Living in Ghana

More than a week has passed since my last post and so much has happened. I finally realized I was in Africa last night after sitting outside for two hours petting and feeding our honourary goat, "Billy", who was on loan from a neighbouring farmer as a result of my request for a household pet. I actually started crying I was so happy--the shock is finally over and I can really start "living" in Ghana. Unfortunately, Billy returned home this morning after bleating all night long--poor guy. His absence was quickly filled by a kitten (which I can't pet because of my allergies), and we have named her "Whiskers" (as you can tell we are very creative when it comes to naming our pets). She will have to leave to go home again too, but our internship advisor is working on getting us our own baby goat to care for, which I am so excited about.
Upon waking up this morning I had another reminder that I am in Africa--our end of town, aptly called the "Boondocks", does not currently have any running water. Ironically, I planned to wash my clothes today (which are all dirty) and shower for the first time since Tuesday morning (which seems like a year ago since all I do is sweat here and create a nice adhesive surface for all the red, blowing dust from the roads). Thank goodness for hand sanitizer and bottled water is all I can say at this point.
Last week was very eventful. I climbed the mountain range between Ghana and Togo and crawled through the Likpe Caves, which were full of history, "thunder stones" (volcanic rock that sparks when smashed together), and "shit of bat". Ghanaian tribe leaders used to convene meetings in these sacred caves and they were later used to hide runaway slaves from slave traders. Now the caves are frequently traversed by tourists and by locals who go looking for the coveted bat manure to use on their tomato gardens. What amazed me was the leisurely way that our small, older guide completed the hike while all of the "Yevu" sweated, panted, and swore our way up this mountain side and over rock ledges. Everyone seems to be in incredible shape here.
I visited the Wli Waterfalls and was offered wood carving lessons from an artist who works in the forest alongside the waterfall trail. The falls were beautiful and I will definitely be taking the artist up on his offer when we return to the falls for a swim next week.
Over the weekend I went on a trip to Lake Volta, the world's largest man-made lake. We stayed in a hotel called Afrikiko. On the outside this place was paradise--flowering trellis-covered walkways, African sculpture and pottery displays, grass hut sitting areas, and a restaurant patio overlooking the lake's uninhabited shoreline. Inside the rooms things weren't quite so wonderful. To start off our stay we were all charged $20 US extra for a reservation error that the hotel had made! We then went to our rooms which were supposed to have DSTV but only had two channels (and only one channel with sound). In the bathroom we found a hose coming out of the wall--our shower for the next two days. I just had to laugh. TIA! Otherwise our trip went really well. We visited the Cedi Bead Factory where artists make beads and jewelery out of recycled glass bottles, plastic, and scrap wood. A live demonstration showed us how tedious the work is to produce such beautiful products. I was thoroughly impressed and managed to spend quite a bit of money in their gift shop after the tour! We also visited a disco club at The Volta Hotel (an upscale Western standards resort with bad wine) where we danced the night away to hits of the 80s and 90s! So much fun! On our last day we went on a boat tour of the natural half of Lake Volta and got to see the massive dam and pipeline structure that keeps the man-made side of the lake in place. Afterwards we took advantage of the sunshine and pool to do some swimming and work on our tans/sunburns. My freckles are now out in full force! Yay!
The coolest thing I have done so far this week is feed a monkey a banana at the Monkey Sanctuary! The monkeys would literally hold onto our hands and peel the banana themselves before breaking a piece off and nibbling it! The only thing I found slightly odd was the behaviour of nursing mothers and the pack leader (the head honcho monkey who is larger than all the rest). The mothers would eat first before offering any to their newborns and before we could feed any of the monkeys we had to toss a whole banana to the pack leader, who caught it, ate it, and then observed our interactions with his pack. He refused to look any of us in the eye or take any further offerings of food. Tomorrow I leave for Cape Coast and the slave castles. I am super excited about it and will be sure to post as soon as possible next week.
Aside from frolicking around Ghana and sightseeing I have been working my butt off at placement every day to get my classroom functioning. I am currently in the middle of a class rejuvenation project and have painted the numbers 1-10 and the alphabet up on the classroom wall. Next week I will be drawing curriculum posters that the teacher can use as visual aids during her lessons. I also instituted the positive reinforcement rule and now violence is no longer acceptable in my classroom, regardless of whether it is disciplinary/corrective (done by staff caning a student who misbehaves or gives the wrong answer) or retaliatory (students hitting each other or the staff). Instead we have time outs, line writing, and loss of privileges as disciplinary measures. We also have a "Good Behaviour Chart" where each student is eligible to get a sticker if they manage to get through a day without fighting or cheating in class. Once they have ten stickers I give them a treat! Today was the first day all of my students were awarded a sticker--everyone was very happy about it!
I am also looking into speech therapy techniques and hoping to redesign the current assessment system they have for new students entering the school. Anyway, my computer time is almost up. Hope all is well back home! Ndo!