“Take not the past that lies before you instead chose your own path and leave a trail behind you.” RW Emerson Shared by, Katherine

Today we first had some sort of school-wide religious ceremony. On Wednesday mornings, all the schools do this in their individual buildings. At the RC school, there was much preaching, singing and drumming. I also heard a few “praise Jesus”, and “praise Mohammad”. The students were then sent to class, but my teacher spent her time doing whatever. I read them a story and then began doing site word flash cards. When the teacher came back into the classroom, she told me to continue with my lesson. I wrote simple sentences on the board. We did repeat oral reading, then matched flash card words to the words on the board.
I was very pleased that later on, my teacher built on my lesson. She had them copy their sentences in their book, and I was very impressed with their penmanship. Much to my surprise, there then was an hour-long break. All of the teachers sat under the shade of a tree with the headmaster. All of the children were left to their own devices. When my teacher came back, she said they were meeting with the headmaster to discuss that they had lost a teacher, and they
were deciding how to combine 2 classes. I don’t know why it took the headmaster and all of the teachers an hour to figure this out.

The teacher then continued to use my sentences in a dictation lesson. Most students did very well, but 3-4 students didn’t get it at all. Next the teacher had a lesson in her book on how to make a paper pinwheel. Before she copied it on the board, she went in the yard, and got a stick and a few leaves. She showed the students a Ghana-style pinwheel. While the teacher spent almost 10 minutes drawing the directions on the board, the students ran about the yard making
their own Ghana-style pinwheels. The children were running and laughing and having a great time. I wonder if tomorrow we will make the book-style pinwheels.

Lunch today was a favorite for repeat Global volunteers, Rice Ball soup. This afternoon we did not have an outside adventure, so it a relaxing time to cool off and rest. A bit before 3pm, we were off to the library, where eager children were waiting to be read to or show off their reading
skills. Their enthusiasm for books really thrills “the reading teacher” in me. After library time, we did have another adventure. After 3 weeks in India, and 3 days in Ghana, a fellow volunteer, Ryan, had great expectations for a visit to the Continental hotel. We had to wait a few minutes for a trotro, but eventually got there. We found a perfect spot to sit, except for a very large baboon had escaped his cage and made a mess finishing off someone’s leftovers. We ordered our beverages at the bar, by that time a very comfortable spot was available for us right by the river. Cool breezes and lapping water (and a bit of alcohol) relaxed us all. We returned to
another wonderful dinner. This time it was the Ghana version of Savannah red rice and popcorn. This is only our third day here, and it already feels like home.