John's Next Step

Flexibility of the school system My assignment changed for the week as the headmaster shuffled staff to support the students.  I taught the three forms of math and got one class of ICT in for the week.  We started school without a science teacher so the headmaster needed to make some adjustments in the schedule.  I’m told that we will have a science teacher next week so I’ll likely start ICT form 1 and 2 and my original schedule of form 1 math. It was nice to be able to see all three forms and get to know the students a little better.  There are over 60 students crammed into the form 2 room.  This makes teaching difficult but it should become easier when we move to the new school building and larger classrooms. Harvest time This is the start of harvest time in the region.  Of course food has been continually harvested throughout the last several months: yams as already mentioned, along with okra, tomatoes, peppers, onions and other crops have been continuously harveste

First week of school The first week of school is used to clean the school and general administrative activities. The students are responsible for cleaning the school and the grounds – a lot of sweeping and weeding. The teachers work on class assignments, organize school books, and register students in the various forms (grade levels). The junior high has three forms. I'm assigned to teach math form 1 and information communication technology (ICT) forms 1 and 2. The school only started ICT last year and thus only the two classes are officially taking the class. I'm going to spend some time with the third year students to provide some ICT training. ICT is very simple computer skills such as typing and understanding the high level parts of a computer.  The school has about 20 laptops - there are some battery issues with a few - but we have enough to teach classes.  Basically, the class is split in half for "lab" and there are two students for each computer.

Roger and I went to farm to harvest yam on Saturday morning, September 13, 2014.  In Ghana a yam is a root crop that is different from a sweet potato.  We have sweet potatoes here as well. Yam recently harvested Preparing a yam for boiling The yam has a white flesh – softer than a white potato. In this area the yams are planted between April and June.  Harvest continues into December and January depending on the weather and pigs getting into the field. The plant is a vine – which is grown on stakes rather than allowed the spread out.  The plants are placed on a raised bed about 2 feet high.  The beds are surrounded by flat trenches.  This allows the rains to flow around, but not wipe out the yam crop.  Intercropping seems to be common practice with yams planted in the raised bed, soybeans around the edges, and rice in the trenches.  The occasional corn or okra plant is also among the yams – although the bulk of those crops are in other fields.   Row of ya

Health update.   I continue to recover and to ride my bicycle.  The new seat works great and I think the exercise along with the sitz baths are helping.  Almost fully recovered. New bicycle seat for the old man General nature of the place. I'm in a nice house by local standards – I have a zinc roof, concrete floors, living room, bedroom, kitchen inside along with a toilet (latrine), bathroom (for taking baths/showers with a bucket), and a storage room with a kitchen sink outside across my patio.  I have my water barrel in the storage room.  I have electricity most of the time although low current sometimes prevents to lights from working or it just destroys the bulbs.  The socket in my living room is not working – so I'll need the school to bring an electrician.  The socket on the veranda kills bulbs (compact fluorescent bulbs are the only ones I can get) about every two or three weeks – so again the electrician will need to check it out. I'

Health Update: I saw the specialist on Thursday. He is a great doctor and gave me his card in case I have any further issues or future questions. He said that I would be ready to travel in a few days so Sunday night will be my travel day. I still need to take the sitz baths at least twice a day. Things are improving, but it will likely be a couple of more weeks before everything is normal again. I could not find witch hazel for another treatment option. The Peace Corps doctor said he would order some from the US. So if it happens again I'll have a more robust treatment option. I think a good bit of life in Ghana and the Peace Corps will be about relaxing with the mild health issues that invariably come along and let my body handle most things in a slower more natural way. I know the warning signs of major issues and the medical office is always available for consult. I got a new bicycle seat that should help as the bicycle remains my only local transpo