Time for another time consuming email...
Well two Saturdays ago we arrived at our host families. Jani and I were pretty nervous but were pleasantly surprised by the condition of our house. Of course it's nothing flash but we are comfortable there.....and we have a flushing toilet....which is important to us!
In our family there is our mother, father, a 6 year old boy called Emmeal, a 10 year old girl called Sylvia, a 13 year old girl called Patricia and an older son who's name i have no idea of as we've only met him once cause he lives elsewhere to go to uni. There is also their 17 year old cousin living there for a while to help put before he goes on to senior school. We asked when we first met him if he was the older brother to which he said yes (they call all their relations their brothers or sisters) so we gave him one of the presents we bought for the family, only to realise that the actual brother doesn't live with them.
The meals we've been given so far have been pretty good, the family has had volunteers before so they know what sort of foods us westeners eat....although we have had some traditional Ghanaian foods, most of which have been pretty good. Although after telling our mother (Mumma Saqueena) that Jani doesn't eat fish, we had fish for 5 consecutive days in a row! But it's ok, Jani and I have a system, when there is fish and veggies, I eat the fish and Jani takes the veggies. Or when there is meat that Jani doesn't like the look of, I eat it while she takes the rice or pasta. Fortunately rice comes with most meals, so when all else fails we can somehow fill our bellies. For lunch though we get a plate of pineapple to share....not the most filling considering the only meals aside from lunch we have are breakfast and dinner. All the other gappers have been telling us that their families won't stop feeding them......a little jealous of that. We'll survive.....hopefully! And we try to eat with our hands as this is how thay eat and encourage us to do the same, but we're looked at strangely when we use our left hands - toilet hand! All meals aren't supposed to be social, we are given our food to eat alone at the table, but our brother and sisters still come and sit with us and watch with amazement!
Last week at school we sat in different classes each day of the week to decide which we would like to take. Our first reaction to the schooling was how poor the standard of teaching is. The teachers take hours to teach the most basic lessons. However, after seeing the standards of the students it is more understandable. It was sometimes hard to sit there and watch as the teachers slowly took the lessons, sometimes being incorrect themselves. And the kids are so rowdy. They could shout all day if you let them. If you yell at them it means nothing, that's why the teachers are so fond of the cane. Jani and I at first were shocked by how they could just whack the kids so easily and so hard, and everywhere; on their backs, legs, arms, shoulders and even heads.....(and none of them have hair). Some of the kids will put their heads on the table after being caned and you can just see tears dropping onto the ground. Others smile cheekily and some look scared and know now to behave.
During the school day (8:00am - 1:30p.m) there are two fifteen minute breaks, although if you don't go back into the classrooms they could go on for hours - the teachers are as unwilling as some of the students.
During breaks Jani and I could sit down and within seconds we are surrounded by smiling faces. All the kids just want to get a look at us. Then they'll start asking us the same questions, day in day out, such as 'What is your name? How old are you? What is your father's name? What is your mother's name? Where do you live? Can you buy me a ball? Take me to Australia with you and the most common question is Oburoni how are you?' To which you answer 'fine' because if you say 'good' or 'well' or 'great' they have no idea what you mean. It seems as though the Englsh they learn is al in set phrases. If you say similar words they don't understand the meaning. Then they'll start shaking your hand, that then turns into just wanting to touch your skin. Soon people will literally be in fights, punching and kicking each other just to get a glimpse of us or to touch us. To break it up all we can do is walk away. Yelling at them has no effect. One of the days they all got their pen and paper out and wrote us notes saying 'Janika and Monika I love you', it was really cute. Some of them just want to know how we spell our names.......and our mother's name......and our father's name.....
One lunch time Jani and I asked to use the toilets so a whole crowd of them took us to the bathrooms then waited outsied. Jani and I walked in only to find the entire place covered with faeces. On the floor, the pit toilet seats, even on the doors somehow. It smelled so so awful we bailed straight away. We couldn't believe people used them. But we then discovered that they don't. Sitting in the classrooms we look out the window and there are kids peeing a few metres from the classroom, boys and girls, and of all ages. So the hygeine is pretty bad as they don't wash their hands and half of them have no shoes to wear to school. Everyone here also openly picks their nose....teachers included, as they're teaching the class. It's hard not to be put off by this! They eat traditional foods for recess and lunch, there are always ladies preparing the food during classes. And the water here comes in bag, not bottles. Jani and I have had to get used to the taste. Everything here that is sold in plastic tastes like plastic, it's pretty horrible but again it's something we've gotten used to.
To get home, or to the Twi lessons we had the irst week in the afternoon we catch taxis. It costs 25 peswas per person one way, that's equivalent to 25 cents......not too bad hey! Although the first taxi we got in we were ripped off massively, paying the equivalent of 4 US dollars. It doesn't sound too much but to get to Accra or Cape Coast costs the same, and that from Swedru (where we are) is a one and a half hour drive. So we now know to just give the taxi driver the amount and then get out.
Church and religion here is huge. Our family spends hours on Sunday doing all things Churchy. I've never been to Church accept for weddings or funerals but here I'd be looked down upon massively so I was advised by the in-country agents to say I attend Church as it will save a lot of explaining. So so far that is what I have done but have tried to keep those conversations brief. And this Sunday we'll be attending a 3 hour service all spoken in Twi. Should be interesting!
And now to the weekend. Well last Friday straight after school, Jani, Bec, Ally, Maddy, Georgina, Will and I all met in town and caught a Tro Tro (mini-bus) to Accra. There we got money out, did some supermarket shopping and wanderend around the streets. I decided to go and see Ali Baba and his Rasta friend Mark. We chilled with them for a while then went to see more of our friends in town. We then lugged all our bags to our accomodation - The Salvation Army Hostel, 5 dollars per night, not bad!
We all then went out to dinner, we found a pizza joint and were all so so happy to be eating familiar food. We all ended up having a few too many drinks for a quiet night.....but was a good night. We were in bed by 11, the sun goes down early here and it seemed a lot later. Besides we had to be up by 7 the next morning to get a Tro Tro to Cape Coast.
The trip took around 2 hours and along a bumpy road, squashed with no leg room it was a pretty uncomfortable trip. When we got there we got into a pretty heated fight with the taxi drivers who dropped us at our accomodation. They even came inside the hostel and grabbed Ally as she gave them the money we were prepared to pay them. From then on we've decided to all take the same taxi as it's cheaper and the taxi driver won't fight against 7 of us. And this is 7 of us in a hatchback. You see heaps of people in the small taxis, although I'm pretty sure we hold the record of fitting the most in!
We went to a resort on Saturday arvo till Saturday night where we swam and sunbaked and then at night time there was a club upstairs. It was all outside though, very tropical. Again at night time it's mostly the Rastas, all smoking constantly and barely any women. They're all friendly though. I met one Rasta called Kenya who was involved in that documentary shown in Australia last year about the boy who lives in Australia but is Ghanaian and went back to visit his homeland. A lot of the locals in Cape Coast have interesting names, I met a guy called X-Men, and one called Mr Fantastic. Obviously they're not their real names, but you tend to ask them a couple of times what their names are cause you have no idea what they're talking about when you say 'my name's Mon or Jani, what's yours' and they say 'X-Men'!
All of Sunday we were at that beach again sunbaking.....(and burning...ooops), eating their good food and playing with the kids. Not many Ghanaians, especially girls, are allowed to swim, so it's nice to see that some still do. We raced a lot of the kids into the water. They get such a thrill just from that!
We arrived home Sunday evening to a big hug from Mumma Saqueena and smiles from our siblings. They wanted to know all about our weekend as they don't travel too often.
Then Monday we had our first classes. I decided to take class 5 and Jani class 6. Although the teacher for class 3 was away so I had to take that class. Unfortunately class 3 is the most disobedient in the school. I had no syllabus so I had to just think up things to teach them. When they actually do pay attention they seem to understand although marking their work you can see that most of them have no idea what your talking about. At one stage I went to ask the teacher next door to quieten down the class. She came in and caned each individual student 3 times each. I stood there feeling so helpless, some of them who had been good were getting whacked for no reason. All I wanted was some shhhhh. I went to recess feeling so guilty.
Last night I sat with our brother and he read some of the books we brought. He is 6 years old and smarter than some of the kids in class 5, although he goes to a school on a scholarship. But none the less we were impressed at his willingness to learn.
Then today I took class 5 for the first proper full day of teaching. As awful as it sounds, today Jani and I appreciated the cane. There is not a chance in the world that we could ever use it, but with the mentality of the kids, there is no other effective way of disciplining them. You can yell all you want but they don't learn that way.
My teacher kept making excuses as to why he had to quickly leave the room but I found teaching easier and more effective when I was alone. We'll definitely be planning our lessons from now on as they're not too interesting if they're read straight from the textbook.
Alright I'm sure we've bored you all enough with our recount of events up until now. Besides, we came here straight from school and are starving! So until next time!
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