Just 1.5 weeks left

Written on the 3rd of August
Summary:
There have been some problems between one specific volunteer and the Ghanaian boys, which hasn’t been nice because it’s meant that we haven’t seen them around the house as much and we used to be more like a family. I’ve tried to chat to the volunteer to show that he needs to change the way he speaks to them, but without much success I think... I’ve now started teaching the extra classes which I’m so happy about because that means I will be able to teach the same girls for 6 weeks! I’ve put some impressions on Ghana as a whole at the bottom of this blog. Ps. My birthday is on Saturday haha. 18!
Detailed:
We’ve had some tension between us as volunteers and the Ghanaian boys that live at Fred’s. One of the volunteers is very outspoken and English is his second language. I think because of this, some things he says are received as rude and disrespectful towards the Ghanaians. For example, he saw Francis take his mango from the fridge, but Francis will have assumed it was for everyone. The volunteer then didn’t ask Francis about it, but told Fred about it and I think it all turned into a much bigger deal and now Francis doesn’t come around the volunteering house as he doesn’t want to be accused of things. I now go over to Fred’s house to see him and I’m glad that they aren’t holding anything against me or the other girls. Another incident happened which was when the volunteer had found a boy in a village with an really big and infected burn. He took the father and the boy in the van and Rockson was driving it. The volunteer said it was an emergency and he needed to hurry to the hospital, but Rockson had had instructions from Fred to first go past Maltiti to pick us up. The volunteer couldn’t believe that although it was such an emergency that they’d first go past Maltiti. He said things like, “you have no common sense” and other things that they really took to heart.
It’s such a shame as we’ve always been like a family. I’ve tried to make the situation a bit better by talking to the volunteer and telling him that there’s no way he can say things like that and that he should adapt to them and the way they live as for example them following instructions from Fred is very important to them. The volunteer is quite stubborn, but I hope it made him realise he should keep quiet a bit more. I also talked to some of the boys at Fred’s house and tried to make them understand that the things the volunteer says come out ruder than they are meant to be and that he does mean well.
Fred did organise the extra classes! Yay! That means I’m teaching the girls I’ve been teaching for just over a month now (wow time flies), I can teach for another 2 weeks. I’ll be teaching from 8am until 11am every day and will be teaching on my own. I’ve loved that responsibility! It’s great to know what level they are at so it’s now much easier to prepare a lesson than before. The amazing thing is that these lessons are just optional as it’s their summer holiday, but they all come! The even better thing is that these lessons haven’t been offered to the really young kids, so the kids in my class can actually hear my now haha.
A new girl arrived on Sunday night. Her name is Mareike, but she’s calling herself Laura in Ghana as it’s easier, and is 19 years old and is from Germany. She’s now sleeping in Anna’s bed, so I’ve got a new roommate. She’s staying for 2 months.
On Tuesday, Snoopy, one of Fred’s dogs, followed me all the way to school, he then sat under my chair for the whole lesson and walked back with me when I left, so cute!
Some more impressions:
- The schools in villages don’t have toilets, so all the kids go to the toilet in the grass just behind our school. They drip-dry when they pee and they use paper out of their school books if they need to do the bigger business. This is really sad to see as it’s so unhygienic, but I guess it’s what they’re used to.
- Kids above 2 don’t ever cry here. They’re brought up to be tough and as soon as they show tears, the parents will get angry or just ignore them. Also when the kids in the hospitals get an injection and cry, the mums laugh, which is unimaginable in a European country.
- I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned the amount of animals that walk on streets here. Goats, chickens, cows, dogs, everywhere! They’re a major obstacle on the roads.
- The ladies and men are always separate. I never ever see them stand together, walk together or anything! I always see the women working and carrying everything, and all the men of a village sitting together chatting.
- All the women never bend their knees. Whenever they wash their clothes or pick anything up from the ground, they keep their legs straight and just fully bend their backs to reach what they need and can stand like that for at least an hour!
- People always come up and chat to you because you’re white, then within a minute they want either your phone number or you email address. They all say they want to be your friend. It felt nice to be among foreigners for a while at Cape Coast and not continually get asked this.
It’s my birthday this Saturday and all the boys at Fred’s house keep asking me what I want to do haha. I just said we can just go and have some drinks or something. All the girls are going to Mole National park and Marcus will have already left to go back home so it’ll be just me and Valentine which is a shame, but I’ll celebrate my birthday properly when I come back home!