I am in the full swing of teaching as part of my volunteer work. Again, I am teaching biology to high school level students. I have five classes throughout Monday through Thursday. So, wow, teaching really is hard! I give all my teacher friends that much more credit. Teaching in this setting is really hard as well for many reasons. One the kids are caned and are now used to being caned. The teachers have actually stated numerous times to me that the kids can’t learn if they are not caned, because they are not disciplined enough to want to learn. Many of the teachers are fairly intense with this discipline. They will cane students for very minor things in my opinion, for example, it is common to cane students for not being able to answer a question in class or for performing poorly on an assignment (talk about pressure)! You all know me well, so I have no problem speaking my mind on this issue to the other teachers, but after so many conversations, it's just exhausting. Many of the teachers actually agree caning isn’t the best approach (oh, did I mention it is illegal in the country) and know the psychological research on the issue, but they feel they have no other way to control the students (though some have stopped). Unfortunately, the kids don’t have many incentives to do well other than not being caned. The grades kids earn in class on homework, quizzes, and test only represent 30% of their grades and the other 70% comes from one test at the end of the semester. Additionally, if they fail a class most will never have to repeat the course before going on to the next level. Because, most times the school won’t even try to hold them back if they have passed other classes and their parents have to sign a form agreeing their child should repeat the class, which means they have to pay more money, so they don't sign it. Overall these kids don’t have to try hard during the school year, they can just hang out and keep moving through the system until they are done. Now most of us were probably motivated to do well in school to be able to get into college, in Ghana grades in high school are a very minor component of what universities look at for acceptance, mostly acceptance is based on a national exam taken at the end of high school.
So all this said, I’m trying to find ways to motivate my kids…..ways that don’t involve beating them! So far, I think I’m new and different enough to hold their attention (at least enough to make it through a class period), but I have had a few that are testing me. I just hate having to mean to kids and man, they are little cheats!
Anyways, what I am really enjoying here is the work I do with the orphans. I am including a few pictures of the kids at the orphanage (there are around 16 or so). They are great! I went to church with all of them this past Sunday. My first time to church here in Ghana and I have been wanting to experience it. We went to a Pentecostal church but I think the experience is the same as other denominations here. We got to church at 8:30am and left at 12:30 (and it was still going on, but I think they felt sorry for me, so we got to leave early)! Now, Sister Bernice (the lady that runs the orphanage; she isn’t a nun, that is just how they refer to people often…I’m sister Alicia) told me service normally only last THREE hours and they don’t usually ask for money FIVE times! The majority of the service was basically us being forced (yes, forced) to walk up and give money! But they were fundraising for a special project going on this week, so I think maybe three offerings may be the norm. The music and singing was the best part and completely fit the stereotypical African church setting…we were dancing and clapping for at least an hour, it was wonderful! Then, the other really good part was that during the singing and parts of the service, people would come up to the front and collapse on the floor and usually scream or thrash around. Now, when I first saw this, I thought we needed to call 911 (of course that doesn’t exist here), but then Sister Bernice informed me this was normal. These people are having the Holy Spirit enter their bodies and drive the demons out, so there is much struggle in their bodies as the spirits fight. There were probably about five or so people that had the Holy Spirit take over their bodies…but only during the singing and offering times, never during the sermon…..now I am religious and believe this could happen, but I find the timing and the number of times it occurred interesting and why doesn’t this ever happen in my church? Anyways, there is also a women who the Holy Spirit overtakes and she prophesizes…this I was interested in..but she spoke in Ewe not English. All Sister Bernice translated was that God was mad that they hadn’t been fasting and they were supposed to for five days. [2011 UPDATED NOTE: It is interesting for me to read back over my blog posts several years later. So much has happened in my life and walk with God since the time of this original post. The fact that I even used the word 'religious' in describing myself makes me cringe and is telling of the place I was in when writing this. I'm not going to lie, that church experience is still suspect to me since much of it was very showy, but I also have much more awareness and awe of how the Holy Spirit can manifest.]
The HIV work is also going well, though teaching is taking me away from doing more. I'm trying to help this group raise some money, because they have none coming in and there are many people in the area needing food and meds. Four of the group's patients died this past week so everyone is really down. One of the three little girls I visited the first week also passed away. It was a big surprise to me, she had been attending school everyday. Education on HIV/AIDS occurs, but there still is little behavior and attitude change about transmission.
I know this is getting long, but a lot happens in one week. This should be no big surprise, but this experience has already been such a huge learning opportunity about the color of skin. Now, I have always felt that I am a very open person and would like to think I see people as people, not defined by the color of their skin. But being here, I am truly starting to see people as people. Not that I ever defined someone by their skin, but the visual difference is always there, even though it means nothing. But here, I only see a few white people throughout the week, so mainly everyone I see is black and there aren’t a lot of mirrors or windows around for me to see my own reflection (which is good because I am without a hairdryer and make-up, yikes). So for me, black skin is the norm and I don’t think of people here as black, not white, they are just the people I live with and are my friends. Essentially, I see no difference between everyone here and myself (you know other than they can squat and pee anywhere and don’t mind bucket showers), but when they look at me, they see the difference! This is the part that is the eye opener for me. I see them as the same as me, but they see me as different from them (and it makes me sad). I stand out in the crowd, I don’t look like everyone else, so people often stare at me. I get a lot of attention for being white. This attention can be considered as positive (even if it is being asked for money), random people simply want to talk to me or be able to email me, some of the kids want to touch me, etc. My difference and the fascination I cause is sometimes uncomfortable to me and I often get frustrated because people only see my skin color! Most people don’t want to talk to me because of me, it is often just because I am white. More and more I wish that the Ghanaians wouldn’t see my color when they look at me. So you see, I feel being here has reversed things. Now, I am feeling this way even though the reaction to my skin and difference is positive and friendly, I can’t even imagine what it would be like for this reaction to be opposite, such as it has been with racism in the US. My situation I know can’t even compare to what people with other skin colors have experienced with racism, I’m not trying to compare, I just have gotten this little taste of what it is like to viewed and treated in a certain way based on my skin and it is teaching me a lot about myself.
So these are my thoughts….I am happy I’m here, but miss you all and I miss my cell phone (well, kind of)!!!=)
I hope everyone is well and thanks for checking in on me!
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