And I can't see....

I apologize for not posting regularly.  Life's been busy.

From my first day in school, the rest of that first week went basically the same.  I would show up about 8:30/9:00, attempt to get the students to stay in the classroom, and occasionally succeed with about 5 kids.  I finally tried locking both doors, and that seemed to work.  Unfortunately, that meant some students were locked out as well, but I thought, if they weren't in class when it was supposed to start, they were just going to cause trouble in class for those who wanted to learn anyway.  Aankit told me that shutting the doors would help keep kids in class and, therefore, more interested in what we were teaching - there's nothing else to do in there.  Unfortunately, we don't get the keys to the lock on the main door, and they lock that lock, so we have to find a sturdy stick or something to shove through the hole and hope that none of the kids outside decide to take it out.  Not exactly foolproof.  And the other door had been forced open so many times, we actually had to nail in a new board on the top of the frame for the bolts to go into.  Once all of that was figured out, it was Friday.

Fridays, according to their schedule, consists of art all morning.  Keep in mind, their art supplies consist of a few pieces of leftover, too-small-for-teachers chalk and their desks or blackboard.  Then, after the morning break, it's outdoor physical education until lunch, which is essentially the end of their school day.  So, even though we'd figured out a way to help keep the students in class, we couldn't exactly enforce the whole 'stay in the room' thing on a day when no one stays in their room.  So, we waited until the next week to test out the final theory.

During the week, we had a visitor for a day.  I can't remember his name - Adam I think?  Anyway, he was a runner, and I thought it'd be fun to have company for a little while on my runs.  We started going into town, and I realized, again, my shoes I brought are not made for running without socks.  I started getting blisters, so we turned around about halfway and went back. It was a particularly hot and humid day, so we felt like rinsing off in the ocean.  I'd worn my glasses into the ocean before, and nothing happened.  I was just rinsing off, after all.

Unfortunately, a storm was moving in, so the ocean was particularly rough.  My feet fell out from underneath me, and I tumbled around for a moment.  During my tumble, I knocked my knee against the ocean floor, and I felt a band or something slide over my hand.  At first, I grabbed it.  Then, as I realized the danger of hitting my head, I decided to let go and put my hands out to catch myself.  I thought it was just one of my bracelets sliding off my wrist.  I caught myself, and, as I got out, I realized I didn't have my glasses on.  So, I stopped and felt around with my feet to try to find them.  No luck, of course.  I realized later that the band I thought was a bracelet was probably my glasses, since all of my bracelets were still there.  The tide was coming in, though, so I wanted to wait until it went out before thinking worst case scenario.

And, of course, I couldn't find my glasses when I went to look for them as the tide moved back out.  So, three weeks left and I couldn't see anything further than 6 inches from my face.  Well, I could see colors, vague shapes, and motion.  I just couldn't see detail or judge distance/size to any real extent.  Aankit suggested I go to an optometrist.  I decided to give it a couple days to see how I could work without them. I just didn't want to get a pair of glasses that would fall apart/break quickly unless I had to.  And the scholars and Aankit confirmed that there were no really well made frames they'd ever seen in Ghana.  So, I held off.  And it worked! Well, until I had to come back to the States, but that's another story.

Twi Lessons

This is a summary of what I learned about the Twi language while I was in Ghana and in the Twi lessons run by Emmanuel.

First off, the alphabet (letter symbols, followed by phonetic English pronunciation):
a - ah
b - boh
d - duh
e - aa (higher pitched)

∑ - ay (lower pitched)

f - fey (short/chopped)

g - gey (short/chopped)

h - heh

i - ee

k - key (short/chopped)

l - ullllll

m - mmmmmm

n - nnnnnn

o - oh

backward C (I can't figure out how to make it, I'll use ) for this symbol in here) - aw

p - pey (short/chopped)

r - rolled 'errr'

s - sey (short/chopped)

t - tey (short/chopped)

u - oo

w - wey (short/chopped)

y - yay (short/chopped)

You'll notice a lot of the letters have short, choppy sounds.  The language itself is nasally, but short.  

Digraphs:
dw - jw (like Jew, without the e sound)
hy - sh
gy - juh
hw - whew (with the first part 'wh' being a sort of whistle through your cheeks)
kw - qui (like the first sound in 'quick')
ny - yneh
tw - tchu

Greetings:

Maakye - Good morning, pronounced mah-chay
Maaha - Good afternoon, pronounced mah-ha (the ha is nasally)
Maadwo - good evening, pronounced mah-jo

These are written differently than they are spoken:
Mema wo akye --> maakye
Mema wo aha --> maaha
Mema wo adwo --> maadwo

Akwaaba - welcome, pronounced ah-qua-bah

Responses (depends on the ages of the two parties involved):

Yaa agya - response to someone older and male (yah ah-ge-ya)
Yaa ∑na - response to someone older and female (yah ay-nah)
Yaa )ba - response to someone younger than you (yah aoh-bah)
Yaa nya - response to someone roughly your age (yah yn-eh)

Farewells:

Da yia - good night/sleep well, pronounced dah yee-ah
Nante yia - journey well/safe journey, pronounced nahn-tay yee-ah

Questions:

Wo ho te s∑n? - How are you? (woh hoh teh sehn)
Wo din de s∑n? - What is your name? (woh deen deh sehn)
Worek) he? - Where are you going? (wohkaw heh)
Woaki mfie s∑n? - How old are you? (wahdee mfey sehn)

Courtesy:

Mepaakyew - please/I beg you (meh- pah-cho)
Medaase - thank you, literally, I sleep under you (meh-dah-sey)

Numbers:
baako - one
mmienu - two
mmi∑nsa - three
∑nan - four
∑num - five
ensia -six
∑nson - seven
nnw)twe - eight
∑nkron - nine
edu - ten
aduonu - twenty
aduasa - thirty
aduanan - fourty
aduenom - fifty
aduosia - sixty
adu)son - seventy
adu)w)twe - eighty
adu)kron - ninty
)ha - one hundred
ahaanu - two hundred
ahaasa - three hundred
ahaanan - four hundred

to combine:
ex, 17 is ∑dunson (∑nson is 7, edu is 10, so the e --> ∑ and it becomes ∑dunson or ten seven).

Body parts:
eti - head
ti nwi - hair
aso - ear
ani - eye
hwene - nose
anim - face
ano - mouth
afono - cheek
∑se - teeth
t∑kr∑ma - tongue
∑k)n - neck
yafunu - stomach
akyi - back
sisi - waist
nsa - hand/arm
nan - leg
nsateaa - finger
m∑wer - nail
dompe - bone
ho - body

Pronouns:
me - I
wo - you
∑no - he/she/it
y∑n - we
no - you
w))nom - they

Various Vocabulary:

din - name
te - to feel/hear/smell
y - to be good
s∑n - how
awurra - lady
da - sleep
rek) - to go
w - to be
fie - house/home
aane - yes
daabi - no
gyaade - kitchen
bra - to come
ma - to give
Onyame - God
dwene - to think
tenaase - to sit (and shut up)
gai - stop 
gye - to take/receive
dwane - to run
maado - I love you

And that's basically what I learned about the Twi language.