Still here...titles are hard!

Today I went to the market looking for bits and pieces for some science demos. I should probably back up a bit now and say why. Thinking about it logically Im gonna have to tell you how Im helping the science teacher...so i may as well go right back and talk about the staff. Im helping at the JSS, mainly reading, but also supporting the maths and science teachers. By far the best teacher is Julius, the science teacher; he also happens to have no teacher training. The cynical part of me thinks that this is what makes him so good - that and his dedication to the kids. He walks to school every day from another town - a nice 25min walk along the beach, but rather hot in the afternoon sun. Since he has no teaching qualifications he gets paid by the charity that support the school as a librarian. This means he is worse paid than the chronically underpaid proper teachers. The other teachers are much of a muchness; the two female teachers spend most of the day sleeping in the staffroom/libary, the deputy head spent most of the first week 'resting his bones' and many of the teachers use the cane although they are not supposed to. Since Julius hasn't had much training he is very reliant on textbooks to help, and many of the demos/experiments/practicals aren't suitable for the equipment he has. So I am making some water bottle rockets and subarines out of pumps, bits of tube etcetc. Its good fun designing it all. Today I bought the bits andpieces on the way to the internet cafe. The market is bustling, full of all sorts of stores. In Ghana the shops often have biblical/christian names; the God is good petrol station. 'Love Jesus' hair salon. There are also some oddballs - 'Mother T's car shop' 'God is my foundation' builders etc. All good fun to look out for whilst on the road.

There are two ways of getting around in Ghana - taxi or tro tro. Taxis are pretty expensive for one, but OK if theres 4. A tro-tro is a minibus with benches and seats in - run by a driver and his mate. It takes about 18 or so, more if people are prepared to squash up, and the driver is confident he won't have to go past the police roadblocks. If the tro tro has one person extra then the mate will jump out, run past the roadblock and get in the other side. If you are overloaded the police take a bribe (the size depends on how overloaded). Often they will just make trouble and the driver has to bribe them anyway. The poolice are armed, which is a little intimadating, but they are more cautious since an incident a couple of months ago. A policeman stopped and 'fined' a senior army officer. So as soon as he got to the base he sent back some truckloads of soldiers and large brawl ensued. So now the roadblocks don't happena t certain times.

I think that is all for now. Im running out of stuff to say for now - Ill try and say hello to everyone later. But one last little thing:
I have been working with eilidh to get a list of people who need remidial reading classes. We are thinking of putting on a short play with them, to encourage them, as well as normal reading. But for now we have some more people to assess. So far I have checked our lists against the class register for one class...and we have two extra people, with some more who aren't on either list. Its gonna be hard to get round everyone, especially given that we can't take them out of all lessons. And that no one seems to have a list of who is actually in the classes. But I did spend some time reading with someone who is definately on the list. He must be around 15/16 and we were reading wind in the willows rewritten for preschoolers. He really enjoyed it, and it was great to see that. I hope I can help him at the very least.

Callum

Still too hot

Yesterday night it rained. I slept through it, but the ground was wetin the morning and the humidity and pressure that had been building has been dissipated. Yesterday was the brightest and hottest its been since we arrived. It seems like we havke been here for a long time now, even though it has only been a week that flashed by at the time. The last volunteer arrived yesterday. I geuss I ought to tell you about the other people wo are here wth me. There are six of us; no seven now. There are 5 Brits, and two Americans. I met Cerian and Alex(andra) on the plane on the way here – Cerian is a nurse from Bristol and Alex was working in the marketing section of Sony-BMG until she took voluntary redundancy. Robert came on a different flight on the same day as us; he is the same age as me, and taking a gap year before going to do Economics at uni. Eidligh (sp probably wrong) arrived yesterday - shes a student studying french and film studiers. For part of a years experience she taught English in France for a term, making her the only one with any experience. Shane and Kate came totgetehr on the same flight as me, but we didn’t find them. Shane is a graphic designer and bran organization person – he sorts out the entire image of a company from the ground up, and Kate is a ‘childrens product developer’ (ie toymaker) from California. We are all getting on fine, we managed to share a bar bill without any arguments (for a week between 6 it came to 20 pounds each). We have had some differences on politics, but nothing that we can’t agree to disagree.

Im going to be teaching in Junior Secondary - which is the equivalent of the fisrt two years of Senior school in the UK or Junior High in the states. I going to be teahing maths science and doing one on one reading classes. I know some of the children allready - in particluar a teenager called Robert - hes 14/15/16, no one know exactly what. He spends a lot of time with the volunteers when they are there, and his spoken english is excelent as a result. He and a coupel of his friends help us at every opertunity, which can be a bit embarassing - you feel that you are taking advantage. there have been a couple of things with money where we have had to tread a bit of a knife edge as far as offending people goes. The hardest was trying to get Ester - the Ghanain who is looking after us - to even allow us to pay her for doing some washing. She would only take about a thrid of the fair money for it - i gave her a good amount and she stuffed most of it in my hand an hurried off before I could respond. Its lovely, but we all feel guilty because she works so hard and is also a volunteer.

Rob Alex Ceri and I got out first taste of teaching on friday. We went to observe some lessons and were told that two teachers weren't there, could we take thier classe. Anarchy ensued. Me and Rob ended up with KG1 - 5y/os plus, and Alex and Ceri ended up with the Nursery calss, which was a lot harder. The teacher for the nursersy isn't any good and spends a lot of time sleeping(!) so her class tend to run riot a lot. They had a hard time, but we all gained experience. The best tactic for keeping order is bribery simply because we aren't prepared to go to the same lengthgs as the Ghanains go for punishment. Giving out stickers etc etc as rewards shuts the kids up much quicker than trying to shout them into submison.

Now its time to go. Im just going to add a thankyou for whoever it was that recomended the art of zen and motercycle maintenance to me - its a great read so far. Very interesting, and suprisingly conected to some of the convestation topics that come up over the3 dinner table. I ought also to apologise for the state of my typing - im in a hurry so I don't have time to correct my rushed mistakes.

Im there!

We landed in Accra, Ghana at about 9:30, after several days. The King of the Ashanti (sp) tribe was on the plane, which delayed us arriving at the gate as he got out whilst on the tarmac, and we were delayed leaving Heathrow - problems with baggage + passengers. So far the experience has been very hot, and very hot. The people are sooo welcoming; everyone has smiles and a friendly attitude. There are 6 volunteers here so far - one more will arrive next Saturday. We range from stays of 4-6 weeks, almost all of us are teaching except for one guy who wants to do some building and stuff as well. I don't know where I will be teaching yet but i think I will be assigned to a class not a subject. We have met lots and lots of children all ready - they are very keen to come and talk. Their English is generally very very good. A couple of them have excellent English - one boy called Robert wants to be a doctor and his English is almost perfect. The adults sometimes don't have as much English as their children, which can seem a little odd; but that's why we are here I suppose. Mostly we have talked to the children, and the parents have been busy working.

The accommodation is pretty good. Its a guest house inside a compound that houses a couple of families. There is a fan in each room which makes it just about bearable at night, except when the power is off. The power is on a 24/12hr cycle - for 24hrs its on, then off for 12. Changeover times are 7am and 7pm. Last night the power was off; tomorrow morning the power will be off. The food is excellent. We eat at the beach resort's restaurant which has won awards for its food. The volunteers eat free, but we do have to pay off our bar tab every so often. The local food is very spicy, but quite filling; rice cooked fruit and some kind of meat is typical. To drink its normally either fruit juice or beer. The beer comes in 625ml bottles - at %5 which is a little much, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Tomorrow will be our first day at school. Tonight we will decide what we will be doing. I'm still not sure what exactly I want to do, but I'm sure Ill find something useful to do. I'm kinda looking forward to teaching now...but kind of nervous at the same time.

Too close?

Im almost gone now. I took my first anti-malarial pill today (doxycycline). The list of side efects is a little scary, but they mostly relate for using it as an antibiotic in stronger doeses than I'm taking. But they include nausea, vomitting, increased sensitivity to light, and some other stuff. I know I should be OK, but its still a little worrying. Really its just another outlet for nerves about going - I should be great when I get there, but Im aprehensive right now. It combines the 'new job,' 'new place,' 'away from home' and 'new people' fears all in one go. Oh, and add in potential health issues as well.


Apart from that Im pretty excited. Once I'm there I'll sure Ill forget all these fears. I have done the last of my shopping...I think...and I cant wait to get on the plane.

Hate driving love getting there

I've just driven back from Lorna's. We went shopping whilst we were there; spent about 30 in Primark and got a number of T-shirts light trousers and stuff. Lorna got me a lovely shirt, which I wasn't sure about at the time...its grown on me since I wore it home - v comfy, as were the trousers. But I still hate driving long distances. My neck and shoulders are now very stiff, and I could do with a massage. And I'm not going to see Lorna until I get back now. That's sad - we've been together a year and a couple of months now, and she's never been more than a phone call away baring a couple of short holidays. I'm not sure how I will cope. I hope I will be too busy to get particularly homesick, and I'll be able to get glimpses of home as I get into Internet cafés.

The preparations continue to go on. Every time something gets sorted something else comes up...but they are getting less and less important, so I don't think anything *essential* will be forgotten. Apart from that...life is good!

Staying with my girl

Im staying with Lorna (my wonderful and long suffering girlfriend*) for the weekend which is wonderful. I think I have pretty much ordered or bought everything Im gonna need in Ghana; I just ordered the last two books from amazon, and we spent the afternoon shopping for light clothes to take back.

Im afraid I got back from holiday last week, but have been too rushed to post here. Its been a bit hectic getting everything sorted out. I discovered on wednesday that my debit card -my only plastic money - wouldn't work in Ghana because there are no mastercard terminals. It all seems to be coming together now.

OK, I have to go to tescos and buy some more groceries with L, so this is it.


*she says just long term. I pity her for putting up with me.

Holiday!

Im going on holiday tomorrow with my family. We are going to Canaries - starting in Tennerife and sailing a yacht around the islands. We will crew the boat, and we have a captain to show us how to do everything. Im looking forward to it, but need to get myself of to bed; we leave in 7.5 hours.

Nite all!