Distinctly Beautiful

I am distinctly beautiful because…
After being inspired by Carlos Andreas Gomez’s poem I decided to give his idea a try in my classroom. I had my students write “I am distinctly beautiful ” five times down a piece of paper and then asked them to think of five reasons why they are different than anyone else in this entire world.
I felt really nervous to try this activity, but was really excited to hear what they could come up with. Truthfully speaking, I’m not even sure if I am able to think of 5 reasons why I am distinctly beautiful. Within the private school sector here the students are taught straight from the text book and are taught how to generically answer questions and rarely are encouraged to reach deep inside for philosophical answers.
Although a lot of my students used the generic answers like “I am distinctly beautiful because I am tall” or “good at sports” which may be true…but I encouraged them to look deeper. I tried to make them come up with something to make them feel good about themselves. Esther wrote “I am distinctly beautiful because I have a pretty smile” Derrick wrote “I am distinctly beautiful because I am an artist.”
I know that not all of my students connected with this question, but it at least got them thinking. It is a very after all a very difficult question to answer.
Give it a try. What makes you different then anyone else in the entire world?
I am distinctly beautiful because….
I am distinctly beautiful because….
I am distinctly beautiful because…..
I am distinctly beautiful because…..
I am distinctly beautiful because…..

When the Stars Refuse to Shine

Things have been bittersweet around here lately. I’ve been through a lot of hellos and goodbyes, sad faces and new faces and am experiencing a whole new perspective on my time here. Meeting all of the new volunteers and remembering what it felt like to be in their shoes made me realize how far I’ve come. I think I’m feeling much more confident and at home here now am ready to give the rest of my time left here my very best.
I’ve gotten so close to everyone here and cried when all of the past volunteers left. It so heartbreaking when you are expecting someone to come walking around the corner and then realize that they’ve left to go back home. It’s funny how in such a short amount of time strangers can become your family, and positively influence your perspective. I miss everyone so much, but have come to the realization that I was so lucky to have met such incredible people. The lasting impression that some of them left on my heart has added to the invaluable influence that this trip has had on my life.
As I’ve mentioned before, adapting to this culture is oftentimes difficult Particularly within their educational system, I find myself frustrated and helpless almost everyday. I think that I’ve found peace in deciding that I’ll never understand their methods or philosophies, and am going to play by my own rules by introducing new ways of teaching inside my own classroom. I find it ironic when in my classroom we are singing songs and learning , while in the next classroom the students are getting brutally canned because they didn’t answer a question quick enough. Positive reinforcement is basically nonexistent here and it breaks my heart. The last thing one of the volunteers who left said to me and was “make sure you make these kids feel good about themselves”….and I think that this is going to be my motto for the rest of my trip.
Saying goodbye to my friends made me realize how incredibly hard it is going to be to say goodbye to my students. I’m so proud of their progress, and am so blessed that I get to teach such intelligent and wonderful students.
One of my best memories so far is when I took Jill’s guitar to placement. I find that my students have difficulty using creativity and thinking independently, so I’ve made it my personal goal to exercise the creative parts of their minds.
I taught my students ‘Apples and Bananas’ ‘When the Saints go Marching in’ and my own song ‘the seasons are changing.’ I had a really special moment when my students were singing my song, it was by far the most incredible moment here yet. It’s so great to hear my students singing the songs that I taught them at recess, it melts my heart every time. One of my students was completely captivated by my music; I loved the way he was drawn in, it was almost magnetic. He asked me if I would teach him to play the guitar, so I told him to come by the house after school and I would teach him a few chords. Seeing how eager he was to learn and how quickly he picked up what I taught him was so incredible. By the end of my guitar session with him he was singing and playing ‘When the saints go marching in.’
After seriously thinking about Derrick’s attraction to music I felt really sad. Truthfully, if these students were given the resources and opportunities to succeed, they would. It makes you wonder how many magnificent musicians, writers, artists etc. the world is missing out on. Although I can’t provide my students with the resources they rightfully deserve, I can expose them to new ideas and encourage them to believe in their dreams. At first I felt really sad that Derrick’s musical abilities will probably never meet their full potential due to lack of musical resources…but after careful thought and consideration I have realized that music is everywhere you turn. Derrick reminded me how lucky I am to be blessed with so many musical opportunities but also reminded me that music consumes you, draws you in, and will always be in us whether we have a guitar to back up our melody or not. I hope he never gives up on music.
Although I’m feeling emotionally drained from everything I’m experiencing, I’m loving my time here. My students couldn’t be more wonderful, and the new volunteers seem really nice. Africa truly has been an overload of new things for me.
Derrick singing and playing ‘when the saints go marching in’ is stuck in my mind on replay…
“oh when the stars refuse to shine, oh when the stars refuse to shine, oh lord I want to be in that number when the Saints go marching in………………………………..............”

Adaptability

One of the most significant things I've learned so far is how adaptable we can become. Probably to most of you the thought of bucket showering or learning how to speak a tribal language seems like a long shot. It was for me too at first..but I think that coming here and experiencing a new way of living has taught me to adapt to my surroundings and forced me to learn a lot about myself. One thing that I'm going to take away from here is knowing that no matter how foregin a place may be, we adapt, change and find our own special spot within it.
I love it here. The people, CCS, my fellow volunteers, my students, everything.
I have found myself falling more and more in love with this place everyday. I've never felt so welcome into a community before. The people here are constantly welcoming us into their homes and are so happy that we are here. Walking into town is one of my favourite things. We are constantly swarmed with kids yelling 'Yevo, yevo'(white person) who want to play with us,and hold our hands, it's really the greatest thing ever.It's great that my school is so close to the homebase here because my students always come by to hang out..they are all such kind and interesting little people, and I'm so excited that I get to share this time with them. They've stolen my heart already.
My placement has been incredible but truly is testing my abilities. It's difficult to teach a class with students who are all at such different levels. When I teach a lesson some students catch onto things right away and others are so far behind in English that I have to start at the fundamentals. I have been trying to think creatively to make lesson plans that can be tailored to all the student's learning needs, but with the lack of resources it becomes difficult. I'm learning my way around here so I'm hoping to find a library or something that my students can get books from. It's extremely difficult for me to understand how these students can learn to the best of their ability when there is no literature for them to read or text books to take home.I'm trying my hardest to be a valuable resource for my students, and that is really all I can do.
One of my fellow volunteers Dan really put things into perspective for me. What he said was this...As westerners we come here and instantly want to change things. For instance looking at red dirt pot holed roads and automatically think why don't they get better roads here? But the reality is that the way things are here works perfectly well for the people. If they fixed the roads they would have better / faster cars, which would result in more accidents and all of the beautiful people carrying baskets on their heads would be non-existent. His point was this: our automatic assumption to change things to become more like home isn't necessarily the right way of doing things. We can't be so quick to judge that we know whats best when we don't understand that it's these tiny things that make up what makes this place so incredible. So i'm trying to remember this at my placement by accepting the way the school system works. Let's be honest, my time here is better spent trying to make the children happy and teach them things I know then trying to fight a system that I do not understand.
On another note,this past weekend I travelled to Cape Coast and visited the Atlantic ocean and the Slave castles. It was so great to get out of Hohoe for a little break and see some other territory in Ghana. Visiting the Elmina castle was an extremely emotional experience for me. Standing inside the rooms that so much brutality and suffering took place in was somewhat surreal and extremely hard to comprehend. It's interesting how a nation that underwent such brutality for hundreds of years contains some of the nicest people I've ever encountered...I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one.
Everyday I'm inspired here by the smiles on every ones faces, joy seems to just beam out of people and nobody takes life too seriously. People are happy here..content, and I admire that.
Well I think it's safe to say that I have made it through the culture shock phase and am adapting to this new style of living. Ghana is incredible and I'm so happy.
-A.

Embracing Africa

Its really hard to start this entry because I've taken in so much this week and have no idea where to begin. First of all, this country is like nothing I have seen before. At one moment I find myself appalled by something and the next I'm completely captivated.

It has undoubtedly been a tough transition. When I arrived here I was not sure about this place... I think the fact that everything is so different, nothing feels like home, everyone is new and its so brutally hot all contributed to my discomfort.

The good news is that I've settled in...I've met some incredible people, have wonderful students and am embracing this experience.

A little about my placement...

I'm the Grade Five teacher for 15 incredible students. This class has been having a tough time because they have no teacher....so my help is greatly appreciated here.
After spending a few days teaching I have been completely blown away by the intelligence of my students. They are a very bright group of kids and I'm so excited to spend the next five weeks with them. I've been teaching them creative writing, poetry, and I'm planning on teaching them how to read music. The challenging part is this....
My classroom is outside in a space shared with 3 other classes...and there is a significant lack of resources.

My main goal is to create an inviting learning environment and provide the students with positive reinforcement.

My homebase is chaotic, but pretty awesome. The staff here are great and the other volunteers are all really nice.

I miss my family and friends (and airconditioning) but things are good here and even though it has been a tough transition i'm holding out and trying to embrace this incredible opportunity.

-A