The headline T.I.A is something we use all the time here when something strange seems to happen. We see the strangest things here or sometimes something funny happens to us and we just think well this is Africa. Also the lights have been going out quite a bit, which can get annoying at times. Thankfully we have a generator at the home base, but it takes atleast 15 mins just to get it up and running. Once its going then you should expect for it to go out atleast 3 times haha. And now the water isn't running so it might be time for a bucket shower... EXCITING!! The laundry as well can get tiring since we have to hand wash everything... a few of my things have become stiff since I guess not all the soap came out of it. But oh well what can you expect when hand washing? And it actually isn't that bad to hand wash I do it once a week because we do sweat a lot here.
Well I am now the full teacher of the class at Lolobi Pre-school. A typical day starts at 9 or 9:30 whenever the kids feel like strolling in to school. We work on letters, numbers, shapes, animals, and body parts. They know everything in order but once you ask someone to show you where J is they don't know. In these school systems they learn to memorize it all. So I am trying to help them out on picking out the letters rather than just memorize. It is the same with numbers than can count really well but they can't point out the number when asked. When asked to point out a letter or number and they can't get it the headmaster, Eunice, will say shame on you and pick someone else. Its so sad. Also they do caning in the schools where they hit kids with these long sticks really hard. A lot of the children cry and I want to go hold them all the time. We made more coloring books for the children and wrote their names on them. They love to color and show me what they have done. They think they color so well when they scribble but its so cute so of course I think it is good. Some older kids try taking their crayons and make them color right, but I tell them to leave a lot of the times. We also bring books for the kids and pictures of all different kind of animals. About 10:30 we go outside and sing some of their songs and do the hokey pokey of course. They love doing that song everyday now and think it is hilarious. A lot of the kids have caught on to the words now. We also have introduced them to the itsy bitsy spider which they like to. Today we brought a soccer ball and played with that outside for a long time. Its always good when we go outside so I can get their energy out. We kicked the ball today and also threw it back and forth. I love being there and being with those kids. And now they aren't scared of us and actually never let go of us when we are there. It is strange though that the teacher of that class just lays around when I am there and does nothing. Plus the kids are so young that they don't have the attention span to listen for so long.
Last weekend we traveled to Kumasi. There is a bus that goes from HoHoe to Kumasi but it was packed full. The next option was tro tros which is the bus system here and they pack it full with people. The buses are small and they all look like they shouldn't even be working. We got on the tro tro to Accra at 1:30 in the morning and crammed on in. This tro tro over heated 4 times and we had to stop each time it did to let it cool down. One time it started smoking and one of the girls started freaking out. Everyone started climbing over each other trying to get out of it haha. But it wasn't even smoke apparently. It was hilarious after it happened. We made it to Accra at 5ish and got dropped off somewhere where it was a mad house. SOOOO many people were everywhere going crazy. We asked around for a bus to kumasi and a guy took us to one. We got in and were the only ones which made us concerned. Then we started driving away at which point we were for sure we were going into the sex trade haha. But he just wanted to pick up people on the side of the roads. The bus got so crowded with not only people, but also the most random stuff! With this bus we only got a flat tire, which isn't to bad. We finally made it to Kumasi after ten hours. OUr hotel was interesting in that it was decorated with lots of Chinese stuff. In our room we had a kind bed (which is two twins pushed together) and two cots. So 4 people on the bed and I got a cot, and have been given the name Granny. The next day we went to the cultural arts place and the biggest market in Ghana. Wow that thing was huge and it was like a labyrinth. We walked down this one part which started out as just clothes, then regular food, then like animals getting chopped up everywhere. The smell was horrible and made me want to puke. People were grabbing onto us and I would have to yank their hands away. Ah it was crazyness. Hard to explain. Then we left Sunday and our tro tro man was crazy. It was pouring rain and a truck was passing by. Since we leave the windows open due to no a/c the mud flew in and all over everyone. I saw it happening so I ducked. But I was sitting on where the wheel was and there were holes so I got splattered with mud the whole way haha. Then our tro tro got stuck in the mud!!!!!! It was insane.
Other than everything that goes on here I love it so much. The people are so welcoming and nice. I will be sad to leave here. We have made several friends as well. I love my kids that I teach a lot and wish I could bring them all back to the U.S. Its just different to see how everyone lives here and even though they don't have much they are all so happy. I love it so much.
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