June 30

Hello all! Sorry I haven't had time to write anything on here. Sunday - Tuesday of this week Chastity and I were responsible for writing on our blog page for the group. We do a lot of writing... journal writing, blog writing, my personal blog writing, and our narrative writing. It's a lot!!!

However, I really want to share a couple of things. I have been able to hand out a couple of things that I have bought and its been amazing. Last week we had kids from T.H.I.S take us around their village. My buddy Dominic was my guide. He was so excited to show me everything. The most touching moment of the entire day was when this little girl around 2 fell down. She was crying. I reached out my hand and she got up to take it. She did not let go. Finally we came close to the river and Dominic told me that she would have to stay and could not go any further with us. When I had to let go she just cried and cried. Broke my heart. We continued our walk around and I came across this little girl who Dominic called his "cousin" she was about 7 years old. I gave her one of the dressed Mrs. Mizzel made me. She was so excited. Later I came across a group of women making foo-foo and spoke with them briefly. After out conversation I gave them a Bible. They were so grateful and continued to tell me "God Bless You" until I was out of sight. Later another little girl came up to me, Belinda. She first said "Madame, I would like a dress." She said it so softly that I could not understand her. Finally after the craziness settled down I asked her again what she said. I could not say no to her. I gave her a dress. A few days later Belinda showed up at the school one afternoon wearing the dress. I gave Dominic a soccer ball, a Bible, and a picture of the two of us. I wrote him a little note telling him to always remember John 3:16. The next day he came up to me telling me that what I wrote meant so much to him. A little girl in my class that is always smiling, Veronica, I also gave a dress and a Bible to. She was so excited but I told her to take it home so the other children would not take it. She had the biggest smile ever. A couple of members on this trip have also asked me for Bibles so they can hand them out and I have been more than happy to give it to them.

On Wednesday we went on a Canopy Walk in and above the rain forest. AMAZING!!! The walk up was killer on my knee. The steps are not even and they have laid stones to help with the walk. But once we got to the top the pain getting up was so worth it. I was just amazed. We were about 100 feet in the air on these bridges. We basically made a circle crossing 7 bridges. It was so cool .

Today, Thursday, we went to the Abaasa Village to meet he chief and see the village. This village is very poor. It was about a 3 mile bumpy ride from the main road to the village. After we met with the chief they showed us around the village taking us to the Methodist Church that Paula and her husband raised money to build and to the library. We brought books to donate to their library that sits very empty, but they use it. Then it was off to St. Cyprian's to visit the school we will be working with for the next week. The drive from our guest house to the school is about 45 minutes or so. The children greeted us with a song and they even put on a performance. We were very welcomed. We toured the school. Our classes are a lot smaller here than at T.H.I.S.

After next week we are headed to the North. I have no idea if we are taking our computers, if there will be Internet access. I just don't know. Please say a prayer for us as we have heard the roads are not good and it will take us about 6 hours to get there with no restrooms is site!!! This should be an adventure!

June 26

I will upload more soon

Today was a better day. It was cloudy out so it wasn't as hot
and it didn't bother me as much. Our lesson today was about adjectives. I read
a book to the kids and I have never seen kids so involved in a book. Not that
my kids in my class don’t pay attention but they never made a sound only to
laugh at the funny parts. They act this way because they do not get read to a
lot so it was a treat. We are interviewing our teacher, Jonah, he is very kind
and I think he really enjoys talking with us. In Ghanaian cultural they do not
talk much about how they feel or plan ahead for things, but I think it makes
him feel good that we want to learn about him. One thing that I think is
amazing about the Ghanaian cultural is that they are happy with what they have.
In American we are always working harder for something else and they are happy
in their station in life. I do not look at their cultural and think "wow,
there is so much they need" or think that they if they only knew
such-and-such was available in the world they would be better. They are happy
with their way of life.

Teaching in these classrooms is an experience. They have open
ceilings so you can hear the teachers around you. I have to wonder if they can
hear me, can they actually learn in this environment? I am amazed at what these
teachers do here. We are trying to share ideas with them so that the students
have more interaction and creativity with their lessons. It is hard because
they are limited on what they have.

My Class

This afternoon was relaxing. We were tourist today. We visited
Elmina Castle which was huge in the slave trade to America. I took a lot of pictures.
It was an amazing place to visit and a lot to take in. I can’t wait to bring
this back to my classroom. After being tourist we went to Coconut grove and had
dinner. It is a tourist sport for tourist who are not actually experiencing
Cape Coast. It is pretty and it would be nice to stay there a day or two but I
do like our hotel because it is just us so we make it feel like home. The staff
jokes with us and practices our fante. Elmina Castle

This is our group blog. www.csuinghana2011.blogspot.com

June 23

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I made a cute slide show but it is not wanting to load up on here. We are now in Cape Coast and teaching at our first school. Everything so far has been great except that it is really hot for me. My body has not adjusted to the weather and I have been getting really bad heat headaches. Today (6/23) I actually stayed back at our guest house so that I could rest. When everyone came back they said I had color back in my face so hopefully a little rest did what I needed it to.

Our first day of teaching was yesterday, 6/22. We really had a great time. I am in 5th grade but it is like teaching 3rd grade. My partner Chastity and I reviewed with them about verbs and states of matter. We taught them a song and I think they really liked it. Our teacher Jonah (said June-A) is great. He sang along with us during the song. :)

I made a friend named Daniel. He is in the kindergarten class. His face is just too cute. I made another friend, Dominic. Today when I was not at school he asked Jessica where I was because he was searching for me.

I've been able to Skpye with my Mom and Dad so that has been good. Today we have officially been gone one week. I do miss home, but I am enjoying my time here.

FYI :)

Hello. I'm sorry I haven't posted any pictures. Our Internet at the new place is very weird. We only get it to work early early in the morning. Right now it is almost 7 am. I'm going to try to post a slide show of pictures that I made so you can see whats going on.

Hope everyone is good. I miss you all!

Marcy

June 18

Today started off crazy. My roommate Jess and I got up late! They did not call us to wake us up. Dr. C told us not to depend on them because time is a state of mind over here. People get there when they get there. Tonight I will set my cell phone alarm. We went to the batik shop today (not sure if that is spelled correctly). We met Hannah who taught us how to put designs on cloth. They use wax and then dye it. I got two different designs on two different pieces of cloth. I paid 20 cedis (CD) for two yards of cloth. That is about 8 dollars. They were very sweet to us there. Some of the group got Hannah to make custom dresses for them. I said I would wait until we get to Cape Coast. After that we went to the coffin makers shop. This place was located right on the ocean. Coffins here can be traditional or they can be made in shapes. The ones we saw were in the shape of a shoe, crab, bottle, chicken, and a couple more. What an experience. After that we headed to lunch at the Good Neighbor Restaurant. I had my first Ghanaian meal here. I had red red, chicken, and plantains. It was pretty good. Not to sure about the red red. Its tomato based but it has black eyed peas and something else in it. Not a big black eyed pea fan... love the band...hate the pea. :) But I gave it a try.
Then we went to the Cultural Arts Center which is a big market where everyone tries to be your friend so you will buy their items. It was a little crazy at times. I was able to bargain a little and got better the more I did it. I bough a mask that has the symbol of hope on it, an elephant key chain, and coasters with decorations on it. Total I only spent 11 cedis which is about $5. I was proud. We are going back at the end of our trip so we can do a little more shopping. Our dinner was at this cute restaurant. I ordered pizza again only because the pineapple is so fresh. They were playing music during dinner and a couple of songs were American including Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson. After that it was back to the hotel for bed. I am going to go to bed now it is 12:09 over here.

Night everyone.

June 16/17

by the way its a 4 hour time difference from Ghana to Charleston

We flew to the night to Accra. It was a long flight and I did not get much sleep. When I finally did get sleep and wake up we were over Africa. I was beginning to get really excited. About 45 minutes before we landed we hit turbulence. I was standing going back to my seat when this happened. As I was walking we hit this major air pocket and the plane dropped a little. I am pretty sure it was this air pocket that has made me so dizzy. Finally we made it to Accra, Ghana. We had a lot of fun finding everyone's luggage and our six boxes of books. One box did not make it to Ghana with us...it went to JFK instead. We will pick it up tomorrow. Once we made it out of the airport we found our little mini bus. We loaded everyones big luggage on top. I was so worried it would fall off and our clothes would be all over Accra! My first look at Ghana was crazy. We were going so fast I could not take everything in.
We arrived at our hotel with just enough time to settle in and head to Parliment. When we arrived at our hotel they served us with fresh pinapple juice...yummy. Then we were off to parliament. They took us into the chamber room where all the heads of state meet. We even got to sit in their seats. After that we headed to dinner in a downtown area of Accra. We exchanged money first and had our first meeting with street vendors. They kept bugging us to buy but we kept saying no. You have to get almost mean before they will leave you alone. Its like dealing with a car salesman. :) At dinner I had a fanta and a pizza. I know...its not a Ghana meal but I wasnt sure what to eat. My only complaint right now is that I am still really dizzy and I hope it goes away really soon.

I will try to post pictures when I can. I am not sure if I will be able to because the internet is worse than dial up back home.

Love you all.

Quote

This quote keeps appearing to me. The first time I saw it was on a journal at Barnes and Noble. I should have bought that journal.....hmmmm....there is still time. Here is the quote:

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."
- Saint Augustine

June 1, 2011

Okay so 15 more days until I leave and I have started to freak out! I feel like there is so much to get done. Tomorrow is my last full day of school. Very sad to say goodbye to my kids. They have been an amazing class and I am going to miss them. I have always been blessed to have amazing kids in my class and it is hard for me to let them go on the last day. I am told this will pass, but I don't think it will for me. So back to my freaking out. I have made list to remind me of things not to forget. Why did I make this list... the items that are found on this list are usually the things I forget and we are talking about essential items to survive an overnight trip. I have major blonde moments sometimes. I am a little worried about leaving my life for 5 weeks. Thank goodness I have a great roommate who is majorly helping me out. My biggest fear about going is that something will happen and I wont be able to get back in time. Apart from that I am going to miss my family, my friends, and my dog. Thank goodness I have SKYPE to talk to everyone. Other superficial things I am going to miss include the first Johns Island tomato sandwich of the season (makes my mouth water just thinkin' of it) and the final Harry Potter movie (July 15th). I have seen every single movie the night/day it has come out. So to my Harry Potter friends I come home on July 25th and on the 26th we are going to the movies together! :-D

I hope I will be able to keep up the blog and show you all my adventures in Africa. Until next time...