group's title they created and a Ghana flag they made on paint. I hope we'll hear from them soon. My Creative Arts classes have been pretty easy going. Which I think is exactly what they needed since their notebooks before were not only absent of any kind of art but were filled with copied down definitions of the words 'creative', 'imagination', and 'art'. I've talked to the headmaster and since he's interested in me doing some kind of big art project with the kids I think my art classes are soon going to start being filled with work on a school mural. We'll see how it goes. I think I'm starting to sound like I'm trying to turn this school on it's head, but I'm really not. Just while I'm here I want to give a lot of my energy into this school because the students, and their hard work is really proving to me they deserve that.

Some Class 4

Some Class 3

Class 2 discovering paper airplanes

The kids at home have been giving me a lot of joy too. While I'm kind of realizing the not so fun parts of having siblings, the pulling at the sleeve and constant fighting between all of them, it's no worse than a hard day babysitting. I can always retreat to my room, my host parents (if they're home), or a book if I need. I even got a fun break this weekend with our AFS mid-stay orientation which was such a great time. My host parents are especially sweet, though my host dad is a deal quieter than my old host dad, Richard. On a homesick day my host mom, Akosua even made me a little western dish, saying when she traveled really far from having some kenke always made her feel better. They're a great family. The house help, Beck and Frimpoma are also really great. They're closer to my age and always laugh when I speak Twi. The house is pretty empty during the week. The kids are at school, with traffic Akosua normally is only home a few hours before she has to pick them up again, my host dad is at work, and I'm in and out too. Only Becky and Frimpoma stay home with Butteryam (the gate man) during the day.

Mid-stay orientation trip to the beach

Nearly everything about my situation here in Ghana has changed, and I think it's obvious that I'm a lot more bubbly-happy with it. Richard and Emelia were a great couple, and the experiences I had with them as a host family were wonderful. I'm not discrediting that at all. I just feel I'm amazingly lucky to be put with not one, but two great host families.

With my time here swiftly becoming shorter I have a few more travel plans and things to check off my list, but it's a great feeling knowing that I'm on the home-stretch. I don't feel like I saw it often enough, in blogs, on foreign exchange info-sites, and brochures how difficult exchange can be. It might not be this way with everyone. I understand that every person, every country, and every exchange is going to be different, but for future students just remember this: The time that you spend on exchange will be challenging, even more so because all the familiar things you normally lean on won't be as available, but the accomplishment and pride you'll feel in throwing yourself out there with an open-mind and open-heart surpasses all homesick days and culture shock moments. Just some thoughts.

Lucianos, thank you for the care package with the shampoo, hand-sanitizer, etc. in it! It's been so helpful and really appreciated.

Anastasia Gore, Jessica Tullis, Tia Luciano, Rinnah Henderson, Caroline Cornell, Justin Shapiro and Nicole Short THANK YOU for the letters and love, I've kept them all and I look at them often.

Justin, thank you for all the new music. You know I love all the new artists and knowing the music I've caught up on from back home, because I've told you. But when other students ask "Man! Is this new?" I'm smiling and happy to say that my lovely, encouraging boyfriend sent it to me.

Rin! Stargirl, I found the neatest instrument. Ready for a jam session?

Papa! Thanks for being so eager to help me get my students set up. I'm so excited to see the looks on their faces when they get responses back from their new buddies. I'll be taking pictures.

Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Ron, I got you the coolest decorative addition to your growing house.

Thanks for keeping in touch and checking up on me everyone, I'll keep writing!