I'm in Ghana. I'm alive. I'm good.
Internet in Ghana is hard to find - especially since I live in rural Ghana where there is absolutely no internet. This has the result that I only get online when traveling in weekends like now, where I am in Kumasi - Ghana's second biggest city, which is VERY busy compared to the rural traffic that I am used to.
I arrived here earlier today in an incredible heat! Jasmin, Ben (both fellow volunteers from OCEP) and I used an hour or so to find our way to the hotel sweating like crazies. Now we're in an internet café being cooled down by the fan and updating people at home. Later we are meeting up with to other fellow volunteers in a backpacker friendly restaurant with a huge menu from what I heard. I look very much forward to this! It is going to be nice to get some food different from what I am used to at my project placement, which isn't very varied… It's alright, though. And it's local, which is nice.

I have experienced SO much since I got here - and the first weeks are always those which you have most to tell about because everything is new to you. So if I would have had internet earlier you would probably have got several long blog posts with plenty of thoughts and wonderings.
This would, however, take ages to write by now, and during my first weeks here in Ghana I have been meeting up with both Jasmin from Germany and Ben from England with whom I have been able to discuss all the new impressions and the different culture.
So: to make it shorter to read (and write) I have decided to make it more like a list:

My Ghanaian everyday life - in no particular order
Everything is very aesthetically carried on the head - and babies on the back (wait for photos..)
Water is being drunk out of plastic bags
Power cuts
Bad phone network coverage
Washing clothes in buckets (and getting help without asking from pupils at the school)
Food rich in carbohydrate and few vegetables (gradually improved though..)
- White bread and eggs in the morning
- Beans and plantains (banana sort) or rice and stew for lunch
- Rice and stew or rice combined with spaghetti for dinner
- Local food like yam (very food! potato-ish), kenkey (tastes good, made from sweetcorn) and fufu (horrible!)
Absolutely nothing is on time (meals, timetables in school, transport…)
Having 'abroonie' (white person in Twi) yelled after you all day long - in a friendly tone, though
No running water
- Bucket showers and cold water
- Stinky toilets with plenty of flies and no flush
Noise everywhere from 4am in the morning (or night…)
Going to bed early (around 8pm - 9pm latest!)
Getting up early (5.15am when running - else 6.15)
High temperatures and very high humidity!
- Leading to a lot of evaporation, which leads to rain in the afternoon (sometimes only a little - sometimes it pours!)
Tro-tros (sort of minivans picking and dropping people up and off) and shared taxis functioning as very cheap transport
Lazy and uneducated teachers - though friendly and helpful
Food cooked over fire
Long visit "ceremonies"
Beautiful people
Very very very few white people! It is always easy to find fellow volunteers :) at least in rural Ghana
Plenty of goats and poultry - and huge lizards and spiders as well as too many ants
Food markets with a lot of vegetables - and stinky dried fish and meat with flies all over
Lots of lots of children! :)
Colourful clothes - cheap to get some tailored
Very friendly, smiling, generous, thoughtful and caring population

A typical weekday of mine:
5.15 Getting up
5.30 Running half an hour
7.00 Breakfast at Dacosta's (the owner of the school) house
8.00 Lessons in English in 4th and 5th grade
11.00 Preparing next day's lessons
12.30 Lunch at Dacosta's wife's small shop
13.30 Relaxing, reading, making sudokus, playing cards, eating oranges etc. :) OR going to Foso (the nearest bigger city)
18.30 Dinner at the shop
19.30 More relaxation :)
20.30 Bedtime!

Teaching in Ghana
Is not easy… but then again: nobody told me it would be, and I didn't expect that. However the term 'Learning by doing' is really precise when it comes to my work at the school.
The culture is very different and the school system is indeed so as well. The pupils don't know much - and within the same class the pupils are very far from each other when it comes to their skills: Some learn very fast, and some cannot even read! (in Primary 5! which I find really sad).

Major problems in the Ghanaian primary school:
1. Learning by heart (the pupils are extremely dependent on the teacher: they cannot think for themselves most of them)
2. Teachers don't pay attention to their pupils:
2.1. No repetition though the pupils haven't understood (they just go on with the book)
2.2. No extra explanations to pupils who got it wrong - teachers just write 'wrong' and move on
--> Pupils who don't understand at first will never understand and therefore get behind onwards
3. Physical punishment (I hate this! But I really have no clue what to do about it - if you mention it, the teachers just look at you with their mouths open and ask: "then how do you discipline them and get respect?" How do you explain that hitting don't give respect when the hitting is so deep into the Ghanaian school system? How did we move away from hitting in school?)
4. Waste of time (long assemblies and lessons beginning too late)

In my lessons I can change no. 1 and 2 which I truly intend to do - though it probably goes back to 'normal' when I leave. This, however, won't stop me from doing my best to educate them in a better (seen from my perspective) way.

Ways to improve the teaching in my lessons:
1. Repetition, repetition, repetition! until everybody in the class understands
2. Activation of all pupils in the class
3. Having looots of time!

I have a good feeling about it, though. It gets better and better and I like it their. Jasmin and I (we are neighbors and have a good time together) have succeeded in making our own timetable for teaching which the teachers really like, so that is very nice. Mostly we work until noon and then have the afternoon off to relax and prepare future lessons.
And the children are very sweet :) Jasmin and I also have some lessons in Kindergarten - these children are really really cute and is in the age of 2,5 to 5 or so.

Traveling in Ghana
Since I stay in a rural part of Ghana (Akonfudi near Assin Foso in Central Region) there isn't really that much to do at my home in the weekends - and as mentioned there is no internet either… Therefore I plan on traveling most weekends. Also too see some more of Ghana.
This weekend is Kumasi weekend where I among other things are going to visit the big Central Market (the biggest market in West Africa or maybe Africa) and hang out with fellow volunteers. I look forward to this :)
Next weekend Ben and I - and maybe Jasmin - are going to Cape Coast where we also plan to make a day-trip to Kakum National Park. I'll update you on this afterwards.

Finally
As you probably see from the above written I am having a good time in Ghana. I have met lots of very friendly local people and also fellow volunteers. Also I have settled quite well in my new home. A few days ago I finally got a shelf and a desk with chair to accompany my bed (which was my only piece of furniture until then…) in my room, so now it is really nice and I feel home there :)
Jasmin and I have our rooms in a compartment where a very nice family lives: An elderly couple lives there and also their three adult children of which one of them, Synthia, has two really cute children. The entire family is friendly and helpful and everybody in the village always greets and some even give us presents such as a lot of oranges, so the surroundings are quite good.

So yes: I am enjoying myself.

Hope all of you are good at home.

All the best,
Signe