Hello Hello!
SO I have finished my second week of teaching in Tunayili! It has been fun, though is incredibley challenging at times. Getting to know the kids has been a lot of fun. Last week, we had two sports days, in which we went to Gushie, the next town up, by the main road for football and races, we lost all but one race, but had a great time there and are really beginning to feel like part of the school. Our schedule has changed, we teach 3rd and 4th grade english and physical education from 8:15 to 10:15 and then 5th and 6th grade english from 10:30 to 12, it is exhausting, but we really enjoy it.
We have also been getting to know the other teachers better, which has been very nice. One of them, Asana, is very quite. She cooks us dinner every night and is not a very good cook. She seems to think that making everything taste like fish is the way to cook, we have started snacking and preparing some of our own food. One of our favorite things to eat is canned hummus! We can buy breakfast in the community also most days. For 10-20 peswas, about 10 cents, we can get rice balls with groundnut (peanut) soup or fried doughy things called maha, both are delicious!
Three 5th grade girls, Zainab, Bantu, and Karima, have started coming over every day and insisted on doing any washing we have. This all started when they saw me washing our clothes in the wash bin last week. They came over and showed me how to do it properly, but whenever I try to help, Zainab, the most vocal, looks at me like I am crazy and says, "Madame stop!" After they finish they ask us for toffe, which means they want orange tic tacs.
There is a Peace Corps Volunteer, Shawn, in Dipali, the furthest village from the road, who we have been getting to know. She is very nice. Last weekend, she invited us over to watch a naming ceremony for a newborn baby. We didn't get to see much, but met a lot of her community and then went to her house for tortillas with steamed vegetables and apple pie, it was incredible! It has been nice getting to know her, she is very friendly and as she has been here over a year, has answers to a lot of the random questions we have.
Allright, time for me to sign off for now!
Lots of LOVE!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
School
I am in Tamale for the day today. My new situation is a bit different than I expected. The good news is that the house is only about 70 feet from the school. We only have to ride our bikes the 7 km when we want to come into town. Today we made the ride for the first time, it is a challenge as the roads are all very sandy. After the bike ride, we have to wave down a taxi or a trotro (bus) to get the other 38 km to Tamale.
The house isn't a house, more a motel. All the rooms (6) open onto a veranda and there are two showers a kitchen, and two bathrooms in the middle. the shower is the only one that works. To cook, we have a portable gas stove. One of the other teachers, the only other female, cooks every night during the week. We also get hot lunch from the school. Both meals are rice seasoned with fish and tomato past every day it seems. We also have rice for breakfast, served with sugar and milk. It is called rice water, but tastes like warm rice pudding.
The kids are great, though they speak almost no englsh. After school, they come over to our place to watch us, play with us, examine our stuff, and so on. In class, they are rowdy, but they seem to be learning. We have been working with 3 and 4th grade. It seems that some of them understand everything and some understand nothing, so it is hard to devise lesson plans. We hope to teach the 5 and 6th graders starting next week. The other teachers don't show much interest in us, except one, Alhassan, who likes to talk to us.
Last night, I cooked dinner, rice and peanut soup. Since three of the teachers had gone to town, we fed two local girls. Everyone said they liked the food and ate a lot of it!!
It is incredibly hot. When we get out of class (12-1), all I can do is sit in the shade and read. Around 4, I start to feel like a person again. We sleep outside at night, on the outer veranda in our mosquito net, so that we can feel the breeze. I was scared the first night, but the locals assured me that it's very safe.
We will start work for the mango farm next week, though I am not sure exactly what we will be doing as the trees were only planted 3 weeks ago and don't need much tending.
I am off to visit Wahab's mom, Sala and have some fufu for lunch!
The house isn't a house, more a motel. All the rooms (6) open onto a veranda and there are two showers a kitchen, and two bathrooms in the middle. the shower is the only one that works. To cook, we have a portable gas stove. One of the other teachers, the only other female, cooks every night during the week. We also get hot lunch from the school. Both meals are rice seasoned with fish and tomato past every day it seems. We also have rice for breakfast, served with sugar and milk. It is called rice water, but tastes like warm rice pudding.
The kids are great, though they speak almost no englsh. After school, they come over to our place to watch us, play with us, examine our stuff, and so on. In class, they are rowdy, but they seem to be learning. We have been working with 3 and 4th grade. It seems that some of them understand everything and some understand nothing, so it is hard to devise lesson plans. We hope to teach the 5 and 6th graders starting next week. The other teachers don't show much interest in us, except one, Alhassan, who likes to talk to us.
Last night, I cooked dinner, rice and peanut soup. Since three of the teachers had gone to town, we fed two local girls. Everyone said they liked the food and ate a lot of it!!
It is incredibly hot. When we get out of class (12-1), all I can do is sit in the shade and read. Around 4, I start to feel like a person again. We sleep outside at night, on the outer veranda in our mosquito net, so that we can feel the breeze. I was scared the first night, but the locals assured me that it's very safe.
We will start work for the mango farm next week, though I am not sure exactly what we will be doing as the trees were only planted 3 weeks ago and don't need much tending.
I am off to visit Wahab's mom, Sala and have some fufu for lunch!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
I got a job!
Hi again!
So, I've been in Tamale in the Northern Region for a week now. It's great here!! I actually had a sinus infection at first, which was no fun, but I'm all better now. We have been having a great time, wandering the crowded streets and markets, sweating our you know whats off!
The food is amazing! We eat a lot of fufu, pounded kasava, plantain, or yam. We eat it with our hands in peanut, lye, ore palmnut soup. The peanut soup is my favorite so far, but we are trying a new kind tonight. We have found a restaurant here that we love which is owned and operated by a friend of Wahab's family, Mary. There we get fufu, rice and beans, and coca cola. For four poeple to have meals and drinks it is 8.70 cedis, like 6 USD. We have been loving coca cola here. Wahab's sister, Sadia, has been teaching me to cook some things.
Today in the market, we saw cow heads. As in entire heads. It was insane. Also, because there are so many Muslims, there are huge prayers lead in the market five times every day; they are very interesting to watch.
A few days ago, we met Sadia's cousin Niendow; when we told him we were planning to go to Accra on Wednesday to start working with WWOOF (The World Wide Organization for Organic Farming), he told us of ITFC, an organic mango farm association. On Monday morning, we met with them and Tuesday (today), they invited us to come work for them teaching in a school five days a week. We are very excited; we spent the afternoon in the market, getting groceries and cookwear because we will be making all our own meals, living without electricity, and biking 7km each way to and from school.
We are excited to begin and we move into our house, which we will share with three Ghanaian teachers, tomorrow. Now, we are off to have dinner with Sadia and her family!
So, I've been in Tamale in the Northern Region for a week now. It's great here!! I actually had a sinus infection at first, which was no fun, but I'm all better now. We have been having a great time, wandering the crowded streets and markets, sweating our you know whats off!
The food is amazing! We eat a lot of fufu, pounded kasava, plantain, or yam. We eat it with our hands in peanut, lye, ore palmnut soup. The peanut soup is my favorite so far, but we are trying a new kind tonight. We have found a restaurant here that we love which is owned and operated by a friend of Wahab's family, Mary. There we get fufu, rice and beans, and coca cola. For four poeple to have meals and drinks it is 8.70 cedis, like 6 USD. We have been loving coca cola here. Wahab's sister, Sadia, has been teaching me to cook some things.
Today in the market, we saw cow heads. As in entire heads. It was insane. Also, because there are so many Muslims, there are huge prayers lead in the market five times every day; they are very interesting to watch.
A few days ago, we met Sadia's cousin Niendow; when we told him we were planning to go to Accra on Wednesday to start working with WWOOF (The World Wide Organization for Organic Farming), he told us of ITFC, an organic mango farm association. On Monday morning, we met with them and Tuesday (today), they invited us to come work for them teaching in a school five days a week. We are very excited; we spent the afternoon in the market, getting groceries and cookwear because we will be making all our own meals, living without electricity, and biking 7km each way to and from school.
We are excited to begin and we move into our house, which we will share with three Ghanaian teachers, tomorrow. Now, we are off to have dinner with Sadia and her family!
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