Ghana Team Journal


Friday, July 15, 2011

Quote of the day: “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift” - Prefontaine

Journal by: Julia Goss

TGIF – Thank God it’s Friday – Although Katie and I love our KG class we were definitely a little worn out come Friday morning. Thankfully, our teaching portion of the day was fairly relaxed. When we got to class we found out Madame Harriet’s baby nephew had passed away. Katie and I went ahead and took charge of the class, working on their ABC’s and coloring from a coloring book. Normally, we let the class free draw so it was amazing to see what beautiful pictures they could create with some structure. After coloring and hanging 50 something drawings around the classroom we went to the library where Samuel, Nancy, and I read to the kids. Unfortunately, the Methodist School didn’t have class on Friday (unbeknownst to Nancy) so she joined Katie and me for the morning. It was great having another helper in the classroom and library and I know the children enjoyed her animated storytelling. I believe Lisa and Angie had a good day as well and they got all of their pen pall letters corrected and ready to send. Hopefully, they will be able to figure out the best way for the 8th graders to receive them. Today was Veronica and Maria’s last day of teaching. They lingered behind us on our walk back to the St. James, but only to say goodbye to their old friends, new friends, and students for the past two weeks.

We went to the library as usual in the afternoon. The library was not crowded and made for a peaceful environment to read. However, a big storm rolled in around 4:00 and we all quickly scrambled our things together and headed home in a hurry.

Katie and I were feeling a bit restless so we decided to find an Internet cafe in town. We found two, however, because it was raining so hard the Internet didn’t work at all! Instead, we decided to sit down at a bar on the side of the main road and get a drink. We had a great time talking, watching the rain, and most of all the observing the community around us. Katie and I both decided we wished we could assimilate more into this community and maybe coming down into “town” more often would be a good way to accomplish that.

We realized it was almost 6:45 and made a mad dash to get back to the St. James for the 7:00 dinner with the chiefs. I was impressed with the dinner. I naively assumed it would be a ceremonial tradition that would involve pleasantries about our time here etc; however, it ended up as a discussion involving constructive criticism and new ideas for the future. The most amazing part of the night came when Veronica gave a moving speech about how deplorable the conditions were in the Methodist School and that money should be directed to fixing it. After Veronica’s speech, Esther helped translate to the chiefs in Twi. I am constantly marveling at how strong, assertive, welcoming, and caring, Esther is as a person. Although I could not understand what she said to the chiefs that night I knew it was direct and purposeful and by the end of the night the chiefs said they would direct money to fixing up the school instead of the community center.

Needless to say I was floored and very proud of Veronica for voicing this issue. I believe because volunteers are only here for up to three weeks it is easy to pass problems along and deem them unfixable, however, today, Veronica showed us that is not true.

Soon after dinner we headed to bed to get some rest before our big weekend visit to the Cape Coast.

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