I've ACTUALLY made a difference....

...a small difference, but a difference all the same.

Since I've been here I've been stressing (quietly) about the fact that i really don't seem to be helping. I'm teaching, yes, and it's great that these children can see a new culture and hear English how it should sound (yes, even though i'm from manchester). But so what? Who cares if they're never going to see an english person again except for perhaps next summer when another voluteer comes. BUT, today i made a breakthrough. I did something that's going to actually help these children!

So, the lazy teachers that i'm working 'with' (read: he sits on his phone all day whilst i teach the class - with a 40 minute break ALL DAY!) filled in their reports today (by making up the class marks so that everybody should be moved to the next year) and i disagreed aboput 2 students.

Suabira: I met Suabira in my second week of teaching, she was ill the first week. She's a quiet girl who's sweet enough but lacks the confidence to do anything. On top of that, she finds the work exceptionally difficult and can't do her times tables (even when i spent 3 hours getting her to learn the 8 & 9 x tables) and her reading is a little shaky. She failed her maths and english exams miserable (amongst others) yet my teacher recommended she move up to P4 (i teach P3). What a joke? I found out today that her attendace is poor because she suffers from sickle-cell anaemia, and as such has missed a lot of work. I made the executive decision to keep her back in P3 (which the school is entitled to do) so that she can catch up the work. If she were pushed forward, she wouldn't cope.

Gifty: I met Gifty on my first day. She's one of the most beautiful girls i've ever met AND she has a personality (if only she were 10 years older a jewish :(....). We start lessons and i can't quite put my finger on what's not right with her....after about a week, it hits me - She's super intelligent. She gets all her work right and then disrupts the class because she's bored. She got 98% in her english exam , 96% in science and 89% in maths. I found out that she'd already skipped straight from P1 to P3 last year. My teacher felt (or should i say, didn't think and was just lazy) that she should move to P4. I would normally agree, especially for the emotional development of a child that skipping years isn't a good idea but in this case i've made an exception. Gifty is intelligence, articulate, full of personality and is at least as mature as any other child in the class (or the class above). So Gifty is moving to P5!!!! She needs to be challenged otherwise her brain will rot.

I know how insignificant that sounds but for me, it's HUGE! I've helped somebody progress at the right pace for them.

More good news on the school front, THEY'RE GETTING NEW TEXT BOOKS! The ones we use at the moment (that only the teacher has a copy of at the moment) look so tattered and old and are in fact, rubbish.

The biggest problem (i think) with ghanaian children (from an academic POV) is that they have no imagination. They don't have money to buy books and schools don't place emphasis on it so they can't do anything. If anybody can think of how i can instill imagination in these children OR know where i can buy cheap school readers for the school library (that doesn't exist) then please let me know - i really want to help these kids!

IN OTHER NEWS:
a) Olivia is arriving tomorrow morning
b) We're going to Bolgatanga, Gambada (the witch camp) and Paga from Wednesday to Friday.
c) On Friday myself, Sasha and Joel are going to Burkina Faso (the country that is north of Ghana). We will be staying in the capital: Ouagadougou. It's francophone so i can practice my (sadly neglected) French.

Oh, i knew i had something else to say! In the village yesterday, i felt really embarassed and unworthy. We came to this village (2 hours late) and all the villagers hadf come out to celebrate our arrival, i thought i'd got used to that but apparently not. We went to the chief's palace (read: slightly harger mud hut than the others) and he welcomed up. We went back to the square and there were women and children carrying these seats for us to sit on. The CHIEF (FYI: Chief is a BIG thing here) was sat on a bench yet I could sit on a cushioned seat. WHo am I? I'm an anaonymous uni student, why should I get the nice seats when the man who has earnt the respect and who leads to whole village must be demoted to a wooden bench. I don't feel worthy but i suppose that's the curse of having white skin :(

I think that's it. I can always write more later or tomorrow

Ciao for now

[Sorry for the rant, again]