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| The Bedaase community well |
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| Sunday School |
It was a hard day today. I felt overwhelmed. It was bedlam at the school. First, the teacher was not there, who was to be teaching a double period following my class, which I only found out when I went to ask where she was, from another teacher (I think this has happened every days since I began here). Then, when I was to sit in on a grade 4 science lesson, the teachers had an impromptu meeting and I was left attempting to teach (I figured I might as well use the time constructively) the grade 5s, with the other 120 or so supervisor-less unruly, hyper Ghanaian primary students running around, sticking their heads in, yelling into the open windows and doors as they ran by (or through), running through the class, scuffles at desks over pencils, or those wanting to hear, yelling at others to be quiet. It is in these circumstances that being a foreigner of another language, does not help. I don’t hold a lot of perceived power and the language barrier makes it difficult, especially as children see it as fodder for teasing, giggling, mimicking etc.. all good fun, but tiring at times, especially when attempting to maintain some semblance of control. I did consider using the switch stick the other teachers use. I may resort to it before the end is up!
On the bright side, I was amazed, however, how the older students from the earlier class came in to help out and how learning did happen; the kids all had the digestive system (what I’m teaching) all drawn (and some even coloured with the crayons I had given the primary school) and labeled. It was amazing to the seriousness of many of the students, amid the bedlum, bearing down to “get ‘er done”. One small boy, who seems to have a slight disability with one eye (slightly closed) was using a stub of a pencil and so focused on doing his drawing (he was very artistic) that today I snuck him a colourful new one. I struggled with what to do with students who do not have pencils as, when this happened in the earlier class, I began giving out pencils and then it seemed as the entire class wanted one, being swarmed by the “gimme” hands that are all too common with packs of children in situations of need, being faced with a free “hand out”. I figure there had to be better way. I have left all but one pack to the headmaster and mistress to give out as they see fit.
The last class was much calmer, with my grade 9 students. I did end up leading them in Gentille Alouette as the class after French was Music and Dance yet that teacher has “gone traveling”, just like the French teacher… aha.
So, a system (I this case, Ghanaian education), stressed to its gills in the best of circumstances, in its rural, more adverse circumstances, shows itself as precarious and tenuous. When I look over the notes in the exercise books of some students, I see that they are writing down, word-for-word a text that is far beyond their language skills; often reading like a textbook itself. Their oral English language skills aren’t being developed adequately in classes of this size (and working with teachers with tenuous English language skills at best) yet, somehow, the curriculum has to be followed, so here is the dilemma.
On the topic of speaking English, it was funny, this morning, the primary English teacher came by to speak to the students about being respectful and to listen intently as my English was not clear and difficult for them to understand (“NOT clear?” I thought, feeling slightly offended until I thought about it). I can’t understand the English radio station I receive every so often here because of their muffled, thick accents and odd pronunciations, yet it is obviously easier for Ghanaians to understand their own accented English then mine.
Sunday was another busy day of church going, but this time, it was outdoors and a gathering of several different congregations, speeches, a choir, a band, and all. It was in Bedaase, a much more remote village than Adumasa, where I am. It is quite a long, narrow, winding, potholed (dry rain puddles actually, from the last of the wet season downpours) dirt road to get there. It is another one of the villages the Adumasa Link Charity (UK founded with Fei as the local coordinator) funded a school and well for (as was Adumasa). It is amazing to see how it changes a community.
I spoke to a woman and told her how beautiful it was there (much more wild and fertile green than where I am) and she was surprised, saying that that was not how she saw it. I guess if you struggle with the harshness of reality, it is hard to see the beauty.
The link to the Bedaase pictures:http://picasaweb.google.com/kpedicelli/ChurchReunionDay?feat=directlink
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