Two weeks in!

I'm finally able to post again! Well, I'm feeling more and more at home here in Ghana. My first week I began work with a non-profit HIV/AIDS group that does care and support activities. They have about 80 families they visit in and around my town, Ho. I went on three trips to visit, all of which involved little children infected with HIV. The hardest part about this is that these people lack the money to buy the drugs to help treat them and the proper food, I feel like I should just open up my purse and dump out everything that is inside. I did already give away some cortisone cream I had for mosquito bites. One of the little girls has some kind of rash on her arms and can't go to school because of it. The mom hasn't been able to buy any cream to treat it. Also, it is amazing and unbelievably frustrating that so many people are very behind in HIV/AIDS education.

I also started this week teaching at a high school in a small village 30 minutes from Ho. I teach 5 classes Mon-Thurs in biology. I didn't really think this would be a great job for me, but the education system here is lacking. Many teachers don't show up for class on a regular basis. When this happens, there is no substitute teacher, the kids just sit there for an hour! So I think I may actually be a fairly good teacher, relatively speaking. The kids are fun so far...though I spent half of each class doing introductions and answering their questions about the US. Being asked my age, if I'm married (or why I'm not married), and if I have kids is getting a little old. The kids in their high school (called senior secondary school) range from 13-over 20 years old. They go for three years and at the end take national exams. Apparently, this school only has a 20% pass rate on the exams....it is a real problem. Also, I've talked a lot about caning this week. Caning....as in hitting kids with a stick. Yep, they do it, though luckily I haven't seen it. I've heard some other volunteers in other schools have started crying when they see it. So the Peace corps girl working at the school (and now me) have been talking about that maybe that isn't the best approach to getting kids to learn. A couple of the teachers have actually stopped doing it!

Then in the evenings I have been spending a couple hours at one of the orphanages. There are about 15 kids ranging in age from 5 to 15. I help them a lot with there homework, have them read to me, and have been making them practice math problems. They eat it up, I always have a hard time leaving at night because there are too many of them to give enough attention. But I love these kids already, so, so cute! My favorite is a little boy named Elolo....pics to come.