Site Visit - July 10 - 14

Site visit.


I'm about ½ way through Preservice Training (PST). All is going well in Ghana and back home. I'm able to break “radio silence” for this blog post and then it is back to training.

I'm following a volunteer in a small farming community just outside of Nandom in the Upper West region of Ghana. Jessica, the volunteer, is amazing and very kind to help with my transition to a Junior High School Teacher. I am not saying that I'm replacing her – just following in her footsteps. The plan is for me to teach math to the “Form 1” (first year junior high) students. Jessica started information communication technology (ICT) last year with the Form 1's and I may be able to extend ICT to Form 2's as well

Bathroom
My future house is great – relatively speaking from my past life of course – it has a bedroom, kitchen, and living room. There is a patio in the back with the toilet (I'll be pooping in a hole), shower (ok a room with a hole in the floor), and a laundry room (ok the sink does not work and there is no running water) – but I do have electricity when its “lights on” - currently its “lights off”.


Shower




The community has Sunday mass under a tree near “my” place twice a month. The tree was used by the first missionaries in the community. I will be attending the service tomorrow. On the other weeks I will ride my bike a few miles to St. Theresa's Minor Basilica in Nandom - the largest brick Gothic Church in Western Africa. As I enjoy going to mass this will be a good way to integrate with my new neighbors and friends.

I'll have to go into Nandom for market and most supplies. There are 2 small “convenience” stores in the village that I can also use – toilet paper, soap, and such. I will be getting plenty of exercise. I'm less than 20 miles from the Burkina Faso border and not that far from Cote D'Ivoire – I'm in the upper west of the Upper West. I'll be working to bike up to 20 or 30 miles one way – so I can visit other volunteers – likely traveling near sunrise and then returning after 3 pm to avoid the sun. I don't think I'll travel to the other countries anytime soon as even if you get the visas it seems to be a hassle even for natives to travel into Burkina Faso.
My closest neighbor is Roger, a very kind man, who is a few years older than I. He will be helping me learn Dagaare – and has already been pushing me to practice with the people we meet. I need all the help I can get.

Geography and travel:


The area that will be my home for 2 years is relatively flat with rolling hills – nice for bicycle riding. There are more motocycles, motos, in the area than cars. I'm allowed only on the self propelled ones and I need a helmet. The land has trees and now that is it rainy season – grass, corn, millet, okra, tomatoes, beans, pumpkins, and such. The trees are well spaced with farms, fields, and dry ground around. There are some amazing trees standing guard over their area. There are a far number of goats and a few chickens and guinea fowl. I've seen some cattle around as well.

Generally speaking there seems to be fewer small animals in this region than in my homestay town of Maase down in the south. There they have two rainy seasons that the area is filled with trees – bananas, plantains, and other plants crowding for sun. It looks more tropical. It is nice – but I like the open area of more like a savannah

I'll have a hot season and find out about African heat – but that will be well into the new year.

School:


There are about 180 students in the three grades at the junior high school. With only three classrooms that makes about 60 students packed into the class with no space for me to walk around the desks. We might get a new school in the fall or next year that would double the number of classrooms. That would mean I would be teaching twice the number of classes, but have the same number of papers to grade. What will happen will happen.

Staying in contact:


I'm able to call home about once a week. The phone service in this area is pretty good. But I tried to make a couple of calls yesterday and it was very frustrating. I'll have to figure out the internet up here – so far I've not be able to get much bandwidth. I'm still trying to upload some videos and even pictures are hard. Of course I miss my family and friends – but I'm happy meeting new friends and this life.

Jessica will be returning to Iowa in a couple of weeks – I wish her the best and again thank her – barekaya ga zaa (or something close in the local tongue).

Dagaare:


After this visit I'm back to Maase for language. I'm learning Dagaare – going slow – but I'm making progress. I need to get an intermediate level on an exam before I can swear in and come to site. This will take up most of the rest of my time in training so I'll be back to radio silence.

Once I'm back at site – in late August I'll work on getting back in touch and get the blog back to documenting my next steps.

Love always - John



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