First Full Day...Part 2

After school is the main reason for TOB's existence. It's how the whole thing started.  The sponsored kids in the house are there because the coordinators originally saw they could and wanted to do well in school.  They took it upon themselves to make sure they could continue their education.  Now these young adults help with the after school program for kids like they once were.  Mainly, after school focuses on remedial reading and math skills many of these kids in primary school are lacking.

My first day of after school, we were trying to get the kids organized into groups so we could teach to their level and not either bore them or challenge them to the point they get too frustrated to learn anything.  We had them watch Dora the Explorer or SpongeBob, I believe, while we took the kids one at a time to test their knowledge of letter names and sounds. We just had a sheet of capital (big) letters out of order, and a sheet of lowercase (small) letters out of order they were supposed to identify.  Then, we were supposed to have them tell us the sounds of the letters.  During all of this we're supposed to note the mistakes they made and what they were.  (i.e. if the letter is "h" and they say "k", we write "k" in the box marked "mistakes/substitutions").  I say supposed to because it didn't always work out the way we thought it should.

First off, all the kids are used to doing everything in groups, or at least partners.  If one person knows the answer, they just tell everyone else what it is.  So, whenever I asked one kid to come over, a few more would follow along.  Then, if the child I was testing didn't know the answer, others around the table would answer for them, they'd repeat the letter, and I'd have to mark down what they said.  Asking the tag-a-longs to go back didn't work, since other kids just came over.  So, I started telling them they could stay, if they could be quiet. That worked for the most part, and I was able to get a fairly accurate reading of whether the child I was testing knew their letters or not.

Secondly, the children would watch me mark down on my paper whether they were right or not.  Most of them couldn't read the column labels, but they knew when I switched columns, and would stop and start explaining to me that they didn't really mean what they said.  They'd stumble over letters until they hit the right one (the other kids would nod when they got there).  Then, they'd sit and refuse to go on until I marked the other column.  So, I started just writing the letter they said, whether right or wrong, in the mistakes column, then going back over it at the end and making a check next to the letters that were correct.  That didn't attract as much attention, and it seemed to help with not giving indicators of right/wrong answers, since we're not supposed to do that when we first test them.

Then, when we went to sounds for the kids, I'd try asking, "What sound?" and point to my mouth/throat area.  Usually, I got a response of a word that starts with the letter, or just the letter itself again.  I tried having one of the kids who understood English translate, but that didn't seem to help.  So, I gave an example.  The first letter was "H", so I'd say, "What sound? B sounds 'buh'. What 'H' sound?"  That actually seemed to work for some kids, so I kept at it.  If the child didn't know most of their letters, I didn't ask them about sounds, since we figured they have to know what the letters are before they can learn what sounds they make properly.

The part that makes it quite difficult for these kids is that their alphabet is phonetic.  So, there aren't names and sounds, there are just sounds.  That makes it hard to explain that the English alphabet they need to learn what they think of as two different names for the same symbol.  Anyway, that testing took the entire hour and a half of after school, and then we had to split them up into groups based on the results.  We created four groups, which would later become five.  Red, Orange, Yellow, and Green.  We thought we could just add colors of the rainbow as the students became more advanced, and that way, we could remember which group was the lowest in terms of reading skill without making the kids feel bad about being in the "slow" group.

Red group kids didn't know their letters.  That was the majority of kids, age ranging from 6-13.  Orange group kids know their letters, but don't know the sounds they make.  This was the next largest group, same sort of range.  Then, Yellow group knew letters and sounds, so they started working on combinations of sounds and how that looks in letter form.  Once the children started in Yellow group, we thought we'd take the kids who appeared to have at least an intermediate grasp of sound combinations and move them to Green group.  These kids, generally, could read on what we'd consider in the US a Kindergarten-2nd grade level.

After the after school program, there was really just enough time to relax and feel calmed down enough before News Hours started.  (about 2 hours between the two).  I just walked on the beach for a bit and wrote my impressions of the after school program.  Then, I tried to understand the news as we watched it.  I was still having difficulty with the British accent of the newscasters, and the fact that I'm not terribly globally aware in the first place.  But I tried, and I understood some parts.  Again, the discussion afterward was mostly the Ghanaian students talking about the news stories, with a few of the volunteers throwing their opinion in.  There weren't any comments that struck me as much as last night, but the overall conversation definitely feels different than if we were to have a discussion about the same news in the US.  I can't pinpoint exactly how it feels different yet, but it does.

Getting Ready

I never realized how much goes into getting ready for a trip, like a major trip.  There's the plane, which I booked back in December, but then figured out I needed to figure out a seat on said plane ride.  Of course, it's actually three separate planes so I'm not quite sure how that works really.  And I'm claustrophobic, so I have to ask them to put me on a special seat in a plane and not just any old one, unless they really want to deal with a panic attack, which may very well happen anyway. Ugh. 

Then there's the program.  Figuring out which one to go with, where, for what, how long, for credit or not, paying for it, preparing for it without really knowing what I'm doing, and everything else that seems to go into it without really being able to be quanitfied or even really qualified.  I have to figure out the dress code, cultural expectations, how I'm supposed to act and express myself.  Learn a little bit of the local language, hopefully. :)  Yeah, it's a lot.  And sort of overwhelming.  Word of advice, leave yourself plenty of time to prepare for long trips. 

We can't forget the packing.  All the proper clothes and toiletries for 5 weeks, assuming I can do laundry every week.  And my medications, with a doctor's letter saying I need them so I don't get arrested or held up a lot.  And I have to make sure it's under the limit for weight and size for the checked, carry-on, and purse I can take with me.  This includes bedding, mosquito net, things to entertain myself/distract myself if I get overwhelmed and have to bring myself back to the present, and little things for the program, like books.  It adds up quickly, even though I'm trying to pack smart.

Finding everything I need is difficult.  A mosquito net, skirts, tops that actually match and not just my kind of matching (same load of laundry or design), something to hold money and passports close to my body so no one steals it, vitamins/supplements to make sure I stay healthy while I'm there, a way of staying in touch with the world, camera that works and is small enough to bring with me, getting shots and yellow card, passport and VISA, pictures and addresses of the people I'm meeting, and so much more.  There's just a lot of stuff to remember and get together.

One thing I want to mention: I had a friend with one of those little NOOK Color things that he didn't want, so, I figured I'd try that since it can have books for me to read to distract myself and can access the internet with Wi-Fi so I could update this blog with it.  Unfortunately, it doesn't register this as something it can type into, so I may not be able to update as much as I would like, with the one computer in the home I'll be staying at.  (Since I'm NOT bringing my computer). But I will try, so don't be worried if I can't update for a few days or a week or so.  :)  It'll happen. Also, photos will be uploaded to my Facebook, which you can find at: https://www.facebook.com/kaedington?ref=tn_tnmn and friend me, if you like.  If I don't know you, I won't friend you, sorry.  I'll try to use the computer when I can to transfer the photos to here as well, or I'll do it as soon as I get back.  Either way, eventually everything will get up here.

Wish me luck! I don't know if I'll update one more time before I leave or not.

My trip

Hey everyone,
So, since I am never going to remember to email everyone while I'm in Africa, I'm starting this blog and anyone who wants to can follow what I'm doing, how I'm doing, etc.  I am also trying to figure out how to upload pictures here and I will upload them as I get them.  I'm told I'll have internet access when we have electricity, so hopefully I'll be able to actually update this on a regular basis. Alright, I guess I should tell you all what I'm doing, huh?  :)

I'm going to a town called Busua in Ghana, Africa with a program called Teach on the Beach.  (You can find more info on them at teachonthebeach.org). I'm leaving the 14th of May and coming back on the 19th of June, so I'll get to Africa on the 15th and leave on the 18th.  I will be teaching English and perhaps math to kids anywhere from 5 to 18.  The program sponsors some kids, most who have been there for a while and are older.  These kids are the ones I will be living with during the time that I'm there in a three-story house built right next to the school on the beach.  I haven't gotten my assignment yet, so I'm not 100% positive exactly what I'll be doing, but I know I'll be participating in News Hour, where all the kids in the house and the volunteers watch the international news for an hour, then talk about what we saw/hear.  It's a way to practice English, as well as learn about what's going on outside Busua.

The part I'm most nervous about is the flight there and back.  I start in Madison, stop in Chicago, then Heathrow, and down to Accra in Ghana, where I'll have a 5 hour bus ride to Busua.  Most people who know me know I'm really not great with crowds of people or closed in spaces.  Unfortunately, planes and buses tend to be tightly packed and closed in. Not sure how I feel about that. :/

Ghana is 6 hours ahead of Wisconsin, 5 hours ahead of Michigan, so I'm guessing my already abnormal sleep schedule will be even more abnormal when I first get there.  Yuck. But that's okay; it's just something else to get used to.  Another thing I have to get used to...dressing like a girl!  I have to wear floor-length skirts and t-shirts, plus nice-looking sandals every day.  I can wear shorts at night/for bed, but that's basically it.  Definitely something I'm not used to. But, something I can get used to, I think.  :)

Long story short, I'm excited, nervous, a little scared, and definitely looking forward to this adventure!  Feel free to follow me along!