I apologize for the delay! Life is a little crazy out here. I am fine, which is the first thing, and Ghana is wonderful. I feel like I am finally starting to settle in a little. We walk everywhere, which is great because I have a real feel for the city and the people and where I need to be and go...a typical day begins at 7am (when the roosters wake us up...which was novel for the first couple days, but after a while makes me question my sanity). We walk to work at 8:30 (all the girls in the hostel are working, so we don't really hang out except for at night; 2 of us are at the Autism Center, one is a a local paper and the other 2 are at a fashion house downtown). Once I arrive at the center, I go into the upper class (students aged 11-15) and we attempt "academics." The structure is very loose, which I think is the whole country, and so it really is just helping moment-to-moment as we can with whichever student we are able to work with...there are up to 7 students in my classroom, but often there are upwards of 10 adults so it's very cramped and hectic and there is a lot of nothing going on, which if you know me makes me furious. It has been quite an adjustment and an exercise in patience, that's for sure.
Other than that though, the students are amazing kids; only two are verbal, which is always a challenge, but I am starting to get to know what means what with each student which makes everything a little easier. Most of the work we did last week was to enhance fine motor skills, so it was a lot of beading and painting and craft sort of projects...The other girl in my house who works there and the two Danish girls we also work with usually go to lunch together at street kitchens, which are exactly what you would imagine...it's a little tiny kitchen on the street, usually we get chicken and rice (super spicy jolof rice) and every once in a while an avocado...the whole meal is between 2-3 cedi which is like $1.50ish... and the portions are huge. I am starting to develop a weird thing with eating chicken though because they run around everywhere, and when you are sitting there eating chicken and a scraggly one runs by, it just makes you question...
Last weekend we traveled to Cape Coast and Elmina castle, which were the ports that the British exported slaves from to the US...it is terrifying and completely mind blowing that people treated other people that poorly... other than the sadness hanging in the air around the castle, Elmina is gorgeous. I would love to go back (and actually might spend my last week there because school will be out and I'll have 6 days to just be here). The beaches are gorgeous and the people are amazing (actually across the board, Ghanaians are the most incredibly genuine group of people I have ever met) but Elmina is a little magical...it reminded me so much of Burano, Italy... a little fishing village/island off Venice...
I will say that since I have gotten the Africa bug, I don't think it is going to stop...it is almost overwhelming how much I want to see all of this continent, because you can just feel how different everyone is from region to region and I can only imagine how fascinating that would be to experience on a national level across the continent. I need a job that will let me travel, pay me to travel, because I have said it before, but I feel so much more at home and content (and I say content very loosely because it's a scary word) when I am in motion...
Anyway, there's the novel for the day, I hope all is well where-ever you all are! I'll be better this month/week about keeping you informed. I'll be taking more pictures today, so be on the look out!
Loads of Love,
~~Nicole
PS. Didn't do anything for the Fourth of July...sad sad day.
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| Street Kitchen- the one without avocados... |
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| Lighthouse in Jamestown |
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| View from the top of the lighthouse... |
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| Yours truly on the top of the lighthouse (which is still used today- all the boats in the bay don't leave until dark, next time you eat an African lobster...this is where it probably came from) |
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| Nathan. This is too great of a picture not to share. |
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| National Theatre of Ghana; given to the country by the Chinese as a "thank you" for doing business with them... |
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