Updates...

I realized yesterday that it has been quite a while since I last updated! Sorry to those of you who were waiting! It was an unintentional slip, I promise. While nothing quite as exciting as the weekend in Teshie happened since, here is an update on what I’ve been up to:

School is progressing nicely. I’m enjoying all of my classes, especially my Ghanaian Literature lecture. My professor for that class is a spunky relatively young Ghanaian woman who keeps lectures lively and entertaining, as well as really thought-provoking. We are currently reading Changes by Ama Ata Aidoo, who is supposedly the most famous African female author. Has anyone read any of her stuff? It was kind of disappointing to hear that she has this great reputation as the best female African writer and I’ve never heard of her. I’m realizing more and more how much African history/culture/literature is not taught in America. The only thing I remember ever learning about Africa in all my years of schooling (besides my African History class last year) is about the slave trade. Obviously, Africans have much more to contribute than slaves and the rest of the world has still failed to notice.

I finally met the professor for my New Literatures in English class today. After an extremely frustrating couple of weeks of the professor not showing up at the designated place/time and realizing she had been in a different location at a different time with half of the class, we met today to discuss when our whole class should meet and I think we got it settled. Presumably I will start that class this Thursday at 1:30 (5 weeks into the semester!!!!). I will really feel relieved once I’m in the chair with the professor in front of me, telling me what in the world “New Literatures” means.

My weekend was one of ups and downs. I went home with my roommate to her family’s house in Donsuma (an area of Accra). Looking back it seems pretty selfish of me, but I had kind of thought that the weekend would be about…well…me! I thought she would be showing me around, introducing me to her family, and I would get to experience life outside campus. Instead, it ended up being Amorkor going home for the weekend to visit her friends and family with an Obruni tagging along. There were many situations that went on for extensive hours during which she and her friends or family would be talking in Ga or Twi without so much of a break to fill me in on what was happening. This meant that I did a lot of sitting awkwardly and following aimlessly. It was pretty disappointing, to tell the truth. I don’t blame Amorkor, I just think I had a different idea of what the weekend was going to be like. On the upside, we went to a BEAUTIFUL beach called Bojo beach that was just breathtaking. As she and her boyfriend went off alone, I sat in a chair by the surf and just enjoyed the rhythm of the waves and the sunset. I can’t wait to go back to actually do some swimming (well….wading, more likely. I’m one to actually strain myself swimming).

Yesterday I had a bit of an adventure! One of my friends here in ISH, Nathan, had told me he was going to work at an NGO called Global Civic Preservation and asked if I wanted to go with him. The NGO is designed to help children who either have never been to school before or are just far behind to catch up so that they can be enrolled in normal school. Children generally spend a year at the Global Civic Preservation school before transferring into the mainstream education system. Nathan is helping them with fundraising proposals, but said he was sure they could use help elsewhere, so I tagged along. When we got there (after several Tro-tro rides and a bit of a walk), Michael, the director of the program, took us over to a Catholic school nearby where he is hoping to enroll six of the program’s kids for the new year that starts this next week. We spoke headmaster and Michael proposed an idea of starting a reading club with these children to make sure they were keeping up with their reading skills. This is where I would come in. The plan is for me to go to the school on Monday afternoons and meet with the group to read story books together. I think my main purpose is just to make sure they don’t have trouble pronouncing words and to keep them motivated. I’m so excited to get started! This is right up my alley! Plus, I think it’ll be a great little addition to my UW-Madison essay I have to finish writing next week! Helping to teach children in Africa how to read? Who wouldn’t accept me to a library science program? :)