Saturday 30 March 2013

Easter Party!!

So today was the day for a big Easter party at Wisdom Academy! I had been told about this before I arrived in Ghana by the founder of TANF and was asked to bring any ideas along to make the event as fun as possible. So I made a few preps - went down to Poundland and bought some plastic eggs that come apart to put sweets in and some little chicks. The idea being - Easter Egg Hunt!

The children absolutely loved it. I had barely finished reading the instructions before they had run off searching. I had never seen a group of 40 people run so fast - especially because they knew a prize was in store!






 


We had also purchased a crate of eggs (they don't come in boxes here) so we could have an egg and spoon race! Different classes raced against each other, whilst myself, another volunteer who has arrived and Rev. Laud also raced against each other....luckily my class three cheered me on VERY loudly and I was winning, but saw Rev. Laud coming up behind me and got nervous and dropped the egg! I felt very bad for letting my lovely class 3 down but they still gave me lots of hugs after anyway!











 


After we had done our bit, it was time for Ghanaian culture! Some of the pupils performed a cultural dance in traditional wear, while a teacher and a couple of other students were drumming. It was loud and so entertaining as it was nothing I'd ever seen before...and of course, there was a part where I had to join in which got shrieks and laughter from everyone. Maybe I should now start making a career into Ghanain dancing...Success!





And here are a few pictures of my cuties from Class 3 - as you can probably tell, I am very attached and really missed them yesterday and it was only one day I was not with them - how I'm going to cope when I leave here for good I don't know! 
'Madame Josie, can you snap me?' - poser!

With the girlies of Class 3!

All together! <3



Thursday 28 March 2013

Two days of proper teaching!

So yesterday and today have been absolutely wonderful teaching Class 2 Maths and Class 3 English. Yesterday, myself and the founder of TANF organised a HIV/AIDS awareness talk for the primary school children in which we spoke about how HIV is spread, the symptoms and prevention of the disease.




Yesterday, I had a maths lesson with Class 2 first and I decided it would be good to work on their times-tables. So i'd write the sums on the board while they would call out the answer in unison. We would go through this saying 'one times two is two, two times two is four' etc outloud altogether. Then I rubbed out the answers and got them to call out the answer this way...including jumping around and not going in order to distract them. I would say 'four times two is' and they would shout out the answer. Instead of just saying it, I made sure I made it a bit more interesting and shouted in different voices - high and low, loud and quiet, fast and slow etc, which they found hilarious. This was the same for the 3x and 5x. I then wrote out all of the sums and they had to copy them down in their books with the answers (neatly ofc). Time flew and I had run over into breaktime. I asked if they wanted to carry on tomorrow, but they said no they wanted to finish it then. I must have done something right. Gradually the class started to leave as they finished, but \I noticed one girl taking a very long time and looked very lost, so I went over to help her one to one. She seemed to find it very difficult: this would have been the perfect opportunity to wack out the plastic coloured counters, but of course, there is a huge limit on materials. So i ran around each desk stealing pencils to start making piles of 3 to explain the sums better. This seemed to work! 
Next, I had English with Class 3 and I decided to practise verbs and adjectives and pronouns and nouns. Learning verbs was brilliant because I made sure they understood the definition while then asking for examples of different verbs which we would then all act out (i.e. running on the spot etc). We then played charades of different verbs which they found hilarious. After this I wrote 5 different words on the board and told the class to make sentences using the different words. I chose 'flying, silver, Ghana, quietly and they'. Lots wrote about the pots were silver and the bird was flying, but some clearly had a vivid imagination and wrote some lovely things. (will write down exact examples next lesson). I marked their work and I have never seen such excitement at seeing the words 'brilliant' and 'fantastic' with a smilie face. Some were dancing around, some were beaming, some came to show me as if I didn't know when I had wrote it hahaa. 



Today, I was teaching English first thing with Class 3. When I walked into the class I was handed a letter by the students, which was from them saying that I am nice to them, I am very kind and beautiful and thanking me. It was absolutely lovely! I recapped the verbs, which involved a lot more running on the spot, jumping on the spot, singing and dancing as well as recapping adjectives and nouns and pronouns. I then thought it would be a bit different to focus on punctuation; today we did the full stop and question mark. I drew each on the board and asked what they were, which everyone could answer, but noone was comfortable enough to answer what is fullstop is/what a question mark is. I taught them the definition and when its used etc, which they all eagerly wanted to write in to their notebooks. We then did some examples of each. As an exercise I wrote a short paragraph on the board with no full stops or question marks: My name is Angela what is your name I am 10 years old how old are you I live in Ghana where do you live my favourite subject is maths what is your favourite subject. They then had to fill in the correct punctuation mark in the correct place. I then marked this and wonderfully everyone scored at least 6/8 or more! I felt very proud of them and of myself. And of course I wrote some nice feedback in their work, which they were all ecstatic about...again! Wonderful! 






Tuesday 26 March 2013

Busy, busy, busy!

So I said in my previous post that it had been 'go, go, go' since I got here and nothing's changed. I really have done so much and I haven't even been here a week yet! So get ready for PLENTY of 'gap yaaah' stories when I get back everyone :D

Leading off from my last post, I've been doing a whole range of things. On Sunday, I designed and made the library opening poster for Wisdom Academy. A previous volunteer had fundraised money to be able to buy a fair few books for the school and I was asked to assist in this occasion by making a poster that will go on the library (cupboard) door. So it was all very well, but then of course I forgot that on my laptop I don't have Microsoft Office, I only have Open Office and it would not open on another computer, so we would not be able to print it. I then had to hurriedly make a new one on Rev. Laud's computer...so much for patience and taking your time during creativity. I also have made more changes to the blog (adding a new 'page' which would consist only of each child's 'story'). The logic behind this was firstly that noone wants to keep scrolling down and I still have more children to add. Secondly, I felt there was not enough information behind the monthly sponsorship fund. I suggested that we break down the sum so people can see how much individual things cost, such as school books. That way, if someone cannot commit to making a monthly sponsorship, they can still make a one-off donation by providing the correct fee for a certain item.

As it has been sooo hot here, I do not have the same apetite as I do back home - I have some bread for breakfast and I eat a substantial lunch of rice and chicken, then in the evenings for the past couple of days we have been having some freshly grown fruit which is the nicest fruit I have ever eaten. We had pineapple one evening and another evening we had oranges and papaya. YUM.



Yesterday was my first proper day at school! I was due to be observing that day so I could get a feel for how they do things and the structure of the lesson. First I was in class 2 which is aged between 6-9 and was watching their maths lesson. They were practising counting from 0-100 and then had to write these numbers in their books (neatly of course!). The teacher asked me to mark their work, and only a couple of children had forgotten some numbers, i.e. missing out the 70s or 80s. At first I thought this was a starter activity...but it seemed to go on for the whole lesson (which was about 1 hr 15 mins)...The children were very sweet though and already I could see which ones were the cheeky ones who might try and give me a bit of trouble! I then went into class 3 which is aged between 8-11 to watch their English lesson. The teacher had written a passage on the blackboard about festivals in Ghana and the children copied it into their books (again, neatly!). The teacher found a stick and then did a 'call and response' where they read out sentences of the passage at a a time. This also went on for a very long time. They had a quick discussion about Easter and it was then requested that I read out the passage for them to copy. Awww! 




I think today had been the most successful day so far. TANF has been meaning to start collaborating with the health sector of the community, promoting free healthcare for all. So, as I volunteered to help out with Gloria and Matilda, the two health workers, this was the perfect opportunity for TANF to get more involved. So today was the first step! Today I weighed over 55 babies at a mother and baby clinic where babies and young children also come to receive their immunizations. I had to log it in the child's record book and plot it on a graph. I then had to fill in a sheet which records the data of everyone - so attendance of each child and their age, whether they had a vit. A droplet and whether there was any male attendance (of which there was only 1!!!). I imagined it to be like the scales we see in hospitals - sized to fit the baby and digital, but no, we hung a piece of rope over a beam with one of those scales that you use when you hang your suitcase on to check if you're within the baggage allowance. But instead of hanging a rucksack, I was hanging babies from as young as 2 weeks to 3 years old. It was so rewarding, but yet also exhausting. The women I was working with do this regularly along with everything else and I absolutely repsect them 100%. They really do deserve a gold medal! (read the blog for full story!)






And finally, after a busy morning at the clinic and some lovely chicken and rice with an amazing sauce, it was over to Wisdom Academy for the grand opening of the school library (cupboard). A previous volunteer had done some fundraising and was able to provide sponsors for 4 children and also bought lots of new books for every child in the school to use and borrow to practise their reading. This was where my poster came in! I was happy to participate as the children were so excited and I just hoped my rushed Microsoft Publisher poster would meet expectations! 

With his new Uniform! 



THE poster...


Saturday 23 March 2013

Hello Ghana!

Hello everyone!

It looks like it's time for another post seeing as I have started my next trip! I will be staying in Ghana for 5 weeks working as a volunteer for The Anidaso Nsae Foundation (TANF). I will be teaching English and Maths each day as well as running sports on Fridays. In addition I will be helping the founder of the project try to expand the foundation, bring new ideas, update the Facebook/website/blog and raise awareness of TANF. An additional activity which myself and Rev. Laud the founder came by will be to help assist local health workers in the community. TANF is looking to support people in the community in as many ways as possible, so integrating with this will be another step...i'll sort of be the guinea pig for TANF to see if working in the health sector will be advantageous.

TANF is a project based just outside of Accra, the capital of Ghana and aims to free children from child labour and putting them into a stable, free, education. (http://www.tanfghana.org/) Check out the website to find out more.



So...ever since I have arrived it has been go, go, go! The day after I arrived, I went to visit the school where I will be teaching and was introduced to some of the teachers and each of the classrooms. Of course, it was nothing like a British school and four different classes were all squashed into one classroom!




















I was then taken by Laud into the center of Accra...which is HUGEEE! We went to the National Theatre, which holds 1500 seats and were given a backstage tour! We then went to the Independence Square which is used for parades on special holidays. From there we went to the beach! I have never been to a beach in another continent before and it was gorgeous! I had to wear my shoes on the sand because it was so hot (forgot to say its about 32 degrees here) and the sea was lovely...warm but still refreshing. I then decided to have a horse ride along the beach, however as soon as I hoiked my leg over I heard a dreaded rip....MASSIVE hole in crotch...not good. I continued on my horse ride because it was lovely but then quickly got off and had to buy some men's trunks and pretend they were fashionable shorts.




Yesterday was also really busy...I had been looking at the TANF's blog and we were brainstorming ideas to make it better. So I decided that on the link where people can sponsor a child, I thought it would be good to write a 'story' about the child and why they need sponsorship. We then went to Wisdom Academy (where I will be teaching and were TANF children are studying) to take photos of the children and to find out their background. Check out the blog to see my work and click on 'sponsor a child'! All children greatly need all the help they can...so please...if you can, donate or sponsor TANF.

We also had a meeting at the school with all teachers to introduce ourselves properly and talk about what I would be doing...I received my timetable and we also starting planning the Easter party - where I hope to do an egg hunt and also egg rolling!




Finally, today was also very productive. I was talking to Laud about what else I could do during my free time to help TANF along with teaching - most days I finish at 12:30pm. One of the ideas was to work alongside the health workers in the community. We met up with Gloria and Matilda today who were very keen for me to be involved in one of their monthly weigh-ins of newborns, as well as attending home visits and recording data for them. I will also be able to go to school visits which speak about variety of health issues. We stumbled on the right day as Gloria and Matilda had just received a building from the community to be used as a health center. However, it was a tip! It had to be cleared out of furniture and completely scrubbed down from all of the African red dust. Soon it will be painted and fingers crossed it will be up and running soon! Also read the blog to see the news post I wrote about today's work.





















Overall, so much as happened within a such a short space of time! But that's what I like...I would rather be too busy than hang around doing nothing. Rev. Laud really seems to understand this and has been keen to contact different people with regard to work. Ghana is going well!