Last Week of School, Second Term


The second term, my first, ended last week. It was a time of getting use to the school and the school getting use to me. Last week I was able to spend time with some of the kids in the library on Monday and Wednesday. Tuesday was kite flying and outdoor games. Thursday I needed to stay home and on Fridays we had a teacher’s outing at a beach.

The week was good. Tuesday was nice seeing the kids with kites – most were made at home, although some purchased. A good use was made of those ubiquitous plastic bags that come in various colors around Grenville.

I had never seen this style of kite, but they fly pretty well in light wind. I’m told this is kite flying season and I’ve seen several aloft over the weekend. Next year I might try to make my favorite kite, a delta. I’ll need to get bamboo split and cured in the mean time.

Ready for take off

Launch!

A big field for kite flying

OK - who wants to play cricket?
Batter up

Follow through on a hit

I was happy with the children in the library last week. I had some one on one time with a student. Then, during lunch time it was the students’ favorite game of word bingo. They like to play and tolerate my attempts to add additional literacy activities – such as using the word in a sentence or say a different word with the same letter. I was also able to have about 8 well behaved students read quietly around the tables while I worked with individuals or pairs. Near the end of the day on Wednesday I was had a couple of students work together on their own. So, something to build on next term.

Is this a big enough book to read Mr. John?

Helping with reading

Beach

I finally made it to the beach!! Friday was with the teachers at Hope Beach. On Saturday I meet up with another Peace Corps volunteer, also named John. His sister was visiting and they decided to go to La Sagesse beach – as that is closer to many of the volunteers on the south of the island. A nice beach and the first time I got in the ocean around this island. Certainly, not the last time.

View from the deck.

Beach with a nice amount of waves

Made it in the water - John and John - 50+ PCVs working hardly

Longer view of the beach


I have two weeks off: Easter holiday. I’ll have to complete a metrics report for Peace Corps, work on an “in service” for teachers about reading comprehension and I a few other activities during my time off.

Happy Easter to those celebrating...

Love always,
John

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yam harvesting

Image
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 crop...
Read more

Pito – brewed millet

Image
Corn, rice, and millet are the common grains grown in my region of Ghana. All three are used food, but millet is also used to produce the local brew – pito, or daa in the local language. “N nyu daa” - in Dagaree means “I drink pito.” There are several varieties of millet grown here – a red and white varieties have loose heads. These are used for pito and other foods. There is also a smaller seed variety with a tight head of seeds that is mainly used for porridge. (Don't have a picture of that variety yet.) In all varieties millet grows on a stalk with the grain head at the top of the stalk. White and red millet in the field Two bundles of while millet to be used for seed next season Converting a grain to alcohol is a common practice in various cultures. It provides a way to capture and digest the nutritional value of the grain. In some places, like Germany and the beer brewing monks, the making a beer was a way to preserve the harvest. In Ghana the millet is ...
Read more

Ghana Archery and Travel to Tamale

Image
Ghana Archery Roger and I were walking to see a man in the community early last week and he happened across an arrow head. It was a long thin metal piece that would be attached to then end of a shaft. That got Roger talking about archery and got me thinking about another blog post. He explained how the arrow worked while we walked and promised to show me a bow and arrow when we got back to his house. He talked about the old times when they made poison. The process involved collecting plants and such things and placing them in a pot which is buried for a year. The poison was used on animals and people in the ancient times. That got me thinking about the information that has been and is being lost in the community from the older generation. Yesterday, I was sitting talking with some of the older men and they were talking about how the grandfathers could dig up the roots and such to make medicine for a variety of illnesses. They told me that the knowledge and practice of m...
Read more