Our last week in Ghana went by much faster than I expected. As we sit here waiting to board our flight, it is surreal to think that the trip we have been planning since January is now over.
Last weekend our wonderful cooks, Ruben and Latisha, went to visit their families for the weekend so the Westside crew was on their own for food. Saturday morning some of the interns whipped up a wonderful batch of French toast – so sweet that no syrup was necessary. J And then we all headed to the beach for a little R&R. Of course, we had to weather a storm first. Literally. Dark rain clouds moved in so quickly that I had enough time to put down my bag and walk to the water only to dash back to my things and carry them to the safety of the ramada. After making sure that my camera and towel would remain dry, I joined the others who were playing Frisbee in the storm.
The wind was so strong that when we through the disc toward the ocean, it changed direction in mid-air and sailed behind us. We ate lunch at the restaurant on the beach and waited for the storm to pass before heading back to the water. I am not sure if the current is strong in the Gulf of Guinea or if it was just the particular beach we visited, but the churning waves were rather intimidating so no one ventured very far into the ocean. We played with the sand crabs, explored the little pools in the rocks, and flew a kite. All in all, not a bad way to send a Saturday!The average temperatures in the day reach about 90 degrees but the humidity makes it seem warmer. While most of the Americans are running around in
shorts and t-shirts, we see many of the children walking home from school wearing jackets or long sleeved-shirts. I am not sure whether that is to protect their skin from the sun or if they are cold but either way, I get heat stroke just thinking about it. At night the temperatures can reach 75 degrees and some times, there is even a wonder breeze. The perfect weather for sitting on the porch in my opinion. But the children are cold! One night while we doing homework on the front steps Stephanie, a cute little seven-year-old girl who likes to hug people around them middle and blow raspberries on their stomachs, crawled into my lap to cuddle. Shivering, she picked up my arms and wrapped them around herself. “It is cold,” she said with chattering teeth. When I laughed and told her that I was quite hot, she shook her head at me as though I were the crazy one. Too cute.A couple of weeks ago two of the interns brought a telescope for the school. The children love to look through it and they have so many questions. How do you explain them that they are looking at planets? That these planets are hundreds of miles way? That they are not actually tiny dots in the sky? The telescope
really helps explain that but so does having a physicist in the Westside House. Travis mans the telescope and the kids hover around him trying to absorb everything he says. It is awesome to see the kids so enthusiastic. The other day I was walking to homework tutoring with two girls and they were asking me a question about the planets. I told them that I did not know the answer but maybe we should look it up. When I asked them where they might discover the answer, they thought for about two seconds before say, “Ask Travis!”Originally our purpose for going to the Village of Hope was to tutor students in mathematics so they would be able to enter school at the correct grade level. But the greater need seemed to be to condense and supplement the curriculum. This task is not isolated to the mathematics curriculum either. We are condensing and supplementing 5 different subjects: Mathematics, Science, Environmental Studies, English, and Religious and Moral Education (RME). When we first realized how extensive our task was, we began emailing with teachers we knew, requesting lesson plans and suggestions. Thanks again to
everyone who sent materials and suggestions our way! Reviewing activities and experiments for the Science and Math curricula has been a lot of fun. Our clear bias might have something to do with that. The English curriculum has been our biggest challenge but we have gotten a lot of suggestions and support for that so it no longer seems an overwhelming or impossible task. Before leaving for Ghana we recognized that three weeks would not be enough time for any education project; we were fully prepared to transport text books back to Arizona and set up a calendar of deadlines so that we could continue our work. Moreover, we also understand that the work we are doing this summer is really only a rough draft. The curriculum will be tested (used) over this next year and we will receive feedback from the staff which we help us make improvements next summer.As predicted this has been a week of savoring our last moments. Several times this week, Jessica and I both lingered over in the communal cooking area just to surround ourselves with the kids. I am sure that we were
distracting them from chore time but they did not seem to mind at all. Jessica said goodbye to the class of second graders she has been working with. They particularly enjoyed the “toffee” she distributed. (All candy is referred to as toffee, no matter the kind.) I enjoyed my last few story nights with “my kids”. I love spending time with all of the children, but there are a few of them I have bonded with during our short time here. Today we got to spend time with the kids during their field day at school. The children are divided in to houses and then compete against each other in different events: dashes, relays, musical chairs, an eating contest, volley ball, and football (soccer). It was great to spend our last moments with the kids, cheering them on in their events, but enjoying ourselves so much made it very difficult to leave.We are looking forward to seeing and speaking to you very soon. Thank you for your prayers for our safe travel. We will also be praying for your safe travel as so many prepare to travel for the holiday weekend(s).
Agape,
Alayna
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