Hello From Ghana!

Akwaaba!!!!!
That means “Welcome” in Twi. I am slowly trying to learn the common greetings here in Ghana. On my first day I was given my sign name and my Ghana name. My Ghana name Akwea was given to me by our tro tro driver and my sign name was given to me by Prince one of Natalie’s 2nd grade students. It’s the letter B hand shape patted against your cheek. Prince named me that because of how red my cheeks were. He thought it was hilarious. For anyone who doesn’t know, a name sign is given to hearing and deaf people by a deaf person. I’m so excited to finally have one its such an honor.

I am sorry it has taken me so long to post on this blog. The main server has been down in Kibi for a few days and the last internet café we tried to go to, made us pay the “white” price. Hehehehe I know that sounds weird. Anyway I absolutely love it here. Everyday has its own challenges but I love working with these wonderful kids. This whole week I have been working with my 4th and 5th graders on changing numbers into their written form. (8 = Eight) Today I gave a test and 90% of them got them all right! I was so proud! And the teacher I was working with got to see that I don’t have to hit my students to help them learn. As you might have read before some other volunteers and I had some trouble dealing with the methods of some of the teachers. In fact it got so bad yesterday that I walked out of my class while my teacher was beating my kids with a stick when they had gotten the answer wrong on the board, even though they had started to correct themselves. Everything worked out in the end and now my teacher is not allowed to administer punishment while I am teaching. But other than my teacher I absolutely love working at the school! Everyday as we arrive in the morning, the other volunteers and I are swarmed by hugs and smiles. We are the only ones the students can really communicate with. All these kids need is some encouragement. I told one of my students he did a perfect job on his work, and his face lit up like a Christmas tree. These kids make all the hard work worth it. I’m so thankful for this wonderful experience. I am learning so much! I definitely appreciate teachers a lot more. =)

My living conditions are not bad at all. As it turns out we do have running water, they just needed to fill up the water tank outside our house. I am pretty disappointed about the hot plate, but Curry Jones one of the founders of signs of hope is coming out for a visit this weekend and he is bringing one. Hehehe I can’t wait, tuna gets old. Meghan Smith and I are sharing a room and bed. She is one of the most hilarious people I have ever met. I love her so much! Whenever one of us is having a bad day we get my ihome out and we listen to her ipod. Taylor Swift really knows how to pick up our spirits. Every night a cook from the school makes us an authentic Ghanaian dish for dinner. I just found out today that the red sauce, an amazing sauce that they put on almost everything, is actually made out of dried up fish. The whole fish! I’m just glad I can’t see it. Every dish we have had has either had a whole fish or pieces of it floating around. Hehehe It has been very interesting.

Oburnee! Is yelled at us wherever we go. It means “white person”. Children especially love to yell it. Its not offensive its just that most of the people here have never seen a white person before. I feel I might understand what it might be like to be a celebrity. Everywhere we go we are watched. The other day we were at the bead market and saw a couple from Germany we all started yelling Oburnee Oburnee! Hehehe

Well my time is running out on the computer. I will write more soon now that the server is back up. I want to thank everyone who made this experience possible. I love you all!

Ps: Sorry for the spelling errors.