Saturday, May 30, 2009

4 days in Ghana

I new it was going to be excting. different. challenging.
but i had bo idea.
almost not worth wrting about. i would need for 4 days of writing to summarize 4 days of living here.
so here is my random, ran-on set of thought and impressions, inno particular order.
on my wa to the internet cafe (yes, there is one in kopeyia. aboiut 25 min walk from dagbe center. haven't yet taken a cab by myself, for no other reasob then wanting to walk, both for excersize and for getting aquainted) - I raub into a sead dog, a dead bird, a dead snake and a dead lizzard.
and several live animals - chickensm, goats, lizzards and bugas are everywhere. rats or mice (can't tell) here and there.
started teaching 2 days ago, only to realize VERY soon, then the teacher need education just as much as the kids. Mora actually, but it is very dificult to jave that approcah with the elderly here.
I teach english, together with 2 other "madames". grammar, reading - writing, literature.
That's what the school headmaster suggested and aproved.
I proposed that I teach and art class, computer music (I have my laptop with loginc here) and the organize the performance project before I leave.
He agreed.
Their teaching style is strict, rigid, by the books.
Some teachers beat the kids. I cried.
Children are nice, polite, on time.
They come to school at 7 am everyday to clean around the school.
But then again, everyione throws garbage in the street and on the roads.
There's water containers and mango pits everywhere.
Noone cleansd that.
Nor will the animal corpses I found on the way.
Of sourse then - bugs and infections everywhere.

It is hot here. about 90 and humid.
Tonight rained heavily. Real tropcal downpour.

One hears reamote drumming andf singing all the time. comes from hearby villages. Carried by open air.
There is a lot of time here. A lot of space.

I asked Paul yesterday - so what do you do when you' are not teaching drums.
Just hanging - he says.
Sometimes, he delovres a message to someone else for a small tip.
Paul is always around me, I can ask him to help me with anything, and I would still muchg rather treat him as friend.
He'd stillmuch rather I treat him as "personal assistent".
And I will not use any othert definition.
Paul is one on 9 children, but 2 died. He doesn't know when and what from.
His fathger was sick for two years before he died.
I asked him what he died from - he said he didn't know. He was just sick and sick and the doctor said he souln't help fim.

Life is cheap here. It is sad.

I am takng drumming lessons with the Dagbe teachers. I would like to brinmg in a group of students to them next year.
Also wil;l try to have loptop donated to start a music tech program.

I undferstand better waht robert was telling me- it is not up to us to build the kopyia ourselves. but to help them realize and understand how they can help themselves.

People are friednly and somehow "muted" hgappy. Noy quite sure how to explain it.
It's just a feeling of one big mute over the village...

But the exists just the same as everywhere.
Care, need, greed, jelousy, competition, rivalry.
Except - losses here can be fatal.....

no time to spell check, figure it out

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